One day later, Li Yao, Long Yangjun, and Li Jialing led the carefully selected, brawny warriors to climb through the zigzagging, rugged gaps and pass through the forsaken vertical mines that nobody knew about. Then, they drove the enormous excavators that looked like earthly dragons to ascend thousands of meters and gradually approached the rocks where the Great Iron Plants was located.
Along the way, they passed by countless deserted or dying abandoned towns.
Five thousand meters below the ground was a fuzzy line of demarcation, which was entirely different from the purpose of the towns up and down.
The towns established above the five-thousand-meter line were mainly meant to disperse the redundant population on the ground and expand the living space of human beings. The towns below the five-thousand-meter line, on the other hand, were almost all established based on the discovery of certain resources.
Both the rare mother lodes and the residences and relics from tens of thousands of years ago could attract countless Immortal Cultivators to come like locusts, bringing with them tremendous hominoid slaves. The food, shelter, and transportation of the hominoid slaves would attract even more people to gather together and make a living. It was often possible that a prosperous, lively town would be automatically established in a very short amount of time.
However, the good times did not last long. Once the mother lodes ran dry or the secret treasures inside the relics were all explored, it would mean the doom of the town.
The Immortal Cultivators who had taken advantage of everything could simply leave, but it was impossible for them to bring the hominoid slaves who worked for them and the service workers who were gathered because of the hominoid slaves.
Those people's fates were all entangled with the mother lodes and the relics. They barely knew anything except for mining and working as mice in the exploration of relics. After the resources ran dry, their fate after they were abandoned by the Immortal Cultivators was naturally the most miserable.
Except for the few strong men who risked passing through the deep, narrow cracks and tunnels to try their luck in other underground towns, most of the old, weak, and sick people were destined to wait for death in the desolate darkness, ending up even more miserable than the residents of the 10084 district.
Li Yao had seen too many such abandoned towns on his way here.
The residents of a lot of towns had all perished. The only things left were the bones that were emitting gloomy phosphorescence, as well as the mining magical equipment that had also lost their vitality, which was rusted and lying on the ground. They looked like graves of wasted iron and skeletons.
However, what was even more tragic were the towns where the residents had yet to die and were still struggling futilely in despair.
The faces that looked like living skeletons were embedded with pairs of hungry eyes. Even Li Yao did not have the courage to look at the brilliance beaming out of them.
Naturally, Nepenthe developed very well in those desolate towns. Wherever they went, as long as it was not a real unpopulated area, the Nepenthe believers would come out to welcome them. They would deliver clean drinking water to them and distribute the roasted meat jerky of the 10084 district to the local residents. The meat jerky was even ground into porridge to prevent them from choking and bloating.
Judging from how the residents were devouring the food and expressing their gratitude to the Nepenthe believers, they probably would not betray Nepenthe even if their heads were chopped off. That was exactly the foundation of the people.
Long Yangjun told Li Yao that Nepenthe was not the only organization that was thriving below the ground. In fact, all kinds of bizarre ideas and organizations were developing rapidly in the remote villages and the underground worlds of the Imperium. Some people believed in Nepenthe, some believed in the Holy League, some believed in the Chiyou Cult, and some even directly worshipped the extraterrestrial devils. A weird training method named "extraterrestrial devils' dance" was popular.
All in all, as long as people could temporarily forget their pain, numb their wounded and wounded bodies, and even give them a slim chance to counterattack the Immortal Cultivators, the "humble hominoids" were willing to believe in the deities in the universe and the devils in the netherworld.
"Let me put it this way —"
Long Yangjun summed it up. "The people here believe in everything except the true path of immortality and the highest authorities."
Li Yao thought of something. He was going to ask Long Yangjun, "What about the path of the Cultivators?"
But on second thought, wasn't it exactly because the oppression of the Immortal Cultivators that Starlight had been active at the edge of the Imperium for hundreds of years, rising from the ashes dozens of times, and growing stronger and stronger?
Right. The picture where he wreaked havoc in "Manjusaka, the City in the Sky" and shouted that "the Cultivators are back" had long been spread across the entire Imperium through the Spiritual Nexus. Chances were that a lot of hominoids in the Imperium had already been awakened and were training in silence with "Cultivators" as their goal, preparing for their resistance.
Perhaps, there were also people who had been influenced, shocked, and deeply touched by the path of the Cultivators deep inside the capital planet.
He should have more confidence in the path of the Cultivators and should not underestimate himself so much. Even the Chiyou Cult and the extraterrestrial devils were believed in. Was the path of the Cultivators so unattractive?
There must be people who believed in the Cultivators, people who looked forward to the Cultivators, and people who were willing to become Cultivators at any cost!
