Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao thought for a moment and realized that the transcendence of the timeline was indeed the root of his problems.

“That truly seems the case. After getting back to the federation and reading books such as ‘Chronicles of Li Yao’ or ‘Chronicles of Ding Lingdang’, I had such a feeling of ‘alienation’. It was clearly not myself or myself in my memory! Now that so many friends who are both familiar and strange to me have shown up, the feeling is getting more and more intense,” Li Yao observed in mixed feelings. “I finally understand why Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators in ancient times were called ‘old monsters’.

“Of course, they couldn’t have lived an eternal life, but if they grasped certain crude hibernation techniques and found a certain place suitable for hibernation, it wouldn’t have been strange at all for them to live inside such a residence for hundreds of years in seclusion, would it? Just like Senior Gui Suishou said, they slowly turned from ‘crawlers’ into ‘leapers’, and they were given morals and understanding about life that were utterly different from what normal people had.

“The ancient people certainly had no concept of ‘TTC’. They lacked knowledge in psychological therapy, too, and only worshipped strength. All such old monsters were revered as gods.

“How could it not have gone wrong when the old monsters or ‘leapers’ governed a civilization of ‘crawlers’? Perhaps the major collapse of the world of ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago had something to do with that.

“Then, what do we do now?”

Li Yao held Ding Lingdang’s hand below the dinner table.

The two of them were like two half-mature entities that had leapt out of the river of time and developed the fins into wings but did not know how to adapt to the brand-new environment. Perhaps they could only march forward bravely by holding each other’s hand.

Ding Lingdang reacted to the strength in his palm and said, “The authorities of the federation do not approve large-batch, long-term human hibernation. Every generation has its responsibility. If all the elites of our generation decide to ‘reinforce the future’ by long-term hibernation, who is going to build the present, and who can guarantee that when the hibernators wake up, there will still be a future that needs their reinforcement, not a wasteland full of death and destruction?

“What is the future without the present? Li Yao, I remember that you said that before.”

After pondering for a moment, Li Yao nodded.

Having heard Ding Lingdang’s explanation, he realized that it was not necessarily a good thing for the distinguished individuals of a civilization that lived in a continuous space-time to choose long-term hibernation.

“Of course,” Ding Lingdang said, “the federation government cannot forbid anyone from hibernating themselves. Right now, measures are mainly taken partly through public education and partly through tax. The ‘inheritance tax’ and ‘interest tax’ levied for hibernators are shockingly high even for Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators. Finally, the ‘fashion of hibernation’ is contained to an acceptable level.”

After pausing for a moment, she added quickly, “Of course, if it is for national strategic plans, and for the people who had entered the hibernation state before the rules and regulations regarding the tax for the hibernators, their duty is waived.”

Li Yao scratched his chin. “Fair enough. What about the people who wake up from long-term hibernation?”

“There are indeed therapies for such patients. In a few days, a few sessions will be arranged for you. I had some sessions before, too. However…”

Ding Lingdang hesitated for a moment but shook her head in the end. “I don’t think that it is going to be helpful. We are both close to the Divinity Transformation Stage, and our minds are as steady as anything. It is certainly difficult for the extraterrestrial devils or the mental devils to corrupt us. However, the psychological treatment cannot reach the deeper parts of our mind either!

“According to Senior Gui Suishou, hibernation is a drug that you will be addicted to after the first try, and after you are addicted, you will never return to your old state again. You will always want to cross the timeline again and go to a long time later to see the world that will have been utterly changed. Just like that, you will leap further and further and be mired deeper and deeper. Eventually, you will complete the metamorphosis to a ‘leaper’ and become a ‘time traveler’.

“All in all, for hibernators, life is no longer ‘here’ and ‘now’ but the ‘future’ and the other side of the shore. Perhaps they can only be really alive… at the end of time.”

Everybody around the dinner table fell silent. The previously jovial atmosphere suddenly became rigid and heavy.

Tilting his head, Li Yao thought for a moment and asked, “What about you? Do you want to be a ‘crawler’ or a ‘leaper’?”

“I…”

Looking at all the family and friends around the dinner table, Ding Lingdang’s eyes turned somewhat red. She bit her lips and said, “I can’t bear to depart from everyone, the Star Glory Federation, or my past self. However, I am tempted to abandon everything and take a look at the distant future, to be a witness of the Star Glory Federation and even the civilization of mankind when they rise and expand, and to see the moment when the infinite sea of stars is all illuminated by the radiance of mankind and when the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars flags are flying in every corner.

“What will mankind, the federation, and our civilization be like by then?

“If I choose to become a ‘crawler’ again, no matter how I train and upgrade myself, there is no way that I can ever see that day come. So…”

Li Yao understood it.

