The elevator slowly ascended, pulling them up from the dark and suffocating abyss.
When they breathed in the fresh air and embraced the warm sunlight back on the top of the island, Li Yao finally felt less cold.
“Aren’t you always a great talker? Why did you quit today?”
Long Yangjun smiled at Li Yao. “Why didn’t you debate with Colonel Song Guanghe and try to persuade him with your blood-boiling thoughts of a middle school student?”
“Do I have nothing better to do?”
Looking at the psychopaths caged not far away, Li Yao said, “You can only reason with people who are reasonable. For example, although the Immortal Cultivators are evil, they have their reasons to be evil. So, even Wuying Qi was still a person that I could talk to.
“This Song Guanghe, or rather, everybody in the Covenant Alliance, does not intend to reason at all. Anything is simply the gods’ arrangement. Even a god being killed by me is still the gods’ arrangement. What can you say to them when they keep telling themselves that?
“It’s like those psychopaths who cannot free themselves from their own world. Can you reason with them?
“Speaking of which, this Song Guanghe is a poor guy too. I’ve figured out why he is so devoted to the Path of Ultimate Benevolence. If I were him, I probably would’ve done the same.”
“Huh?”
Long Yangjun was briefly stunned. “How so?”
“Just read his file!”
Li Yao showed his wrist crystal processor. “Although he is from one of the four Kurfürst families, this Colonel Song was not in the core circle of his family. It couldn’t have been easy for him to squeeze into the core circle without being kicked out or discriminated against.
“He struggled to survive in such a difficult environment. There’s no telling how many bad things he did and how many friends he sold out. He even indirectly got one of his kids killed. Finally, he was promoted as a colonel, but hardly had he gone to the battlefield when he was captured by the Covenant Alliance.
“After spending a dozen years in the Covenant Alliance, he was captured by the Imperium, only to discover that his wife became an escort and his children turned into crazy bloody butchers. Also, his wife and his children all declared that they would disengage from him. He had to choose between a traitor and a psychopath.
“Tell me, if you were him, would you rather wake up from being brainwashed and confront the brutal reality?
“Do you see where I’m getting at? It’s not true that Colonel can’t be reasoned with; he just doesn’t want to be reasoned with. His identity as a member of the Covenant Alliance is his last shield and port. He only has the courage to live on when he hides behind the glory of the gods. If he really wakes up and faces everything, he probably will kill himself immediately!”
Long Yangjun stared at Li Yao. “Huh. I’m surprised that you’ve improved your IQ to the average level with your precious computation ability!”
“Is there a better time to use my IQ?”
Li Yao sighed and said, “Actually, all the religions are the same. It’s not that the lies of those religions are convincing, but that the reality is cruel and unsatisfying for everyone. When people have nowhere to turn to under the oppression of reality, they can only join the embrace of the gods. It’s more like self-narcotization and self-protection. Otherwise, they will be in too much pain for the rest of their entire lives.
“So, I agree with your theory that the Covenant Alliance and the Imperium are the two sides of the same coin.
“Although the Supreme Emperor banished the demons and united the universe, the aftermath of the Great Dark Age has never been gotten rid of. The universe in the past ten thousand years has still been a world of darkness that is no different from the tyranny of demons. The Imperium of True Human Beings, on the other hand, is the pinnacle of this oppression. Faced with the pressure, not only do the hominoids live in hell, but even the oppressors like Colonel Song are also doomed. To quote him, ‘in the abyss of fire and venom’, neither the oppressed nor the oppressors can find a way out, and religions naturally come into being in the infinite pain and desperation!”
Long Yangjun waved her hand before Li Yao. “Dear god, is it really you? You really can be surprisingly smart!”
Li Yao grinned. “Of course! I am the dominator of nine Sectors anyway. I’m more sophisticated than I seem!
“All in all, after witnessing the status of the Covenant Alliance people and communicating with them, I’ve got a basic understanding of the nature of the Covenant Alliance.
“Actually, it’s not very difficult to settle the Cultivator. Who would want to have synthesized food when you have fresh lobsters? Who would want to play with dolls when you have a real girlfriend? Who would want to hide in the illusions of religions when they have a happy life? As long as we modify the Imperium with the thoughts of the Cultivators so that everybody will be happier than before, the Covenant Alliance’s propaganda will lose all its appeal.”
“Fair enough.”
Long Yangjun nodded and extended her hand to Li Yao. “Then, where are your fresh lobsters, girlfriend in the flesh, and the resources that can deepen the reform and make everyone’s life happy?”
“That’s exactly the problem.”
Scratching his messy hair, Li Yao said, “The Imperium is terribly ill, and it cannot be healed overnight. According to the queen—no, the empress dowager’s speculation, as well as Colonel Song’s prophecy about the arrival of the gods—something unprecedented will definitely happen soon.
“It’s really challenging to resolve the problem of the Covenant Alliance so quickly!”
“It seems that you will have to resort to the Sunspot Plan.”
Long Yangjun smiled and said, “For most people of the Covenant Alliance, I’m a minor god, and for the sunspots, you are a minor god too. I wonder, can the two minor gods really resist the real gods who have slept for hundreds of thousands of years?”
“I don’t believe in gods.”
Li Yao shook his head and said determinedly, “So, I will not deceive those sunspots in the name of a god. We’re human beings, and nothing more. ‘Human being’ is itself an honorable and powerful identity. Why do I need to play a groundless god?”
“I don’t believe in specific gods either.”
Long Yangjun’s eyes became thoughtful. “However, what Colonel Song Guanghe said in the end is not entirely wrong. The members of the Pangu Clan are not the real gods. They are only part of the gods’ billions of rays or even the reflection of the gods in the three-dimensional world.
“If we do not call them gods but the initial creator and first-awakened intelligent life, and if there is a reason that caused the intelligent life to wake up and an ultimate law that shaped the universe, would you believe it?”
Li Yao turned solemn. “Wait a moment, I’m confused. Which side are you on?”
“I’ve always been in the middle.”
Long Yangjun smiled. “Don’t forget that I’m a half-Pangu and half-Nuwa monster. I certainly do not believe that I or the Pangu Clan are real gods. But if the Pangu Clan understood part of the ultimate truths and willingly melted into the billions of rays of the ultimate law, it would be an acceptable theory!
“Tell me, Li Yao, if the law does exist, would you obey it or go against it?”
Li Yao was silent for a long time.
Under the raging sea wind, his eyes were brighter and brighter.
“Humans will conquer nature.”
Li Yao said, “If the law does exist, I will try my best to study it, explore it, and eventually conquer it!”
Against the sea wind, the two of them returned to their shuttle.
Zhuge Jinglun came to bid them farewell. They also settled on their next meeting, when Li Yao would donate a batch of high-performance crystal processors to the Third Research Institute, mostly for the convenience of his studies with the Sunspot Plan.
“Black Wind King, you’re too generous.”
Zhuge Jinglun could barely stop grinning when he read the list of donations that Li Yao made to the institute. He then winked at Li Yao. “You’re welcomed here anytime, Black Wind King. This place may look shabby, but when the whole world looks weird and upside-down, perhaps an asylum is the only normal and real place where you can find the answer you want.
“Mark my word. I think you’re destined for an asylum someday…”
Zhuge Jinglun personally closed the shuttle door for them. Accompanied by the sea wind, he waved his hand at them with a brilliant smile.
