Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

A month passed.

The children of countless kindergartens and elementary schools on the home planet of the Heaven’s Origin Sector finally got to enjoy the real sunlight once again after a whole month.

A month earlier, the space battle near the home planet had prompted the entire planet to enter the highest alert state. All children under the age of ten were evacuated to the deepest part of the underground fortress.

Although the flagship of the Black Wind Fleet had been destroyed and the elite forces had dispersed soon after the evacuation work began, the situation had not been certain.

Nobody knew exactly what was going on in the homeland of the Imperium of True Human Beings, or if it would send out a second expedition army immediately after it learned of the dominance of the Star Glory Federation.

They were even less sure whether or not the defeated soldiers of the Black Wind Fleet would perform even more insane strikes on the home planet of the Heaven’s Origin Sector in their desperation, say, wasting all their crystals on the spiritual shields of their starships and then piloting the starships to crashed into the planet like high-speed meteors.

In that case, even if the defensive firing net on the Wall of Heaven’s Origin was thorough enough to tear the burning starships into shreds, the falling remnants could still deal inestimable blows to the major cities on the capital planet.

For the sake of their safety, all children were asked to stay in the underground fortress for one month. Their teachers, the soldiers of the federation, and the volunteers sent by the Association of Cultivators spent the time together with them, passing through the days that were both thrilling and unforgettable.

Thankfully, all the news that came in the month was good.

The destruction of Black Swirl and the space gate marked the collapse of the Black Wind Fleet’s plan of sudden assault. For the expedition army of the Imperium who lacked a stable base in the rear; who were separated into two parts dozens of lightyears away from each other; and who were seriously short of ammunition, crystals, and other supplies, it was almost a death sentence, especially when a lot of soldiers were seriously worn out by the extraterrestrial devils and had lower morale than ever.

During the month of struggles and resistance, most of the defeated soldiers lingering in the Heaven’s Origin Sector escaped to the periphery of the galaxy.

The commanders were unwilling to abandon the last hope. They tried time and time again to get rid of the pursuit and blockage of the federal fleets and to regroup at the periphery of the space zone. Or at the very least, they hoped to gather the defeated soldiers effectively before making a new plan.

The federal fleets, naturally, would not let things go their way. Probably because of the deep stimulation from his father Boss Bai, Bai Kaixin struck the enemy ruthlessly and relentless as if he had gone mad, with the assistance of the Colossi which were much greater in number than the enemy’s. He blew apart the defeated soldiers on the enemy’s side who had just regrouped again and again, forcing them to flee in a hurry to the more remote and desolate parts of the universe.

In the third week of the chase, an ‘Angry Tiger’-level arsenal warship, managed by an Immortal Cultivator in the Nascent Soul Stage, sent a message to the hunters, announcing that they would like to drop their weapons, provide intelligence about their friendly troops, and even help the federal army deceive and capture those friendly troops.

The conditions that they proposed were that their attempt should be regarded not as ‘surrender’ but a ‘battlefield uprising’.

The embellishment of ‘battlefield uprising’ was a bit funny when their flagship and space gate were both destroyed and the main-force troops were utterly crushed. But considering that it was the first high-level arsenal starship of the Black Wind Fleet that offered to surrender to the federal army without being surrounded, led by the first Immortal Cultivator in the Nascent Soul Stage who was willing to bow to the ‘barbarians’ at the edge of the cosmos, the highest command center agreed on their terms after much deliberation.

The strong preyed on the weak, and the winner was the king. Deference to the experts was a tradition of the Imperium of True Human Beings in the first place.

Sometimes, the tradition could prove to be quite cruel, but in such situations, the tradition significantly avoided more destruction and slaughter.

The Cultivators who learned about the ‘battlefield uprising’ despised the integrity of the Immortal Cultivator in the Nascent Soul Stage at first. It was one thing to surrender, but it was a whole other thing, and arguably much more shameless, to offer to provide tremendous intelligence to the enemy and even help the enemy capture their comrades. They could not help but wonder how such an Immortal Cultivator advanced into the Nascent Soul Stage in the beginning.

However, after the intelligence from the Nascent Soul Stage Immortal Cultivator was truly sent to the analysis room of the highest command center, after intense and efficient scrutiny, Wan Guqing, Guo Chunfeng, Jin Xinyue, Bai Kaixin, Ding Lingdang, Li Yao, and all the other Cultivators finally learned that the Immortal Cultivator, although certainly not a noble man, was not entirely a selfish and treacherous scoundrel, either.

The most critical point was that, while the Nascent Soul Stage Immortal Cultivator was a high-level commander of the Black Wind Fleet, he did not come from the Black Wind Sector.

The Black Wind Fleet had been co-established by the defeated soldiers of five Sectors, a large one plus four smaller ones.

Or rather, the Black Wind Fleet in the past swallowed the fleets of four worlds in a row before it grew to its current scale.

A hundred years prior, in the war between the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance, the Black Wind people’s fatal mistake led to the collapse of the entire frontline. Not only was the Black Wind Sector, their hometown, affected, another four worlds and four fleets were involved.

