by <unknown>
"Only the fittest should survive, and the strong prey on the weak. Those who win are crowned, and those who fail are labeled rebels. As real Immortal Cultivators, we will never avoid, but actively face and fight for every opportunity of competition. We are only proud of our own strength, not our bloodline or identity!
"The experts who have proved themselves strong in cruel competitions and bloody tests are 'true human beings', whereas strengthless weaklings are the 'hominoids'. It barely has anything to do with who their parents and ancestors are. That is the essence of the true path of immortality!
"It is obviously not the case for the Uranian Ring civilization. Perhaps, in the early stage of the Uranian Ring civilization thousands of years ago, the 'Heavenly Light' who risked their life mending and repairing the Uranian Ring beyond the atmosphere were indeed the elites of the society that deserved the proud title of 'true human beings'. In comparison, the 'Earthly Brute' were indeed weaklings, losers, lazy wretches, shortsighted, and unwilling to work for the future of their posterity. They had themselves to blame when they were rejected from the Uranian Ring and had to struggle to survive on the perilous, heavily polluted surface of the planet!
"However, that was thousands of years ago. They were the strong and the weak, the true human beings and hominoids, thousands of years ago!
"Based on what do the Heavenly Light today consider themselves to be the elites, the chosen ones, the top class, or in short, 'true human beings'? Why do they take the Uranian Ring for granted? Just because of the glory of their ancestors? It is just a matter of birth and has absolutely nothing to do with their own hard work!
"In comparison, couldn't a few experts have distinguished themselves from the Earthly Brute after struggling for such a long time on the perilous planet under the stimulation of dangers and difficulties? Are those experts not qualified to ascend to the Uranian Ring for better education, more intense training, and the support of more resources, so that they can lead the whole civilization to a new peak?
"The offspring of the Heavenly Light remain forever the Heavenly Light, and the children of the Earthly Brute will belong to the Earthly Brute for all eternity. Their social stratification became rigid. All that the 'elites' of the upper class could think of is how to exploit the people of the lower class instead of fighting for a better future, and the people of the lower class accumulated so much fury that they did not know where to vent it! Such a civilization will only waste all its power on internal strife. Did it have a future at all?
"Such a civilization is not a real civilization of Immortal Cultivators at all. It is just a regime that the selfish scumbags such as 'Fei Qi' established to meet their greedy and ridiculous demands under the banner of the Immortal Cultivators. It is not strange at all that such a civilization was destroyed by a civilization of Cultivators. If anything, we are even happy to see that!"
"You are happy to see that?" Li Yao's face was extremely weird. The other experts were also stunned by Heiye Lan's argument. "Why does it sound to me that you hate the Uranian Ring civilization even more than you hate the Star Glory Federation?"
"Of course!" Heiye Lan said solemnly. "The competition between the Immortal Cultivators and the Cultivators is nothing personal but about the righteous path we should walk on. We only have different opinions about the future of the civilization of mankind. Although we are enemies, we are merely 'hostile' to each other. There is nothing too 'hateful' or 'disdainful' about the Star Glory Federation.
"The 'false Immortal Cultivators' such as Fei Qi, on the other hand, have been satisfying the selfish desires under the pretext of the true path of immortality. As a result, the reputation of the Immortal Cultivators in the universe has been tarnished by them.
"As a real Immortal Cultivator, it is only natural that I loathe 'counterfeits' more than I loathe Cultivators!"
Li Yao coughed and was lost for words for a moment. After thinking about her words, he asked curiously, "Since you are so discontent with the system of the Uranian Ring civilization, I do wonder, how would the situation of the 'Uranian Ring civilization' probably have been handled in the Imperium of True Human Beings?"
"You don't need to say 'probably'," Heiye Lan declared proudly. "In the Imperium of True Human Beings, it is very common for the residents of a planet to be divided into two classes like in the Uranian Ring civilization. The 'hominoids', which take up most of the population, live on the surface of the planet where the environment is harsh. The few 'true human beings' live on the comfortable, advanced orbit cities in space.
