by <unknown>
As long as all the three space gates were under the federation's control, the Black Wind Fleet would be nothing more than fish in a boiling pot. With the collective defense of the first mixed fleet and the Big Bai Fleet, it was impossible for the Black Wind Fleet to seize the No. 2 and No. 3 space gates when only fifty percent of its forces had been teleported. When the main troops on the federation's side arrived, the Black Wind Fleet would be completely screwed!
Therefore, when furious space ripples were raised around the No. 2 and No. 3 space gates, and the gravitation probe devices detected that objects of enormous masses were jumping out of the void, inside the Defense Counsel of the Federation, from Wan Guqing to Guo Chunfeng, and from Jin Xinyue who was waving blades on the light beam or the MPs and experts around whose worry was turning into joy, nobody had any doubt that it was going to be an unprecedented triumph!
…
The Black Wind Fleet, which had been stalled by the Heaven's Origin Fleet with astonishing tenacity, detected the gravitational changes from the No. 2 and No. 3 space gates, too.
They and the other two space gates happened to be on different sides of the home planet of the Heaven's Origin Sector. It was difficult to measure the precise mass that caused such gravitational changes over such a long distance.
But it was doubtless that the only objects that would jump to the Heaven's Origin Sector in an enormous scale at such a moment were the reinforcements of the federation.
On the bridge of Black Swirl, Heiye Ming, having received the emergent report, was not surprised at all. Instead, he took a deep breath before he put on a hideous smile.
"You're finally here. You must be the most elite vanguards of the Burning Prairie Fleet, mustn't you?
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. The spy network we deployed over ten years has been entirely uprooted and suppressed, too. Jin Xinyue is truly an unreliable skank.
"However, those idiotic barbarians at the edge of the cosmos who do not know how big the universe is really think I, the commander of an expedition army of the invincible Imperium of True Human Beings, will solely wager the hope of victory on a savage detector? That's truly stupid of them!
"They will never see it coming that my trump card is not Jin Xinyue but Su Changfa, an Immortal Cultivator from the Imperium of True Human Beings and one of our own!
"Right now, the most elite vanguards of the Burning Prairie Fleet are about to arrive. As long as we devour the best troops of the best troops and then occupy the Heaven's Origin Sector, the Star Glory Federation will be fish on the chopping block!"
Heiye Ming sneered. He glanced at the bottom left corner on the ocean of dense light beams around the mainframe crystal processor unintentionally. In the corner, there was a small, unattractive light beam, which was so eclipsed that it was about to disappear when drowned in the ever-changing war data.
It was the status of the brainwaves and biophysical features of Lu Qingchen, Su Changfa's disciple as well as the liaison whom he had sent out.
"Should I set him free?"
Heiye Ming pondered for a moment but abandoned the idea. After all, the war was basically settled now. He could always release the monster when the battle came to a brief halt.
Although Su Changfa was much more dependable as a compatriot from the Imperium and an avid believer of the true path of immortality than Jin Xinyue, a demon from desolate lands that he had never met before…
Heiye Ming's cautious nature made him unwilling to trust anyone completely. Even this time, he had performed minor adjustments on the battle plan that Su Changfa had sent over through Lu Qingchen in advance.
The most trustworthy person for anyone was themself. Heiye Ming believed in nothing but his own capabilities!
Far behind the Black Wind Fleet, in the place where they jumped out at the beginning, Heiye Ming's second troop ripped apart the void, presenting an enormous outline on the dark universe that looked like black velvet.
However, a lot of the curves that constituted the outline did not appear to be long, graceful starships but were more like—
"Report!"
An advisor stepped forward quickly and spoke to Heiye Ming. "The sixteenth Deep Sky Fleet on the enemy's side is accelerating toward our rear, trying to attack us from the back with the Heaven's Origin Fleet in the front!"
