Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Under Li Yao’s teaching, Tang Ka spent the whole night practicing the tricks to control his heartbeat, his breath, and even his brainwaves on his bed.

Li Yao told him that the key point to hide his soul without exposing himself was to imagine that he was frozen magma that was still burning inside or a rock under a waterfall that was still hard even though all its edges had been worn away.

When the dawn came and horns were blown in the camp to wake the students hard, Tang Ka finally heard his heartbeat and the sound of his blood in the absolute darkness.

It was a very amazing feeling. It was like his shell and his thoughts were completely separated. Nobody how active and excited his mind was, his body could remain inexpressive and indifferent with absolutely the same heartbeat and breath.

Li Yao told Tang Ka that this was a trick for snipers and professional assassins. Those people had to reduce all their biophysical activities to the point that they looked like corpses so that they could hide themselves, but in the meantime, they had to consider every detail of their operations in their heads without any stop so that they could seize the crucial time window to kill their targets.

Li Yao was a great assassin himself. He knew that the trick would be very helpful for Tang Ka to disguise his real feelings and thoughts..

When Tang Ka opened his eyes, a new gate seemed to have been opened for him, and the world became different.

He sat up and observed his classmates nearby who were equally expressionless. A strange idea occurred to him. He wondered how many of his classmates really did not have feelings, and how many of them were only not showing their feelings although their feelings were surging in their heads like he did.

Was his monitor really as indifferent and devoted as she appeared?

No, the monitor must have her extraterrestrial devil too, just like his own.

He wondered what the monitor’s extraterrestrial devil looked like.

Suddenly, Tang Ka did not hate being possessed by an extraterrestrial devil anymore. It seemed rather fun.

Was it possible that everybody had an extraterrestrial devil in their heart, except that they never admitted it?

As whistles were blown, Tang Ka stopped thinking and started the tiresome morning exercises.

Body exercises for teenagers were important in the Covenant Alliance. Perhaps it was because they would barely have the energy to think if they were too exhausted. Even though Tang Ka and his classmates had purge operations for the day, their morning exercises were not canceled. However, Tang Ka was already used to it. He could even practice the technique to hide his feelings while he exercised his body!

After the morning exercises, before the sticky and tasteless breakfast was served, it was the second most important moment of the day that was only less important than the prayer at dusk.

All the students, the mentors, and even the soldiers of the purge troop nearby turned on their portable crystal processors and switched them to a special channel, and five different images were soon projected from their crystal processors.

The five images were peaceful and sacred old men who were wearing linen clothes and thorny belts.

Their eyes were pure black, like channels leading to the deepest part of the universe. No matter how the images were moved, they seemed to be staring at the holder of the crystal processor in the eyes and even seeing through their heart.

They were exactly the five Ultimate Benevolence Masters of the Covenant Alliance!

“Praise the gods for letting your beloved lambs see a new honor. May your glory and your power be sung over throughout the universe…”

Led by the Ultimate Benevolence Masters, Tang Ka, his classmates, and his mentors prayed quietly.

After the brief prayer, he briefed the Ultimate Benevolence Masters on what he did yesterday and asked the Ultimate Benevolence Masters if he were mentally steady enough to resist the extraterrestrial devils and carry on the strenuous and dangerous purge operation. After the Ultimate Benevolence Masters gave a positive reply, he recited another prayer and completed the morning ritual.

During the whole ritual, Li Yao had been lurking in the young man’s soul and did not ask about it.

He was not scared of being spotted by the Ultimate Benevolence Masters. But he was afraid that the young man would expose himself when he was distracted. After all, the young man had just learned the way to control his brainwaves and his biophysical parameters.

After everybody finished their morning prayer and buried their head into the buckets of paste that was served to them, Li Yao asked in a low voice, “Do you have to report what you did during the last day as well as what you’re going to do next to the Ultimate Benevolence Masters every morning?”

“Yes.”

Tang Ka devoured the paste, but he somehow recalled the lollipop that his monitor stuffed into his mouth the previous day. That lollipop was so sweet that he could not tolerate his regular food anymore.

