Forty millenniums of cul.., p.498
Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 498
"The torch of the civilization of the Flying Star Sector had not faded away yet. Right now, they were the only hope of mankind in the Flying Star Sector!
"In a moment, the last bit of guilt in the Fire Stealers vanished!
"In retrospect, what they did had been right all the time.
"If they had not been as bold, the entire civilization of the Flying Star Sector would have been demolished!
"Right now, they were the last Flying Star citizens. They had to revive the civilization and pass on their legacy no matter the cost!"
Li Yao was fascinated.
Everything seemed very logical to this point, but Li Yao had sensed a hint of danger.
Bai Xinghe smiled and continued. "When the ecstasy from the beginning gradually faded, the last Flying Star citizens found a fatal, unresolvable conundrum.
"They were short of food and fuel."
"What?" Li Yao blurted out.
"It's quite understandable. Plan Prometheus was a top secret from the beginning. Naturally, they could not attract everyone's attention by moving a lot of starships," Bai Xinghe explained. "Therefore, the crystal warships under their control were not large in number, and they were not necessarily carriers that were most suitable for cargo.
"Cultivation arts and techniques did not take up much space. But the training facilities and the various kind of magical equipment would occupy a lot of room.
"They did not carry enough Cosmos Rings to store so much magical equipment and training facilities.
"As for food and water, it was difficult to store them for long in Cosmos Rings, too.
"In order to steal more magical equipment and training facilities, they could only modify the starships discretely by expanding the warehouses and reducing the food and fuel they carried.
"After all, according to the plan, they would stay at the edge of the Flying Star Sector for only one to two years, no longer than five, before they turned themselves in to the main fleet when the apocalypse passed.
"The point had been repetitively made in the conversation between them and the main fleet. They had stressed that they were not traitors and that the resources they carried were not enough to support a journey across Sectors. Therefore, they would have to turn themselves in in the end. Otherwise, there was no way that they could survive.
"Naturally, the main fleet carried enough food and fuel, and there was enough room to build a self-circulating biological system in space to produce new food.
"Therefore, right now, the Fire Stealers, the 'last Flying Star citizens', were caught in an extremely awkward situation.
"They boasted the strongest techniques of the Flying Star Sector, the most advanced magical equipment, and the most complicated training facilities!
"But they did not have the food and fuel that were mandatory for their survival!
"Without food, people would starve. Without fuel, the starships were not going anywhere. Even if the strongest magical equipment of the universe was stored in the vehicles, they were nothing more than iron coffins drifting in the boundless universe!
"What was more critical was that, before making sure that the main fleet had been destroyed, they had been drifting in the edge of the Flying Star Sector for years. Even though the most rigorous rationing system had been implemented in the beginning, there was still not much food left!"
Chapter 745: Out of Two, One Will Live |
The word 'food' made Li Yao shudder. He asked, "They could've explored the space zones nearby, or search on the remains of the fleet after the apocalypse. Perhaps they could collect enough resources to build their own space towns and recycling system."
"You are right," Bai Xinghe said, "but the solutions were too far away to resolve the imminent problems. Both the exploration and the search required plenty time and resources, and they had neither of those.
"Oh, I was wrong."
Bai Xinghe put on the creepiest smile that Li Yao had ever seen, as he said, "They had resources but not enough to sustain every one of them on board.
"If all the resources were concentrated, chances were than one tenth of the Fire Stealers could survive."
Li Yao thought of something and immediately pictured something scary in his mind.
Bai Xinghe announced gravely, "The Fire Stealers might have been people of integrity who were willing to sacrifice themselves. However, at that moment, it was not just their own lives that were at risk but the last hope of the Flying Star Sector!
"If the impasse continued, everybody would die. But if some of them were 'sacrificed', the rest of them might survive and have enough resources to explore new space zones and collect more debris. There would be a chance, however slim, that the ash of the humanity of the Flying Star Sector could be rekindled in the future!
"Do you see it now? The fleet of the Fire Stealers had turned into a small dark forest where the resources were limited, and everybody had a good reason to survive. Even though some of them were willing to sacrifice themselves, they were usually not alone but accompanied by their family on the starships!
"There being no other options, the Fire Stealers immediately started attacking each other!
"It is impossible to verify the details now, but in the end, about nine tenths of the Fire Stealers died in the internal strife for the competition of resources. Only one tenth of them lived on, over their companions' dead bodies, with their companions' resources.
"They were like ghosts wandering in the sea of stars. With whatever resources they had, they struggled hard at the edge of the Flying Star Sector for a hundred years, until the influence of the apocalypse completely passed.
"At that time, they finally received messages from the central area of the Flying Star Sector. They learned that the main fleet had not been completely destroyed by the apocalypse. Some of the starships survived and were rebuilding the civilization slowly."
Bai Xinghe smiled, very bitterly.
