1 Cultivation Is Dead

Cultivation is dead. Or so people say. In this day and age a cultivator was as rare as a full moon in the afternoon. This was the Great Sovereignty Age. Mankind was in full control of its surroundings.

"Another day, another tale." A young man said as he opened his windows to greet the morning sun. He lived on the ten thousandth floor of the building, which was a horrible concept for those afraid of heights. But Little Long was not one of those people.

Little Long was like most people his age. He was neither tall nor was he short, he had a medium build and his chocolate like brown skin made him seem handsome when in reality he was not. A round chubby face with small beady eyes made him seem nefarious. Much to his own chagrin. He also had quite the belly, although in the past few months he had lost quite a bit of weight.

He looked in the mirror and played with his long black hair while he was observing his body, carefully calculating how much weight he had lost, and his results were satisfactory.

After a bath and some breakfast, he quickly made his way to the elevator with a skip in his step.

"Good morning Little." said an old man who was seated in the elevator. "Old man, I told you not to call me that." Grumbled the young man. The old man had white hair all over his wrinkled face. He had the thickest moustache Little Long had ever seen. But his body was large and burst with a vitality unnatural for a man his age.

"Bah! Names have power young man. This is your given name. Thus I will call you as such. Children these days have no sense of pride. Hmph!" The old man snorted before whipping out his tablet to read the morning newspaper.

"I'm not saying don't use my name. I'm just saying that you can use my other name. Long is my surname, thus there is no issue if you just used that." The young man said with a wry smile.

"So you want an old man like you to call a little brat like you Mr. Long? Boy what have you been smoking? You think just because you have the same surname as The Human Monarch you can be cocky? Well guess what kid, it's one of the most common surnames out there! Enough of this nonsense and just tell me what floor you want to go to, before I teach you a thing or two about respecting your elders." The old man squinted his eyes, making Little Long very uncomfortable.

"The Great Library please." Little Long could not help but slouch. There was not enough courage in the entire world for him to dare defy the old man. He was maybe just an elevator controller, but he was also well known in the world of cultivation. Rumour had it that in his younger days he had quite the reputation in the martial arts circles. Alas the past can only be the past.

Little Long moved closer to the old man to see the main title of today's newspaper. The title read, "Cultivation is dead."

That coupled with the old man's somber expression made this an uncomfortable moment for Little Long. He did not dare tell the old man to hurry along and get the elevator moving. He had experienced the old man's fist before and had no intention of doing so today as well.

As a cultivator, it was natural that the old man was bothered by the title. After a sigh, he pulled some levers and pushed some buttons, getting the elevator moving.

As the elevator moved it picked up people along the way and dropped some, but all the while there the awkward quiet never dissipated. Everyone who entered was familiar with the old man and knew that silence was best for now.

"These days cultivation is pointless. If one can afford to have their body altered by science they can achieve the same result cultivation can. Cultivation takes years upon years of effort were as science does it in a simple step. Under such circumstances why would people still cultivate?" Little Long thought to himself.

Indeed, science had now advanced to the point that the human body can be altered to perfection. Divine Dividend, the largest scientific company in existence was providing genetic modification for a reasonable price, although it was still quite expensive for a pauper like Little Long. The young man dreamed of having his body modified into having the perfect body structure, with a six pack and defined muscles covering his body.

The Great Library was Little Long's favorite place in the whole world. He would come and read books about the old days when humanity was still under the foot of the so called 'gods'. These 'gods' were beings who were born with far superior abilities than man, and had used their superiority to chain mankind into submission. Its not known where they came from. All historians know is that the 'gods', along with a plethora of other species suddenly appeared within the domain mankind lived in and took them as slaves.

With intelligence, able bodies and incredible fertility mankind made the perfect slaves. Thus millions of years ago mankind was reduced to being slaves.

The Great Library had many librarians, but Keisha was without a doubt the most eye catching. Blonde hair, big beautiful blue eyes and a curvy body made her the target of many a suitor. But she never budged and devoted herself to this library. The Great Library was old fashioned in that books were still read using paper. Technological devices were not allowed to be used inside, and if one was discovered to have used technology thrice then one would be banned for life.

It was also the best historical source around. Keisha had always been a history fanatic thus this was a dream job for her.

Today, like most days, it was her duty to man the front desk. When the old wooden doors opened Keisha put on her traditional smile to welcome the new customer. But what she saw could not help but make her want to frown.

"It's him!" Wearing a blue jersey and skinny jeans was one of the most unpleasant people she knew. Little Long.

