Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1651
The anti-epidemic soldier's curse came to an abrupt halt. His eyeballs were frozen like glass balls, but they began to shiver again a moment later.
"Think about your family whom you love deeply. Do you still remember how they look?"
Li Yao went on and said, "Do you realize that what you are doing is directly and strongly related to your family's death? Are you really determined to murder your family in person, or have you never considered the question, or is it that you have considered the question but a recurring voice in your head told you to drop it?"
"I…"
The anti-epidemic soldier stammered, "I… I won't… That's not His Majesty's plan… They will be fine… Ahh… Ahhhhhhh… My head! My head hurts! My head!"
A hundred tiny bleeding points immediately appeared in the eyes of the anti-epidemic soldier. He rolled on the ground holding his head and cried. Very soon, he was foaming and cramping, with dozens of veins as thick as earthworms surfacing on his head. Even his helmet was squeaking when it was struck by the abnormal skull.
"Not good!"
Long Yangjun's face changed greatly. "The temperature of his head is rising. All the cerebral vessels are bordering on an explosion. It seems that your question hit the tricks that Wuying Qi placed inside his head precisely. He is now in a predicament. Do something! Or his brain will explode!"
Li Yao took action quickly and knocked the soldier's carotid artery and pneumogastric nerve, temporarily cutting off the blood supply to the brain and the brain nerves' control over the body. The soldier was cast into a coma again, and his situation did not worsen anymore.
While the lack of blood and oxygen for a long time would result in brain necrosis, there wouldn't be a problem if it was only half a minute.
Using the half minute, Li Yao took out an ice ring that he used to cool his own brain and put it on the target. He then smeared certain balms that could repair damaged brain cells on the guy's temples. After that, he massaged the soldier's neck and reestablished the brain and oxygen supply for the soldier, allowing him to fall back into a peaceful sleep.
"It seems that Wuying Qi hasn't interfered with the thinking, feelings, and memories of the Imperial Soldiers on a large scale."
Li Yao said, "He only implanted an unwavering idea in their head, which was that what they were doing was for the future of the Imperium and mankind, and that it was absolutely justified. Whoever dies for the cause will be 'sacrifices' that have to be made."
Li Jialing frowned deeply, "Is implantation of ideas really possible?"
"Of course it is. Not just the simple and violent 'hard brainwashing', even education can implant certain ideas in the head of the recipients after decades. Almost everybody believes that their cause is justified. I do, you do, and so do the scumbags of the four families. Is it really something to be surprised at?"
Li Yao said, "What Wuying did was merely to focus the essence of decades of education into special waves and brand them on certain tissues inside the brains of the Imperial Guards, resulting in the qualitative, pathological changes in the tissues. That's about how it works.
"Materials affect the mind, but the mind can affect materials too. When the Meditation Healers and the brain surgeons studied the mysteries of the brains and the soul, they began by studying the depressed patients. Most of the patients suffered the disease because of certain mutations inside their brains. However, after they suffered the disease, their mental conditions got worse and worse, which further expanded the pathological region. It was a classic vicious cycle. In the end, even though the pathological area was completely removed through minimally invasive procedures, it was still impossible to cure the disease. Once the patients were triggered by something, new pathological tissues may show up.
"It's exactly the case for the Imperial Guards. In only several days or weeks, they accepted the education that should have been imposed over a period of decades. It's like a scorching stamp that was pressed deep into their brains and their souls, turning them into the heartless people they are right now."
Li Jialing was silent for a long time.
Looking at the Imperial Guard who was still cramping slightly although he was deep asleep, all the three of them felt more or less pitiful.
"A very bold idea just occurred to me."
Li Jialing said, "Since Wuying Qi is in possession of such advanced brainwashing technologies that he could brainwash his Imperial Guards completely, is that the so-called secret weapon that he talked about? That is to say, he is planning to do the same and brainwash the four families' ace fleets so that the most elite warriors of the Imperium of True Human Beings will all surrender to him. In such a way, the sharpest blades of the four families will change their side on the battlefield and be grasped by Wuying Qi's hands. If Lei Chenghu also vanquishes the Seven Seas Space Zone and the local warlords there, he will win the war!