"It is because the center of the cosmos was the main battlefield of the Armageddon Rebellion ten thousand years ago. Many habitable planets were consumed by the flames of war with the earth heavily polluted and damaged, just like the Uranian Ring Planet. Such planets are not suitable for survival!
"Then, the best option is to establish orbit cities not far away from the mother planet, where the resources on the mother planet can be collected and the harsh climate on the surface of the planet can be avoided.
"Therefore, it is the most reasonable system to divide people into the strong and the weak. The former are allowed to enjoy their life on the Uranian Ring with sufficient resources to study the cutting-edge technologies, techniques, and disciplines, pushing the civilization forward. The latter stay on and below the ground to provide fuel for the advancement of the civilization with their not-so-valuable lives.
"There is nothing wrong with the classification of the Heavenly Light and Earthly Brute. The real problem is the criteria to decide who belongs to the Heavenly Light and who belongs to the Earthly Brute. Also, are the members of the Heavenly Light and those of the Earthly Brute transformable?
"There must be rigorous measures to ensure that every member of the 'Heavenly Light' is the elite of the elites, the one-in-ten-thousand chosen ones who are qualified to enjoy the bountiful resources and the beautiful environment. If they do not meet the standards, they should be eliminated mercilessly no matter who their ancestors are. For the descendants of the Earthly Brute, even if they are the most menial miners, they should still be given an uptrend channel that is wide enough for them to prove their excellency so that they will have the chance to earn the identity of 'Heavenly Light' with their iron fists!
"If the Uranian Ring civilization were a standard civilization of Immortal Cultivators in the Imperium of True Human Beings, the 'Uranian Ring' would probably still have been established, and the two classes living in outer space and on the ground would still have been divided. However, something integral would have appeared between outer space and the planet—channels that connect the underground mines to the space cities!
"In the Imperium, many planets with similar environments have such channels that are known as 'Empyreal Road Towers'!
"In the Empyreal Road Towers, all kinds of most cruel and bloody tests are arranged. All the members of the Earthly Brute are allowed to try the tests in the Empyreal Road Towers. As long as they are capable of passing the tests, thereby proving their 'excellency' and 'formidability' with their own hands, they will ascend to the sky after only one leap. They will change from the Earthly Brute to the Heavenly Light and find their place in the Uranian Ring!
"Meanwhile, many trials are also held on the Uranian Ring. Every descendent of the Heavenly Light must go through the harshest tests, training, and competitions from the moment that they are born. Personal duels are a popular trend, too. As long as you fail the tests, games, or personal duels, it proves that you are a loser, a pile of garbage that doesn't deserve the glorious title of Heavenly Light. Even if your father is a high official of the government, you will still be kicked out of the Uranian Ring ruthlessly and thrown into the underground mines. You will turn from a high and mighty Heavenly Light into a humble Earthly Brute!
"Of course, the so-called trials, games and duels are not necessarily conducted through fighting. Wisdom, computational ability, leadership, creativity, and so on can all be the focus of the competition. The
Imperium has thousands of thorough, professional testing procedures. Everybody can choose to develop their specialty. As long as they prove their value to the civilization of mankind, they will be entitled to the most honorable identity and the most envied privileges!
"In such a competitive system, every member of the Earthly Brute will train crazily in order to leap into the sky, and nobody in the Heavenly Light dares be sluggish because they fear that they will fall from heaven to hell!
"Both the Heavenly Light and the Earthly Brute have a sharp sword hanging above their head and a hungry wolf chasing behind them! Everybody tried their best without reserve! As a result, the entire civilization will march forward!
"Also, such a system where everybody can see hope and fear will also help maintain the stability of society!
