Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

by <unknown>

  The moment Li Yao's telepathic thoughts arrived, the latest and the most heated information of all zones rushed at him like billions of stars.

  The first things that he perceived were the trending questions in the Q&A zone.

  "How does it feel to be engaged in a combat wearing a super-fast crystal suit with more than 160 power rune arrays?"

  "What are some accessories below fifty thousand Flying Star dollars that can significantly improve the combat ability of a crystal suit when they are installed?"

  "I am a Cultivator in the middle of the Refinement Stage, and I'm already 36 years old. My life so far has been a mess. Right now, I want to change myself and become an excellent Exo. Is there any hope for me?"

  "What are some skills that are of great help in combat and can be learned within three days?"

  "What are some skills that you regret you didn't know earlier and want to recommend to young people?"

  "Which newly-refined crystal suits from the past thirty years can be considered state-of-the-art?"

  "Of the three major crystal suit centers, what are the differences in styles of 'Ice School' and 'Silver Heart School'? Which of the two is more suitable for the Cultivators who have advantages in physical strength?"

  Trending questions, such as the above, all had more than five hundred answers. The most heated answers all had more than a hundred thousand upvotes.

  Wow…

  Like a mouse that had wandered into a rice shop, Li Yao was thrilled. He opened the first question 'how does it feel to wear a super-fast crystal suit' and started browsing.

  The most upvoted answer was written by 'Long Feihu', a user who went by his real-life name.

  His personal information indicated that he was a Core Formation Stage Cultivator with more than seventy years of experience in crystal suits and that he was on a 96-match winning streak in the Heavenly Sword Arena.

  Li Yao vaguely remembered that he had seen the name of Long Feihu somewhere else.

  The most popular form of entertainment and sport in the Flying Star Sector was crystal suit competitions.

  Through crystal suit competitions, not only would the young people be encouraged to improve their skills, the professional crystal suit techniques would be disseminated, too. The top experts might become inspired by each other and invent stronger skills and skill cards so that the combat ability of the civilization as whole could be increased.

  Therefore, crystal suit competitions were not just about entertainment or sport, but concerned the survival of the entire civilization.

  As a result, all the Exos who participated in crystal suit competitions were all highly respected in the Flying Star Sector. The champions of the five major arenas each had millions of fans. Their influence was even higher than that of the leaders of some major sects.

  Long Feihu was the champion of the Heavenly Sword Arena, one of the five major arenas. He had been a professional player for more than forty years, and in that time, his win-rate had been kept above 85%. It was said that he had achieved a breakthrough recently. Therefore, he had made a remarkable achievement by securing 96 victories continuously, and the number was still counting!

  No wonder his answer was on top and upvoted by so many people!

  Speed is a very important factor in my combat strategies, too. Let me see if I can learn anything from Long Feihu, 'King of Heavenly Sword'!

  Li Yao focused his attention and continued reading Long Feihu's answer.

  "Thanks for the question. I am Long Feihu. I believe many friends here have watched my combat videos and know that agility, speed, and deadliness are my thing. So, I think I'm qualified to offer my opinions on the question…"

  Long Feihu elaborated on topics ranging from aerodynamics to illusions, from the commonly-seen crystal suits that focused on speed to the modifications of their respective power rune arrays, and from the training methods that Exos who wanted to improve their speed should adopt to the treatment of common injuries during the training sessions. The article was detailed and included a lot of 3D structure designs and videos. It was solid and convincing.

  This expert of the Flying Star Sector deserves his name. It's hardcore knowledge that he's talking about!

  If such experts are willing to provide everything they have learned in their lives for the younger generations, I don't know how many newcomers will benefit from his enlightenment, and how many people will be ignited by the spark and embark on the path of Cultivation, taking him as a role model!

  This is the most valuable point of the World of Crystal Suits and the secret to the prosperity of the human civilization in the Flying Star Sector!

  Li Yao was deep in thought. Although the people of the Flying Star Sector were lost in the sea of stars and far away from each other, their attitude toward Cultivation was much more open and with much less reserve than the Heaven's Origin Sector.

  If one was to think about it more carefully, it had a lot to do with their different living environments.

  The major sects of the Flying Star Sector were all scattered in the sea of stars. Li Yao could totally imagine that, thousands of years ago, when the fire of war had just died down and the Spiritual Nexus hadn't been established, a Cultivation sect on a starship would have been wandering in the endless darkness for dozens or even hundreds of years. What a lonely journey it must've been.

  Yes, loneliness. Mankind was a gregarious species after all. A few starships and a sect with a few hundred thousand people were not going to pass the civilization on.

  When a sect drifted in the sea of stars, resisted demon beasts and demonic Cultivators for hundreds of years, and was decaying due to the loss of manpower, suddenly, it ran into another sect that was fighting side by side with it. The feeling of 'I'm not alone in the universe' could easily be translated into the passion of communication.

