Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Are you kidding me? Do you think that I am as gullible as the child twenty years ago?” Xin Xiaoqi burst into fury. “The City in the Sky is right there. It is like a glittering flower every night. Even a blind person can see it! Also, haven’t you already sent a lot of people up there? Not just those who have accumulated enough contribution points by accomplishing the quests of the angels, even those who are willing to pay enough were smuggled up there by you!

“Hehe. You think that you have done those things without anybody knowing? Everybody on the street knows what you did. How can I not know it?

“Right. I get it. You are reluctant to let go of such a readily manipulatable fool like me because I am easy to be tricked and loyal to you without any complaint, right?

“While I suffered in the wretched Land of Sins, your other disciples, including those who could not accomplish a damn thing except for sucking up to you and making your life comfortable, were sent to Manjusaka by you and enjoyed their superior life. You were blind. You were truly blind, idiotic master!”

“You are completely wrong,” Xiahou Wuxin replied calmly and expressionlessly. “I have lied to you about many things, but I never lied to you about one thing. You are truly my most trusted and appreciated disciple, which is why I never sent you to Manjusaka.

“The other random disciples that I recruited, including those who approached me with ill intentions for all kinds of interests and those who are lying around us right now, were never regarded as real disciples by me. That’s why I agreed to their request to go to the City in the Sky without any hesitation.”

Xin Xiaoqi was completely confused. Hiding behind the two short daggers, she stammered, “What do you mean?”

“It is true that ‘Manjusaka, the City in the Sky’ hangs right in the firmament in a seemingly tangible place, but it is not a heaven for the sinners in the Land of Sins, and it does not have the prosperity, peace, and happiness that you imagine.”

Xiahou Wuxin smiled so bitterly that he seemed to be shedding tears of blood. “There has never been a sinner who enjoys their life in Manjusaka. They become test subjects. The only difference is whether they are dead test subjects, deeply-narcotized test subjects, or living test subjects. Nothing more.

“All the sinners that went to Manjusaka while they were still alive were not greeted by good days in the legendary heaven but infinite, endless torture in hell.

“They would receive the most miserable experiments and tests. Their every muscle, every vein, every nerve, and every fragment of their soul would be separated. Even their physical body would be cut into tens of thousands of ‘meat pieces’ as thin as paper, which would then be scanned layer by layer to figure out the evolutions and mutations that had taken place inside them.

“Trust me. Compared to the bizarre, ghastly research procedures in Manjusaka, even the most evil, mad, and perverted bandit in the Land of Sins is as harmless as a three-year-old child.

“Hehe. Since those who approached me with ill intentions and those who wanted to buy their way up into the heaven with fortune were determined to be killed, should I refuse their offer? But you… you were different. You know it.”

Xin Xiaoqi was stunned for a long time.

The tips of the daggers in her hands shivered softly.

“What nonsense are you talking about?” the cat-like woman mumbled. “You’re lying. I—I can tell. You are lying to me, right? Master, tell me that you are lying.”

“I have lied to you for twenty years, but not this time.”

Xiahou Wuxin closed his eyes in pain and took a long breath. He struggled to say, “Everything I said is true. The entire Land of Sins is just an enormous laboratory and test field. The high and mighty angels use the sinners to test their magical equipment and techniques. They also play some bizarre games by treating us as chess pieces and toys.

“They are in need of a lot of fresh ‘test materials’ every day, including the mutated beasts and the experts with a high combat ability. If they captured the prey on a large scale, the efficiency would be low, and the resistance of the sinners would easily be raised.

“They do not care about our lives, but if the precious test subjects are damaged on a large scale or stop training according to their plan because of the negative emotions, the progress of their experiments would be affected.

“Therefore, the angels came up with the solution to promote a nonexistent heaven and to attract the experts in the Land of Sins with the lie that they would be able to go to the heaven after accumulating enough contribution points.

“First of all, those experts would capture the mutated beasts. Then, the experts and the mutated beasts would be delivered up there at the same time. The efficiency would be high, and there would be little resistance. Most of the experts were still ignorant when they were lying on the operating tables, still dwelling in the fantasy that they would enjoy peace and prosperity forever as angels!

“In the Land of Sins, very few sinners know part of the truth. They are the rulers of the Elysian Worlds like me. Hehe. What kind of ‘ruler’ or ‘leader’ are we? Like you, we are just dogs for somebody else.

