by <unknown>
"Cultivators?"
Gao Xiaojian was slightly dazed.
Of course, he knew what Cultivators were. But because of the heated war between the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance in the frontal battlefield, it had been a long time since he last heard of the term "Cultivator" in the loyalty education.
However, when the high-pitched female voice brought up the term "Cultivator", a certain switch inside Gao Xiaojian's head seemed to be touched. His anger and hatred against the Cultivators immediately burst out like a flood that had just broken a dam.
"The condescending, hypocritical Cultivators who looked like graceful gentlemen on the surface but were actually shameless scoundrels, after hiding here and there catching their last breath for a thousand years, have been completely corrupted into the lackeys and accomplices of the Covenant Alliance!"
The high-pitched female voice continued, "In order to keep their humble and worthless lives, and in their dream of making a comeback and living the sanctimonious but debauched life before, the Cultivators have abandoned their dignity and boundaries as human beings. They have bent before the puppets of the Covenant Alliance and became the puppets of the puppets!
"Now, the almighty army of the Imperium is pushing forward unstoppably in the frontline and securing the most brilliant triumphs in the past hundreds of years. The enemy has resorted to the most insane approaches but still cannot stop the thunderous strikes of our army. In their desperation, they are now forced to make use of their lackeys that have been lurking inside the Imperium!
"Right now, inside the Imperium, a tiny group of Cultivators who haven't given up their ill intentions is now eager to jump out to cause trouble again after receiving the orders of their masters!
"It is a shame that their foul tricks have been completely seen through by the fearless Immortal Cultivators of our great Imperium!"
As the female voice grew more and more high-pitched, the expressions on the zombie-like people of the Covenant Alliance appeared on the light beam again. Together with the despicable Cultivators who were wearing sycophantic smiles, they tied some of the Imperium people to the operating tables and covered tools that looked like metal funnels on their heads.
As the magical equipment began to function, all the victims on the operating tables were writhing in pain. Their eyes were rolling, and their mouths were foaming hard. Their faces gradually turned sluggish and numb, as if their feelings and their souls had been pumped away.
"Do you want the enemy's scheme to work out?"
The high-pitched female voice shrieked, "Do you want your family to be drained, their feelings and their soul pumped away, turning them into the walking dead?"
"No!"
Gao Xiaojian was caught in the frantic state and was the first to roar.
"No! No!"
All the modified miners whacked their metal limbs hard. Great noises were echoing inside the Loyalty Room.
"Do you want the great and glorious Imperium to be polluted by the inhumane people of the Covenant Alliance and the shameless Cultivators?" the high-pitched female voice shouted again.
"No! No!"
The miners roared zealously.
"Who is the most sordid and most dangerous enemy of the civilization of mankind?" the high-pitched voice asked.
"The Covenant Alliance! The Cultivators!"
Illuminated under the erratic, quickly-flashing light beams, the miners seemed to have been hypnotized and replied at the same time.
"Who is the great guardian of the civilization of mankind?"
The female voice continued.
"Immortal Cultivators, the great Immortal Cultivators. Imperium, the sacred Imperium of True Human Beings!" the miners roared. Some were uttering deafening shrieks, and some were crying hard.
"Long live the Imperium of True Human Beings! Long live the sacred civilization of mankind! Long live emotions and free will! Kill the Covenant Alliance! Kill the Cultivators! Kill them all! Whoever dares to go against the great Imperium and the great civilization of mankind, we will definitely fight against them until the end!"
Waving his eight mechanical limbs, Gao Xiaojian almost wanted to jump in the air and explode while he made the declaration.
"From tomorrow on, we will have a special loyalty education session that will last a week. Through a living example, we will completely dissect an underground organization of the Cultivators that is shameless and pathetic to show how they and the Covenant Alliance, their master, are approaching their inevitable doom step by step!" the high-pitched female voice shouted.
"Special loyalty education for a whole week?"
Gao Xiaojian's crystal cameras glittered. He was so thrilled that he felt his transmission joints were melting. He vaguely felt that it would be a great eye-opener tomorrow, and he would have a chance to appreciate the hilarious performances of the dogs, lackeys, and wretches.
Tomorrow… What am I going to see tomorrow?
Gao Xiaojian lay down and thought with his physical brain that was accommodated at the pivot of the mechanical spider. How I look forward to it…
Chapter 2089: Empathy |
"This is rather splendid, isn't it? The beehive prison has been constructed according to Imperium's best standard. Half a million prisoners can be kept here at most. It also boasts the abilities to imprison, transport, and interrogate prisoners of the Nascent Soul Stage."
In the hollow part of the beehive prison that was filled with cold air, the warden introduced to Li Jialing very proudly, "Of all the private prisons in the Imperium, we are definitely the best in terms of scale, facilities, or the danger level of the prisoners kept inside. There is only a slim gap between our prison and the 'Godly Might Penitentiary', the prison of the highest level in the capital of the Imperium.
