by <unknown>
"It's true that Li Lingfeng and Wuying Lan refined me through all the cruel methods, often giving me the most excruciating agony, but they never limited me in terms of resources. Whatever training resources I needed, I would be given immediately. Sometimes, they were even poured into my body even though I didn't want them.
"Besides resources, there were also techniques, knowledge, and information, which were inoculated into my brain and opened my eyes. Whatever Li Lingfeng had in mind, and whether or not he was simply trying to build me into a secret weapon to deal with the queen, he at least never restrained my feelings and desires. If anything, he tried to activate my feelings and release my desires through anything possible, opening brand-new gates for me one after another against my own will!
"At that time, I truly loathed him and wanted him dead. I didn't understand at all why he asked me to learn so many things, grasp so many techniques, and master such powerful strength. I did not like it one bit, and I thought I was the most miserable person in the world.
"Today, after seeing the people who are sealed below the ground, I realized how ostentatious and hypocritical I was. The things that I hated and refused in the past are unavailable and even unthinkable for the underground folks no matter how they dream and struggle for them!
"Li Lingfeng perhaps did have bad intentions, but he was also really raising me as an heir and digging the infinite potentials in me. Even though he deserved his death, I do not hate him as much as I did in the past now.
"There are also my partners, the bottom-level members of the secondary branches of the Li family. I thought that their lives were rather difficult. They had less than one tenth of what the heirs of the main bloodline had, and they had to undertake the arduous family missions. Sometimes, they were even the living targets for the heirs of the main bloodline. When they distinguished themselves, it was very possible that they would be eliminated by dirty tricks.
"But at the very least, keeping themselves fed and warm was not a problem. Theoretically, there was still a chance for them to distinguish themselves, even if the likelihood might be only 1% of the heirs of the main bloodline. But that was still a chance!
"What about the locals here? No sunlight, no resources, no safety, no knowledge, and not even one billionth of a chance for a new life. Ever since they were born, their future has been predestined, which is to freeze and decline slowly in the darkness, until they melt into the rocks as dust without a sound.
"Looking at their life, I suddenly feel that all my complaints, hatred, and fury in the past are so pale and helpless. I even have a… subtle sense of guilt, feeling that I do not deserve such a life and such enormous strength!"
"Wow…"
Li Yao found it hard to believe. "Seriously? Are you really Li Jialing? How did you become so mature after only ten days?"
"Perhaps I had always been mature enough to figure out a lot of things, but I did not want to be mature or think hard."
Looking at the town in the mist, Li Jialing said casually, "In the past ten years, I'd been resisting Li Lingfeng and Wuying Lan with all my wisdom. I camouflaged myself carefully every day and activated my brain cells to the maximum every second while I considered the ways to deal with them.
"The techniques, schemes, and conspiracies that they poured into my head by force consumed a lot of my computational ability too. My soul was like a tightened bowstring all the time, and I felt neurasthenic.
"Therefore, after I escaped from their control and my nerves were relaxed, I simply let go of everything. I did not want to think about anything but only hoped to live a carefree, unrestrained life.
"It's true that I've been resisting and evading, resisting the life that Li Lingfeng and Wuying Lan planned for me and evading the fate that I should've shouldered.
"I want to wander to a random town at the edge of the cosmos and live the rest of my life in anonymity, which is an evasion. But isn't it another evasion to listen to your arrangements on everything and regard you as a guardian angel, Brother Yao?
"In many cases, I knew clearly that you were not telling the truth or not even making any sense, but I was too lazy to argue with you. So I simply seconded to you and let you handle everything. I knew that you must be considering on my behalf, so why would I bother to consider for myself independently? I have never been a man who likes to quarrel or show off!"
Li Yao: "Well…"
Li Jialing had never looked more grave. "However, after seeing the hopeless people below the ground and their fate that is a hundred times more miserable than mine, it suddenly occurred to me that my life is not the curse that I thought it was in my self-pity but actually the most unbelievable bliss!
"At the very least, after all the sufferings and tortures, I now boast overwhelming strength and exuberant feelings, and I have got a general picture of what the universe looks like! If I don't do anything with my strength, would I deserve the bliss that the locals of the underground world are never entitled to?"
Li Yao was quite shocked by the brilliance in the young man's eyes. In a trance, he felt that the dominating vibe of the "Imperial Fire Pearl" was dashing out of the young man's eyes. He couldn't help but feel amazed. "Then, what do you want to do exactly?"
"I haven't figured it out yet."
The determination in Li Jialing's eyes turned into deep confusion. He shook his head and said, "I haven't decided on the path that I will walk on yet, but it doesn't matter. I still have plenty of time to observe the world carefully and consider my path."
"Young man, you've finally had an epiphany!"
Li Yao placed his warm hands on Li Jialing's shoulders and remarked with mixed feelings. "In fact, the first time I met you, I could already tell that you were naturally-endowed. Your spiritual root was as thick as a tree, and flames were erupting from your skull like a volcano eruption! You are a great dragon, not a shrimp at the bottom of the pond. You are born for great achievements!
