Chapter 161: Cultivation Becomes a Trend

The news of a force of tens of thousands being wiped out shocked the world.

No one believed the news when they first heard it, thinking it must be a hoax or a joke. The White Ape King was still just a being of flesh and blood, regardless of how powerful it actually was.

Despite being an Invincible Vajra, it should have died when subjected to carpet bombing just the same as any other creature.

With a massive force consisting of tens of thousands of soldiers, the operation should have been able to take out ten White Ape Kings, let alone just one in the woods alone.

If the White Ape King was indeed powerful enough to take out a force that huge single-handedly, it would not have needed to flee all the way back to Shennongjia from Mount Tai to begin with.

Modern armies were not like the armies of old, after all. When amply equipped, an army’s combat capacity would have been over a hundred times, even several hundred times, that of the same forces back in ancient times.

If the White Ape King were truly that fearsome, it might as well have been the reincarnation of Sun Wukong.

As the enormous force searched the Shennongjia and put all of their cutting edge equipment to use, they were able to locate the ape hidden deep in the Shennongjia. They then mobilized all at once, heading in the direction of the White Ape King.

However, it turned out to be a trap. A sword formation that had been around for ages had been activated all of a sudden, and even a force of that size could perish under its power.

The entire nation was shocked by the news.

Everyone had been duped by just a single ape.

Or rather, it was more accurate to say that no big group of people had ever encountered a monster of such a level before that incident. The massive force had been on the tail of the White Ape King for a long time, throwing all manner of huge, heavy projectile weapons on it and seemingly razing the whole of the Shennongjia. They bombed that white ape to such an extent that it had to keep running, even as it suffered all manner of injuries from being incessantly bombed by such weapons.

Everyone thought that the white ape would definitely end up dead. Certainly, no one had expected that location to be a trap, springing up and taking out the massive army altogether.

All their modern, high-tech weapons had been of no use against that sword formation.

The formation had long been in a half-dead state due to severe lack of spirit qi to nourish it, causing it to gradually lose its original capacity.

With the recent restoration of the world’s spirit qi, the place was nourished by spirit qi again, and the sword formation became fully operational once more.

Still, it was unknown how the white ape had managed to take control of the formation, let alone how the animal had managed to make the formation into a trap.

After the entire force had been confirmed killed in action, countless missiles were thrown into the area, bombing everything in it indiscriminately. Yet when the bombing was over, everyone saw that the place remained intact after all that bombardment. In reality, there was a barrier above that area that had nullified the bombardment and prevented the place from being destroyed.

Everyone was silent, seeing how modern weapons, the weapons that humans had undoubtedly come to rely on entirely, were rendered completely useless for the first time. Those high-tech weapons had given humans the confidence that they would be able to take on the era of cultivators in the near future.

But now, those high-tech weapons were rendered totally ineffective for the very first time, as they had been completely ineffectual against that sword formation.

Of course, humans had yet to take up the weapons that embodied their very last resort.

Many believed that they would be able to raze the area if they were simply to use nuclear weapons. But if humans went that far, things would take a truly dire turn.

Nuclear warfare was the last resort of humans, and if they were ready to go that far, they would be making a clear statement that humans had no other options remaining.

However, such weapons were not conventional weapons in the first place, and they were used mostly to ensure mutual destruction. Once they were used, both sides would suffer severe losses of all kinds.

No one would be willing to use such weapons until things had gotten unimaginably bad.

The White Ape King had, of course, simply made use of special measures laid on special terrain, and there was no proof that it was ready to take on human armies for real.

At present stage, at least, the monsters were still weak against humanity. Even if they were Invincible Vajras, that didn’t mean that they were impervious to everything.

Despite all that, though, what happened had truly shaken everyone to the core.

Their human ancestors had taken hundreds of thousands of years to eventually dominate the entire planet. Everyone was wondering if it was time for humans to be brought down from that dominant position, and other species would take humanity’s place instead.

However, there were still many on the internet calling for the use of nuclear arms to just get rid of that white ape.

Weren’t those weapons made to be used for such situations in the first place?

Do we need to say more about those beasts?

The dignity of humanity shall remain unchallenged!

All manner of radical people were on the internet, after all.

There were, however, even more people who sensed just how dire things were truly becoming from that incident alone, that a White Ape King was able to easily kill over ten thousand people and even ambush an army of tens of thousands.

It was something that would have been unheard of in the old days, and yet all these matters were popping up left and right all around them. It was a testament to the fact that the world was beginning to get increasingly unfriendly towards common folks.

Many began to inquire about how to begin one’s journey into cultivation.

While the nation had already divulged some information regarding the world of cultivators, they had not released anything that had to do with the actual, comprehensive methods of cultivation.

As such, the martial arts gyms and centers all over the nation became crowded hotspots. Warriors were the only kind of people that many were able to make any sense of among the myriad cultivation systems.

The Awakened relied entirely on one’s original destiny, and there was no certainty of one being able to awaken to anything. Methods regarding awakening were very mystical, after all. As for the other types of cultivators, such as spellcasters and the like, they remained the stuff of legends that most had never even heard of.

People were unable to find these ways even if they searched for them.

On the other hand, legacies in the martial arts department were practically everywhere. A great many of those legacies had suffered limitations from the world itself, making it nearly impossible to reach great heights. Many had been unable to amount to much even after training for their entire lives, eventually becoming targets of ridicule.

However, things were different in the present day. Now that spirit qi had been restored, one could achieve something substantial through martial arts.

Most importantly, that was the only route that many had access to, the only entry point into cultivation.

All of a sudden, martial arts gyms and centers flocked with people. People from all walks of life came to learn, even though the great majority of them were only considered outer-ring students and had no access to true training.

Still, while those methods that only touched the surface may not have been effective back in the old days, in the present-day situation where spirit qi was restored, one could yet gain something visible from such methods. At the very least, one was able to easily strengthen their body.

Many forces of martial arts legacies became lucrative businesses all at once, and the people involved were grinning ear to ear from all the money they were making.

The registration fees alone made those in charge very rich. The likes of the Chen Clan and the Seven Invincible Sect took the opportunity to do massive recruitment drives.

Places like the Southern Shaolin Temple, which had long been regarded as the sacred ground of martial arts lineages, became even more wealthy, as there were people making inquiries in the temples almost every day.

It was as if one would be considered outdated if they didn’t talk about cultivation, to the point that such people might as well be living under a rock.

Cultivation had become the most popular trend in the current era.

However, yet another piece of news came out before long—someone brought information regarding the White Ape King from the mountains of Shennongjia.