by <unknown>
Li Jialing was somewhat at a loss. "I don't understand. Is Starlight very difficult to destroy?"
"No. In fact, it is not very difficult, but almost too easy, to destroy them."
Approaching the young man, Wuying Lan grinned.
"Did you know? Ever since the earliest members of Starlight fled to the sea of stars in panic after the Martial Meritocrats Sector was conquered by the Imperium, Starlight has been destroyed forty-one times in total over hundreds of years!
"Every single time, the army of the Imperium completely destroyed all the personnel, chains of command, and secret bases of Starlight, ensuring that there were no lucky escapees or shelters that they could hide in.
"But before long, or even as the old Starlight was smashed into smithereens, a new Starlight would pop up from the depths of the mines on a certain remote planet. They are like lice, cockroaches, and rats that you can never finish killing!"
"Why?" Li Jialing mumbled.
"Ideas." Wuying Lan pointed at his head. "The Imperium only destroyed the bodies, weapons, and bases of the Cultivators of Starlight but never their ideas.
"Ideas are the most dangerous things in the world. They are invisible and ubiquitous. They may seem unpredictable, but they can wield the power to collapse mountains and transform a world. They can turn cowards into animals, animals into warriors, and unorganized mobsters into an iron-blooded army!
"It is useless to just destroy Starlight and kill all the Cultivators.
"Before long, someone will be corrupted by their naïve but dangerous ideas and establish a new Starlight for their generation, which is passed on generation after generation and spreads from one world to another. In the end, the new Starlight may be deformed and completely different from the Starlight from the Martial Meritocrats Sector at the beginning, but they share the same group of damn ideas!
"It is practically impossible to completely kill such ideas. The more cruelly the Cultivators are hunted and slaughtered and the more blood they shed, the more greatly their images as 'tragic heroes' will be shaped, which will attract more and more desperate hominoids and bottom-level Immortal Cultivators to join the side of the Cultivators and establish a new Starlight.
"They are like cancer cells. After you kill one, two will be proliferated. The more killed, the more emerge. It can be truly annoying.
"Therefore, although the Star Ocean Republic was replaced by the Imperium of True Human Beings a thousand years ago and the massive resistance forces of the Cultivators are long gone, the Cultivators who cause minor trouble for all have never been completely eradicated.
"They caused minor trouble a thousand years ago, and a thousand years later, after being erased forty-one times in total, they are still causing 'minor trouble' today! I really can't think of a more unreasonable thing!
"This is the key to our problem. Ideas can hardly be killed, but they can be contorted and deconstructed. In order to prevent the Cultivators from causing minor trouble again, besides destroying them physically, it is very important for us to change their roles as 'tragic heroes' into a character that all the hominoids are amused by and gain pleasure from.
"The role that they are going to be changed into is… clowns."
Chapter 2082: Pitiful Wretches in the Empty Jar |
Li Jialing tilted his head and began to think carefully. "Instead of killing them directly, transform all the Cultivators into clowns?"
With thoughtful brilliance flashing inside his eyes, Wuying Lan replied, "Yes. It is useless to destroy their fleshly bodies as we've done the previous forty-one times, although it is quite easy for the Imperium. It is a shame that even if their bodies are burnt up to ash and their bones crumble into powder, their idiotic but dangerous ideas will likely continue spreading.
"At first, the ideas may be as harmless as the weakest cold viruses, as if they have truly gone extinct. Tales of the Cultivators are sometimes not heard for decades.
"But the day will come eventually when a small bunch of people are corrupted by theories that have disappeared for decades and become a new generation of Cultivators, causing minor trouble in the Imperium again.
"Did you know? According to our investigation, the Starlight that has popped up this time did not even have a single person whose spiritual root was awakened at the beginning. It was merely made up of a group of idiotic miners who did not even know what they were doing.
"But after decades of development and absorption of depressed Immortal Cultivators and scoundrels of all trades, they have transformed it into a rather troublesome force.
"We captured a few core members of the new Starlight. They admitted frankly that they had nothing to do with the Land of Sins or the Martial Meritocrats Sector. They did not even know that Starlight originated from the Martial Meritocrats Sector. All they had heard were some ungrounded, ridiculous legends that worshipped Starlight and the Cultivators.
"In those bullsh*t legends, the Cultivators of Starlight was like an undying phoenix that would be reborn in fire time and time again. All the sacrifices were meant for it to be stronger the next time it was reborn.
"Some of the legends were told from person to person and first made by a wrinkled, dying old man at the beginning. Some came from jade chips and crystal processors because the previous forty Starlights left something before their destruction.
"The thing about rumors is that the more bizarre and appalling they sound, the more people will buy them and the faster they will spread.
"All in all, the universe is too vast a place. Despite the speed and ferocity of the Imperium's army, it is difficult to annihilate an insurgency organization of Cultivators immediately after the news that it is on the rise in a certain border space zone. As a result, Starlight is truly carrying a mysterious, heroic, and soul-stirring halo, and more stupid people will believe in the legends of 'reborn in fire'!
