Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Meng Lichuan was rendered speechless. He quickly browsed through the forums and posts related to ‘Darkness Invasion’.

As she expected, many people were as shocked and terrified as her about the new expansion pack.

Thousands of players were tied up by the difficulty and desperation of the expansion pack. They felt that they were caught in a thorny swamp and could barely breathe.

Many people had spent an entire day and night experiencing the bloody, shuddering, and deathly silence. No matter how many times they tried, they were still met with certain death and an ending of annihilation.

The forums were filled with complaints.

“Are you kidding me? The setting of the game is too unreasonable. It’s insane! Are the federal soldiers so weak that they can’t fight back under the bombardment of the enemy?”

“Which lunatic designed this game? No matter what character or script we choose, there is simply no way to clear it. No matter how hard we try, we can only die a quick death and a miserable death!”

“It’s fine if the federation is annihilated, but on the remains of the federation, the survivors have turned into deformed freaks that are neither human nor ghosts after thousands of years of evolution in the darkness. What is this? This is simply ‘body whipping’. This game is too depressing!”

“Do you think that the simulation of the game will really happen? If the federation loses, will our descendants really end up like the cockroaches and lizards deep below the ground?

“Bullsh*t. How is that possible?”

“The specialists and experts of the federation will figure something out, won’t they? We can’t just stand by and watch the strong enemy in the center of the sea of stars come close, can we?

“However, on the virtual battlefield on the other side, ‘Team Moon Fiend’, which represents the federal army, is indeed not performing well. They are being hung up and beaten. If the federal army collapses, who will protect us?

“However, according to the deduction here, even if the federal army did not march into the center of the sea of stars, the strong enemies there would have known of our existence long ago and would not have been merciful enough to let us go. Wouldn’t we be dead anyway?

“After all, I will not stand by and watch my family end up like this. If such a day comes, my family will pick up chainswords and storm bolters. We will die a hero’s death on the battlefield!”

“Exactly. The world view presented by the so-called ‘infiltration of darkness’ is too disgusting, too evil, and too abnormal. We federal citizens would rather die than end up like this!

Meng Lichuan turned on almost a hundred light beams at the same time and reached the computational limit of Jiang Baitao’s crystal processor while he browsed through the voices of thousands of ordinary people.

Was it her imagination? In the beginning, she had sensed intense panic and fear from the voices of the public. But the closer she got to the post, the thinner the panic became. What replaced it was the fury of a volcano that was about to erupt!

It was as if all the citizens of the federation had been deeply infuriated by the weird, desperate, and depressing game!

“In the beginning, ‘Glorious Expedition’ was the main theme of the two sister games, and ‘Darkness Invasion’ was merely a distraction for entertainment.

Jiang Baitao said, “But ‘Darkness Assault’ was like the most ferocious virus. It spread and broke out exponentially. Within two days, it became the center of attention of the entire federation.

“At that time, the summit match between Team Moon Fiend and Team Blood Shadow was coming to an end. Our team was doomed. Few people were concerned about the outcome of the ‘Glorious Expedition’.

“Right now, the most important question for the public is ‘what will happen to the Star Glory Federation and the Cultivation civilization if the federal army is defeated’. Billions of people in the federation are desperate to know how the ‘Dark Invasion’ expansion pack was made and what kind of data and

conditions it was based on to create such a crazy world view. Is this the official prediction of the failure? Does the highest authorities have a solution?”

Meng Lichuan looked at Jiang Baitao and then at the heated forum. He tilted his head and thought for a moment.

The smart girl sensed that it was a scheme.

It would be an exaggeration to call it a scheme’. At the very least, for a special game such as ‘Darkness Invasion’ to be released together with ‘Glorious Expedition, Summit Confrontation’, and to turn the tables on the federation with the popularity of the latter… The whole thing seemed to be connected,

and somebody seemed to be adding fuel to the fire. It couldn’t be a pure coincidence, could it?

“This is the first thing I want to talk to you about. However, the introduction of ‘Darkness Invasion’ alone is not enough to reverse the outcome of the polls. In fact, when our team was beaten to the ground, the polls hit rock bottom, and only 35% of the people who supported sending troops were left.

Jiang Baitao opened his hands and said helplessly, “The game is over. The winner has been decided. There’s no point in continuing to struggle at death’s door. Even if the remaining members of our team want to fight to the death, the directing team and the judges have unanimously ruled that we have

lost.

“The moment the results were out, not only was the ‘Glorious Expedition’ forum flooded with comments, even the entire Spiritual Nexus was flooded with them. Many of the articles were written by the professional players and predecessors of the ‘Civilization’ game. Some of them were even written by

famous experts from the military and the major sects.

“You know, in such a super competition that has shaken the entire federation, with countless experts and experts commenting on it in real time, it wouldn’t be strange for tens of thousands of professional reviews to appear after the winner is determined.

