Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

While he mumbled to himself, the mist on Yun Hi

in’s face gradually melted and flowed down, interweaving on his shivering face like two dirty streams.

His eyes, which had been hidden behind the black smoke, were finally revealed to Li Yao and Chu Zhixiao.

Neither Li Yao nor Chu Zhixiao had ever seen such clear, deep, and painful eyes.

They could only imagine how much pain and suffering the soul hiding behind the pair of eyes was going through.

“The only reason that kept me struggling in hell to this day was that my family could live the rest of their lives in their dreams.

Yun Haixin let the tears that were melting in the black fog flow freely and said, “But right now, Eternal Brightness has become like this. The sweet dreams of our family have all been shattered. They may remember everything in the past, they may tum into ferocious animals, they may be killed by the

guards when they are trying to break into the bridge, and they may be blown to pieces when Eternal Brightness explodes.

“Hehe. Hehehehe. If that’s the case, what’s the point of everything I’ve done? Why should I continue bowing and begging for mercy like a dog?”

He walked toward Chu Zhixiao step by step.

“calm down, Black Dream.”

Chu Zhixiao was not willing to make an enemy out of his tricky teammate. He hurried to ask, “You don’t think that we are responsible for everything, do you?”

“Rest assured. I won’t vent my anger on anybody. I know that it has nothing to do with you. You are just a pitiful tool.

Yun Haixin paused for a moment. The sorrow on her face was even more intense. “However, the puppet king promised me that, as long as I listened to his command and completed a small mission for him, which was to stall you and help him break the barrier of your mind so that your brain could be fully

opened, he would save my wife and children and let them live an ignorant and happy life.

“How is that possible?”

“How could you believe such a clumsy lie?” Chu Zhixiao shrieked. “Eternal Brightness has collapsed. Even Master Zhi Shan failed to replicate a new ‘Eternal Brightness’ at such a critical moment with all the resources of the Holy Alliance. What makes you think that the puppet king, a desperate public

enemy of the universe, can guarantee the safety of your wife and your children and give them false happiness? It’s impossible. There’s no way that he can control such a large-scale experiment starship as ‘Eternal Brightness’ and maintain an illusionary paradise without sufficient resources! You must’ve

thought of such a simple logic. Wake up, Black Dream!”

Yun Haixin laughed so hard that she was grimacing. Her laughter was even more hideous than the wailing ghosts in the deepest level of hell.

“Yes. Of course, I could think of such a simple reason. But the puppet king still convinced me.

Yun Haixin pointed at her temples and said, “The puppet king pointed out the blind spot of our thinking. Who says that a dream paradise such as ‘Eternal Brightness’ must be built in the real world? Since it is a dream paradise, isn’t it better to build it in a dream?

“It’s true that, compared with the resources of the entire Sanctuary under the control of the Great Sage, the resources under the control of the puppet king are naturally few. It is absolutely impossible for him to maintain such an enormous ‘Eternal Light Project’. But it is still possible for him to hijack a

small-scale starship with enough resources to last a hundred years and lurk in a place that nobody can find in the depths of the sea of stars.

“The sea of stars is too vast a place. Finding a starship is like looking for a needle in a haystack. The Imperium of True Human Beings spent a lot of soldiers searching for ‘Firefly’, the last starship of the Star Ocean Imperium, in vain for a thousand years.

“The starship controlled by the puppet king is highly automated and does not need many crew members to steer it. What it is carrying is a special cargo—the brain of a human being.

“The… brain of a human being?”

Chu Zhixiao found it hard to believe. “What do you mean?”

“I’s simple. The puppet king cannot rescue the bodies of my wife and my children. Such things consume too many resources, and they are unnecessary.

Yun Haixin explained, “But at the very least, he can save the brains of my wife and my children and place their brains in special biochemical capsules where he injects high-nutrition liquids and neural interactive liquids. Then, he connects them to various crystal wires and gives them different stimuli. In

such a way, the souls of my wife and my children can be ‘uplinked to a certain virtual world, which the puppet king calls the ‘spiritual world’.

“The spirit world is like a colorful, glamorous, and extravagant virtual game. It does not consume many resources at all. Just a tiny bit of computational ability is enough to maintain their happiness, which is ten times more than on ‘Eternal Brightness”!

“The puppet king can even scan the structure of my brain and simulate the features of my soul with his computational ability. I will be reborn in the virtual world so that the virtual version of me and my wife will fall in love with each other and live a happy family.

“Well—”

Chu Zhixiao’s face was pale. He was speechless for a long time.

Li Yao felt that his head was dizzy, too. The puppet king—Lu Qingchen—was as persistent as ever and would realize his Phantom Plan wherever he went!

“Why are you making such a fuss? You should know that the ‘brain in a jar’ technology is quite mature even in the Sanctuary.

