Chapter 419: What Is Dead May Never Die!
Translator:flycrane01
Editor:Millman97
"May 5, year 1121 in the Star Ocean Calendar.
"I've lived alone in the darkness for another hundred years.
"This time, my life is really coming to an end; the fire of life will fade out very soon.
"A spectral Cultivator as a life form is extremely fragile in the first place and is prone to the scourge of radiations and spiritual waves. It is not unusual for a spectral Cultivator to die abruptly without a good reason.
"I've already reached my limit after struggling to stay alive for more than two hundred years under the protection of the underground silver ocean.
"I'm not scare of death.
"After living by myself for more than two hundred years in complete darkness ten thousand meters below an uninhabited planet, even hell looks as bright and splendid as heaven for me.
"I'm wandering on the border of mental derangement every second, planning to end my own life.
"For years, I've been very, very, very jealous of the repair puppet.
"Because it will sleep forever as long as its rune arrays are turned off.
"But my fire of life can only stay calm for several hours, before it resumes restlessly dancing once again.
"Under the fury that was very close to mental derangement, I smashed the repair puppet into smithereens.
"Right now, the mustard-level maintainers are all there is to fix Sparkle, and I'm afraid it will take ten thousand years for the work to complete.
"After I pass away, who will inform the next explorers of the truth and stop them from opening the residence of Skeleton Dragon recklessly?
"Is there any way that I can keep my fire of life burning for ten thousand years together with Sparkle?
"May 10, year 1121 in the Star Ocean Calendar.
"Immortality is the hilarious pursuit of the idiotic, selfish ancient Cultivators thirty thousand years ago.
"For us the modern Cultivators, we believe in the sufficient burning of a short life. One can die peacefully at dusk if he has learnt the great Dao in the morning.
"But right now, I'm starting to chase an eternal life like those ludicrous ancient Cultivators once did.
"For five days, I've been pondering how I can live longer, until a moment ago something stuck me.
"As a Cultivator, my fire of life burns too intensely. It is impossible for my current soul power to support my fire of life to burn 100% for a couple of more years.
"But what if I keep it crackling slowly in 1%, or even 0.1% efficiency?
"In such cases, my remaining soul can provide enough fuel for it to burn for a long time.
"After all, it is only a message that I want to pass on. With 0.01% of my fire of life, and a tiny bit of computational ability, I will be able to achieve the purpose and accomplish my final mission, which doesn't even require my thinking ability or self-awareness!
"Feelings, memories, computational ability, thinking ability… They are all redundant. I can erase them all so that the consumption of my fire of life will be reduced to minimum.
"Yes, this is my choice. I'm going to destroy my own spiritual root and erase myself!
"May 20, year 1121 in the Star Ocean Calendar.
"I spent ten days taking care of everything on the warship. I switched Sparkle into the hibernation mode. The mustard-level maintainers are the only part of the warship that is functioning normally now.
"In the next thousands of years, it will absorb the spiritual energy leaked in through the gaps and turn the rocks into useful materials that can repair the damage to the warship, perhaps at the speed of a snail.
"In the end, I issued a command as the acting captain of the warship to the mainframe crystal processor whose repair progress has reached 1%. The first human Cultivator to enter Sparkle will be granted all permissions.
"Right now, I will summon my spiritual energy and prepare to expunge myself with my fire of life.
"I will completely obliterate my memories, thinking ability, and self-awareness, so that they will no longer consume the power of my soul.
"The first thing to be deleted are the memories related to Cultivation.
"Growing up in a shadowy, stinky gutter, adopted by an expert of the rebellion army and embarking on the path of Cultivation… Slaying a demon for the first time… Defection and destruction… Escape and counterattack… Everything will be erased once and for all!
"The memories and telepathic thoughts to be erased have been copied in advance to the jade chip. If someone gets it in the future, just consider it to be a special gift of mine.
"May 21, year 1121 in the Star Ocean Calendar.
"After an entire day of erasing yesterday, my computational ability has been suppressed to 70%. My mind is much slower than before. My head feels dizzy and I can't seem to recall anything. It also feels that somebody has stuck a lot of sticky stuff inside. Everything is a total mess.
"Oh, I almost forgot. I don't have a head at all.
"Today, I'm going to erase most of my memories, including those about the imperium and the military.
"More than two hundred years have passed. No one has visited Boneyard. Maybe the Star Ocean Imperium is really gone. But it still hurts so much to remove the memories about it as well as the pride as a human being.
"I was born in the Coiling Mountain Sector. My homeland was ruled by the demon race before I was 12. Soldiers of the rebellion army who stood against the tyranny were hiding everywhere like rats.
"There was a time when I hadn't seen the sun for a whole year.
"It was not until the Cultivators of the Star Ocean Imperium appeared and liberated the Coiling Mountain Sector that I learnt the power of the human civilization and the glory of mankind!
"After joining the imperial armed forces, I finally realized that human beings were not supposed to be rats living in the darkness. We are the best warriors in the entire universe. None shall stop us from marching forward!
"Maybe, the Star Ocean Imperium has perished. But I believe that the flames of the human civilization will dance forever! A thousand years, ten thousand years later, a second or a third Star Ocean Imperium is definitely going to arise!
