Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Farm?”

Li Yao and Zhang Daniu both understood what the Red Pole Star meant. Sweat was appearing on their foreheads, and their faces were pale. They pointed at their noses and said, “So, we are the ‘rice’ and ‘fruit trees’ in the farm, and our emotions and imagination are the ‘fruit’ that the will of the earth needs?”

“That’s what I’m guessing. Otherwise, why would the will of the earth lock us up in this damn reincarnation prison after countless reincarnations?”

Red Pole Star pointed at his temples and said, “The purpose is to stimulate our souls to a certain extent so that we can produce emotions and imaginations that are absolutely impossible to be secreted.

“The bizarre, bizarre, and even absurd legends, the works that are condemned as nonsense, the fantastic fantasy worlds, and the boldest and most ignorant yearning for the end of the sea of stars—these are the things that constitute the solid core of a great civilization, and the will of the earth does not have such a core. If it had ever been hot-blooded, it would’ve cooled down and consolidated billions of years ago. Even if it once had dreams, it would’ve turned into mottled fragments and perished!

“On the level of the universe, it is truly an invincible super monster with extraordinary computational ability and enormous military strength. It is a tyrannical existence at the level of a devil who can perfectly control everything in the universe and calculate a perfect answer to all problems. But on the level of ‘life’ and ‘civilization’, the so-called ‘perfectness’ simply does not exist. When the moon is full, there will be losses. After the peak is the abyss, and at the end of the ‘perfectness’ is destruction.

“In short, the will of the earth has no emotions or dreams. It doesn’t even have the ability to make mistakes, and the ability to make mistakes is the most important factor in the evolution of life. Only by continuously making mistakes, continuously making mistakes, and making those whimsical and absurd mistakes can we have the opportunity to survive and develop in the ever-changing universe and even burst forth with endless possibilities.

“A civilization that doesn’t have imagination and can’t make mistakes won’t be able to find the slightest possibility. It won’t even be able to find the meaning of its existence. It is destined to collide with its limits not long after it climbs to the peak. Moreover, it absolutely has no way to break its own limits. Therefore, it has no choice but to rely on external forces—a race that has emotions, dreams, and imaginations and will keep making mistakes in search of endless possibilities, and that is us.

“We humans are not as good as we boast ourselves to be. We are not even worthy of the title of ‘Spirits of All Things’. We are truly a type of very bad, carbon-based intelligent life. We possess a variety of emotions, but we are often impulsive because of our emotions. We fall into the dark swamp of humanity and hurt ourselves. We have the ambition to continuously forge ahead, but this ambition often turns into ambition. In order to not be able to support our ambitions, we lose everything in a muddle-headed manner. We are na?ve, romantic, and rich in dreams. But this point often causes us to be tormented by our own dissatisfaction. We are insatiable. No matter how many things we obtain, at most three to five seconds, we will be bored. We yearn to find ten times, a hundred times more things to fill the emptiness in our hearts.

“But it was the flaws that shaped us and endowed us with the greatest strength in the sea of stars. When our ancestors looked up at the sky for the first time in a long time ago and exclaimed, our race was destined to embark on a path of invincibility. Only such us were qualified to be the ‘heart’, ‘brain’, or ‘engine’ of the will of the earth!

Li Yao and Zhang Daniu were shocked again. They looked at the Red Pole in a different way.

“So, the entire Reincarnation Prison is the ‘engine’ of the will of the earth?”

Zhang Daniu mumbled.

“Yes. I prefer the word ‘engine’ to ‘brain’ or ‘farm’.

“Because the ‘Engine Hypothesis’ can explain why the will of the planet did not dare to restart the engine instantly without considering the consequences. It will not only cause serious damage to the engine but also interrupt the continuity of the power output and affect its combat ability in the battlefield of the universe.

Li Yao and Zhang Daniu thought for a moment and agreed with him.

Imagine the will of the earth as a tank that was engaged in fierce combat with the enemy. Naturally, its engine could not be restarted easily. If the engine was damaged for three to five minutes, the will of the earth would be riddled with holes.

“Your assumption does make sense, but I still don’t understand.”

Zhang Daniu frowned. “Even if the Reincarnation Prison is truly a farm with an infinite loop and an engine that is always spinning at a high speed, why is it now? From the 1970s to the 1940s?”

