Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 774
After he was declared dead, his self-awareness was concentrated again, and he was reborn as a baby in a magical equipment graveyard in the Star Glory Federation of the Heaven's Origin Sector.
Therefore, for a long time, Li Yao had thought that he might have been an earthling in his previous life, and he had somehow been teleported to the Heaven's Origin Sector after he was killed in the car accident.
Such time travel and reincarnation, although not common in the world of Cultivators, was certainly not unprecedented or totally incomprehensible.
After all, all kinds of uncanny things could happen to a Cultivator.
But what was the scar-faced woman all about?
She was wearing a ragged leather armor, but in his quick glimpse, Li Yao still vaguely saw a few spiritual stripes between the blood and the stains on the armor.
It was a set of armor that could unleash spiritual shields and defense arrays.
Additionally, the scar-faced woman had been carrying a chainsword and a storm bolter. Although Li Yao did not have the time to distinguish their specific model, they were clearly not products of Earth.
At the very least, they were not the products of the commonly-known Earth in the 2010s.
However, the scar-faced woman had said something to him, something like a labyrinth and a puzzle.
Welcome to Earth!
"Ah…"
The more he thought about it, the greater the headache he had. Holding the milk container, he sat down in a corner of the kitchen and stared at the cold moonlight outside through the window of the shabby cottage.
What… was Earth exactly?
"Hey, are you there? Come on out!"
Li Yao unlocked the barriers deep inside his brain and summoned the mental devil.
The computational ability of Li Yao alone was not enough to figure out such complicated issues. He had to count on the mental devil's half to get a general idea of it.
"I won't."
Deep inside his brain, the mental devil's dull and wronged voice came out.
"Why?"
Li Yao was rather stunned. Was it not good to enjoy some fresh air?
"What do you regard me as?" the mental devil asked poignantly. "Every time you had a 'competition of beliefs' with your wife, you would kick me into the deepest part of your brain and suppress me with dozens of barriers. You don't even let me watch! Now, your wife is not here, and you are calling me again because you feel lonely. Do you think that I'm a football that you can kick away and take back at your will?"
"Well, I admit that I was wrong," Li Yao replied. "Next time, I will ask you to leave politely. I won't kick you or strike you with lightning anymore. That should be enough, I believe?"
"Why? You and I are the same. You are me, and I am you. Therefore, Ding Lingdang is my wife, too. Why can't I even watch?"
"… Forget it. You can keep yourself inside. Really. Just stay inside the depths of my brain!"
"I might as well get out then."
Like a round, fat sloth, the mental devil slowly crawled out of the root of Ou Yezi's memory tree. It took a memory piece from the tree and chewed slowly. "What's the problem this time?"
"A weird one."
Lightning-like thoughts struck inside Li Yao's brain as he shared the weird dream that he had just experienced with the mental devil. "Look. The weird dream concerning the death of the earthling Li Yao, which we've been having for years, seemed to have an entirely different ending. The earthling Li Yao didn't die in the hospital but… reached a weird place where he ran into a weird woman!
"Isn't it contradictory to the weird dreams in the past?
"Help me analyze what is going on here. Does this so-called 'Earth' really exist? What's the real identity of the earthling Li Yao? Which of the two different endings is true, and which is false?"
Chapter 1181: Something Is Terribly Wrong! |
The mental devil dissected the weird dream into the most fundamental stream of information and swallowed it. Smacking the lips and pondering for a moment, the mental devil mumbled, "It's indeed a bit strange but not so far as 'self-contradictory'. Or rather, this dream filled the most critical blank of the previous weird dreams!"
Li Yao was refreshed. "How so?"
"Look. In fact, the dreams we've had before are divided into two vastly different, if not opposite, parts."
Waving its arms and legs, the mental devil declared, "First of all, in our childhood and youth, before our spiritual root was awakened, the weird dreams we had were about the 'earthling Li Yao'.
"This particular 'earthling Li Yao' lived in the 2010s on Earth. He was just a regular car mechanic. If there was anything special about him, it was perhaps his racing skills, but it was not any special ability.