  After all, the universe was too dark a place. Human beings were too insignificant, like a slight glimmer when they were separated. Only when they gathered together could the glimmers be congregated into blazing fire to drive away the darkness and illuminate the sea of stars!

  The Cultivation sects who kept everything to themselves and refused to communicate with other sects must have been devoured by the darkness and disappeared in the river of time.

  However, why did the humans of the Flying Star Sector not live on the planets?

  Li Yao had studied the files of the Flying Star Sector before and was aware that quite a few planets had breathable air. Although the environments on the surface of such planets were not very favorable, considering that the technology in the Sector was advanced enough to empty and rebuild an asteroid, it shouldn't be a problem to reshape some areas on the planets and establish settlements there.

  Many files simply said that the planets were inhabited by barbarians who were extremely hostile to the residents of space.

  Then, where did the barbarians come from? How come they were hostile to the space residents even though they were both human beings? Were there Cultivators among the barbarians? How was the center of the civilization moved from the planets to space in the first place?

  It appeared that there were a lot of buried secrets in the history of the Flying Star Sector that wouldn't be found out easily.

  Li Yao concentrated his attention and left his suspicions behind. Then he upvoted Long Feihu's answer.

  In the World of Crystal Suits, users could express their opinions about an answer by upvoting or downvoting it.

  However, although the first upvoting or downvoting was free, additional upvoting or downvoting cost one crystal coin each time.

  In such a way, the more valuable answers would pop to the top very easily. The jibber-jabbers would sink down automatically when there were many downvotes and stop wasting everybody's time.

  Li Yao focused his attention and read another dozens of questions. He exclaimed in joy, like a man who was offered a bucket of clean water after struggling in a desert for an entire week.

  After he l
eft the Q&A zone, he found that the other zones were quite interesting in their own way as well.

  In the lecture zone, the experts were introducing their latest theories. Since Li Yao was already marked as a specialist, he could hold his own lecture regarding the refinement of the saber-type magical equipment or classical refining theories. Every user joining the lecture would have to pay a crystal coin on entry.

  In the debate zone, countless users were accusing and attacking each other. Invisible smoke seemed to be popping up from their battlefield.

  The most interesting one was the battle between the debate team of Flying Star University and that of Heavenly Saint Institute on the well-discussed topic of 'is remote magical equipment stronger than melee magical equipment or is it the other way around?'.

  Such an impractical question had been argued by countless Cultivators for hundreds of years. It was clear that there was not a right answer. Yet, it was often picked as a topic for the young students in order to build up their critical thinking ability.

  Flying Star University and Heavenly Saint Institute were the two best academical establishments of the Flying Star Sector.

  Flying Star University mainly recruited the young geniuses from all over the Flying Star Sector and outside of Heavenly Saints City and valued popularization more; Heavenly Saint Institution only recruited the descendants of the Cultivators inside Heavenly Saints City and focused more on meritocracy.

  The two colleges had competed against each other for hundreds of years with no obvious winner, but they had left all the other universities hundreds of lightyears behind.

  Li Yao glanced at the introduction and noticed that the rules of the debate were quite special. There were two consecutive games.

  In the first game, Flying Star University was on the pro side of melee magical equipment.

  But after an hour of fierce debating and ten minutes of rest, the same team with the same members would be supporting remote magical equipment in the second game!

  The two parties have to expound from both perspectives. Such a rule is indeed tricky, but I like it!

  Li Yao was greatly interested and walked in to watch the game.

  As a 'Specialist', he was considered sort of an 'inspector' when he came to watch such a debate game among college students, and therefore did not have to pay anything.

  Chapter 474: Flying Sword Expert |

  Surrounded by the life-like Grand Illusionary Land, Li Yao felt that he was truly seated in the middle of a splendid hall watching eight college students debating with each other. Although their understanding about many theories was immature, the bold imagination that solely belonged to young men still surprised Li Yao and taught him many new perspectives of thinking.

  Flying Star University, Heavenly Saint Institute?

  The academic level of the two colleges left a deep impression on Li Yao.

  If he was able to enter one of the top two colleges, his future training would definitely benefit a lot.

  Of course, with his current position in the high level of the Building Foundation Stage, he wouldn't be joining them as a student.

  Li Yao believed that his capability was more than enough to earn him a place as a teacher in either of the two colleges.

  However, teachers usually had tedious teaching tasks and might not be able to get in touch with the latest Cultivation philosophies. It would take many years for a teacher to climb up one step after another; Li Yao didn't have the time to dawdle along.

  I need to think carefully about what I should do next, Li Yao thought to himself.

  Over the following seven days, Li Yao spent all his time in the World of Crystal Suits with barely any rest or sleep and skimmed through all of the top five thousand trending questions and their answers.

  Due to the restriction of the Spiritual Nexus, the questions could not go very deep into the details. But for Li Yao, they were enough to give him a general picture of the Flying Star Sector's theories of refining.