"Attacking us from both sides? Who do they think they are?" Heiye Ming chuckled. "The Heaven's Origin Fleet is about to be completely shredded by us. The sixteenth Deep Sky Fleet—the so-called Big Bai Fleet—is nothing more than a lightweight, rapid assault fleet. Their commander is an insignificant person who only knows guerilla warfare. The crew members are also rabble that are better at robbing than fighting.
"Before the first attack groups of the Burning Prairie Fleet complete their space jump, let's finish the Big Bai Fleet. Blow them to smithereens from their skin to their bones!"
…
In Hundred Flowers City, deep inside the Spiriters' Realm, red leaves were falling, and furious fire was burning the sky. The paradise a moment ago had turned into the goriest slaughterhouse.
A bunch of soldiers in ancient armor rode high horses into the village like locusts, breaking the serenity of the place that had lasted a thousand years within a moment.
The old were burnt. The young were stabbed with spears. The children were trampled by the hooves. The women's miserable cries were rising into the clouds. But the hideous laughter of the soldiers was even louder than the cries.
The scroll painted with blood and fire was unfolded in front of Li Yao's eyes.
A woman whose clothes were a mess with a baby in her arms ran toward him in tears, screaming, followed by an animalistic soldier on a horse.
The soldier grinned and dashed forward, holding a spear in his hands. He was about to stab both the woman and her child.
Li Yao could not stand it any longer. Gritting his teeth, he jumped up and snatched the spear before it pierced through the woman's chest and the baby's skull. Then, he jabbed the spear backward and nailed the soldier into the ground from his horse!
"Gulu! Gulu! Gulu! Gulu!"
The soldier was pinned to the ground in a twisted posture. His arms and legs were still struggling, and weird sounds were echoing from his throat. His bloodshot eyes were a bit frozen at the beginning, but they were spinning quickly again a moment later.
In an inhuman posture, he plucked himself from the long spear inch by inch while vomiting tremendous blood. His hideous face melted like a candle only to condense into Professor Mo Xuan's face again!
"Why did you save her?" Professor Mo Xuan, in the soldier's armor, with a giant hole through his chest, gazed at Li Yao. "If you believe that everything here is false and virtual, just data and algorithms, why did you bother to save them, those worthless Deviant Spirits?"
Behind Li Yao, the woman who was simulated with data tripped over herself in the meadow. She seemed to have broken her feet, but she was still holding her baby in her arms tight, as if she could really protect the child that was also simulated with data with her weak body.
Behind Professor Mo Xuan, it could be seen through the enormous hole in his chest that similar cruel tragedies were going on in the burning village, where the soldiers were slaughtering and savaging in the hell on earth.
Li Yao had never been more outraged before.
Even when he saw the ancestors of human beings, who were developed by the Pangu Clan for the purpose of 'tools', and the inhuman 'Three Fundamental Laws', he had never sensed such intense evil!
"You are defiling the most beautiful feelings in the world. You are defiling the proud name of 'human being' itself!" Clenching his fists, Li Yao gnashed his teeth. "For you, love, friendship, compassion, and all other precious emotions, what are they exactly? Are they tools that can be randomly simulated with data and algorithms? You unpardonable lunatic!"
"Don't forget that it was you who destroyed the peaceful world, Peach Blossom Paradise, first. I am merely showing you what this place will look like af
ter it is completely destroyed!" Professor Mo Xuan laughed hideously. "If you claim that everything here is false and virtual, however many old people, women, and children are killed here, that will be nothing more than a change of some data. Is that worth all your fury?
"Otherwise, even you have to admit that the insignificant data changes in an illusionary world are also enough to cause the most real emotional reactions and that the village that is being destroyed, and the mother and child that are being saved in front of you, are real to some extent, don't you?"
Chapter 1773: Sordid and Shameless! |
Li Yao was rendered speechless for a moment.
His mind was still half occupied by the picture of the fierce battle in space that he had just seen. When he thought that his wife, his disciples, and his friends were fighting against the most brutal Immortal Cultivators from the Imperium of True Human Beings right now, his head was a complete mess.
