Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Despite the attempted cover-up of the young man and the girl, Li Yao still understood it.

Han Te’s sister used to be the best young expert in the Village of Peace that everybody in her village placed their hope on. Finally, she truly ascended to ‘the City in the Sky’, but she abandoned the villagers and even her own brother, never to return again.

Li Yao sighed and asked, “What exactly does Manjusaka look like?”

The two little fellows both grew excited when they heard the question. With brilliance more dazzling than stars beaming out of their eyes, they said at the same time, “Manjusaka is a paradise that has everything. Clean air and water, inexhaustible food and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, green mountains, running rivers and singing birds, forests! Wow. Forests. It’s said that a lot of tall trees grow in such places. There are green, thick leaves on the trees and bird nests among the branches. They are entirely different from the trees in our place!

“Besides, through Manjusaka, we can also travel in the infinite sea of stars. That’s really…”

The two little fellows described Manjusaka in amazement. Looking at each other, they were both at a loss about how to depict the glamor and splendor of Manjusaka. They suddenly laughed at the same time.

Li Yao smiled, too. He asked, “Then, it must be very difficult for someone to go to Manjusaka and become an ‘angel’, right?”

“Of course. All the sinners in the Land of Sins—I mean each and every one of them—want to go to the City in the Sky where they can live a happy, carefree, peaceful life without worrying about food. But how many people can actually make it?”

Han Te licked his lips and drew a big circle with his finger. “The Land of Sins is mainly divided into three worlds. As you must’ve sensed, Grandpa Yao, the area we are currently in is heavily polluted with high radiation. The resources here are highly insufficient, and not too much aid is projected from the Heavenly Rails regularly. Such areas are known as ‘Desolate Worlds’ in the Land of Sins. They are essentially the countryside of the planet.

“Life in the countryside is certainly very difficult. However, because of the lack of resources, few advantages can be taken here. So, the truly ferocious beasts and the insane bandits hardly visit such places. Therefore, we have managed to build some villages to protect ourselves.

“Most of the ‘sinners’ live in the uncomfortable ‘Desolate Worlds’.

“However, there are some locations where tremendous resources will be projected from the Heavenly Rails on a regular basis. When the time comes, all kinds of high-energy nutrition drugs, compressed food, filtration cartridges, antiradiation suits, and powerful magical equipment and techniques, as well as ‘old grandpas’ of all types and all levels, fall from the sky there.

“Those landing points of abundant resources are known as Bloody Worlds. You must’ve guessed it. The Bloody Worlds are where the real experts frequent and fight brutally. The strongest mutated beasts and the toughest bandits, as well as the most awe-inspiring criminals, are all active in those lawless places!

“Also, although the Heavenly Rails are high in the sky, they are connected to the ground by enormous iron ropes. Those iron ropes are all hollow and installed with some sort of ‘elevator’ and ‘vacuum shuttle’ inside, which can quickly transmit objects between the Heavenly Rails and the Land of Sins.

“Around the elevators and the vacuum shuttles, prosperous metropolises have been established. Those cities constructed under the support of the ‘angels’ are like oases in the desert. They are known as the ‘Elysian Worlds’.

“I’m told that all the Elysian Worlds are controlled by the most powerful gangs and experts in the Land of Sins. Each of them has their own rules. So, they are not as chaotic as the Bloody Worlds. You can find anything in the markets in the Elysian Worlds. All kinds of extraordinary professionals can be found there, too. The ‘brain doctors’ and ‘Meditation Healers’ can only be found in the Elysian Worlds if they do exist.

“Also, the angels will release quests through the Elysian Worlds regularly. As long as you complete the quests, you will be given a lot of cash and contribution points. After your contribution points surpass the threshold, you will be qualified to enter Manjusaka!

“Hehehe. I should’ve left for the Bloody Worlds three years ago. Who could’ve known that my capability would plummet? If I can really recover my strength, I will certainly have a few fights in the Bloody Worlds. As long as I am tough and lucky enough, and I can claim some secret treasures and resources that have fallen from the sky, my Cultivation will definitely soar.

“Then, I will go to the Elysian Worlds to complete the quests that the angels release and accumulate enough contribution points. In the end, I will be able to go to the City in the Sky to look for my sister.

“I absolutely don’t believe that my sister is such an ungrateful person that she forgot the people of our hometown after she went to the City in the Sky. She—she must have her reasons. Or, she may be planning something big for the family and friends in the hometown. That must be it. I will find her and ask her about everything!”

The young man confessed the truth before he knew it. He realized that he had misspoken after he spoke and coughed somewhat in embarrassment.

Li Yao considered for a moment. Not particularly bothered about Han Te’s sister, he said, “What are the quests that the angels release?”

