Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 896
"You can seize the day right now, but later, our iron legion of Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators will crush all the other Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators who are enjoying their life, including you!
"This is the power of organization! This is the power of discipline. This is the power of a country! This is the trend of the universe that is now in our hands! We are the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators of a highly-united country that is as tough as iron, whereas you are loose sand, acting purely on your own! No matter how formidable you look right now, you are destined to be killed one day if you don't join us!"
"How dare you!" Gnashing his teeth, Li Yao opened his hand and snatched the air.
Invisible ripples immediately ripped apart the air and formed what appeared to be a skinny ghost hand that grabbed Han Yuantai's head.
Crack, crack. Crack, crack, crack, crack!
Han Yuantai's skull and facial bones were emitting appalling sounds. His face was bleeding and could not have appeared more twisted!
"It is unknown yet if I will die for sure, but the high and mighty Lord of Behemothic Eagle will kick the bucket shortly!" Li Yao grinned hideously.
"Haha. Hahahaha!" Han Yuantai was shuddering in pain because of Li Yao's suppression. His face was pale, but he burst into laughter. "I have raged on the Dark Cloud Prairies for more than a hundred years. When I was young, I rode my horse for four thousand kilometers and executed the hundred and forty-five infamous Quick Wind Bandits on the prairies in thirty-three days!
"I also went to the north end of the continent, which was covered in eternal night but illuminated by the brilliant auroras, and jumped into the icy ocean, fighting against the giant whales hundreds of meters long!
"Last year, together with my brother Han Baling and countless other men from the prairies, I marched south unstoppably into the central plateaus, crushing the three hundred thousand heavy cavalry of the Great Qian Dynasty!
"Our army trampled the headquarters of countless Cultivation sects of the Great Qian Dynasty. Our vanguard even approached the capital city. I saw the top of the royal palace with my own eyes!
"In my life, I have waved the sharpest sabers, I have ridden the fastest swords, I have made friends with the most trustworthy brothers, and I have executed the toughest enemies. I have enjoyed enough of the beauties of the world. Even if I die right now, what's there to feel regretful about?
"What about you, Master?"
"After all the trouble you've been through, after decades of seclusion in the wilderness, you have finally grasped unparalleled techniques and announced your return. Yet, you will only be crushed by the iron army of Cloud Qin when you defy the heaven's will before accomplishing anything and before tasting the feeling of being admired, worshipped, and hated by others!
"I truly feel sorry for you! I truly do!"
"You—you—you—!" Li Yao burst into fury. The ghost hand was even more brutal and hideous. It pierced into Han Yuantai's head so deeply that green smoke was popping up.
Han Yuantai's eyes were bloodshot because of the agony. His tears were rolling inside his eyes, but he kept them back and simply laughed.
Angrily, Li Yao bluffed for a long time, only to discover that the guy was unwilling to give in at all. He was finally frustrated.
He stopped his technique and gritted his teeth gloomily.
Han Yuantai collapsed to the ground. Finally, he could not help but grunt. He said, "Thank—thank you for not killing me, Master!"
"Save it." Li Yao waved his hands lethargically. "I'll have your subordinates freed later. Take Huo Wujiu with you and get back to the Dark Cloud Prairies as fast as possible!"
Han Yuantai blinked and immediately understood what Li Yao was thinking. He agreed quickly. "Alright. I know that a few words of mine are certainly not enough to convince you, Master. You have only just broken out of seclusion and do not know much about the latest situation of the world. It is only reasonable that you choose to be prudent! I'll leave a channel to convey secret messages later. The gate of Cloud Qin will always be open to you, Master. My brother Han Baling and I look forward to meeting you on the Dark Cloud Prairies and working on the great cause together!
"I believe that the day won't be far after you have witnessed the grubbiness of the Great Qian Dynasty!"
"Get lost." Li Yao sniffed. "Before I change my mind."
Han Yuantai crossed his hands and bowed deeply to Li Yao before he left the room.
It was not a courtesy of the barbarians but the military courtesy of the Cloud Qin Empire a hundred thousand years ago!
After the guy finally disappeared out of the garden, the brutality and frustration on Li Yao's face instantly disappeared, replaced by deep excitement and admiration.
He was so thrilled that he could not calm himself down for a long time.
He knew that he was witnessing the birth of a real 'country of Cultivators'.
Han Yuantai was not wrong. In the early years of the age of ancient Cultivators, the sects and the experts had the loudest voice. Not just the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and the Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators, even the insignificant Cultivators in the Refinement Stage and the Building Foundation Stage often disobeyed the law and disregarded the authority of the court.
At that time, although there were dynasties and empires on the surface, they were not real countries but 'alliances of tribes' disguised as countries.
The so-called dynasties that were brimming with Cultivation sects were often plagued with serious conflict. The efficiency of collecting and utilizing resources was extremely low. The ability to summon forces was extremely weak. Also, as the population of Cultivators boomed, the dynasties would inevitably come to their decline.
