Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Such a short and brilliant civilization made Li Yao sigh with mixed feelings.

Although he knew that a lightning life-form based on plasma cells could not have the social form, emotional waves, and thinking style of a carbon-based intelligent life-form, Li Yao could not help but imagine the attitude and resistance of the lightning life-form when it was faced with the ‘apocalyptic apocalypse’ in a childish way.

Did the lightning-type creatures have scholars, too? Did they have astronomers and energy scientists? Yes. Even if they could not understand the concepts of astronomy, they must have the concepts of energy science, too, and they must be a hundred times more proficient than the carbon-based intelligent creatures.

Then, decades or even a hundred years ago, before the billions of generations in the time scale of the lightning, had the scholars sensed that they were doomed by the subtle changes of radiation and magnetic field? Had they hesitated, despaired, and worked hard to calculate every route of escape and one billionth chance of survival?

Were there priests in the life of lightning, too? When all the scholars failed to rescue them, would the priests pray to the stars more sincerely, or would they discover in horror that their stars could barely protect themselves and that they might have been killed by the violent outbreaks long before they were born?

It was even possible that they would discover that they were the products of a supernova explosion, that they were the souls of a star, and that they were not the ‘Children of the Sun’, but the ‘Children of Demons who destroyed the Sun’. When the mission of destruction was completed, they would be destroyed, too.

With such a cruel understanding, could the priests still firmly believe in the beginning, or would they ‘transform’ and ‘degenerate’ into believers of darkness, just like the strongest human beings who could not accept the dark truth of the universe and walked into the abyss?

Will the lightning-type creatures have warriors, too? For the sake of their home and their compatriots, for the survival of their race and civilization, the warriors of the lightning-type creatures will sacrifice themselves without any hesitation. Yes, there will be. Their lives will only last a few seconds. They are destined to be a species that is more resolute, cruel, and desperate for a moment than the intelligent carbon-type creatures. In order to achieve their greatest goal-survival – the warriors of the lightning-type creatures will even fly to the failing neutron star in the enormous lightning-type starships, trying to ignite the sun of death with their lives as fuel and restore the stability of the entire galaxy.

Li Yao could not help but imagine such a scene.

Countless lightning bolts were launched from the ancient giants across the long distance and the chaotic radiation belts to the pale neutron stars. Even though the neutron stars were quickly collapsing and cooling down, they did not hesitate at all. They crashed, shattered, and perished time and time again, like moths darting into flames, but they could not give up.

Then, during the decades, or rather, billions of generations, of ‘people’, how were the lightning-like creatures going to face their doom? Were they divided into homers and spacers like the human beings of the Flying Star Sector in the old days? Had they tried countless times to condense a large-scale material starship out of the materials of the ancient giants and escape from the enormous attraction force? Did they have a clear understanding about the vastness, vastness, and barrenness of the sea of stars? Had they engaged in countless debates and explorations? How many heroic and touching stories had popped up in the debates and explorations?

Lastly, the super plasma torrent in front of Li Yao.

No. It was not ‘it’, but ‘them’. It was not ‘one’ lightning creature, not even ‘a bunch’, but a combination of countless generations of lightning creatures, an expedition team, and an expedition army!

Li Yao and the super plasma torrent spent at least two to three hours inside and outside the gravity field of ‘Ancient Thirteen’. If every plasma cell could survive ten seconds, it would be a thousand generations of ‘people’.

A great expedition across a thousand generations!

Li Yao could totally imagine the ecstasy and excitement of the lightning creatures when Lu Qingchen pushed the ‘Fortress of Withering Wood’ into the red spot of the ancient star and detonated the ‘Fortress of Sharp Gold’ and the ‘Fortress of Phantom Ocean’ in the sea of stars so that the lightning creatures could perceive everything clearly.

They must’ve thought that it was a sign from the gods.

However, the enlightenment required endless courage and sacrifice.

An ‘army’ made of the best warriors who were not scared of death immediately gathered together. The entire race produced a gargantuan warship of lightning that was thousands of kilometers long with the purest and most furious energy. The warriors did not have the chance to bid farewell to their family and the plasma cells that boasted the same frequency of atom oscillation before they embarked on a journey of no return.

For a single plasma cell, the ancient giants were too far away from the exploration fleet of human beings. The first generation, the second generation, and even the tenth generation of soldiers of the expedition army were annihilated in the few minutes when the lightning was rushing out. But in the few minutes, they split and created new warriors from the 11th generation to the 100th generation, passing on their ‘mission’ instantly through electromagnetic radiation.

