Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

1930 Training for Everybody

Li Yao was rather astonished. “Now that you put it in such a way, the Imperium today is indeed chaotic and as unpromising as a setting sun. It is rather miraculous that it has survived a thousand years and is even showing the signs of rejuvenation!”

“Yes. Logically, such an Imperium where the strong prey on the weak should’ve collapsed abruptly in the cruel exploitation and the everlasting internal strife,” Di Feiwen said. “But an eternal factor helped it to maintain the vulnerable stability, which was the Covenant Alliance.

“No matter how selfish, aggressive, unpardonable, and sophisticated the Immortal Cultivators are, the Covenant Alliance is their common foe. No Immortal Cultivator is willing to be deprived of their feelings and free will and end up as a pathetic puppet.

“It is because of the existence of the great enemy that is the Covenant Alliance that the local forces within the Imperium manage to maintain their basic order. Although the strong prey on the weak, there is a set of game rules that everybody has accepted, however reluctantly. No matter how powerful the Kurfürsten are, they never thought to usurp the throne because the so-called throne is more of a curse than a bliss. If the Imperium is destroyed by the Covenant Alliance because of their attempted usurpation, wouldn’t they be the greatest fools in the world?

“Therefore, the Imperium is not governed by the authority of the emperor; every force that has their own intentions are condensed and gathered under the lightning trident flag of the Imperium of True Human Beings because of their fight against the Covenant Alliance.

“Because there is absolutely no room for negotiation between the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance, almost no nobles or warlords will surrender to the Covenant Alliance. That is why the Imperium of True Human Beings has reigned for a thousand years.”

“That explains a lot.” Li Yao nodded slowly. The Imperium of True Human Beings and the Alliance of the Holy Covenant were indeed utterly incompatible with each other. Although the Immortal Cultivators were rather heinous, the puppets of the Covenant Alliance were even more inhumane. Compared to the life where one’s feelings and will were completely stripped away, making them live as zombies, the government of the Imperium did seem somewhat acceptable.

“However, things are subtly changing right now,” Di Feiwen said calmly. “In the past thousand years, the Covenant Alliance has been highly aggressive most of the time. The dread of the Covenant Alliance united all the Immortal Cultivators and forced them to ignore their contradictions between each other.

“After the unexpected victory of the strategic counterattack of the Imperium, the Covenant Alliance has been banished from the most prosperous area at the center of the cosmos. It does not seem capable of threatening the Imperium anymore. The thousand years of threat from the outside world seems to have been completely shattered.

“Then, after the external threat is eliminated, and with countless trophies waiting to be divided, won’t the Immortal Cultivators be like dogs who have seen bones with meat on them after being hungered for a thousand years?

“If the Immortal Cultivators are idiotic and greedy enough, there may be great chaos in the Imperium later. As for whether or not the quakes caused by the hungry dogs when they fight over food will affect the edge of the cosmos, I fear that nobody can know the answer.”

“Got it…” Deep in thought, Li Yao stared at Di Feiwen and said, “I remember that you once said you had an enormous organization of merchants behind you, which is deeply connected with the four Kurfürsten and the other nobles and aristocrats. It is well-informed and has its own plans, right?”

“The universe is vast and full of peril,” Di Feiwen replied in a seemingly dutiful way. “When the merchants travel among different worlds to make a living, we have to establish a society to protect ourselves and struggle to survive.

“In the past thousand years, part of the merchants of the Imperium have indeed established a loose chamber of commerce named ‘Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors’. I am one of the senior managers in the Business Alliance.”

“Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors. That’s an impressive name!” Li Yao said. “Then, what are your goals in terms of core interests?”

“I am not lying to you at all, my king. Since it is named ‘Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors’, it is naturally the purest guild of business. It is a place where we communicate and negotiate with each other. If we do have a slight appeal, it is definitely to do business that has the highest profits.”

With cunningness beaming out of his eyes, Di Feiwen asked, “Do you know what the most profitable business is in the world today?”

Pondering for a moment, Li Yao replied, “Counting both the legal and illegal ones, drugs?”

“No. The business of drugs is as profitable as it is risky. Even if we have the aid of the authorities, it will only be a short-term business that feels like draining the pond to get all the fish. It is definitely not the best option for a decent businessman.” Di Feiwen shook his head. Instead of raising even more suspense, he gave the answer himself. “If I may, the most profitable, steady, and long-term business in the entire universe today is ‘training’.”

Li Yao was dazed for a long time. “…Training?”

