Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao nodded in silence.

In fact, the logic that the voice spoke of was reflected in the history of human civilization in the Pangu Universe, too. It was the chaos of the ancient Cultivation world and the tragedy of the ‘living fossil’.

No power could be achieved without paying any price. Fate had marked the price for every kind of power. The power that seemed easy to acquire might have to be redeemed by something more precious-organization, social order, exploration, and curiosity.

Thankfully, the human civilization of the Pangu Universe, including the Pangu civilization before the human civilization and the hundred ancient civilizations before the Pangu civilization, was not strictly a first-generation civilization but a descendant of the Primeval Civilization.

On one hand, they could find the relics of the previous civilization deep below the ground and in the vast sea of stars, where they could learn valuable lessons from them and avoid repeating the mistakes. On the other hand, the primeval memories from the primeval race were buried deep inside their genes. Although the ancient memories were mottled and fuzzy most of the time, they were enough to stimulate the instincts of the intelligent creatures and form complicated social and highly-organized structures.

Therefore, although the ‘second generation civilizations’ were able to develop a relatively strong civilization in an environment where the spiritual gas was abundant, there were bound to be a lot of detours. For example, the collapse of the ancient Cultivators and the Great Dark Age of 30,000 years, as well as the evil deeds of the Holy Accord Alliance and the Imperium of True Human Beings today, were partly because of the influence of ‘the strong are too strong while the weak are too weak’.

The native civilizations that did not have the relics of the previous civilizations nor did they have the ‘organizational instincts’ buried deep inside their genes suddenly had inexhaustible spiritual energy. They were like seven-year-olds who had received a huge legacy but did not have the education of adults. They could only squander whatever they wanted. There was barely anyone who was not corrupted. “Of course, spiritual energy is one of the most precious resources in the universe. But only a civilization that is highly mature and has its own belief is qualified to drive it instead of being enslaved by it. The voice continued, “It is precisely because we don’t have the help of spiritual energy that we can stimulate all our passion, wisdom, and courage. With our hands, sweat, and blood, we can modify our planet and get to know the universe outside of it.

“We went through the first industrial revolution, the second, and the third.

“We have discovered the patterns of the celestial bodies. We have also discovered molecules, atoms, and structures that are smaller than atoms.

“We have discovered electromagnetic waves, and we know how to make use of radio. We have conquered mountains and seas, and we have conquered countless kinds of bacteria. We even know how to drive mold to treat fatal diseases. We believe in technology more sincerely than we believe in gods. We believe that the path of technology is infinite, and the infinite technology will eventually make us the gods of ourselves and the entire universe. “Of course, the advancement of technology and the sudden expansion of civilization led to crazy ambitions and bloody slaughters. In the first fifty years of the twentieth century, we launched two world wars one after another. If the main battlefield of the first world war was limited to one continent, the deadly storm of the second world war swept across the entire mother planet.

“Those two wars were both glorious and cruel. The people, who lacked spiritual energy and had no strength to even truss a chicken, were able to unleash damage that was even more terrifying than that of the Cultivators. Countless tons of steel and explosives rained down upon the city, which had a population of hundreds of thousands.

“At the end of the Second World War, we employed a weapon named ‘Atomic Bomb’, which involved the mysteries of material annihilation and energy outbursts. It was even more terrifying than the main gun of a starship on a planet with an atmosphere. “However, wars, on one hand, are the devils who destroy civilizations, and on the other hand, they are catalysts for the rapid development of civilizations. The new technologies and ideas born in the two world wars, including the new system born on countless old systems that have been destroyed, have boosted the explosive development of our civilization in the last fifty years of the twentieth century and pushed it forward at a lightning fast speed.

“After the end of the Second World War, more than twenty years later, on July 21, 1969, our primitive and simple starship boarded the only satellite of our mother planet for the first time and took the first step to conquer the sea of stars.

Along with the voice, a new picture appeared in Li Yao’s mind.

Three obese and clumsy astronauts wearing white spacesuits and star-striped flags were bouncing on the surface of the moon. In the low and noisy background, the voice of one of them could be heard.

“… This is a small step for me, but it is a big step for mankind.”

Of course, the astronaut was speaking in English, which was the ‘magical language’ in Li Yao’s understanding.

