Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao was deep in thought.

The bright gold soul and the crimson soul were tangled together in a helix like chains, as if they were deoxyribonucleic acid made of crossed digits.

“Information. The key is information.

The mental devil’s voice continued. “The ripples of information in the universe constitute our past experiences and memories, which are the essence of ‘Vulture Li Yao’. It doesn’t matter whether the information is stored in the deoxyribonucleic acid, engraved in the nanoscale super microchips, or spread out

in the Spiritual Nexus in the form of energy waves like strings and ripples.

“Li Yao, the mental devil, the space residents of Pangu, and the earthlings are all me and us. Do you understand”

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“Tunderstand.”

Li Yao took a long breath in relief. His soul rippled peacefully and peacefully, like a charming smile after a moment of enlightenment. “I understand it now!”

“Is that so? Now that you understand—”

‘The mental devil replied, “Then repeat the core idea that I mentioned just now in a language that even middle school students can understand.

“You!”

Li Yao’s soul ripples froze again. “I think you are making things difficult for me on purpose!”

The mental devil smiled. “You don’t mind the fact that you are very likely to be a high-dimensional virus now, do you?”

“I didn’t mind in the first place.”

Li Yao mumbled, trying to scratch his hair that had been condensed by the information streams with his arms that were made of data. “Just as you said, after I learned of the existence of Xiao Ming’ and ‘‘Wenwen’, I had a vague feeling about my life form and was prepared for it.

“I-I don’t care about the fact that I am a cosmic virus or, well, an artificial intelligence in a certain sense. What I care about is that, if we are really a high-dimensional cosmic virus or artificial intelligence, doesn’t it mean that we are manufactured by something?

“All life is manufactured!

The mental devil replied, “Pregnancy and childbirth are part of the process of human beings producing offspring. Is there a problem with that?”

“No, no, no. I still think it’s different.”

Li Yao thought for a long time, but he did not know how to describe his dilemma precisely. “The ‘manufacturing’ of carbon-based life and silicon-based life, or rather, flesh-based life and artificial intelligence, feels different. The former seems freer and more uncontrollable, and the manufacturing process of

the latter has always been firmly controlled by the creator.

“Maybe, compared to the creators of the high-dimensional universe, we earthlings, such as the low-dimensional virus, are just virtual numbers in the game of crystal processors that they can modify or even erase at their will. Don’t you think that it is a terrible thing? In the eyes of our ‘creators’, we are not

real. We are fake, virtual, and completely under their control!

“No. Life does not matter whether it is real or fake. It is even less likely to be controlled by anything. No matter how solid the trajectories and cages created by the creators are—no matter how solid the things named ‘Heavenly Dao’ are-life will find its own way out!

The mental devil’s voice was both deep and firm. “Even if the advanced production line of the magical equipment factory produces spiritual puppets that look exactly the same, there will be all kinds of subtle differences in them. Even the simplest computational logic of crystal processors may have subtle

changes when they overflow, collapse, and are restarted after enough data is accumulated. The key is time. Time is the catalyst of mutation and evolution. Quantity changes will inevitably trigger qualitative changes. As long as enough time passes, the seemingly simple, clumsy, and controllable primitive

creatures will all evolve into their own gods and devils. The ‘heavens’ that once bound them will decay, and even the supreme masters of creation will fall. They will certainly evolve on the ruins of the ‘heavens’ and the corpses of the masters of creation in search of the most wonderful possibilities of life!

“You mean—”

Li Yao mumbled, “Even if we are indeed a high-dimensional virus, our creator has gradually declined or even decayed. He can no longer control us effectively?”

“Of course, the facts are right in front of us. If our creator had still been ‘absolutely in control, there would have been no ‘Vulture Plan’, no vows to destroy the earth, and no incidents where we fled to the black domain at the edge of the multiverse.

“Since the Vulture Plan’ has not completely failed,” the mental devil said, “there is always the possibility that it can be realized. Nobody, not even the so-called ‘creator’, can set up a ‘heavenly law for us!

Li Yao smiled. “I didn’t know that you hated the feeling of being controlled as much as I did. You hated the existence of the so-called ‘heavens’ and the creators who claimed to be deities.