Han Te was slightly dazed. “I don’t know the details. I’m told that they are mostly about hunting deadly animals, capturing lawless criminals, or exploring ancient relics. The death rate is rather high, that’s for sure. But this is Manjusaka, the City in the Sky, that we’re talking about. It’s certainly not a place any random person can visit.”

The dim redness inside Li Yao’s indicators flashed as he scanned the vague Heavenly Rails in the clouds of lead gray in the sky. He said casually, “The Heavenly Rails that you describe do not seem very high. They are not far away from the atmosphere. It is possible for the experts above average to fly to those places with flying swords or modified shuttles, isn’t it?”

Han Te’s and Liu Li’s faces immediately turned pale. Both of them shook their hands quickly. “Please don’t. You may not know this, Grandpa Yao, but us ‘sinners’ are not qualified to fly in the atmosphere, much less approach the Heavenly Rails. The sky is a forbidden area. Whoever is bold enough to fly beyond the atmosphere will be shot down mercilessly. Even the most awesome expert will be burnt to a crisp while they’re still in midair!

“We know that you must’ve been a very famous expert in the old days, Grandpa Yao, but however awesome you are, you are on your own after all, and it is impossible for you to defeat Manjusaka, the City in the Sky. The defense array of the Heavenly Rails is unbelievably powerful. Nobody has ever escaped from the Land of Sins in the past hundreds of years!”

“Therefore,” Li Yao said coldly, “if someone wants to leave the ‘Land of Sins’, Manjusaka is their only route, right?”

“Yes!” The two little fellows nodded at the same time.

Li Yao sneered hard and said, “Tell me more about ‘old grandpas’. From what I’ve heard, old grandpas are of different types and levels. Some of them are stronger than others, and they can even be traded on the black market. Also, your master, the leader of the Village of Peace, is an ‘old grandpa’. What is the meaning of that?”

Han Te did not know that his remark about selling ‘Grandpa Yao’ on the black market at the beginning had been caught. He was so embarrassed that he hurried to explain, “Grandpa Yao, in case you misunderstand, I did not know that you are a ‘remaining-soul old grandpa’ back then. If we had picked a lifeless crystal-processor old grandpa, it wouldn’t be wrong at all to sell it because we are in desperate need of money, right?”

Li Yao’s soul emitted waves of confusion. “Remaining-soul grandpa? Crystal-processor grandpa? What are those things?”

“Let me explain it for you,” Liu Li said hurriedly. “The so-called ‘old grandpa’ is just a collective name. In fact, there are a lot of subcategories, and not all of them are the same thing. Even classified according to the most inaccurate standards, there are still ‘real-life old grandpas’, ‘remaining-soul old grandpas’, ‘crystal-processor old grandpas’, ‘spiritual-beast old grandpas’, and so on. There will be more types if you divide them more carefully!

“The so-called ‘real-life old grandpas’ are real human beings with flesh and blood. They have fallen from the sky and lost all their memories of the past, but they grasp the most marvelous techniques and the most daunting capabilities. My dad is one of them.

“Such old grandpas are all the treasures of the Land of Sins. If any village can get one, the strength of the village will be greatly enhanced! Therefore, after my dad was taken in by the Village of Peace at that time and then settled there with my mother, it is only natural that he slowly rose to become the leader of the Village of Peace.

“The second type is ‘remaining-soul old grandpas’, which is also the most common type. As their name suggests, they are also living human beings, except that they have lost their physical bodies for reasons we do not know, and they are forced to reside in all kinds of objects.

“It is most usual for them to reside in rings. Some of the old grandpas live inside swords, sabers, spears, or other magical equipment. Some live inside spiritual puppets. Some even reside inside a human’s body!

“The remaining-soul old grandpas normally do not have a high combat ability due to the loss of their physical body. They are prone to the interference of radiation and magnetic fields, too. However, with their abundant battle experience and their sophisticated techniques, they are still the best mentors. They are very popular in the Land of Sins!”

“Right. Grandpa, you must be a ‘remaining-soul old grandpa’, too, except that your case is slightly special,” Han Te said. “Most of the old grandpas fall from the sky, but you were actually dug out of the soil by us, Grandpa Yao. How strange was that?”

“What’s strange?” Liu Li replied. “Didn’t we come up with an explanation just now? There’s a second explanation. Grandpa Yao fell from the sky hundreds of years ago, but he was never picked up and slowly buried.”

“How is it possible?” Han Te argued. “The structure of the underground ruins was obviously very stable. There are not many holes on the ground, either. How could anyone have fallen so deep into the ground?”

Puffing her cheeks, Liu Li thought for a long time. “He must’ve been dragged into the underground ruins by a cat, a dog, or a mutated beast, you silly!”

“I don’t think…” Han Te scratched his head for a long time. He held his chest high and was about to argue, but seeing that his junior sister was glaring at him, he decided to let it go. “Fair enough. You do have a point, Liu Li. Grandpa Yao must’ve been dragged underground by a cat or a dog.”