"Yes, yes, yes. If that is the case, Wuying Qi's weird arrangements all the time and his seemingly unreasonable plan, including the inexplicable confidence of his victory, will all make sense. He is going to win the war in one battle by transforming the ace fleets of the four families into his accomplices!"
Li Yao and Long Yangjun looked at each other, both noticing the horror in their eyes.
The more they thought about it, the more they found Li Jialing's speculation sensible.
However, it was terribly difficult to implement a massive brainwashing, to the extent that it was only theoretically possible. How could it be carried out in reality?
Chapter 2605: Two Indispensable Prerequisites! |
"In fact, we considered the possibility you mentioned before. After I discovered that Wuying Qi controlled remarkable brainwashing technologies that were similar to what the Covenant Alliance had, I speculated whether or not he would commit any insane, heinous crimes with the evil technologies. However, it is terribly difficult."
Li Yao pointed at his head and said, "The critical factor is energy. As the saying goes, it is easy to change the commander of an army, but it is not as easy to change someone's mind. It means that the souls, feelings, and self-awareness of human beings are too hard to be easily corroded and twisted.
"As a matter of fact, changing someone's idea and making him accept the opposite of what he used to believe is a hundred times more difficult than killing him directly."
"You don't understand? Let me give you an example. An Immortal Cultivator can kill an ordinary person easily. All he needs to do is to wave his weapon or even to snap his finger. It is not troublesome. However, how much spiritual energy do you think it will take for him to change the mind of this ordinary person, say, directing the ordinary person to kill the people that he loves most?
"Let's say that the energy cost for the Immortal Cultivator to kill the ordinary person is 1, the energy cost for him to make the ordinary person kill their loved ones will be at least 100, right?
"Furthermore, what if he's not asking the ordinary person to kill their loved ones, but instead, he's trying to convince the ordinary person that he is a rabbit? How many illusions does he need to build, how many ideas does he need to implant, and how is he going to settle the conflict between the ordinary person's existent memories and imported ideas so that the notion that he is a rabbit can be permanently etched in the person's mind even if the ordinary person returns to society and gets in touch with other people? The energy cost for that will be at least 10,000, right?
"It is needless to say that hypnotization, psychological hint, and brutal brainwashing all involve the deepest mysteries of the soul. The brain and the soul are the most mysterious and dangerous places of all. Even the unparalleled experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage cannot say that they have grasped 1% of the secrets.
"Every in-depth hypnotization will establish a mental bridge between the hypnotizer and the hypnotized. It's like a weaker version of possession. One moment of carelessness, and a counterattack may be raised. Even the strongest Meditation Healer may be affected by the soul of an ordinary person, to the point that they cannot distinguish reality from illusion, their own brain from other people's brains, turning into lunatics that wander among thousands of dreams.
"Let's just consider the memory cell removal, which seems simplest of all. But think about it, from doctors to nurses, and from the operation room to the drugs, if all the resources are exchanged into energy, how much will it cost for someone to lose his memories? However, if the purpose is to kill him, one bullet will be enough."
After being stunned for a long time, Li Jialing said, "It does make sense. Compared with direct killing, brainwashing does consume hundreds of times more energy."
"It certainly does. Souls are unpredictable in the first place. Even the seemingly weak ordinary people may have the toughest minds. Not only are such people highly resistant to brainwashing, but they may also unleash a 'brainstorm' that will swallow the practitioner."
Li Yao continued, "I know that 'brainwashing' is a cliché in many fiction and games. It's like the brainwasher only needs to wave his hands or whisper something uncanny while holding his fingers on his temples, in order to brainwash countless people and transform them into his puppets.
