by <unknown>
"The root of the problem is the vastness of space. The distance between the Sectors that can easily be hundreds of lightyears, and the terrains on different planets that vary greatly, are like some sort of magnifier that enlarges the shortcomings of humanity to the maximum!
"In the age of the ancient Cultivators, the ruler only occupied one planet or a few neighboring worlds at most. However selfish and blind the people under the reign were, and however powerful the dominant officials might be, it was very easy to deploy troops to suppress opposition and control all the people and resources.
"However, in the age of cosmic civilization forty thousand years later, because of the inconvenience of communication and transportation, the Sectors that are far away from each other are very likely to become ramparts in trade, military, and politics, and the ramparts will degenerate into selfish interest groups, which will gradually corrupt the whole body as cancers that can never be completely cut off.
"To make things worse, in many Sectors, the conditions of the habitable planets are entirely different, resulting in different people who have different customs and even different appearances. It is difficult for those people to acknowledge each other and share a common sense of history and honor. They often only know their own tiny world but not the Imperium or the emperor.
"Getting to the bottom of it, based on the brain capacity, means of communication, technological development, and history of mankind, we shouldn't have established an enormous empire that included three thousand Sectors at all. Instead, it should've been divided into hundreds of small countries, each of which managing a couple of Sectors. That should be the most natural state.
"We were a child civilization or a sub-civilization that was created by somebody else in the first place. However, our creator died too early. We barged into the cold universe before we were fully grown, like orphans who lost both parents. We mimicked what the primeval ancestors did clumsily, hoping to unite the universe like the Pangu civilizations' alliance did, without realizing that we were not ready for such a heavy burden at all!
"The Imperium is not destroyed by the four Kurfürst families; it has been collapsed by its own weight and crushed by this vast universe!"
Fascinated, Li Yao mumbled, "Dongfang Wang, the previous Prime Minister of the Imperium, said similar things. He said that our mutual enemy was the universe!"
"Yes, Dongfang Wang was a real sage. I once discussed the questions with him in secret ways."
Wuying Qi said, "It's a pity that Dongfang could see the problems but couldn't see through them. As the helmsman of the Dongfang family, he had been shouldering the burden for such a long time that it was already embedded into his flesh. There were too many things that he couldn't bear cutting. So, he couldn't make up his mind to treat the disease as brutally as I do.
"Even though he did see through the problems, considering the brutal nature of mankind, the hundreds of countries would still fight each other, like in the age of the ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago. Blood would be shed infinitely.
"If my purpose is only to eliminate the four Kurfürst families, it is in fact very easy. I have a hundred ways to completely destroy them. However, that's not going to resolve the source of the problem. You may destroy the four families and even all the warlords today, but as long as the means of communication and transportation of mankind are not improved, as long as the Imperium still has as astronomical population, and as long as those people are still greedy and selfish, another 'four families' will emerge very soon, like viruses that can never be entirely removed!
"Li Yao, do you have the problem of social stratification in your country of Cultivators, Li Yao? Right, I estimate that your country can't be very large. Also, having just defeated the Black Wind Fleet, you should be enjoying the benefits in the thriving phase. Therefore, you may not have a deep understanding of the issue.
"But think about it, when your country of Cultivators spreads to a hundred Sectors, with a population of hundreds of trillions, how are you going to ensure the purity of the Cultivators? How can you ensure that the authorities of the central government are acknowledged by the local strongmen? How can you ensure that your so-called education and rising channels will not be twisted and corrupted by interest groups?
"It's impossible, Li Yao. Let me tell you, I've thought of and tried everything, but nothing can stop the decadence of a great country. Even if I don't destroy your country of Cultivators, and even if I allow you to develop and grow freely, you will be collapsed by your own weight someday."
Wuying Qi put on a weird smile.
However, what terrified Li Yao was not the smile but the fact that he had believed what Wuying Qi said without him realizing it!
Yes. The experts of the federation agreed unanimously that for the federation, the most appropriate size was eight to ten Sectors. The participation of more Sectors would result in unexpected problems, and it would make the Star Glory Federation collapse under its own weight!
However, while the federation could keep the current size, could the Imperium do the same?
If it was not an option, what could be done in order to keep the current status of the Imperium and to prevent it from dividing so that most of the people could manage to survive, however poor their life was?
"In order to completely twist the wretched fate and to ensure the loyalty, selflessness, and solidarity of all the people on the premise of the intactness of the Imperium, there is only one way."
Wuying Qin pointed at his temple softly. "That is, a revolutionary method of education, or 'brainwashing', as you called it."
Chapter 2617: Enlightenment! |
Li Yao had never seen anybody talking about such an absurd and evil thing as "brainwashing" in such a matter-of-fact way.
Perhaps it was a necessary skill for every emperor or leader.
Even so, ripples of confusion still spread out of Li Yao's eyes, as he mumbled, "Sounds… fair enough, but it is brainwashing after all…"
"No, 'brainwashing' is just the fear of the intelligently incapable people who are restrained by their experiences and their imaginations. Like I said just now, when an ancient person sees modern surgery, he will only criticize it as 'demonic arts'! Li Yao, I believe that you are not a simple-minded ordinary person. You should be able to view the new technologies in the most rational and forward-looking ways and see their advantages and disadvantages as well as the revolutionary significance that they have brought to the civilization of mankind!"