"I never said it to you because I thought you were still young, but since you have such a deep understanding today, come on and be a Cultivator just like Brother Yao. Let's save the world and defend the peace of the universe together!"
"Excuse me, Brother Yao."
Li Jialing slowly moved Li Yao's hands away and said solemnly, "First of all, I only want to live up to my… special life, but it does not mean that I want to save the world!
"Secondly, and more importantly, can I save the world by being a Cultivator?"
"Of course!"
Li Yao blurted out without even thinking, "The path of the Cultivators is very effective. Brother Yao has advanced into the Divinity Transformation Stage at such a young age all because of that. I even almost blew up Blackstar the Great, the ancestor of all Immortal Cultivators, into smithereens in one attack! Are you turning down the path of the Cultivators and insisting on the true path of immortality?"
"Yes, it's truly incredible that Brother Yao is one of the few geniuses who have advanced into the Divinity Transformation Stage at such a young age, but…"
Li Jialing hesitated. "Well, how should I put it? I do not want to be like you."
"What do you mean?"
Bulging his eyes, Li Yao scratched his cheeks. "You do not want to be like me? Is there anything inappropriate about the way I look? Am I not handsome and charming enough?"
"No, I am saying that being a Cultivator or an Immortal Cultivator is not the focus of my thinking. It doesn't even matter whether or not Blackstar the Great can be blown up!"
Pointing around, Li Jialing said, "The underground folks have lived in darkness for ten thousand years. They had been living like this long before Wuying Qi and the Immortal Cultivators were born. Can you rescue all of them by blowing Blackstar the Great into smithereens in one attack, Brother Yao?
"Even if you were ten times stronger, Brother Yao, and you blew up Prime Minister Dongfang Wang in one attack, Blackstar the Great in another, and then the four Kurfürst families in a round of crazy bombardments, then what? Will ev
eryone including the underground folks be immediately reborn and given a resourceful, carefree, and happy life?
"If your answer is yes, Brother Yao, would you tell me the specific procedures? Perhaps I will truly join your path!"
Dumbfounded, Li Yao was lost for words.
"Forget it. I know that the question is too huge for an answer to be found so shortly. Not just Brother Yao and Sister Long, even Blackstar the Great wouldn't have an answer. Perhaps nobody in the entire universe can find a perfect solution, not even the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan in the past. Why else would they have been completely destroyed?"
Li Jialing patted Li Yao's shoulder and comforted him, "I'm just telling you some of my random thoughts. Please don't take it personally, Brother Yao, and don't waste your precious brain cells on such philosophical questions. Your wounds are not entirely healed yet, and you should focus more on maintaining your body and brain. As for my path, I will think more about it and figure it out on my own."
Chapter 2347: Lifeline of the Underground World! |
"Why are you looking at me in such a way?"
Li Yao was perplexed by Li Jialing's eyes. "Why am I sensing intense 'sympathy' in your eyes? What's going on?"
"Nothing."
Li Jialing closed his eyes and said solemnly, "I just want Brother Yao to know that whatever path I eventually choose and whoever I will become, I will never forget that you are my… family. In my heart, you weigh even heavier than the queen. I consider you as my big brother sincerely, and I just hope that you are safe… well, and healthy, all the time."
"Is that so?"
Sensing Li Jialing's sincerity, Li Yao grinned. "I regard you as my little brother sincerely too. All in all, Little Brother, do not be enchanted by the she-devil Long Yangjun, and do not push yourself too hard when you have just encountered some minor darkness and difficulties. Let's just focus on one thing at a time. Saving the world can be put aside for now. You can try to give a hand to whoever needs help first. That will be a good start. The bottom line is, Brother Yao is confident in you. I believe that you will perceive the essence of the Cultivators' ideas one day and become an even better Cultivator than me!"
"Maybe."
Li Jialing said, "I need to travel, observe, and think more before I choose my final path. Only in such a way can I rush on my path without looking back!"
While talking, the two of them had reached the deepest part of the town.
It was a rock wall hundreds of meters tall that was filled with caves, making it look like a honeycomb. Every cave was around five meters in diameter and blocked by fences made of vines. Oinks were echoing from inside.
The locals of the underground town were carrying abundant mosses, veins, and fungi, sometimes even broken minerals, into the caves. It could be easily told that their burdens were very heavy. Their bones and veins were all protruding, and they looked rather painful.
Very soon, the people inside the caves poured their mosses and vines. Then, they carried out buckets of stinky excrements. Their burdens were finally more or less relieved, and the pain on their faces was replaced by the usual numbness.
Li Yao and Li Jialing were both honorable guests of the place. The locals did not even dare to make eye contact with them, much less stopping them from entering the caves. They simply lowered their heads and passed by the strangers quickly.
The two of them entered a random cave and immediately saw dozens of rock worms that had been raised.
It was true that rock worms were more like fat piglets than worms, except that they were slightly narrower and longer. They could be three meters long and two meters in diameter, like oval meatballs.
It seemed more appropriate to call them "rock pigs" than to call them "rock worms".
Li Yao did not know if the rock arms had any hooves or claws in the beginning, but he could not see any organ that could be used for movement right now. Perhaps they had all been blocked by the flaccid fat.
