Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“What?” Han Te and Liu Li exclaimed at the same time. “Have you recovered your memories?”

All the people from the sky—be they ‘old grandpas’ with ultimate skills, common men and women, or remaining souls ‘stored’ in crystal processors and even rings—as long as they were human beings of a certain form, could not remember anything of their past save their survival instincts.

Gu Zhengyang’s recovery of his memories was unprecedented. Even Li Yao was quite curious.

Frowning, Gu Zhengyang rubbed his temples softly and said, “I do not know whether it is a real memory or just a chaotic nightmare, but when I was dizzy and sleepy every day because of my illness a while back, some mottled fragments surfaced inside my brain just before my head exploded.

“In those ‘fragments’, I seemed to be wearing heavy metal shackles, which were releasing powerful electric arcs incessantly and stimulated my limbs and internal organs. Some guys who were emotionless or wearing metal masks escorted me somewhere.

“The place seemed to be named Hall of Trial or Inquisition. I can’t remember the name clearly now. All in all, I suffered the most unbelievable torture there. Compared with the torture in my nightmare, the deadly battles in the Land of Sins are almost as comfortable as a gentle breeze on a summer’s evening.

“I don’t know how long I was tortured in the ‘Hall of Trial’, but I was finally escorted to a woman who was wearing a mask with glamorous stripes. She wore a pure white robe and carried a silver gavel that was delicate with fine engravings on it. The silver gavel left a particularly deep impression on me because the woman knocked it hard and declared, ‘Guilty!’

“I do not know what crimes I committed. I only remember that I was tortured to such an extent that I even lost the strength to struggle. Then, I was pressed to a metal bed, which felt as cold as ice.

“There, somebody shaved my hair. There were also many cold hands touching my bald head. Some tools that were as tough as iron brushed past my skull, too.

“Eventually…”

Gu Zhengyang’s voice was trembling even harder. The iron-made man shuddered again and pointed at his temples. “It felt somebody dig through here with a very sharp drill and then open my skull with a curved jigsaw that looked like a sickle.

“At that time, I should have been very conscious, so conscious that I could sense the smell when the drill was rubbing my skull and the sound of the high-speed friction. It is probably the most horrible sound that anybody could ever hear.

“The skull shouldn’t bring any sense of pain, but I clearly sensed the pain that could’ve driven anybody mad. It felt as if ten thousand man-eating ants were crawling inside my brains, but I was unable to move my hands or feet at all…

“That was the end of my nightmare. I do not remember anything that happened next. After a long period of darkness, it becomes the memories of me in the Land of Sins.”

“Ah…”

Hearing her father’s story and seeing his twisted expression, Liu Li felt so heartbroken that she almost wept. She extended her hands and wanted to touch her father’s face, but she did not dare move further, fearing that she might touch some terrible wound.

“Don’t be scared.” Gu Zhengyang grinned. He tapped his head and said, “I’ve long examined it carefully. There is no scar on my head that indicates somebody opened my skull. The few scars there were all left in the fights after I reached the Land of Sins. That’s why I’m suspicious that it is merely a weird nightmare.”

“Yes. Such a thing couldn’t possibly have happened, right?” Han Te comforted Liu Li, too. “Opening someone’s skull, playing tricks inside, and then sewing the skull without leaving any scar is too strange and unbelievable. Master’s brain must’ve been affected by the chaotic spiritual energy when he was sick. That’s why he had the bizarre nightmare.”

Li Yao, however, knew that craniotomy had been a very mature technology even in the Star Glory Federation a hundred years earlier. Also, the technology of cell proliferation and skin surgery were advanced enough to erase the scars of an operation completely, too.

Then, what were the ‘Hall of Trial’ and ‘guilty’ about?

The Martial Meritocrats Sector had completely turned into a weapon laboratory. In such a heavily-polluted, man-made world where the strong preyed on the weak, if ‘new blood’ was not injected from the outside incessantly, it would be impossible to keep the population of ‘test subjects’. Perhaps the locals of the Martial Meritocrats Sector should have gone extinct, and the place would’ve been abandoned, hundreds of years ago.

Unless, of course, the lack of test subjects was made up for by the people who were found ‘guilty’ by the ‘Hall of Trial’, after part of their brain cortexes were removed and something additional was implanted.

If Li Yao’s soul had teeth, he would have been biting them so hard that they were falling apart.

After thinking for a moment, he realized that the chip in Gu Zhengyang’s hands was rather unusual.

He sent a wave to Han Te’s brain quietly.

Blinking quickly, Han Te said, “Right, master. What exactly is the chip that stores ‘Little Cultivators’ about? You mentioned just now that my masteress gave it to you. Then, where did my masteress get it?”