He visited the library almost every day, and was obsessed with history regarding humanity's fight for freedom. All she knew about him was that he worked online as some sort of blogger and he lived upstairs.

"Hello Keisha." Little Long waved at her as he passed by. And there it was, the reason she disliked him. She was a woman who prided herself in her looks, and although she had no intentions of entering a relationship she at least expected a gaze or two to be spared at her. Being beautiful and intelligent was part of her pride. But Little Long was an exception.

Books, books and only books! That's all he cared about! He had never said more that five words to her the entire time she has worked here. And most of the time he would not even bother looking at her.

Keisha knew of those who avoided her because they were shy, but this was not that. No, this was blatant disregard for her existence. She found this frustrating. Little Long was a fat, single nerd who lived by himself. He should be worshipping natural beauties like her, but he couldn't care less.

She wished she could get him banned somehow, but the young man never broke any rules. He returned all books he borrowed on time, read in silence and never used any technology. She could not fault him, thus she could do nothing but stamp her foot in anger every time he walked past.

The Great Library was like a large cylindrical tower, with stairs coiling around allowing those who wanted to move around access to the countless bookshelves in the many different floors.

Little Long did not waste time and quickly went to his favourite section. Which also happened to be the most popular section of the library. The Sadio Long section!

Humanity's freedom was a result of many people's hard work and sacrifice. But if one was asked who stood out above the rest, no one will doubt that the answer would be Sadio Long. The Human Monarch. He had slain thousands of 'gods' in his quest to gain humanity freedom and was the godfather of modern day cultivation.

Cultivation is what gave humanity the power to fight back, the power to be free, and the power to regain its destiny.

Cultivation was the process of absorbing energy from the environment in an attempt to become an immortal. It is a long and arduous process, and was also the reason humanity had fallen into captivity.

"Where is it? Where is it?" Little Long muttered as he searched for a certain book. It took him hours of searching, but he found what he was looking for. A book titled 'One Man Ten Thousand Gods'. It was a book that is believed to have been the first ever cultivation manual made by Sadio Long himself! One that can only be used by mankind!

Till this day many historians doubt it, as the method was tried by many who followed. But it was discovered to be useless. Yes one could become stronger with it but the process would be painfully slow. Even the cheapest cultivation manual sold in shops gave one better progress in cultivation. Hence even though it was written in Sadio Long's own handwriting, it is doubted that it was the method he himself used.

Nevertheless people were still very much interested in it and studied it. Later on his blog Little Long decided to do an article on this book, and the chances of it being the real deal. There are many copies, but Little Long wanted something that is close to the real deal, thus he went for what seemed to be an old dusty copy with what was believed to be Sadio's own handwriting

The language used today and the language used back then were completely different, but Little Long was an ancient languages and physics double major, so this was not hard for him. He had two blogs. One that dealt with theoretical physics and one that focused on history. His physics blog was what paid the bills, but his favourite was his history blog without a doubt.

Once he had the old looking leather back book in hand Little Long quickly made action to take it out of the library. He handed it to Keisha in silence and waited for her to note that he had taken it out. And as expected Little Long did not even spare her a glance. Of course as a customer she had to be friendly and smile at him, but inside she wanted to slap his pudgy face.

Little Long was eyeing the book like it was his long lost wife, completely disregarding her existence. As soon as she finished the check out procedure, Little Long bolted out like his life depended on it. If looks could kill at this moment, then Keisha would have killed him a thousand times over.

The old man in the elevator was still brooding when Little Long walked in. When the old man saw the book in the boy's hand he could not help but smile. A odd light shined in his eyes but soon it was well hidden by his wrinkly face.

He did not need to be told by Little Long where to go. Whenever Little Long had a book in his hands he Immediately wanted to take it home for a good read. Nothing else mattered. Once they arrived Little Long left the elevator and thanked the old man, only to be greeted by the typical grunt.

Little Long walked briskly to his apartment and went to his study. He read the manual back and forth multiple times. He even read many cultivation manuals that were derived from this book. After doing a few days worth of research Little Long decided to take a little nap before he began his article.

...

"Wake up you pieces of trash. It's time for work! Move it! Move it!" A burly voice that was screaming death woke up Little Long. He was so startled that he almost fell of his bed, and he would have, except he wasn't on his bed. He was sleeping on the ground. It was at this moment that Little Long realized two things.

One was that his surroundings had changed.

He was now out in the open, with thousands of people dressed in rags waking up around him. They grumbled and complained as they woke up. But the second realization was the real shock.

Those around him, even the voice that had woken him up, were all speaking in the ancient language used millions of years ago!