“The brutal destruction of the Second World War and the cold war that resulted from the confrontation of the two superpowers not only gave birth to space technology and the study of the universe that far exceeded the limits of our civilization, but also woke up the ancient people who had the largest population in our civilization. The ancient civilization that stood in the east was revived after hundreds of years of silence. It was full of vigor and creativity.

The voice said, “The last 50 years of the 20th century to the first 20 years of the 21st century is almost the golden era of the fastest development of our civilization. New technologies and research results are released almost every year. Every ten years, the entire civilization will look brand new. In 1950, the electronic computer was still a fantasy for most people, but after 60-70 years, it can be worn on people’s wrists and become an essential production tool and life partner for everyone. People are even starting to imagine the birth of artificial intelligence in the next hundred years. “However, the beautiful dream suddenly broke like a golden soap bubble. The big bang of our technology hit the physical limit and forced us to step on the brakes. In the third decade of the 21st century, we encountered stagnation and setbacks in various fields and barely made any valuable discoveries.

“With the stagnation of technology, a series of diseases and fatal defects burst out of the body of our civilization.

“The super Matthew effect brought about by the global networkization has made the gap between the rich and poor even larger and society even more divided.

“The population explosion brought by the advanced medical technology, on the other hand, lacked a good education system and enough jobs. The vast majority of the population was reduced to an ‘invalid population’ or even an ‘invalid population’. They became a burden for the civilization.

“The environmental damage and the lack of resources made the living environment of the vast majority of people even nastier. The emergence of cutting-edge weapons and even self-navigating weapons caused the weaker countries to be even more powerless to resist the countries that had the advantage in the beginning. As a result, extremist ideologies prevailed and a series of terrorist activities took place.

“If these problems are ‘chronic diseases’ that can be slowly resolved during the development of a civilization, then when two forces that represent two completely different ideologies and economic systems collide, the entire civilization will immediately fall into catastrophe.

“Everybody wants peace, not war. “However, you should be very clear that, when the expansion of a civilization comes to a halt, all the known worlds will be explored by 100%, and all the resources will be consumed. The road of technological advancement will be blocked, too. There will be no other way except to be trapped in the ‘internalization’ of desperation and perish together with the civilization.

“At first, there were trade conflicts, then proxy wars, then small-scale, low-intensity skirmishes… A series of warm-ups, tests, threats, and intimidation lasted twenty years. When both sides were clear about each other’s capability and determination, the third world war finally broke out.

“In our civilization, a wise scholar once said, ‘I don’t know how the Third World War was fought. I only know that the Fourth World War must have been fought with stones and clubs.’ He was absolutely right. “The intensity of the Third World War was a hundred times higher than the ‘World War II’ a hundred years ago. It was even higher than everyone’s imagination at the time. Before the war, everyone was optimistic that, with the advancement of technology, especially the supercomputers and armed drones, it would be a ‘clean war’, a ‘bloodless war’, or even just another low-intensity bluff and routine friction between the two sides. It was not until mushroom clouds of various shapes and sizes gradually rose above their heads and engulfed them in the blink of an eye, turning them into burning skeletons, that they regretted it.

“World War III lasted thirty years. It was the longest and cruelest war in the history of our civilization, and it changed our civilization profoundly.

“Especially toward the end of the war, with the total wasteland of the mother planet and the haunting plague of extremism and terrorism, all kinds of immature biochemical weapons, virus weapons, and even genetic weapons were released unscrupulously, making us feel the fear of ‘civilization extinction’ for the first time.

“Maybe, it is the same for every civilization. They will not know the value of peace and unity until they are faced with a ‘catastrophe’ that might destroy the entire civilization.

“Even though some of the survivors knew the importance of peace and unity, the grudge of thirty years, the white and black tombstones piled up by billions of bones, still became a natural chasm and a high wall that blocked both sides.

“… If there were no accidents, our civilization might have perished in infancy in such a humiliating and sorrowful manner.

“But since you can hear our voices, and even your own existence, it means the arrival of a certain ‘miracle’.

“In year 2068 of the new era, the ‘miracle’the first meteoroid in the meteoroid shower that was going to destroy the planet in a hundred years—passed through the solar system, tore through the atmosphere, and crashed into our desolate home.