by <unknown>
"What is your purpose exactly?"
Ignoring the details, Li Yao went directly to Long Yangjun's motive. "I don't believe that you are doing everything genuinely for the sake of the underground locals. You must have a certain purpose by establishing a so-called 'Nepenthe' through all the trouble and instigating such a great uprising, and the purpose can't be entirely for the benefits of the locals of this place. Let me take a guess—is it related to the Covenant Alliance?"
"Smart!"
Brilliant sparks were flashing inside Long Yangjun's eyes as she looked at Li Yao with great interest. "That's why I have to constantly remind myself during competitions with you, that the you who are standing before me is an extremely smart, extremely sleazy, and extremely dreadful Monster Li, and that I must not be fooled by your childish appearance that almost looks like a middle school student. This is really exhausting!
"However, you are only half right. What happens below the ground of the capital is not deeply connected to the Covenant Alliance. This is just my personal interest. I want to conduct a social experiment to explore the origins of the Covenant Alliance. Simple as that."
Chapter 2358: Experiment of Origins |
"With the universe as your laboratory and billions of mortals as your pawns and subjects."
Li Yao said, "This is indeed as expected of your identity as a dual successor of the Pangu civilization and the Nuwa civilization!"
"Don't overstate it. Thousands of experiments are required even when a new strengthening drug is to be synthesized or when you are designing a new crystal suit."
Long Yangjun remarked, "Then, shouldn't we run a small-scale experiment if a certain ideology will affect the future of billions of people? If you do not run an experiment, how do you know whether or not the ideology is righteous? Is your ideology naturally self-justified just because you are passionate and hotblooded?"
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao said, "Fine, let's not waste time on the unimportant details. Tell me your specific experiment. Since you are exploring the origins of the Covenant Alliance, how is the underground world of the capital related to it? The Covenant Alliance couldn't have originated from below the capital of the Imperium, could it?"
"Of course it couldn't, but it might have originated from the same logic."
Long Yangjun suddenly leaned close and said mysteriously, "Do you not find it strange that the descriptions on the origins of the Covenant Alliance in the history books of the Imperium of True Human Beings are all fuzzy and ambiguous? It feels like the weird, far-flung country rose exactly together with the birth of Blackstar the Great a thousand years ago, and the Path of Ultimate Benevolence and the Three Fundamental Laws were already very perfect back then.
"Here comes the question. We know that there was absolutely no such thing as 'Alliance of the Holy Covenant' ten thousand years ago when the Star Ocean Imperium was founded, and it was even less possible for the Covenant Alliance to have been created in the Great Dark Age earlier because the entire universe was ruled by demons back then.
"In other words, until the Star Ocean Imperium collapsed ten thousand years ago, the worlds which worshipped the Pangu civilization and observed the Three Fundamental Laws had been dominated by 'normal people' who had feelings and free will.
"The local governors could've been Cultivators or dictators with the immature ideas of the Immortal Cultivators, but they couldn't have been the desireless and emotionless puppets, much less the reborn members of the Pangu Clan, right?"
Li Yao was slightly stunned because he had never considered the problem before. He couldn't help but nod his head. "It seems… correct. Take the Heaven's Origin Sector for example. Although the Heaven's Origin Sector is at the edge of the cosmos, we have never forgotten the glories of the Star Ocean Imperium but regarded ourselves as the descendants of the Supreme Emperor. The memories are still fresh after ten thousand years.
"The worlds under the control of the Covenant Alliance can't be more remote than the Heaven's Origin Sector. So, the people who dominated the places at the beginning were naturally the good or bad experts, who should've been perfectly normal human beings with feelings."
"That's right."
Long Yangjun said, "If it were 'normal human beings' who lived in those worlds at the beginning, how exactly did they abandon their feelings and become cold, heartless puppets step by step?
"Even if they had indeed excavated tremendous relics of the Pangu Clan, or even certain…'brainwashing temples' as you put it, which could be dated back to the primeval age, they could've totally made use of what was beneficial for themselves and abandon what was harmful. Just because they utilized the technologies and the magical equipment left by the Pangu civilization did not mean that they had to become the puppets of the Pangu Clan again!
"Think about it. If it were you who discovered a massive relic of the Pangu civilization, would your first thought not to learn and digest the technologies inside and not to repair all the powerful magical equipment, but to send your head into a certain weird device to be washed?"
Li Yao shook his head and said, "I certainly wouldn't do that."
"Of course, you are not an idiot, and you wouldn't do that at all."
Long Yangjun said, "But were the initial people of the Covenant Alliance all idiots, who were willing to be the Pangu civilization's most loyal slaves, most docile livestock, and the most precise tools for no good reason at all?"
Furrowing his eyebrows, Li Yao thought for a long time. "Then… did somebody force them to do that?"
"Perhaps. This is exactly what I want to find out through my 'social experiment'."
