"Why?"
Cheng Xuansu rubbed the handle of the gun with her fingers for a long time. Chuckling, she observed Cui Lingfeng's face carefully and said, "I should be the one asking you that question, Mr. Speaker. What kind of fanaticism can support your morbid belief that the 'Star Ocean Republic' still exists and that 'Firefly', which is jumbled by hundreds of garbage, can sail for another thousand years and even march back to the center of the cosmos one day to defeat the invincible Imperium of True Human Beings?
"Tang Dingyuan was absolutely right. The Star Ocean Republic is long dead. It was already dead when Wuying Qi marched into the Supreme Council and announced that he was the Speaker a thousand years ago! Firefly is nothing more than its dead body. We are just insignificant bugs living inside the body that is gradually rotting! "
"March back to the center of the cosmos and revive the Star Ocean Republic? That's impossible. Stop dreaming! "
Cui Lingfeng stared at Cheng Xuansu. His eyes were like two sharp hooks, trying to pry open her skull and see what was going on inside. His voice was very low, but it was filled with desperation. "Xuansu, even you think so? Even if it is a dream, it is not just my dream but the dream of millions of people, including your father! Your father, and countless other heroes like your father, poured their entire lives into this dream without any complaints or regrets. They gave everything they had to this dream! It was all for the sake of … leaving some hope for the great country a thousand years ago! How — how can you think that? "
Cheng Xuansu's face was indifferent, but the brilliance of her crystal cameras was getting darker and darker. She said coldly, "Let me repeat myself. That man is not my father. The so-called hope of the 'Star Ocean Republic' is just a fantasy that you old farts deceive yourselves with. Does it have anything to do with me?
"Perhaps for you, the 'Star Ocean Republic' does represent a great history, a lot of things, and everything about you! Many of you were born at the center of the cosmos and grew up in the heyday of the Star Ocean Republic. You witnessed and enjoyed its magnificence in person, just like my sperm provider did. Then, you were packed into the hibernation chambers like zombies and hibernated all the way to this day. Naturally, you can't forget the country that perished a long time ago.
"But me?"
"I was born on this cold, dark, narrow, and damp, broken ship. Ever since I could remember, I've been faced with endless disasters. Today, it's the leak in this cabin. Tomorrow, it's the explosion of that tube. The day after tomorrow, it's the famine caused by the failure of the artificial greenhouse!
"Behind us are thousands of pursuers of the Imperium, and in front of us is the dark space where no human beings have ever set foot. Our ragged starship is rusting and decaying day after day. There is no hope at all!"
"If that was all, it would have been fine. But you were deceiving yourselves with the glory of the Star Ocean Republic in the past and telling jokes about marching back to the center of the cosmos!"
"Just because I was the man's daughter, just because his blood flowed in my veins, and just because of your bullsh * t, I 'volunteered' to accept the harshest training since I was five. Stimulated by the lies, I broke my limits nonstop, trying to turn myself into a 'hero' like the man. But in the end, I turned myself into … this wretched, half-human, half-ghost appearance right now!
"Then, after discovering that you were fooled and that what you worked for for half your life was just a complete joke that could never be realized, wouldn't it be the most normal reaction for you to choose 'betrayal'?
"You're asking me why I chose the Imperium of True Human Beings? Hehe. The reason is simple. I've had enough of the days on Firefly! The suffocating air, the narrow cabin, the tasteless food, the fear day and night, the hopeless voyage in the darkness like headless flies … I've had enough of everything!
"I've dedicated the first half of my life to the rotten corpse that is the Star Ocean Republic. In the latter half of my life, I'm going to change my way of life and live like a real human being!"
Cui Lingfeng looked like a zombie that had been dead for a long time, too. He hissed, "Even so, even if you really … didn't want to stay on Firefly, you could've chosen the Xing Yao Federation!"
Cheng Xuansu sniffed. "What's the difference between the Xing Yao Federation and the Star Ocean Republic? Neither of you can resist the conquest of the Imperium of True Human Beings. I've already escaped once. I don't want to be a stray dog again. I don't want to die! The Imperium can give me everything I want. Everything! "
"So, you betrayed your compatriots and degenerated into an Immortal Cultivator?" Cui Lingfeng asked sorrowfully.
Cheng Xuansu looked at him with mockery. "Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators. What's the difference? Of course, everybody can say nice things like 'Cultivators are the sabers of the civilization of mankind' and 'Cultivators are born to protect the ordinary people'. But is that really the truth?