  Those theories melded with classical refining theories and theories of the Heaven's Origin Sector. Mysterious reactions were triggered. Many problems that had been bugging Li Yao for a long time were now easily resolved with the new mindset.

  Now that he had grasped enough fundamental theories, Li Yao was ready to modify his crystal suits.

  Right now, he had three crystal suits: Rockman, Eight Arm, and Mystic Skeleton.

  Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit was the most amazing of all, but it had been added with too much of the Skeleton Dragon's body tissue and the scraps of the ancient magical equipment. It was not a good idea to wear it in broad daylight.

  Rockman was convenient to maneuver, but it was too shabby. Also, as a piece of civil magical equipment, its combat ability was too low.

  The problem with the Eight Arm Suit was that its crystal processor always meddled in and was incompatible with Li Yao's combat style.

  Therefore, Li Yao prepared to rent a professional workshop for crystal suit modification the moment he arrived in Thousand Sail Space Zone and perform a full upgrade on Eight Arm. It was meant partly to improve its combat ability, and partly to drop its preset fighting patters.

  This was the first time that he had ever modified an advanced crystal suit of the Flying Star Sector. To avoid unnecessary risks, he decided to have a simulation in the World of Crystal Suits first.

  Since he was classified as a 'Specialist' after the assessment, the system had credited 10,000 crystal coins to him when he entered The World of Crystal Suits. He had spent all of that decorating his independent space into a maintenance workshop as well as purchasing a virtual Eight Arm Suit.

  Just as he was about to dismantle the virtual Eight Arm, he received a private message. Somebody was inviting him to answer a question.

  Li Yao was dazed for a moment. Although he had been classified as a 'Specialist', he had never answered any questions before. Nobody should even know of his existence. Why would anyone invite him to answer a question?

  He opened the question and realize the reason.

  The question was as followed: 'Why were the ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago fond of stepping on their flying swords and riding them? Is it not against the principles of aerodynamics? Compared to modern flying swords, what are the shortcomings of the ancient flying swords?'

  As it turned out, it was a question that involved classical refining theories.

  In the Flying Star Sector, there were not many experts who focused on classical refining theories, and there were ever fewer who revealed their identities in the World of Crystal Suits.

  Li Yao's profile showed that he was an expert in classical refining theories approved by the system.

  Li Yao assumed that the guy who proposed the question had searched and sent invitations to all the users who were marked as experts in classical refining theories.

  Pondering for a moment, Li Yao thought that it wouldn't be decent if he lurked and looted the generosities of the Flying Star Sector for seven days without returning anything. He should contribute his ideas and discuss them with his fellows.

  Therefore, he opened the question and started reading.

  There were already almost a hundred answers below the description of the question. The few answers at the top were all thorough and concrete with a lot of pictures. Their arguments were quite valid, too. Many fellow Cultivators were commenting on these answers in heated discussions. The ambience was quite good.

  Li Yao scanned through the answers. Then he frowned, as he thought that some of the answers were too biased.

  Thinking for a moment, Li Yao started writing his own answer.

  "Thanks for the invitation.

  "I am just a fan of classical refining theories, but I have to say that I don't agree with the answer that ranks at the top for the time being.

  "When we Cultivators are challenged with a question, we should always make sure that the question is itself a legitimate question before we answer it. For example, this question is app
arently a troll. Not all ancient Cultivators 'ride' their flying swords. There were many ways of manipulating a flying sword for ancient Cultivators. Three of them were most common.

  "What's more, the ancient flying swords, of course, have disadvantages compared with modern flying swords. However, they have their own advantages, too. I even believe that modern Cultivators are too condescending to dig out the full potential of the traditional magical equipment yet, of which ancient flying swords are a good example. We've been underestimating the wisdom of our predecessors.

  "Let's talk about ways to manipulate a flying sword first. Stepping on a flying sword and riding on it is just one of them. Except that, the ancient Cultivators could also embed themselves into their sword. That way, a dazzling sword would be all there was. The best sword Cultivators could even keep themselves and their swords in one place while killing someone thousands of kilometers away with their telepathic thoughts and their sword aura. Their swords were faster than any modern flying sword could ever be.

  "Below are a few simple illustrations of the three ways of manipulating a flying sword that I just talked about.

  "Let's focus on riding a flying sword for a moment. It seems a little bit silly and completely against the principles of aerodynamics. Its speed is nothing impressive, either.

  "However, there are three great benefits to it.

  "Firstly, the agility of the Cultivator is tremendously increased. They would be able to perform small-scale dodging movements within a tiny area. Hovering in the middle of furious winds is no longer a problem.

  "Secondly, the Cultivator has a keener sense of the spiritual waves in the air when their skin is exposed. It is easier for them to detect traces of their enemy, too.

  "Thirdly, the Cultivator can summon their magical equipment conveniently when they are engaged with enemies!

  "We are all clear that a difference of 0.1 seconds is enough to determine the life and death between two top experts. With the three advantages, it is not completely unacceptable that the absolute speed of the flying sword is relatively low.