Holding her arms, Long Yangjun sat on a primeval corpse that had already fossilized and swung her legs while she continued, "I am different from you. You have been educated with the ideas of the Cultivators since young, and you have fought for the ideas of the Cultivators your entire life. In the meantime, you have received the most copious returns, and you have become an indispensable part of a world of Cultivators. You are even some sort of 'symbol'. It is safe to say that your personal worth is highly realized on the path of the Cultivators. Their ideas have been completely melted into your life and cannot be excised at all.
"Making you doubt or even object to the ideas of the Cultivators is like to force you to cut your flesh or even kill yourself. It is absolutely impossible.
"But I am different from you. The dual bloodlines that I carry and my unique fate allow me to see the complicated universe and the paths, which each had their own characteristics, from four different perspectives. I am a person from ancient times, but I can also be a moderner. I can be a member of the Pangu Clan, but I can also be one of the Nuwa Clan. I can even free myself from all the identities and just be a lonely yet unique 'observer', who wanders in the universe among the three thousand Sectors.
"Observers know a game better than its participants. The difference between you and me lies not in the computational ability or the thinking patterns, but in the fact that I am more unrestrained than you. Therefore, my ideas are less hindered by stances and preconceptions, which allows me to think more calmly and less emotionally.
"As a Cultivator, when you heard about a country such as the 'Alliance of the Holy Covenant', you will feel disgusted and rejective intuitively, believing that the Covenant Alliance is even more violative of humanity than the Imperium of True Human Beings is.
"But for me, there is no such thing as 'humanity' at all. Or rather, the two extreme approaches—to release the feelings as much as possible and to repress them as much as possible—are both parts of 'humanity'. What intrigues me more is not whether the Covenant Alliance is right or evil, but how it was born, how it rose, and where it will go to. Why did the initial people of the Covenant Alliance willingly abandon their feelings? If they were forced to do it, then who forced them?
"Do you not think that if someone did force the initial people of the Covenant Alliance to abandon their feelings, that person would, in fact, be the wo
rst villain of all?
"Since half of me carries the legacy of the Pangu civilization, there is a connection between me and the people of the Covenant Alliance who admire Pangu as their supreme god. It is naturally my obligation to consider the origins and the future of the Covenant Alliance.
"If somebody contorts the philosophies of the Pangu civilization and is doing evil things under Pangu's banner, they will be 'false gods' and 'evil gods', and I must destroy them as a 'true god', don't I?
"Of course, when I just came to the Imperium from the federation, I hadn't thought so much yet. At that time, I had just awakened all the heritages inside my body. It felt that I just opened my eyes after I was reborn. I only wanted to travel and get to know this… beautiful but strange new world."
Long Yangjun seemed to become tired after a long time of talking. Leaning against the giant corpse of the primeval creature, she smiled at Li Yao lazily and said, "Do you want to know my experiences in the few years after I left the federation? That is a long story that I wouldn't tell to anybody else. I'm only willing to tell you because of our special relationship."
"Wait, let's get one thing straight first—"
Li Yao felt that his hair was all rising. "What 'special relationship' do we have exactly? You must not be ambiguous about that!"
"Thanks to your hospitality, I was brought to the Star Glory Federation from the Ancient Sages Sector. At that time, I certainly clung to the thigh of Vulture Li Yao, the dominator of three Sectors and the founding father of the federation, a lot."
Long Yangjun said, "In return, you clung to my thigh without any courtesy after the battle against Blackstar the Great, didn't you? Therefore, we are in a relationship of 'mutual thigh-clinging'. Isn't that a special relationship?"
Stunned for a long time, Li Yao gave up resisting. "Fine, whatever you say. After all, I am a righteous man, and I am not scared of gossip. Just go on!"
He sat straight with his legs crossed before the giant corpse and said with his eyes glowing, "Tell me now. What exactly have you been through in the Imperium? For the record, while I am a firm, unwavering Cultivator, it does not mean that I am an obstinate, stubborn fundamentalist. Since you know me well, you should know that I am always ready to rectify my mistakes. After all, I'm already used to being slapped in the face by other people with their ideas. If you have a point, I will simply borrow your point and melt it into my beliefs, and I will certainly not persist in my own theories doggedly!"
"I knew that you would be a communicable friend."
Long Yangjun said with a smile, "Otherwise, I wouldn't bother to tell you those things."
Long Yangjun began to tell her own story unhurriedly.
She told Li Yao that she did not lie to him when she was awakened in the Ancient Sages Sector at the beginning, and she never kept the legacy of the Pangu Clan a secret on purpose.
It was because she did not know her bizarre, twisting past, that she was a warrior of the Nuwa Clan who was corrupted by certain uncanny forces of the Pangu civilization in a certain way.
Later, after the fierce battles and the extraordinary views she saw in the Star Glory Federation, the strengths of the dual heritages gradually awakened inside her body.
It was not until "Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan" activated his plan, and both she and Li Yao fell into the virtual space where they were faced with the enormous energy of the extraterrestrial devils, that her heritages were completely awakened.
The Pangu civilization and the Nuwa civilization, order and freedom, law and chaos—two opposite strengths immediately began a fierce battle inside her brain, splitting her personality and making her lost.
