Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Rest assured, master!” Han Te waved his fists in hot blood. “We will certainly try our best to pave the entire Land of Sins with the Gold Barley!”

Gu Zhengyang hesitated for a long time, but he simply waved his hands and said, “Okay. You must be exhausted after three days of exploration outside. Go and get some rest. Prepared for the Bliss Ceremony in half a month!”

Han Te and Liu Li nodded and left the greenhouse for the warehouse.

While they were still on their way, Liu Li could not help but ask, “Grandpa Yao, how is my father’s situation?”

After pondering for a moment, Li Yao said, “Based on my senses, his problem is indeed very similar to Han Te’s. Both of their veins, nerves, limbs, and internal organs are clogged because of the excessive discharge of the mitochondria caused by the Lightning Strangle that they’ve been practicing. That is not very difficult to fix. In a few days, I can teach Han Te a secret art that can accelerate the flow of their spiritual energy. It will generate a few clusters of wandering electric currents inside your body and break the stuck acupoints.

“As long as Han Te asks his master to examine him carefully with the excuse that he is not feeling well, his master will naturally perceive something. If his master follows his training, his master’s symptoms will be greatly alleviated, and his strength will be partly regained, too.

“However…”

Han Te and Liu Li asked in a hurry, “However what, Grandpa Yao?”

“In fact, Leader Gu was not wrong about one thing,” Li Yao replied. “He must’ve been through countless dangerous battles in past decades, which caused his body to be plagued with wounds and holes. He is on the verge of collapse.

“According to my observation, his muscles, veins, nerves, and critical organs have all been exhausted to the limits. Even the fire of his soul is dimming. That is what really matters now.”

“Well…” The two little fellows looked at each other in bewilderment. With sorrow beaming out of their faces, they both begged, “Master Yao, please give him a hand!”

“It is a law of nature to age and die. After one’s soul, vitality, and combat ability reach the peak, they will inevitably begin to decline,” Li Yao said casually. “I may have a solution for a simple illness, but how can I reverse the process of getting old? Even if he gets rid of the fleshly body and hides inside an iron shell like me, the irrelevant thoughts inside his soul will become redundant and eventually overflow, leading to his collapse. Nobody can live an eternal life.

“The good news is that Leader Gu is not that old yet. If he can treat his wounds according to the secret technique that I will teach Han Te, it shouldn’t be a problem for him to survive another ten to twenty years.”

Han Te and Liu Li looked at each other and were both greatly relieved.

In the insecure Land of Sins where the strong prey on the weak, it was already unbelievably fortunate to live in peace for ten to twenty years.

“Leader Gu was right,” Li Yao said. “The new generation including the two of you are the future of the Village of Peace and the Land of Sins. However strong the old generation is, you cannot expect to count on them forever. Instead of trying to restore Leader Gu’s highest combat ability so that you can hide behind him, you might as well consider how to improve your own capability quickly so that you can take over Leader Gu’s responsibility and keep protecting what he wants to protect!”

“We will certainly try our best, no matter how exhausting and dangerous it is and whatever the cost is. One day, Gold Barley will be grown all over the Land of Sins!” Han Te declared loudly, full of resolution. Then, he scratched his hair in confusion. “However, Master was rather hesitant at the end, as if there was something he wanted to say to us, right?”

“I have more or less guessed what your master wanted to say,” Li Yao said, “but what he wanted to say might not be what you want to hear.”

Han Te blinked fast and asked, “You have, Grandpa Yao?”

“Yes,” Li Yao said. “If I am not mistaken, what your master did not say was—even if Gold Barley is grown all over the Land of Sins so that everybody can fill their belly, so what? Can it really stop all the conflicts in the Land of Sins so that people will not brutalize each other cruelly?

“All the conflicts and slaughter are not just for the simple reason of getting enough food. Arts, wealth, power, fame, women… Any tiny reason can cause a war that will scar the land with rivers of blood.”

“Well…” The two little fellows were slightly dazed. Confusion beamed out of their faces before the brilliance inside their eyes and faces dimmed. “We don’t know, but we have to try. Gold Barley is our only hope. If even Gold Barley cannot rescue the Land of Sins, where can hope possibly be found?”

“I don’t know, either.” Li Yao was silent for a moment. Then he firmly said, “But I believe that hope must be somewhere out there. It all depends on whether or not we have enough courage and wisdom to find it.”

“Hope…”

The two little fellows mumbled in fascination, their eyes glittering, as if they had seen through the dark iron shell of the ship, the sky that was packed with gloomy clouds, the Heavenly Rails and Manjusaka, and the infinite sea of stars.