Wuying Qi's hollowed face showed delight as Li Yao was more or less shaken. He continued, "In short, in the Demon Beast Empire, the Star Ocean Imperium, the Star Ocean Republic, the Imperium of True Human Beings, or the end of your country of Cultivators in the future, the source of all the problems is that the universe is too vast and people are not united.
"In order to address the two problems, one solution is to shorten the distance among Sectors through more advanced communication as well as transportation methods that the development of technology provides, allowing the power of the central government to be projected to other places quickly. However, the development of technology is never easy. No matter how our civilization develops, it is always extremely costly and risky for us as three-dimensional lives to travel or communicate via the four-dimension.
"Now that the distance among planets cannot be shortened for the time being, we can only work on the human factors and unite the people through brainwashing. In fact, it is also the foundation and prerequisite for technological advancement. How can you achieve anything if you are not united?
"However, I do not like the word 'brainwashing'. The more accurate way of saying it is 'enlightenment'."
"Enlightenment?" echoed Li Yao subconsciously.
"Yes, the technology to generate common feelings, memories, and will by stimulating the brains can improve the efficiency of information exchange and knowledge inheritance by hundreds of times. It can make the most selfish traitors regret what they did and th
e most idiotic mortals become wise. It is an indispensable technology for mankind to evolve from a planetary civilization to an interstellar civilization and from an interstellar civilization to a real 'grand-universe civilization'."
Wuying Qi said, "You may think that I got the technology from the Covenant Alliance or even had any clandestine deals with it, but you can't be more wrong. The origin of the technology has nothing to do with 'evil brainwashing' but can be traced back to the early years of the primeval age when the Pangu civilizations' alliance had just been founded. The purpose of such a technology was not to enslave anyone; it was for the different civilizations that made up the alliance to sympathize with each other and live in harmony."
"The early years of the primeval age?"
Li Yao did not expect that Wuying Qi had grasped such an ancient piece of technology. He was deeply shocked.
He held his breath and pricked his ears, as if he did not realize that more and more black hair had turned into thread-like nerves and crawled into his body while Wuying Qi talked.
Li Yao's consciousness and Wuying Qi's were connected by the thousands of threads.
Every word that Wuying Qi said next seemed to include infinite information. It was not just the sounds but also the vivid pictures that bombarded Li Yao's soul like crystal bombs. However, it did not raise Li Yao's dislike or wariness at all, because it sounded completely unrelated to the war right now.
"With your wisdom and ability of deduction, it shouldn't be difficult for you to realize that the most critical way in sustaining the continuity of a massive empire that covers thousands of Sectors is to unite the people's understanding so that they can share similar memories, feelings, and glory."
Wuying Qi corrupted Li Yao's soul quietly as he continued, "If a country's territory only involves a planet or a continent, it will be easy to gather common understanding. However, if the territory includes two planets that are tens of thousands of lightyears away from each other, one frozen and the other covered in deserts, and the two planets are out of touch with each other now and then, the residents of the two families won't have any 'common memories' at all. Conflict and division will be inevitable!
"Two planets are already troublesome enough, but what about twenty thousand planets, or two million of them?
"Before the Pangu civilizations' alliance was founded, the situation in the universe was even worse than today. However chaotic and disunited the Imperium is, all the citizens are at least human beings who share basically the same biophysical structures and cultures.
"The Pangu civilizations' alliance, on the other hand, included thirteen vastly-different carbon-based lives, who had just fought life-and-death battles not long ago!
"The differences among carbon-based lives can be unimaginably huge. Let me give you the simplest example, which is the Houyi Clan and the Kuafu Clan that once fought over ten suns.
"The origin of the Houyi Clan was a bug with a black shell. They were like the evolved version of bee swarms. Their individuals did not have the slightest consciousness or wisdom. However, during the prolonged evolution, certain 'circuits' were grown on their solar energy shells. When thousands of bugs gathered and established a swarm, the interconnected circuits would boost sparks of wisdom as they vibrated their shells, thereby generating a 'collective consciousness'.
"From that point of view, the Houyi Clan barely had any concept of 'individual' and 'community'. Every member of the Houyi Clan was actually a swarm of dense bugs or a beehive that was alive and could move freely. When a member of the Houyi Clan was heavily wounded, and 90% of the bugs were lost, the last 10% could still fly into other swarms and become part of another member of the Houyi Clan, even passing part of the information in the past into the new community.
"Therefore, many members of the Houyi Clan believed that they never died. That was also the reason why the Houyi Clan was so ruthless.
"The Kuafu Clan, on the other hand, were more like 'plants' than 'animals'.
"The Kuafu Clan was a species of giants. Their adults could grow to almost a hundred meters, like magnificent mountains and skyscrapers. They were the largest of the thirteen clans in the Pangu alliance.
