Forty Millenniums of Cultivation
chapter-124

"I was born in a remote mountain village in the southern region of the federation where we had poor means of transportation and communication. We also didn't have any decent industries, and the financial condition was extremely poor. In our village, most of the adults would go to the city to make a living, leaving only the elderly and children behind.”

"My teacher was the only teacher in our village. She was a hundred-year-old, gray-haired old lady."

"Since childhood, I knew that teacher was someone who possessed marvelous abilities. She could speak with many small animals in the mountain forest and could also quickly grow watermelons during the winter. With just one finger, she would ignite bonfires and eat roasted watermelon with us children."

"If anyone in our village had a headache or a slight fever, they would come to teacher, and teacher would always cure them neat and quickly."

"It was only under teacher's guidance did we, the children of the mountains, come to know that there was a vast world outside the village and that there was a mystical world of cultivation as well as wondrous magical equipment. Often, teacher, while holding our hands, would bring us into a dream again and again and would let us see bizarre and big cities. In these bizarre and big cities, we saw many people and ate many good dishes one after another."

"After a long time, I came to know that it was not a dream, but rather, a world of fiction created by teacher. Our teacher was a cultivator, and even more so, was an illusionist."

"However, by that time, she was already dead."

"When I turned 15, there was a downpour in our village which continued for ten straight days and nights. Due to the continuous downpour, the entire big mountain behind our mountain village became unstable, and finally, in the middle of the night, a landslide was triggered, bringing with it a terrifying mud avalanche."

"When teacher was helping the villagers walk down the mountain in the middle of the night, she was the first one to notice the mud avalanche."

"Rolling rocks mixed with mud were flooding down the mountain, and there was simply no time to escape nor was there time to inform the village."

"Thus, our teacher ignited her life and overdrafted her spiritual energy in order to create an incomparably solid spiritual energy shield, forcibly blocking the mud avalanche from reaching our mountain village."

"And so, everyone was able to safely escape; however, our teacher was engulfed by the mud avalanche. After ten days when her body was finally found, it seemed as if she was peacefully asleep."

"Since then, I swore that I would become someone like teacher. Following teacher's footsteps, I entered the Sky Fantasia Academy and became a cultivator as well as an illusionist who could use literature to create a world as they wished. After I graduated, I applied for the federation's 'Volunteer Program for Educating Poor Areas'. Following the same path as my teacher, I was going to a mountain village in the Wasteland to be a village teacher."

"In the process, I encountered the beast tide."

"To be honest, I had tens of thousands of reasons not to come forward, just like my teacher who, at that time, also had tens of thousands of reasons not to block the mud avalanche."

"However, she did come forward, and she didn't need any reason. Thus, I too came forward, and similarly, I too don't need any reasons. As long as there was an itsy-bitsy bit of impulse at the bottom of my heart, it's enough."

"I had never imagined that I would become something like this. I have had countless dreams, yet never had I dreamt that I would become a 'spectral cultivator' at such a young age. If you say I had no regrets, how could that be possible?"

"But there are some things which you know you will come to regret, yet you still have to do it. Because if you don't, you will regret it even more and will regret it for the rest of your life."

The little bluebird twittered. Knowingly or unknowingly, the two flew out from the clouds and wandered in the clear blue sky. Below them were magnificent mountains and rivers. The golden sunlight sprinkling over them coated their bodies with a magnificent and brilliant sheen.

The little bluebird said in embarrassment:

"I'm sorry, Student Li Yao. I just became a spectral cultivator, so my mind is in a mess. I have a lot of words to say but don't have anyone to speak to. I also don't know how I should explain this to my parents… they still don't know anything yet!"

"After thinking over and over again, you came to my mind. As you had saved me, and moreover, I heard that you had also offended a very influential VIP in order to protect the dignity of us few. I thought you could listen to some of my naggings, so I impetuously came looking for you. I have wasted so much of your time, and for that, I am truly embarrassed."

"No no no, you haven't wasted anything. Your voice is so pleasing to the ear, and this world is also very beautiful. This is a very wonderful novel!"

Li Yao sincerely said.

"Do you mean it? Do you really like this world?" the little bluebird asked in joy and wonder.

Fluttering his wings, Li Yao directly charged towards the sun. After a moment, he folded his wings as he freely glided towards the mountains and rivers.

Squinting his eyes, he carefully savored every wisp of wind and every subtle feeling from his wings.

"It's true. This world is very beautiful. I like it, and I hope that I could always have the opportunity to enter the world once in a while and soar together with you, leisurely watching the endless rivers, the sunset, and the windy cirri."

Just as those words came out of his mouth, Li Yao suddenly felt a throbbing sensation coming from the depths of his soul. It seemed that he now had a subtle connection with the world.

The world had also become clearer and was more moving, and the changes of the clouds were even more abundant.

Wei Qingqing eyes lit up as she murmured, "Student Li Yao, you have become the first reader of ."

"Reader?" Li Yao was surprised for a moment.

This one word clearly had a deeper meaning beyond the literal meaning.

Wei Qingqing nodded:

"That's right. We illusionists cultivate differently than normal cultivators. For you, the normal cultivators, cultivation is mainly about absorbing and utilizing spiritual energy."

"But we illusionists, instead, need to create some works of our own one after another and use these works to move people so that the readers would have a wonderful connection with us and can produce a spiritual resonance. And this very resonance would continue to increase our power."