"Therefore, even if we completely destroy the Starlight today, it will only begin a new cycle of 'rebirth'. Before long, a new Starlight will emerge, perhaps established by a bunch of exhausted miners, perhaps by furious bottom-level soldiers, and perhaps by hungry famers. No matter how weak and unattractive it may seem at the very beginning, as long as the banner of 'Starlight' is set up, it will mean a small victory for the Cultivators."
"Do not overlook the Cultivators," Li Lingfeng added. "Although our greatest enemy right now is the Covenant Alliance, the Cultivators have been the earliest enemy of the Imperium. Those guys have not been completely annihilated after a thousand years. Their vitality is truly stronger than that of the cockroach!
"But after the 'epic quest', it will be practically impossible for the Cultivators to deceive anyone in the future because we will not grant them a chance to make a valiant sacrifice."
Wuying Lan operated his wrist crystal processor quickly. The arc-shaped light beams around the sphere palace changed quickly, displaying the pictures on the surface of the Land of Sins, below the ground, and the space zones near Manjusaka.
"Starlight has two branches. Other than the one in space, some of their cockroaches are below the Land of Sins, too. They have not been completely extinguished in the past hundreds of years," Wuying Lan explained. "However, I found an opportunity decades ago to send one of my spies to the underground world of the Land of Sins. I planned to completely demolish the underground branch of Starlight with the intelligence provided by the spy, but the spy's performance was unexpectedly remarkable. It seemed to be a waste to just deal with the underground branch.
"As it happened, the slaughter stream platform of the Heavenly Eye Branch gradually climbed to the peak, and its influence spread throughout the Imperium. So, I began to consider a new possibility."
Li Jialing raised his head and looked at the enormous light beams floating before him.
On the light beams, all the remaining 'earthly dragons' of the underground branch of Starlight were clearly visible. Their most accurate coordinates had been locked onto by the Immortal Cultivators.
Some of the 'earthly dragons' even had spying chips in them, planted by the Immortal Cultivators. The conversations among the excited or exhausted Cultivators could occasionally be heard. It could also be seen that they were wiping their magical equipment, touching their blades, and assembling the firearms somewhat nervously, waiting for the arrival of the final battle in the temple and the global sword network system.
"Do you see it? Those Cultivators are waiting for the 'sacred sacrifice' ravenously!" Wuying Lan chuckled. "They think that attacking the City in the Sky will be the most splendid, glorious, and tragic battle of Starlight in the past hundreds of years. They are not worried about whether or not they will win because even if they do fail eventually, as long as they have made the gesture of a massive attack and caused the slightest damage to Manjusaka, the story will certainly grow into a new legend after much exaggeration—the legend of the 'undying Cultivators', which will charm another bunch of fools and turn them into new Cultivators in the near future.
"This is exactly their plan. It doesn't matter whether they win or lose. All they want is a valiant death. They want the almighty Imperium of True Human Beings to admit that Cultivators are a concept on par with the Immortal Cultivators so that they can spread their ideas with the opportunity. Nothing more.
"It is a shame that none of the Cultivators will realize that the tragic battle to attack the City in the Sky has been planned by the Immortal Cultivators from beginning to end. Also, I have stuffed a lot of our own men into all the procedures.
"They think that they are initiating a sacred battle. Little do they know that it is only a live stream and a game, and they are nothing more than the entertaining clowns and toys in the game.
"Look here. We have been able to monitor the Cultivators' every move and hear their unbelievably idiotic declarations since the very beginning. Those declarations, if switched to a different scene and supported by some stirring music, may indeed be a bit attractive. But what if we add some 'canned laughter' here with certain funny sound effects? What if we pave a few unctuous comments on their faces?
"As a result, when the targets that the Cultivators want to win over most, namely the hominoids that make up ninety-nine percent of the population of the Imperium, watch the scenes that we have carefully prepared, what will their impression of the Cultivators be? Will they consider them warriors like moths darting at the fire and mantises stopping a car with their forearms, or clowns who do not know what they are doing at all?
"And here, do you see it? This is the underground main battlefield that I have carefully devised, the temple of the Cultivators. To make it more mysterious and enticing, I even fabricated the notion of a Cultivator that had been lost for a thousand years.
"It was not exactly my personal creation but a rumor that spread through the past goddamn Starlights. It was nothing more than the image of an ancient Cultivator and an almighty, invincible god that was made up randomly to boost morale.
"It must be noted that this is a resister that does not exist at all. How can the Imperium kill him or disapprove his existence?
"Today, in the game that we have carefully prepared, the Cultivator that has been lost for a thousand years will show up as a clown and tell all the people of the Imperium how hilarious the Cultivators' beliefs and hopes are!
"The preparations in space are as thorough as below the ground. All in all, the dragnet has already been opened, and all the traps have been set up. All we need to do is capture every look on the Cultivators' faces from hopefulness to frustration and then to desperation. We will watch how spectacular their faces are when they learn that the sacred destiny that they have been dedicated to at the cost of their own life is nothing more than a game that is planned by other people.
