Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The Fist King’s metal brain began to hum quickly as he thought hard. In the end, he said, “You do seem to have a point.”

“Of course I do,” Li Yao said seriously. “Even if you smash the vase in my arms a hundred times brutally, you will not prove yourself stronger than me. It only proves that you have chosen a path that is easier to walk on.

“Real experts always go against the difficulties and walk on the roughest, most dangerous, and least possible path, don’t they?”

“They do.”

“That’s what I’m talking about!” Li Yao extended his drill-like arm to pat—well, to jab the Fist King’s shoulder. “Destroying the world is what third-rate experts do, dominating the world is what the second-rate experts do, and such a difficult mission as to protect the world is what the ultimate experts should do.

“Of course, even I feel that the ideals of the Cultivators are too difficult to be implemented and are more like fantasies. So, it is perfectly normal that you feel that they are silly.

“If your logical thinking circuits find the path of the Cultivators untravelable after countless calculations, at least so for you, it won’t matter. I’m only reminding you that there is such a criterion to gauge strength.”

“In my logical thinking circuits, there is no ‘possible’ or ‘impossible, ‘travelable’ or ‘untravelable’,” the Fist King said solemnly. “I want to know what the ‘strongest’ is exactly, and I will walk in that direction. As for if the path is going to work out or not, that is not my concern.

“However, I do feel that something is wrong with your logic. I need to take some time to think carefully if the ‘strength’ you defined makes sense.”

“Of course!” Grimacing, Li Yao rubbed the jigsaw with his drill, raising a circle of sparks in the darkness. “Take your time. I have high hopes in you. You will certainly grow into the strongest someday. As for right now, let’s find a way to give a big surprise to the ‘angels’ in the City in the Sky and knock Manjusaka down from the sky!”

…

In Manjusaka, the 3D light beams floating everywhere were still displaying the fierce battles on the ground. But the wine party was already over. All that was echoing in the room was the screams and explosions.

The trials of the rookies would take days if not weeks. The big shots and experts from everywhere in the Imperium of True Human Beings naturally would not focus their attention all the time.

Meeting the big shots in other fields and their partners of shared interests under the pretext of leading the new people of their families to the trials in order to discuss secrets that must not be known by other people was the main reason for them to gather there from every corner in the sea of stars.

The Imperium of True Human Beings boasted very advanced four-dimensional communication abilities, which could allow the big shots and experts in different Sectors dozens of lightyears away from each other to communicate without lag. But the Spiritual Nexus was always prone to surveillance and infiltration.

Nobody could be active on the Spiritual Nexus without leaving any trace.

Nobody could guarantee that the certain someone on the light beam who was supposed to be hundreds of lightyears away was unmistakably the guy.

Nobody could guarantee that when they were discussing big businesses that were worth hundreds of billions with a certain someone, planning to kill a dozen Core Formation Stage experts, ten times more generals, and their own fathers, the words would not be heard by a third party.

A face-to-face meeting was always the safest and most stable means of communication.

Manjusaka was exactly a club and a secret bureau of the big shots.

In the past decades, countless superstorms that affected the military, politics, economy, and other fields of the Imperium of True Human Beings had actually been caused by a flap of wings of certain butterflies in this place.

Compared to ‘magical equipment testing’, ‘trials for the rookies’, and ‘live stream games’, this was actually what made Manjusaka worthy.

Wuying Lan, the owner of the place, only clung to the feathers of the big shots and rose unstoppable into one of them, qualified to speak on equal terms with the universe-renowned Sector Masters, family leaders, generals, and Divinity Transformation Stage experts, because of his special role as a ‘broker’.

The Battle of Liberty City and the subsequent missions constituted the intriguing, soul-stirring ‘epic quest’, which was a big operation that Wuying Lan had prepared carefully for quite a few years. It also attracted the experts of an unprecedented scale to come to this place for clandestine deals.

Whether or not the deals succeeded, those experts had formed a small interest group around Wuying Lan. Although the interest group was headed by Li Lingfeng, the future leader of the Li family, on the surface, Wuying Lan would be able to earn the greatest benefits.

Up to this moment, everything seemed to have been going very well.

Two big shots of the military were very satisfied with the magical equipment projects that had been entrusted to Manjusaka. They were also interested in a biochemical weapon developed by Manjusaka on its own.

Several big sects also reached a series of deals with Manjusaka, allowing Wuying Lan’s tentacles to reach further realms beyond media, entertainment, and lottery.

