Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Looking at Zhuge Jinglun who was licking his lips and drooling, Li Yao couldn’t have been more disgusted.

“Hey, what’s with your ‘old friend’?”

While walking behind Zhuge Jinglun, Li Yao pulled Long Yangjun and whispered, “That’s really a bad joke. Is he really nuts?”

“Don’t be so serious. How can he really be a psychopath? But I wouldn’t say that he’s entirely sane. He’s one of the weirdest Meditation Healers in the Imperium, which was one of the reasons why Wuying Qi did not take him away as fuel, worrying that he might ‘corrupt’ other fuel with his crazy thinking.”

Long Yangjun said in a low voice, “But don’t you find him interesting? What’s more suitable to deal with the Covenant Alliance than a lunatic?”

“He’s not interesting at all!”

Li Yao was lost for words. He realized that Long Yangjun seemed to be fond of making friends with crazy people. Wasn’t Yan Liren, her only friend back in the Ancient Sages Sector, a lunatic too?

Wait, something is not right. As her “best friend”, am I the same kind of person as Yan Liren and Zhuge Jinglun in Long Yangjun’s eyes?

Before Li Yao had the chance to ask, Long Yangjun had stepped further and walked into an elevator with Zhuge Jinglun.

“Now, we’ll bring you to Director Zhuge’s favorite experimental land.”

Long Yangjun smiled at Li Yao. “It will be a great eye-opener for you!”

The elevator slowly descended for at least hundreds of meters below sea level.

When the elevator passed through the dark floors and appeared in a vertical transparent tube, Li Yao was greatly shocked by everything he saw.

Little did he expect to see such a beautiful town so deeply below the island!

It was indeed a common and peaceful town, which was not large in size but had a blue sky, white clouds, and blue waters that were simulated with light beams. There were also fertile lands where farmers were working hard.

At the center of the town were rows of bungalows that were shabby but clean.

However, the residents of this place were indifferently focused on their work. They barely talked, and even fewer people sang or laughed.

They seemed like some kind of machines in human skin that were simply carrying out the instructions of a program.

There were other residents who were seated at the empty ground at the center of the town and staring at the virtual sun on the dome. It was impossible to tell whether they had accomplished their tasks or that they weren’t given any task at all.

Their vibes and behaviors were totally different from what Li Yao had seen from the psychopaths. Thinking quickly, he asked, “Are they captives from the Covenant Alliance?”

“Yes, there are 1,225 of them. All were captured in the Imperium’s counterattack earlier.”

Zhuge Jinglun bragged. A moment later, he explained, “They’re mostly common soldiers and civilians who did not receive special training and hence do not know how to simulate feelings. So, it’s very easy to distinguish them.

“As a matter of fact, they’re the most docile and diligent people. You can get along with them easily as long as you know how.”

“Seriously?”

Li Yao found it hard to believe. “Would they roar and swear to kill you like the zealots?”

“If a higher-level command inputs the instruction into their heads, yes.”

Zhuge Jinglun said, “However, the 1,225 people from the Covenant Alliance in this town are all executables at the bottom level. They obey commands, but they cannot create any command. Since nobody orders them to attack and kill, they certainly wouldn’t do that but would follow their instincts.”

Deep in thought, Li Yao nodded his head and asked again, “Even if they’re not aggressive, why would they construct such a town and work in it busily? I think I just saw a magic equipment repair store. They can do such complicated jobs?”

“Like I said, they follow their instincts here. If the Covenant Alliance is compared to an enormous beehive, they would be the worker bees that are born to work.”

Zhuge Jinglun said, “Work is irresistibly attractive to them like any beautiful woman is to a normal man. When a man is bored, they’re likely to go out for fun, and when the people of the Covenant Alliance are caged here, they can’t help but want to work. All I need to do is to provide them with space and enough materials, and they will take care of the rest.”

“This is… amazing!”

Li Yao mumbled, “To think that those people can establish a huge farm and their own town in such an unfavorable environment! Each of them seems to have their own duty!”

“Yes, the people of the Covenant Alliance can be roughly divided into five groups: Water, Wood, Metal, Fire, and Soil. Different groups have different talents.”