"The more readers we have, the deeper the feelings would be, and in turn, the stronger the resonance would be, as a result of which our strength would increase more and more."

"My other two works are young adult fiction which sold rather well, and both have a large fan base. The spiritual resonance they bring is the source of my power."

"Meanwhile, this is pure literature, and thus no one would like to read something like this. You are the first 'reader' of who had triggered a resonance with me. And just because you were moved, the world became clearer, more harmonious, and closer to perfection."

"To have such a reader is my good fortune. Student Li Yao, once I have some new inspiration, I will write a new chapter and will definitely invite you once again to the world. We will together explore the limitless clouds of this beautiful world!"

Like all young women of arts and literature whose works were liked by someone, Wei Qingqing also became very happy. She completely forgot the fact that she had just died, and fluttering her exquisite wings, she danced around Li Yao.

Li Yao's face was flushed red. He had never thought that an uncouth fellow like him, who only knew how to do maintenance work, would produce a resonance with a pure literary work.

After thinking, he once again asked a question:

"Little Qing, if the readers read and trigger more resonance, which in turn would increase the strength of the illusionist, then wouldn't it be very advantageous for an illusionist to write best-selling books? The number of readers for the best-selling books would definitely be hundreds of thousands of times more than pure literature."

"In theory, that would be correct." Little bluebird nodded.

"Then, why would you pour all your effort in writing , a pure literature which would bring you nothing in return? Pure literature is difficult to write, and as no one is reading it, it is neither bringing money nor is it elevating your strength. Wouldn't it better to use your time to write a few best-selling books?"

A slight smile appeared on Wei Qingqing's face as she gazed afar at the distant fairyland amidst the clouds: "Because... I like it!"

...

After the little bluebird flew away, Li Yao wondered about this young writer who was only a few years older than him. The more he wondered, the more he found her interesting.

Starting up the crystal processor, he searched for "Green Orange".

This was Wei Qingqing's pen name.

The crystal processor slightly shook, and very soon, two of her works appeared on the screen.

As Wei Qingqing had said, she had published two best-selling, young adult fiction novels which had numerous readers and a very high number of pageviews on the net.

The first novel was , on the cover of which was a handsome, elegant, dashing, and cheerful young man affectionately staring out from the hologram.

Li Yao shuddered. Mustering up his courage, he turned the page to the description page.

The story was about a sect master of a major sect who, because of a mishap during cultivation, was unfortunately struck by Qigong Deviation and had turned into a vegetable, leaving his seventeen-year-old son to carry out his responsibilities and inherit the sect.

The female protagonist was an ordinary person who, during her summer vacation, went to an enterprise under the sect to work. Because of a coincidence, the young sect master became her co-worker, and the two people slowly hit it off.

The teenage sect master, who had shallow cultivation, was at a young age when he inherited such a big sect. Naturally, there were many influential figures in the sect who remained unconvinced and would fight and scheme against one another. The excessive scheming and deception in his sect had caused him to be unbearably depressed, and it was rare to find a girl who was as pure as water and had no inkling of his identity. As to be expected, they became close and slowly started developing feelings for each other.

Since then naturally followed a huge drama filled with love and hate, grudges, and disputes. And the plots like an elder of the hostile faction scheming against the teenage sect master using a flying sword, only to be found by the heroine, who would help the teenage sect master block the sword appeared.

No matter how Li Yao racked his brain, he could not understand how an ordinary person could notice a flying sword shot by a cultivator. Even if it were to be discovered, how could the protagonist react in a timely manner? However, these were all details and were irrelevant.

Anyway, the teenage sect master and the heroine finally overcame all obstacles, and the lovers finally had a happy ending.

At this point, the teenage sect master's father, who had turned into a vegetable from Qigong deviation, suddenly woke up and resolutely opposed his son marrying an ordinary person.

And a female heir of another big sect who claimed to be the teenage sect master's fiancee also appeared in front of the heroine...

The story came to an abrupt end here; to know the later parts of the development, you would have to wait for the sequel to be published.

"Uh..."

Li Yao swept a few glances and finally gave up on the idea of carefully reading the novel. He dragged the hologram screen down to see the second book.

The second novel was . The story was almost the same as the first novel, the only thing different was...

The "me" in the "fell in love with me" was a boy.

And of course, the "Tyrant Elder" was also a tall, cold and powerful, robust man.

"This is too terrifying!"

At a lightning fast speed, Li Yao closed the page and rubbed both his eyes with force as tears trickled down.

He gave up on the idea of having a further spiritual exchange with Wei Qingqing.

At least, for the illusory worlds of these two novels, he would rather die than enter them.

"We will just talk more about pure literature, Student Qing," Li Yao said in his heart.

At this time, from the top of his head came waves of whizzing noises one after another.

At the beginning, Li Yao didn't pay any attention them; as it was a military camp, some military battle shuttle flying above head was normal.

However, very soon, he realized that there was something amiss—the whizzing noise continued to remain above the medical tent, and moreover, the sounds were getting wilder and wilder and increasingly rampant.

It was as if a few dozen military battle shuttles were circling around the medical tent!

Li Yao's eyes twitched. Carrying the Black Wing Sword and the Dark Star Rock on his back, he stretched his body a bit in order to maintain the best fighting state before he sprang out of the medical tent in two steps.

In the sky was a big battle formation, which, for a moment, caught him by surprise.