Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Does the future… depend on us?”

Even Zhang Daniu was slightly stunned when he heard Li Yao’s roar. An unprecedented solemn expression appeared on his face.

As for the other Awakeners, both the Hell Breakers and the Prison Guardians felt that a gate deep inside their brain had been opened and was emitting infinite gold brightness.

Not just the Ark Island, even the people who were fighting against the apocalypse everywhere on Earth seemed to have heard a call from the unseen world. The golden horn was louder and louder, telling them—not to give up hope!

At this moment, countless solid shackles were torn apart, and countless ancient seals were broken. Countless heroic spirits recalled the glory and dreams before countless reincarnations, their dignity and pride, the monstrous mistakes they had made, and all the efforts they had made to make up for their mistakes!

Every human being, every earthling, and every heroic spirit who once dominated the sea of stars and roared in the universe had brainwaves that soared into the sky like burning flames and broke through the feeble walls of the reincarnation prison!

On the battleground of the Ark Island, the shell of the silver-white giant had dimmed significantly. There were even ugly black spots that looked like silver that had been oxidized.

It was the weakness brought by the awakening of the heroic spirits.

Li Yao, on the other hand, had received the blessings of countless heroic spirits. The more he fought, the braver he became, and the more frustrated he became. The traces of man-made carving that could be seen on the super-large weapon were gradually melted by the flames of war. In the end, the weapon was integrated into one, as if it were a living creature made of millions of tons of steel.

BOOM!

He stomped on the ocean, raising furious tides that were then vaporized by the flames of war, forming hundreds of raging dragons of steam that attacked the silver giant simultaneously.

Pa!

The reefs on the Ark Island were all driven by Li Yao’s remote manipulation ability and flew into the sky, only to be crushed into the tiniest dust. The dust rubbed against each other at a high speed and turned into a sword of fire hundreds of meters long, stabbing at the silver giant’s chest.

CRACK!

Manipulated by Li Yao’s soul, thousands of thunderbolts lunged at the silver giant, trying to cut it into pieces. The surface of the silver giant was riddled with shocking dents like a pond in a storm.

“Tell me, what is your ultimate purpose?”

While launching a storm-like attack, Li Yao shouted at the top of his lungs, “An unparalleled existence such as yourself, who was born by condensing the souls of billions of creatures, is definitely not going to fulfil your lifelong destiny with such a low-level goal as ‘dominance of the universe’. Tell me, why are you doing this? Why are you imprisoning billions of heroes in the Reincarnation Prison where they will not be free for billions of years?”

“You wouldn’t understand even if I told you.”

The silver-white giant took thousands of blows in a few seconds. But after each blow, the wounds deep inside his bones would be healed instantly. A black gap that looked like a mouth suddenly appeared on his face, while he sneered, “A one-sided creature such as yourself will never understand what I’m going to do!

“You didn’t say anything. How do you know that I don’t understand?”

Li Yao punched the silver giant’s head one punch after another. “People who love peace and are against violence like me hate fighting and killing the most. Why can’t we sit down and talk about everything clearly? Whether you are the ‘Will of Earth’ or the ‘Flood’, you were made of billions of innocent souls abandoned on the ‘Original Earth’ in the beginning. Am I right? We are of the same origin. We should be helping each other in the dark, boundless central ocean of the multiverse. Why are we fighting each other and even coming up with such a long and torturous method? What are you going to get from the six billion heroic spirits?”

The silver-white giant coldly snorted. It didn’t reply, but its speed suddenly doubled. It was clearly an indomitable giant, but its body was even more agile than the armadillo and the butterfly. It dodged all of Li Yao’s attacks and instead circled around to Li Yao’s back. Its four arms turned into four sharp cones, ruthlessly stabbing towards the “super-large divine weapon”.

Even though Li Yao had stepped into the ‘Body Synthesis Stage’ and received the blessing of countless heroic spirits, he was still caught off guard by the sudden change of rhythm of the silver-white giant’s attacks. However, he refused to relax his tongue.

“I know that a thermonuclear war took place on the ‘Original Earth’. On the wasteland where the nuclear dust was floating, a small group of nobles and rich men ruled over most of the civilians. In the end, when the ‘Original Earth’ was doomed, the nobles and rich men even deceived the civilians and escaped on their own starships, leaving billions of civilians on the planet to die. As a result, billions of people were burnt to death by the flames when the meteoroids hit the sun, but the souls of their hatred somehow survived and condensed into a new life form—your predecessor!

