Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

This time, Li Yao truly felt chilly, with goosebumps all over his body. He felt that the picture that his professor had described was too much of a shock for him.

However, on the other hand…

Li Yao could not help but recall his childhood in the magical equipment graveyard in Floating Spear City in the Heaven’s Origin Sector.

For people who lived in the magical equipment graveyard and struggled to survive, like Fatty Leung, would they prefer to live in the garbage dump in the material world as scavengers, or would they find the life in a certain virtual world—or rather, the Spiriters’ Realm—more beautiful and appealing?

Perhaps Professor Mo Xuan was right. The material worlds that mankind lived on, the planets that were nothing more than grains of dust, were too small, crowded with too few resources. They could not meet the demand of the development of the civilization at all.

Professor Mo Xuan raised his voice and said, “Of course, everything I talked about is just my imagination, which is probably not going to come true for hundreds of years. With that in mind, we might as well take a leap ahead and think even further.

“In the distant future, perhaps in millions of years, the ideal, perfect form of mankind for me should be mainly made of the Spiriters.

“By then, cities and homes of human beings on the material level will no longer exist. Even if some of the remains are not gone yet, they will only serve as history relics, museums, symbols of our civilization, and such. Most human beings will live in the Spiriters’ Realm in the form of the Spiriters. The material foundation of the Spiriters’ Realm will be super crystal processors that are stored in indestructible, permanent warehouses deep within every planet together with the crystal chips that keep the souls of the human beings.

“Because we barely require any air or water, we will be free to spread to every planet, and we will not have to go through all the trouble of searching for the habitable planets that have atmospheres like we do right now.

“By then, super crystal processor centers that are buried deep underground will be new ‘cities’ for mankind. Everybody will live in the Spiriters Realm. Their life will be easy, comfortable, conflict-free, and peaceful. They will be occupied in the theoretical and intellectual jobs. Too many artificial intelligence facilities, like ‘old grandpas’ you have seen, will be at our service as servants.

“Of course, our connection with the material world cannot be completely cut off. Therefore, everybody will also own a lot of ‘shells’ other than their soul. They will be able to transmit their soul into those ‘shells’ and enter the material world.

“Those ‘shells’ will have a plethora of forms and appearances. They can be the bodies of pure flesh and blood, like what human beings have today. They can also be the bodies of demons whose genes have been highly modified. Naturally, they can still be artificial bodies made of super alloys.

“Furthermore, the ‘shells’ can even break the limit of the shape of humans. They can be an enormous mechanical spider hundreds of meters tall, a starship that is thousands of meters long, or a base that covers dozens of square kilometers. As long as their soul is powerful enough, they will be able to control all those huge shells!

“By then, even a common miner will enjoy a luxury villa, a private garden, and a hunting ground in the Spiriters’ Real. Hundreds of artificial intelligence servants will cater to his every need. He can get whatever he wants.

“His soul job and duty will be to transmit his soul to a certain ‘mining starship’ every day and spend some time remotely controlling the starship to collect resources on a resource planet.

“The raw minerals that he digs out will be shipped to the ‘bases’ that are actually the shells of certain purification specialists. Then, the products will be taken away by certain other shells that are controlled by the crystal processor specialists, who will further strengthen our center of crystal processors and make our ‘city’ a better place to live in.

“The more powerful the crystal processors are and the higher their computational ability is, the more real, complicated, and vast the Spiriters’ Realm will be. It means that greater mining starships and more fierce warships will be produced for us to explore the boundless world out there!

“Don’t you feel that only such a civilization is a real universal civilization that has a slim chance of figuring out the truth of the universe?”

Li Yao and Ling Xiaole looked at each other. Both of them saw the deep concerns in each other’s eyes.

Ling Xiaole knew that the leadership of the Secret Sword Bureau had to be monitoring their conversation closely right now. She emboldened herself and said, “Professor, I—I feel that you seem to have gone… a bit crazy!”

“Crazy?” Professor Mo Xuan put on a weird smile. A few different pictures suddenly popped up behind him.

The first picture was the boiling, bubbling mud on a primitive planet, where a few fish were struggling to crawl to the shore with their fins.

There was another picture, in which some hideous monkeys were yelling and screaming at the furious fire that is burning on a tree because of a lightning strike.

“When life evolved from the ocean to the continent, the fish that crawled to the shore might’ve been considered by their companions as extremely crazy,” Professor Mo Xuan said. “Also, the monkeys who decided to touch the fire in violation of their natural instincts might’ve been taken to be crazy, too. Replacing fists with stones and teeth with claws, building a house with branches and rocks, eating a crab for the first time… Those were all insane decisions when they were made, but only after all those insane decisions have human beings and our civilization been created!