"All in all, this 'earthling Li Yao' was a completely ordinary person, and the planet that he lived on was a plain, peaceful world devoid of spiritual energy. He lived a boring life until he had a car accident that got him killed!"
Li Yao nodded. "Yes, that's right. It is why I thought that I was the reincarnation of the 'earthling Li Yao', except that my memories and self-awareness of the past were somehow maintained while I was reborn. Was I wrong?"
"No. Not exactly," the mental devil said carefully. "However, after we became a Cultivator, and especially after we perceived the mysteries of the superlative height of the Core Formation Stage through the fierce battles in the Flying Star Sector, didn't a new dream occur to us?
"In the new dream, the 'earthling Li Yao' was a warrior who was resisting something. But the thing was, as I quote, 'too dark and too strong'. Eventually, all our companions were killed by the thing, and we were the only lucky survivor.
"The reason we escaped was to carry on the Vulture Plan and to destroy something. Maybe, it was the 'too dark and too strong' thing that we were determined to destroy!"
Li Yao was deep in thought. "Yes. Although I don't quite remember what is it that we wanted to destroy, the feelings of desperation and depression were deep to my bones."
"Then, something doesn't make sense now," the mental devil said. "The earthling Li Yao was just a regular car mechanic and an excellent racer at best. He never served in the army, nor was he a warrior adept at fighting. How was he involved in the Vulture Plan?
"Besides, in our memories, Earth at the beginning of the twenty-first century, although not entirely peaceful, certainly did not have world wars! There were two superpowers that controlled Asia and Americas. The influence of their army radiated over the entire planet. There was friction between the two superpowers, but they certainly did not wage war at each other.
"Then, even if a certain threat that was 'too dark and too strong', say a virus or an alien, appeared, the two superpowers would certainly be there to settle everything. What could an insignificant mechanic do?
"If even the two superpowers could not deal with the threat, it's even less possible that such a mechanic could save the world, right?"
Li Yao nodded quickly. "I was too trapped in my own thinking. Your analysis is quite correct! It does make sense. Now that I see it, the so-called Vulture Plan is too ungrounded. The two superpowers on Earth had almost twenty aircraft carrier battle groups and millions of soldiers, not to mention their powerful nuclear bombs. Even a few Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators might not fair too well if they went to Earth.
"Even if Earth really encountered a crisis, the two superpowers would've been there to deal with it. What did it have to do with a civilian?
"Or rather, is one of the two inconsistent dreams false?
"Either the identity of the 'car mechanic Li Yao' is false, or the Vulture Plan is!"
The mental devil shook its head hard. "Not necessarily. Don't jump to any conclusions so fast. In my opinion, the key to understand the dreams lies in the one you had today.
"Alright, let's sort through the timeline."
The mental devil counted its fingers and said solemnly, "Before, there was a place called 'Earth', where an ordinary person named 'Li Yao' lived.
"Earth was a world without spiritual energy, and Li Yao was nothing more than an unknown, insignificant civilian. Other than his amazing racing skills, he did not have any special ability. He was not a secret agent of the government, nor had he ever heard of the Vulture Plan!"
Li Yao nodded. "That's right. Go on."
"Then, one day, Li Yao had an accident during a race. Everybody thought that he was dead, but he wasn't. Instead, he met a super ugly woman who was wearing spiritual armor and carrying a chainsword and a storm bolter in ways that we can't understand.
"After that, the memories went blank. We directly jumped to the end, where all his companions were killed and part of his remaining soul escaped from Earth in a hurry. He swore that he would come back one day and carry on the Vulture Plan!"
Li Yao narrowed his eyes and mumbled, "Are you suggesting that, after the earthling Li Yao's accident, he wasn't directly teleported to the Heaven's Origin Sector, but met the ugly woman and possibly joined a certain organization with the Vulture Plan as the core? He didn't flee to the Heaven's Origin Sector until the organization was crushed by the enemy, and he was forced to leave Earth?"
