Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Maybe it was Li Yao’s illusion, but when Song Guanghe talked, he really saw a holy and pure fire burning around the man.

Song Guanghe’s eyes were not dirty and lackluster like the eyes of the brainwashed and the deranged, but they were as clear as an enlightened Cultivator.

After a long time, Li Yao continued, “I’m very curious. How do you view your wife and your children? If they come here, would you help them… find eternal peace?”

“They’re upset, in pain, and confused because of what happened to me.”

Song Guanghe said, “My wife has been sleeping with the powerful men, hoping that they could restore her reputation. My children unleashed their fury on the people weaker than them. In my eyes, they have all been possessed by extraterritorial devils, and I certainly have to cleanse them if I cannot drive the devils away.”

“Cleanse?”

Li Yao asked, “Let me confirm it again. You’re saying that you will kill your wife and your children without feeling anything? They’re pure strangers to you, like the nurse and the researcher were?”

“No, not strangers, but like siblings.”

Song Guanghe said, “We’re all the creatures, the slaves, the tools, and the lambs of the gods. My children were born through me and my wife by the gods’ decree. So, they’re the gods’ children, not mine.

“We’re siblings to each other. All humans are equal siblings. My wife, my children, and you… In my eyes, you’re all the same. We’re as intimate and equal to each other as we are to other people. If there’s a chance, I will wake you up and save you without caring about the cost.”

Taking a long breath, Li Yao said, “Colonel Song, I don’t know if you still keep any logical thinking with you, but I still hope that you can consider calmly and rationally if your thoughts are based on your own will. Do you still have your own will?”

“Of course I do.”

Song Guanghe said casually, “The gods’ will is my will. There’s nothing but the gods in the universe. My soul is never more serene and satisfied than when it’s filled by the will of the gods.”

“In other words, you’re just a cell and a thought of the gods?”

Li Yao asked, “Have you ever considered the significance of such a life?”

“What about you, honorable guest, and millions of other Immortal Cultivators?”

Song Guanghe said, “You’ve been thrown into the furnace of desires since you were born. Not knowing that the extraterritorial devils live in your head, you struggle with desires for your whole life. You may die young of internal conflicts, but even if you live up to hundreds of years old, you cannot understand the real truth and will spend astronomical resources on the extension of your longevity. Yet, you will still end up in a tomb. What’s the point of your life?

“Life is easier for you. What about the ordinary people oppressed by you? They struggle to survive below the ground like beasts, and they might never see any sunlight for their whole lives. They’re not ants but more like moving mushrooms. For nothing more than keeping themselves from decaying, they have to weather through every second, every minute, and every day, but they will still end up in the darkness without leaving any mark. What’s the point of their life?

“Maybe, for you, for us, and for them, life is just meaningless. Both the happiness of extravagance and the excruciating pain will perish in the passage of time, like water melting into a river that would eventually go dry. What’s the point of anything? I don’t know. Only the gods do.”

“So, your purpose is to wake up the so-called ‘gods’, or the Pangu Clan?”

Taking a deep breath, Li Yao calmed himself down and asked the critical question.

“Yes. Our responsibility was to defend this universe while the gods were asleep so that everything would be maintained exactly as it had been.”

Song Guanghe said without lying, “However, most human beings were corrupted by extraterritorial devils when the gods were asleep. They forgot about their sacred destiny and consumed the precious resources wickedly.

“Now that we’re awakened, we’re going to clean up the mess, end wars for good, restore peace and order, and wait for the gods to wake up.

“Trust me. I can feel it, so do all the Ultimate Benevolence Masters, that the gate of gods is about to be opened. The gods are returning from the hibernation of hundreds of thousands of years. Soon, they will reestablish their splendid civilization and bring us higher wisdom and instructions.”

“You can feel it?”

Li Yao snorted. “You’re placing the future of mankind on your feeling and the pity of the gods? How can you guarantee that the gods will bring guidance instead of slaughter, hope instead of destruction? You… We have gone out of control as ‘tools’. It’s a reasonable deduction that they will destroy the uncontrollable tools and develop new tools that are more reliable, right?”