"Lord Wuying asked me to see that your every need in training is fulfilled. A spacious chamber for rest has been arranged down there. Here are the files of the three thousand prisoners that I have carefully selected. How about it? If you have a few candidates, I'll have them delivered here immediately so that you can enjoy yourself."
The warden's hands moved and tapped quickly on the sphere light beam. All the files of the thousands of prisoners poured down like glittering waterfalls.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Aooooooooo!
Watching them slowly pass by on the floating disc, the dangerous prisoners caged on various levels of the beehive prison were all uttering inhuman roars and crashing the tempered glass hard with all their strength. Sticking their bizarre, hideous faces to the transparent glass wall until their skin was broken and their heads were bleeding, they showed no intention of stopping at all.
The devastating blood left burning marks on the tempered glass, which turned into twisted masks that looked even more creepy.
"What kind of people are locked here?"
Li Jialing browsed through the files of the prisoners quickly. "They all look rather interesting."
"They are mainly all kinds of traitors who initiated riots, sabotages, or strikes at the rear when the army of the Imperium was fighting arduous battles against the Covenant Alliance in the frontline, trying to disrupt the Imperium in such a way."
The warden said, "However, those traitors are generally rather weak. Many of them are even hominoids. They won't be of much help with training.
"If you have to choose them, I suggest you select this batch. Yes. We have run a lot of modifications on those people. They have survived the deadly screenings with rates of elimination that were higher than 90%. So, they all boast some combat ability right now.
"Or maybe the criminals who have committed felonies here. They were mostly the poor wretches who failed the internal competitions in their families or sects and sought illegal approaches to take everything back despite the risks. But then, they were stupid enough to be discovered by other people. As a result, they were sent to this place eventually.
"Those people were Immortal Cultivators in the beginning. So, they ar
e all rather tough."
Li Jialing blew a whistle. "From the record here, those people are all ferocious and dangerous. Can you ensure the absolute safety of the beehive prison?"
"Of course!"
The warden grinned confidently. "As you have seen, the entire beehive prison is soaked in a super magnetic field, which is generated by a great array that we call 'Dragnet'.
"All the walls and floors that make up the cells of the beehive prison are made of very special magnetic materials, which have been specially modified. They are mutually attracted by the shackles on the prisoners' wrists, ankles, and necks, restraining them as tightly as invisible chains. The prisoners have to use tremendous strength just in order to make a step forward.
"Under the most extreme circumstances, if we activate the array of 'Dragnet' to the maximum, the pulling force that it generates will equal to the maximal impetus of a crystal warship when it is launched!
"Whoever dares to move recklessly will be pulled to the floor, the wall, or somebody else's shackles by the super magnetic field. If they are determined to struggle free, they will only squeeze their bones out of their body, until it falls apart and breaks up!
"Therefore, even the experts in the Nascent Soul Stage can barely escape after they are caged here!"
While talking, the warden displayed a simple illustration of the defense array of the beehive prison on the light beam, which allowed Li Jialing to see the energy supply flowchart of the entire beehive prison and the location of the source of the energy.
Narrowing his eyes, Li Jialing asked calmly, "So, are there any experts in the Nascent Soul Stage that are caged here?"
The warden smiled. Such a sensitive question was beyond the permissions that Wuying Lan had granted. It was naturally inappropriate for him to reply.
"Alright. I'll pick those three first."
Li Jialing clicked three random names on the light beam, pretending that he had just asked the question casually.
…
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
Three utterly deformed prisoners who looked like human-shaped animals attacked Li Jialing, who was wearing a pure white, light, and graceful crystal suit, from three directions respectively, only to be blown backward by him again and again into the wall of the training room, leaving devastating traces of blood there.
But the three prisoners seemed to have been injected with excitants that far exceeded the extreme dosage before they were delivered to Li Jialing for testing. They had completely gone into the berserker state, and although their faces were bleeding, their joints were broken, and their guts were flowing out of their chests, they did not stop lunging at the enemy crazily.
"Just break all their limbs."
Li Yao couldn't help but remark, "Completely cripple them so that they wouldn't be able to move anymore. Chances are that they can still survive. Otherwise, they will not stop attacking until they die."
"You are going to save the lives of those crazy, demonic prisoners?"
Li Jialing snatched the wrist of a prisoner as quickly as a flash of lightning. After a slight shake from him, the bones in the entire arm were shattered into pieces no larger than fingernails.
Then, his legs burst out like cannonballs and completely blew up the knees of the prisoner after earsplitting explosions. Eventually, he kicked the prisoner right in the chest, knocking him to the wall on the opposite side into a flower of blood.
The young man said coldly, "You haven't answered my question just now. What are the real Cultivators? You obviously have the unparalleled strength to do anything you want to be unbound by any rules, but why do you want to be part of the silly Cultivators?"
After a brief silence, Li Yao said, "I'll spare you the boring philosophies. After all, even if I preach them to you right now, you wouldn't believe them. Let's just talk about the beginning. I wanted to become a Cultivator at the beginning perhaps because of only a simple word—'empathy'."
"What do you mean by 'empathy'?"
