Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The two consecutive battles in only twenty-four hours were too exhausting both for the body and for the soul.

The discussion on “wizardly civilization” and “Flood” later was a major shock for everyone too.

Even though they were all unparalleled experts who were above the middle level of the Divinity Transformation Stage on average, they still felt their feebleness and insignificance when faced with such a vast and horrible view of the universe. They had to adjourn for now and take a night of rest before sharing wisdom and courage with each other.

Otherwise, chances were that some of them would go mad and vomit blood in the middle of the conversation.

Li Yao did not talk to anybody else but went straight back to his room. He meant to fall asleep and explore Earth that was getting clearer and clearer in his bizarre dreams.

But however fatigued his body and his soul were, he couldn’t force himself to go to sleep at all. In the end, he could only stare at a crack on the ceiling with his bloodshot eyes.

He thought that by advancing to the apex of the Divinity Transformation Stage, he had deeply understood himself as well as the entire world.

However, a tiny chip and the few letters completely shattered his arrogance, reteaching him the vastness of the universe, the wonderfulness of the world, and the endless, spectacular journey!

“Witchcraft. What is witchcraft exactly?”

Since he couldn’t fall asleep, Li Yao simply sat straight and stared at his fingers as he sorted through the messy clues in his head.

Just like what he said to Boss Bai earlier, the “witchcraft” in the Earth-related memories were splendid and entailed infinite possibilities.

The Harry Lotter series was only a world that mastered the magic force of the lowest level. Other than that, countless strong and ancient people on Earth had their own witchcraft, their own legends, and their own bizarre, incredible fictitious worlds.

Witchcraft, vampire, werewolf, witch, Witcher, zombies.

Helios, Thor, Hades, Mars, Pan, Dionysus, Quetzalcoatl, Siva… and of course, Pangu and Nuwa, whom Li Yao had been familiar with in his previous life.

Their ancient prototypes were born when human beings were born and passed on for tens of thousands of years before they were gathered into the illusionary worlds of Cultivation and witchcraft in the modern sense. Even though they were all called “witchcraft”, they were greatly different in terms of the strength system and the way to use it. They were essentially the products of different worlds.

“Wait—”

Li Yao mumbled to himself, “There’s the concept of ‘Cultivation’ on Earth too. Right in the homeland of my former self, splendid worlds of Cultivation emerged in the heads of a lot of people!

“Right. In the Earth memories from a long time ago, I seemed to have read a Cultivation novel, in which the levels were also classified into the Refinement Stage, the Building Foundation Stage, the Core Formation Stage, the Nascent Soul Stage, and the Divinity Transformation Stage.

“Is it a coincidence? Of course not!

“But what is it if it isn’t a coincidence?”

Li Yao counted his fingers and sorted through all the known information.

First of all, if Boss Bai’s speculation was correct, there was still an extremely vast universe beyond the Cultivation world created by human beings in the Pangu universe. In the universe that had been expanded billions of times lay other brilliant civilizations such as the wizardly civilization.

But it was a shame that those civilizations were too far away from the Cultivation civilization, and they were blocked by the black wall of death and silence where resources were few. It was barely possible for the two parties to communicate.

Only a few lucky dogs, say a starship of the wizardly civilization, or a meteorite on which the Blood Stripe Virus in Li Yao’s head once boarded, could possibly penetrate through the black wall and reach the Cultivation civilization.

Or even worse, before the Cultivation civilization discovered the other civilizations, they had all been destroyed by the “Flood”.

No, they were not entirely destroyed.

At least in one place, namely Earth—which seemed small, plain, and barren and devoid of spiritual energy, witchcraft, or any other supernatural powers—those civilizations that shouldn’t have known each other and should’ve been destroyed were cramming together, communicating, integrating, and giving birth to all kinds of new fictions.

What was Earth exactly? Was it a transfer station or a rendezvous for countless civilizations in the vast universe?

Then, why was he determined to destroy Earth, which was likely to be the last asylum for those civilizations?

In a trance, Li Yao heard himself roaring and swearing to accomplish the “Vulture Plan” again.

“Generations of civilizations have been confined to this goddamn Earth, caught in the infinite loops, unable to free themselves!”

Li Yao had thought that the so-called “generations of civilizations” referred to the aboriginal civilizations on Earth. But now that he thought of it, did they refer to the things like “Cultivation civilization” and “wizardly civilization”?

The civilizations of countless universes, including the Cultivation civilization and the wizardly civilization, were confined to the small, barren Earth and mired in a certain unbreakable loop? The ultimate purpose of the “Vulture Plan” was to break the loop?

That was really a headache!

“Anyhow, we have found the answer to at least one thing.”

