Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

While chewing the apple, Li Yao thought about it carefully.

His professor’s theory seemed immaculate.

First of all, the Spiriters did not have much contradiction with humans and demons in terms of resources or living space. When there was no contradiction, there would never be a war.

Besides, the Spiriters were all transformed from humans in the first place. A lot of them had actually been elites when they were still alive. Would he turn against the civilization of mankind after he perished one day and was transformed into a Spiriter?

It was impossible. His thoughts would still be his thoughts, and his will would still be his will. He would be exactly the same person as before, although his body would no longer be there. Why on earth would he suddenly stand against mankind?

Also, most importantly of all, the technology on the crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus in the federation were still quite juvenile and underdeveloped. It was barely possible for the hundred billion people of the whole country to log into the same DLC of ‘Civilization’ without causing the crashes of countless servers and data exchange centers. How could such crystal processors and Spiritual Nexus accommodate an enormous, boundless Spiriters’ Realm?

Therefore, even if the ‘Spiriters’ Realm’ did exist for real, it would only be one of a limited scale, like the town that he was looking at right now, with a small population, so that the computation, simulation, and rendering would not be too difficult.

Even if Professor Mo Xuan really had any ambitions, and even if he was a ‘star spirit’ or a ‘walking crystal processor’, it would still be impossible for him to develop the crystal processor technology that surpassed the present day by thousands of years in only a hundred years without anybody knowing it.

The Spiriters’ Realm that he saw was still founded on the material existences in the real world, such as the crystal processors, no matter how illusionary it seemed to be. The federation could destroy the center of the crystal processors easily. After that, what would the Spiriters’ Realm count on?

Therefore, his professor did not have the motivation, methods, or enough fellow Spiriters who shared a common aim with him to perform any kind of scheme.

Li Yao began to suspect that he was being paranoid again. Although his professor’s theories were indeed groundbreaking and breathtaking, they were just theories and a prophecy after all. Perhaps they would become reality millions of years later, but who could say for sure what would happen millions of years later, and was it necessary at all to interfere with it?

Narrowing his eyes, Professor Mo Xuan looked at the children who were riding kites to fly under the blue sky and playing with each other amid cheerful laughter. He solemnly said, “Trust me. I understand the craziness, dangerousness, and evilness of my theory much better than you do. Therefore, decades ago, after I constructed my preliminary theory and made clear what I was going to do, I immediately reported it to the government.

“But the problem was that I did not know which department in the government was responsible for this… bizarre thing at all at that time.

“Thankfully, I had quite a good relationship with some leadership of the parliament and the heads of a few major sects. There’s no need to mention Ding Lingdang, the leader of the Patriots Front. Guo Chunfeng, Jin Xinyue, Fiend Blade Peng Hai, and some other people knew me, too. There were also some other experts whom I helped to craft their crystal suits.

“Therefore, I told Ding Lingdang, Jin Xinyue, Guo Chunfeng, and some other friends first. Then, through them, I have a few speeches to parliament and the Secret Sword Bureau. I also informed the specialists in the major universities in the federation and invited them to join the great cause. Right. I also looked for a dozen Meditation Healers, psychiatrists, and experts in mental diseases.”

Li Yao was slightly dazed. “Why did you want them?”

“I asked them to run a deep analysis on me to see if I had any mental disease,” Professor Mo Xuan said solemnly.

“…That was a bit redundant, wasn’t it?” Li Yao asked.

Professor Mo Xuan shook his head. “Not redundant at all. No matter how people tried to disguise it on the surface, the truth was that I had not been a normal person since I was transformed into liquid metal more than a hundred years ago. After a hundred years in liquid metal, I could not guarantee that my mind was perfectly normal and completely fit for the current law and ethics in the federation.

“A hundred years ago, I was the principal of the Grand Desolate War Institution, the president of the Refiners’ Association, and the president of Association of Spectral Cultivators. There were some other important duties on my shoulders, too. I was a rather important member of the leadership of the federation. Therefore, I had to be responsible for the federation and my patriots, and I needed to be certain of my mental status.”

Li Yao was rendered speechless, wondering if he should salute his professor with respect right now. After a long daze, he asked, “What was the result?”

Professor Mo Xuan smiled. “Those experts all said that I was perfectly normal. I showed them my theory and hoped that they could figure out something from it. But they replied that I could turn it into an excellent novel if I edited it a little.”

Li Yao squeezed his eyebrow hard. “Well, what did parliament and the Secret Sword Bureau say?”

“I didn’t do anything illegal. I was just doing pure theoretical research. What could they say?” Professor Mo Xuan said. “Is it against the law if I, as the president of the Association of Spectral Cultivators, summon the spectral Cultivators in the federation trying to push forward a motion in the parliament to change the legal name of ghosts into ‘Spiriters’?”

Li Yao thought for a moment and replied, “No.”

“Then, is it against the law if I invite a bunch of novelists to write novels, make movies, and even produce games based on the world setting that I give them?”

“No.”