"However, games are just games. It is not nearly as convenient in real life. Anything comes with a cost. It's like Wuying Qi's brainwashing attack on me in the Seven Seas Grand Market was launched at the cost of the brain of a senior Meditation Healer. The Meditation Healers of Wuying Qinxin's level are hard to come by. It's impossible to use them as 'ammunitions'."
"What about those Imperial Guards?"
Li Jialing asked, not entirely convinced, "Haven't those Imperial Guards been brainwashed by Wuying Qi?"
"That's only on one condition."
Li Yao explained patiently, "The Imperial Guards worshipped Wuying Qi in the first place and were willing to die for him. They probably voluntarily entered the… let's call it 'brainwashing factory', if such a facility did exist. They were implanted with a certain idea willingly.
"In the meantime, the idea that Wuying Qi implanted in them is in fact not in complete violation with their original thoughts. People tend to believe what they want to believe. The Imperial Guards craved for Wuying Qi's victory in the first place, and Wuying Qi merely gave their minds a 'nudge'.
"However, you suggested just now that Wuying Qi is trying to brainwash the ace fleets of the four families. That won't be so simple.
"The soldiers of the ace fleets are 99% the central and direct descendants of the four families. Absolute dedication to their families has been taught to them since their childhood. They can't be warier of Blackstar the Great more.
"In order to implant the idea of 'serve the Blackstar the Great and destroy the four families', Wuying Qi will have to twist their decades of belief by brute force and completely change their mindsets and worldviews. He will make their interests in real life enemies of their minds. How is it possible? How much energy will it consume in order to conquer those solid ramparts inside their head?
"Can you understand it? Let's say that I implant the idea into your head that you are a tall, strong, and handsome man, and that all the women in the world will kneel before your boots and enjoy your conquest, while Long Yangjun also implants an idea into your head, except that the idea is that you are a woman—a masochistic woman, no less.
"Which idea will you find easier to accept?"
Li Jialing hesitated. "Huh…"
"Are you serious? You actually need to hesitate about your choice?"
Li Yao was stunned. "Is there a certain tendency in your heart that you would rather not talk about?"
"Of course not! I certainly prefer the first idea!"
Li Jialing blushed and said, "I understand what you mean now, Brother Yao. People tend to believe what they want to believe. It's easy for Wuying Qi to brainwash the Imperial Guards, but it will be ten times more difficult for him to brainwash the elite warriors of the four families. He cannot gain the astronomical energy to brainwash the minds that are highly wary of and hostile against him.
"But wait, what about the Covenant Alliance and their brainwashing?"
"The Covenant Alliance's brainwashing mostly starts from infancy or even embryos. Newborns are blank paper. It's easy for them to accept the most ridiculous ideas."
Long Yangjun replied, "Besides, the Covenant Alliance does not only perform the 'hard brainwashing' through qualitative changes in the brain; they also have all kinds of educational and religious agencies, so that people will impose psychological hints on themselves every day, strengthening their belief that feelings must be abandoned and they must remain loyal to the Pangu Clan."
"Even so, the facility for the Covenant Alliance to perform brainwashing still requires massive energy supply."
Li Yao added, "At the edge of the cosmos, we once discovered a military base of the Pangu Clan known as 'Kunlun'. There was a factory responsible for manufacturing human beings in it. Naturally, it was responsible for brainwashing the newborns too. The energy that supported the whole 'Kunlun' came from a pulsar nearby.
"Only an enormous and special celestial body like the pulsar could've provided the energy that the manufacturing and brainwashing factory needed incessantly.
"There doesn't seem to be any celestial body like a pulsar in the Empyreal Terminus Sector, right?
"Therefore, although I can't give an estimation on the specific figure, I'm certain that, even if Wuying Qi drains the whole capital planet, turning the scorching core of the planet into silent ice, the energy will still be far from enough for him to brainwash the enemies in space!"
"Even though he finds a way to gather enough energy, the other irresolvable problem is the distance."
