by <unknown>
"Of course. The Immortal Cultivators keep so many workers and offer them wages every month not because they want you to go to the toilet every day."
Long Yangjun said, "According to sex and age, everybody is given a toilet time. If you are more than five minutes late before you return to your post, you will be violating the rules of the Great Iron Plants and have to be whipped once."
Li Yao was stunned for a long time. Observing the commanding heights and the firing points around the entire Great Iron Plants, he continued asking, "I can tell that the battle puppets that the Immortal Cultivators have deployed in this place are indeed much more advanced than Xiao Xuance's Grand Illusionary Soldiers years ago, but why are there not many civil puppets? Many simple, repetitive, and cumbersome works can be accomplished by civil puppets, can't they?
"That's rather odd. The Imperium's overall technological abilities are at least decades more advanced than the federation's. It is the case in terms of the military magical equipment and the battle puppets, but the Imperium's advantages are not so obvious when it comes to the civil magical equipment, the civil puppets, and the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus. The federation even has greater advantages in certain fields!"
"Don't you understand? It's because there is no demand in those aspects!"
Long Yangjun said in a low voice, "The Star Glory Federation paid more attention to the benefits of the ordinary people. As a result, the cost to hire ordinary people is extremely high. In order to lower the cost, the new technologies and the new resources must be devoted to industrial automation and the development of civil puppets, replacing the previous workers with civil puppets. It is because of the demands in the aspects that the technologies have thrived.
"The Imperium, on the other hand, does not have such concerns at all. They can reduce the cost to use the hominoids to the minimum blatantly without considering their benefits, rights, or occupational diseases.
"In the meantime, the Imperium also has a lot of approaches that have severe side effects, such as, for example, activating the demonic genes or using excitants excessively to increase the work efficiency of the hominoids and the cost advantage.
"Under such circumstances, it is only natural that the civil puppet industry is never developed in the Imperium. All the new technologies and new resources are devoted to the exploitation of hominoids!
"Same goes for the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus. In fact, neither the four Kurfürst families, the warlords in the local areas, nor tycoons such as Li Minghui like the idea of connecting the entire Imperium because the Spiritual Nexus means information, and information is innately equal, dangerous, and uncontrollable.
"They prefer to keep themselves secluded and be kings in their own territories, only letting in the information that is in their favor to brainwash the hominoids. It would be a miracle if the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus can be developed under such circumstances!
"Therefore, it is not because the Imperium is not as technologically capable as the federation but because they have chosen different directions of development. Don't look down on those battle puppets. I once stole one of them and dismantled it. They are truly precise, complicated, and advanced!"
"I know."
Li Yao watched a team of battle puppets whipping the hominoid first before the medical puppets, which had been painted white, began treating the punished. Then, another team of battle puppets escorted all the other miners back to the wells. The whole process was in order and did not have any accidents. There was not even a single Immortal Cultivator supervising the situation.
It meant that the control crystal processors of those battle puppets were advanced enough to make complicated logic judgments spontaneously.
With such powerful control crystal processors, their combat ability couldn't be weak.
However, Li Yao was still more or less confused. "Why are no Immortal Cultivators seen around the entire Great Iron Plants, and the order is only maintained by the battle puppets? Is Li Minghui not here?"
"As you have seen, the environment here is too harsh. The Immortal Cultivators naturally would not stay here all day."
Long Yangjun said, "Normally speaking, the administration made of the Immortal Cultivators and the private troop of the Black Iron Troop will stay five hundred meters right above the Great Iron Plants. There are a fairly large training field and rest area up above. That is the place of residence for the Immortal Cultivators.
"Li Minghui, on the other hand, spends even less time below the ground. He is mostly occupied in pulling strings and negotiating businesses with other Immortal Cultivators on the surface of the planet!