Li Yao shouted, “I know that you are a super life form that exists for revenge, including the war between the ‘super body civilization’ and the ‘Primeval civilization’. It was a war of revenge between the souls of billions of Earthlings and a handful of cosmic nobles!

“Of course you have a reason for revenge. If I were one of the billions of abandoned civilians, I would do the same!

“But—but you’ve already won the war. Billions of years have passed. The nobles and magnates who fled from Earth have been obliterated. The survivors of the battle, including the six billion heroic spirits that you locked up in the Prison of Reincarnation, most of them had nothing to do with the nobles and the rich at all. Even if you were wronged, shouldn’t you be cleared by now? Why are you so determined to destroy everyone, even the entire civilization of mankind?”

“Therefore, you are a noisy cockroach. You don’t know anything. You don’t know anything, and yet you are talking nonsense here.

The four arms of the silver-white giant turned into four silver storms in the blink of an eye and resolved Li Yao’s new wave of attacks made of reefs, lightning, and tides easily. “You were right. When billions of innocent souls were condensed into immaculate super bodies for the first time, there was only one thing on our mind, and that was revenge. However, the war of revenge was already over the moment the ‘super body civilization’ defeated the ‘Primeval civilization’. Even though the Primeval Civilization was not completely wiped out, there were still a few fish that escaped the net, and they were not within the range of my revenge. I did not establish the ‘reincarnation prison’ for something as boring as ‘revenge’.

“Then, what was the purpose of everything?

Li Yao thought quickly and suddenly realized something. “Do you really want to achieve the purpose of ‘universal peace’ by connecting everyone’s soul and sharing their emotions and memories so that there will be no war, violence, pain, and hatred in the universe?”

“No, you must not do that. Love and hate are two sides of the same coin. Selfishness brings violence and hatred, but it is also the source of motivation for the evolution of life. Our curiosity, desire to explore, imagination, and creativity are all born because of our independent souls. We are all kings of our own souls. Please don’t turn us into slaves for everybody!

“It is like, as the thermodynamic theorem states, heat can only be transmitted between objects of different temperatures, and it is precisely such heat transmission that leads to the birth of a brilliant universe and civilization. In accordance with your methods, everyone will open their soul, and everyone will meld into the super body. Their emotions and will will will be evenly distributed. It is as if all objects are at the same temperature. There will be no more heat transmission, no more molecular changes, and the entire world will become dead silent. Whether it is the civilization or the universe, both will fall into the miserable hell of absolute zero. Do you understand?”

“Of course I do. You just don’t understand.”

The silver-white giant said coldly, “I don’t care whether the multiverse sea is a war or a peace. I don’t care whether I win or the rebels defeat the strong enemy, and I don’t care about the outcome of the war that is being fought right now.

“No. I did not exist for the ridiculous mission of ‘keeping the Universe Ocean in absolute peace’. It is just a wrong assumption that a ridiculous cockroach such as yourself made about me with your shallow wisdom. It is utterly, utterly meaningless.

“What—what?”

Li Yao was dazed. He subconsciously thought that the silver-white giant was lying, but his intuition told him that the silver-white giant truly did not care whether or not he was defeated, the outcome of the battlefield in the universe, or whether or not the reincarnation prison that had been built for billions of years was going to be broken.

Otherwise, judging from his performance just now, the one named ‘Will of Earth’ or ‘Flood Tide’ was too weak.

“What—what are you trying to do?”

Li Yao did not know whether it was out of fear or out of fear. He did not even dare to ask any more questions. Instead, he waved his saber made of dust, lightning, waves, hydrogen atoms, and oxygen atoms and stabbed at the enemy’s chest.

This time, the silver-white giant did not dodge. It simply allowed Li Yao’s fury to leave a shocking wound on its chest. The wound was even splitting apart, as if a black, bloody mouth had opened in the center of its chest. Behind the wound was not the surface of the ocean but a glittering mist.

“Since you are so curious, I will grant your wish!”

The silver-white giant opened its bloody mouth. Its entire body split into two halves and swallowed Li Yao together with his super-large divine weapon like a giant armadillo. “I will let you see through the illusion of victory and defeat and face the deepest desperation!”