Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1659
"Let me ask you, under such cruel and extreme circumstances, what can you do to save the two civilizations, whose minds have been blinded by hatred, from stepping into the abyss of destruction?
"If there is a button on the panel in front of you, which can shoot out ten thousand… brainwashing waves after you press it so that the Kuafu Clan and the Houyi Clan can more or less understand you and accept your wish for peace, will you press the button?
"In order to sustain the two civilizations, you will have to deprive them of their free will to commit 'self-destruction'.
"If you cling to your ridiculous theory that free will is more important than anything, you will have to watch the Kuafu Clan and the Houyi Clan brutalizing each other until nobody stands. Their civilizations that were born after hundreds of thousands of years will be destroyed.
"Tell me the most real answer in your heart. What will you choose, Cultivator Li Yao?"
A control panel seemed to have truly appeared before Li Yao, and there was a tiny, crimson button on it.
He was also truly inside a bridge, which was controlling a massive, advanced interstellar fleet as if a god had arrived.
However, even the might of a god could not separate the Kuafu Clan and the Houyi Clan who were in a desperate fight.
Their entirely different social forms, means of communication, and modes of thinking made the Kuafu Clan and the Houyi Clan hard to accept the existence of the Pangu Clan, much less the "kindness" and "peace" that the Pangu Clan offered.
What other ways could stop the war and bring peace—a real, everlasting peace—except for brainwashing?
Li Yao's fingers were shivering.
With every shiver, he seemed to see the soldiers of the Kuafu Clan and the Houyi Clan fighting in space and on the grounds of the rough planets in his trance.
The gigantic tentacles that looked like vines blew the black beetles apart, their entrails splashing out. The incessant beetles, on the other hand, swallowed all the vines and juices. Even the Kuafu's spheres were riddled with holes.
Those who were not of my own kind would definitely think differently.
Kill those aliens.
It was impossible for human beings to live in peace with the aliens who looked entirely different. Even human beings and demons who were of the same origin had fought a war of tens of thousands of years, which only ended when one party completely surrendered. For the Kuafu Clan and the Houyi Clan, they must've considered themselves to be the only normal and standard people in the world and the creatures other than themselves to be ugly, evil, unreasonable, and incompatible, right?
When they were fighting the hideous, wicked aliens, and they were about to secure the final triumph after great sacrifices were made, another kind of alien that was more hideous, strong, and wicked showed up out of nowhere and asked them to stop the war and restore the peace?
They would not accept it. No intelligent lives would accept such peace. It must be a scheme. The war had to go on until they destroyed their enemy or they were destroyed!
The only choice then was brainwashing.
Only by erasing the few zealots' persistence of war and inculcating the will for peace into most people could such a country-obliterating war be stopped.
Besides, even if there were other ways, even if the Pangu Clan brought peace and unity with sharp blades and scorching cannons, how would it be any better than brainwashing?
Li Yao's finger touched the "brainwashing button", but it soon twitched and could not press down.
"However…"
Li Yao panted hard. "However, such a preset question is too extreme. You have set up too many prerequisites to push the answer into a corner. Even though the commanders of the Pangu Clan were indeed faced with a similar choice, it would still have been greatly different from the situation in the Empyreal Terminus Sector today!"
"Ah, that is to say, you acknowledge that massive brainwashing has positive effects and will even bring precious peace at least under certain extreme circumstances, don't you? You don't think that brainwashing is necessarily evil but believe there is a 1% chance that it may be righteous and positive?"
Wuying Qi's laughter came over. "Very well. You turn out to be teachable after all. You and I have finally reached a common understanding, which is not a bad start and deserves all the time that I spent on you.
"However, on second thought, you will realize that the scenario I proposed was not extreme at all but a general phenomenon of the universe. In the vast universe, isn't it perfectly normal for two vastly different carbon-based lives to be unable to communicate with each other? In fact, it will be unbelievable if two carbon-based lives who are born millions of lightyears away from each other can communicate freely the moment they meet, won't it?
