The question raised a lot of Yuanying. Even Li Yao nodded his head quickly after a brief daze.
It was true. Although they were both 'imperials', the Star Ocean Imperium ten thousand years ago was quite well-regarded in modern eyes.
That was because in the Great Dark Age that lasted thirty thousand years, human beings were suppressed by the demon race. The Cultivators among human beings were the primary targets of the demon race. In many cases, they had to rely on the ordinary people to cover or even protect them.
A phoenix that had lost its feathers was no better than a chicken. How could the Cultivators be proud and arrogant when they were in such dire straits?
After the Cultivators rose again, they resisted under the banner of 'defending the civilization of mankind'. Naturally, it was impossible for them to suppress the ordinary people like the rulers of the demon race did.
Although, due to the limitation of the era, there were no legal provisions that stipulated the rights and equal status of the Cultivators and the ordinary people according to the Constitution of Cultivators such as the Xing Yao Federation did not exist yet.
However, simple ideas such as' slaying demons, helping the weak, helping the weak, and upholding justice for the heavens' still became the belief of most Cultivators of the Star Ocean Imperium.
It was safe to say that the mainstream ideas of the Xing Yao Federation today were all developed based on the traditional ideas of the Star Ocean Imperium.
Even the Xing Yao Federation, a desolate country at the edge of the cosmos, had such ideas. How could the Imperium of True Human Beings at the center of the cosmos be different?
It must be noted that the heritage of the Cultivators was never about the cold Cultivation arts and classics. What mattered more was their belief and spirit!
In the relics left by the Star Ocean Imperium, other than the marvelous arts, there must be the earnest teachings of the Cultivators of the Star Ocean Imperium for the latecomers, as well as the touching stories where they shed their blood for the civilization of mankind.
Such teachings and stories would naturally shape the belief of the latecomers.
For example, Li Yao once discovered 'Sparkle', a multipurpose exploration starship from the Star Ocean Imperium, deep inside the silver ocean below Boneyard.
Gao Xingce, captain of Sparkle and a Cultivator from the Star Ocean Imperium, had voluntarily abandoned 99% of his soul and memories in order to suppress' Skeleton Dragon ', an unparalleled deadly demon from forty thousand years ago. He had even abandoned the memories of his family so that his remaining soul could survive longer, monitor' Skeleton Dragon ', and warn the latecomers!
Li Yao accepted 'Sparkle' and became the new captain. He also accepted Gao Xingce's spirit.
This spirit had become an inseparable part of his Daoist heart!
If one day, Li Yao decided to commit crimes that harmed the interests of ordinary people, the spirit would leap out of his Dao heart and shake it. It might even collapse his Dao heart and cause his Dao heart to plummet!
Li Yao was like that. Were the Cultivators at the center of the cosmos who had received the legacies of the Star Ocean Imperium not the same?
This was a world where the mind could interfere with the matter. It was impossible for one to only cultivate the martial arts of the seniors without learning the thoughts of the seniors who bemoaned the state of the universe and pitied the fate of mankind!
"Have you noticed the subtle contradiction, Fellow Cultivators?"
Zhou Yifu said. "By logic, the countries of human beings at the center of the cosmos, having inherited the enormous legacies of the Star Ocean Imperium, should consider themselves as' sabers of the civilization of mankind 'and be proud of' defending the ordinary people ', exactly like the Star Ocean Imperium! How come they regard human lives as worthless, slaughter babies as if they were ants, and even invent the term 'true human beings' instead of considering themselves as human beings in the past?
"Such a 180-degree change in the Daoist heart is highly unreasonable. Under normal circumstances, it will certainly lead to the collapse of the Daoist heart, mental derangement, plummet in level, or even abrupt death!
"It's not a big deal that one or two Cultivators are transformed. There are evil Cultivators in the Federation, too. But all the Cultivators in an entire country are collectively transformed into Immortal Cultivators? Without the pressure of the outside world, such a change is truly incomprehensible! "
Li Yao's eyes suddenly shone. He turned on the public communication rune array and said, "Senior Zhou, are you suggesting that the Imperium of True Human Beings, which absorbed the essence of the Star Ocean Imperium, was perhaps a 'mini Star Ocean Imperium' made of Cultivators with the goal of defending the civilization of mankind as its goal?
"Later, they were under a certain enormous pressure and had to exploit the maximum national strength to cope with it as quickly as possible!
"Therefore, the Cultivators of the Imperium of True Human Beings, like my foster father said, 'abandoned their humanity and the pride of the Cultivators' and transformed into Immortal Cultivators, right?"
"Exactly!"
Scratching his goatee, Zhou Yifu nodded quickly. "Everything that happened in the Federation in the past year was perhaps a replay of the transformation process of the Imperium of True Human Beings years ago!
"The Xing Yao Federation was a country led by the Cultivators at the beginning. It emphasized the equality of the Cultivators and the ordinary people, and everybody contributed and worked together.
"But after hearing the news of the invasion of the Imperium of True Human Beings a year ago, many Cultivators changed their mindset. They believed that the current system was not enough to exploit the maximum war potential in the shortest amount of time and that, for survival, to protect the civilization, and to protect the 99%, the other 1% could be sacrificed!