Li Lingfeng, the future Kurfürst, was bound to them more and more tightly thanks to the clandestine projects. Everybody was now on the same burning tank and would not be able to get rid of one another easily.

Wuying Lan, however, looked rather gloomy. His eyes were half narrowed, and there was not any sign of ecstasy on his face.

“What do you mean by ‘gone’?” Wuying Lan asked Luo Tiansheng, the manager of the laboratory of the Land of Sins. “Not only is the Fist King’s core crystal processor gone, two elite Exos of the Madmen Squad, including their dead bodies, broken flesh, blood traces, and crystal suit fragments, are gone?”

“Yes.” Having been cooperating with Wuying Lan for a hundred years, Luo Tiansheng had learned of his ruthlessness even when Wuying Lan was only an unattractive, abnormal dwarf, and he knew that he was now more than exasperated although he was emotionless and not even frowning. He hurried to explain, “After ‘Great Iron City’ crashed from the sky, the burning debris sprayed over more than half of Liberty City. With the chaotic battle going on inside the city, we have not found their whereabouts yet.

“However, the Fist King’s real body has indeed been destroyed. Even if the core crystal processor has been retained, there couldn’t have been much computational ability and combat ability left. It cannot get out of Liberty City. After the fire of war cools down a little bit, or after our Heavenly Eye Legion clears the battlefield, we should be able to find them.”

Wuying Lan took a deep, deep breath and said coldly, “You’d better make sure of that.”

“Please rest assured, my lord. However weird the spiritual puppet is, its strongest form is only Great Iron City. How much trouble can it cause?”

Luo Tiansheng hurried to change the topic. “Right, my lord, the nightmare monsters are all ready and can be projected to the ground at any moment to completely eradicate all the sinners within a hundred kilometers from Liberty City!”

“Huh. Just wait a while longer until they have almost killed each other.”

Frowning, Wuying Lan pondered for a moment and tapped on his wrist crystal processor.

A 3D light beam in front of them was immediately switched to Liberty City that was brimming with smoke and fire.

A squad of gray crystal suits, using tactical stealth camouflage, appeared and disappeared among the broken walls and the burning flames.

Unlike the team of bizarre-shaped Exos who looked like giant insects, the squad of elite Exos had much better teamwork and organization, implying that they were a well-trained special force.

An emblem of a black sun was painted on the right shoulder of their crystal suits. At the center of the black sun was a crimson eye.

Wuying Lan spoke into the wrist crystal processor. “Xiao Tian, have you found Xiahou Wuxin?”

“Not yet,” a member of the gray team of Exos replied. “Xiahou Wuxin is not at the rendezvous point that we designated. He has probably grown suspicious of us and doubts that we are sincerely embracing him into Manjusaka to become one of the Immortal Cultivators.”

“Yes. The old dog has always been paranoid,” Wuying Lan said casually. “However, the few retreats that he prepared for himself are all within our control. Find him and kill him. I do not want anything to go wrong in the Battle of Liberty City, which will affect the ‘epic quest’ of a higher level later.”

Luo Tiansheng looked at Wuying Lan and hesitated.

“Copy that.” The Exo named ‘Xiao Tian’ smiled. “I’ll kill him very carefully without damaging his structure. In an hour at most, his body will be packed and sent to Manjusaka for Dr. Luo to study.”

“Good.” Wuying Lan nodded in satisfaction. He looked at the pictures on the light beams again as well as the data that was running like a waterfall.

All the data was normal and within his control. Although the Fist King had not been found, what trouble could a spiritual puppet that had lost most of its computational and combat abilities cause?

Therefore, what was there to be worried about?

…

Liberty City had been completely reduced to an erupting volcano.

At first, ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie had punched Xiahou Wuxin, the leader of Liberty City, so hard that there was no telling whether he was dead or alive.

Then, the Fist King somehow charged at the firmament for no good reason, only to be blown up by the railguns of the City in the Sky.

Although he died a rather valiant death, the bandits and the thugs were only stunned for less than one minute by him.

As for the tremendous assets that had fallen from the sky and the warriors that were even more creepy, none of those mattered.

What mattered was that, after the death of the Fist King and the leader of Liberty City, Liberty City was now a land without an owner, where abundant resources were like blossoming roses whose thorns had been cut away, ready to be picked by their giant, hairy hands!