"Not to kill them directly but to turn the Cultivators into clowns?"
Tilting his head, Li Jialing considered carefully.
"Yes."
Profound brilliance flashed in Wuying Lan's eyes as he smiled. "It is useless to destroy their bodies of flesh and blood like we did forty-one times in the past, although it is more than easy for the Imperium. It is a pity that even if their flesh and blood can be burnt up, and their bones can be ground into powder and dispersed in the cold universe, it is very likely that their stupid and dangerous ideas will continue spreading.
"At first, they are as harmless as the feeblest flu virus, as if they are really extinct. Even the legends of the Cultivators will not be heard for decades.
"But one day, some people will be infected by the theories that have been gone for decades and become the new-generation Cultivators, causing minor trouble for the Imperium again.
"Did you know? According to our investigation, 'Starlight', which has emerged this time, did not even have a single person whose spiritual root was awakened at the beginning? It was just a bunch of ignorant miners.
"However, after decades of development, after absorbing tremendous frustrated, bottom-level Immortal Cultivators and scoundrels, they managed to develop a small group of rather troublesome forces.
"We once captured a few core members of 'Starlight' of the new generation. They confessed that they had nothing to do with the Land of Sins or the Martial Meritocrats Sector. They did not even know that Starlight originated from the Martial Meritocrats Sector at the beginning. They had only heard the groundless, absurd stories and worshipped the legends of Starlight and the Cultivators.
"In the bullsh * t legends, Starlight of the Cultivators is like an immortal phoenix that can be reborn in fire time and time again. All the sacrifices are made so that they will be stronger the next time they are reborn.
"Some of the legends are passed on orally from a certain wrinkled, dying old man. Some of the legends are from jade chips and crystal processors. The forty Starlights in the past more or less left something before they perished. The more bizarre and sensational a rumor is, the more people will believe it, and the faster it will spread.
"All in all, the universe is too vast. Despite the speed and fierceness of the deployment of the troops of the Imperium, it is barely possible to annihilate a rebellious organization of the Cultivators the moment it hears the news of its rise in a certain space zone at the border. As a result, Starlight is truly enshrouded in mystery, tragedy, and heroism. The legends of 'being reborn in fire time and time again' will be believed by more fools, too!
"Therefore, even if we completely destroy this Starlight today, it will only be because it has entered a new 'rebirth in fire'. Before long, the next Starlight will pop up. It may be established by a bunch of exhausted miners, a bunch of infuriated bottom-level soldiers, or a bunch of hungry peasants. No matter how weak and pathetic it looks at the beginning, as long as the chess piece of 'Starlight' is set up, it will mean a … minor victory for the Cultivators."
"Do not ignore the Cultivators," Li Lingfeng interjected.
"Although our greatest enemy right now is the people of the Holy League, the Cultivators have always been the earliest enemy of the Imperium. Those guys have not been completely annihilated after a thousand years. They are truly more tenacious than cockroaches!"
"However, after the 'epic quest' today, it will be barely possible for the Cultivators to deceive people because we will certainly not give them a chance to make a 'heroic sacrifice'."
Wuying Lan said with a smile. He operated quickly on his wrist crystal processor. The arc-shaped light beams around the ball-shaped palace changed quickly. This time, the pictures of the ground of the Land of Sins, the underground world, and the space zones around "Manjusaka, the City in the Sky" were popped up.
"There are two branches of Starlight. Other than space, some of their cockroaches are active below the ground of the Land of Sins, too," Wuying Lan explained.
"However, decades ago, I received an opportunity by accident and nailed one of my 'spies' to the bottom of the Land of Sins. I was thinking to completely annihilate the underground branch of Starlight with the intelligence provided by the 'spies', but the 'spies' performed surprisingly well. It seemed to be a waste of talent to deal with an insignificant underground branch. As it happened, the slaughter stream platform of the Heavenly Eye Group was gradually rising to the peak, and its influence spread across the entire Imperium. Therefore, I began to consider a brand-new possibility.
Li Jialing raised his head and looked at the enormous light beam floating before them.
On the light beam, all the remaining 'earthly dragons' of the underground branch of Starlight could be seen clearly. The Immortal Cultivators had long locked onto their most precise coordinates.