“Because it was the golden era of the civilization on Earth. During the decades, human beings reached the peak of the carbon-based intelligent life on single planets.

The Red Pole Star replied, “My guess is that, of course, the will of the earth could set the background time of the reincarnation prison in the Middle Ages or even the Stone Age, but it would be impossible to harvest enough emotions and imagination. From the Stone Age to the Middle Ages, and even to the modern era when the industrial revolution was just taking shape, it was a time of wisdom and ignorance. The people who lived in the ignorant and closed-off environment did not have enough food to eat. Most of their energy was dedicated to the competition of survival. Only a few people had the luxury of emotions and imagination. The backward methods of information transmission made it impossible for their emotions and imagination to resonate with other people on a large scale.

“For a poet who lived in the Middle Ages, even if he wrote an immortal poem about the stars and the universe, it might take thirty to fifty years, or even a century or two, for it to be transmitted to the ears of another poet thousands of miles away. And most people, other than these noble poets, simply wouldn’t be able to understand even one ten-thousandth of their exquisiteness… The efficiency of this kind of information transmission is really too low. How can the emotions and imagination stimulated by it satisfy the needs of the will of the earth?

“But our era, or rather, the era that the will of the earth created for us, is completely different.

“Steam Revolution, Electric Revolution, Information Revolution!

“World War I, World War II, Cold War!

“Turing machine, computer, network, mobile phone, wireless network, all kinds of information terminal!

“Ultimate universal education, universal entertainment based on solid materials, games where millions of people are online at the same time, NovelFires with millions of words, and super-high-speed interactions between authors and readers!

“Space technology, cloning technology, nanotechnology, information explosion, technology explosion. Everyone can share their dreams and emotions with other people through the mobile terminal at any time and place, forming a large-scale resonance similar to mass hysteria!

“Don’t you think that this is the best era if the will of the earth wants to reap our emotions and dreams?

Li Yao and Zhang Daniu were dazed for a long time.

Zhang Daniu scratched his hair and said, “So, what you’re saying is that all the information terminals that we use, including the social environment that we are in, were created by the will of the earth in order to harvest us?”

“It is not necessarily intentional. Everything is too real to be faked. I suspect that a long time ago, there was indeed an ‘Original Earth’. Every reincarnation we experienced was based on the real history of the ‘Original Earth’.

“But this period must’ve been carefully selected by the will of the earth,” the Red Pole Star said. “Only such a golden era is most convenient for it to ‘cultivate’ the strongest emotions and the most abundant imagination for the most efficient harvest.

“If that’s the case, there will be another explanation for the obliteration of the Observer. Maybe it is not just because they are scared that the Observer will wake up more heroes, but also part of their harvest. After all, the Observer is often the one with the strongest emotions and the most imagination. Harvesting one Observer is probably more useful than harvesting a hundred ordinary people.

“Which means—”

Zhang Daniu thought of a chilling possibility. “The creation of the Observer, the awakening of the Awakened, and even the resistance of the prison breakers were all part of the plan of the will of the earth?”

“It’s possible. After all, when the awakened one discovers the truth and resists as a prison breaker, endless waves of emotions, will, and determination will be released. Maybe the will of the earth needs such things?”

The Red Pole Star smiled. “However, I have always believed that there is no such thing as perfect control over everything. Maybe the will of the earth in its prime years could manipulate six billion heroic spirits at will, but things are different now. This time, we are different!

“I understand.”

Zhang Daniu thought for a moment and said, “Then why did the will of the earth set the termination date of the reincarnation prison to the 2130s and 240s? The later it went on, the more information exploded and the more dreams people had. Wouldn’t it be able to harvest more emotions and imagination?”

“No. That would be too much.

The Red Pole Star explained, “The so-called ‘reaping emotions and imagination’ is a double-edged sword. When the martyred spirits output the most intense waves in their soul, they will certainly awaken and resist. The will of the earth must control the resistance of the awakened ones to a reasonable limit. If the limit is too high, the situation will be completely out of control.

“Let’s use the ‘engine’ as an example. The will of the earth wants to keep the output power of the engine within a reasonable limit. Of course, it is not good if the output power is too low. But if the output power is too violent for a long time, the engine will overload or even explode. That will be even worse, right?”