Just like that, after hundreds of generations of plasma cells, they finally reached the exploration fleet, only to fall into Li Yao’s trap and be attracted to the wrong direction.

Locked in the observation blind spot at the microscopic level, they were doomed to fail to see through the traps and plans of human beings. They fell deeper and deeper into the mud.

The speed of their annihilation was higher and higher, but the speed of their division was lower and lower. The ubiquitous radiation in the sea of stars had seriously interfered with the transmission of electromagnetic radiation, too. The vibration frequency of the atoms inside their bodies was becoming more and more inconsistent. Some of the plasma cells gradually forgot their mission and even lost their wisdom. They fell into ignorance again and turned into ordinary, lifeless sparks.

However,

Although thousands of generations had passed, even though countless warriors had perished, even though they had forgotten their mission and wisdom, even though they were getting further and further away from their home, even though they might lose the opportunity to return to their homeland and rescue their compatriots forever, even though the frequency of their atom oscillations was becoming more and more chaotic, even though more and more information was decaying and dispersing in the vast space, the last batch of warriors still remembered their mission and completed the impossible task. They poured all their energy into Li Yao’s life magnetic field.

At this moment, Li Yao’s vitality magnetic field and the frequency of the lightning were gradually converging and resonating.

Li Yao could completely understand their sad fate and was deeply immersed in the magnificent journey, unable to free himself.

His eyes were filled with tears, which were instantly vaporized by the electric current, making the lightning even more dazzling.

Countless plasma cells were revolving, groping, and simulating his limbs and nerves, which were the ‘coil’ of his life magnetic field. Soon, they crawled out of Li Yao’s pores and formed a small, haggard, shivering human figure in front of Li Yao, too, especially the brain. Billions of plasma cells rushed to the brain and divided and perished, condensing into a marvelous ‘energy brain’.

Li Yao was very clear that it was meaningless.

The brain and the body of flesh and blood of human beings were the most suitable carriers for the intelligent creatures that were based on carbon. But it did not mean that the energy creatures could have the same abilities as human beings just because they simulated the forms of human beings.

Besides, even the super experts among human beings, such as himself, had to rely on the protection of starships in order to travel through the four-dimensional space.

And as an enormous gas-liquid hybrid planet, the enormous attraction force and the overly thin materials were destined to be unable to refine a true warship on its surface—the vast majority of materials would be flattened when they reached the surface of the ancient giant, so how could it be refined and refined?

Li Yao did not know what the lightning creature was going to do to break its destiny and escape.

In his eyes, the poor imitation of the lightning creature was merely a waste of his precious energy and a step closer to the abyss of death.

Such a conclusion made the movement of the lightning creature even more tragic. Li Yao could not help but extend his hand toward the lightning creature. He did not know what he was going to do.

The lightning creature, on the other hand, sensed the subtle changes of the magnetic field inside his body and extended its arms that were wreathed in electric arcs.

The fingertips of the carbon-based life and the energy-based life touched each other softly, producing indescribable sparks. Complicated and intense feelings popped up inside Li Yao’s brain. They were not his own emotions, but the feelings that the lightning creature stimulated his braincells.

It was… sorrow, jealousy, anger, desperation, envy, confusion, and all kinds of other feelings.

Maybe ‘they’ had read it in a certain way, too. At the very least, they had vaguely perceived the information inside Li Yao’s brain, recognized the vastness and cruelty of the universe, and learned the truth of the supernova outbreak and the ending of the ancient planet.

Or maybe, it was the long journey across a thousand generations that made them realize their own insignificance and fragility, and that even the path of escape did not exist.

They were desperate about the end of their civilization. They were envious and jealous of the carbon-based intelligent creatures such as human beings, furious about the natural law that created them and was about to destroy them, and confused about the existence of the natural law.

What was the truth of the universe exactly? Did the Heavenly Dao really exist? Were they some kind of conscious products, at least slaves, toys, or test subjects, or were they just… insignificant coincidences?

They wanted to survive. They released the strongest malice to Li Yao, hoping to annihilate Li Yao, human beings, and all the other intelligent carbon-based creatures in order to survive. But in the very next second, they sent the most pitiful prayers and the purest kindness to Li Yao, praying that the intelligent carbon-based creatures such as Li Yao could help them survive, such as the way they were stored in solid iron cans. If that was not possible, they prayed that Li Yao could at least remember their life form and the frequency of their atom oscillations and their history, their species, and their civilization.