Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“To achieve your purpose, you have wasted fourteen demon emperors and countless elite troops of the Blood Demon Sector. Even the Red Tide Plan, your lifelong work, has been thrown out as bait and ruined!”

Li Yao felt that his heart was cold. Jin Tuyi’s ruthlessness was beyond his imagination.

However, there was still something wrong!

Li Yao thought for a moment and shook his head. “No. Something is still not right here. If you are really a patient of cerebral sclerosis, you would not be able to keep it a secret for long. What’s the point of being the monocratic leader of the Blood Demon Sector?

“If I were you, I would certainly have tried to implement my lifelong plan at any cost when I was diagnosed with a terminal disease. Why would you trade the work of your life for power that will be gone very soon?”

Jin Tuyi burst into laughter, but he coughed so violently in the middle of his laughter that tears were congregating inside his eyes. He rolled his wings and rubbed his temples with his feathers to soothe his headache. Nodding his head in approval, he said, “Young man, you are quite right. That is exactly what I am doing right now!

“In your eyes, the Red Tide Plan is equal to the Eye of Blood Demon, and the destruction of the Eye of Blood Demon means the destruction of the Red Tide Plan, right?”

Li Yao frowned, “Is it not?”

“Of course not,” Jin Tuyi said casually. “How can the plan that I have considered for decades and put into practice at the cost of my life be as simple as an unexpected assault?

“Even if the unexpected assault worked out, and the capital city of the Star Glory Federation was occupied, so what? Growing from the resistance organization five hundred years ago into a vast country that has governed the entire Heaven’s Origin Sector, the Star Glory Federation has enough tenacity and determination. Even if your capital is occupied, you will certainly not surrender. At the last moment, you may even drag the Blood Demon Sector toward hell together!

“Even if you do surrender, the Star Glory Federation is completely ruined, and the demons become dominators of the both our sectors after the two worlds are merged, so what? Will it mean anything?”

Li Yao was confused. “Crushing the Star Glory Federation and ruling the new twin world, thereby doubling your territory. Is it pointless?”

“Yes. Absolutely pointless,” Jin Tuyi said cruelly. “Even if the Heaven’s Origin Sector is completely conquered, we will merely be turning from one lone island at the edge of the universe into two. How can two lone islands devastated by war expect to resist the attacks from the Imperium of True Human Beings?”

Li Yao was even more shocked. “You believe in the existence of the Imperium of True Human Beings? No. No. No! You started planning the Red Tide Plan decades ago. At that time, there was no way that you knew the existence of the Imperium of True Human Beings. Absolutely no way!”

“Of course, I didn’t know anything about the Imperium of True Human Beings. In fact, even now, you still haven’t offered valid evidence to prove its existence.” Jin Tuyi smiled. “However, no evidence is required. You only need to consider with the simplest thinking ability to realize one thing.

“If a barren, desolate area at the edge of the universe has produced the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector, two forces who have passed on the tinder of the civilizations since forty thousand years ago, then at the center of the universe, where the resources are densely concentrated, one or more stronger, more advanced forces must’ve been born in the past ten thousand years, right?

“Maybe the Imperium of True Human Beings, maybe the Imperium of False Human Beings, maybe the Imperium of New Human Beings… Whatever their name is, the most important fact is that such a strong force must’ve been born a long, long time ago!”

Li Yao pondered for a moment and nodded. He found it odd that he did not figure out such simple logic earlier.

Jin Tuyi continued. “Since said force was born at the center of the universe, which was the prosperous area of the imperium in the past, it was only a matter of time for the force to discover the arsenal, the collection of techniques, the star maps left a long time ago, and eventually the other Sectors, right?”

Li Yao nodded solemnly.

“After locating the other Sectors, they would certainly launch an expedition, hoping to recover the territory of the imperium in the past and even expand it to the vaster universe. It is in the nature of our species, which claims to be ‘the best fighting species in the sea of stars’, right?”

Li Yao noticed that Jin Tuyi said ‘our species’, but he simply frowned and did not interrupt.

Jin Tuyi’s voice was calmer than ever, with the peacefulness deep inside his eyes indicating that he had seen through everything. “I didn’t know the truth about ‘Chaos’ and the origins of the demon race until a month ago. However, the theory that human beings and demons share the same origin, as an opinion in the academic world, was not new to me. I never had any doubt about it.

“More importantly, after exploring the history in the past ten thousand years and studying the rise of the Star Glory Federation and the wars between the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector, I gradually firmed my belief, which was that the glory of the demon race in the old days had passed and would perhaps never be back. The era of the ‘demons’ has ended. The future belongs to ‘human beings’!

“Hehe. In this respect, Elder Nether Spring and I have reached the same conclusion. We are truly each other’s bosom buddies!”