He knew that it was just Professor Mo Xuan's trick to disturb him, but how could he really forget everything?
Professor Mo Xuan continued grinning hideously. "If destroying such a village in a virtual world is unpardonable enough for someone to be called a 'lunatic', what do those people deserve to be called who raise wars that involved dozens of Sectors in reality and demolish cities and planets with a population of millions?
"In the virtual world, towns can be rebuilt after destruction, and women and children can be revived after death. As long as you slightly modify a few instructions and roll back the data, all the miserable memories will be wiped out, and all the pain and desperation will be gone!
"But in reality, everybody has only one precious life. When they die, they will be gone forever!
"You said that I am a lunatic and a fiend who is stomping on the most beautiful feelings of mankind. Then, let me ask you, if I don't do this, is there any other way that can completely push the civilization of mankind away from war and make it embrace eternal peace within the next few hundred years so that no living human being will ever bear the pain that you are bearing right now?"
Professor Mo Xuan's every word was like a meteor that contained immense mental power. They were bombarding Li Yao's soul brutally.
Li Yao felt that the picture before his eyes was blurred and that his soul was being melted quickly. Greatly alarmed, he knew that it was the most direct collision of mind, will, and ideology. It was the out-and-out competition of beliefs!
At a moment like this, the most important thing was to firm his belief. If he failed the competition, there would be cracks on his soul, and the enemy's theories would find their way into his soul through the weakness, until he was completely convinced and turned into the enemy's puppet!
In terms of mental power, Li Yao and Professor Mo Xuan were both extraordinary. They were both enhanced by the extraterrestrial devils of different natures, too. One might say that they were on par with each other.
It was true that Professor Mo Xuan was enhanced by hundreds of super crystal processors, but he was running much more tasks simultaneously right now than Li Yao. Therefore, their mental power, computational ability, and soul power were very similar at this moment.
Thus, all that mattered was whose belief was more correct and immaculate!
"Nobody likes war."
Li Yao forced himself to calm down and shift his attention from the bleeding stars and the burning village. He bellowed, "I wish that there were no wars and slavery in the universe, too, and everybody could live happily ever after. That is also the goal that I have always been fighting for!
"Maybe… we do share the same destination, but you cannot avoid wars by transforming the entire civilization of mankind into nothingness! Is this any different from curing a terminally ill patient by killing them and extracting their soul?
"Yes. The resources in the universe are finite, but the desires of human beings are infinite. When finite resources come across infinite desires, wars are bound to break out and bring pain and destruction. It was so ten thousand years ago, it is so right now, and maybe it will still be so in ten thousand years. Nobody can expect to completely stop it.
"However, it is exactly because of the forever irreconcilable contradiction between 'finite' and 'infinite' that mankind's never-ending curiosity, sense of enterprise, and ambition to march into deep parts of the universe have formed. That is how our splendid, soul-stirring history was created and how our civilization has developed to what it is today, too!
"Discontent. Ever since our ancestors broke the shackles of the Pangu Civilization and the boundary of the Three Fundamental Laws hundreds of thousands of years ago, our civilization has always been greedy, ravenous, and never understood what satisfaction is! We marched up tall mountains, we marched across vast oceans, we marched to distant planets, we marched to the three thousand Sectors, and we marched to the boundless universe beyond the three thousand Sectors. Given enough time, we will push forward to the border of the universe, shatter the border, and then continue marching beyond the universe! Perhaps our dream to satisfy our infinite desires with finite resources will never be realized, but doesn't the whole significance of the civilization of mankind lie in the pursuit of the great dream?
"And you, what have you been doing?
"On the surface, you are creating a perfect, absolute, and wonderful new world, but in fact, you are confining the future of humanity with an illusionary cage! You are suffocating mankind's creativity, imagination, curiosity, ambition, valor, and all the other most beautiful things!"