“What’s odd is that most of the game experts, strategists, and critics are no longer as objective and fair as before. Instead, they are criticizing Team Moon Fiend’s performance and pessimistic about the future of the Star Glory Federation.

“After all, by tying the opinions of the critics and the strategists together and squeezing the water out of them, it means that, with the combat ability of the federal army in the virtual confrontation, there is no hope of victory at all. We are doomed. We can neither fight nor run away. There is no hope at

all. We can only wash our necks and wait for our doom!

“Well—”

Meng Lichuan glared at him and sat up again, despite the dizziness. He said angrily, “How can the experts say that? Even a three-year-old knows that too many uncertainties can influence the outcome of a strategical deduction. Such a virtual confrontation can only be used as a reference. As the saying

goes, ‘Victory and failure are common in war’. It’s not like we’ve really failed. We’ve only failed in a virtual confrontation, and we’ve completely lost our confidence. ‘Wash our necks and wait for death’? That’s hilarious!”

“The simplest reason is that the accuracy of the strategical deduction is greatly affected by the initial data. The combat value of the fleet of the Star Glory Federation that we set this time is based on the data transmitted to us by the Star Glory Imperium and multiplied by the estimated coefficients. Also,

the combat data of the Star Glory Imperium is up to them, too. We will fine-tune it with the data of the Black Wind Fleet. How can it be accurate?

“Everybody knows the cunningness of the Immortal Cultivators. The Immortal Cultivators of the Reformists are Immortal Cultivators, too. How could they tell us the real combat ability of their fleet honestly? Maybe the fleet of the Sanctuary Alliance is not as strong, and the Immortal Cultivators of the

Reformists are not so weak, either. Then the outcome will be completely different!

“Also, I firmly believe in the flexibility and tenacity of the federal cultivators. If we are truly faced with the threat of the extinction of our civilization, our dear federal soldiers and fellow daoists will certainly burn their lives to the limit and stimulate 120,000 units of strength to create miracles, right?

“Over the past hundreds of years, the federation has been on the edge of the sea of stars because of the miracles created by countless heroes. Will this time be an exception?

“I don’t believe it. I will never accept the outcome of this battle. These bullsh*t experts are simply talking nonsense!”

“calm down.”

Jiang Baitao smiled. “You don’t look like a patient who has just been in a coma for three days and three nights. You look like a wolfhound who is going to bite the specialists hard!”

“Hmph, if the bullsh*t expert who wrote these bullsh*t reviews appears in front of me, even if I don’t go and bite him, I will at least give him a good scolding!”

Meng Lichuan rolled up his sleeves. “No. I can’t hold it any longer. Sister Tao, can you bring me my crystal processor? I’m going to argue on the Nexus right now and express the thoughts of the members of Team Moon Fiend!”

“There’s no need for that. In fact, in the one day after the articles were published, the experts, scholars, and commentators had been lambasted.

Jiang Baitao shook her crystal processor and opened a few new pages, which seemed to be a new area on the ‘Glorious Expedition’ forum for the public to vent their anger. Hundreds of new posts popped up every second, as magnificent and terrifying as a volcanic eruption.

“What kind of bullsh*t expert is he? Deciding the future of the federation based on the outcome of a virtual game? That’s absurd. Who do you think you are?”

“I’ve been paying close attention to the so-called ‘peak confrontation’. I have to say that the rules are too unfair. Team Blood Shadow has locked onto morale the entire time. Hundreds of thousands of starships are fighting like a single starship. On Team Moon Fiend’s side, their morale has been

undermined by all kinds of unfairness. Their commander has been weakened, and their allies have collapsed… Aren’t they tying up the hands and feet of the federal army and leaving us hanging? What’s the point of reference for such an extreme rule?”

“Besides, it was not the entire main force of the federal army that was under the command of Team Moonfiend. They were merely two branches of the Burning Prairie Fleet and a few local fleets. It’s perfectly normal that they could not defeat the two giants in the center of the sea of stars. I don’t believe

that the federation would lose so miserably even if they went all out!”

“Shouldn’t the creators and planners come out and explain why they are setting it this way? In any case, if the federal army hides in their homes, they will die anyway. It would be better to launch an all-out assault from the very beginning and stake everything!”

“Damn it. Even if I’m really going to die, I’m going to die on the battlefield. I’m not going to end up like those miserable, miserable, and miserable people in the ‘Darkness Invasion’—Cultivators don’t fear death. If we fear death, we don’t cultivate. When have we Federation citizens ever been afraid of

death?”

“The specialists and commentators, on the other hand, are a disgrace to the federation. ‘Wash your neck and wait for your death’? Bones? Where are their bones? Damn!”

“In my opinion, the specialists should clean their asses and wait to serve their new masters, the scumbags of the Sanctuary Alliance!