Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao thought of something and exclaimed, “That’s the ‘Supreme Emperor’!”

“It’s true that I’ve never seen such a marvelous fetus before. It had a strong self-awareness before it was born and could even communicate with me by manipulating other people’s brainwaves.

The Observer explained, “At first, I was merely trying to find a way to wake up my mother through it. But as the communication went deeper and deeper, I was fascinated by the primordial memory pieces that it released. I even considered it a living person and made friends with it sincerely. You said that it still remembered me, its good friend from the embryo era, after it was born into ‘him’. I’m both moved and touched when I think about it.

“I see.”

Li Yao took a long breath in relief. The Observer had connected the dots, but he was still confused. “If the Project Replicate the Originator is so important and the Supreme Emperor has made significant progress, why was it terminated all of a sudden? Is it really as the Supreme Emperor speculated? You were forced to abort it because you were worried that you might not be able to control the ability that he revealed?”

“No, at least not the main reason.”

The Observer shook his head and said, “We have a deep understanding about the formidability of the Forerunners. To be able to create such an enormous ancient relic and a mysterious tower, and to wipe out a hundred ancient civilizations so easily after billions of years of destruction, the Forerunners must be unimaginably strong! If we were scared of the Forerunners, we wouldn’t have initiated the project of ‘replicating the Forerunners’ in the first place.

“The reason we stopped the Project ‘Progenitor Replication’ and even closed the entire primeval relic, isolating the Heavenly Palace from the outside world, is mainly because of the dissemination of forbidden technology and the civil war.

“Oh?”

Li Yao asked, “What do you mean by leak? Isn’t the technology in the Heavenly Palace shared with the outside world?”

“Yes and no.”

The Observer explained, “When the Heavenly Palace was established, all the experts, scholars, and researchers swore that all the technology and mysteries inside the primeval relics belonged to all the species of the Pangu Civilization. No species or anybody could claim them as their own. Over the next two thousand years, we kept our vow and disseminated most of the technology without any reservation.

“However, as you know, many dangerous military technologies are hidden inside the primeval relics, including the methods to manufacture weapons of mass destruction or deadly viruses. If they spread out, our civilization will be doomed.

“The top experts in the Heavenly Palace are well aware of the hazards of the technology. Since the entire Pangu Universe is in the phase of relative peace, is it necessary to develop a genetic weapon that can kill an entire galaxy of intelligent creatures instantly? “Therefore, many of the technologies in this regard have been sealed by the top experts of the Heavenly Palace. They did not study them in-depth, and naturally, they did not spread to the outside world.

“However, the politicians, soldiers, and schemers in the outside world have different ideas.

“Under the pretext of ‘resisting the incoming flood’, they continuously coerced the experts in the Heavenly Palace to output more, more advanced, and more destructive military technology. After they were rejected by the experts in the Heavenly Palace, they even did everything they could to infiltrate the Heavenly Palace. They bribed some of the experts and stole a lot of technology to study outside. “The situation grew worse and worse. At the most critical moment, they even stole a lot of secrets about the Flood Tide Legion and conducted thousands of dangerous studies in the outside world, making the forbidden technology completely lose control.

“It must be noted that the reason why the research on starships and captives of the ‘Tidal Tide Legion’ was conducted in the Heavenly Palace was that the place was isolated from the rest of the world. Even if the Flood Tide Legion boasted dangers and infectiousness that we didn’t know about, the losses could have been minimized. But their hasty approach caused part of the strength of the ‘Tidal Tide Legion’ to spread out. It was even possible that the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan in the outside world would be corrupted into new Flood Tide Legion. Who knows whether or not such factors were involved in the civil war that broke out later?

“What was most intolerable for the Temple of Immortals was their spying and stealing of the ‘Progenitor’ project.

“The people of the Heavenly Palace were very clear about the power contained in the ‘Progenitor’. When they duplicated the ‘Progenitor’, they had all taken thorough safety measures. They paid close attention to every clone of the ‘Progenitor’ even though they seemed to be too weak to catch a chicken and did not have the strength to do so. No mistakes were allowed.

“In our communication with the outside world, we have also made it very clear that other technologies can be handed over to the outside world, but replicating the technology of the Forerunners, including the precious’ Forerunners’ genes’, cannot be disseminated yet, in case the situation gets out of control.

“But as it turned out, the more we talked about it, the more the soldiers, politicians, and schemers in the outside world coveted the technology related to the ancestors. No matter how we tried to defend ourselves, the technology, including the genes of the ancestors, was still leaked to the outside world. When we discovered it, many Sectors, including military fortresses, had already established their own ‘manufacturing factories’ and started mass-producing the ancestorshuman beings. “Wait. I don’t understand.”

