Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Wuying Qi smiled.

The smile of the ancestor of the Immortal Cultivators was like a narrow gap on a whole sky of clouds, but what was revealed in the gap was not the light of stars but the darkness that was even deeper.

“You are about to die, and yet you still have such a good sense of humor. I really don’t know whether I should hate you or if I should admire you, Vulture Li Yao!”

Wuying Qi did stop. Although there was no difference whether he stopped or not in the illusional realm, it was at least a gesture of kindness. He opened his arms at Li Yao and complimented in a seemingly sincere way, “From my personal perspective, you are like a cockroach that simply cannot be killed. You’ve stood in my way again and again and almost disrupted my whole plan. I truly hate your guts.

“But I’m not just the supreme sovereign of the Imperium of True Human Beings but also the leader of mankind in the next ten thousand years. From the perspective of the Imperium and the civilization, you are a one-of-a-kind genius, and since you know a thing or two about the secrets of the grand universe, you will be very helpful for the magnificent plan for the civilization of mankind to march toward the infinite universe.

“Therefore, I really can’t bear killing you, Li Yao!

“Ever since our meeting in the Seven Seas Grand Market the other day, I’ve been thinking how the two of us became enemies. Weren’t we very close to each other when I cooperated with you under the name of Li Linghai? How did we become so hostile and incompatible later?

“We have more things in common than we do with the ‘false Immortal Cultivators’ of the four families, who are shortsighted, selfish, and corrupt. Neither of us cares about our personal gains. We both want to dedicate all our wisdom and courage to our country and even the civilization of mankind. We both more or less know the massiveness of the universe and the narrowness of the world we are in. We both crave to break out of the cage whatever it may take, like the fish reaching for the continent and the monkeys walking out of the forest in the beginning. We want to escape from this dark dungeon and silent graveyard!

“Why can’t we collaborate and vanquish our common enemies—the ‘false Immortal Cultivators’ in the four Kurfürst families, the puppets of the Covenant Alliance who worshipped the fake gods, and the infinite alien civilizations lurking in the depths of this boundless universe—when we have so many qualities in common?

“Our enemies should be them, but not each other. The ‘Blackstar the Great’ in your knowledge has been highly twisted and slandered by the propaganda that was under the control of the four Kurfürst families. You don’t know what the real me is like and what my ambitions and dreams are, and you are betting your everything recklessly to destroy my efforts, the hope of the Imperium, and the future of all human beings including your fellow Cultivators?”

As Wuying Qi talked, more and more black water drops floated upward, and more and more thread-like nerves proliferated from the water drops. Interconnecting with each other, they constructed a delicate net and even attacked Li Yao tentatively, attempting to crawl into Li Yao’s pores.

“Cut the crap!”

Li Yao scorned. Flames of spiritual energy burst all over his body, congregating into a solid wall that prevented the black nerves from attacking. “It’s true that I don’t know what the real Wuying Qi looks like, or whether you are the ‘real’ Wuying Qi instead of something more evil and horrible than the original Wuying Qi after being contaminated by god knows what in your thousand years of hiding. I don’t care what you say and think; I am only interested in what you do. You are going to perform a super-massive brainwashing on the whole Empyreal Terminus Sector in order to transform everybody in the four families’ ace fleets into your puppet! Is that any different from the Covenant Alliance’s doing?

“Isn’t free will the most precious thing that makes human beings human beings, the boundaries that all the Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators fight for, and even the ‘cover’ for your Immortal Cultivators to exploit the ordinary people blatantly? The only Immortal Cultivators I’ve respected are the warriors who wielded their weapons at the revived members of the Pangu Clan for free will. However, as the leader of the Immortal Cultivators, you are even erasing the free will of mankind. You don’t deserve to be an Immortal Cultivator. You are even more ‘false’ than the four Kurfürsten. Are you even qualified to talk about the future of mankind?”

“I didn’t know that you’d learned everything about the whole ‘Next Sun Plan’. I underestimated you yet again. Or rather, your look and your behavior are too misleading and tend to make people underestimate you.”

After a gloomy and brief silence, Wuying Qi said, “However, you have misunderstood the real significance of the ‘Next Sun Plan’. The word ‘brainwashing’ is highly biased. I am not ‘brainwashing’ anyone. I’m merely ‘awakening’ the citizens. I’m going to awaken the guys who have forgotten their honor and responsibility and make them realize the importance of loyalty, patriotism, and selfless devotion again. I will transform them from rusty firesticks into the sharpest sabers of mankind again!”