They were a species of animal with extremely low mobility, like the sloth. Crouching deep inside the cave like statues, they were not moving at all. Li Yao suspected that they could not find any food on their own at all.
The oinks turned out to be not their moans but the sound of breathing from the air hole on the top of their heads. Those silly and lazy animals were too sluggish to even moan.
The locals ground abundant mosses, vines, and fungi into pieces, mixed them with the minerals which had been pulverized, and tossed the food into the trough. Then, a few rock worms wriggled over unhurriedly. On their fat and eyeless head, a cross slit apart and spewed out thousands of white threads, tying up the food into balls and pulling it back into the cross. For them, that was the way to take in food.
While the rock worms were devouring food, the locals bypassed them and searched for their turquoise-colored feces inside the cave. They were cleaning every corner carefully without leaving any.
Some of the locals were scrubbing the rock worms hard with brushes that had a long handle. Li Yao thought at first that they were cleaning the rock worms before butchering them, but when he observed more carefully, he discovered that he was wrong. The locals were simply massaging the rock worms!
It could be easily seen that the rock worms were almost the only source of income for the residents of the 10,084th district. Their care for the rock worms couldn't have been more meticulous.
Li Jialing told Li Yao that the rock worm was a type of excellent edible animal that had been genetically refined on a large scale in the Star Ocean Republic ten thousand years ago. The earliest researches could even be dated back to the Demon Beast Empire that was best at biochemical technologies.
The rock worms could absorb tens of thousands of roughest ingredients, including the minerals that contained tremendous microelements, and transform them into fat and proteins, providing the nutrition that was necessary for the survival of human beings in the harshest environment.
The rock worms were treasures from inside to outside. Because of certain genes of spiders and silkworms that were integrated into them, the threads with which they covered their food were also the best raw materials for the textile industry. Also, they would exuviate every year, and their ecdysis could also be made into light and warm leather coats.
Also, the feces of the rock worms were natural fertilizers that barely needed any purification. They could be applied to most plants, mushrooms, and mosses, allowing people to domesticate wild plants into crops with high yields.
It was safe to say that when human beings colonized in an unknown area, as long as they brought rock worms, they would be able to settle the critical problems of "clothes" and "food". Such animals would also lay a solid foundation for the development of agriculture too.
However, because of the excessive genetic modifications on "polyphagia" and "usability", the rock worms were growing fat and proteins all the same. As a result, their mobility and hunting abilities had been weakened to almost zero.
It was a life created in the laboratory. On the premise of its current characteristics, it could barely get used to the harsh life in the wilderness. Therefore, they could only stay in the pen and be raised by human beings.
When the underground shelters were devised in the Star Ocean Imperium ten thousand years ago, there was naturally a whole set of automatic feeding facilities that were extremely advanced and accurate, ensuring that the "meat factory" could output products incessantly, starting from the reproduction of the rock worms to the readily-edible meat that was sealed in the cans on the assembly lines. The whole process did not require much supervision of workers and breeders.
However, as time went by, the automatic feeding facilities in the past had long run out of energy and were gone for good, and the knowledge to culture the rock worms at the beginning was lost too. The locals of the underground world today could only raise them in the most primitive ways.
Since the rock worms could grow so much fat, they naturally had a huge appetite. Unable to find food on th
eir own, they counted on the locals to collect mosses, vines, fungi, and minerals before grinding them and tossing the food into the trough. Such physical labor could be very tiresome. A couple of healthy adults must work for an entire day to keep only one rock worm fed.
Also, to ensure that the mosses, vines, and fungi grew in the underground world, the locals had to toss the feces of the rock worms into the crevices and tend to the various crops carefully. The underground world was not suitable for any crop in the first place. Even the tiniest cluster of mosses had only grown because of the irrigation of blood and sweat of the locals.
Because the real automatic feeding families were broken a long time ago, the rock worms were not adapted to the environment deep inside the cave. Therefore, somebody must rub their body day and night and force them to move and exercise. Otherwise, black spots would soon grow out of the rock worms, which meant that the flesh and blood inside had all necrotized and were no longer edible.
Those works took up 99% of the time of 99% of the locals. It was even safe to say that the entire 10,084th district was dependent on "rock worms".
According to the numbers of the stalagmites, stalactites, and caves on the wall that he had seen just now, Li Yao quickly calculated the ratio of the rock worms to the residents here, only to discover that the rock worms seemed too many for the population of the 10,084th district. Even if the animals were all butchered for food, the residents wouldn't be able to eat all of them. Wouldn't their lives be much easier if they kept fewer rock worms?
But Li Jialing shook his head and told Li Yao that he did not know the whole story yet. Like Li Jialing said a moment ago, although the locals were keeping so many rock worms, they did not often have the privilege to have meat. It was not bad at all if they could cut a piece of meat into pieces and mixed it into their porridge.
Most of the rock worms, after exuviating three times and turning completely mature, would be carried to the upper towns, namely the four-digit towns numbered between 1,000 and 9,999, in exchange for precious energy, civil magical equipment, and weapons.