"However, it is true that the Great Iron Plants is particularly undefended in recent days. The turmoil you caused on the surface of the planet raised tides below the ground too. A lot of underground sects and groups who were attached to the Dongfang family are now homeless dogs living in fear all day. So, Li Minghui is taking the opportunity to expand his territory and devour the forces large and small nearby by leading the most brutal bandits under his command. The Dongfang family's properties are all becoming the Li family's. How else can he make up for the losses when he changed sides?
"It is exactly because of the chaos in the underground worlds that Nepenthe is planning an uprising. There is still one last day for that!"
After observing the distribution of guards and the environment in the Great Iron Plants, the two of them retreated into the caves and snuck into the living areas near the Great Iron Plants through the unknown gaps.
The messy huts and caves were the homes of the workers. Not only were the families of the workers living here, but there were also many entertainment providers and sometimes even merchants who traveled among different underground districts.
Compared to the depressing, cold, and lifeless factory areas, while the living areas had been developed without any order like crazy ant nests or beehives, such places were at least full of vigor. People's shouting and bickering could even sometimes overwhelm the noises above their heads.
According to Long Yangjun, the Immortal Cultivators had been leaving the hominoids outside of the factory areas to themselves. They barely went deep into the stinky cottages in the living areas to search for suspects and maintain order, mostly because none of the Immortal Cultivators were willing to come to such a dirty place where they could gain nothing.
Before this, Li Minghui had thought to restrain all the hominoids roughly with the battle puppets as the police in the living areas. Then, it occurred to him that the unexpected situations were too many and the environment was too complicated in the living areas for the battle puppets' crystal processors to handle. In order to transform "soldiers" who were purely responsible for slaughter and suppression into "police" that had to take care of the most insignificant trivia, the crystal processors of the puppets had to be upgraded by at least two generations.
The price was too high, and there was not much necessity. So, Li Minghui dropped the idea and simply assigned certain seemingly obedient, seasoned miners as the managers of the living areas. His attitude was obvious. As long as the productivity of the factories was not affected and no great trouble was caused, he did not really care what the living areas of the hominoids became.
The Grand Guardian of Nepenthe, named "Xu Zhicheng", was a model worker of the Great Iron Plants that everybody knew in the beginning. After his two sons passed away one after the other, as a special treatment, the corporation had nominated him as the manager of a living area.
Since Xu Zhicheng was qualified to be the Grand Guardian of Nepenthe, he certainly had ways to manage the area that was assigned to him well. It was the safest and least troublesome area for the Immortal Cultivators. The workers living in the area were exceptionally diligent and hardworking. Gradually, he won the trust of the leadership of the corporation. More and more living areas were administered in his ways, and they joined Nepenthe one after another. Today, all the living areas nearby had been highly infiltrated and contr
olled by Nepenthe, surrounding the Great Iron Plants and the Black Iron Group instead!
Chapter 2375: Succeed, or Sacrifice! |
Passing the obstreperous huts that felt like a chaotic whirlpool and the underground hominoids who had covered themselves tightly with capes, Li Yao sensed the air of an upcoming storm from the seemingly peaceful streets.
Unusual high-frequency vibrations filled the air. Deep inside the darkness of the dilapidated alleys, people sitting cross-legged on the ground were everywhere. They must've all entered the state of telepathy, passing the clandestine signals regarding the riot tomorrow and conducting the last preparations.
It was exactly like a volcano where magma was about to rise to ten thousand meters tall. The intense smoke had been gathered in the crater, and nothing could prevent it from roaring.
It was exactly in such intense reverberation of brainwaves that Li Yao and Long Yangjun reached the home of Xu Zhicheng, the Grand Guardian of Nepenthe.
As a model worker of the Great Iron Plants and the manager of the living area, Xu Zhicheng boasted the most spacious cave. It was the center of Nepenthe's secret activities.
Because Li Minghui and most of the Immortal Cultivators were not in the Great Iron Plants, and the uprising would take place tomorrow, the Nepenthe believers stopped covering their operation. Tremendous tall, strong believers of Nepenthe were entering and exiting Xu Zhicheng's cave with full packages but indifferent faces, carrying his order to other living areas and even the central posts of the factory areas.