As if caught in memories from a long time ago, Gu Zhengyang said, not very certainly, “According to your masteress, it was a gift of a traveler who passed by the Village of Peace when she was little.

“The Land of Sins is in peril. Even the commercial groups among the ‘Elysian Worlds’ have to hire hundreds of experts as guards before they do business in the ‘Bloody Worlds’ and the ‘Desolate Worlds’. ‘Travelers’ are almost too rare to ever come across.

“What was even more unusual was that the traveler was a white-haired old lady. It was said that she passed through more than ten ‘Bloody Worlds’ occupied by the most ferocious gangs and reached the Village of Peace unharmed.

“I do not know what the old lady saw in your masteress, but she spent some time with your masteress and told a lot of stories to her. Before she left, she offered your masteress a bag of seeds of the Gold Barley and the chip.

“The old lady told your masteress that the seeds and the chip could perhaps save the entire Land of Sins.

“The Gold Barley could be grown anywhere, but the chip was of paramount importance and would mostly likely lead to disasters if revealed easily. The old lady asked your masteress to share the secrets of the chip and pass it only when she met someone she could absolutely trust.

“Although your masteress and I were together for many years, she never told me the secrets about the chip until the last moment. I only learned what a burdensome and remarkable thing she had been carrying then.

“You two kids are both very good. Now that the Village of Peace has come to a dangerous moment, I cannot wait anymore. I’ll give the chip to the two of you. Whether or not the world described in the chip is real, and what secrets are hidden behind the so-called Land of Sins, will be your choice to pursue or forget.”

Gu Zhengyang put the chip back to the metal box and then handed the metal box to the two of them solemnly. He then sighed softly, as if some sort of strength that had been supporting him was sealed in the box and passed on to the two little fellows.

“Starlight!” the mental devil shouted next to Li Yao’s soul. “That’s right. The old lady that Gu Zhengyang talked about must be a warrior of ‘Starlight’, the legendary resistance organization of the Cultivators. No matter how harsh the environment in the Land of Sins and how close the surveillance of the angels, or the Immortal Cultivators, the Cultivators of the Martial Meritocrats Sector have never been completely wiped out. They are still resisting in their own way, or at least passing on the ideology of the Cultivators generation after generation!”

“It is very possible!” Li Yao felt thrilled.

The Star Glory Federation had selected the Martial Meritocrats Sector in the Devilish Scorpion Galaxy partly in order to reach out to the local organization of Cultivators.

From the signs, it was very possible that Starlight did exist and was still active decades ago!

“Dad…” After thinking for a long time, Liu Li bit her lips softly and asked, “Was mom a Cultivator? Did she believe in the ideology of the Cultivators?”

“I… don’t know.” Gu Zhengyang smiled bitterly. “Compared to the world of singing birds, fragrant flowers, and warm sunshine in the video, the Land of Sins is practically a living hell. Who struggling to survive in this hell does not have a pair of hands stained with blood? Who is qualified to call themself a Cultivator? Also, I don’t believe that your mother agrees with the ideology of the Cultivators very much.”

Liu Li was puzzled. “Why?”

Gu Zhengyang’s face suddenly turned weird. He said mysteriously, “Because before she passed away, she pulled me to her side and whispered, ‘All Cultivators are hopeless idiots, and those of the Martial Meritocrats Sector are particularly so.’”

“Well…” Han Te and Liu Li looked at each other in bewilderment. They did not understand what it meant at all.

Li Yao, having the basic knowledge about the whole process of the Martial Meritocrats Sector’s destruction, was the only one who could more or less understand the feelings of Liu Li’s mother at that time.

The woman who tried to grow the Gold Barley all over the Land of Sins must have learned more things through certain channels.

First of all, they opened the gate to the believers of Chiyou from the Sand Primitive Sector and allowed them to work and live in the Martial Meritocrats Sector. They even gave the foreigners the right to vote.

Then, they invented the theory of ‘original sin’ for the Cultivators and passed the Bill of General Equality. The rights of the Cultivators were suppressed infinitely.

In the end, they let ‘Blackstar the Great’ Wuying Qi, the dangerous criminal who had changed into an Immortal Cultivator, run away. Eventually, the guy brought the fleets of the Imperium back to his ‘hometown’ and granted his ‘compatriots’ the cruelest judgment!

‘Idiots’ did not begin to describe the Cultivators of the Martial Meritocrats Sector.

However…

If Liu Li’s mother were not a Cultivator, how could she have been idiotic enough to believe that she could grow the Gold Barley all over the Land of Sins, that she could appease all the conflicts on her own, and that everybody could live together in happiness and peace?

“All the Cultivators are hopeless idiots, and those of the Martial Meritocrats Sector are particularly so.”

Perhaps, the innocent woman had said the words with a smile before she left the mortal world.