In any case, the trip to the underground world had been a great eye-opener for Li Yao. He truly realized how corrupted the bottom level that constituted the cornerstone of the Imperium was. The Immortal Cultivators' reign over the place had actually almost lost its effectiveness. People would rather believe in the emotionless Path of Ultimate Benevolence or the utterly chaotic path of extraterrestrial devils than believe in the Immortal Cultivators above their heads. How ironic and pathetic was that?
No matter how the Immortal Cultivators brainwash the bottom-level people and preach the idea that 'true human beings' are supreme and 'hominoids' must contribute everything, their reign is about to go bankrupt!
Li Yao thought to himself. The people of the Imperium have abandoned the true path of immortality with their practical actions. Now, it will be the Cultivators' turn to show our sincerity and win over as many people as possible from the Holy League, the Chiyou Cult, the extraterrestrial devils, and other messy ideas and organizations!
As the saying went, a forced melon would not be sweet. It could only be won by wisdom but not by force. Not just his heavy wounds, even if he were in his peak state and wearing all the godly equipment, it would be impossible for him to simply charge forward and beat the leaders of the Holy League, the Chiyou Cult, and the extraterrestrial devils to death. After all, those people must've done a lot of good deeds dutifully. At the very least, they must've comforted their hearts!
If Li Yao really acted recklessly, the brand of the Cultivators would've been completely ruined.
I have to figure out a way to establish the brand of the Cultivators. Right now, the bottom-level people at the center of the cosmos have been Immortal Cultivators for a long time. It's exactly because they can't find a way out that they are desperate! The true path of the Cultivators is a ten-thousand-year-old shop after all, with abundant intangible assets. As long as the brand can be established again, there's no reason why it can't compete with the Holy League or the Chiyou Cult!
Li Yao scratched his chin quickly. Branding … is my specialty!
After a brief rest in the desolate towns, a lot of warriors joined the rebels of Nepenthe and marched upward.
Li Yao observed the rebels in secret. Their quality was beyond his expectation. They were all stronger than ever. It was hard to imagine that such experts could've been raised in the underground worlds that were short of resources. Although their spiritual roots hadn't been awakened yet, their bones were tough, their veins were active, and their temples were bulging, indicating that they were all "experts of martial arts".
Li Yao secretly compared them with the high school students and common soldiers of the Xing Yao Federation, only to discover that they were not at a disadvantage in terms of physical fitness.
Thinking quickly, Li Yao soon realized that it was probably a "survivor's error".
First of all, the refugees who escaped to the underground worlds in the past tens of thousands of years must've been the elites and experts on the surface of the planet at that time. The formidableness of their bloodline had been guaranteed from the very beginning.
It was exactly because of the harsh environment and the shortage of resources that the death rate of the underground worlds was very high that the people who were physically weak and their genes were all filtered out and obliterated in the infinite darkness during the cruel screening.
Those who were able to continue their bloodline and survive to this day were naturally the most tenacious, resilient, and strong!
Most of the warriors that made up the rebels were miners and relic explorers. They were the most excellent soldiers.
The miners were hardworking and highly organized. Also, they knew how to manipulate all kinds of complicated, precise mining magical equipment, which made them more or less cultured. At the very least, they knew how to operate a lot of magical equipment and how to maintain the simple-structured civil magical equipment. After some training, they would be able to manipulate the military magical equipment.
Also, the owners of the mines of the Imperium of True Human Beings, in order to reduce the cost and increase the output, often performed all kinds of crazy modifications on the miners under their command without any restraint. Objectively speaking, they had raised them into monsters with infinite physical strength.
Think about it. If a miner's work efficiency was higher than that of a spiritual puppet, his ability to smash someone's head into pieces would certainly not be any worse, either.
In the Uranian Ring Sector, one of the four new worlds of the Xing Yao Federation, a great riot of the Earthly Brute against the ruler of the Heavenly Light had taken place before. Ding Ling Dong had even experienced and organized the riot in person. Later, she had talked to Li Yao about the details at that time, which made Li Yao realize how terrifying the well-trained miners could be when they were organized.
It was needless to mention the relic explorers.
Although the Immortal Cultivators merely regarded the hominoids as guinea pigs and sent them to the unexplored relics to test the traps and defense rune arrays, most of the 'guinea pigs' were killed abruptly.
However, the 'guinea pigs' who luckily survived could turn into terrifying beasts after they accepted the trials in the relics.
Boss Bai, the 'old friend' that Li Yao met in the Flying Star Sector and the Pirate Potentate, had made his fortune as a relic explorer.
There was also 'Heaven Battering King' Qi Changsheng, one of the 'Four Rapscallions' of the Ancient Sages Sector who was as famous as Long Yangjun. He and the Heaven Battering Army under his command were both grave robbers and relic explorers.
Although the relic explorers were much fewer in number than the miners, they were the backbone and the captains of the rebels. Every one of them had been whipped by the Immortal Cultivators with electromagnetic whips to march toward the perilous unknown relics countless times. Having crawled out of piles of corpses, they naturally hated the Immortal Cultivators the most.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
