Li Jialing explained earnestly, “The roasted meat here is the back leg of a Red Lizard. The Red Lizards are the main vehicles in this place. They hop forward with their strong back legs. Therefore, their legs are the most muscular parts of their body and a delicious food when roasted with the magma that has just consolidated. People here might not even get the chance to have it once a year. Enjoy it while it is hot!”
“Is that so?”
Having slept for a long time, Li Yao indeed felt that he was starving. He fetched the porridge and the back leg of the Red Lizard and started to gobble them. The porridge indeed tasted rather bad, like half-frozen candles, and only had a slightly salty flavor. The roasted meat tasted much better. It was chewy and covered his mouth with scrumptious aromas, making him feel even more hungry.
Li Yao did not really care much about the flavor. He had eaten synthetic food that tasted even more awful than candles too many times. The only thing that concerned him was the refill of energy. While drinking the porridge, he observed, “Why are they made of common ingredients? This place is Dongfang Mingyue’s nest after all. Does she not have any high-energy nutrition drugs? She can’t be that petty, right?”
“Huh…”
Li Jialing said dutifully, “There was in the beginning. However, during the days you were unconscious, Brother Yao, you swallowed dozens of high-energy nutrition drugs more than what common trainers would’ve had every day. As it turned out, you exhausted all of Sister Mingyue’s storages. She jumped up and down in fury. That’s why… there’s no more of them now.”
Li Yao coughed and changed the topic in embarrassment. “Right. Do you know the girl who came to drop the food a moment ago? Why was her attitude so weird and cold as if somebody owes her thousands of dollars? Are we not welcomed in this place?”
“That is not exactly the case.”
Li Jialing shook his head and said, “Sister Mingyue boasts a high prestige in this place. Many residents of the underground world are her believers, including those who have been serving us. We are both the honorable guests brought over by Sister Mingyue. They cannot welcome us enough. Why would they reject us?
“It’s just that Sister Mingyue’s believers are all the same. They must repress their feelings. Even if they are very delighted in their heart, they will not show much of it on the surface.”
Li Yao stopped attacking the leg of the Red Lizard. Chewing the meat fiber among his teeth, he found that it did not sound right. “Believers? What believers?”
“Believers of Nepenthe.”
Li Jialing said quickly, “Nepenthe is a religion that Sister Mingyue founded a few years back at the deepest part below the ground. It has been developing very fast in various areas below the ground. Not only are her believers everywhere in the abyssal towns numbered larger than 10,000, but even the four-digit and even three-digit towns that are closer to the sunlight have a lot of people who joined Nepenthe too.
“Right, those believers all call her…’Serenity Seraph’. Although she is not exactly the leader, she is the spiritual symbol of Nepenthe. People here believe in her.”
“What the heck?”
Li Yao tossed the leg of the Red Lizard that only had the bone left now onto the tray and frowned. “Nepenthe? ‘Serenity Seraph’? She really can’t change her habit of propagating superstitions anywhere she goes!
“Come on, tell me about it. What are the philosophies of this ‘Nepenthe’? How exactly did she attract followers?”
With an even more complicated expression, Li Jialing weighed his words for a long time before he finally said carefully, “The main idea of Nepenthe basically claims that the feelings and desires of human beings are the sources of all pains. If the reality cannot be changed, as long as the feelings and desires are suppressed and eradicated as much as possible, one will also be able to destroy all pains and enjoy a carefree new life.”
Li Yao was astounded.
His eyes and his mouth gradually widened, as if he were going to swallow Li Jialing.
“What?”
Li Yao grabbed the leg bone and waved it as if it were a saber. “Eliminating feelings and emotions equal to eliminating pains? A ‘carefree new life’? Is—Is it any different from the claim of the Covenant Alliance?”
Considering the “scheme” that Long Yangjun mentioned ten days ago, Li Yao immediately felt that his back was covered in a cold sweat. The porridge and roasted meat that he had a moment ago seemed to have turned into poisons.
“Sister Mingyue said that her claim was slightly different from the ideas of the Covenant Alliance.”
Thinking for a moment, Li Jialing said, “If the Covenant Alliance wants to destroy 100% of mankind’s feelings and emotions, turning human beings into detached puppets, she only wants to destroy 90% of the feelings and desires. No, not exactly ‘destroy’, but repressed.
“According to Sister Mingyue, if there were enough resources for everyone to release their feelings and desires freely, it would certainly be unnecessary to repress anything, and everybody could be the truest and freest version of themselves. But what if the resources are insufficient? In order to avoid unnecessary conflicts and pains, one should keep only 90%, 80%, 70%… and so on of their feelings and reduce the demand for unnecessary resources. It is just a helpless choice!”