“Let’s not consider things so far away yet and focus on reforming and renewing the two of you so that you can distinguish yourselves in the ‘Bliss Ceremony’ in half a month,” Li Yao said. “Since you have said that you are not afraid of exhaustion and danger, it will be much easier!”

…

The warehouse of assets of the Village of Peace took up three layers of decks of an iron-shelled ship. The plethora of weapons and magical equipment inside dazzled Li Yao and the mental devil, who were both greatly amazed.

“So many advanced weapons. The Immortal Cultivators are truly generous!” the mental devil shrieked in shock. “Of course, the more weapons and the less food and water, the fiercer the war among the ‘sinners’, and the easier it will be to test the performance of the weapons!”

Li Yao’s telepathic thoughts scanned the magical equipment on the metal shelves that had been covered in dust. He felt tempted, too.

All the magical equipment there was designed in the simplest, most straightforward, and most insane way. It appeared that the Immortal Cultivators had compressed the craziest, most unsteady designs and delivered the products to the ‘mice’ for testing.

The sinners in the Land of Sins were perhaps unable to tell the mysteries hidden deep inside the magical equipment.

However, as an extraordinary master of refining, he could tell ingenious ways of thinking from the unorthodox designs and infinite possibilities that he had never thought of even in his dreams.

The same went for the techniques and Cultivation arts that the Immortal Cultivators gave the sinners out of ‘good will’.

The Land of Sins was short of everything except for techniques and Cultivation arts. Such things were not precious at all. When new techniques that were more powerful fell from the sky, the relatively outdated arts would be stored inside the warehouse. Whoever was interested in them was free to study them.

Despite the fatal shortcomings in them, those arts also contained the experience and understanding of Immortal Cultivators on how to make use of spiritual energy.

The general sinners could not analyze the techniques and perceive the essence at their deepest core. But for Li Yao, a great expert who had advanced into the Divinity Transformation Stage, he was able to break apart the mysterious mists and find the core of the arts before he perfected the field of his spiritual energy and the fire of his soul with the essence of the arts!

It was practically an infinite treasury. Li Yao could not help but recall his training years in the Grand Desolate War Institution where he absorbed knowledge like a giant whale absorbing water.

One village in the Desolate Worlds already contained so many treasures. Li Yao wondered how many cutting-edge techniques and inventions that the Imperium of True Human Beings had just developed were hidden in the Bloody Worlds, the Elysian Worlds, and even Manjusaka.

I must go to Manjusaka and see what the Immortal Cultivators are up to. Chances are that I will be able to absorb the latest research products of the Imperium of True Human Beings. Hehehe. How I wish to see the spectacular look on the Immortal Cultivators’ faces when they think everything’s under their control but a ‘Fiend Star’ jumps out of nowhere and turns the entire City in the Sky upside down!

In the half a month that followed, Li Yao began his new training with Han Te and Liu Li.

As the village leader’s daughter and disciple, they had some privileges. Han Te and Liu Li successfully applied for a maintenance workshop to modify and upgrade Li Yao’s body.

When other people heard that they had decided to transform a civil puppet for maintenance and cleaning purposes into a military puppet for war, they all sighed and did not know how to stop them.

When Zhao Chong, Zhao Lie’s son, heard the news, he specifically paid them a visit and mocked them. Han Te simply held back his fury and turned a deaf ear to him.

What Zhao Chong and the villagers did not know was that when the doors of the maintenance room were shut, the furnaces and all kinds of maintenance magical equipment inside the room were glowing in the most brilliant way and functioning at the maximum efficiency several times beyond their performance limits under Li Yao’s control.

The seemingly lackluster and ordinary materials were also emitting the sharpest coldness under Li Yao’s marvelous handicraft.

After only three days, Li Yao’s shell was entirely different from the past.

On the left side of the body was a mining drill that could dig through the hardest rock easily. On the right side was an enormous chainsword that was coated in three layers of special metals. On the waist, a Triple-Headed Six-Barreled Vulcan Machine Cannon had been installed. On the left shoulder, there was a honeycomb-type flying sword launcher. On the right shoulder was an extendable, folded crystal cannon whose furthest bombardment distance was five thousand meters. When Li Yao’s soul locked onto the target, the attack would never miss!

Li Yao wanted to replace the engine system in the lower half body with four pairs of 360-degree reversed metal limbs, which would be able to handle any complicated terrain and could even walk on the vertical walls as if they were ground. However, Li Yao discovered an engine system that was sturdier and more powerful in the deepest corner of the warehouse. He decided to keep the track structure but simply lengthened and widened them with five pairs of Bogie Wheels, endowing the slaughter machine with invincible might!