Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1577
Chapter 2481: The Blast of Alien Civilizations! |
"What?"
Aside from Xiaoming and Wenwen, everybody stood up. Boss Bai, the Fist King, and even Long Yangjun all bulged their eyes, both real ones and artificial ones, and stared at Li Yao. The muscles on their faces were tightened, and they couldn't help but open their mouths in shock.
Boss Bai said in a hurry, "Where did you know 'witchcraft' from? What is the 'witchcraft' you know exactly?"
"About that…"
Li Yao had no idea why his heart was beating so fast. It was almost like a pile driver was bashing his chest nonstop. He could not control himself at all despite his Cultivation that was beyond the Divinity Transformation Stage.
In only a few seconds, the sweat on his forehead and his back had surged out like blood, wetting his facial organs and his clothes.
Billions of pieces were dancing crazily in the storm inside his brain, like petrels that were flying against the tempest. Every feather on every petrel was a different wizardly world that was imagined by the earthlings.
"If I say that I heard the word 'witchcraft' in my dreams, would you believe me?"
Looking at everyone, Li Yao scratched his head. "As for what the witchcraft that I saw in my dreams was like, it simply had too many appearances. It's almost like—it's almost like there were countless wizardly worlds. Some of the worlds had 'wizardly webs', and some had the uncanny things like 'elements'. Also, in some of the worlds, only females could perform the witchcraft, and they must observe celibacy until they are thirty in order to increase the density of witchcraft inside their bodies and to improve the deftness of their fingers. After that, they can release fireballs and such easily… All in all, there was a plethora of them. I can't tell them specifically right now. They were in my dreams after all. Most of the details were forgotten the moment I woke up."
"There are countless wizardly worlds?"
Alarmed, Boss Bai and the Fist King looked at each other, before they stared at Li Yao at a loss for a long time. Then, Boss Bai suddenly laughed and shook his head. "It does make sense. I should have seen it coming. Too many historians have studied your rise, tracing you all the way back to your early years in Floating Spear City, but they can't find the initial reason that made you strong at the beginning.
"The magical equipment graveyard was certainly not a place that any regular kid could survive.
"You… witnessed witchcraft in your dream? Then it all makes sense now!"
Holding his forehead, Li Yao tried to hold back the headache and the uncanny feeling of weakness. He frowned and said, "Boss Bai, Long Yangjun, Fist King, it hasn't been an easy journey for us to meet again with all our subtle identities. In order for us to complete the whole puzzle together, I'll not keep the information that can be told to you a secret. However, the dreams in my head are truly broken and obscure. They have to be connected with more clues. Why don't you tell us what the 'witchcraft' you discovered was first?"
"Fine!"
Boss Bai agreed quickly. "There are not many secrets between us in the first place. Now that you are willing to be honest, I am certainly not a petty coward either. I'll tell you everything I know as it is.
"If you know 'witchcraft', do you know 'Gaoist'? It's possibly a transliteration from the languages of the wizardly civilizations, something related to the soul or the mind."
"Gaoist… Gaoist…?"
Li Yao mumbled it several times. Then, recalling English from Earth for some reason, he was naturally struck with a word, "GHOST!"
In the memories of Earth, Li Yao never had great grades, and English was not his mother tongue either, but "GHOST" was a relatively elementary word and was applied in various aspects, including being used to name a tool that could reinstall a computer system rapidly. So, it did not take Li Yao much time to think of it.
Boss Bai and the Fist King looked at each other in bewilderment. Li Yao's pronunciation was apparently more standard than Boss Bai's "Gaoist". At the very least, the intonation was much better, making it sound like a certain blurred spell.
Boss Bai's face changed abruptly as he said, "How does the word spell? What does it mean?"
"It goes like this—"
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao extended his finger and wrote "GHOST" on the light beam. He then explained, "I may not know all of its meaning, but it mainly means 'the spirit of a dead person that some people think they can feel or see in a place'. Right, a rather famous booting system was named after it too."