Such a mistake was supposed to be absolutely unpardonable. Even if the ‘merciful’ emperor was willing to spare them, the warlords and nobles who had been whetting their cleavers would certainly tear the Black Wind Fleet into shreds and stuff them into their insatiable stomachs.

At the time of life and death, Heiye Ming, the leader of the Black Wind people, did not acknowledge his fault or beg for mercy obediently. Instead, he swallowed another four troops of defeated soldiers who had the same experience as the Black Wind Fleet by means of attraction and coercion as fast as lightning, which gave him enough leverage to bargain with the emperor and the powerful nobles. Their fate of falling apart was avoided, and they were eventually sent to the edge of the cosmos to carry out what proved to be another life-demanding mission.

For the people of the Black Wind Sector, the mission gave them a hundred years to catch their breath and an opportunity for them to change the future.

But for the Immortal Cultivators from the other four worlds, all their pride and glory were gone the moment they were swallowed. Even if the Black Wind Fleet established an enterprise at the edge of the cosmos and marched back to the center of the cosmos, reclaiming the Black Wind Sector as one of the most elite fleets of the Imperium again, all the glory would go to ‘Black Wind’. Would it have anything to do with their ancestors, their history, and their dignity?

The five worlds had been forcefully glued together in the first place. The Immortal Cultivators from the other four worlds were merely intimidated by the people of the Black Wind Fleet. That was all.

A hundred years was too short for the seven Sectors of the Star Glory Federation to be completely melded into a whole. There were still great chasms among the worlds. By the same logic, the time was not enough to make the Black Wind Fleet that was jumbled up to be truly condensed into an indestructible whole.

Or rather, the Black Wind Fleet’s situation was even worse than the federation’s because most of the Immortal Cultivators had been in long-term hibernation during the long voyage in the sea of stars. They did not even have the time to be brainwashed.

They had absolutely no loyalty to the Black Wind people. They were only slaughtering and conquering with the Black Wind people out of their habit of obeying the strong and apathy brought on by hopelessness.

Perhaps, if such slaughter and conquest had continued for hundreds of years, their offspring would gradually forget their ancestors and regard themselves as true natives of the Black Wind Sector.

But before such a transformation began, the Black Wind Fleet suffered the most terrible strike. The seemingly ‘invincible’ Black Swirl was blown up, and Heiye Ming, who had sat on the top of them and manipulated them meticulously, was killed in the battle, too!

For the Immortal Cultivators of the other four worlds, could there have been a more shocking, ridiculous, and thought-provoking event?

Perhaps that was the most important reason why the Black Wind Fleet fell apart immediately after Black Swirl, the flagship, was destroyed.

The first to flee at that time were the starships of the other four worlds. When those starships dispersed like monkeys jumping out of a falling tree, even if the real hardcore people of the Black Wind Fleet intended to fight the battle to the end, their battle formation had already been messed up by their friendly troops. How could they fight?

After the Immortal Cultivator in the Nascent Soul Stage from the Purple Fire Sector elaborated on the history and internal relations of the Black Wind Fleet, it suddenly occurred to the people of the federation that the fundamental solution to the problem was right under their nose!

“The Immortal Cultivators almost admire the strong. Now that the Star Glory Federation has crushed the Black Wind Fleet and even slain Heiye Ming, you are certainly more qualified to lead us than are the people of the Black Wind Sector!

“The Immortal Cultivators from the other four Sectors, including the Purple Fire Sector, are victims of the great expedition, too. We were reluctant to come to the remote, desolate edge of the cosmos where there wasn’t even bird sh*t to fight the uncanny war in the beginning. We were all browbeaten into this by Heiye Ming!

“If you can be so kind as to distinguish the Immortal Cultivators of the four worlds from the people of the Black Wind Sector, I believe that there will be more ‘battlefield uprisings’ of the Immortal Cultivators. The real people of the Black Wind Sector will soon be tied up and delivered to you.

“Hehe. I can tell you another big secret. Are you worried about the main troops which are docked behind a certain brown dwarf or inside a certain stone belt dozens of lightyears away? You would love to fish up the troops in case they cause more trouble in the future, wouldn’t you?

“Heiye Ming teleported most of the elites of the Black Wind Sector to the Heaven’s Origin Sector in the first wave. There aren’t many natives of the Black Wind Sector in the main troops near the brown dwarf.

“Now, they have learned the news of the fiasco in the frontline, and they are hesitating about their next move. Should they resist to the end, wander in space, flee back to their homeland, or… be disarmed and surrender to you?

“The Immortal Cultivators of the four worlds have some influence in the main troops near the brown dwarf, too. We may even have a chance to completely control the troops, but we will not surrender. It will be an uprising at most!”

The first Immortal Cultivator in the Nascent Soul Stage who had a ‘battlefield uprising’ gave his explanation.

It seemed that his surrender to the federal army was not an isolated event. Instead, he had gone there to negotiate on behalf of the interest group independent from the people of the Black Wind Sector.