Li Yao scratched his head and said, “You were ‘replicating’ the Primeval Lord of Heaven in the Heavenly Palace in order to get the wisdom of the Primeval Lord of Heaven and to solve the riddle of the ultimate test. Why did the politicians, soldiers, and schemers outside mass produce human beings?”

“To save our civilization, of course.

There was a hint of sorrow in the brainwaves of the Observer again. “Maybe, the most unbearable thing for a high-level intelligent creature is to sit and watch other people saving their civilization. It is impossible to ask the politicians, the military, the ambitious, the bravest warriors, and the fiercest experts to do nothing and let the people of the Heavenly Palace save their civilization. In other words, it is impossible to ask us to decide their fate.

“Maybe, in the first thousand years, people had pinned all their hopes on the people in the Heavenly Palace.

“But after a thousand years of futile endeavors, when the resources of the outside world were running low, and when the entire civilization was on the verge of collapse, the resolute and intelligent top experts could not suppress their ambition and sense of mission any longer. They wanted to take over the mission of ‘saving the civilization’ from the hands of the people of the Heavenly Palace and even thought that we were a stumbling block in their way.

“Under the pressure of the arrival of the flood tide, any kind of bizarre methods can become a life-saving straw. Maybe they believe that the ancestors—human beings—are the most efficient and low-energy tools to help the Pangu Civilization pass through the time when resources are scarce. Or maybe they believe that the form of human beings represents the ultimate development of carbon-based intelligent life. Therefore, they want to manufacture human beings on a large scale and transfer the souls of the thirteen carbon-based intelligent life-forms into the shells of human beings. Or maybe they think that the progress of the ‘Progenitor Replication Project’ inside the Heavenly Palace is too slow. They can’t wait any longer and are shouting that they want to activate the genes of human beings who are hibernating for a long time in the vast world outside by relying on the methods of barbaric reproduction and natural screening so that human beings can regain the demeanor of the ancestors of the past… In short, there are many reasons, and more than one research team is carrying out explorations in this regard. When we discovered it, billions of human beings had already spread across the entire Pangu Universe as a ‘multi-terrain universal tool’.

“The leader of the Heavenly Palace was so shocked that he flew into a rage out of humiliation. For the first time, he started considering the possibility of isolating the Heavenly Palace from the outside world and accelerated the construction of the artificial ecosystem inside the Heavenly Palace, hoping to be 100% self-sufficient.

“Before the matter was settled, more shocking news arrived. A civil war broke out in our civilization. Led by the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan, the flames of war swept across every planet in every Sector.

“This is a war of unprecedented scale and cruelty beyond imagination.

“Both sides are equipped with a lot of magical equipment and technology that does not belong to our civilization-that is, magical equipment and technology that has been passed on from the Heavenly Palace and belongs to a hundred ancient civilizations, or even to the destruction of a hundred ancient civilizations.

“The politicians outside, the soldiers, and the ambitious ones, after they got the technology and conducted a few unreliable experiments, were in a hurry to assemble them on a large scale. They did not even consider the consequences of abusing the destructive technology.

“By the time we discovered it, the sea of stars outside was already riddled with holes and on fire. With the strength of the ‘scholars’ who did not even have the strength to truss a chicken, it was simply impossible for us to stop it. Moreover, both sides of the civil war had very forcefully issued a threat to us, demanding the Immortal Palace to submit to their side, to be loyal to their ideology, and to provide them with a steady stream of new military technology to help them win the civil war.

“Then, what is their ideology exactly?

Li Yao could not help but ask, “In the studies of human beings, it seems that the Pangu Clan is on the ‘evil’ side, representing the extinction of feelings and self-restraint as a turtle that has been hiding in its shell for billions of years, and the Nuwa Clan is on the ‘righteous’ side, symbolizing the vigorousness of life and the endless possibilities. Is that true?” “Justice and evil are just opposites. Faced with the vast, unknown universe, who knows what path we can choose to save our civilization?

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The Observer explained, “There are a lot of contradictory ideologies and conflicts between the two parties in the civil war. The one that is most closely related to the Heavenly Palace is that the leadership of the Pangu Clan believes that the research in the Heavenly Palace is too dangerous and cannot be carried out, especially the ‘ultimate test’. They are determined to seal the Heaven’s Origin Sector in case a certain brave, reckless adventurer destroys the entire civilization.

“The leaders of the Nuwa Clan, on the other hand, believe that the ultimate test is inevitable. Only by inheriting the full strength of the Forerunners can we break out of the Pangu Universe and find new hope. They think that our progress is too slow and want them to form new research teams and take part in the ultimate test.