Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao knew that Xu Zhicheng had a misunderstanding. His kids were really not the same as the kids of the regular people, but Li Yao failed to come up with an explanation after considering for a long time. He could only say drily, “Grand Guardian Xu, I’m afraid that you haven’t figured it out yet. They… They are really different from the regular kids…”

“Maybe I haven’t, or maybe you care about it too much. I am a father too. I know that every child is absolutely unique in their eyes and different from the kids of other families, but is there actually such a great difference?”

Looking at the two kids, Xu Zhicheng said with a smile, “You said a lot of things just now. The things like ‘strong artificial intelligence’, ‘virtual life’, and ‘self-interaction and self-upgrade of big data’ are too confusing for me. I only understood one thing, which is that the two kids boast incredible talents. They are very powerful specialists in hacking the Spiritual Nexus and controlling the spiritual puppets, right?

“But so what?

“I’ve seen one of the specialists in the Spiritual Nexus from far away before. There are quite a few experts adept at controlling spiritual puppets in the Black Iron Group too. Even if the two kids are really a hundred times stronger than them, is there any essential difference between them?

“If the essential difference is their extraordinariness, there are countless other powerful paranormal talents who boast bizarre, unbelievable abilities in this world. Some of the paranormal talents can blow up a mountain with one punch. Some can create vivid illusionary worlds to hypnotize other people. Some can grow claws, scales, and tales free at will. Some can survive multiple hours in the scorching magma. Yes, the paranormal talents that I’m talking about are exactly the trainers like you. Is there not such an ‘essential difference’ between the Cultivators, the Immortal Cultivators, and the ordinary people?

“Right, after absorbing the brainwaves of countless Nepenthe believers, my spiritual root has been awakened, and I’ve become such a ‘paranormal talent’ too. But since I used to be an ordinary person, I am still more used to the view of the ordinary people. For us, the high-level trainers, the paranormal talents, or the ‘supermen’, who boast omnipotent abilities, are really no different from the so-called… information life.

“Fellow Cultivator Li, you should know very well how the ordinary people are regarded by the Immortal Cultivators. In the Imperium, the Immortal Cultivators call themselves ‘true human beings’ and us, the ordinary people, as ‘hominoids’. What does it mean? It means that they do not admit that they are the same species as us. We are just the ‘half humans’, the ‘inferior humans’, and the ‘false humans’ that are slightly more advanced than anthropoids.

“Since the Immortal Cultivators do not regard us as humans, we naturally wouldn’t, nor are we qualified to regard the Immortal Cultivators as our own kind. You can even say that the ordinary people like us have long been used to the life of being enslaved, suppressed, tortured, and slaughtered by ‘alien species’. Even if a new alien species named ‘information life’ pops out of nowhere, so what? Can they be any worse than the Immortal Cultivators?”

Li Yao was rather stunned, feeling that a new gate was slowly opened deep inside his brain. Xu Zhicheng’s words were great eye-openers for him.

Although the guy’s computational ability and deductive ability were far weaker than his, he had been a high-level trainer, or a “superman”, instead of an ordinary person for too long to feel what the ordinary people felt, even though he claimed that he had been fighting for the interests of the ordinary people. Naturally, he could not squat to the height of the ordinary people and view the world from that altitude.

Yes. For the ordinary people, the trainers whose spiritual roots had been awakened were “supermen” and “alien species” to some extent. The ordinary people in the current age had in fact been long used to living in the same world as the “supermen”!

“It seems you’ve understood it now.”

Looking at Li Yao’s eyebrows that were gradually relaxed, Xu Zhicheng said with a smile, “I’ve read quite a few books under the enlightenment of the Serenity Seraph in the past years. I learned that there used to be a lot of gigantic animals on the continent, say, elephants and dinosaurs.

“Although I’ve never seen a real elephant or dinosaur, I know that dinosaurs were the dominators of many habitable planets in a certain age and even developed a splendid, glorious civilization. In comparison, elephants are much more unremarkable and ‘gentle’.

“What I’m trying to say is that whether the dinosaurs are stronger and more ruthless than the elephants, or if it is the other way around, the question is pointless for the ants living under their feet.

“Right now, the ordinary people living in the Imperium of True Human Beings are like the ants living under the feet of the elephants who can easily stomp on and kill the ants. Even if a dinosaur that is bigger, more brutal, and more dangerous than elephants barges in, so what? Will there be any difference for the ants? Some of the ants may be even expecting the dinosaur to bite the elephants and slightly improve their environment!”

