Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Why not?” the mental devil asked back. “Not just detonating thousands of habitable planets, even if we destroy the three thousand Sectors and even the entire civilization of mankind, it might not necessarily be ‘immoral’!”

Li Yao was dumbfounded for a long time. “What do you mean?”

“Since this is a brainstorm, we must open our minds and not restrain our imagination with any biased, parochial rules,” the mental devil said carefully with a smile. “You know that ‘suicide’ exists in every human society, right? Even in the Star Glory Federation, which claims to be bright and ethical, there is a rather stable ‘suicide rate’.

“Do the people who choose to commit suicide not love their life? That is not necessarily the case. Most people simply cannot shoulder the endless pain in life. Death is not the most horrible thing in the world; living can be ten thousand times more horrible than death, in which case one will often beg to die.

“The ignorant never understand the logic. They always say cr*p like life is better than anything and even an ant cherishes its life. Is it of any use? Those who want to kill themselves will still kill themselves. Even if some people lack determination and courage and are pulled back from the verge of death, is there any significance in their life when they live meaninglessly like ants?

“The wise are able to view the problem from a higher level. They at least partly admit that an adult with sufficient intellectual faculties has part of the right to decide how to deal with or end their life, especially when they are experiencing insufferable and irresolvable agony.

“Although euthanasia is not entirely legal in the Star Glory Federation, if somebody truly chooses to end their life, other people often more or less understand their decision. In other words, modern citizens’ view of life is more mature and advanced.

“Then, just as a man can choose suicide, is it possible for a civilization to make such a decision?

“If a civilization foresees that it will bear excruciating pain that far exceeds its limits in the future, that life will be more miserable than death, and the situation can in no way be changed, is it immoral for the civilization to choose to terminate itself voluntarily in ‘suicide’?

“Get back to the example just now. If what you said is true, the alien species that invades the three thousand Sectors truly has thousands of maternal brains, and the civilization of mankind is absolutely unable to resist them. Once conquered, human beings will be caged as their food and pets. In the millions of years that follow, human beings will forget their history and honor of the past and degrade into beings like pigs or dogs. Even our ‘training’ will be focused on making ourselves more delectable and delicious so that our masters will be more comfortable and have more fun.

“Let me ask you, if ‘Wuying Qing’ foresaw such a future, or the ‘maternal brain’ displayed such a picture to him while convincing him of the veracity and inevitability of such a future, and ‘Wuying Qi’ had a way to destroy the entire civilization of mankind and he did put it into action, would his act be ‘moral’ or ‘immoral’?”

After staring at the mental devil for a long time, Li Yao shuddered coldly and mumbled, “Are you really the dark side of my soul? Why does the dark side of my soul have so many peculiar thoughts?”

The mental devil smirked. “Justice is always the same, but evil has a myriad of faces. What, you cannot answer the question?”

Thinking carefully for a moment, Li Yao replied firmly, “I am not qualified to decide if such a ‘Wuying Qi’ is moral, but if I were him, I definitely would not make such a choice. I would report the issue to the parliament exactly as it is. Then, I would fight side by side with all other human beings to resist the foul ‘maternal brain civilization’ together!

“Even if we are indeed destroyed in the end, it will be a valiant death where everybody is killed in a battle, instead of a decision made by someone or some representatives that the entire civilization should terminate itself.”

“Dying valiantly in a battle or being terminated without knowing is just a minor detail,” the mental devil said with a smile. “The bottom line is, you also admit that it might not necessarily be an evil move to destroy the civilization of mankind. In that case, what is the big deal about destroying a tiny Earth?

“Consider such a scenario. In a higher dimension above the three-dimensional universe exists an almighty being that can destroy the three thousand Sectors and the civilization of mankind, naturally, Earth included, whenever it wants. However, if we choose to ‘sacrifice’ Earth, it guarantees that it will not destroy us but will help the civilization of mankind grow stronger. Our civilization will make a giant leap forward by a thousand or ten thousand years.

“Look. You can either sacrifice Earth to save and improve the entire civilization of mankind, or you can watch the civilization of mankind get destroyed as a whole, and Earth will not be a survivor.

“In such a scenario, the option to ‘destroy Earth’ is no longer that hard to accept, is it?”