"According to Liu the Star Prier, the genius astronomer of the Star Ocean Imperium ten thousand years ago, and based on the history from the primeval age to this day, when two highly-developed civilizations first met, they would definitely be highly wary and hostile against each other. War was often the first and the only means of their communication.
"Many civilizations had destroyed their enemies or were destroyed by their enemies before they figured out the truth about the enemies or understood that the enemies were as alive and intelligent as themselves. Wasn't it a shame?
"Therefore, a massive, high-speed way of information interaction that surpasses languages, species, and civilizations is necessary for an interstellar civilization. That is the enlightenment that I described, or the 'brainwashing' in your words.
"Without 'brainwashing', it will be impossible for the intelligent lives dispersed in all the corners of the vast universe to communicate efficiently and straightforwardly, and the will of the leader of the civilization cannot be passed on to every individual at the end. Such civilizations will always be loose sand. Not just conquering the vast multiverse, they cannot even maintain themselves. They will collapse and destroy themselves on their own sooner or later!
"Do not fear new technology. Open your arms and embrace it! The evolution of civilization is the evolution of the methods of information, interaction, and education. When our ancestors were still primitive apes, we already began to communicate by soundwaves and record events by drawing traces on the trees. At that time, the advancement of such a method of interaction was too great. Perhaps that was the reason why our ancestors were selected by the Pangu civilizations' alliance as the prototype of the new-generation perfect carbon-based life. However, such a method of interaction and education has been employed for hundreds of thousands of years. Today, in the age of interstellar development and discovery of the multiverse, we are still talking, writing, and teaching the next generation with books for decades. That is too inefficient, absurd, and shameful!
"It's time for a change, Li Yao.
"The civilization of mankind, which communicates only via speaking and writing, has already hit the bottleneck of evolution. It's impossible to step out of this universe.
"Only by injecting abundant knowledge, mutual memories, perfect morals, and the will of the leader into billions of brains directly can the real and perfect new human beings be born—the golden humans who have the wisdom, courage, and strength to march into the grand universe!
"Only such flawless true human beings can allow for a technological boom under the boost of unified thoughts and highly-efficient interaction. It will allow us to digest and absorb the precious legacies left by the primeval civilizations in only several hundred years and make us a real grand-universe civilization!
"Li Yao, for someone with your Cultivation, you are essentially standing on the peak of the evolution of mankind, only second to few people. It will be a crime if you cling to the obsolete ideas and morals to restrain and even strike the propagation of new technologies; it will be the greatest crime against mankind.
"We are running out of time. Really. The civilization of mankind does not have any time now. We have to seize every second to break out of this place and at least take a look at what it looks like outside in order to decide the direction of development of our civilization in the next million years. In order to achieve that, we will need a powerful, united, loyal, and devoted Imperium. Only the technologies of enlightenment can possibly create such a new Imperium. So, come on, stand on my side just like you used to stand on Li Linghai's side. Build a new Imperium and create new human beings together with me so that our civilization can climb to the summit of the universe!"
Chapter 2619: Soar From the Shoulders of Giants! |
The black hair that spread out of the back of Wuying Qi's head—or rather, the nerve clusters that had directly grown out of the depths of his soul—expanded abruptly by several times.
A dark force was injected into Li Yao's soul incessantly, covering his whole body with black stripes and spots.
The dark area proliferated nonstop, enshrouding Li Yao completely like some sort of glittering gelatin and dragging him into a bottomless abyss.
Li Yao struggled and resisted hard. The fire of his soul jumped out of the dark gap and burnt up the black nerves that connected him to Wuying Qi.
"Your speech is convincing and your slogan is motivating, and the dilemma you proposed is too hard for me to answer immediately."