"Everything seemed to be an absurd, vicious, and ironic joke.
"The only reason that motivated the Fire Stealers to attack each other by resorting to all kinds of sordid methods was that they were the last Flying Star citizens and that everything they did was meant to sustain human civilization in the Flying Star Sector.
"Therefore, although they were guilty, they were not wrong. They had no options!
"However, after they discovered other survivors, the belief that had gradually seeped into their blood over the hundred years collapsed!
"A hundred years ago, when their fathers implemented 'Plan Prometheus', their fathers could have gone to the court of law confidently and justifiably, despite the unforgivable crimes they had committed.
"But now it was their turn, they had no courage to face any trials.
"Because they knew that they were wrong and that they had violated the ethics of the Cultivators and even all human beings!
"Or rather, after struggling for a hundred years in the dark forest, after mauling each other willingly or unwillingly, the ethics and code of conduct for the old human beings had been ripped apart. They had established a new set of rules and ethics, the rules and ethics of the dark forest!
"Although they had the facial organs, limbs, and appearance of mankind and spoke the human language, below their skin, they had mutated into a different species. They were alien humans!
"Finally, they encountered other survivors.
"Maybe, the survivors asked of their background, and they were too ashamed to talk about it.
"Maybe, they were running out of resources again, and they simply picked up their weapons habitually.
"The bottom line was, they did not cooperate with the survivors and did what they had become most familiar with over the past hundred years—killing and looting!"
Li Yao took a deep breath and imagined the edge of the Flying Star Sector thousands of years ago.
Hundreds of crystal warships that looked that iron coffins packed with corpses were drifting in space. They collided and exploded, releasing fatal mystic rays nonstop.
Colorful halos were appearing, like flowers that were blossoming on decayed bodies. Most of the coffins were shattered. Only few of them rushed out in the end…
Were the Cultivators inside them Cultivators?
Were the human beings inside of qualified to be called human beings?
Li Yao swallowed and asked, "How do you know such secret events as if you'd seen them in person?"
Bai Xinghe said casually, "The posterity of the Fire Stealers cruised in the edge of the Flying Star Sector all the time. When the first job was done, there was no stopping it. When they met other survivors, they often hunted the victims down ruthlessly. After they gathered enough resources, they would explore new space zones. In the end, they truly found a new space zone, as well as resource planet that was left by the Star Ocean Imperium named Spider Den."
It was an unexpected and yet reasonable answer.
Li Yao took a long breath in relief. "So, space pirates are the offspring of the Fire Stealers. That explains why the space pirates who had no technological backgrounds could develop a planet and cause chaos in the entire Flying Star Sector."
Bai Xinghe bent down and stared at Li Yao without even blinking, before he asked creepily, "You think space pirates are merely the offspring of the Fire Stealers?"
Li Yao shivered. "What do you mean?"
Bai Xinghe's voice seemed to be coming from a deep, deep abyss, as he said, "Do you want to hear another story?
"You've heard a lot of events in the history. Now, let's talk about something closer. I'll tell you my experience and how I came to Spider Den."
Li Yao was somewhat shocked.
It was well-known that, when Bai Xinghe was young, the starship he boarded on was engaged in a cosmic storm. He was rescued by the space pirates that were passing by and sold to Spider Den as a slave.
Was there more to the story?
Emotionlessly like a withered tree, Bai Xinghe started narrating before Li Yao replied. "My parents were both Cultivators. But they were unaffiliated Cultivators and did not belong to any sect. They each bought one carrier both to make a living and to travel in different space zones to expand their horizon. They believed that it was beneficial for their training.
"I had been living with them on their carriers since I was born. Other than being short of playmates, my life had been quite carefree, until we encountered a super cosmic storm that almost equaled to a space swirl during a voyage when I was seven.
"In order to avoid the super cosmic storm, we deviated from our sailing route. There was no telling where we ended up. The carrier was seriously damaged. A lot of food and fuel had been destroyed. Our communication equipment was damaged, too.
"We had lost in touch with the rest of the world.
"At that time, a starship larger than ours was involved in the same cosmic storm and blown to the same unknown space zone with us. It rescued us at the crucial moment.
"The cosmic storm was still raging, and we could only sail deeper into the unknown space zone together, looking for a peaceful port where we can hide.
"My parents appreciated their help very much. Our friendship after working together against the cosmic storm grew deeper, too.
"At that time, everybody thought that the cosmic storm would pass very soon, and we could at least repair the navigation and communication magical equipment on one of the starships so that we could reach out to the closest space town and ask for help.
"But as it turned out, the duration and scale of the cosmic storm far exceeded everyone's expectations.
"The hundreds of space towns near the main sailing route were all affected by the cosmic storm and could barely rescue themselves. They had no spare hands at all.
"To make matters worse, after being assaulted by the aftershock of the cosmic storm, our starships were so damaged that they were beyond repair.