"It's… It's really identical."
Looking at the word on the light beam, Boss Bai put on an expression of disbelief again. It was not until a long daze that he finally said, "GHOST, fake, booting system? That's right! Everything makes sense now! Fist King, show Li Yao that thing!"
The Fist King acknowledged and took out the chip that Boss Bai offered to him from the container on his chest. Tossing it to Li Yao, he said, "Take a look at it. Do you recognize the words on it?"
Li Yao picked up the chip, not knowing what they were up to. He was then rigidified when he touched it with his finger. After he looked at it, he exclaimed in shock, "What the heck!"
Boss Bai and the Fist King did not recognize the zigzagging calligraphy on the chip, but Li Yao could tell after the first glance that it seemed to be a combination of quite a few phonetic languages that were based on the alphabet!
At first look, it was rather similar to English, but it appeared more vintage and glamorous than it. It did not look like the language of any of the other superpowers in Europena either, but more like their ancient cousin—what was its name, Shatin? No, Latin!
Li Yao's understanding of English was restricted to the most fundamental vocabulary, and he did not know the first thing about the languages of the other countries of Europena, much less the obsolete Latin was barely used by anyone. Also, the chip had almost been melted, and all the words on the surface had only the shallowest traces. It was impossible for him to know what the hybrid text expressed.
However, for a "Divinity Transformation Stage expert", who had been living in a Cultivation civilization for more than a hundred years and who had been solely soaked and nourished in the Cultivation civilization, the shock after seeing what appeared to be English and Latin in his own, which felt like the world was collapsing and recombining before him, was beyond the description of any words.
It was no exaggeration to say that Li Yao was like a cricket that had been raised in a can all the time, and the "hall wall" that surrounded him suddenly collapsed one day, making him realize that there was a boundless world outside!
"This is… This is… This is—"
Li Yao's face was now red and now blue, and his brain almost stopped functioning. Holding the chip, he felt that he was holding a cluster of sweltering magma. He wanted to let it go but couldn't bear to lose it. He could barely breathe.
"Li Yao, are-are you okay?"
Observing him, Boss Bai asked concernedly. Fine, although Li Yao was usually a great troublemaker, he was now the sole lead for Boss Bai to march to the wizardly worlds. Naturally, Boss Bai had to ensure that Li Yao was safe and sound!
"I'm fine, it's just—"
Taking a few deep breaths, Li Yao managed a smile with a pale face. "I'm just feeling weird to see 'ABCD' in such a world of Cultivation that is filled with eastern mysteriousness.
"Speaking of which, where did you get this, Boss Bai? And why did you ask the Fist King to keep it? Is it related to the Fist King too?"
Boss Bai looked at the Fist King.
The Fist King said in a dull voice, "Li Yao knows my identity. Or rather, he was the one who 'enlightened' me. Or in Boss Bai's theory, it was he who activated a certain strength inside my body. Besides, he has shared his own uncanny dreams with us. According to my calculation, there is no need to keep any secret from him. It is impossible to keep any secret."
"In that case, I'll say it out."
Boss Bai thought for a moment and offered all the information he knew, including how the Big Bai Pirate Gang met the debris of the wizardly civilization's starship after jumping to the edge of the Martial Meritocrats Sector of the Imperium of True Human Beings, how he found a chip and inferred fuzzy information from it, and how he analyzed the Fist King's identity later.
He stressed on the "Flood" that caused the destruction of thousands of civilizations including the wizardly civilizations, presenting all his speculations and deductions.
Li Yao and Long Yangjun were both stunned.
"Beyond the three thousand Sectors we are at, it is a desolate space that is almost infinitely vast, like a ubiquitous, impenetrable black wall. But beyond the black wall, there are still billions of worlds and billions of civilizations? The civilizations that run in completely different ways, like the wizardly civilizations that draw energy from the four-dimensional lives?