“We help the angels get enough fresh, strong test subjects. We help them maintain the order of the Land of Sins. If somebody sees through the loopholes of the enormous laboratory, we will lead someone to suppress and eradicate them, cleaning up all the mess caused.

“In return, we can slightly enjoy the truly good items leaked from the Heavenly Rails to maintain the exuberance and the extravagance in this small world, as you have seen with your eyes.

“This is the truth. Just wake up, Xiaoqi. There is no such thing as heaven in this world. Above the Land of Sins, it is just another Land of Sins that is vaster, darker, and eviler!”

“I don’t believe it! I don’t believe it! I don’t believe it at all!”

Like a glass statue that had just been shattered, Xin Xiaoqi staggered back a few steps. She shook her head hard. Then, as if she had grabbed a life-saving straw, she waved her arms crazily and shrieked, “What about my mom? Wasn’t my mom sent to Manjusaka by you? She sends birthday gifts to me every year. That—that pink ribbon, the music box, and the beautiful red dancing shoes!”

“They are all selected carefully by me and sent to you after I duplicated your mother’s voice and handwriting,” said Xiahou Wuxin.

Her face pale, Xin Xiaoqi breathed heavily, as if she might pass out at any moment. She pressed her wrist crystal processor hard.

“Th-then, how do you explain this?”

The crystal processor shot out a mystic ray, which dispersed in midair into a slightly blurred 3D light beam.

In the background of the picture, there was a small, delicate garden, where all kinds of flowers were blossoming vehemently, with butterflies and dragonflies dancing among them.

Right before the flowers, a middle-aged woman who was very similar to Xin Xiaoqi, except that she was slightly older and plumper, was looking at her with a smile.

The atmosphere in the picture was peaceful and quiet, utterly different from the bloody Land of Sins.

“You said that my mom was living a great life in the City in the Sky. She is also working hard to earn more money so that our family will be reunited and live a peaceful and happy life after I go to Manjusaka one day.”

With tears inside her eyes, Xin Xiaoqi begged, almost crying, “You brought gifts to me for her every year and photos. So many photos of my mother. I’ve waited twenty years. I am about to reunite with my mother. Just let me go there, master. Don’t lie to me anymore. Just let me meet my mother again!”

Xiahou Wuxin was silent briefly. Then he said, “Xiaoqi, you are a smart girl. I don’t believe that you have never been suspicious about it. It’s just that you are never bold enough to ask despite your suspicions, right?

“Just wake up. Your mother is already dead. She died twenty years ago. Handwriting can be duplicated, sound and images can be fabricated, and even dynamic videos can be synthesized easily.”

Xin Xiaoqi shook so hard that countless cracks seemed to have appeared on her pale face and her shivering body.

Her cat-like eyes, on the other hand, suddenly became deeper than ever, like a black hole that could absorb all vitality.

“H-how did she die?” Xiao Xiaoqi asked, overwhelmed.

“I killed her,” Xiahou Wuxin said calmly. “Her skull was smashed in one punch. Her brains and her soul were completely shattered in that moment. She died the quickest death without the least pain. Everything was ended.”

Xin Xiaoqi stared at Xiahou Wuxin for a long time.

Xiahou Wuxin stared back at her, but his eyes were somehow unfocused, as if he were looking through her at a woman that had been dead for a long time.

Xin Xiaoqi was dumbfounded for a moment. Then she suddenly screamed and turned from a cat into a leopard. She knocked Xiahou Wuxin to the ground. Grabbing him by the neck with one hand and holding the dagger high with the other, she shouted, “I’m going to kill you!”

Xiahou Wuxin’s head bashed into the ground heavily, but he sighed in great relief and closed his eyes, waiting for the arrival of death.

Xin Xiaoqi’s dagger trembled in midair for a long time, but it did not fall. She simply grabbed Xiahou Wuxin’s collar and shook the man hard while she roared, “You want to die? Not so fast! Tell me everything. Why did you kill my mother? Weren’t you in love since childhood? Didn’t you meet each other again after being separated for almost thirty years? Didn’t—Didn’t you say that she was the only woman that you had ever loved? Say something, you old b*stard. Why did you do it?”

Below the garbage dump, deep inside the broken tubes, Han Te and Liu Li poked Li Yao’s iron shell after he did not move at all for a long time. They asked, “What’s going on now, Grandpa Yao?”

“What is going on now is an intriguing, soul-stirring family drama,” Li Yao said in a low voice. “It is truly a complicated, confusing, and heartbreaking one. Just let me watch a little longer.”