Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Insane, this guy is completely insane!”

Li Yao could not help it any longer. His soul was bubbling like porridge that had been boiled. “I finally understand that the Fuxi is not as simple as ‘spiritual network’. He is more like a tombstone!

Li Yao thought of the ‘Gravestone Plan’, a famous old man of the Star Glory Federation.

It was true that, when a civilization felt that its time was coming to an end, it would carve the gravestones of the civilization with all kinds of materials and methods, trying to engrave all the information of the civilization, or at least the most important information, on the gravestones as a memorial of

the civilization, hoping that more civilizations could see and inherit it.

However, it was something that a civilization would only do when it was on the brink of extinction. Right now, the civilization of mankind was still vigorous and active. To build a tombstone so early and even deprive its master of his resources and hope was simply absurd.

“The guy’s brain must be seriously damaged.”

The mental devil replied, “Now that I think about it, it’s not strange at all. The guy was controlled by the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan separately during the primeval war. He was even forced to attack each other against all the meta-logic and sacred rules. Who could resist the bombardment of countless

logic bombs?

“Besides, when the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan perished, they must’ve stored a lot of information in their database and reiterated that the precious data was the most important thing for the heritage of their civilization. It was not unusual that they considered the data to be the civilization itself after a

long time!

Li Yao and the mental devil were whispering to each other. Lu Qingchen’s soul was frozen for a long time, too. He did not know what to do about the ‘civilization poem’ that Fuxi proposed.

“Ithought that you could understand. After all, we all agree that comprehensive informationization is the future of a civilization, and virtual space is as important as the material world.

The light spots of the Fuxi Clan turned into glittering tentacles and tangled Lu Qingchen’s face and body, trying to touch his face and chest. “To be honest, I really admire you. I only came to such a conclusion after hundreds of thousands of years of consideration with the enormous database and

computational ability of the ‘Fuxi System’. But you’ve grasped the truth of civilization in a limited hundred years with the wisdom of a mortal. Impressive. Really impressive.

“This is also the biggest reason why I am willing to give you a chance and patiently enlighten you!”

“Wait, wait, wait. Don’t confuse our paths. Even if they are similar on the surface, they are two completely different things!

Lu Qingchen shuddered hard and struggled to get rid of the tentacles of light of the Fuxis. He said in fury, “No matter how many magnificent, ever-changing spiritual worlds my Phantom Plan is going to establish, and even if all human beings are moved to the virtual worlds, at the very least, everyone’s

brain and reproductive system will be preserved. These people, the individuals of the civilization, my compatriots, they are still alive and well!

“However, in your plan, even if you can collect all the data of a person and create a 100% simulated virtual human being in the virtual space, it will still be false!

“No matter how wonderful your virtual space is or how vivid the virtual characters are, it will still be an empty playground without a living person inside. What’s the point?

Fuxi thought for a moment.

“Is there a difference between a ‘real person’ with a brain and a reproductive system and a ‘dummy’ simulated by simple data?”

It asked very seriously.

“Of course there is a difference. A huge difference!”

Lu Qingchen was almost driven mad by it. “When I was carrying out the Phantom Plan, in order to… make the human beings who moved to the Spiritual World feel at home, I created countless virtual humans with the technology of big data collection and emotional simulation. In our terminology, they

are ‘non-player characters’. But no matter how detailed the data we collect is and how advanced the algorithms are, fakes will always be fakes. We will never be able to replace real people!”

“No. I think it’s because your crystal processors are too backward and your original data is not collected enough. That’s why you can’t create a 100% realistic virtual human being.

“The bottom line is,” Fuxi said matter-of-factly, “the core is computational ability. There are no problems in the universe that cannot be solved without a hundred times more computational ability. If there are, try to improve your computational ability by two hundred times, a thousand times, or even ten

thousand times. I believe that, when the ‘critical point’ of a certain number is broken, the false will become the real thing.

“Absolutely impossible!”

Lu Qingchen gnashed his teeth. “Even the computational ability of the entire universe cannot simulate the soul of a human being!”

“on?”

“Then, where does the soul come from?”

“From the brain, from the genes, from the blood that we were born with!

Lu Qingchen said firmly.