"The Cultivators who held extreme ideas, represented by Lu Zui and Zhou Hengdao, did not hesitate to kill tens of thousands of innocent people in person to achieve their purpose!
"Also, when they knew that human beings and demons were of the same origin and that demons were human beings in a different form, they pretended that they did not know anything and still sent all the demons to the resource planets to mine until they died!
"It is safe to say that what Lu Zui, Zhou Hengdao, and the rest of them did not deserve the name 'Cultivator' at all. They were out-and-out 'Immortal Cultivators'!
"From the Cultivators who protected the ordinary people and the civilization of mankind, they were transformed into Immortal Cultivators who could sacrifice the ordinary people casually in order to achieve their purpose. But their belief was not disordered, and their Cultivation did not plummet. Before Lu Zui's death, he was even able to break into a whole new level with his last burst of strength!
"How did it happen?
"It's very simple. They believed that they were not wrong. Even if their methods were slightly wrong, their ideology and purpose were right. Even if they killed an ordinary person in person, they were doing it to save our civilization. It was exactly because of the support of such 'righteousness' that they were able to transform so quickly!"
At this moment, Luoxingzi, a Cultivator from the Flying Star Sector, requested to speak.
"Fellow Cultivator Zhou, allow me to add something.
"Based on the experience of the Flying Star Sector, the corruption of a Cultivator can be very fast. It will take no more than a year and a half. It can be completed in only a few minutes.
"All you need to do is throw him into a wrecked starship that has lost momentum and limited food, drifting in the depths of a cosmic storm.
"In order to fight for the slim chance of survival, even the most honorable Cultivator can turn into a fiend in the blink of an eye and come up with a set of theories to justify themselves later.
"Getting to the bottom of it, excuses and reasons are always easy to find as long as they can survive!"
Zhou Yifu nodded and smiled. "Thank you for your explanation, Fellow Cultivator Luoxingzi. That is indeed the case!
"In retrospect, thankfully, the scheme of the 'Immortal Cultivators' such as Lu Zui and Zhou Hengdao was stopped. Otherwise, in the war between the Tian Yuan Realm and the Blood Demon Sector, they would have expanded their influence step by step, dragged more Cultivators into the mess, and exploited everybody in the cruelest ways. In the end, the Xing Yao Federation would be transformed into a new nation of Immortal Cultivators!
"None of that happened in the Xing Yao Federation, but it certainly happened in the Imperium of True Human Beings!
"It is not hard to imagine that the Imperium of True Human Beings at the beginning was a country where Cultivators were the mainstream, similar to the Star Ocean Imperium.
"But during their development, they encountered a formidable enemy, the Alliance of the Holy Covenant.
"Since Fellow Cultivator Li Yao's foster father said that the Imperium of True Human Beings was a 'traditional superpower', it must've reached a bottleneck at that time and had constant internal and external troubles. The Alliance of the Holy Covenant, on the other hand, was a new superpower that had just risen and was unstoppable like the rising sun!
"Therefore, the Imperium faced the Holy Covenant as much of a headache as we faced the Imperium. Perhaps, part of the people of the Imperium thought that they had to abandon their humanity, stimulate their animalistic instincts, and exploit the remaining value of everybody in order to possibly defeat the Holy Covenant and defend their civilization!
"At first, they might've thought, like Lu Zui and Zhou Hengdao, that the interests of one percent of the population should be sacrificed to defend the other ninety-nine percent. But once such a thing started, how could they have stopped? Under the aggressive attacks of the Alliance of the Holy Covenant, the Imperium of True Human Beings was like an athlete addicted to stimulants. They were mired deeper and deeper, unable to free themselves. In the end, the Cultivators completely turned into Immortal Cultivators, and they were even willing to sacrifice hundreds of babies! "
Zhou Yifu's deduction was reasonable and convincing. After only a few words, he outlined the history of the metamorphosis of an enormous country at the center of the cosmos and proved the existence of the Alliance of the Holy Covenant from another perspective. All the Yuanying experts nodded in agreement.
The Yuanying experts were all quick-minded people with remarkable computational abilities. Thinking quickly, they all felt that what Zhou Yifu said made sense and was very likely to be the truth.
"It seems that everybody agrees that the 'Holy Covenant' does exist, and that we are going to be faced with two super forces instead of one, right?"
Jiang Hailiu, the host of the meeting, looked around and asked calmly, "Then, do you feel that our situation is even worse now that we are faced with two super forces that are likely to be hostile to each other, and that we need to further adjust our previous strategy?"
"Allow me to express my opinion first. I don't think it is necessary at all!
"Our situation right now is not worse at all. If anything, it has significantly improved. It is not exaggerating to say that the next hundreds of years will be a period of 'strategic opportunity' for the Xing Yao Federation!"
Whispers immediately echoed everywhere. Many Yuanying experts did not expect that Jiang Hailiu would be so optimistic about the issue.
However, as the Speaker of the Federation, Jiang Hailiu certainly had an excellent view of the big picture. His stance on the war in the Blood Demon Sector proved his strategic vision, too.
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