Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao thought for a moment and realized that it did make sense. When he discussed with Di Feiwen, the deputy commander of the Black Wind Fleet, about the situation of the Imperium back when he was in the Star Glory Federation before, and when he talked with Li Linghai about the development of the battle after he came to the Imperium, they had both compared the Imperium with the Covenant Alliance and explained the features of the warriors of the Covenant Alliance.

With the ability of “telepathy” and a system of high efficiency and absolute obedience, the Covenant Alliance had been on the winning side in the war against the Imperium for a thousand years, even though it was just a barren country based in a corner of the cosmos.

But as time went by and the war fell into an impasse, the fatal flaws of the Covenant Alliance were gradually revealed, which were the rigidity, lifelessness, and lack of creativity in their society. From top to bottom, all the people of the Covenant Alliance thought exactly the same. Such a problem was even more severe in the Covenant Alliance than it was in the Imperium. After all, however decayed and corrupted the Imperium was, the major forces never lacked creativity when they plotted against each other.

During the Imperium’s counterattack, the Covenant Alliance’s weaknesses were completely exposed, and the Imperium’s army secured a gratifying triumph by taking advantage of them!

Long Yangjun told Li Yao that there was no seemingly immaculate ability in the universe that was really immaculate and did not come with a price.

It was like no ferocious beasts could unlimitedly increase their strength and speed, or they would collapse on their own. The seemingly powerful ability of “telepathy” was actually a lethal trap on the way of evolution. The convenient communication and the easy organization for the time being were actually traded with the independent thinking and the diversified development of the whole community.

When the Pangu civilizations’ alliance rose first, it was obvious that there were more carbon-based civilizations than Pangu, Nuwa, Kuafu, Houyi, etc., that were engaged in the million years of wars among them. Some of the civilizations did choose to establish their society by communicating with brainwaves.

When the “language civilizations” encountered the “telepathy civilizations”, they were almost caught unprepared by the enemy’s effective communication and meticulous organization, but as long as they could weather through the first attacks, the endless whimsical tactics of the “language civilizations”, as well as the schemes and ploys formed in their independent heads, would often turn the situation around for the “language civilizations”, allowing them to completely annihilate the “telepathy civilizations”.

Therefore, when the Pangu civilizations’ alliance was really founded, the thirteen carbon-based civilizations reached a consensus that languages made by the vibration of sound waves would be the medium of communication to ensure the independence and diversity of the individuals.

But of course, the ability to use “telepathy” to transmit information directly through brain waves was still retained to control the generic flesh puppets such as “human beings”.

As the resources were running out, and their contradictions against each other escalated, many people within the Pangu civilizations’ alliance raised doubts on language communication. They believed that it was because of the existence of languages that there were misunderstandings, contradictions, and social differences, and only by completely shifting to “telepathy” could they achieve real harmony and equality.

When the civil war between the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan broke out and went to the most heated phase, to resist the Nuwa Clan that was corrupted by the extraterrestrial devils and who were overzealous about individuality, the opinions that fully supported “telepathy” prevailed within the Pangu Clan. Since Long Yangjun had the legacy of the Pangu Clan, she was naturally capable of such an ability.

Seeing that Long Yangjun had confessed the fatal flaws of “telepathy” dutifully without hiding anything, as if she were truly being honest, Li Yao couldn’t help but ask why she was spreading such an ability below the ground when she knew that “telepathy” had so many shortcomings.

Long Yangjun opened her hands and replied, “I don’t really have a choice in such a situation. While using a language is a more advanced way of communication than telepathy, those underground wildlings have forgotten most of their languages in the past ten thousand years of wars in darkness. They can only talk with a few simplest syllables.

“However capable I am, it is impossible for me to teach the wildlings to speak the language of human beings in only a couple of days, right?

“However, because of the entanglement of the many negative factors, including their feud and the shortage of resources caused by earthquakes, their contradictions have been intensified to the point that a total war will break out at any moment.

“The Stupa Sect of the Ancient Sages Sector, from which Master Bitter Cicada came, has a saying that ‘saving one life is better than building a seven-floored pagoda’. I was too desperate to stop the conflicts that had lingered for ten thousand years and to save the lives of thousands of wildlings. Therefore, I had to talk to them through ‘telepathy’ by activating the brainwaves in the emergency. It was a helpless choice!”

“Seriously?”

Li Yao bulged his eyes and tried to search for a loophole on Long Yangjun’s sacred and flawless face. “Since when have you become so great?”

“I am a dual successor of Pangu and Nuwa after all, alright?”

Long Yangjun’s lips curled before she said casually, “The Pangu Clan is mankind’s father civilization, and the Nuwa Clan is mankind’s mother civilization. As a representative of the parent civilizations, shouldn’t it be natural for me to try to save certain individuals of the child civilization? What’s great about that?”

