The world felt it was finally able to breathe normally.
We couldn't rule out the presence of extremists who craved terror and chaos, but most of the people on this planet still wanted a peaceful life.
When the Convention on Joint Development of International Transcendent Power was announced, people of different races and backgrounds in almost every country felt the indignation, as well as the longing and apprehension for the official beginning of a new era.
Those countries that had been ogling one another during the conference couldn't wait to begin their cooperation. In all aspects from politics, economics, to construction of people's livelihood, the countries had never been so closely interconnected, and the world had never seen so many schemes against one another.
Take Gu Yu's home country and Uncle Sam as an example: they were running over twenty cooperative projects in agriculture alone.
Most of the wheat and maize in Chine was destroyed and the country wasn't very good at planting potatoes, but they were second to none in the rice field. Moreover, they had also discovered the giant mushrooms and the meat of yellow-fur rat.
Uncle Sam was not the biggest fan of rice, but they were able to breed a new species of soybean and sugarbeet, which could produce a great amount of oil and sugar, respectively. They were also a major potato grower.
Hence, helping each other out was made possible!
What happened in a certain small country near the arctic circle was another example. The climate there had grown too harsh to inhabit it and its residents had to go on a mass-scale migration. Without external aid, the task would bankrupt the country, hence the help of the others. During the process, a multitude of behind-the-curtain deals was inevitable.
As for Britannia, the saboteur had habitually wiped its own memory once more and appeared to be innocent despite all the past wrongdoings. It was now batting its eyelashes adorably, eager to be a member of the new organization.
All in all, two direct results came out of this conference.
For one, it gave birth to the founding of the Association of Transcendent Power, whose HQ was set in Neutral State with no compulsory requirement on branches—the decision was left for individual countries themselves. Naturally, the BIMAUP was included in the report, naming it the Chinese branch, which would be in charge of global communication, networking of big data of mutated creatures, and even the receiving and assigning of tasks.
That would be like running a mercenary guild!
The second outcome was even more straight forward: our Old Gu had made himself known worldwide, and no one was to mess with his country!
***
Before they knew it, the conference had been over for days.
The fourth year of the new age had finally passed and it was the first day of the fifth year.
Shengtian was snowing again and was bitterly cold. According to weather observations, the average temperature this year was about four degrees lower than in the same period of previous years. Governments of the Northeast had never been so concerned with the heating systems and officials of all municipal governments had made it clear that it was imperative to keep people warm.
Residents of the North knew how miserable life was when the central heating system was crappy: maintenance work began as hot water began to pour into the pipes, which was lukewarm on warmish days, occasionally hot on average cold days, and spasmodically hot on very cold days—it was as if the hot water was fighting a guerrilla war with winter.
The
However, such a change resulted in a surge in resource consumption. In order to save energy and improve utilization, Shengtian had planned to set up central-heating pipelines in all the areas under its
As mentioned before, Shengtian was instructed to take in migrants mainly from the provinces of Heishui and Wula. While the people of Wula could still wait, those of Heishui could not. Snow had been falling in the latter since November, stopping only for a few days. Half of the province, plus two states of Tsar on the north, had been completely covered by ice and snow.
Those resourceful enough had long made their way out, while those without such means had no choice but to stay trapped in their homes, waiting for government rescue. It was a similar case with the other corners on the border of the country: from Mobei, Monan, the Southwest, the Northwest, and the Southeast, people were moving towards the inland cities.
Numerous common people were confused, terrified, and doubted the future they were facing. Many chose to escape reality, became uncooperative, or even turned violent. Some even went to the extreme—entire families had committed suicide by poisoning because of their reluctance to leave their hometowns.
It was exactly as that fellow said over the internet: a lot of people were going to die during this process…
Phoenix Mountain, the Cottage of Pure Mind.
The lovely green valley had a delicate and natural beauty. Rolling verdant mountains stretched into the distance and with the fragrant flowers and twittering birds, it was a completely different world from outside.
Xiaozhai had just finished her exercise of the day and returned to the valley from the training court. As soon as the cottage came into view, she saw that the two younger ones were sneaking around outside Gu Yu's meditation room, planning God knew what.
"What are you up to?"
"Sister!"
The two jumped at her voice, then ran up to her. After shuffling around between themselves, Long Qiu finally spoke for the two of them, "Brother has shut himself up since he came back; we want to know how he is."
"Then go in there and look." Xiaozhai was bewildered by their reaction.
"We're a little, um, afraid," said Long Qiu, pursing her lips.
"Afraid?"
She unknowingly darted a look at Xiaojin, who—very unlike her usual self—did not retort but chimed in, "That's right! You have no idea what he was like when I talked to him when he got back. That look he gave me! Damn! It was like a death beam! I thought he was going to swallow me whole!"
What the hell?
Xiaozhai was all the more confused. She then shouted into the meditation room, "Old Gu, you done in there?"
"Yes?"
The voice that answered was clear, refined, and with an aloofness that did not belong to the mortal world.
"I'm hungry. Cook us something," said Xiaozhai.
"Oh."
With a creek, the wooden door was pushed open and out came Gu Yu.
Long Qiu: emmmmm!!!
Xiaojin: emmmmmm!!!
About half an hour later, the family of four gathered around the table, eating their 3pm breakfast.