The young man turned into a streak of brilliance and opened his hand, grabbing the head of the second dangerous prisoner and throwing him to the ground. The spiritual energy was passed to the back of the head from the jaw and wrecked his spine completely, terminating his ability of action.
"It is a very simple logic."
Li Yao said, "For example, many innocent or guilty prisoners are kept in this beehive prison. But innocent or guilty, all of them are suffering inhuman tortures that they do not deserve for their crimes. Just listen to the screams and roars outside that never cease day or night, and you should understand how terrifying the torture is.
"The same torture once happened to you, too. It is a past that you would rather never recall, right?"
Li Jialing's pupils constricted violently as he tossed the second prisoner who couldn't move anymore far away.
"When you hear the screams of other people, you remember your pains in the past and realize that the prisoners are the same as you. You are the same kind who suffer the same misfortunes. That is 'empathy'."
Li Yao said, "When you think of how terrible the pains you bore in the past were, and that such terrible pains are being imposed on some ordinary people who cannot even catch a chicken, or the innocent little girls and the white-haired old ladies, it is only natural that you feel pitiful and even angry. You will feel the urge to do something."
"I am different from them."
Li Jialing held the third prison's iron fist that was punching at him. Staring at the man who was like an ape without hair, he said coldly, "I totally understand."
Li Yao said, "After feeling the pain of other people, there will be two choices. The first is, naturally, to consider the victims as your own kind and even your family. You will try to extricate them from their pain without bothering anything and to destroy the guys who have caused mutual agony for you.
"But the path is too difficult to be finished after all. Too many prices must be paid, and you may not see the end of it at all.
"So, there is another path that is much simpler. You can try to hypnotize yourself and make yourself believe that you are different from them. Or rather, those people do not deserve to be called real 'humans' at all. They are simply 'hominoids', nothing better than swine and ants.
"In such a way, you have removed your ability of empathy and changed into someone cold, ruthless, and self-deceiving. Naturally, you can turn a deaf ear to the screams and cries of your own kind and a blind eye to their bleeding, miserable situations.
"You must've guessed it. The first path is the Cultivators' choice, and the second one is the Immortal Cultivators'.
"In fact, even I feel that the Immortal Cultivators' choice is simple, straightforward, and free. I do not want to always meddle in other people's business and ask for trouble, at the risk of being criticized for petty kindness. But it can't be helped. No matter how I hypnotize myself, I cannot completely eliminate the slight bit of 'empathy' deep inside my heart. Just because of the bit of 'empathy', I have suffered too many unfortunate things that I could've avoided. But what choice do I have? I am quite upset, too!"
Li Jialing scorned. "Empathy…"
"Exactly."
Li Yao smiled. "Did you know? A long, long time ago, I grew up in a place where the environment was extremely harsh. In the beginning, I was as ruthless and coldhearted as you, and I wouldn't hesitate to do anything for my survival. The jungle law of survival of the fittest was my intrinsic belief, too.
"But somebody from the sky planted a seed of 'empathy' at the bottom of my heart, which changed everything later!"
Chapter 2090: A Cycle |
"A man from the sky?"
Li Jialing twisted the third prisoner's fist hard, turning his arm from the elbow to the shoulder blade into a screw. "Why does it sound like a tale to me?"
"It's true. In fact, the environments we grew up in are really quite similar. They are both living dog-eat-dog hells where there are absolutely no laws and one has to do anything one ca
n, such as draining every bit of physical and mental strength, just to see the sunrise tomorrow."
Li Yao said, "As far as my eyes could reach, wolves, tigers, leopards, and jackals in human skins were everywhere. It was not unusual to search the garbage for an entire day without finding any food to eat. Days of starvation and homelessness were routine. Broken bones and blood-vomiting because of other people's beating were more than occasional, too.
"I slowly grew up in such a twisted environment. The moment I gained enough abilities to protect myself, I already became cold and heartless. Everything would be fine as long as I could survive. Other people? I didn't bother to think about them at all!
"While I was not fond of bullying the weak, I never bothered to intervene if the scoundrels in human skins were bullying other people as long as I was not involved.
"At that time, those guys even gave me a nickname. They called me 'Vulture', for my sordidness, brutality, and solitude."
"Vulture Li Yao?"
Li Jialing was slightly dazed. "It sounds like a nickname fit for an Immortal Cultivator."
"Who can argue with that?"
Li Yao smiled. "If I had kept growing up like that, perhaps I would've turned into an out-and-out Immortal Cultivator. I would be indifferent in nature and always act on my own. Maybe I wouldn't harm anyone voluntarily, but I would not help anyone in trouble either. Just like what you are dreaming to become right now, I would be as free as anyone could've been. Everything would be fine as long as nobody messes with me!
"But the old man who arrived from the sky completely changed me. He chattered on, mentioning so many things to my ears restlessly every day, telling me solemnly what was right and what was wrong, what was justice and what was evil. He also dragged me to the darkest corner of the magical equipment graveyard, which was the name of my hometown, to show me how the lonely, helpless little ones were bullied and how they wailed in fear and desperation after that.