Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Thinking quickly, Li Yao already envisioned the picture when the phase of the Imperium’s high-speed expansion came to an end. He blurted out, “In short, the resources in the universe are limited.”

“Exactly.”

Li Linghai said casually, “To put it more frankly, since the Imperium has only a limited ability of expansion and a limited territory, there are certainly limited jobs, opportunities, and intimidating power. One Sector could only have one master, after all, one sect could only have one leader and one fleet could only have one commander. Even a crystal mine could only have one owner, right?

“That was the center of all the contradictions.

“In the first five hundred years, as the Imperium expanded greatly, the vested interests had already split the positions such as Sector Masters, fleet commanders, sect leaders, or even mine owners. There would be no vacancy at all until one of them died!

“In the second five hundred years, it was often the case that the expedition army of the Imperium failed to find a single Sector after decades of exploration without bothering the cost. Or even when it found one, the new territory would be a land of desolation and nothingness. How could it help anything?

“Therefore, for the Immortal Cultivators who were born in the second five hundred years, even if they were talented, determined, and fortunate, it was impossible for them to rise to the sky in one step like their predecessors in the first five hundred years.”

Li Yao smiled. “Don’t the Immortal Cultivators worship ‘survival of the fittest’? If the cake could not be made any bigger, they could always rob other people of their slices of the cake!”

Li Linghai replied with a smile too, “Do you think that the class of vested interests that was gradually ossified were all dead people who would just watch the ambitious latecomers rob them without doing anything first?

“Even an idiot should know which side had more ways to eat the whole cake, the existent interest holders who boasted abundant training resources, techniques, and even space fleets, or the silly guys who awakened their spiritual roots with luck and who stumbled into their current level!

“All in all, the existent interest holders who made a fortune out of wars in the first five hundred years and who had occupied the high grounds of the politics, economy, military, culture, and all the other fields of the Imperium gradually rigidified into lumps large and small under the names of family, sector fleet. Whatever their names were, they were essentially the same. They were the monopoly groups that were huge enough to swallow the whole world. They were the dominators and the oligarchs.

“As the dominating oligarchs who had concentrated all the resources, they were naturally free to come up with rules that were in their favor, allowing all the new resources to flow into their bloody mouth legally and reasonably. That is the logic of the big growing bigger and the strong remaining strong. The talents who rose later without notable backgrounds were absolutely incapable of competing with the oligarchs.

“The simplest example would be the contribution point system that seems fair and gives everybody a chance.

“Calculate contribution points with military credits and exchange the contribution points for training resources, military ranks, and government posts. It seems very fair and reasonable, right?

“But the fairest and reasonable system has to be carried out by specific persons. If the Immortal Cultivators who are responsible for carrying out the contribution point system are from the deeply-rooted noble families, how would they treat the Immortal Cultivators who are from the civilian class equally?

“Under the contribution point system, the measurement of the mission difficulty is decided by organizations such as the ‘Military Credits Committee’ in the local Sectors. It is needless to say that the organizations are all controlled by the oligarchs and the nobles, who can totally tailor-make some easy missions with a high reward of contribution points for the members of their families and inform those members to claim the missions before the missions are released. In such a way, the members of their families will get abundant contribution points without any risk in a justifiable way, right?

“Even worse, when some missions are too difficult, they will intentionally allure the Immortal Cultivators of poor backgrounds to execute them, and when the Immortal Cultivators suffer heavy casualties and the goal of the mission is more or less reached, they will add the members of their families into the team under the excuse that the mission is too difficult and requires more hands. Naturally, the members of their families will be able to deal the last blow and earn tremendous contribution points in the easiest way.

“So, under the seemingly fair contribution point system, if you are from a noble family whose history dates back to a thousand years ago, you will find many easy missions that have a high reward of contribution points or missions tailor-made for you that have rigorous conditions for claiming, every now and then. You can accomplish them easily without any trouble and earn tremendous contribution points, which you can then exchange for the training resources.

“But if you have neither connections nor a familial background as an Immortal Cultivator who fights your way and risks your life to get where you are, you will find most of the missions available are highly difficult, and the reward of contribution points are very low. Or they may contain unexpected dangers, and other people will gain tremendous benefits by stepping on your bloody head in the end.

“Occasionally, you may find certain missions whose ‘cost performance’ seems to be very high on the open mission platform.

“However, those missions will either be claimed by a certain member of the noble family that you do not know in the next moment or come with additional, harsh requirements. For example, only the Immortal Cultivators in the eleventh level of the Refinement Stage with a five-star certificate from the Hungry Wolf Crystal Suit Training Camp are qualified to claim it. It is needless to say that the mission is specially designed for a certain descendant of a noble family. You can do nothing at all except to watch them accomplish the missions easily.