“Is that so? Then what are you saying right now? You don’t have a brain, your body, and your blood. Do you still believe that there is something named ‘soul’ deep inside your database and logic algorithms?”

The ripples that the Fuxi released were somewhat ironic.

“Nonsense. Right now, I’ve gotten rid of the low-level phase of life and am marching toward the peak of information life. Of course, I don’t need to be bound by a body of flesh and blood anymore.

Lu Qingchen was not moved. He said solemnly, “However, I once had a brain, flesh, and genes. It was in the depths of my blood and genes that something mysterious and inexplicable gave birth to my soul!

“It is exactly because my compatriots and I have souls that human civilization has a brilliant past and a hopeful future. This is a living civilization!

“My Phantom Plan, on the other hand, is to build billions of splendid stages in the virtual space with the minimum resources so that all human beings can express the infinite possibilities of their souls!

“If there are no living people at all, and there are only puppets supported by big data piles and logic algorithms in the countless virtual spaces and glamorous stages, such lifeless, unchanging things are not qualified to be called ‘civilization’!

“Therefore, you are completely wrong, Fuxi. Our paths only overlap on the point of ‘creating countless virtual worlds’, and their cores are diametrically opposite!

“Understood. What a… pity.”

“Ididn’t know that, although you were able to jump out of the limits of human beings and even carbon-based life forms and embark on the path of evolution for information-based life forms, you were still a ‘genetic fundamentalist’ deep down in your bones. You were still unable to get rid of the

fascination that carbon-based life forms had for genes, and you still naively believed that there were incomprehensible mysteries deep inside genes that could turn into ‘souls’ in mysterious ways.

“Ican understand the worship of genes for carbon-based intelligent creatures, but the cruel truth is that the so-called genes are just a relatively advanced information storage model and carrier. As long as the computational ability is good enough, the mysteries of every gene fragment can be analyzed,

and the genes can be combined and mutated at their will. Then, ‘soul’ can be mass-produced, too.

“This is exactly what I’m doing right now. Don’t think of my mission simply as building the tombstones of a civilization and preserving the specimens of a civilization. No. My mission is to store one, or countless living, changing human civilizations in the virtual space.

Lu Qingchen was baffled.

“I don’t understand.”

Lu Qingchen said, “How can you get a living, evolving human civilization when it does not involve living people and is purely virtual?

“As long as the computational ability is good enough and the original data is abundant enough, all the processes of human society can be inferred. Isn’t the ‘Civilization’ game of the Star Glory Federation always carrying out similar deductions?

Fuxi showed his ability to invade and retrieve Lu Qingchen’s soul by accident again. “Although a lot of players are involved in the deduction of the game ‘Civilization’, the deduction can still be carried on even if there are no players.

“Yes, but they can only perform very simple deductions.

Lu Qingchen frowned. “Besides, the result of the deduction is not very accurate. There is basically no point of reference.”

“Same two conditions, computational ability and raw data!

“Your computational ability is too low, and your original data is seriously insufficient. How can you perform the real deduction?”

“My computational ability is far higher than any super crystal processor in the federation or the imperium. Besides, as I excavate more and more computational centers from the primeval era, repair and refine more and more units, and add them to my thinking array, my computational ability will soar

exponentially. When I’m strong enough to crack the ‘Black Screen Technology’ and the ‘Flooding Technology’, I believe that my computational ability will soar, too. By then, my computational ability will be infinite!

“The accumulation of the original data was the real purpose of my creation.

“What do you think the main body of the Sanctuary Alliance is exactly? The ‘soldier bees’ and the ‘worker bees’, the five tribes of water, wood, metal, fire, and earth, the purifiers, cleaners, lurkers, and the super experts?

“These are just tools.

“The main body of the Sanctuary Alliance is the ‘lab of human nature’ that is scattered everywhere in the sea of stars. I tested all the reactions of human beings in the face of all kinds of stimuli through the experiments of human nature under extreme conditions. I believed that, as long as I conducted

enough experiments on human nature, I would be able to grasp all the secrets about ‘human nature’ and ‘soul’, and I would be able to create ‘living people’ at my will in the virtual space. Those ‘living people’ would be the players of the ‘living civilization of mankind’ and exist forever in the enormous

database that I expanded to the entire universe. They would follow me to immortality..