“This is bullsh*t.” This time, Li Yao shook his legs hard without one second of hesitation. “We discussed this a long time ago when we heard the propaganda of the Immortal Cultivators for the first time. Any responsible government would not negotiate with kidnappers and terrorists. Besides, if such a godly being beyond the three-dimensional universe does exist, we have no ability to make it keep its promise at all.

“Since we do not have the ability to force it to honor its words, its promise is nothing more than a fart that does not even smell. Today, it can threaten us to sacrifice Earth to save the entire universe, but if we do sacrifice Earth, it can also ask us to sacrifice the Heaven’s Origin Sector to save the remainder of the universe. The day after that, the Flying Star Sector; following that, the Blood Demon Sector… Eventually, like cutting a sausage, we would slice ourselves into pieces and deliver them to its mouth, and it would devour everything with the least effort. Its greed would never be satisfied. This is exactly what it would do.

“More critically, if it is indeed an omnipotent, omniscient, and invincible being beyond the three-dimensional universe who can destroy the civilization of mankind while yawning, what does a tiny Earth mean for it? Why does it ask us to sacrifice Earth of all planets? If Earth must be destroyed, couldn’t the being do it by itself instead of relying on insignificant mortals like us?

“If it insists that we destroy Earth, ‘Earth’ is of paramount significance and might be a threat and a key to destroy the being. In this case, we will have even less reason to destroy Earth.

“I stand by what I said. If this is the entirety of the scenario, I will never destroy Earth. I will only stand side by side with the six billion earthlings and make the six billion earthlings stay together with all the human beings in the three thousand Sectors. We will fight together against the being of a higher level.

“We may be destroyed, but we will never be defeated. The civilization of mankind including Earth will never bend or compromise but will fight until the last breath!”

“Aya. As expected of a man who is about to enter the Divinity Transformation Stage. Your mind is much more sophisticated than when you were on Kunlun!” the mental devil shrieked in exclamation. Then it chuckled and said, “In that case, we will have to change our hypothesis. What if Earth is itself the darkest, most evil being that contains tremendous secrets, and all the earthlings are reincarnations of fiends and threats to the entire civilization of mankind or the universe?

“Destroying Earth will be demolishing the den of fiends, and killing the earthlings will be killing evil beings. That will not conflict with your belief, will it?”

Li Yao thought carefully again. In the end, he shook his head and said, “In my uncanny dreams, despite all the internal conflicts on Earth, and although there were a lot of tyrants and dictators, it seemed a rather peaceful world from the perspective of the entire universe. It was even incapable of migrating to the Moon or Mars, which were right next to it, much less launching an expedition to the land further away. It is almost ‘harmless’. How can it be a threat to the entire universe?”

“It is possible that everything you saw was just an illusion,” the mental devil analyzed solemnly. “Didn’t you visit a desolate world in a trance, where a female Cultivator greeted you and said ‘welcome to Earth’?

“Didn’t you also see that Earth was on furious fire and withered instantly into a rotten apple core?

“Chances are that the blue Earth and peaceful life in your uncanny dreams are just illusions, and the burning, withering, and decaying apple core is the actual Earth!”

“This is a very plausible possibility.” Li Yao nodded quickly. “If the blue Earth does exist, it cannot be called ‘too dark’ and ‘too strong’ in any way. I don’t know anything about whether or not it is dark, but the earthlings have less than thirty groups of aircraft carriers at most and an arsenal of nuclear weapons that can burn the surface of the Earth into wasteland at best and is not even enough to destroy the Moon.

“Not that I’m bragging, but as long as it is localized, the federation today can send an expedition army with dozens of Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and a few Colossi. That would be more than enough to suppress Earth. Nothing could possibly go wrong!

“Is it necessary to describe such an Earth in such a horrifying and unbelievable way?”

“In that case, we will have to discuss the concepts of exterior and interior worlds,” the mental devil said. “There are two Earths. The Earth on the surface is the blue planet where countless creatures and six billion people live. Their life is peaceful, unattractive, and they are not in conflict with the rest of the universe, if they can see the rest of the universe at all.

“But in fact, there also exists an ‘interior Earth’, which is the real Earth. That place is likely a den of fiends who are most foul, dark, and powerful. They are probably great threats to the entire universe and will destroy the civilization of mankind.

“Therefore, when part of the people on ‘exterior Earth’ found out the truth, they came up with the Vulture Plan and decided to destroy it no matter the cost!”