“Don’t predict what the gods will think with your evil mind that’s corrupted by extraterritorial devils!”

Song Guanghe said, “How do you know that the gods will not bring guidance or hope? How do you know that human beings, who are evil, chaotic, and conceited, can live on in this dark and cold universe and weather through the greater tests? Chances are that we will be destroyed by ourselves before we step out of this tiny universe.

“You don’t know that, and I don’t either. We only believe what we’re willing to believe. That’s faith.

“If the gods really decide to annihilate mankind and replace us with more reliable tools, it will be our destiny that we can’t and shouldn’t avoid. Just face the judgment of the gods with no fear. Faith, instead of survival, should be the highest pursuit of intelligent creatures. Do our humble and sinful lives really matter compared to the decree of the gods?”

Song Guanghe couldn’t have seen Li Yao, but when he talked, he was looking right at Li Yao’s location perhaps by accident.

His tone had always been calm, without the devotion of a zealot, the condescension of a believer, or the slightest mockery. He simply talked about everything solemnly.

The calmness made Li Yao feel ignored. He was completely enraged.

“Do you know?”

Gnashing his teeth, Li Yao said coldly, “I once killed a member of the Pangu Clan, a living god. Believe it or not, I chopped off his head, and many people scanned and studied his body, as well as the bodies of other gods that you worship.

“To be honest, those gods are just regular carbon-based lives. They’re just cockroaches, lizards, and gorillas that are larger in size but not fundamentally different from us!

“Do you believe me? Do you think I’m lying? Do you really think that gods are invincible? Do you know that many archaeological studies have shown that the primeval civilizations are not the oldest civilizations in our universe, and there are civilizations even older than them?

“It’s true that the Pangu alliance was our creator, but they had their creator, and their creator had another creator that was even older. There are no gods. There have never been any gods. All of us are just a regular step in the long river of evolution!”

“Don’t be excited, honorable guest. I believe you. You beheaded a member of the Pangu Clan and killed him.”

Song Guanghe was still unmoved. He smiled even more peacefully. “It’s exactly the will of the gods. The power of the gods was attached to you. The gods sacrificed an individual to enlighten you, or perhaps it was for a greater purpose. Who knows? You won’t know it until the right moment comes.

“As for the civilizations prior to the Pangu civilization, of course I know them. They’re exactly the ancient miracles left by the gods!”

“Gods are eternal, infinite, and everywhere. The Pangu civilization has a history of only several million years. Do you think that there were no gods several million years earlier?

“No, the Pangu civilization and the civilizations prior to it are just incarnations of the gods. The power of the gods is too enormous for the tiny germs in the three-dimensional universe like us to perceive, so they enlighten us and direct us through the Pangu Clan as a medium.

“By killing a member of the Pangu Clan, you only raised a leaf that blocked one of the billions of rays from the sun. You wouldn’t be so naive as to think that it’s enough to destroy the sun and slay the gods, would you?”

Li Yao took a deep breath and clenched his fists.

“How annoying!”

Long Yangjun grimaced on his back. “What about it? Do not feel like beating him up? I was also infuriated when I talked to him for the first time. Why don’t we go in and beat him up? He can’t be reasoned with.”

“… Forget it. Even killing him won’t help. He’s just a member of the group of Ultimate Benevolence.”

Naturally, Li Yao could tell that Long Yangjun was only joking. He took a long breath and said, “Thank you for your cooperation, Colonel Song. That will be all for today. Maybe I’ll check up on you someday.”

“Okay, goodbye, honorable guest—no, my brother.”

Song Guanghe raised his right hand and curled his middle finger and his third finger. Then, he touched his forehead, his lips, and his chest with the three remaining fingers, before he bowed deeply at Li Yao.

In the etiquette of the Covenant Alliance, it was the most sacred ritual.

“May you find peace in your heart and in the world.”

Song Guanghe said piously, “I hope that you can be pardoned and pitied by the gods sooner, my poor brother.”

Then, he stopped looking at Li Yao and sat back on his back, before he started reading one of the poem collections.