Yun Haixin said casually, “In the ‘Devil’s Child Project’ that you were born with, a lot of devil’s children lost their bodies, too. Only their brains are still alive. But they are suffering endless pain, and my wife and children will enjoy eternal happiness. That’s all.

“If [were to be a bit more open-minded, wouldn’t it be perfectly normal for many seriously wounded people to replace their body parts in today’s era, when artificial limbs and artificial bodies are both popular?

“But even if a man loses 99% of his body and even his brain and becomes a spectral Cultivator, and he has to rely on artificial bodies to travel in the human world, everything he feels is real!

Chu Zhixiao gnashed his teeth. “But you are going to turn your wife and your children into ‘heads in tanks’ and live in a false world forever. Do you really know what you are doing?”

“Hehe. Haha. Hahahaha!”

Yun Haixin was dazed for a long time. Then she hugged her stomach and laughed crazily.

Black tears flowed down from the corner of his mouth and dripped to his feet like black blood.

“What is truth? What is false? Where is the boundary between truth and false?

Yun Haixin raised her head in wild laughter. Her eyes were so clear that neither Li Yao nor Chu Zhixiao could look at them directly. “Eternal Brightness is made of materials and does exist. But are the lives of the people on Eternal Brightness ‘real’?

“The Sanctuary Alliance is real, too. But can the lies of the Great Master really convince everybody that everything that has been brainwashed is the ‘truth’ that you pursued and defended?

“Oh, my home. The Imperium of True Human Beings is real, but what’s the point of the cruel reality where the strong prey on the weak? Who would want their family and offspring to live in such a ‘real’ forever?

“If there are only two paths to choose between an illusionary heaven and a real hell, Major, I think it shouldn’t be difficult for you to tell me which one to choose, right?

“Or, you can teach me how I should rescue my wife and children if I don’t listen to the puppet king’s enticement. Should I go to the feet of Master Zhi Shan and beg him to put my wife and children on another research starship? Let’s just say that there is not a second ‘Eternal Brightness’ in the Holy

Alliance. Even if there is, isn’t it just a false dream and no different from the brain in the tank of the puppet king?

“How to choose, how to walk, how to save, you teach me, you teach me!”

“But”

Chu Zhixiao’s eyes and his heart were both ina mess. He managed to say, “Stop fooling yourself. The puppet king is merely making use of you. His purpose is to make us fight against each other until both of us are seriously wounded. He wants to break our mental defenses so that his strength can invade

our brains easily and analyze our souls!

“When he really achieves his purpose, who can guarantee that he will honor his promise? Even if he wants to honor his promise, how long can your wife and children stay alone on a starship in the form of a tank-like brain?

“The concept of time in the virtual world is different from that in the real world. In their perception, it shouldn’t be a problem for them to live a carefree and comfortable life for hundreds of years, right? What will happen in a few hundred years is not something that I can worry about. Maybe the virtual

world will collapse in the blink of an eye, and they will die a painless death, turning into a speck of dust among the stars. They will be reunited in a different dimension with me, who has already turned into ashes. Is there a better arrangement for a husband and father?”

A rigid smile appeared on Yun Haixin’s face again. “As for deceiving myself, it’s true that I cannot guarantee that the puppet king will honor his promise. It’s not a problem to say that I’m deceiving myself.

“But what about you, Major?

“Lwas fooling myself. What are you?

“What is the difference between the puppet king’s lie and the master’s lie? I cannot guarantee that the puppet king will honor his promise, but can you guarantee that the master is speaking the truth and that the wretched ‘gods’ will wake up and lead us to the eternal brightness?

“Bullsh*t. It’s all bullsh*t. The deities and buddhas of the universe have all perished. Right now, I’m the only one left in this vast, boundless universe. There are only the weak, confused, blind, bloodthirsty, crazy, and greedy human beings like us left!

“In fact, you are as clear as I am that everything that enshrouds us is a lie. However, as long as a glimmer of light appears in front of us in the deepest level of hell, no matter how far away it is, no matter how vague it is, even if you know that it is false and that it is just your own illusion, you must pursue

it, capture it, and protect it. This is human being. This is our pathetic human being!

“The bottom line is, whether it is the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators or the Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators, devil children, majors, black dreamers, or slaughter fairies, we are all the same. We are all nobodies. It is our destiny to be fooled and manipulated by insignificant people. What else can

we do?

“Let’s say that I’m fooling myself. Don’t expose me and let me keep a sliver of hope. As long as I can do my best to break through your mental defenses so that the puppet king can march straight into the depths of your soul, my family will be able to enjoy three to five hundred years of happiness. This is

the last thing I can do for them!”

Yun Haixin’s eyes were enshrouded in black mist again.

Or rather, with his pupils as the center, his entire body turned into a cluster of black mist and enveloped Chu Zhixiao!