“We are Cultivators. We stand at the peak of intellect and wisdom. If we are trapped by mundane everyday routines, too, and restrict our mind and morals to the level of the ordinary people, how can we expect our civilization to make progress?

“Do you wish for the civilization of mankind to not change at all but simply remain struggle to survive even millions of years?

“Yes. I know that my theories are terribly immature at this point. There’s a good chance that they are even wrong. However, if a theory is only qualified to be raised when it is guaranteed to be perfectly correct, no theory would ever be born at all!

“This is why I am willing to share the theories with the fellow Cultivators here. If you find it unacceptable, then please think about it carefully and kindly point out my mistakes. That way, you can help me improve my theories or even completely veto my previous thoughts!”

“We have no intention of completely vetoing your thoughts at all, Professor Mo Xuan,” Li Yao said. “As a cutting-edge theory and a vision of the distant future, any bizarre and unbelievable thoughts are understandable. What I’m more curious about are your actions after such… passionate ideas occurred to you. Did you put your theory into practice?”

“Of course, I put it into practice. As a refiner, I am much more enthusiastic about real-life operations than theoretical work on paper!” Professor Mo Xuan stared at Li Yao and Ling Xiaole. Licking the lollipop, he thoughtfully said, “When such an idea occurred to me and went on a rampage in my head like a wildfire, I immediately…”

Li Yao held his breath. “Immediately what?”

“I immediately reported the extremely crazy idea to the government,” Professor Mo Xuan announced.

“…” Li Yao.

“…” Ling Xiaole.

Professor Mo Xuan found it odd. “Is there a problem? Such an idea is too crazy, dangerous, and extreme. For the prevailing ethics in our society, it is even slightly evil, but it is truly likely to be the future of mankind, too!

“Of course I had to report it to the government, in case those guys who have ill intentions make use of it. Also, I summoned the specialists of multiple fields and discussed the issue together. Later, I compiled our discussion into a book and submitted it to the government, too.”

Li Yao was greatly relieved. “That was really rational!”

Professor Mo Xuan frowned and said, “What else should I have done if not that? Should I immediately recruit a bunch of insane bandits after I had the crazy idea and establish an enormous underground base in secret, where I planned all kinds of surreptitious schemes and jumped out from the dark corner at a certain critical moment, trying to turn the world upside down and realize my evil and mad ambitions?”

Li Yao and Ling Xiaole looked at each other. Then, they both nodded quickly.

Professor Mo Xuan sighed, somewhat helplessly. “That’s why I always say that groundless fiction novels and third-rate entertainment products are the greatest enemy for the researchers on the cutting-edge theories! Or in other worlds, the horror of human beings on the unknown issues is perhaps the greatest obstacle for us to move forward!

“Of course, it is quite understandable that you have such ridiculous thoughts. In only the one hundred years of history in the federation, too many such insane ambitious schemers have indeed shown up and brought devastating catastrophes to their compatriots, home, and civilization despite all the righteous and seemingly justified banners they were holding.

“Weren’t people like Yan Xibei, Xiao Xuance, Elder Nether Spring, and Lu Zui all as such?

“The rebellion of the Immortal Cultivators raised by Xiao Xuance years ago was even resolved by Li Yao and me together. I can recall his crazy, ugly face clearly even today. Why on earth would I repeat his mistake?

“Rest assured. All the Spiriters are patriots. We are all proud of our identity as human beings. Many of them are war heroes. Some of them are firefighters who sacrificed themselves when rescuing the victims in a fire or people who lost their body when they jumped into the river to save drowning children. We will certainly not do anything that would jeopardize the interests of people or our national security.

“Besides, if we get to the bottom of it, what are our motivations to start a plot? It must be noted that we have no fundamental conflict of interest with humans or demons at all, because the resources we need are absolutely different from theirs!

“The federation and the Imperium have good reasons to start a war—both of them are made of humans, who need the same resources, air, sunlight, water sources, soil, and such.

“By the same logic, humans and demons also have good reasons for a fight, because they are all carbon-based lives. All the things I mentioned before are necessary for them, too.

“However, the Spiriters do not need any of those. No air, no water, and no land. All we need is a highly-developed, grand-unified Spiritual Nexus, a center of crystal processors that is buried deep underground, and some ‘shells’ that allow us to be active in the material world! It is very convenient for us to get those things by contributing our wisdom and strength. Therefore, do we have any reason to betray our homeland, our family, and past ourselves and stand against humans and demons?

“At least for me personally, I can’t see any reason at all. If you have time, you can help me think about it carefully, too, and see how the Spiriters can benefit from a so-called scheme given the restrictions of the crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus today for their development.”