"One month later, the cosmic storm gradually died down, but we had ended up in a godforsaken place in the depths of the universe.
"The remainder of our food and fuel was running dry, too.
"The navigation and communication magical equipment could not be repaired anytime soon, either. There was even a lot of new damage. The two starships were likely to collapse at any point.
"In the beginning, nobody had expected that the situation would be as bad.
"During the cooperation, we informed each other of the remaining resources on our starships and even exchanged a few items.
"Therefore, we both knew very clearly how many resources the other starship had left."
"In the next—"
Bai Xinghe suddenly fell silent when he got to that part of the story.
He seemed to have put on a rusted mask.
In an inhuman voice, he said, "We launched an attack.
"My father, an honorable Cultivator who used to risk his life protecting ordinary people and who had almost ten irrecoverable scars after multiple battles with space pirates, launched a fatal attack on our life-savers with the excuse of another barter when they were not prepared!
"Everybody was killed by us!
"All the resources were taken away!
"Their starship was dismantled into the most fundamental components to strengthen our starship.
"However, haha, everything proved to be in vain in the end. When my parents were about to complete everything, the aftershock of the cosmic storm arrived again and battered our starship, pushing it to an even remoter area of the universe!
"In the end, everybody died. I lay inside the debris of the starship alone and was discovered by a starship of space pirates that was passing the area in a hurry to avoid the hunting of the Cultivators.
"When they searched the debris, the space pirates took me away as their trophies and sold me to Spider Den. I became a slave in the darkness just like that.
"After you hear the story, do you feel that a karma happened to my parents?"
Li Yao did not know what to say.
"You may find it hard to believe," Bai Xinghe said, "but before the cosmic storm, everything my parents ever did deserved their title as 'Cultivators'.
"If there were only the two of them on the starship, I dare say that they would rather have killed themselves than attack the people who saved their lives.
"However, things were different if their most beloved son was on board."
Bai Xinghe's voice was lower and lower, until in the end it was so softly that he seemed to be speaking right inside Li Yao's ears. "Although I was only seven at that time, I remember clearly to this day what my father said to my mother when they sent me to the safe house in preparation for the battle.
"Out of two, one will live.
"If I don't kill them, they will kill me."
Chapter 746: Bai Xinghe's Purpose |
The two sentences stabbed into Li Yao's heart like sharp, icy daggers.
Li Yao felt that his head was dizzy while his mind drifted to an unknown corner in the universe where two broken, rusted starships had floated a hundred years ago along with Bai Xinghe's narration.
Glancing at him coldly, Bai Xinghe said, "The Flying Star Sector is a large place. Natural disasters such like cosmic storms happen on a daily basis in space. There are too many people that are lacking resources because of natural disasters every day. I believe that my parents couldn't have been the only victims of such tragedies. There are bound to be more people that are trapped in the 'dark forest' like the Fire Stealers years ago or my parents!
"When a Cultivator abandons their belief because there are no options, it is unlikely that they can return to the normal society.
"Even if they hide everything in their daily life, they would be scared and living in fear until they die.
"No matter how magnificent the throne you sit on is, how big the organization under your control is, and how strong you are, as soon as anybody discovers traces of your crimes, the only outcome for you is that you will be demeaned and will fall from the clouds into an abyss.
"No sects, no towns, and no normal societies will ever tolerate such things.
"The only place that embraces them in the entire Flying Star Sector is Spider Den!
"Now, do you see why the space pirates could never really be uprooted in the past hundreds of years as if they were wild grasses?"
Li Yao took a long breath and said, "That explains a lot. What about the Immortal Cultivators?"
"It's simple," Bai Xinghe replied.
"The thing about human beings is that they will always try to find excuses for themselves no matter how unforgivable or inhuman the crimes they've committed were.
"Asking those high and mighty Cultivators, who consider themselves the living embodiment of honor and integrity, to acknowledge that they are timid, sordid, lawless bandits?
"That would be even more miserable than killing them directly!
"Liu the Prier lived in the last years of the Star Ocean Imperium. With the heated, prolonged civil war, his research did not receive much attention.
"Although the Flying Star Sector was home to Liu the Prier, nobody had a deep understanding about his research. Most of the space pirates had only heard the tales about him and his studies, but no more.
"That was so until five hundred years ago, when Yan Xinjian, the supreme space pirate, arrived in Spider Den. In order to deal with the coalition fleet of Cultivators, he excavated the underground fortress on a large scale and found Liu the Prier's belongings by accident.
"From then on, the Dark Forest Theory gradually spread out among the leadership of the space pirates.
"Those space pirates felt that they'd got the ultimate treasure.
"If the universe was truly a dark forest where the strong preyed on the weak and where the fittest survived, everything they had been doing would be perfectly justified.
"It is not me but everybody else that is wrong!
"The universe is exactly like that. Everything we are doing follows the rules of the universe.