The mental devil nodded its head solemnly. "Yes. That must be the case."
"It does make a lot of more sense now. Otherwise, an insignificant car mechanic certainly would not have had much to do with the mysterious Vulture Plan!" Li Yao took a deep breath, his temples bouncing. Thousands of thoughts seemed to be popping out of his head.
Rubbing his temples softly, his eyebrows furrowed again. "No. There is still something inexplicable. Even if the earthling joined a certain mysterious organization after the accident, why was he greeted with 'Welcome to Earth'?
"Li Yao was an earthling who had lived on Earth his whole life! What did she mean by saying 'Welcome to Earth'?
"Generally speaking, this should be the way that the locals of Earth greeted aliens, right? Or was the previous Li Yao in fact not an earthling but an alien? That's too hilarious, definitely impossible!
"Also, why was the woman who said the greeting using magical equipment? Her leather armor, chainsword, and storm bolter were definitely magical equipment driven by crystals instead of the firearms of Earth driven by gunpowder and electricity. I'm certain about that!
"She should be a Cultivator!
"But that's not right. There were clearly no Cultivators on Earth. Where was such a weird female Cultivator from? And why was she saying 'Welcome to Earth'?"
Li Yao was more and more confused. He seemed to be mired in a revolving swamp and could not find a way out however hard he struggled.
Scratching his head hard, he narrowed his eyes into two spirals as he mumbled, "Did Earth really exist, or was it just part of my imagination?"
The mental devil was confused, too. "Welcome to Earth. It is indeed a weird greeting. Li Yao of the previous life was an earthling in the first place. Why would anybody welcome an earthling to Earth? It is not logical at all!"
Murmuring for a long time, Li Yao suddenly shuddered and jumped to his feet as if he suffered an electric shock. He demanded, "What did you say?"
The mental devil was shocked by him, too. "I said, why would anybody welcome an earthling to Earth?"
"Not this one. The next sentence. The next one!"
Li Yao could not help but tremble as if he had heard the most dreadful spell in the world.
The mental devil was baffled. After thinking for a moment, it replied uncertainly, "I said… it is not logical at all—what? Is there anything wrong with that?"
Li Yao narrowed his eyes, his body temperature dropping by more than ten degrees. Every muscle on his face and his body was shaking nonstop. "No. There is nothing wrong about that, but I've heard many people saying the word 'logic' before. Something is greatly wrong about that!
"Also, now that I think about it, when I proposed to Ding Lingdang, she once said that she was not a woman who pursued romance, didn't she? You were there, too. Did she say that?"
The mental devil scratched its head and blinked. "What's wrong with that? She has never been a romantic woman after all."
"Don't you understand?" Li Yao bellowed. "The critical question is not whether or not she is a romantic woman but why the word 'romance' was in her vocabulary and why she understood its meaning precisely! It is as baffling as why the people in the world of Cultivators know the word 'logic' and understand its meaning!
"Romance is not a word in our native language but from a certain western language on Earth!"
After he advanced into the Nascent Soul Stage, Li Yao's memories had been significantly enhanced. Even the memory pieces in the deepest part of his brain could be recalled easily. Therefore, with a telepathic thought, he retrieved the etymology of the word 'romance' on Earth.
"The same goes for 'logic'. It is a borrowed word, too, which can be dated back to ancient Greek.
"Here comes the question!
"You and I know the meaning and usage of the transliterations such as 'romance' and 'logic' because we share the memories of the 'earthling Li Yao'. Both of the two words originated from the western civilizations on Earth and were passed on from Greek to English until they were loaned into the Chinese language!
"But Ding Lingdang and other people don't know anything about Earth. They don't know anything about 'ancient Greek' and 'English' at all. Then, why do they know the usages of the transliterations such as 'logic' and 'romance'?"
Chapter 1182: Of the Same Origin? |
The mental devil was dazed for a long time. After it thought everything through, it was trembling as violently as Li Yao.
"It—It must a coincidence," the mental devil said in a low voice.