Li Yao was stunned for a long time. “Isn’t that still the Covenant Alliance’s theory under disguise? There’s no fundamental difference at all!”
Li Jialing nodded his head and bit his lips. “In fact, when she told that to me, that was how I refuted her with courage. But she simply replied with a smile that there was nothing she could do if I thought that way, and that I could regard her as a spy from the Covenant Alliance.”
“A spy from the Covenant Alliance?”
Greatly shocked, Li Yao smashed his fists. “Great. The evil she-fiend has finally revealed her real face! But wait. By logic, should she be engaged in the superstitious activities below the ground stealthily and planning the shocking great operations, only to be exposed and sabotaged by me at the last moment? Why has she confessed everything dutifully before I even begin to investigate and infiltrate?
“What then? She said that she was a spy of the Covenant Alliance, and then what happened? Did she say anything else? Did you firmly resist her?”
“How could I resist her?”
Li Jialing replied pensively, “Her combat ability was obviously higher than mine. She did not need to take action but only stared at my neck with a smile, and I already felt that my neck and spine were going to be broken by her telepathically. Besides, this is her territory. You were not up yet, and she appeared all candid and unharmful. What could I have done?
“As to whether or not she is a spy of the Covenant Alliance and her purpose, she did not say anything but simply let me ask you. She said that you would tell me everything, including her real name. She is not the real Dongfang Mingyue, and the two of you have known each other for a long time as good friends, right?”
Li Yao: “Well…”
Li Jialing: “Right, she also said that you would start jibber-jabber after a ‘well’ every time. She asked me to not believe anything you would say after a ‘well’.”
Li Yao: “…”
Li Jialing: “In fact, I do not need her to remind me that Brother Yao has the habit of bragging and chattering on. But sometimes, seeing how happy you are when you are swanking, I feel that it will be too awkward if I point it out, so I simply echo with you in case the atmosphere gets too weird.
“After all, Li Lingfeng and Wuying Lan’s years of refinements on me were certainly not for nothing. I am just young and inexperienced, but I’m certainly not an idiot.”
Li Yao: “Enough. We are in the middle of an emergency. Let’s save the crap and get back to the topic. That woman is indeed not really Dongfang Mingyue. Her name is ‘Long Yangjun’. I can’t tell you much about her identity and origins except that she is an extremely dangerous and dreadful woman.”
Li Jialing asked, “Even more dreadful than Blackstar the Great?”
“They are dreadful in two different ways and cannot be compared in such a simple way.”
Thinking for a moment, Li Yao said, “I can only say that I would rather be faced with the Flying Star Sector that is fully armed and backed by thousands of troops than confront Long Yangjun who is smiling with no weapons in her hands at all. But of course, if she is really on the Covenant Alliance’s side trying to brainwash everyone into emotionless and desireless dummies, I will certainly fight her to the end however dreadful she is!”
Li Jialing was rather astonished. “So to speak, she is really from the Covenant Alliance? Then, how exactly did she sneak into the Imperium and even win the trust of the prime minister? And how did you become best friends with such a dangerous person, Brother Yao?”
Li Yao thought for a moment and realized that it was inaccurate to say that Long Yangjun was a “spy of the Covenant Alliance”. That was almost an insult.
Long Yangjun was an elite warrior of the Nuwa civilization who was corrupted by the Pangu Clan. In terms of bloodlines, techniques, and ideas, the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan were fifty-fifty in her.
Half of her was the successor of the Pangu Clan, and the Pangu Clan was worshipped by the Covenant Alliance as the supreme god. Therefore, instead of saying that Long Yangjun was a spy of the Covenant Alliance, it would be better to say that Long Yangjun was a living god for the Covenant Alliance.
Even though the bloodline of the Pangu Clan was too thin inside her body for her to be respected as a “god”, it should be enough for her to be a spokesperson of the gods.
When thinking that way, it was not surprising that she was secretly disseminating the ideas of the Covenant Alliance in the underground world deep below the Imperium of True Human Beings as “Serenity Seraph”.
Wiping his lips, Li Yao said, “She is… not exactly from the Covenant Alliance. The situation is too complicated to be explained in a few words. Anyway, where is she right now?”
“Sister Mingyue—No, Sister Long went to the dark areas, which had been completely forgotten, deeper below the ground three days ago. She said that she was going to stop the war among a few barbaric tribes and let them abandon their vendettas against each other.”
Li Jialing said, “Before she left, Sister Long told me that I could take you on a tour in the underground town and check the believers of Nepenthe if you woke up while she was away, and if you were still furious, she would be waiting in the dark areas below the ground for you to stop her. She said that she would never evade or retreat in the competition of beliefs.”