There were a variety of dishes and they were still cooked the same way as they liked it. Gu Yu picked around the dishes at random and put down his chopsticks.
"Lost your appetite?" asked Xiaozhai.
"No, it just I don't need or desire food all that much."
"Oh? Have you given up eating for good?"
"..." Gu Yu's face remained emotionless as he replied after a pause, "Pretty much. I could go without eating for more then ten days in my innate state; now I think I can make do with half a year."
"Sigh, your loss!" Xiaozhai had a mouthful of food and shook her head with pity.
Long Qiu ate her rice in small bites and looked at the couple in turn. She finally plucked up her courage and asked, "Brother, do you still like me?"
She immediately found that question wrong and corrected herself in a hurry, "Um, that's not what I meant. I only wanted to know, do you still have, have…"
The more flustered she was, the harder it was for the words to come. Long Qiu's little face was scarlet with embarrassment when Jin Jin came to her rescue. "We just want to ask, do you still have feelings?"
"Feelings? Haha…"
A grin crept up Gu Yu's face and he looked more like his old self now. "You're assuming that I have abandoned all feelings now that I've reached the Human Immortal state?"
"I'm not, but why are you going around with that poker face?" asked Xiaojin curiously.
"Let me give you an example." Gu Yu explained it in a serious tone, "When you're a commoner, you look at things from this angle; when you become a major, a governor, or the head of a country, you're looking at things from that angle instead.
"At different state, people will consider things from different angles and with different mindsets.
"I now know better than any time before what I want and what I have left behind. Anything other than the pursuit of my heart is irrelevant. Because it is irrelevant, there is no need to care. Because I do not care, I look cold.
"But I do have feelings, only that they're not for the mortal world."
"What? So, are we irrelevant now?" Long Qiu blinked her large eyes, looking as sad as a lost puppy.
"You and Jin Jin are my family, of course you're not irrelevant. And your sister is the person I want, so that's a no for her as well."
'Eww!'
The declaration of love came so out of the blue that Xiao Qiu had to turn to her fellow single sister Xiaojin for warmth.
Gu Yu took Xiaozhai's hand and smiled. "Therefore, there is no such a thing as 'saints are indifferent'. It's only that when you reach the eternity, what else is there to raise your interest?"
He then went on to a different subject. "The path I took for my breakthrough was too perilous this time, so I had to stay in seclusion to stabilize it. During this time, I was able to summarize what I learned, and I'd like to talk to you about it."
"Great! Let's hear it!"
At the mention of that, they all forgot about eating. The four then moved to sit under the old tree, where the two younger ones held their chins on their palms like two good students.
Gu Yu organized his thoughts and began, "Let me talk about what I've learned from this experience first. When you've reached perfection in your innate state and are facing breakthrough, a kind of energy will be accumulating inside you. What you need to do then is to wait until it rises to its peak, which is right on the verge of brimming over.
"There should be two ways to achieve this. One is to stay in seclusion, let it work its way up slowly, and wait for the breakthrough to come in its natural course, which is relatively safer. The other way is what I did, which is to force it out of the bottleneck by fighting against a strong enemy. Although by sheer luck, I was able to make it, I do not recommend it for any of you. It is too risky.
"For if you fail at this stage, you will have to wait for the next opportunity, and you won't know when that will be.
"Then there is the state of mind. Based on my experience, you have to meet two conditions: say goodbye to the mortal world and see universe as it is. How this works is very subjective and I can only tell you the result."
"Oh, I see!" Long Qiu suddenly raised her hand and said excitedly, "You have to say goodbye to your own mortal world and see your own universe as it is. You're speaking of your own experience, which may not suit us. It's like 1+1=2; we all know the correct answer, but we have to work out how to prove it on our own terms."
Her little face lit up with proud, which had "Gimme a golden star!" written all over it.
"Haha, very well said. That's exactly what I meant." Gu Yu praised her just as she wanted and went on, "Then there's the change brought by the Human Immortal state. The change in the energy is the most prominent. In the innate state, all our cultivation and consumption need to be supplemented by external sources, whereas in the Human Immortal state, how we cultivate remains the same, but we will be able to fill in the blank of what we've consumed ourselves because we're now able to produce spiritual essence by ourselves and circulate it inside our body.
"I guess that is why there hasn't been a Human Immortal for centuries. They didn't need external spiritual essence to supplement what they used, but they did need it for cultivation. However, with the spiritual essence running dry, they lost the channel to communicate with nature and could no longer cultivate. The energy of their life eventually ran out.
"Those of the Immortal state would be a different story. Since they have mastered the knowledge of mind and soul, they were probably able to rise beyond this confinement. Therefore, I think Immortals do still exist, not to mention Earthly Immortals. As for Heavenly Immortals… I can't say whether or not anyone has achieved that."
"Wow! Are you saying that when you fight with others now, you don't have to worry about your energy consumption and can just keep using it?" asked Xiaojin.
"That's right. The amount of spiritual essence in combat between Human Immortals is not an issue at all. They will be competing on the level of Taoist skills alone. All Taoist skills are comprised of Qi; the better understanding you have on Qi and the more creatively you can use it, the more powerful your skills will be."
After that, Gu Yu disappeared right in front of their eyes without so much as moving a finger.