"If the transliterations such as 'romance' or 'logic' are coincidences, how do you explain the following words?" Li Yao said coldly. "I've fought with the federal army and the Cultivators more times than I can count. Every time we are grasped by desperation, people always use two idioms to boost the morale—'break the cooking pots and sink the boats' and 'fight with the river to our back'!
"I didn't feel too strange about those two idioms before, but on second thought, do you not feel that it is horrifying?
"Where does the idiom 'break the cooking pots and sink the boats' come from? It comes from an ancient general named Xiang Yu in the Chinese culture on Earth who smashed the cooking pots and burnt the boats, declaring to his army that there was no retreat, during the resistance against the Kingdom of Qin. Eventually, he crushed the magnificent Kingdom of Qin, thereby leaving the tale of 'breaking the cooking pots and sinking the boats'!
"As for the idiom 'fight with the river to our back', it is about another famous general named Han Xin, who deployed his army right in front of the river during a battle. It was also a method to encourage the soldiers to fight hard in the desperate situation because they had nowhere to retreat. In the end, he secured a victory, hence the idiom!
"It means that the two famous generals named Xiang Yu and Han Xin appeared on Earth first before the two idioms 'break the cooking pots and sink the boats' and 'fight with the river to our back' came into being!
"You and I boast the memories of the earthling Li Yao. So, it is not strange that we know the two idioms. But what about other people? Why are other people aware of the idioms that come from Earth?
"There are more popular idioms than 'break the cooking pots and sink the boats' and 'fight with the river to our back' in this era. For example, there are also 'taste the gall on the hay' and 'call a deer a house'… All of them are common idioms that people use on a daily basis, but they are based on the tales from Earth. Are they simply coincidences?
"Also, stocks, network, government, army… all those notions exist both on Earth and in the world of Cultivators and have the same spelling. How incredible is that?"
After hearing the words, the mental devil began to scratch its head hard.
After scratching for a long time, it suddenly slapped its thigh and declared, "It's simple. Let's go to the Spiritual Nexus, find an online dictionary, and check the etymology of the idioms such as 'break the cooking pots and sink the boats' and 'fight with the river to our back'. Let's see how they are described in the dictionaries!"
Li Yao's eyes suddenly gleamed. He immediately felt that he was foolish not to have come up with the idea earlier.
He hurried to turn on his crystal processor and looked for the most official online dictionary. He typed in 'logic' and hit 'Confirm'. The meaning of the word 'logic' immediately popped up on the light beam.
"Logic, originally meaning 'the word' or 'what is spoken', but coming to mean 'thought' or 'reason', is a subject concerned with the most general laws of truth and is now generally held to consist of the systematic study of the form of valid inference.
"There is no universal agreement as to the exact scope and subject matter of logic, but it has traditionally included the classification of arguments, the systematic exposition of the 'logical form' common to all valid arguments, the study of inference, including fallacies, and the study of semantics, including paradoxes.
"The word 'logic' originates in the ancient language 'Tianzheluo', which was spoken in the Heavenly Philosophy Great Sector fifty-five thousand years ago. It is said to be related to a certain alien civilization who communicated with each other telepathically, but the theory cannot be confirmed…"
Li Yao and the mental devil looked at each other in bewilderment.
What was the meaning of that?
According to the explanation of the dictionary, the word 'logic' was not from ancient Greek on Earth but an ancient language called Tianzheluo in the so-called Heavenly Philosophy Great Sector?
Li Yao thought for a moment and typed in the idiom 'break the cooking pots and sink the boats' and hit 'Confirm'.
"Break the cooking pots and sink the boats, a metaphor that one must secure the victory of a war without considering retreating. Cooking pot: a large piece of equipment for cooking food on or in.
"In the middle phase of the era of ancient Cultivators fifty thousand years ago, the saying 'burn the boats and break the pots' was already recorded in the 'Great Changes in the Army', one of the classics at the time, to demonstrate the spirit of fighting to the end even if it meant death, but it was not passed on as an established idiom yet.