“But you are going to deprive them of their free will and their right to choose!”

Li Yao roared, “You are going to stamp your belief, your will, and your authority on their brains!”

“So what? For 99.9% of the people, ‘free will’ has never existed in the first place.”

Wuying Qi said coldly, “Look at the selfish, false Immortal Cultivators of the four Kurfürst families. Driven by their genes and their lust, they wasted abundant resources on meaningless stuff. Money, power, position, women, hatred, jealousy, vanity… Eventually, they rotted in physical entertainments or were killed by each other miserably.

“Even the seemingly powerful elders or the Kurfürsten themselves are nothing more than the slaves to their families, their descendants and fellows, and their genes and desires. It is needless to mention the ignorant, illiterate ordinary people who live like ants.

“Ordinary people never have the right to choose. They are already exhausted every day just in order to survive. It is their greatest delight and purpose to find a suitable female and give birth to a child so that their genes can be extended. Their simple brains cannot accommodate complicated thoughts about the significance of higher levels. They are some sort of fully-wound machines made of flesh and blood in the first place. What choice and what freedom do they have?

“Even though they think that they boast ‘free will’, it is just an illusion that was inculcated into their heads when they were young, something that they used to deceive themselves. Every civilization teaches certain illusionary truths to the next generation and demands the individuals to follow certain social doctrines. Generally speaking, such inculcation is conducted through decades of education. However, due to the emergency, I do not have enough time. Therefore, I have compressed the decades of education into a one-time ‘brainwashing’ session. What’s wrong with that?

“Tell me, Vulture Li Yao, are the ignorant little children taught how advanced the ideas of the Cultivators are and how evil the true path of immortality is in the country of Cultivators?

“Have you not built a social atmosphere where children believe that the ideas of the Cultivators are a matter of fact since little?

“Are hypotonization procedures that are similar to brainwashing not adopted in your prisons on the stubborn criminals in order to cleanse their crimes?

“I know that the approaches have been adopted since the Star Ocean Imperium that parts of the areas in the brains of certain atrocious sex criminals are cut to cut their proclivity to crimes. Such approaches have proved useful for both the criminals themselves and even the whole society. Yes, by doing so, their ‘free will’ in committing crimes are gotten rid of, but is there anything wrong?”

“They are unpardonable criminals!”

Li Yao couldn’t help but shout, “In the country of Cultivators, the minimally invasive procedures and hypnotization procedures are used very prudently only on the unpardonable felons who are highly violent. They are barely adopted!”

“Exactly. What we are facing right now is a bunch of unpardonable and dangerous criminals.”

Wuying Qi said casually, “According to the law of the Imperium and my will, all the soldiers in the four families’ coalition fleet have committed the most severe treason by rebelling and attacking the capital planet. Vulture Li Yao, you wouldn’t deny that, would you?

“It is only reasonable to punish such rebels who have committed treason by mincing them into pieces or even executing their whole families. However, for the sake of the Imperium and the civilization of mankind, I am lenient enough to give those people an opportunity to be reborn. As long as they succumb to my will, they will be able to make up for their mistakes by continuing to contribute to the civilization of mankind.

“In doing so, the meaningless blood-shedding will be lowered to the minimum. It is the most humanitarian approach possible. I truly don’t know what you are thinking. Will you be happy and satisfied as you watch me kill the best soldiers of the civilization or mankind, or when those people kill me and everybody else on the capital planet because ‘free will’ has been defended?

“Think about it, Li Yao. You and I both agree that the false Immortal Cultivators of the four families have walked too far on the wrong path and are too sick to be rescued. Their beliefs have been tarnished and twisted. It is impossible to wake them up through regular approaches. Am I going to watch them walk further down on the wrong path, eventually hurting other people as well as themselves? Should I turn a blind eye to them when I have a way to cure them, the Imperium, and all human beings?

“Do you understand it now? I am going to treat them, awaken them, and purge them. I will completely erase the selfish, immoral thoughts in their heads and implant the correct ideas of devotion, purity, and sacrificing for the civilization of mankind. Isn’t it the right thing to do?”