"But who could've thought that the newborns of the Kuafu Clan were just tiny seeds? The Kuafu Clan did not have the concept of gender but reproduced collectively. Whenever the spring on their mother planet came, under the influence of the sun, the adults would gather life seeds the size of fingernails inside their bodies. Then, they would pierce the life seeds deep into the ground with special roots so that the vulnerable seeds could avoid the radiation of the scorching sun and accept the nutrition of the warm soil.
"After that, every member of the Kuafu Clan that passed by could sense the seed. They would also pierce their tentacles into the ground and irrigate the seeds with their nutrition and genetic information. For the Kuafu Clan, it was the most sacred bliss. You can also understand it as a way of reproduction.
"Generally speaking, a seed would gather enough nutrition and genetic information after being blessed by twenty to thirty members of the Kuafu Clan, and it would be ready to germinate.
"If more than a hundred members of the Kuafu Clan gave it nutrition and genetic information, it would definitely grow into a leader of its community and an ultimate expert of the Kuafu Clan. It might even grow beyond a hundred meters as a truly overwhelming giant. In fact, many researchers have proposed that the so-called 'Kuafu's sphere' was actually made of the bodies of the members of the Kuafu Clan.
"However, no matter what its future held, the Kuafu Clan that just broke out of the soil was just a tiny seedling, which could not even move itself. It could only attract a primeval beast named 'Yellow Snake' with its special scent and magnetic field so that it could serve and protect it from its enemies. Of course, the vitality field of the Kuafu Clan was very helpful for the evolution of the Yellow Snake too. It was an amazing symbiosis.
"The young members of the Kuafu Clan had to grow for decades and even hundreds of years under the service of the Yellow Snakes before they could uproot themselves and become adult giants who could move freely, joining their civilization. Of course, after the civilization was highly developed, and the aeroponics and rapid growth technologies were invented, the Kuafu Clan also invented other bizarre, new ways of reproduction. However, the memories of their ancestors that were deeply rooted in the soil still lingered inside their genes, never to be forgotten.
"Tell me about it. How could the Houyi Clan and the Kuafu Clan, two entirely different carbon-based civilizations who had just been through a life-and-death battle, shake their hands, negotiate in peace, and reach a common understanding that both of them were highly-developed intelligent lives instead of 'evil aliens'?"
Li Yao was silent.
It was true. Neither the Houyi Clan, who had collective wisdom, nor the Kuafu Clan, who were plants in their youth and animals after adulthood and who buried their debris into the "Kuafu sphere", was likely to comprehend each other's life forms or acknowledge that each other was a civilization.
"At that time, if the war between the two civilizations was not stopped, the Houyi Clan and the Kuafu Clan would probably be extinguished."
Wuying Qi said, "The Pangu Clan, as a 'middleman', used your so-called 'evil brainwashing' technologies to enlighten the two civilizations and make them feel what each other felt. They shared each other's ancestral memories and living environments, perceived each other's feelings and desires, and understood the varieties of civilizations. Eventually, they reached an agreement and embraced peace, saving both of the civilizations. Of course, they understood the existence of the Pangu Clan by the way, which spared them of the fear for the Pangu Clan's overly advanced technologies."
Chapter 2618: Climb to the Peak of the Universe! |
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
As Wuying Qi's topic went deeper and deeper, the Gold Crystal Tower that existed in reality was gone, replaced by brilliant stars and bizarre, uncommunicable alien spe
cies, as well as the glorious, splendid civilizations they created.
The Pangu Clan, the Nuwa Clan, the Kuafu Clan, the Houyi Clan, the Zhurong Clan, the Gonggong Clan…
"You are free to loathe and berate the 'evil brainwashing technologies', but no matter what you think, the truth is that it was exactly because of the technologies of enlightenment that the thirteen carbon-based races who were hostile and wary against each other were united with the minimal price in the shortest amount of time possible, constituting a solid alliance."
Wuying Qi's gloomy voice came over, as unstoppably as a rumbling thunder. "Had it not been for the technology of enlightenment, the thirteen entirely different carbon-based lives wouldn't have been able to sympathize with each other at all. Then, how could they establish a country? Without a unified country, the primeval war would've burst out hundreds of thousands of years earlier, with an intensity dozens of times higher. In that case, 'human beings', the new-generation life that gathered the best genetic clips of the thirteen carbon-based lives, wouldn't have been born at all!
"Wake up, Li Yao! Let me give you the simplest example. Imagine that you are the captain of an exploration fleet of the Pangu Clan, and you have discovered that the Houyi Clan and the Kuafu Clan, two relatively underdeveloped but highly potential civilizations, are engaged in a life-and-death war. They are about to destroy their last sun, and the two civilizations would die with each other!
"You love peace and crave for communication and unity, but you cannot understand their languages, their modes of thinking, and their civilizational forms. Vice versa, they do not understand you and even dread you. Also, in their cultures, they have strong tendencies to self-destruct. At least, they are absolutely not scared of dying together with the enemy. In other words, you cannot threaten them to stop the war through violent approaches.
