Wuying Qi’s thoughts were truly turning into a whole sky of brilliant stars, and the stars were corrupted into the color of black instantly by his ambitions before they flooded into Li Yao’s soul nonstop.
As if hit by lightning and drowned in an abyss, Li Yao struggled to put up the final resistance. “But… But your plan will kill a lot of people. In the Empyreal Terminus Sector alone, thirty to fifty billion people will die. What about them?”
“They are the slits during the operation, the throes when a new life is born, the fuel to boost the civilization of mankind forward, and a price that we have to pay.”
Wuying Qi’s eyes became profound and antique, as if he could see the changes in billions of years. He said in a completely inhumane tone, “We are all going to die in the long run. Not just us, even the ultimate experts in the thirteen carbon-based clans that made up the Pangu civilizations’ alliance. No, not just Pangu, all the formidable civilizations that once existed in this universe during the tens of billions of years before Pangu have all been swallowed by time. There is absolutely nothing left now.
“In the past billions of years, hundreds of the most prosperous primordial civilizations perished, and the civilization of mankind will repeat their course soon. In such a magnificent background, does the life or death of a few individuals really matter?
“I can tell that you also believe we cannot wait and be killed but have to march out in search for a way of survival. Then, have you considered how dangerous the universe out there is? Has it occurred to you that, even though we may reach a final destination, allowing the civilization of mankind to reach a certain…’glorious eternity’, the journey will still be such an arduous march that perhaps 99% of the people will die on the way and only 1% of them will be the ancestors of new human beings?
“It can’t be helped. Even though we know for sure that those people will be sacrificed, we have to go forward relentlessly, because that is the significance of life.
“Billions of years ago, when the first fish crawled onto the continent clumsily, I believe that it was not unique but had many companions. However, 99% of the other fish died of drought in the lethal air.
“By the same logic, when the ancient apes reached the plains from the forests timidly, they must’ve paid tremendous sacrifices under the claws and tusks of the ferocious beasts on the plains too.
“If the fish and the apes were intelligent, and if you were the commander of the fish and the apes, would you tell your partners that it is too dangerous up ahead and that you should return to your warm and safe nest because you are reluctant to pay the ‘minor sacrifices’? Yes, your partners may be kept safe for now, but the future of the civilization will be completely obliterated by your petty kindness!
“Trust me, if possible, I want to reduce the casualties as much as possible, but this is a war. It is not just a war between the reformists and the nobles, or one between the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance, much less one between the Immortal Cultivators and the Cultivators, but a war between new human beings and old human beings. It is a war that will change the world! Such a conflict between the old and the new can’t be gentle, harmless, and gradual as you imagined. It is destined to raise the most intense contradictions. Too many obsolete interest groups will be crumbled. Many people will die.
“The virtue of a general is not to keep his every soldier safe but to try to make every soldier die a worthwhile death so that their lives can be traded for the greatest results and the eventual victory. In many cases, even if the general knows that the troop leading the charge or covering the retreat will be wiped out, he will still have to ruthlessly send his most beloved and most elite troop into inevitable doom. Is the general an unpardonable murderer? No, it is the responsibility of a commander!”
Li Yao couldn’t hold it anymore and roared, “Soldiers are all braced for death, but what you are going to kill are not soldiers but civilians!”
“Wrong! The classification between ‘soldiers’ and ‘civilians’ only applies for the civil wars of mankind. In the wars in the grand universe that we will soon face, in the infinite battles of infinite civilizations, everybody will be a warrior who has to devote their everything to the whole civilization!”
Wuying Qi’s voice also became aggressive. “Think about it. If one day we truly march out of the grand universe, only to be faced with the full scourge of a certain alien civilization, would it tell the difference between ‘soldiers’ and ‘civilians’ within mankind? Or, if we are faced with a civilization where each planet is a magnificent weapon, and it is crushing at our world, about to tear our planets apart with the tidal force, will it tell the difference between ‘soldiers’ and ‘civilians’? If a mysterious force above the three-dimension world arrives and is about to raise or lower the dimension of our world, transforming us into a certain weird, indescribable state, will it care about the difference between ‘soldiers’ and ‘civilians’?
“Don’t be silly. Since the moment we discovered the grand universe, the old morals are already gone. The whole civilization has naturally entered a new age where everybody is a soldier. In order to survive in the dark universe, everybody can and must be sacrificed! One wouldn’t deserve to be the commander of mankind without such a cold and clear understanding!”