Long Yangjun followed, "Assuming that Wuying Qi does have a 'brainwashing factory' below the ground, it's easy for him to get the Imperial Guards who are loyal to him there. Brain surgeries, magnetic interferences, and radiation procedures will be simple. However, how is he going to deceive the enemies who are all over the space to enter his brainwashing factory obediently? If he is capable of that, no brainwashing will be needed at all!
"All in all, both hypnotization and brainwashing have a radius of attack. It is naturally unrealistic to brainwash hundreds of thousands of enemies through brain surgeries. Then, the only way is to resort to certain intense magnetic waves, say, enhancing the brainwaves by thousands of times, right? However, the brainwaves, the spiritual energy, and all the other radiations and high-energy particles have high attritions during transmission. Chances are that Wuying Qi's efforts will decay and perish before they pass the atmosphere when he carries out his arts below the ground. How can he attack so many enemies all over the space at once?
"Normally speaking, a large area of mental attack on the battlefield can only be conducted through the magical equipment that is some sort of 'magnifier' or 'enhancer'. It's like the riot of the Nepenthe believers in the Great Iron Plants half a year ago. At that time, they found a brainwave magnifier that dated back to the primeval war, and they planned to power it with the abundant geothermal energy deep inside the Great Iron Plants so that they could carry out a large area of mental attack.
"However, even such an awesome 'magnifier' could only expand the range of the mental attack to a hundred square kilometers, right? On the ground, it is reasonably large, but in a space battlefield, a hundred square kilometers will be no larger than the tip of a needle."
"Right, the riot of the Nepenthe believers was a classic massive mental warfare."
Li Yao counted his fingers. "Two conditions were necessary. One was abundant geothermal energy, and the other was the brainwave magnifier. Neither of them could've been counted out.
"What Wuying Qi is going to do is ten thousand times more difficult than what the Nepenthe believers intended to achieve. The range of his brainwashing will be the entire space zone, and he is going to control hundreds of thousands of determined, loyal experts who are devoted to their families. So, where can he possibly find the energy source or such an awesome 'magnifier'? So, it's impossible. Hahahaha. Rest assured, it's absolutely impossible!"
Chapter 2606: Absolute Mental Defense! |
Li Jialing thought about all the procedures, but he still failed to figure out how Wuying Qi was going to play the trick. He said somewhat in embarrassment, "That explains a lot. It seems that I severely underestimated the difficulty of massive brainwashing. Sorry for the waste of your time."
"Not at all. Your idea is very valuable."
Considering carefully, Li Yao tapped his knees and said, "Although I find it hard to imagine in what kind of appalling ways Wuying Qi can possibly output the brainwashing rays to the entire space zone, the whole scheme is indeed more and more inclined to the direction of brainwashing. Therefore, I'm highly suspicious that Wuying Qi does have a secret base that is some sort of 'brainwashing factory' not far away ahead of us.
"The brainwashing methods in the secret base may not be enough to cover the whole space zone, but they can at least launch very powerful mental attacks at the enemy near at hand.
"That explains why the defense was not very meticulous on our way down here. On one hand, it's because Wuying Qi did not expect that somebody else knew the secrets of the underground base. But more importantly, it's because Wuying Qi believed that any unauthorized visitor would be automatically brainwashed into his puppet once they approached his secret!"
"I agree with that."
Long Yangjun also said, "Whether or not Wuying Qi's methods work in space, he is free to launch mental attacks below the ground. Last time, he launched a mental attack at Li Yao in the Seven Seas Grand Market from hundreds of Sectors away and almost succeeded. In a face-to-face attack this time, with his massive mental power in the Divinity Branching Stage, we may not be enough to resist him even if we join hands."
"Then, what do we do?"
Li Jialing suddenly grew nervous, feeling that Wuying Qi's soul-captivating eyes were everywhere. "If we press forward, will we be brainwashed by Wuying Qi without us knowing it? Or rather, have we already been hit except that we don't know it yet?"