“Tell me about it. Under such a contribution point system that is ‘absolutely fair’, how can the Immortal Cultivators of poor backgrounds compete with the Immortal Cultivators from noble families?”

Li Yao sighed and said, “So to speak, the Immortal Cultivators at the bottom level are truly rather painful.”

“Of course they are. Other people have ten thousand ways to shove you out of the circle where the cake is divided, but you cannot say a word about it.”

Li Linghai said, “It is already the latter half of the story to have the ability to join the game under the contribution point system. What matters more first is education.

“Theoretically speaking, the Imperium worships fair competition more than anything. The descendants of noble families, poor families, and even hominoids are eventually entitled to training. Whoever shows the most potentials in the early education will be most qualified to receive the nourishment of the abundant Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and the enlightenment of brilliant teachers. Without the gifts of training, they should be abandoned ruthlessly even if they are the descendants of the Immortal Cultivators. Only in such a way can the configuration of resources be optimized to achieve the purpose of the development of the civilization of mankind as a whole.

“However, it is still ‘theoretically’.

“Theories are beautiful, but reality is cruel. Let me ask you. Which Immortal Cultivator family is really idiotic enough to present all the resources of their family to the hominoid descendants who have gifts and potentials while giving nothing to the younger generations of their own family?

“The descendants of the Immortal Cultivator families are nurtured by the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures from the moment they are born. When they are still toddlers, the experts of the family will start to cleanse their veins and nerves and build their bodies. After they grow slightly older, they will get in touch with the most incredible arts. Not just the descendants of most hominoids, even the descendants of the Immortal Cultivators of poor backgrounds do not have such privileges.

“Then, in the national tests on talents, potentials, and everything else on the children between five to seven, it is only natural for the descendants of the noble families to be more likely to have higher marks and gain access to the academies of the highest level. That is still not considering the fact that most of the national tests are in fact under the control of the oligarchs.

“Just like what I said a moment ago, the strong remain strong, and the big grow bigger still. The monopolization of the oligarchs means the healthy, legitimate methods of resource configuration in the Imperium are already gone. The interest group, epitomized by the four Kurfürst families, will not stop until they have sucked the last drop of blood from the country.

“Of course, as the training technologies and the human strengthening technologies continue to develop, the difficulties for the hominoids of the imperium to advance into low-level Immortal Cultivators have been significantly lowered. After the strengthening modifications, it is possible for them to boast half or a third of the low-level Immortal Cultivators’ combat ability.

“However, improving from a low-level Immortal Cultivator to a high-level Immortal Cultivator, or to be more exact, advancing from the Refinement Stage and the Building Foundation Stage into the Core Formation Stage and the Nascent Soul Stage, is now ten times more difficult than it was five hundred years ago. It is even safe to say that the channel of ascension in scale has been completely blocked.

“Besides, training consumes a great number of resources. The hominoids who have been strengthened and modified have a much higher demand for supplies too. It makes the bottom-level Immortal Cultivators further dependent on resources and their monopolies. As a result, they are forced to cling to the interest groups and struggle under the game rules of the oligarchs while they are exploited with their eyes wide open.

“You may even understand it this way—the high-level Immortal Cultivators discovered that the efficiency of exploiting the hominoids directly is too low and that it will be more convenient, straightforward, and efficient to allow a group of the hominoids to turn into low-level Immortal Cultivators before the exploitation.”

Li Yao took a long breath in relief and felt like sweating. He said sincerely, “This is… very different from the components and operation of the Immortal Cultivators’ society that I heard on Firefly.”

Li Linghai said, “The Star Ocean Republic was destroyed by the Imperium. Naturally, what you accepted before was the brainwashing education that vilifies and demoralizes the Immortal Cultivators. It is only natural that you grow disgusted by the Immortal Cultivators under your preconception.

“Besides, the Imperium that is governed by the monopolizing oligarchs and noble families is truly a murky forest where the wolves and the jackals get their way!

“In the court, the noble ministers who hold the lightning trident flags on their shoulders and cheer for the Immortal Cultivators are in fact selfish scumbags who only consider for their small groups without bothering the general picture of the Imperium and the future of mankind. Not just you, even I hate their guts!

“But please believe that they shouldn’t be what the real Immortal Cultivators look like. At the very least, the Imperium of True Human Beings that Blackstar the Great established in the past was nothing like what it is today!”