His face weird, Li Yao could not help but find it absurd.

Of the four giants of the Blood Demon Sector, two firmly believed in the failure of the demon race? That was—that was too unbelievable.

“You and Elder Nether Spring are both capitulators!” he blurted out.

“No,” Jin Tuyi said casually. “We are unwavering pessimists, but we are absolutely not capitulators.”

Li Yao did not understand. “Is there a difference?”

“Of course they are different. Pessimists will explore a new path in another direction with their wisdom when they find that they are hitting a dead end, but capitulators will sit and do nothing, waiting for the mercy of their enemy, in the same situation.

“Elder Nether Spring and I both firmly believe that the traditional path is not going to work out. Therefore, we were all trying our best to figure out a new path. The only difference is that Elder Nether Spring came up with the Spore Stratagem, and I developed the Red Tide Plan.

“The failure of the demon race that I believe in does not refer to the minor struggle between the Blood Demon Sector and the Heaven’s Origin Sector. In the local war between the two insignificant worlds, it is quite possible for the demon race to secure a temporary victory, or even entirely conquer the Heaven’s Origin Sector.

“However, when I rolled over on my bed during countless dark nights, and when my soul flew away from the Blood Demon Sector and the Heaven’s Origin Sector to the depths of the sea of stars where I could consider the future of our race in the long term, I discovered, to my depression, the victory of such a local war meant absolutely nothing.

“The universe has changed!

“As you said, the rise of the demon race was because the gory wars among the ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago drained the spiritual energy in the three thousand Sectors, leading to the ‘Era of Doom’.

“In the universe, which was harsh and short of spiritual energy, demons resorted to their genetic advantages and were more adapted to the environment and more likely to survive.

“It was the foundation for the glory of the demon race in the next thirty thousand years!

“After forty thousand years’ rest, the spiritual energy in the three thousand Sectors was getting dense again. The ‘Era of Doom’ slowly passed. It was the first toll of the death knell for the old demon race.

“However, it is still not the most important reason the old demon race is destined to doom.”

Li Yao was completely baffled. “What do you mean?”

“The key is technology. The popularization of the magical equipment, the improvement of training techniques, and the integration of Cultivators and ordinary people, while disrupting the old sociological patterns, has slowly swallowed the greatest advantage of the old demon race.”

Jin Tuyi slowly unfolded his wings and smiled. “What beautiful wings, aren’t they? Do you know why demons have grown wings, shells, claws, and tusks?”

Li Yao scratched his hair. What kind of question was that? Was it not a matter of course that demons boasted wings, claws, and shells?

“In the era of ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago,” Jin Tuyi continued, “Cultivators were selfish and conservative. They regarded ordinary people as ants and never considered teaching advanced techniques to ordinary people. Nor had the ordinary people ever benefited from the powerful magical equipment. The only thing that the Cultivators did was fight, fight, and fight with the magical equipment and the techniques! While they were mauling each other, the precious crystals and spiritual energy were wasted blatantly!

“Therefore, in the era of ancient Cultivators, the upper half of society and lower half were completely divided.

“On one side, it was the high, mighty, marvelous Cultivators.

“On the other side, it was the meager, uncared, uneducated ordinary people who were no better than primitives.

“Powerful as the flying swords of the Cultivators were, ordinary people still had to get their food from the barren land with their broken hoes. They still had to crouch in their dark cottage, unwilling to light the candle because it was too expensive. In the meantime, Cultivators would rather practice a new skill of killing in seclusion for decades than spend several years inventing a more efficient hoe that utilized spiritual energy or a piece of popular lighting magical equipment that was cleaner and cheaper.

“It was the era where the crevasse between ordinary people and Cultivators was biggest. In the eyes of ordinary people, Cultivators were out-and-out ‘deities walking on the earth’. It was not an intact ‘civilization of mankind’ but a freakish mess that was a messy combination of the ‘civilization of Cultivators’ and the ‘civilization of ordinary people’. The two civilizations had a gap of thousands of years in their development level!

“Such a gap created the best opportunity for the rise of the old demon race.

“After taking the Divine Water of Kunlun, the ancient demon race unleashed the forces deep inside their cells. They were bestowed gifts from the primeval era, and they grew sharp tusks, shining claws, broad wings, and strong tails.

“Even if they didn’t have flying swords, they could still fly in the sky with their wings. Even if they didn’t have Water Escaping Balls, they could still swim at the bottom of an ocean with their gills!

“Although they were still no match for the Cultivators, they were more than enough to deal with other ordinary people. Ordinary people are the foundation of the birth and growth of the Cultivators. Without a solid foundation, how could the superstructure not fall apart?

“The demons realized the logic earlier than the Cultivators did. That was the ultimate reason for their rise later.”