Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Spring had arrived in the Imperium.

It arrived earlier to the underground world of the capital planet that had never witnessed spring than it did to the surface.

Xu Zhicheng, a former distinguished miner and a leader of Nepenthe, stood before the Great Iron Factory that he found both familiar and strange, unable to believe that the place where he was born and brought up could turn into such a paradise!

The suffocating factory had been added with infinite automatic assembly lines, and the purification and fashioning facilities here were state-of-the-art even in the whole Imperium. More than 85% of the workers did not have to waste their lives for the dangerous jobs anymore.

But those workers were not fired. After training, they became new construction workers and created new living spaces by excavating the rocks around the Great Iron Factory. Beautiful towns and industrial parks were established, transforming the dark slave factory into a model underground city of the Imperium.

Even though Xu Zhicheng had personally witnessed all the beautiful changes, he still found it hard to believe his eyes when the whole underground city was celebrating the opening of the brand-new industrial park in the southern district.

It was like a dream that had been going on for half a year and would still continue!

When Li Yao, Long Yangjun, Li Jialing, and Xiaoming and Wenwen left earlier, they were ready to fight for ten years, twenty years, and even a century. Their ancestors had struggled in darkness for ten thousand years. Why couldn’t they wait for another hundred years?

They did not expect the victory to come so fast. After only half a year, they were told that Li Yao secured a triumph on the surface and was about to win over the whole Imperium!

At first, everybody was suspicious.

It was understandable. They had been tormented for too long, and their previous resistances all ended up in destruction. They dare not ask for good news because they did not want to be disappointed.

However, the precious resources in cabinets shipped from the surface made them realize that the victory was real.

When teams of cold, iron-boned spiritual puppets came to the underground town, they panicked for a moment, thinking that the machines were ordered to slaughter them.

However, the spiritual puppets were holding not swords but spades. They were not here to kill, but to help repair the shelters, expand the towns, and establish roads among the towns!

Ever since then, the lives of the underground people got better and better.

Xu Zhicheng, as the leader of the Nepenthe believers and Li Yao’s old friend, naturally took the responsibility of leading the renewal of the underground world.

Through Xu Zhicheng, Li Yao hired a bunch of healthy men as the guards of the Gold Crystal Pyramid. Since the Gold Crystal Pyramid was a demilitarized area, neither the Arsonist Fleet nor the Astounding Thunder Fleet was stationed in the area, and the underground people were the best guards.

It was not just a job for the underground people, but also an eye-opener for the excellent young men from the underground world, who would soon return to their hometown and bring more light to their compatriots.

As for the other Nepenthe believers, they returned to the Great Iron Factory and devoted themselves to reconstruction works. According to the plan, they would work with Xiaoming and Wenwen, as well as their puppets, to build the Great Iron Factory into a beautiful, futuristic city!

It was not just part of the reform in general, but also a powerful weapon.

The modification of the Great Iron Factory was made into videos and sent to the areas that were still under the control of the four families, showing the hominoids what the future Imperium would look like and what good lives they could live!

Now, while part of the Nepenthe believers took part in the construction of the city, other Nepenthe believers were building roads among the shelters and the underground cities with their mining skills. Then, as census enumerators, they helped the Imperium get the data of the underground people who had always been ignored so that those people’s lives could be improved with aid. As a result, more and more underground people were joining the work to make their lives better.

There was no shortage of resources for now.

The four families had plenty of industries in the Empyreal Terminus Sector, and their ace fleets had carried a lot of resources during the invasion. Those were now the reformists’ trophies.

The sailing route between the capital and the Seven Seas Space Zone was dredged again, allowing resources to be shipped to support the reconstruction.

The only problem was how to distribute the resources from the ground into the hands of those who were really in need.

Xiaoming and Wenwen, as information lives, made great contributions to that. They were building a new, unbelievable world of information below the ground.

On the surface, it was impossible for Xiaoming and Wenwen to disrupt the reign of the Immortal Cultivators completely, and they had to be careful all the time.

But the underground people, who could barely survive, certainly would not care whether or not the crystal processors would control human beings someday. They could do whatever they wanted to survive!

Faced with unseen technologies, the less developed areas were more likely to absorb and apply them than the more developed areas were. It was not unusual in the history of mankind.

It was exactly the case for the people living below the ground of the capital planet. They had skipped the age of the magic equipment industry and jumped into the brand-new age of ultra information!

They became accustomed to Xiaoming and Wenwen very quickly, and they were used to working with iron puppets. Even the toddlers were following the puppets and learning how to control them.

Watching the innocent kids play with the metal pets in the beautiful gardens, Xu Zhicheng felt that his heart was melting in the intoxicating spring breeze.

He felt that he was dozens of years younger and back to the days when his wife and his children were alive.

The underground people were no fools. Xu Zhicheng, as a leader of Nepenthe, knew the concerns for the development of crystal processor technologies.

In the past, they had shuddered in fear when faced with the cold and ruthless slaughter machines and gnashed their teeth, hoping to smash all those iron puppets into smithereens.

However, the spiritual puppets were only as evil as those who controlled them.

Even if the underground people were reigned by crystal processors someday, so what? Would it be any worse than the darkness in the past ten thousand years?

“Those from the new-generation who grow up with crystal processors and spiritual puppets will definitely be different from the people on the ground after they grow up.”

Xu Zhicheng thought to himself. “But so what? We’re never the same as the people on the ground. The Immortal Cultivators despise us and do not even treat us as their own kind, so why don’t we consider the cold machines as our compatriots? After all, in the eyes of the Immortal Cultivators, we’re just machines that have body temperatures!”

“Uncle Xu! Uncle Xu!”

While Xu Zhicheng was thinking, a girl hopped at him on the top of a red lizard.

Xu Zhicheng recognized her as Bing Bing, formerly a resident of the 10,084th shelter and now a messenger of the underground towns who would deliver them things that could not be delivered by the Spiritual Nexus.

“Bing Bing.”

Xu Zhicheng grinned and stopped Bing Bing’s red lizard. “What have you brought to me this time?”

“It’s an invitation! It’s an invitation to the coronation ceremony!”

Bing Bing blushed in excitement and could barely catch her breath. She said, “We’re going to the royal palace, Uncle Xu. Do you hear me? We’re going to the royal palace!”

“A new emperor is to be crowned?”

Xu Zhicheng was not as excited as the girl. He was not interested in who would become the head of the Immortal Cultivators. After all, they were all just as wicked.

However, it was still a surprise for him that even hominoids like them would be qualified to attend the coronation. Time had truly changed.

“Yes, exactly!”

Bing Bing nodded quickly and asked, her eyes glowing, “Uncle Xu, do you know who the new emperor is?”

“How would I know?”

Xu Zhicheng was amused. “We’re just underground wildlings. How can we speculate who the new emperor will be?”

“No, it’s been announced. I’m sure it will be all over the Spiritual Nexus soon. But I’ve received the message sooner with the Black Wind King’s personal invitation card!”

Bing Bing almost jumped to her feet. “The new emperor is Brother Jialing, whom we fought alongside earlier! Oh, Li Jialing is his fake name. His real name turns out to be Wuying Ling. He’s Emperor Shenwu’s thirteenth son and the most loved one. However, he was sent out of the palace to avoid the hunting of the four families, and he only met us by accident.”

“What?”

Xu Zhicheng was dumbfounded for a moment.