Li Yao took a long breath in relief and said in respect, “One conversation with you is worth ten years of reading. Grand Guardian Xu, your words make so much sense. I have never thought of them before, and it was impossible for me to!

“Thank you for resolving the dilemmas and confusion in my mind. Previously, although I knew that I was doing the right thing, and I made up my mind to stride forward fearlessly again and again, I almost couldn’t help but imagine the same horrible picture in my head…”

Xu Zhicheng asked curiously, “What kind of picture?”

After a brief hesitation, Li Yao confessed dutifully, “I seem to envision that in the boundless space, planets are devoured by machines one after another. All the mines and factories are devoid of human beings, with only the spiritual puppets working there in silence to produce even more spiritual puppets as well as fully-automatic starships. Duplicating and expanding at an exponential speed, they eventually constitute an overwhelming army that sweeps across the three thousand Sectors and destroys the civilization of mankind…”

“Hahahaha!”

Before Li Yao finished, Xu Zhicheng had already burst into such great laughter that he was blushing and could barely catch his breath. Holding his belly, he remarked, “E-Excuse me, Fellow Cultivator Li. That is really an incredible picture, something that only a ‘superman’ like you can come up with.”

Li Yao blushed and said, “I know that my ideas can be a little bit crazy. This is perhaps what they say ‘concerns lead to apprehension’. If your kids can blow up a hill with one punch or remain safe and sound after sitting in the magma for a couple of hours, you will certainly be overwhelmed and have a lot of peculiar thoughts, won’t you?”

“Exactly. Concerns lead to apprehension. Every parent is the same.”

Xu Zhicheng retreated his smile and said, “I don’t know if your random vision makes sense, but for me, I really don’t care whether or not the ‘civilization of mankind’ is destroyed.”

Li Yao was dazed. “Why not?”

“Because the ‘civilization of mankind’ is too far away from the humble underground hominoids like us!”

Xu Zhicheng’s voice gradually turned cold. “Hehe. ‘Civilization of mankind’, what a lofty, great, and glorious phrase, but does it have anything to do with us, the ants? It is said that the Immortal Cultivators have built high, magnificent, ceaseless cities on the surface of the planet, where there are a plethora of goods, the most unimaginable magical equipment, and the delicious food that can never be eaten up. The Immortal Cultivators can also create starships dozens of kilometers long to roam and conquer the sea of stars. What a brilliant and spectacular civilization it is. But have the underground hominoids benefited in the slightest from it?

“The only radiance of civilization that we ever felt was when the people like Li Minghui exploited us under the slogan of ‘all for the civilization of mankind’. ‘All for the civilization of mankind, the productivity this month must be increased by 30%’. ‘All for the civilization of mankind, let us work harder and persist another two nights’. I’ve seen countless companions pressed to death under the burden of the ‘civilization of mankind’, including my first son.

“Although the Immortal Cultivators don’t admit it, we are humans who are capable of feelings and thoughts too. Even though we have not read many books or experienced much, and our ideas may be simple and naïve, sometimes we can’t help but wonder what this damn ‘civilization of mankind’ is exactly, and why we have to be devoted to it and sometimes even sacrifice our lives for it.

“Or maybe, there is not an overall ‘civilization of mankind’, but a lot of divided civilizations among human beings? At the very least, there is the civilization of mankind of the Immortal Cultivators, the civilization of mankind of the Cultivators, the civilization of mankind of the Covenant Alliance, and naturally, the humble, barren, insignificant civilization of the underground locals? If the civilization of mankind that is to be destroyed by the information life is that of the Immortal Cultivators, Fellow Cultivator Li, do you think we will feel sorry about it or cheer for it and even give the information life a hand?”

Li Yao was completely lost for words. He began to feel that his hesitation and dilemmas in the beginning made him look like a complete fool.

“Getting to the bottom of it, the distant, impractical stuff like catastrophes, destruction, and universe are what the ‘supermen’ like you who do not worry about their food and clothes have the time to think and concern yourselves with.”

Xu Zhicheng said, “For the underground hominoids who are as humble as ants, it is already exhausting enough and takes our everything just to figure out a way to make ourselves and our families live on, even for only one more day.

“Every day is our doomsday. We fall like grasses being cut. We are trodden upon like ants. We perish in the dust and darkness when the civilization of mankind is glowing in splendor. Hundreds of thousands of people have died, but nobody remembers any of them.

“Then, you come to me, asking how I view the destruction of the civilization of mankind several hundred years later. Isn’t it too hilarious?”