"The fury and hatred of the Earthly Brute can be effectively vented through the Empyreal Road Towers. They understand that the reason why they belong to the 'Earthly Brute' and some other people belong to the 'Heavenly Light' has nothing to do with their fate; their ancestors; or the injustice of the system, the government, and the nation!
"The Empyreal Road Towers are right there. If they break through them, they will have everything! Why would they whine or envy anyone if they did not dare enter the Empyreal Road Towers? If they must hate something, they can only hate themself for being so weak!
"I assure you that if the Uranian Ring civilization had adopted such a highly-competitive system, neither Ding Lingdang nor Jin Xinyue would've been able to rile up the 'Earthly Brute' so easily! On the contrary, if military credits were associated with their identity, and one would be promoted to the Heavenly Light with enough military credits, the war potential of the Uranian Ring civilization would've been much higher. Chances are that the expedition army of the federation would've been stalled or even suffered a major setback!
"Naturally, if such a system had been adopted, as cowardly and gutless a 'noble' as 'Fei Qi' would probably have been eliminated in a test when he was seven and kicked into a random mine!
"However, what is on the mind of the Immortal Cultivators is the future of humanity. Does the life and death of an individual, a family, or a group matter? If I have been proved to be weak, I will accept my miserable fate without complaint, just like when I was tortured by you. That's only because I was guilty of being too weak. I was to blame for my own fault. The determination to sacrifice one's own identity, dignity, future, and life marks the biggest difference between the real Immortal Cultivators and the false Immortal Cultivators!"
All the listeners were dumbfounded.
Seeing Heiye Lan's excited red face, they felt that they had only just seen the real female warrior from the Imperium of True Human Beings.
"Is this the way of the Imperium of True Human Beings?" Li Yao mumbled.
Taking a deep breath, Heiye Lan calmly answered, "Yes, this is a true human being. This is the Imperium!"
Chapter 1564: Bumpkins to the City |
Five days later, outside of the gravitational sphere of the red giant at the center of the Dragon Snake Space Zone, a city was floating in the middle of the violet space.
The enormous city in space had a translucent honeycomb-shaped core, which seemed to have been piled up by hexagonal, identical crystals and glasses. At the intersection of the crystals, huge solar sails extended in all directions.
The solar sails that were as thin as paper were also translucent and looked like crystal. The carefully carved runes and the tubes to condense and transmit spiritual energy on their surface made them look like big, clear leaves that were shaking slightly in the invisible cosmic wind.
The solar sails could absorb the radiation and heat from the red giant, which contained spiritual and magnetic waves, and transform it into spiritual energy to the maximum extent. Then, through the tubes that looked like capillary vessels, the energy would be transmitted to the honeycomb-shaped core drop by drop as the main energy source to support the functioning of the city.
It was Fish Dragon City, the heart of the Dragon Snake Space Zone.
The swordfish-like assault warship, which carried twelve experts of the Ancient Sages Sector and a female captive of the Imperium, passed through two enormous solar sails and approached the No. 99 dock in the middle of hundreds of starships in various forms under the direction of the port navigator.
When the fixation rune arrays, invisible to the naked eye, attracted the starship to the branch-like dock of Fish Dragon City, soft tubes whose entrances could automatically secrete blockage glue extended out of the branches.
The soft tube, like the mouthpart of a certain mollusk, shivered, sniffed, and scrambled before it found the gate of the swordfish-like assault warship. Then, they were connected by the blockage glue without the slightest gap. The docking had succeeded!
The Dragon Snake Space Zone was an anarchic land of outcasts.
The order of Fish Dragon City was basically maintained by the Chamber of Commerce made of the Uranian Ring Hall, the Water Crystal Valley, the Nether World Fortress, and the Forest Ocean Gang, four forces from the four conquered Sectors.
In fact, anybody could enter and exit Fish Dragon City provided that they submitted a 'port construction fee' to the Chamber of Commerce and did not carry any mass destruction magical equipment. On the surface, nobody would pry into the identity and the purpose of the newcomers.