“I-I can’t do it!”
Covering his head, Li Yao replied in agony, “I can’t treat so many living individuals as ‘fuel’. I can’t accept the death of billions of people casually. I can’t view the problem from the perspective of billions of years. I can’t do it in any case!”
“Yes, 99% of people can’t. They cannot break themselves away as individuals and view the problem from the perspective of the whole civilization. Therefore, Cultivator Li Yao, no matter how strong you are, you can’t be a qualified leader. If the civilization of mankind is led by a cowardly man full of petty kindness like you, it will perish within several hundred years!”
Wuying Qi smiled casually. “However, it doesn’t matter. I can achieve what you can’t. That’s why I am the most perfect commander of the civilization of mankind, and all you need to do is to help me.
“Your rationality obviously tells you that what I say and do are right, but you can’t accept it emotionally. You can’t be a leader, and you are stopping me from becoming one. What’s the reasoning in that? The civilization of mankind always requires an absolutely rational and absolutely cruel commander. Who else can it be if not me? Would it be better if the commander is as ‘kind, vulnerable, and sympathetic’ as you, who will cry or shout useless slogans whenever anything happens?”
Li Yao bulged his eyes, not knowing what to say for a moment.
“Your kindness that is limited by personal feelings is only petty kindness, if not hypocrisy. You only see that tens of billions of people may die before your eyes, but you have never considered the lives of the hundreds of billions of other people in the Imperium!”
Wuying Qi’s voice grew tough again although it was mild for a while. “Do you not understand? The tens of billions of people in the Empyreal Terminus Sector are destined to die. If I do not activate the ‘Next Sun Plan’, the four families’ ace fleets will occupy the capital planet tomorrow, and there will be as many victims who will die of massacre, famine, and plague!
“To make things worse, the four families are too useless and unorganized to resist the main force of the Covenant Alliance. The Imperium will definitely collapse under the Covenant Alliance’s ambush!
“By then, not only will the number of victims be multiple times higher than ‘tens of billions’, but the survivors will inevitably be brainwashed by the Covenant Alliance in the worst way!
“See? Your ‘kindness’ can’t change anything and will only make things worse. If hundreds of billions of people are truly killed in the massacre of the four families and the invasion of the Covenant Alliance, that will be your crime. They will be killed by your hypocrisy and your ridiculous sense of justice as well as your moral values!”
Dumbfounded, Li Yao was lost for words.
He only wanted to buy more time in the beginning and “pretended” that he was brainwashed by Wuying Qi.
However, his beliefs were truly corrupted bit by bit, and countless cold and dark things were injected into his mind.
“With everything coming to this point, countless people will die and countless people will be brainwashed one way or another. There’s nothing that you or I can do to stop it.”
Wuying Qi sighed and said, “I can only prevent the death of hundreds of billions of people by the death of tens of billions of people. I can only prevent the pale and evil brainwashing of the Covenant Alliance through righteous brainwashing. I can only try to make the sacrifices of countless individuals to be more worthwhile so that their deaths would not be for nothing. Even though I will be cursed for all eternity after doing that, I will not hesitate to do it as long as it is in the best interest of the future of mankind. I may kill a million innocent women and children today, but a billion innocent women and children will be saved tomorrow by what I did today. That’s the greater kindness and justice. That’s what might be called ‘boundless love’!
“Cultivator Li Yao, I have been so patient with you because I do appreciate your talents. Are you still being pigheaded? If you insist on your beliefs, you’d better come up with a solid reason that disapproves of what I said and a way to resolve the four families and even the Alliance of the Holy Covenant with no bloodshed!”
Li Yao was stunned for a long time, and his voice became weaker and weaker. “But… But the whole Empyreal Terminus Sector will be destroyed by you! How can the Imperium deal with the Covenant Alliance after its heart is destroyed?”
“Haha. Hahaha. It seems that you have accepted my opinion despite the details that still need discussing, but these trivial problems are easy to settle!”
Wuying Qi laughed aloud and waved his hands. “You’ve made the same mistake on the matter, which is that you are viewing the new world with obsolete eyes. The so-called ‘capital’ is only necessary for a political entity on a planet. A real interstellar civilization does not need to, nor should it, set up a capital. It is not the heart of the Imperium but a cancer and the greatest redundancy of the country!
“Or rather, even if the interstellar civilization does need a political center, it should not be fixed to a certain planet but should be mobile. That is the only way to project the influence of the political center to the local places in time.”