Li Yao had learned from the history books that, in the last years of the age of ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago, the ancient Cultivators in the three thousand Sectors, after experiencing dozens if not hundreds of replacements of dynasties in their respective world, all came to the understanding that Cultivation sects were the cancer of a nation. They realized that only through rules and by being highly organized could they maximize resource utilization efficiency so that the changes of dynasties could be avoided forever.
From then on, almost all the worlds of ancient Cultivators merged the disorganized sects in different ways and embarked on the path of centralization.
After all the sects were combined, almost every world of Cultivators had one large, solid force left.
The name and form of the forces might have been different. Some were known as dynasties, and some called themselves empires. Some of them even inherited the old names of certain sects or guilds.
However, such regimes were completely different from the dynasties and sects in the past.
After all the Cultivators were united under law and their control extended from the pivot of power to the bottom-level towns, the authority of the country and the power of organization had overwhelmed the personal combat ability of the top experts. The control and mobility in such regimes was a hundred times higher than in the era of conflicting sects!
They were the prototypes of the modern countries of Cultivators!
Chapter 1375: Classic Militarism! |
However…
The path is not going to work out after all! Li Yao observed with mixed feelings.
Han Yuantai was confident that the new 'Cloud Qin' would live in peace and prosperity forever after destroying the incurable cancer—the conflicting sects.
But that was impossible.
Even in the best-case scenario, where the Cultivators that belonged to a 'country' were so united that they did not have any conflict and the resource utilization efficiency had been maximized, there was still a fundamental problem that they could not address.
The problem was that the Cultivators in the ancient age were mostly bottomless holes. While they were consuming tremendous resources, they were not offering any 'product' that was of use to society.
How many crystals, medicines, and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures would a Cultivator consume from the time that their spiritual root was awakened to when they advanced all the way to the Core Formation Stage, the Nascent Soul Stage, or even the Divinity Transformation Stage?
How many folks, how much land, and how many natural paradises would need to be occupied to provide the resources that the Cultivators needed?
After swallowing so many resources and growing into unparalleled experts, what could the Cultivators provide for society?
As far as Li Yao knew, the ancient Cultivators, even those from noble sects, often attached great importance to personal combat ability and mocked professions that could not improve their combat ability, not to mention the immoral, evil Cultivators.
When the Cultivators were 'serving justice and slaying evils', if getting to the bottom of it, the main product that they provided for society would be their 'combat ability'.
When the only produce that most of the elites of a world could provide after swallowing the majority of resources was 'combat ability', the overall 'combat ability' would certainly be superfluous.
To set such a society on a path of healthy, sustainable development, and to prevent it from collapsing because of the overly-expanding combat ability, there was only one solution, which was to expand and plunder more resources from the outside world with the 'superfluous combat ability'!
Therefore, in the last years of the age of ancient Cultivators, the faster Sectors that had eliminated the mayhem of contradictory sects inside and concentrated the power in advance all embarked on the path of militarization and expansion when their aggressiveness and combat ability were bursting out.
The historians of the federation defined such a path as 'classic militarism'.
At first, the path seemed to be a successful one.
Faced with the army of Cultivators who were united under the notion of 'country' and were guided by classic militarism, the Cultivators who were still in the medieval age were too disorganized and mired in their own trouble to put up any resistance. They were all demolished unstoppably without any exception.
However, the good days did not last long. Expansion had its limits. When most of the 'medieval worlds' of the three thousand Sectors were annihilated, and the only regimes left were the ferocious worlds where classic militarism prevailed, the collisions of the superpowers were unavoidable.
That was the First Civil War of Cultivators as described in the history books.
It was also at the last phase of the super civil war that consumed all the three thousand Sectors when demons were created on a large scale. Then, taking advantage of the weakness of the worlds of Cultivators that had been exhausted in the war, the demons counterattacked and dominated the sea of stars, ushering in the Great Dark Age of thirty thousand years.
Getting to the bottom of it, the greatest problem of classic militarism was that it could not fix the contradiction that the Cultivators took in all the resources but offered nothing in return. Such a methodology was merely covering the contradiction time and time again through continuous invasions and conquests.
However, during the invasions and conquests, the Cultivators would only desire more 'combat ability'. When the invasions and conquests suffered setbacks, even the most powerful countries would collapse all of a sudden!
The Ancient Sages Sector, on the other hand, would only be more tragic.
Because the star beacons and the space teleportation arrays left by the Pangu civilization in the three thousand Sectors in the outside world had not yet been damaged in the age of ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago, the three thousand Sectors were still in a network, and the transportation system was quite convenient. Even the ancient Cultivators could launch expeditions across the sea of stars despite their underdeveloped technologies.
Therefore, after a world of ancient Cultivators finished the transformation from 'medieval sects' to 'classic militarism', it would be easy for the world to launch invasions on other worlds, thereby transferring the internal contradiction!