Gritting his teeth, Li Yao said, one word after another, "But no matter how fancily you talk about it, you cannot change the fact that the Pangu civilization, which was able to enlighten another civilization instantly with your so-called 'most advanced information interaction technologies', perished in the end!
"Hehe, I don't believe that the Pangu Clan was as 'peace-loving and kind-hearted' as you described or that it was willing to help other civilizations to survive for no reason. Perhaps it was by way of brainwashing that the Pangu Clan imprinted the idea that the 'Pangu Clan is our supreme leader' into the heads of other carbon-based lives. That's how they established a 'Pangu civilizations' alliance' with themselves as the center. A country that was built through half coercion and half deception, however, had hidden problems. As time went by, the hidden problems grew larger and larger. Both the Nuwa Clan and the Houyi Clan realized part of the truth later. Perhaps that was the reason for the eventual division of the Pangu civilizations' alliance and the trigger of the primeval war!
"Since the Pangu civilizations' alliance failed to walk out by way of brainwashing, why do you think we can? Why wouldn't we repeat the same mistake that they made?"
"You are very smart, but too paranoid. Even though the Pangu Clan had other motives, it had nothing to do with the enlightenment technology itself. Technologies are neither good nor bad by themselves. It's like how a knife cannot kill anybody without being wielded. Whether it is good or bad depends on how people use it."
Wuying Qi seemed to have considered the problem a long time ago. Not shaken by Li Yao at all, he said casually, "When a new technology is just born, they will inevitably head toward the wrong direction more or less. How can you deny the value of a new technology just because of certain immature parts?
"As for the destruction of the Pangu civilizations' alliance, we should view the incident critically. We need to absorb the experience of the Pangu Clan, carrying on their shining parts and dropping their flaws, in order to achieve greater success on their shoulders.
"As we look to the future, we can learn from our past. Although the civilization of mankind today is far weaker than the Pangu civilization in the past, we have the greatest advantage, which is that we are on the shoulder of giants, and we do not need to walk on the paths that have been proved to be dead ends by them.
"What are 'dead ends'? The simplest example is the enlightenment technology that the Pangu Clan invented. However, they probably had a lot of stubborn people who were terrified by the power of the new technology just like you. They did not develop the technology to the highest level and merely used it for the simple communication among the different carbon-based lives at the beginning. Later, they used it to wash away the feelings, emotions, and will of the people, turning the people into a blank paper without injecting anything in.
"They did that only because they were horrified by the universe beyond the universe. They lost the ruthlessness for evolution. They had no idea what to inject into the head.
"A person without bones will be a pile of mud, and a civilization without spirits is destined to die! If the Pangu Clan did not occupy the head, the extraterrestrial devils certainly would. How could it be kept blank all the time?
"Do you understand it now? The enlightenment technology was not wrong by itself. The mistake was that the Pangu Clan only carried out half of it. They merely 'cleaned' the wrong, complicated, messy thoughts and desires of the people, but they did not inject the new, healthy, positive thoughts and desires. The glorious and brilliant carbon-based lives in the past had all been transformed into zombies. How could they survive?
"The Covenant Alliance is the same. They found the most valuable treasure in the entire universe, and they had the technology that could change the world, but they are completely bound by the Path of Ultimate Benevolence. They merely injected the admiration for the Pangu Clan into their heads and the fear for the beyond of the boundless cosmos. They are just a duplicate Pangu Clan of a smaller size, and they are destined to perish!
"However, my enlightenment will not stop halfway like them. Not only will I wash off the selfishness, greediness, shortsightedness, cowardness, and all the other unhealthy thoughts in the traitors, but more importantly, I will also inject bright, glittering pure ideas and help them forge the real beliefs so that they can be real men, great warriors, and pure Immortal Cultivators!"
Li Yao's voice shivered. "Do you expect me to believe that?"