Seeing that Long Yangjun had arrived, all the Nepenthe believers bowed at her deeply. Even Xu Zhicheng came out to greet her. The other people were asked to go somewhere else, and Long Yangjun and Li Yao were invited to go to the room for further discussion.
Entering the room behind Long Yangjun, Li Yao closed the door on the entrance of the cave and spread his senses to the entire cave. The cave was approximately a hundred square meters, which was almost luxurious in the underground worlds where space was highly limited. It had been divided into three parts. The innermost part was Xu Zhicheng's bedroom, and the outmost part was his living room and the place where he handled the affairs of Nepenthe. There was not much furniture except for a long table made of tempered iron. The place was rather neat and tidy.
In the middle part of the cave that spanned horizontally, however, was a bunk bed made of iron. There were also a lot of toys that were made of iron wires, screws, and magical equipment components on the desk nearby. They were perhaps the most beloved objects of the house owner because they were all glittering after being touched day and night.
On the wall, there were a lot of things that were similar to certificates and medals. All the certificates had been preserved in glass frames carefully and hung on the wall squarely.
This place was probably where Xu Zhicheng's sons used to live.
Li Yao noticed a detail.
The Great Iron Plants were heavily polluted. The air was full of dust and various sticky pollutants. It would only take half a day for a table to be covered in a thin layer of stains that could barely be cleaned.
In order not to draw any attention, Li Yao did not activate his spiritual energy when he snuck in. His cape had been wreathed in sticky dusk after only half an hour, and he could not shake it off at all.
The huts of the workers that he saw on his way here were also dark and covered in dust.
Xu Zhicheng's home was the same. In the living room outside and his own bedroom, there was a dense, black coating on the wall, the floor, and even the bed, and five-finger marks would be left on it if one were to touch it with their hands. The people here were probably used to such an environment and did not consider the dust and the pollutants to be a big deal anymore.
But in the small room where the bunk bed was kept, it was clean and dustless.
The toys on the desk made of wasted iron and the certificates on the wall, in particular, were so spotless that they were almost shining.
Somebody must've been wiping them carefully after every couple of hours in order to keep them as shiny as new.
Did the Grand Guardian do it himself?
Did those certificates and toys belong to his sons?
Were the clumsy toys made of wasted iron jumbled by Xu Zhicheng one screw after another a long, long time ago for his sons in person?
With all the questions, Li Yao looked at Xu Zhicheng, the Grand Guardian and the actual leader of Nepenthe.
Xu Zhicheng had a most common name, which did not carry any dominating air or mysteriousness.
Exactly like his name, he was an old worker with a headful of gray hair, a face of wrinkles, and scars all over his body.
Even though he was about to lead thousands of people to wage a war against the Immortal Cultivators tomorrow, he was still wearing the work uniform that had been sewed and washed so many times that it had lost all the original colors. He did not have the charisma of a leader of an uprising army or the evil vibe of a cultist. He was nothing like what Li Yao imagined an overzealous believer of the Path of Ultimate Benevolence should be like.
According to Long Yangjun, boosting the brainwaves of thousands of people to resonate with the methods of telepathy was essentially a brain exercise that was beneficial for the people at the center of the reverberation to awaken their spiritual roots. After years of training, Xu Zhicheng had miraculously awakened his spiritual root and advanced to approximately… the Refinement Stage!
Even so, in terms of level, power, combat ability, judiciousness, scheming, or any other ability, Xu Zhicheng was still the weakest opponent that Li Yao had ever seen in his entire life. He was so vastly different from Xiao Xuance, Bai Xinghe, Jin Tuyi, Lu Zui, Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan, and the rest of them that he could not even be compared to them.