If the world was lucky, it could swallow multiple underdeveloped worlds of Cultivators in the hundreds of years to come and grow into a giant that spanned the sea of stars, surviving for yet another thousand years.
The Ancient Sages Sector, in comparison, was enshrouded in the thick, dark nebula. It was extremely tricky to jump out.
Also, everything was different today. After tens of thousands of years of wars, the space transportation network outside had been mostly wrecked. Launching a universal expedition was much more difficult than before!
Moreover, the outside world would be dangerous. There was not a single push-over in the sea of stars out there. Not just the monsters such as the Imperium of True Human Beings and the Covenant Alliance, even the Star Glory Federation a hundred years ago would not have been scared of the Ancient Sages Sector at all!
Even if the Ancient Sages Sector truly developed to the stage of 'classic militarism', who could it conquer?
Without new targets to conquer, such an untenable system would never last long.
Li Yao believed in Han Yuantai's sincerity and the ambitions of Han Baling, the regent of Cloud Qin. He also believed that the Cultivators of Cloud Qin were in the most united and organized state right now.
But that was because they were faced with a powerful external threat, and they had a whole world waiting to be conquered.
What would happen after they overthrew the Great Qian Dynasty and unified the world?
If they could not find a new vent for the 'superfluous combat ability', Li Yao did not think that the so-called 'Cloud Qin Dynasty' could survive five hundred years.
This is an unresolvable, fundamental contradiction.
Only when Cultivators follow the ideology of 'serve the people' and return the resources they swallow to the public in forms including but not limited to 'combat ability', so that the resources will flow and circulate between the Cultivators and the ordinary people, will a society embark on the path of sustainable development with a virtuous cycle!
If we get to the bottom of it, the so-called 'cancer' is not the sects, not militarism, but the Cultivators who take everything but give nothing, who swallow resources like a black hole but are in fact utterly useless!
How many resources must be consumed for the birth of a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator? How much labor and material have been spent without anyone knowing?
The Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator could flaunt their techniques and violate the existing social order without respect for the law.
But even if the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator prefers a carefree and enjoyable life and focuses on his own training without caring about anything else, he will still make absolutely no contribution to society. Eventually, he might be struck by a minor apocalypse when he is advancing into a higher stage. Won't the resources that he has consumed be wasted?
Moreover, even if he occasionally comes out to serve justice and slay evils, will the contributions he makes be proportionate to the resources he has consumed?
Such an abnormal system will never persevere for long even if it evolves to the form of a modern country under the armor of 'classic militarism'!
Cloud Qin was walking on the wrong path.
Li Yao was well aware of that.
However, he did not despise Cloud Qin, Han Yuantai, or Han Baling—one of the Four Rapscallions who must have been even more spectacular than his brother—because of that.
Li Yao knew himself very well.
He understood the logic not because he was smart enough but because he was standing on the shoulders of countless seniors. The conclusions had been made by the historians and sociologists.
The Cultivators of the Ancient Sages Sector did not know the first thing about the outside world. They had to learn everything on their own. Like a blind person riding a blind horse, they groped in the eternal darkness. It was already extremely remarkable that they had walked this far!
Then, was it possible to work with the Cultivators from Cloud Qin?
It depended on several factors.
On one hand, Cloud Qin was walking on the path of 'classic militarism', which was similar to the Imperium of True Human Beings 'modern militarism'. The two of them might find each other very agreeable.
However, judging from Han Yuantai's demeanor and resolution, his brother Han Baling was surely an ambitious, superb person who lived beyond his era.
If such a person could be brought to the federation and allowed to study the history of the outside world, would he draw a lesson from the gory outcome of the First Civil War of Cultivators and realize that it was not a path that was going to work out, thereby choosing a new approach?
It's getting tricky now.
The most critical question right now is whether or not the Imperium of True Human Beings is involved in all this. If the federation can't find a way to embrace those ancient Cultivators, they will certainly be bemused by the Imperium!
If I were a scout who discovered the Ancient Sages Sector, I definitely would've selected Han Baling as my primary target of communication after I learned the situation in this world!
Then…
Is it possible that the Immortal Cultivators from the Imperium of True Human Beings are already hiding next to Han Baling and engaged in certain underground activities in secret?
Li Yao felt a headache coming on. Thinking for a moment, he coughed and summoned Meng Duo and Gu Siduo, the two barbarian Cultivators.
The fat barbarian Cultivator and the slim one, after discovering his identity as 'Master Spiritual Vulture', were so frightened that they almost sh*t their pants. They could barely stand on their feet. Kneeling on the ground, they begged for his mercy.
Naturally, Li Yao was not interested in picking on small fries such as themselves. After all, he had grown quite familiar with the two guys recently. He knew that they had done nothing unacceptable and their reputations in the Southland of Sorcerers were not bad. So, he had employed them as his temporary servants.
"Bring me the father and the daughter of the Ling family."