The mental devil turned into a tiny sprout and crawled out of his forehead. Holding its arms and in deep thought, it said thoughtfully, “It’s about why Earth is the center of the universe.”

Li Yao was slightly dazed. It was indeed a question that once baffled him.

He remembered clearly that after the Vulture Plan failed, a voice asked him to escape from Earth to somewhere as far away as possible, preferably the edge of the universe.

Since the furthest place from Earth was the edge of the universe, there was no doubt that Earth was the center of the universe.

But to Li Yao’s knowledge, the center of the “Pangu universe” in which the three thousand Sectors were located was undoubtedly the Empyreal Terminus Sector. In terms of the relative location on the three-dimensional level and the wormholes most suitable for four-dimensional jumps, the Empyreal Terminus Sector was the well-deserved “center of the Pangu universe”.

Li Yao once had the idea that Earth and the capital of the Empyreal Terminus Sector were the same place. In that way, the problem regarding the “center of the universe” would be resolved.

But after examining the basic parameters of the capital, and even digging tens of thousands of meters into the ground for exploration, he discovered that the capital was nothing like Earth in his memories. There was no way that they were the same planet.

“Perhaps we have been wrong since the very beginning. The Empyreal Terminus Sector is, and only is, the center of the Pangu universe.”

The mental devil said philosophically, “But Earth can totally be the center of other universes. There isn’t any contradiction.”

“Other universes?”

Li Yao asked subconsciously, “Which universe?”

“Every one of them.”

The mental devil said, one word after another, “Let’s infer with the boldest imagination. At the very least, based on the current evidence, Earth is very likely to be the center of every universe and all the universes. It is the center of the multiverse!”

“Multiverse?”

Li Yao jumped off from his bed. “What is that?”

“Why would I know? It’s just one of the words I seized from your memory pieces. I found it cool and decided that it could be used for our discussion.”

The mental devil opened its hands. “As to what it is exactly, you will have to explore and figure it out on your own!”

Li Yao was dazed for a long time before he finally extended a finger and pressed the sprout made by the mental devil back into his head.

Now that he couldn’t fall asleep, he decided to take a walk.

At this moment, the Blue Sky Market was in the middle of heated maintenance and upgrade for the starships. Almost all the docks and streets were ablaze with lights. There was no distinction between day and night at all.

In order not to be disrupted, Li Yao and the rest of them had asked Boss Bai to settle them in an abandoned port that was relatively quiet.

When he walked out of the room, Li Yao saw an illusionary moon on the artificial sky illuminating the starry docks far away. There were also the synthetic sounds of rising and ebbing tides, which calmed his messy mind soon.

As it turned out, he was not the only person who had trouble going to sleep.

Somebody was one step ahead of him, leaning against the rusty, decorative rail and enjoying the digital tides and the “sea wind” that carried a salty stink.

Her long black hair fell to her waist. Her face that looked like that of an elegant beauty from ancient times made of diamonds was slightly broken by her slightly protruding nose, but it only made her seem more resolute. Long Yangjun in the moonlight was so grave and sacred that she did not look like a human being made of flesh and blood but more like a god from the primeval age who had time traveled to the irreligious modern day.

Only when she glanced at Li Yao did the almost immaculate face release a hint of humanity, transforming her from a god into a human being.

“Don’t come any closer.”

Long Yangjun chuckled. “I knew that you were an unbelievable monster, but your monstrosity is still far beyond my expectation. It’s only been a few days since you brought two information lives to me telling me that they were your children, and today, you are saying that you know ‘witchcraft’ and ‘ABCD’. Come on, can you please stop being so impossible and give up a buffering moment to take the information in?”

“Well…”

Scratching his head, Li Yao leaned close. “I really don’t know how I should explain myself. All in all, the more I know, the more I find myself unaware of… Do you understand what I’m talking about?

“Cough. Let’s drop my issues aside for now. I don’t know when I can sort through the mess in my head yet. Let’s focus on you for now. Why did you fail to go to sleep too? What are you thinking here?”

Looking at the dark, black ocean far away that was simulated by panoramic light beams, Long Yangjun said, “I’m not interested in the wizardly civilization and the lies, no more than I’m interested in that Earth in your dreams. What I’m more interested in is the ‘Flood’ that Boss Bai talked about.

“I’m thinking if the Flood had anything to do with the primeval wars that caused the destruction of the Pangu and Nuwa civilizations. Hey, do you think that the Flood really exists, or did it arrive at our universe in the primeval age hundreds of thousands of years ago? Was it the Flood that proclaimed the ending of the Pangu and the Nuwa civilizations and built the universe into what it is today?”