"Nonsense!" Professor Mo Xuan opened his arms. Colorful flowers were suddenly blossoming around the furiously burning village. There were even butterflies dancing among the flowers, which was a vivid and yet devastating contrast to the village that was struggling on the brink of destruction. He declared, "Look. We can create any most beautiful thing freely!"
"When there is no darkness, there is no brightness. If you wipe out pain and ugliness by force, the so-called happiness and beauty will be utterly meaningless," Li Yao declared resolutely. "The contradiction between finite resources and infinite desires is the only engine of advancement for mankind. It is also the reason our civilization is so brilliant and splendid. If your new world does not have any contradictions, it will never make any progress but will stay as a pool of backwater forever!
"I will never allow you to transform the civilization of mankind into a seemingly delicate aquarium!"
"That is just your opinion. That is just the opinion of the big shots and the great heroes!" Professor Mo Xuan suddenly burst into fury. "Ambitions to march to the border of the universe? Curiosity and creativity to explore infinite possibilities? 'Wars are unavoidable'? Li Yao, you are of course qualified to speak such jibber-jabber. After all, you are an unparalleled expert who dominates the sea of stars. Even if you die, your death will be splendid enough to stun the entire universe!
"But what about the ordinary people who cannot control their fate? What about those people who are being savaged by war right now? Do they have to sacrifice their precious lives just for the unsubstantial term 'civilization of mankind'?
"Your life in reality is already brilliant enough. You are essentially a walking legend. Which ordinary person can live like you?
"Maybe most of the ordinary people do not give a damn about your so-called creativity, curiosity, and ambitions to march out of the universe. They only want to live peaceful, carefree lives. What's bad about being fish in the aquarium? At the very least, they wouldn't need to worry about brutal predators and turbulent currents in the ocean!
"Do not gauge the ordinary people with your standard. 99% of people can never be like you!"
"Shut up!" In his fury, Li Yao was shouting in a louder and louder voice. "It is you who are defining the ordinary people with your standard and claiming that it is for their good!
"Don't underestimate ordinary people, professor! Even if they are not as strong as Cultivators, everybody can have the same courage and hope for the future! Even if they
are ordinary people today, they may become a dominating big shot and great hero tomorrow by striving through hard work. Even if they remain ordinary people for their entire life, their offspring will be stronger generation after generation! This is hope, the most precious hope for mankind!
"Your virtual world, on the other hand, has completely exterminated such hope! Once they are lost in the Spiriters' Realm, their dreams of fame and fortune and their emotional needs can be satisfied instantly, and all their goals will be achieved within a moment. No more epics, no more heroes, no more anything! What is the hope in such a life? What is worth fighting for? What's the meaning in living?
"Henceforth, our progeny will forever be parasites trapped in silicon chips and the Spiritual Nexus, fed by illusionary, digital drugs every day and doing nothing at all, until the silicon chips and the super crystal processors that support such an illusionary civilization one day cannot last any longer and collapse abruptly. Everything will be obliterated into nothingness at that moment. Is that the ultimate form of the civilization of mankind in your vision, professor?"
Professor Mo Xuan seemed to have been convinced by Li Yao. He stared at his opponent and did not say anything for a long time.
Li Yao's soul glowed brilliantly, as if the entire world was under his control. Confident of his victory, he went on. "You've got nothing to say for yourself anymore, professor, do you?"
Pa! Pa! Pa!
Professor Mo Xuan clapped his hands slowly, with a weird smile popping up on his face. "You do have a point. I'm indeed a bit… speechless right now, Li Yao!"
Blinking his eyes and scratching his chin, Li Yao felt that something was not right.
A moment later, cold sweat was pouring from his forehead.
Li Yao stared at Professor Mo Xuan in silence.
Professor Mo Xuan looked back at him quietly, too.
The atmosphere was a bit awkward at the moment.
"Hey, that was highly immoral of you to play such a dirty trick when we were having such a passionate debate of beliefs."