Below the dinner table, he held Ding Lingdang’s hand even harder than before. He smiled carefreely as if it were not a big deal. “It’s fine. There’s still me. If you choose to ‘crawl’, we will crawl slowly second after second and minute after minute. If you want to ‘leap’, we will just jump to the mysterious and unpredictable future after all the troubles at hand are settled!”

“Master…”

Both Wu Mayan and Xie Anan somewhat choked. They raised their glasses to cover the moistness in their eyes.

“This isn’t right. Isn’t it supposed to be a welcome back dinner for me? Why is the ambience getting so weird like we will never see each other again?”

Li Yao scratched the back of his head hard and waved his chopsticks, declaring, “Rest assured. No matter what time and what place we may ‘leap’ to, we will never forget the federation and everybody here!

“Only when you remember the way home will it be a ‘journey’. If you don’t have any memory of the family and friends at home or the way back, you are not a ‘time traveler’ at all and only a ‘time vagrant’ at best.

“Besides, ‘crawler’ and ‘leaper’ are just a preliminary design right now. The hibernation technology of the federation is not advanced enough for anyone to enter a ten-thousand-year sleep yet, is it? The nuisances at hand—the Imperium, the Covenant Alliance, Pangu, Nuwa, Chaos and extraterrestrial devils—will take us decades to resolve. Hahaha. Come on. Let’s worry about the future when the future arrives and seize every second that we have right now. At this moment, it is most important to eat and drink well!”

Li Yao raised the wine glass high again. The enormous cafeteria of the military base was filled by laughter again. The simmering atmosphere was almost blowing up the ceiling and surging into the immeasurable universe that was illuminated by the stars from billions of years ago.

…

Li Yao was unable to finish the ‘welcome dinner’ properly after all because Bai Kaixin and Jin Xinyue arrived one after another.

It was still a time of war. The collapse of Black Swirl and the death of the commander did not mean that the Black Wind Fleet had completely lost its combat ability. Besides, nobody could predict what kind of insane things the defeated soldiers might do in their madness and desperation.

The Ancient Sages Sector, the crushed soldiers of the Black Wind Fleet, the main troops of the Black Wind Fleet behind the brown dwarf, the subtle attitude of the homeland of the Imperium, the government-in-exile of the Star Ocean Republic on Firefly, and the federation’s own countermeasures… There were too many things that had to be addressed with caution and patience.

Bai Kaixin and Jin Xinyue were both occupied in military affairs. They were still hunting the defeated soldiers of the Black Wind Fleet. Li Yao absolutely understood and supported them, telling them that they did not need to return in a hurry. After all, they had already waited for a hundred years, so it would not matter if they had to wait for a couple of days longer.

Besides, communication technology had become very advanced. Whatever they wanted to say, they could directly speak through the spiritual messenger.

Still, they returned to the base one after the other.

Moreover, the two of them had almost identical expressions. Their faces were both pale and perspiring with cold sweat, and they seemed to have lost their souls.

Bai Kaixin was the first to arrive. When he said that he had urgent business that he needed to discuss with Li Yao, he was invited to a secret room by Li Yao and Ding Lingdang. But the very first thing he did after entering the room was pour a whole bottle of wine that had been preserved for fifty years into his stomach.

Li Yao and Bai Kaixin had known each other for years. At the beginning, when he was lost in the Flying Star Sector, Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin of the Great Horn Exo Society had been among the first Cultivators of the Flying Star Sector that he had made friends with.

Lei Dalu was rather straightforward and did not seem to care about many things. Bai Kaixin, on the other hand, was meticulous and extremely calm, which were the most important talents expected of an advisor.

Li Yao and Bai Kaixin had been through many life-and-death battles together. They had even unraveled the secrets of his birth in the underground fortress on Spider Den together, allowing him to meet his father, Bai Xinghe, the Pirate Potentate. Naturally, the two of them were very close.

But even Li Yao had never seen Bai Kaixin so out of control and so desperate for alcohol before.

The war in space was not over yet. As the Chief of Staff of the Burning Prairie Fleet, not only had Bai Kaixin returned on his own, why was he also so devastated?

After Bai Kaixin finished two bottles of wine and was about to open the third, Li Yao finally could not help but snatch the bottle and say, “Brother Bai, hold on a second and tell me what happened first. Didn’t the war go very well? There shouldn’t be many unexpected factors right now!”

Bai Kaixin’s bloodshot eyes shook for a long time before they finally returned to normal. He put on an overwhelmed and regretful expression, and his eyebrows that were always lolling were even lower than usual. His teeth and lips collided for a long time before he finally struggled to open his mouth. “He—he’s gone!”

Li Yao and Ding Lingdang looked at each other in bewilderment, not having the first clue what was going on. “Who’s gone?”

“Bai Xingjian, commander of the Big Bai Fleet,” Bai Kaixin said gloomily. It was not exactly shocking news by itself, but his following words almost choked Li Yao and Ding Lingdang.

“I suspect that he is my father, Bai Xinghe, Boss Bai!”