"We will even involve the general public and the hominoids deeply into the game and give them the impression that Cultivators are worthless wretches and targets to be mocked and derided, and that everything is under the control of the Imperium and the Immortal Cultivators!
"When caught in desperation without any hope, many people are willing to be tragic heroes who march forward relentlessly without retreating. The feelings of fighting in blood until they collapse on a mountain of corpses in exhaustion can even be rather romantic.
"But in any case, absolutely nobody is willing to be a fly in a transparent glass jar, where their every move will be observed clearly by other people. What hilarious and pathetic wretches they are!
"This is exactly the case for the Cultivators of Starlight now. They're wretches in a transparent glass jar!
"We will try to kill as few of those wretches as possible and simply try to capture them alive to deliver them to Manjusaka for refinement. We will let them realize how stupid and hilarious their beliefs were. They will certainly develop a profound understanding about the truth path of immortality after they are completely reborn.
"Trust me. After they completely figure out the truth and receive modifications in Manjusaka, they will certainly undergo drastic changes that touch their souls. Then, the processes in which they receive modifications and regret their past can be made into stream shows, too. They can also be arranged for a speech tour nationwide in the entire Imperium.
"Although the procedures can be complicated, I believe that this is the best way to completely destroy the Cultivators and their ideas without leaving any hidden problems for the future."
Chapter 2083: A New Hero! |
Li Jialing listened attentively in silence the whole time. Finally, he complimented sincerely, "What a great idea. I believe no one will ever want to become a shameful Cultivator after such a carefully-planned 'war stream'."
Having been complimented 'sincerely' by the young man who was refined by himself through a lot of procedures that he had performed on himself before, Wuying Lan could not help but smile.
"Exactly. I never blindly believe in absolute violence. Or rather, true strength is always much more complicated than simple violence. Survival of the fittest is doubtlessly a truth, but there are too many factors that decide what is fit and what is not besides one's combat ability!
"At the very least, it is impossible to completely destroy the ideas of the Cultivators today purely with violence."
"Got it." Li Jialing nodded thoughtfully. Then he looked at Li Lingfeng and asked, "However, why did you bring me here to watch this, and why are you explaining everything to me?"
With a smile, Li Lingfeng said, "The war stream to annihilate Starlight is not very important. What matters here is that I want you to see this new strength—the strength to catch eyes and manipulate people through the media.
"It has been decades since the slaughter stream was first planned, but in the past, it was mainly used to make profits and soothe hominoids. To be honest, that is only the tip of the iceberg of its real potential.
"But today, after hearing Lord Wuying's explanation, you must have vaguely realized how enormous and immeasurable the iceberg hiding below the surface of the ocean is.
"Such strength can narcotize or stimulate the will and emotions of billions of people, making them caught in our logic or even think in a seemingly independent way according to the shows that we have carefully planned. Such strength can turn someone into a hero in only a couple of days if not hours, and a hero into a devil in several minutes. At the most critical moment, it can even be used to seize and control… the entire universe!
"This is only a minor test to annihilate Starlight, the insurgency group of Cultivators. The key is to find a mature pattern and figure out a way to inculcate our ideas into the brains of all the targets, thereby controlling them without them knowing it at all. If we can do that, the value of the platform will be inestimable, and it can be used to do many interesting things."
Li Jialing frowned and mumbled, "Is it possible?"
"Of course it is. Don't underestimate the influence of the slaughter stream." Wuying Lan chuckled. "Did you know? Among the hominoids on many remote resource planets in the Imperium, there are
truly a lot of people. Especially adolescents. They often end up on bad terms with their parents and even kill their parents to loot their money, just to participate in our stream shows and derivative games without caring about anything.
"You cannot compare your wisdom and thinking pattern to the hominoids. We are all brand-new human beings that are highly evolved. We have a profound understanding of the operational logic of the world. Naturally, we will not be deceived by such petty tricks, but the hominoids are no better than the ignorant animals. It couldn't be easier to manipulate them.
"Greed, indulgence, jealousy, pride, anger, laziness… As long as we start from the fatal weaknesses of humanity, the hominoids will cry, laugh, or hate their parents if we want them to. In the end, their entire souls will be absorbed by us. Only the world in the slaughter stream is the real world, and the world and family next to them become groundless, unimportant things. We are their supreme gods. It is completely possible and exactly what is going on right now!"
Li Jialing sniffed. "It really sounds like a grand design. Then, what is the role that I am going to play in such a magnificent project? I don't suppose you refined me at the cost of so much time and so many resources just to build a loyal viewer out of me."
Wuying Lan and Li Lingfeng looked at each other and both chuckled.
"What? You still hate us?" Wuying Lan said with a smile. "You have no idea how much Lord Li treasured you. Most of the refinements that were performed on you had been tested countless times prior. I even tried many of them on myself to check the effects and the safety before they were applied to you. Despite the agony, there were absolutely no fatal dangers.
"In the entire Imperium, few young men can ever enjoy the privileges that you have enjoyed. Now, you have made a significant breakthrough in your training, and your future is nothing but promising. Are you still going brooding over the insignificant things in the past?"