Some of the 'earthly dragons' had even been installed with surveillance chips by the Immortal Cultivators, allowing them to vaguely hear the excited, low, or exhausted conversations among the Cultivators. It could be seen that they were wiping their magical equipment, rubbing their blades, and assembling their guns in a rather nervous manner, waiting for the arrival of the final battle of the global sword network.
"Do you see it? Those Cultivators are eagerly anticipating the arrival of 'sacred sacrifice'!"
Wuying Lan chuckled and said, "They thought that the 'attack on the City in the Sky' would be the most glamorous, glorious, and tragic battle of Starlight in the past hundreds of years. They did not consider the outcome at all, because even if they failed in the end, as long as they did launch a large-scale attack and caused the slightest damage to 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky', the news would certainly become a new legend after some embellishment. The legend that the Cultivators were undying would bewitch a bunch of idiots into new Cultivators in the near future.
"That was their wishful thinking. It did not matter whether they won or lost. All they wanted was a valiant death in battle. They wanted the magnificent Imperium of True Human Beings to acknowledge that the Cultivators were a concept on par with the Immortal Cultivators on some level so that they could promote their ideas. That was all.
"It is a pity that absolutely none of the Cultivators realized that the tragic battle of the so-called 'attack on the City in the Sky' was planned by the Immortal Cultivators from the beginning to the end. Also, I have deployed a lot of our spies in all the procedures.
"They thought that they were waging a sacred war that could not have been more glorious, solemn, and righteous. Little did they know that it was just a stream and a game, and they were just … clowns and toys in the game for other people's amusement.
"Look here. From the very beginning, we have been able to monitor the Cultivators' every move and listen to their most idiotic words. Those words might sound more or less attractive if they were in a different setting and matched with some tragic music. But what if some 'canned laughter' was added here? What if some hilarious sound effects were added? What if a few glib comments were posted on their faces?
"In such a case, when the targets that the Cultivators wanted to win over most, namely the bottom-level hominoids who made up 99% of the Imperium, saw the pictures that we carefully crafted, what kind of impression would they have on the Cultivators? Would they think that they were moths darting at the fire, idiots who were trying to stop a chariot, or clowns who did not know their limits?
"There's also this place. Do you see it? This is the main battlefield below the ground that I carefully designed — the temple of the Cultivators. In order to make it more attractive, I even made up the concept of a 'Cultivator who had been lost for a thousand years'.
"In fact, it was not exactly my own creation, but it had been spreading among the wretched 'Starlight' in the past. It was nothing more than the image of an ancient Cultivator, an omnipotent, invincible god, that was randomly made up to boost morale.
"It must be noted that this was a nonexistent resister. How was the Imperium going to kill him or prove that he did not exist?
"This time, let's let the 'Cultivator who had been lost for a thousand years' show up as a clown in the carefully arranged game. In such a way, we will tell all the people of the Imperium how hilarious the faith and hope of the Cultivators are!
"It is the case below the ground and in space. All in all, the dragnet has been cast, and all the traps have been set up. We are going to capture the Cultivators' every expression from hope to disappointment to desperation. We are going to see with our own eyes how splendid their faces will be when they learn that the sacred mission that they have dedicated themselves to is nothing more than a well-planned game. We are even going to ask the ordinary people and the hominoids to be deeply involved in the game, making them believe that the Cultivators are vulnerable wretches who are targets to be mocked and mocked, and that everything is under the control of the Imperium and the Immortal Cultivators.
"When they are caught in desperation and have lost all hope, many people are willing to be a tragic hero. The feeling of fighting bloody battles and collapsing on a mountain of corpses in exhaustion can even be quite romantic.
"But in any case, absolutely nobody is willing to be a fly in a transparent glass jar whose every move will be seen clearly. What a hilarious and pathetic wretch!
"Right now, the Cultivators of Starlight are exactly like that. The wretches in transparent glass jars!
"As for those wretched worms, we will try not to kill them if we can. We will capture them alive and send them to 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' for refinement. We will make them realize how idiotic and hilarious their beliefs in the past were and how profound their understanding of the true path of immortality will be after they are reborn and reborn.
"Trust me. After they completely understand the truth and are sent to 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' for modification, they will certainly have drastic changes that will touch their soul. By then, we will be able to stream the process of their modification and their gradual repentance. We will also arrange for them to tour in the entire Imperium.
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