One Trait Draw Per Year Even Simulations Count

Mr. Xun, who had been listening the whole time, finally spoke up.

”He is not Si Duoduo.”

”As expected of Mr. Xun, who has keen eyes for true talent.”

”The Torch Society will not participate in your plan. You may leave.”

”Why? This is an opportunity for the humans on Blazing Star! Doesn’t the Torch Society also need a stable source of resources and manpower?”

Mr. Xun stood up from behind the desk, wearing a plain gray old gown, with his hands clasped behind his back.

”The Torch Society only does one thing...”

”What?”

”Find human prodigies, protect them, nurture them, let them grow, and then have them help the Torch Society continue finding prodigies, protecting them, nurturing them. Generation after generation, the torch is passed on.”

”And then? Wait, so you just keep passing the torch without accomplishing anything substantial?” ”And then... wait.”

”Wait for what?”

”In every era, under the very noses of the Alien Races, preserve a portion of humanity’s strength, and wait for an opportunity for humanity to truly turn the tide of battle. When that day comes, these prodigies who have kept the torch burning will fight for humanity.”

The Torch Society knew how glorious humanity once was.

The Torch Society also knew that humanity would not remain in decline forever. A day of resurgence would surely come.

Only, no one knew exactly when that day would arrive.

But opportunities favor those who are prepared.

If that day came and all of humanity were still slaves working as miners, they could only watch helplessly as the opportunity slipped away.

What the Torch Society was doing was ensuring that no matter when that opportunity appeared, humanity would always have cards to play.

That was why they spared no effort to find and protect human cultivation geniuses, letting them grow strong. These powerful prodigies could then continue protecting the next generation of prodigies.

Thus, the torch was passed on.

These beliefs and guiding principles had already been explained to you by Ji Wuqing in the previous simulation.

You understood completely.

However, objectively speaking, if the Torch Society cooperated with you this time, they would gain a second-tier star as a stronghold, with tremendous benefits. Your human world Ascenders would also gain a springboard into a first-tier star, and you could link the Rebel Army and the Torch Society, two forces within the Winged Feather stellar system.

Subjectively speaking, this was a simulation. There was room for trial and error.

So today, you absolutely had to convince Mr. Xun.

”Chinese-Style Succubus,” it was time to shine!

You straightened your collar and said with an air of righteousness: ”What if I told you that I am that opportunity?”

From the side, Shen Yifeng: ”Pfft!”

”Hey! Old man! I’ve been putting up with you for a long time! You keep laughing! You haven’t stopped!”

”Little brother Chen, don’t get excited. I was just thinking of something happy.”

”What happy thing! Did your wife give birth or something?”

”Mm... no, no, that’s not it. My wife is already quite old. She can’t, can’t give birth anymore.”

Mr. Xun noticed that the way you and Shen Yifeng interacted seemed as if you had known each other for a long time.

However, he didn’t dwell on that question. He simply told you.

”I truly wish you were that opportunity. At the very least, within my lifetime, I could see the Torch Society, which has carried its flame for millions of years, take that step from ’endurance’ and ’preservation’ toward ’resistance’, even if we ultimately fall to ’defeat at the brink of victory’.”

You took a deep breath. Ideas surged through your mind like a spring, and you spoke without hesitation.

”Then let’s do it! Forget whether I’m that so-called damn opportunity or not!

The Torch Society spans the entire universe. Do you really think the opportunity you’re waiting for would be something so obvious that every Alien Race across the cosmos could see it coming?

Oh my god, humanity is rising! If we don’t stop them now, we’re doomed!

Come on!!

How could an opportunity like that ever exist?

Opportunities are created with our own hands!

Start small! Start from third-class stars!

Build the road openly while secretly crossing at Chen Cang!

It’s about silently struggling for years, until by the time the Alien Races discover it, you’ve already become a mountain they cannot topple, a river they cannot cross!

Are you telling me that because you’re afraid of failure, afraid that the fruits of countless years of painstaking accumulation might be lost to a single uprising, you’ll never take that step toward ’resistance’?!

A tail too big to wag, a disease too deep to cure!

The more foundation the Torch Society accumulates, the heavier your mental burden becomes, and the more you fear failure!

Mr. Xun, do you think a Torch Society like that still has any meaning?!

Is the Torch Society truly waiting for an opportunity, or have you already been bullied by the Alien Races until you’ve lost all your fighting spirit?”

Your quintessential protagonist-style speech was truly earth-shattering, mind-clearing, like a spring breeze, as if yesterday, mocking the present...

Shen Yifeng, with his lower cultivation realm and weaker mental defenses, was instantly convinced 120%.

He turned to Mr. Xun and said.

”Sir, let’s give it a try. Someone in the Torch Society has to take this step eventually! We can cut ties with the organization. Even if the uprising fails, only our torch on this one planet will fall. The flames elsewhere will continue to be passed on!”

To be fair, Shen Yifeng had hit the nail on the head.

Or perhaps it was the ”Chinese-Style Succubus” doing its work, because Mr. Xun changed his mind.

”Brother Shen speaks wisely. I also have an intuition that Brother Chen Dong might truly be an opportunity. However, please give me some time. I need to verify whether you really are Chen Dong.”

With your objective achieved, you relaxed considerably.

”Check away.”

Year twenty-six, age fifty-two.

The Torch Society had confirmed your identity. You were indeed Chen Dong, the Grand Marshal of the Rebel Army from the Winged Feather stellar system.

Mr. Xun was not the highest-ranking member of the Torch Society on Blazing Star.

The Torch Society had nineteen contact lines on Blazing Star, and he was the superior of one of those lines.

Above these nineteen lines sat the Blazing Star Torch Society committee, which included the president, vice presidents, advisory group, and so on.

All major decisions required a committee vote before they could be executed.

With Mr. Xun’s recommendation, you met everyone on the committee.

You held a grand meeting with them in a remote little village, under a large tree at the village entrance, where the direction of cooperation and the plan were finalized.

To outsiders, this scene would have looked utterly ridiculous.

A young man with red hair dressed like a general, enthusiastically lecturing a group of squatting, dark-skinned, deeply wrinkled, thin and wiry farmers about how to conquer Blazing Star, how to deceive outside forces, and how to expand humanity’s cultivator ranks after achieving success.

It looked more like a group of escapees from a mental institution exchanging their delusions.

But in reality, these farmers were indeed the committee members of the Blazing Star Torch Society. Every single one of them was an Extreme Terrain Realm cultivator!

The president, You Keqing, was even a Transcendent Realm cultivator!

”Brother Chen Dong, this plan is brilliant. And the fact that you can transform into Si Duoduo so flawlessly is nothing short of miraculous! Heaven have mercy, perhaps you truly are the opportunity our Torch Society has been waiting for throughout the countless ages!”