“Exactly. The business of training,” Di Feiwen said solemnly. “As a high-level Cultivator close to the Divinity Transformation Stage, you must have a deep understanding about how costly training can be. Starting to build up the body at the age of seven or eight before the spiritual root is awakened, and advancing all the way through the Refinement Stage, the Building Foundation Stage, the Core Formation Stage, and the Nascent Soul Stage, how much money must one spend? When one spends money on things, there is business. This is an enormous, all-inclusive industry!

“One quick look at the federation today is enough to reveal part of the industry.

“In the federation today, thanks to the major investment from the national government, the system of nine-year or twelve-year compulsory training has been implemented. The families, as long as they can afford, always devote tremendous money and time to the training of their children whether or not their children have potential. In such a case, famous schools where experts offer enlightenment and the houses around those schools grow more and more expensive. All kinds of extracurricular classes are popular, too. There are also the nutrition tonics, strengthening packages, remote video lessons, virtual training techniques, and so on, whose effectiveness is questionable. What an enormous industry it is!

“What’s more amazing is that nobody can prove or disprove the effects of the training techniques and the nutrition packages. As long as a couple of users report that the training techniques and nutrition tonics are effective, the other users can only blame themselves for not hardworking enough or not having enough talent when the same products do not work on them. There is no way that they can blame the merchants.

“This is just the beginning phase. As one’s level advances, the expenses in every aspect will increase exponentially. They will upgrade their consumption and there is no end to that.

“After one reaches a very high level, one will not hesitate to make purchases. Even if a certain pill or a certain piece of magical equipment can only increase the odds of success by 0.1%, most trainers will still try their best to purchase the goods without bargaining with the seller. After all, everybody has only one life, which is more precious than anything, right?

“We are only talking about the training industry itself. There is also the upstream and downstream industry chain that is attached to the training industry, which can be even more profitable. Traditionally speaking, there is the trade of magical equipment production, which is what you are best at, my king. From the innovative point of view, there is the industry of live streaming for battles and training. In short, nothing is impossible as long as you have thought of it.

“If the upstream and downstream industry chain is combined and calculated, how much will the ‘training industry’ boost the development of the national economy, and how much profit will it yield? Most critically speaking, it is an industry directly concerned with the evolution of the civilization of mankind. Once it develops well, it will be a virtuous circle. It is certainly incomparable to despicable businesses like drugs!”

Li Yao was rather amazed. He nodded quickly and said, “When you put it that way, it does seem to make sense!”

“This is exactly the case. This is the power of capitalism.”

When it came to the trade that he was most familiar with, Di Feiwen was more confident than ever. “In fact, over the past few years, some of the specialists and scholars in the Black Wind Fleet have been studying the mysteries of the Star Glory Federation’s rise. At the very least, from my personal perspective, the reason the federation rose at a high speed in only a hundred years has a lot to do with your policies to encourage every citizen to participate in training. The great development of training provided the stimulus for the thriving domestic demand and activated the maximal potential of production for most of the citizens.

“Of course, you perhaps view the issue from the perspective of general equality and that everybody is entitled to training, my king. But as a less honorable Immortal Cultivator and a merchant, I am viewing the issue from how to earn a high profit. However, we are actually aiming for the same thing despite our different paths, which is to create a world where everybody is engaged in training.”

“Training for everybody…” Li Yao suddenly had a very absurd feeling. “You Immortal Cultivators of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors are indeed weirdos!”

“We are not weirdos; we are only trying to increase the domestic demand,” Di Feiwen said solemnly. “Businesses and merchants are only needed when there is demand. If there is no demand, we will create demand! Yes. Ninety-nine percent of people can never awaken their spiritual roots however hard they train themselves. But so what? We do not care how many Cultivators or Immortal Cultivators there are in the universe. We only care if those people have a very strong demand in training and how much profit such a demand can be transformed into. Nothing more.

“Training for everybody. What a magnificent and beautiful vision it is. If the billions of people in the three thousand Sectors are all free to participate in training and willing to pay for it, how enormous will the industry be, and how much profit will be entailed? Such inestimable profits are enough to make any merchant mad, overthrow any regime in the world, slay all the deities and devils standing in the way, and destroy all the hindering forces!”

Li Yao was slightly surprised by Di Feiwen’s passion. After thinking for a moment, he said, “In the system of the Imperium, I’m afraid that the dream of ‘training for everybody’ will stay as a dream.”

“That is very true.” Di Feiwen sighed rather sadly. “You’re very right. In the current system of the Imperium, the dream of ‘training for everybody’ is just that, a beautiful dream. Nothing more.

“The Imperium divides humans into ‘true human beings’ and ‘hominoids’, which directly wipes out ninety-nine percent of the market.

“Even the one percent of true human beings will not necessarily obtain their training resources in the business pattern that we expect them to.”