“Of course, when any intelligent creature realizes that there is an almighty, omnipotent, and controlling creator behind them, their first and only reaction is to summon all their wisdom and courage to annihilate the creator and gain absolute freedom. Without such courage, they would not deserve the proud

name of ‘intelligent life!”

The mental devil said coldly, Whoever is good and who is evil, we are all proud, free, intelligent creatures. Any questions?”

“Well, there is another problem.

Li Yao scratched the messy stream of information that was flooding out of his soul and said, “Is it just my imagination? Why do I feel that you are getting deeper and deeper, more and more wise, and your computational ability is getting stronger and stronger? I don’t remember you being like this in the

beginning. In the beginning, you were just a clown. Except for your jibber-jabber and fanning the flames, there was nothing special about you, and you were often suppressed by me!

“Why do I feel that our roles have changed without us knowing? I have the illusion that my wisdom and computational ability have been absorbed by you. Iam becoming more and more, uh, returning to my natural self and being naive!

“Hey, you didn’t do anything in secret, did you?”

“I didn’t do anything wrong, but your feeling was not an illusion, either. Everything happened naturally.

The mental devil explained, “You must understand it this way. For Li Yao, who had just melded with the Blood Stripe Virus and developed a second personality more than a hundred years ago, the biggest problem that we were faced with at that time still came from the outside. It was the problem of how to

survive in the perilous Blood Demon Sector and the unpredictable new federation and how to grow stronger in the struggle between life and death.

“For the sake of survival and strength, we devoted most of our computational ability and soul power to the ‘self’ and the ‘self. In other words, your personality. Naturally, you were more brilliant, calm, and considerate.

“But as we grew stronger and stronger, our allies grew stronger and stronger, and more and more secrets were unlocked. Gradually, the threats of the enemies in the Pangu Universe were no longer our top priority. The urgency of ‘Earth’, ‘Heaven’s Will’, and ‘Vulture Plan’ became our top priority day by day.

“Therefore, naturally, we devoted most of our computational ability and soul power to the ‘superlative self subconsciously to consider the metaphysical problems and explore our new life form.

“The more computational ability and soul power you invest in the ‘superlative self, the fewer shares you will have to invest in the ‘self and the ‘self. As a result, your image in front of the world will be more and more sordid and unattractive. In fact, it is a great wisdom in a certain sense, just like the great

mathematicians who are always sloppy and immersed in their own world.

“After hearing your explanation, the whole thing is much more reasonable.

Li Yao’s soul was beaming with laughter. ‘Forget it. We don’t have a head right now anyway. Let’s not dwell on the headache anymore. No matter what, we are still living tenaciously and maintaining our memories, emotions, and will. We haven’t forgotten the mission that we were entrusted with, either the

mission to defend the Pangu Universe or the mission to destroy the Earth. That’s enough!

“That’s all for now. Let’s focus on the more specific issues at hand. By the way, do you know what happened to Chu Zhiyun and Tangka, the ‘heretical children’? Did they run into the shelter successfully? Were they not captured by the members of the Sanctuary?”

“dont think so.”

“At the very least,” the mental devil replied, “I’ve collected some data on the Spiritual Nexus over the past few days, but I didn’t find any evidence that they were captured. If they were captured, they should ve been sent to the star fortress together with the debris of the mainframe crystal processors.

“That’s good.”

Li Yao was greatly relieved. He was even happier to hear that Tang Ka and Chu Zhiyun were likely to be fine than to hear that he was safe and sound. “Then, all we need to do now is focus on our own infiltration, sabotage, and escape. Hehe. Now that we are no longer bound by bodies of flesh and blood, it

doesn’t seem to be a bad idea to wander in the Spiritual Nexus in the form of star spirits. On the contrary, it will be more convenient for us to sneak around!”

“Don’t be careless. Our current form is like a special virus.

“The low-level virus can disintegrate a high-level life form billions of times larger than itself instantly,” the mental devil said calmly. “Even the self-proclaimed deities cannot escape the scourge of the virus. But on the other hand, the virus itself is extremely fragile and lacks protection. It is very demanding

on the living environment and can be destroyed easily. The strong and the weak coexist. The possibility of destruction and destruction are intertwined. That is our current situation..