"The billions of brilliant civilizations, on the other hand, have been destroyed by a certain mysterious and powerful strength—the Flood?
"Nobody knows whether or not there are more survivors of the alien civilizations beyond the 'black wall', or if they have luckily, or unluckily, crossed the black wall and entered the Cultivation civilization like the wizardly civilization's starship? And nobody knows where the Flood went after absorbing countless civilizations?
"Has the Flood died down? Or is it taking a nap after having a delicious meal? Or has it woken up from a prolonged digestion and is searching for the next batch of 'food' hungrily, food like mankind in the Cultivation world?"
The unimaginably horrible pictures flashed in Li Yao's and Long Yangjun's heads. They looked at each other in bewilderment and a bitter smile.
Li Yao finally understood why Boss Bai was utterly untouched when he was faced with such a shocking event as the "awakening of artificial intelligence".
If the wizardly civilization as well as the other billions of extraterrestrial civilizations did exist, and the "Flood" that destroyed them was still out there, the threat of the awakened artificial intelligence was truly not a big deal.
"Li Yao, what we have right now is just such a tiny chip as well as ungrounded speculations."
Boss Bai said solemnly, "I thought that both the wizardly civilization and the all-destroying Flood were still too distant from us for us to explore them yet, but your arrival has brought us new hope.
"I have already told you everything that I know. Can you recall more things?"
"I need to think about it. I need to think about it carefully."
Closing his eyes, Li Yao wiped his nosebleed that was running out beyond his control, and he whispered in such a low voice that it sounded like dream talk, "Perhaps I need to have a good sleep and look for the answer in my dreams…"
Translator's Note: As the translator mentioned before, translation can be difficult when metalanguage is involved. When reading the few recent chapters, please imagine that Li Yao and his companions are communicating in Chinese (or whatever Chinese is on the alternative Earth xD). The capitalized words such as GHOST are when they are actually speaking English.
[ol][li data-annotation-id="9d29284b-f3ce-429b-b1ac-f75e2b3e7b8e"]Note: GHOST, other than being the name of a famous open-source CMS, is also a solution to boot and reinstall your OS. It was quite a popular tool in China five to ten years ago but is not as frequently used today. Check "ghost boot" on google for more details.[/ol]
Chapter 2482: The Center of Every Universe! |
The two consecutive battles in only twenty-four hours were too exhausting both for the body and for the soul.
The discussion on "wizardly civilization" and "Flood" later was a major shock for everyone too.
Even though they were all unparalleled experts who were above the middle level of the Divinity Transformation Stage on average, they still felt their feebleness and insignificance when faced with such a vast and horrible view of the universe. They had to adjourn for now and take a night of rest before sharing wisdom and courage with each other.
Otherwise, chances were that some of them would go mad and vomit blood in the middle of the conversation.
Li Yao did not talk to anybody else but went straight back to his room. He meant to fall asleep and explore Earth that was getting clearer and clearer in his bizarre dreams.
But however fatigued his body and his soul were, he couldn't force himself to go to sleep at all. In the end, he could only stare at a crack on the ceiling with his bloodshot eyes.
He thought that by advancing to the apex of the Divinity Transformation Stage, he had deeply understood himself as well as the entire world.
However, a tiny chip and the few letters completely shattered his arrogance, reteaching him the vastness of the universe, the wonderfulness of the world, and the endless, spectacular journey!
"Witchcraft. What is witchcraft exactly?"
Since he couldn't fall asleep, Li Yao simply sat straight and stared at his fingers as he sorted through the messy clues in his head.
Just like what he said to Boss Bai earlier, the "witchcraft" in the Earth-related memories were splendid and entailed infinite possibilities.
The Harry Lotter series was only a world that mastered the magic force of the lowest level. Other than that, countless strong and ancient people on Earth had their own witchcraft, their own legends, and their own bizarre, incredible fictitious worlds.
Witchcraft, vampire, werewolf, witch, Witcher, zombies.