However, while Li Yao could face Xiao Xuance, Lu Zui, and Jin Tuyi with confidence and challenge them in bloody battles to the last moment, he was somewhat at a loss about how to deal with Xu Zhicheng who was as good as nothing in terms of strength.
"Serenity Seraph, I'm told that not only have you activated a large batch of ancient weapons, you have also recruited tremendous wildlings from the depths of the underground worlds. This is truly wonderful!"
Xu Zhicheng bowed deeply at Long Yangjun first before he said, "In such a case, we will be more confident about the war tomorrow!"
Just like all the other Nepenthe believers, he seemed to be wearing a heavy mask. When he was talking, his wrinkles did not move at all, and even his eyeballs barely rolled. He did not have the anxiety now that a great war was coming near, nor the fury of having enough sufferings. He was exactly in the "eternal tranquility" that Nepenthe promoted.
He did not look at Li Yao until it was necessary. "If I may ask the Serenity Seraph, this is…"
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao introduced himself. "My name is Li Yao. I am a Cultivator."
"A Cultivator?"
Xu Zhicheng's eyes were frozen. He considered carefully for a moment before he replied in wariness, "I heard your name before. I'm told that you caused a riot in the Martial Meritocrats Sector at the edge of the Imperium and killed a lot of Immortal Cultivators! So, you are against the Immortal Cultivators too. What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to convince Grand Guardian Xu to abort your uprising."
Looking at Xu Zhicheng in the eyes, Li Yao went to the topic directly. "You won't gain anything from doing that!"
Xu Zhicheng was slightly stunned. His pupils obviously constricted, as if he were going to argue with Li Yao in fury, but he simply held it back and turned his eyes to Long Yangjun rigidly, asking in calmness, "If I may ask the Serenity Seraph, is this your intention too?"
"Don't overthink, Grand Guardian Xu. That is not my intention."
Long Yangjun said casually, "Since the first day I taught you 'Serenity Arts', I have solemnly promised you that I would only teach you two secret techniques but wouldn't influence your usage of the techniques. Later, after you establishe
d Nepenthe and insisted on worshipping me as the Serenity Seraph, we made a deal to each other too. I would never meddle in the affairs and actual operations of Nepenthe. Whatever you are going to do, I would neither support nor object to it. In the meantime, if you were to come to ask for my help when in trouble, it would depend on my mood whether or not I would give you a hand.
"This is exactly the same. You will be in full charge of the issue. I have no intention to steal your power at all.
"But my Cultivator friend here, however, has different opinions regarding your operation and insists on meeting with you.
"Speaking of which, from the perspective of an onlooker, I do feel that he is not entirely pointless. Your operation is so rushed, your enemy is so formidable, and the environment is so rough. It is destined that Nepenthe's uprising will not succeed. Not only is the entire Nepenthe likely to be destroyed, but the whole Great Iron Plants, as well as everybody living here, may face their doom too!"
"If we can't succeed, we can at least die for it!"
Expressionlessly, Xu Zhicheng said, one word after another, "Both the Serenity Seraph and your Cultivator friend have seen our living environment and the oppression that we suffer day and night. Do you think that we are scared of death when we are living in hell?
"We… should've died a long time ago! If the extraterrestrial devils did arrive that year and corrupted our abnormal bodies and violent souls, we would've congregated into an overwhelming torrent and swallowed all the Immortal Cultivators including Li Minghui!
"The extraterrestrial devils did not arrive, and the Serenity Seraph granted us more brilliant techniques and more secret methods of communication, freeing us from pain and fear! In that case, why do we have to hold it back anymore? As long as we can drag the Immortal Cultivators like Li Minghui to die with us, we are willing to pay any price!"
"Grand Guardian Xu, listen to me—"
Li Yao tried to make himself sound harmless and sincere. "We, the Cultivators, are against the Immortal Cultivators too, and we also support everybody defending their dignity and glory with violence and sacrificing themselves when it is necessary. Therefore, I am not stopping you from sacrificing yourselves.