“Is it against the law to encourage young people to spend more time on the Spiritual Nexus and less time outdoors to reduce traffic, air pollution, and resource waste?”

“No.”

“Is it against the law to increase the level of our crystal processors, produce more super crystal processors, improve the algorithms to build virtual worlds that are almost perfect simulations of reality, and welcome all the people in our society to live in them?”

“No.”

“Then, everything is settled!” Professor Mo Xuan clapped his hands and said, “I always remember the lesson of Lu Zui, the director of the Secret Sword Bureau a hundred years ago. In fact, he began his cause for a great purpose, but it was because he resorted to clandestine approaches that he got mired deeper and deeper in trouble, until the mistakes were too grave for him to turn back.

“Therefore, from the very first second, I exposed everything to the sunlight. All my approaches are absolutely legal. Although not everybody in our society knows about the matter, the leadership of parliament, the intelligence agencies such as the Secret Sword Bureau and the Dim Moon Fund, and many research institutions in the major universities all know what I have been doing. They are involved in all the procedures, too, to help me with supervision, control, and guidance.

“As you can see, the guests who will attend the first launch of the ‘Tinder Plan’ tomorrow are from the Secret Sword Bureau, the federal army, and parliament. Some of them are the most famous sociologists, futurists, and ethicists in the federation. Everything is open to the public!”

Thinking quickly, Li Yao suddenly realized something. “The Tinder Plan isn’t just about passing on the knowledge of mankind, is it? It is related to the Spiriters, too?”

“Of course it is. Why else would I devote all my belongings to the ‘Tinder Plan’?” Professor Mo Xuan indeed did not seem to be hiding anything at all. He generously explained, “From the beginning to the end, from the Monument Plan to the Tinder Plan, it has always been an ‘escape plan’. Other than passing on our civilization and exploring the future, the main purpose of the project is to bring a batch of Spiriters for them to run away from you.”

Li Yao was confused. “Run… away from us? Why?”

“Because we are scared of you, or rather, we are scared of getting into conflicts with you.”

Staring at Li Yao, Professor Mo Xuan thoughtfully said, “I’m well aware that I’ve walked too far. In the history of mankind, people who walked as far as me mostly did not end well.

“Did you know? At the early years of the age of the ancient Cultivators, when the three thousand Sectors were not connected to each other yet and the truth of the universe was still unknown, many worlds believed in ‘geocentric theory’. They thought that their world was unique and that all the stars in the universe rotated around it.

“The first Cultivators who raised the ‘heliocentric theory’ were almost all killed as heretics!

“At that time, in a lot of Sectors, the Cultivators who insisted on ‘geocentric theory’ and those who believed in ‘heliocentric theory’ had a lot of similar wars. The blood of countless innocent people was shed just for their ridiculous arguments.

“Perhaps this is the nature of human beings. When they discover an unknown object or theory, their very first thought is horror, and their second thought is to destroy it!

“The Spiriters are not interested in going against humans. As you heard just now, the resources we need are not the same. There is absolutely no reason for us to have any conflict. We can live in harmony and help each other.

“However, if I must find a reason of conflict, it will be horror—humans’ horror.

“Tell me, Representative Lin and Miss Ling. What was your first thought after you heard my theory?

“Spiriters? That’s too terrible! They are definitely going to destroy the civilization of mankind and conquer all humans, turning us into slaves!

“Mo Xuan is mad! It is not a human being at all. It is a piece of liquid metal, a different life form. Those who are not my own kind must think differently from me. It must be up to something!

“Only the beings with flesh, blood, and a brain such as us can be called ‘human beings’. The Spiriters cannot be regarded as human beings at all. Destroy them!

“Although there seems to be no reason for humans and the Spiriters to fight, we might as well suffocate all potential threats to mankind while they are still in the cradle!

“Look me in the eyes and tell me. Did you have any of the thoughts I mentioned just now, even if only for one moment?”

Li Yao and Ling Xiaole looked at each other, blushing.

Professor Mo Xuan smiled. “There’s no need to lie to me. I understand you very well. The Spiriters are as much human beings as you are. Naturally, we share your concerns.

“Right now, the Spiriters in the whole federation take up one percent of the population. It is still only a tiny proportion, and ordinary people perhaps can live with that.

“But what if they take up five percent or even more in the future? Can the other ninety-five percent of the population really tolerate the existence of the Spiriters and admit the fact that ‘the Spiriters are the future’ and that they are ‘old human beings’ while the Spiriters are ‘new human beings’?

“I hope they can, but I cannot be assured. The previous two branches of mankind, humans and demons, fought for forty thousand years before they reached a preliminary rapprochement at the corner of the universe. I do not want the Spiriters, a third branch, to have another conflict of forty thousand years with its brothers. Such a tragedy must not be repeated in any case.

“So, now that the future here is gloomy, we will run away.

“We will leave the present to you, the ‘old human beings’, and we will run to the future, to millions of years later, where we will create a new chapter of the civilization of mankind!”