Thinking carefully for a long time, Li Yao became more grave than ever. “Is that a subtle way of implying that I am your son?”

Long Yangjun: “… Why are you always so lowly? It has occurred to me that talking about civilizations and philosophies with you is just a complete waste of time!”

Li Yao: “Fine, I withdraw my question. Let’s say that you can communicate with those wildlings through ‘telepathy’. Then, how did you persuade them to give up their hatred? Did it really not involve the creepy and evil stuff about ‘brainwashing’?”

Long Yangjun was amused. “Why are you still bothered by things like ‘brainwashing’ even today? Back in the Star Glory Federation, your textbooks stated to the citizens of the federation that the leadership of the Imperium transformed all the people whose spiritual roots were awakened into selfish, bloodthirsty Immortal Cultivators through evil brainwashing.

“In the Imperium, the textbooks of the Imperium stated to its people that the Covenant Alliance turned all the people into emotionless idiots through evil brainwashing.

“But as a matter of fact, isn’t the education that the Star Glory Federation imposes on the adolescents who are like blank paper another kind of brainwashing? Why are you certain that your ideas are absolutely correct?

“All in all, brainwashing may be real, but it is not exactly how you pictured it. It was impossible for me to be so omnipotent as to control the minds of a thousand people and brainwash all of them!”

Li Yao’s curiosity was almost overflowing. “Then how did you make the wildlings obey you?”

“Very simple.”

Long Yangjun said, “I found the battlefield where the Black Armors, the Night Wings, and the Red Rings were about to fight on. Then, I intimidated them with my daunting spiritual energy before I demonstrated my strength by blowing up a stone column of almost five meters with one punch.

“Even the most ignorant beasts should know that it was better to retreat, not to mention that they were still human beings with some wisdom after all. Naturally, they did not have the courage to defy me.

“After that, I transmitted certain fuzzy information into their heads by way of ‘telepathy’, letting them know that I had inexhaustible food and resources and that I could lead them to live in a heaven that was a hundred times better than this place. Those Nepenthe believers did bring tremendous compressed food from the upper towns, which were enough for the wildlings to have a great meal.

“The hatred among the wildlings had lasted ten thousand years. They did not have to fight their final war that day. It was just because the frequent earthquakes and volcano eruptions destroyed their sources of food that they had to fight a war to reduce the population as much as possible. Now that the food problem had been resolved, why would they fight at all?

“Do you understand it now? There is nothing superstitious at all. If it were you, you probably would’ve done the same, wouldn’t you? The only difference would be that you would only shout aloud and make silly speeches, before you and the wildlings look at each other in awkwardness, while I could simply send brainwaves through telepathy and prevent the disaster in the simplest way.

“But as it turned out, right after I finally managed to complete everything through so much trouble, and when they laid down their weapons and sat with each other in harmony, you popped out of nowhere and lambasted me when you did not know what was going on at all. You also questioned my purpose without the slightest proof, as if I would certainly bring disasters to the world, and you were on the moral high ground as a Cultivator and could judge other people freely.

“It may be too much to say that I feel wronged, but I do feel that my heart is more or less chilled when I see you so furious. I really want to dig out my heart and ask myself why I bothered to save you at such great risks, and why I did those things which were not beneficial for me at all. Wouldn’t it have been much easier for me to just stand by and watch the wildlings fight and kill each other until everybody is gone? In that case, I wouldn’t be blamed and cursed at all, right?”

“Well…”

Li Yao was rendered speechless and scratched his head hard. Then something suddenly occurred to him. “Wait, that’s not right. You said just now that you would lead the wildlings to a heaven that was a hundred times better than this place. Where exactly is this heaven?”

“Up.”

Long Yangjun extended her narrow and long finger and pointed at the top of the cave. “One of the four-digit or three-digit towns. Although they are still filthy, murky places compared to the surface of the planet, aren’t they much better than this inferno at the border between the crust and the mantle? Rest assured, I never thought to lie to them even though they are wildlings.”

“But how is it possible?”

Li Yao found it hard to believe. “Most of the underground towns are already crowded with people with barely any living spaces, aren’t they? Even the residents of the 10,084th town can barely move upward even if they want to, much less the hideous, brutal, and disobedient wildlings! Why would the residents in upper towns welcome them? How are they going to make a living even if they are up?”

“That’s not a problem. They will be welcomed!”

Long Yangjun said with a smile, “Nepenthe has everything planned out! Nepenthe is recently organizing a great uprising that involves dozens of towns and hundreds of factories. It is now in dire need of valiant, fearless warriors as vanguards. Those wildlings are the best warriors for the uprising. That’s why the Nepenthe believers have come here to sincerely invite them to join the noble cause!”