"Let me cheer one last time as a Cultivator and a guardian of the human civilization.
"Long live humanity! Long live the human civilization!
"Neverber 36, year 11211 in the Star Ocean Calendar.
"compute ability and think ability loss forgets me a lot of things. A day has I spent write these words. I revised hundreds of times, but I still felt something was wrong.
"Memories and self-awareness are deleted basic. The only thing left consuming my power soul be my feelings."
What came next was no longer words, but a twisted image.
In a beautiful maple forest, gold leaves had covered the paths inside. A short, plain-looking officer and a plump woman in pure white nurse uniform were holding their hands and walking slowly.
The officer was holding a greenish orange in his other hand. Tossing it up and down, he and the woman talked and laughed and drew close to the camera.
Two lovely children, a boy and a girl, were following them. Their hands were covered in mud, indicating that they must've been playing in the forest for a while. They bounded toward their parents, shouting about something.
Too bad that it was only a picture without any sound, like a dreamy mummery.
Below the picture, words reappeared.
"Darling, Xiao Guo, Pang Pang, I love you… I love you… I wuv you… Ivyou…"
The words that followed turned into a cluster of messy twisted lines and breakpoints.
In the chaotic graffiti, a new word gradually revealed and repeated itself.
"Trap… Trap… Trap… Trap… Trap… Trap… Trap… Trap…"
And the journal came to an end.
There were a lot of telepathic thoughts and other information, including the activation methods of the key components on Sparkle with their corresponding spiritual codes, the summary of this officer 'Gao Xingce's' life of war, and tremendous notes on gunfighting that he came up with during the long, dull two hundred years.
Yet, Li Yao didn't even glimpse at them, because he had been truly shocked by Gao Xingce's journal.
"So, the reason we could sense the weird metal reaction and spiritual waves was because Gao Xingce had been sending the signal out actively!
"In order to keep sending out the signal and the warning, Senior Gao Xingce chose to erase his own computational ability, thinking ability, and even all his feelings, turning himself into a 'living dead', just so that his flickering fire of life could burn a tiny bit longer, and a tiny bit longer…"
The broken puppet lying in the corner was thin and small. But in Li Yao's eyes, it was high and mighty like a god.
"The Star Ocean Imperium is truly the peak of the modern Cultivation civilization. Even an officer in the rear that didn't join the expedition army already boasted such resolution, courage, and perseverance. I wonder how marvelous the heroes of the expedition army were!
"They are the role models of the Cultivators in our time!"
Li Yao was greatly touched. He walked to Gao Xingce's body again and bowed three times respectfully.
The senior's actions had truly earned his admiration.
But the words in his journal got Li Yao thinking.
Before Gao Xingce erased himself, he had reset the mainframe crystal processor of Sparkle, which would be fully open to the next Cultivator to enter it.
Did that mean he would have the opportunity to pilot a real warship from the Star Ocean Imperium?
The thought stirred tides thousands of meters high in Li Yao's heart. A drop of sweat was appearing on the tip of his nose.
"That's right. Only after we repair Sparkle and make use of the giant drills of mystic rays can we expect to dig a hole to the surface.
"It's been almost ten thousand years since Sparkle was stranded here. Skeleton Dragon has hibernated for the same time. Maybe it has regained its destructive ability!
"The demon race discovered Boneyard not early, not late, but precisely at a time when Skeleton Dragon is most likely to be refreshed. Besides, neither us nor the demon exploration squads encountered too many obstacles on our way here, despite the unexpected accidents. Both parties located his residence effortlessly!"
"The smooth progress feels very odd.
"Maybe, this is all the scheme of Skeleton Dragon. Both us and the demons such as Wang Ji are chess pieces that have been led here by Skeleton Dragon!
"No. Senior Gao Xingce paid such a great price just to pass on the message and Sparkle to me. I have to honor his last wish and destroy Skeleton Dragon completely!"
Li Yao was well aware that the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector were the two worlds closest to Boneyard. Many creatures from the two worlds were wandering on Boneyard at this very moment. In one month, star shuttles from the Heaven's Origin Sector would show up.
If Skeleton Dragon truly freed himself from the barrier and was desperate to restore his strength, he would definitely go to the Heaven's Origin Sector!
The Heaven's Origin Sector would become a living hell. The outcome would be even more horrible than the invasion of the Blood Demon Sector!
"Sparkle is our only chance!"
Li Yao took a deep breath, his eyes brighter than ever. He spoke to the broken puppet in the corner softly.
"Senior Gao Xingce, although I'm not a citizen of the Star Ocean Imperium, I'm part of the human civilization. The Star Glory Federation has always deemed itself as a successor of the Star Ocean Imperium, too.
"Therefore, your glory is my glory, and your destiny is my destiny!
"If your soul is watching over me, then let's just fight side by side!"
While he was talking, he extended his spiritual thread into the hollowed chest of the broken puppet. Soon, he pulled out a cylinder that was as transparent as a crystal but with a spark dancing vigorously in the middle, emitting endless redness.
The mainframe crystal processor could be activated with this piece of magical equipment!