Of course, the mass destruction magical equipment could be hidden inside Cosmos Rings. Therefore, the only requirement to enjoy life in the lawless land was money.
Fish Dragon City, a paradise for adventurers, a stage for the bold, and the battlefield for maniacs!
After decades of rapid development, the wealth brought from the four Sectors had created abnormal prosperity. Not only the rebels who were discontent with the Star Glory Federation took the place for a luxurious sanctuary, the experts within the federation who craved adventure and slaughter, the young men who lost patience with the peaceful reality and dreamt of becoming famous overnight, and all kinds of other scumbags and vicious fellows had been attracted to the place like flies were attracted to the rotting flesh.
For the past decade, Firefly had been docked near the Dragon Snake Space Zone. Many Cultivators of the 'rightful government of the Star Ocean Republic' had arrived at the place in disguise to enjoy the extravagant entertainment that they could not enjoy on the harsh Firefly. Some of them had even escaped into the Star Glory Federation with the Dragon Snake Space Zone as a platform. After all, the 'rightful government of the Star Ocean Republic', which had been supported by a single Firefly for a thousand years, did not seem to be capable of surviving for another thousand years.
All in all, that was Fish Dragon City. Pirates, spies, assassins, bodyguards, bootleggers, black market doctors, headhunters, traitors, Immortal Cultivators… All kinds of vermin were living dramas woven by schemes, blood, slaughter, and betrayal day and night.
When Li Yao walked to the exit of the spaceport in the middle of the eleven experts from the Ancient Sages Sector and Heiye Lan, he gradually felt a shortness of breath because he could hardly hold his excitement any longer.
Before they 'took care of' the amateur space pirates including Fei Qi, they had looted enough anonymous crystal cards as well as crystal tubes, which had been pressed into the shape of coins by special magical equipment and could be used as currency in the Dragon Snake Space Zone.
At the cost of only five 'crystal coins', they went through the most convenient VIP channel, saving themselves the trouble of waiting in line and other unnecessary procedures.
After passing through the double airlock gate in front, he would be returning to the modern civilization that he had been away from for a hundred years!
Although this was not really the territory of the Star Glory Federation, it was certainly heavily influenced and infiltrated by the federation. He could certainly gather more information about the federation and his family and friends there!
A hundred years had pass
ed. How developed was the federation with seven Sectors?
What were the details of Ding Lingdang's and Jin Xinyue's adventures and development?
Also, Wu Mayan, Xie Anan, Guo Chunfeng, Lei Dalu, Bai Kaixin, Xiong Wuji, Professor Mo Xuan… What had happened to them, and how were they doing?
Li Yao could not wait to learn everything.
However, he did feel nervous as he approached home. He could not imagine what it would be like when he met Ding Lingdang, Jin Xinyue, and the rest of them again.
Although he had spent most of the hundred years in hibernation and it had been nothing more than closing and opening his eyes, it had still been a hundred years, almost long enough to make him forget the feeling of the 'competition of beliefs'.
Li Yao suddenly felt his heart palpitating.
He recalled the days and nights when Ding Lingdang and he discussed their life, chatted about their dreams, and shared the techniques on the asteroids, in the trenches tens of thousands of meters deep, and right next to the gravity sphere of the pulsar…
Federation, I'm back. Sweetheart, I'm back!
Li Yao chuckled to himself as he strode to the double airlock gate that was installed with automatic sensor arrays.
Chi…
The gate opened.
Although Li Yao had thought that he was prepared for anything, he was still deeply awed by what he saw!
Unfolding in front of his eyes was a city established on the internal wall of the 'crystal honeycomb'. There was no up, down, left, or right at all. High towers—or rather, 'branches'—extended from the internal wall to the center from every direction.
They were illuminated by the tiny light balls that were floating in the middle air and shining like fireflies. Those light balls were created by the spiritual waves and the radiation from the red giant, which was sent to them through the transmission tubes that looked like capillary vessels.