Helios, Thor, Hades, Mars, Pan, Dionysus, Quetzalcoatl, Siva… and of course, Pangu and Nuwa, whom Li Yao had been familiar with in his previous life.
Their ancient prototypes were born when human beings were born and passed on for tens of thousands of years before they were gathered into the illusionary worlds of Cultivation and witchcraft in the modern sense. Even though they were all called "witchcraft", they were greatly different in terms of the strength system and the way to use it. They were essentially the products of different worlds.
"Wait—"
Li Yao mumbled to himself, "There's the concept of 'Cultivation' on Earth too. Right in the homeland of my former self, splendid worlds of Cultivation emerged in the heads of a lot of people!
"Right. In the Earth memories from a long time ago, I seemed to have read a Cultivation novel, in which the levels were also classified into the Refinement Stage, the Building Foundation Stage, the Core Formation Stage, the Nascent Soul Stage, and the Divinity Transformation Stage.
"Is it a coincidence? Of course not!
"But what is it if it isn't a coincidence?"
Li Yao counted his fingers and sorted through all the known information.
First of all, if Boss Bai's speculation was correct, there was still an extremely vast universe beyond the Cultivation world created by human beings in the Pangu universe. In the universe that had been expanded billions of times lay other brilliant civilizations such as the wizardly civilization.
But it was a shame that those civilizations were too far away from the Cultivation civilization, and they were blocked by the black wall of death and silence where resources were few. It was barely possible for the two parties to communicate.
Only a few lucky dogs, say a starship of the wizardly civilization, or a meteorite on which the Blood Stripe Virus in Li Yao's head once boarded, could possibly penetrate through the black wall and reach the Cultivation civilization.
Or even worse, before the Cultivation civilization discovered the other civilizations, they had all been destroyed by the "Flood".
No, they were not entirely destroyed.
At least in one place, namely Earth—which seemed small, plain, and barren and devoid of spiritual energy, witchcraft, or any other supernatural powers—those civilizations that shouldn't have known each other and should've been destroyed were cramming together, communicating, integrating, and giving birth to all kinds of new fictions.
What was Earth exactly? Was it a transfer station or a rendezvous for countless civilizations in the vast universe?
Then, why was he determined to destroy Earth, which was likely to be the last asylum for those civilizations?
In a trance, Li Yao heard himself roaring and swearing to accomplish the "Vulture Plan" again.
"Generations of civilizations have been confined to this goddamn Earth, caught in the infinite loops, unable to free themselves!"
Li Yao had thought that the so-called "generations of civilizations" referred to the aboriginal civilizations on Earth. But now that he thought of it, did they refer to the things like "Cultivation civilization" and "wizardly civilization"?
The civilizations of countless universes, including the Cultivation civilization and the wizardly civilization, were confined to the small, barren Earth and mired in a certain unbreakable loop? The ultimate purpose of the "Vulture Plan" was to break the loop?
That was really a headache!
"Anyhow, we have found the answer to at least one thing."
The mental devil turned into a tiny sprout and crawled out of his forehead. Holding its arms and in deep thought, it said thoughtfully, "It's about why Earth is the center of the universe."
Li Yao was slightly dazed. It was indeed a question that once baffled him.
He remembered clearly that after the Vulture Plan failed, a voice asked him to escape from Earth to somewhere as far away as possible, preferably the edge of the universe.
Since the furthest place from Earth was the edge of the universe, there was no doubt that Earth was the center of the universe.
But to Li Yao's knowledge, the center of the "Pangu universe" in which the three thousand Sectors were located was undoubtedly the Empyreal Terminus Sector. In terms of the relative location on the three-dimensional level and the wormholes most suitable for four-dimensional jumps, the Empyreal Terminus Sector was the well-deserved "center of the Pangu universe".
Li Yao once had the idea that Earth and the capital of the Empyreal Terminus Sector were the same place. In that way, the problem regarding the "center of the universe" would be resolved.