"Why not? Imagine such a beautiful future—"
Wuying Qi narrowed his eyes and waved his hands. Vivid holograms surfaced from all directions again. Inside every picture, countless Immortal Cultivators who seemed warm, enthusiastic, tall, and handsome were either dedicated to their studies or work wholeheartedly or fighting in the space battlefields fearlessly, except that their enemies were not human beings but some hideous alien species that Li Yao had never met before. The pictures seemed to be suggesting that they had already left the tiny swamp that was the Pangu universe and was fighting for a vaster space of survival in the grand universe.
"I will not, nor is it necessary for me to, deprive everybody of their thinking ability and your so-called 'free will'. Really, 95% of the parts inside your brain will not be changed by me. I will only perform a minor, non-invasive 'mind surgery' on the 5% of evilness, removing the dark and selfish parts and replacing them with the noble, selfless, and righteous ideas. They will be deeply carved on the brains and the souls and will never be forgotten."
Wuying Qi elaborated, "After such a minor mind surgery, the Immortal Cultivators will retain their previous memories and self-awareness, but they won't be as selfish, shortsighted, cowardly, and dark as before. Instead, they will be able to summon all their courage and loyalty and devote themselves to the entire civilization. They will forever abide by the rules that I have established for the Imperium. Any dark thought that occurs to them will be destroyed by themselves. Even when they are faced with the indescribable fear beyond the universe, they will still be able to summon their courage and fight till the end!
"How much can be changed depends on how corrupted they are. The more corrupted they are, the more they will be changed. For the people who have firm beliefs and great ambitions like you and General Lei Chenghu, you won't even feel the slightest change!
"You don't believe me? That's alright. I am not a monarch of the old days who decides everything by myself. In the future, we may even establish an 'Enlightenment Committee'. We will gather the knowledgeable people in all industries to discuss the main ideas that are to be inculcated into the heads of the citizens this year. It will be like the Education Committee and the teams of editors for textbooks today. When that day comes, you can be one of the supervisors of this committee and monitor the thoughts that are to be poured into the heads of the citizens in person.
"Of course, we're in the middle of an emergency right now. Unusual circumstances call for unusual methods. There is no time for any democracy or supervision right now. I believe you can certainly understand that, right, Cultivator Li Yao?"
"The Enlightenment Committee?"
Li Yao almost bit his own tongue off. "Are you kidding me?"
"An emperor does not joke. Do you think that I have the time to joke with you? You are underestimating my vision, Li Yao. After learning the vastness of the grand universe and the dangers in it, the competition between the Cultivators and the Immortal Cultivators is already meaningless in my eyes. It is just a minor conflict among a bunch of kids."
Wuying Qi sighed. "Villains are everywhere, but frank advisors are hard to come by. A thousand years ago, I was surrounded by villains. In my carelessness, I felt too good about myself under their adulation and did not carry on the reform to the end, which turned out to be a huge mistake. Those villains also grew into the behemoths like the four Kurfürst families. A thousand years later, now that I've come back again, I've decided that I will not make the same mistake. I will not keep any of those villains. What I want is honest advisors like you. Li Yao, you can totally keep your beliefs as a Cultivator. You can stay by my side as a mirror so that I can know myself better.
"Furthermore, do I really have any reason to destroy your country of Cultivators? The deepest contradiction between the Immortal Cultivators and the Cultivators, regarding the treatment for the ordinary people, is resulted from the shortage of resources and the population boom, isn't it?
"As long as the shortage of resources and the increase of population are not resolved, the conflict will always exist, and there will always be Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators. Neither of us can change that.
"However, if my plan works out and we do jump out, we may find ten times and even a hundred times more resources than we have right now in the grand universe. By then, we will have copious materials and mental satisfaction that the contradictions between the Immortal Cultivators and the ordinary people will be gone. The ordinary people that you can never forget will all live a life of the deities. All of them can be given a planet each where they can be kings and queens. Then, is there any need for the Immortal Cultivators to exploit the ordinary people? Do we still have any contradictions? No, none whatsoever!