She left the federation at that time because she intended to find somewhere peaceful and quiet in the vast space to sort through the messy but overwhelming strength inside her body. Otherwise, if she had gone out of control while she was in the Star Glory Federation, it wouldn't have been anything good for either herself or the federation.
Chapter 2359: Every Mortal Suffers! |
After she learned how to control the two contradictory strengths inside her body, Long Yangjun wandered all the way to the Imperium on the escape capsule of the primeval age. Her primary target was exactly the capital in the Empyreal Terminus Sector.
It was because the capital boasted the largest library of the entire Imperium and was a half vacuum where the four Kurfürst families were in conflict. It would be easier for her to take action here.
At first, Long Yangjun did not intend to sneak into the royal palace.
It was because she was new to the place and did not know much about the customs of the Imperium of True Human Beings or the details of the major forces. Besides, the important cities on the surface of the capital were full of surveillance cameras. It was very possible that she would be locked onto when her traces were exposed.
The royal palace was a sensitive place. She certainly needed to be fully prepared before any action was taken.
Therefore, Long Yangjun entered the underground world of the capital through the bottomless, gigantic chasms, planning to collect the basic intelligence about the Imperium of True Human Beings indirectly and to establish a few bases where she could temporarily hide as her shelters.
She chose the underground world partly because the place was chaotic, murky, and mostly devoid of the annoying surveillance of crystal cameras.
But more importantly, it was because the Pangu Clan, the Nuwa Clan, and the other eleven clans in the alliance had all left tremendous relics below the surface of the planet in the primeval age hundreds of thousands of years ago. The Empyreal Terminus Sector was a pivot of space jumps for the three thousand Sectors thanks to the brimming wormholes in the area, which made it a critical location that Pangu and Nuwa fought over relentlessly.
Long Yangjun's previous self was only a common soldier in the primeval war. Naturally, she was not aware of the accurate coordinates of the relics. But because of her knowledge from the primeval age, as long as she entered the underground world and approached the relics, she would be able to mysteriously sense them.
If a primeval relic was truly located, it would be much easier for her to excavate.
With that in mind, Long Yangjun camouflaged herself and went deep into the underground world, getting a taste of the life of the hominoids of the Imperium of True Human Beings.
Leaving aside the glittering, splendid cities of Immortal Cultivators on the surface of the planet, even the hominoid worlds below the ground were not the same but had clear boundaries. Every several thousand meters deeper would be like crossing a barrier between two worlds that had entirely different characteristics.
The districts one hundred meters below the ground that were numbered 0 to 9 were the important military strongholds of the old days. They were controlled by the powerful sects of Immortal Cultivators today. Besides a tiny proportion of low-level Cultivators, the residents of the places were mostly "senior hominoids" who were vassals to the Immortal Cultivators.
Those "senior vassals" were more like the Immortal Cultivators' toys, pets, tools, and pawns than their "vassals". What they pursued in their entire life was to win the affection of the Immortal Cultivators by satisfying the Immortal Cultivators' peculiar demands.
In short, they were like what cats and dogs were to humans.
In the hominoid worlds, those "senior hominoids" often took part in the most gorgeous and eye-catching professions, say, the superstars in show business.
When they dressed up and danced on the 3D light beams, there were truly countless "lower hominoids" who regarded them as sacred, inviolable goddesses or handsome, charming princes.
Little did the lower hominoids know that their goddesses were nothing but playful cats and dogs in the eyes of the Immortal Cultivators, and the seemingly good-looking and valiant princes, after exiting the stage, had to kneel before the feet of the old and ugly female Immortal Cultivators and lick their toes.
In the meantime, no matter how hard those "
senior hominoids" sold themselves, they could only attract the low-level Immortal Cultivators no higher than the Building Foundation Stage.
The high-level Cultivators wouldn't be enticed by the mortals at all. If they had any desire, countless low-level Immortal Cultivators would naturally throw themselves over.
Although it sounded rather contemptible, the "senior hominoids" living in the one-digit districts had ostensibly secure and dignified lives. At first look, the districts were not significantly different from the cities of Immortal Cultivators on the surface of the planet. After all, the Immortal Cultivators were here for fun. If the environment here were a mess, how could the Immortal Cultivators enjoy themselves?
Long Yangjun spent some time here with great interest. According to her, she even "adjusted" her body into a male and had a subtle relationship with a popular female star, which almost pissed off a few sects of Immortal Cultivators, before she left for the districts numbered 10 to 99.
The two-digit districts, ranging from minus a hundred meters to minus five hundred meters, were the second class of the underground hominoids.
Those places were the communities of the brainworkers among hominoids.
Finance, education, the Spiritual Nexus, design, fundamental political affairs… The professions also seemed rather decent, and they attracted most of the high-end talents among the hominoids.
However, since the real creative and explorational works were monopolized by the admin-type, creation-type, and research-type Immortal Cultivators on the surface of the planet, and only the fundamental brainwork that required abundant repetitive computations was dissected into different steps and distributed to the underground hominoids, their seemingly decent work was nothing more than massive, monotonous inputs, calculations, and outputs. They were called brainworkers, but they were no different from the farmers tilling the land under the scorching sun.