Pointing at the silent workers of the Covenant Alliance, Zhuge Jinglun explained to Li Yao, “Those farmers belong to Wood. They’re good at farming, herding, and they have all the knowledge of agriculture. They’re the food suppliers of the Covenant Alliance.

“Those who are plowing the land belong to Soil. They’re the prospectors, architects, and miners in the Covenant Alliance. When they reach a certain level, they can modify a planet so that the Wood people would have more places to grow crops on. They can even explore relics to retrieve more primeval technologies for the Covenant Alliance.

“Those who are repairing magic equipment and farm tools belong to Metal. They’re best at refine work, maintenance work, and magic equipment creation. They’re the weapon suppliers of the Covenant Alliance. Their works include the enormous warships thousands of meters long.

“Those who are enjoying the sunlight in the square belong to Fire. Don’t think that they’re lazy. They’re just taking a break from their training. They’re all the most brutal and fearless warriors. They make up the majority of the Covenant Alliance’s army.”

Zhuge Jinglun pointed at the captives of the Covenant Alliance and introduced them to Li Yao.

Li Yao waited for a long time, but Zhuge Jinglun did not continue. He couldn’t help but ask, “What about Water?”

“There are no Water people here. There can’t be.”

Zhuge Jinglun said, “The Water people are a group within the Covenant Alliance that is responsible for communication, telepathy, commanding, and higher thinking. The typical professions for the Water people include commanders and spies. The researcher we just exposed, for example, might belong to Water.

“Do you get it now? With their abilities in logical thinking and telepathy, the Water people are the key class. They connect Metal, Wood, Fire, and Soil like flowing water and gather them into the Covenant Alliance.

“Those Metal, Wood, Fire, and Soil people are obedient only because no Water people are here. If a Water person is delivered here, chances are that they will start a riot tomorrow.”

Recalling the riot of the Covenant Alliance captives he experienced in Godly Might Prison, Li Yao couldn’t have agreed more.

“Then, how exactly are the groups of the Covenant Alliance divided? How can you decide which group a Covenant Alliance person belongs to?”

Thinking quickly, Li Yao asked, “Is it possible that some of them are in both groups, making them talented in both fighting and refining, like the hybrid-type Cultivators?”

“Of course it’s possible. Many spies are talented in both telepathy and fighting.”

Zhuge Jinglun said, “As for the worker bees, we have special rituals and tests to find out what kinds of talents were awakened in them and which part of genes were activated?”

“Awakened talents? Activated genes?”

Li Yao asked, “The files I read on the Covenant Alliance said that most Covenant Alliance people got their abilities congenitally, not through learning. I find it hard to understand. Director Zhuge, can you explain? How can the complicated skills like refining or farming be inherited?”

“Of course they can.”

Zhuge Jinglun smiled and said, “A baby zebra can run half an hour after it’s born, and kittens are naturally capable of climbing trees. If most animals can pass on their survival instincts to their offspring, so can the Covenant Alliance people pass on their primeval technologies and knowledge. Isn’t it easy to understand?”

“Hold on a second…”

Li Yao frowned. “We’re the successors of the primeval civilizations too. We’re not biologically different from the people of the Covenant Alliance. Why can they easily awaken their naturally-endowed techniques but we can’t?”

“Because our earliest ancestors are different.”

Zhuge Jinglun said, “Our earliest ancestors were the mature works of the Nuwa Clan, and their earliest ancestors were the experimental products that the Nuwa Clan created at the beginning, which is known as the ‘mud men’.”

“Mud men?”

Li Yao said, “I know the myth of Nuwa creating mankind. It’s said that Nuwa sprinkled muddy water with a willow twig, and when the muddy water fell on the ground, every spot of mud became a tiny human being.”

“That’s right. It’s a poetic and abstract way of saying it. However, myths are often reflections of reality. The first batch of human beings is indeed related to mud.”

Zhuge Jinglun said, “Many of the thirteen carbon-based species called early human beings ‘Nitaren’, which literally translates to ‘gray muddy men’.”