Why had he never sensed that the food he had had for a dozen years was so awful? It almost tasted like… melted candles!

Struggling to swallow a mouthful of synthesized food, Tang Ka tried to keep his face unchanged while he spoke to Li Yao in his head.

“We do not often see the Ultimate Benevolence Masters in person, but the Ultimate Benevolence Masters care about us and guide our way every day.”

“I just noticed that around a thousand people were praying in the camp. If counting the soldiers nearby, the number will be even larger.”

Li Yao pondered for a moment and asked, “Also, all the people have to do the morning prayer in the Covenant Alliance, right? Then how do you determine the time for morning prayer? According to the rotation cycle of every specific planet, or is it held at a fixed time for all planets?”

“If we’re on habitable planets, considering our biological clock and our energy, we’ll have morning and dusk prayers according to the sunrise and sunrise of the specific planets.”

Tang Ka explained to Li Yao. “But if we’re on starships, we will no longer be restricted to the rotation cycle of a certain planet. Most starships have the same schedule.”

“That is to say, tens of billions of people may have the morning prayer at the same time.”

Li Yao analyzed, “But there are only five Ultimate Benevolence Masters, correct? However powerful their computation ability is, it’s impossible for them to process the prayers and reports of tens of billions of people simultaneously.

“However, I saw clearly just now that the same Ultimate Benevolence Master reacted differently to different people who were praying.

“So, it was not the Ultimate Benevolence Masters that received your prayer, but some sort of fake, simulated shadows. Is that correct?”

Tang Ka was stunned for a long time.

“I’ve never considered that question before.”

Tang Ka said, “The Ultimate Benevolence Masters are the First Apostles blessed by the gods. They were created by the gods’ last drop of blood in our world. Is it strange that they can listen to the prayers of billions of people at the same time?”

“Fine, let me ask in a different way.”

Li Yao asked without giving in, “Have you ever seen an Ultimate Benevolence Master in the flesh, who has to pee and poop like other people?”

Tang Ka was silent for a long time.

“No.”

He said, “Normally, we can only sense the Ultimate Benevolence Masters during the rituals in the morning and at dusk. Occasionally, the Ultimate Benevolence Masters will send holy light to one of us so that the person could speak for them. Sometimes, the Ultimate Benevolence Masters will also present enormous illusions in the sky to announce oracles.

“As for the Ultimate Benevolence Masters in the flesh… It’s true that I’ve never seen them, but that’s not strange. The Ultimate Benevolence Masters are busy and have to spend most of their time meditating and communicating with gods. Why would they waste their time on a Mr. Nobody like me?”

“Well, I don’t want to desecrate your Ultimate Benevolence Masters and your gods, so I can’t say that their tricks are fake.”

Pausing for a moment, Li Yao continued, “But let’s say I can control the Spiritual Nexus of this whole planet and I have a weather troop that is good at creating astounding weather phenomena in the sky, I would be able to pretend to be an Ultimate Benevolence Master, wouldn’t I?”

Tang Ka frowned again.

But thankfully, he was covered by the paste bucket, and he noticed his anomaly instantly.

“That is blasphemy!”

Tang Ka said, “They’re the Ultimate Benevolence Masters!”

“Okay, fine. I was wrong. I definitely do not plan to impersonate an Ultimate Benevolence Master. I’m only discussing the technological feasibility with you.”

Li Yao changed the topic and asked, “Tell me more about your mentors. Do they and the director of your academy have meals with you?”

“No, the director has the meals with the commander of the troop nearby, but our food is the same.”

Tang Ka pointed his mentors out to Li Yao.

Pitifully, none of those mentors was a sunspot. At the very least, Li Yao did not sense the amiable air in them as he did from Tang Ka.

Some of the students did attract Li Yao’s attention, but since they were students just like Tang Ka, it was pointless for Li Yao to swing to them.

A swing could be very exhausting and dangerous. Li Yao did not want to make any reckless move unless it was a very suitable target.