"If the Cultivators of the Star Ocean Republic are really so great, how could Wuying Qi have had the chance to usurp the power of the Supreme Parliament and become 'Blackstar the Great' when he was supported by the ordinary people?
"Let's just say that on this tiny Firefly, the higher one's Cultivation is, the better treatment and the more power they will enjoy, right?
"The ordinary people and the bottom-level sailors live in the dark, damp, and narrow cabins. Many of them do not even have their own independent sleep capsules. They have to share one with their family and take turns to sleep.
"The high and mighty Cultivators, on the other hand, be it the representatives or the commanders on the bridge such as Tang Dingyuan, enjoy treatment dozens of times better than the ordinary people. At the very least, you do not have to squeeze into the same sleep capsule in turns, do you?
"There are almost a hundred Yuanying Cultivators on Firefly, but I've never seen a cabin where a Yuanying Cultivator lives in is smaller than the cabin of a bottom-level sailor. That's just the legal treatment. As for the illegal deals that the representatives under your command have done, such as collecting assets with their power and conducting black market deals, I don't even want to talk about them. With that in mind, what's the difference between the Cultivators and the Immortal Cultivators, and what's the essential difference between the Star Ocean Republic and the Imperium of True Human Beings?"
Cui Lingfeng's face was both red and pale. "This — this is an approach that we have no choice but to do in the unusual times!"
"Indeed. Unusual times."
Cheng Xuansu smiled. "I still remember the 'unusual times' in the last 'unusual times'. Due to the extreme shortage of food, the parliament at that time even made a decision that nobody was allowed to conceive and deliver naturally. The sperm and eggs had to be frozen so that the number of newborns could be controlled precisely according to the circulation of assets and population changes on board. It was exactly under such a policy that I was conceived under 'precise control'. Is that something that a Cultivator would do?"
Cui Lingfeng's eyelids were twitching violently, as if his heart was being savaged brutally. Breathing heavily, he said, "It was a difficult decision, but we didn't have a choice. The resources and space on board were limited. If we allowed the population to explode unchecked, an uncontrollable explosion would've happened in the end, and we would've been mired in the horrible hell of cannibalism!
"As it turned out, the policy worked. After a hundred difficult years, we finally overcame the problem of food shortage and restored our society to normalcy and vitality!"
"Mr. Speaker," Cheng Xuansu said, "do you think that I was objecting to the policy at that time? No. On the contrary, I couldn't agree more with the policy. Under the circumstances at that time, it was the only solution that we had no choice if we wanted to continue our civilization!
"After realizing that, I was greatly enlightened and thought it through!
"In many cases, right and wrong are meaningless. Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators are meaningless, too, because we don't have a choice.
"The resources and space on Firefly are limited, but the growth of the population can reach infinity at any time. For the continuation of our civilization, we have made a lot of choices that … we had no choice.
"In a broad sense, isn't the entire civilization of mankind, helmed by the Imperium of True Human Beings, nothing more than a slightly larger 'Firefly' in the vast, boundless dark universe? Perhaps, in order to ensure the continuation of the civilization of mankind, the Imperium had to make a lot of choices that we had no choice, too! "
Cui Lingfeng was truly dazed. Pondering for a moment, he shuddered hard. "Where — where did you learn so many … rebellious ideas?"
Cheng Xuansu smiled. "Don't underestimate the desolate countries at the edge of the cosmos. Don't the legendary unworldly experts all live in such places? President Lu Qingchen of the CFIA is truly a scholar who has a profound understanding of the true path of immortality. Many of his ideas are truly enlightening and enlightening!
"Alright. If you don't have anything else to ask, let's call it a day.
"Excuse me, Mr. Speaker … No, Uncle Cui, although you have fooled me with the bulls * it for decades, I'd better call you Uncle Cui again! Nobody wants things to turn out like this. Really, this is not a personal grudge. It is not even a competition of beliefs. I only want to live the life of a real human being that I should've had a long time ago. "
Cheng Xuansu raised her pistol and aimed it at the center of Cui Lingfeng's eyebrow. "I remember that, every time I was so exhausted that I couldn't stand on my feet anymore, you would encourage me and say that I would certainly be able to create miracles as long as I persisted to the end!
"However, it's a pity that I really haven't believed in miracles for a long, long time."
Cui Lingfeng's face was as pale as a dead person's. He could not say anything at all.
"Well …"
Li Yao scratched his hair and raised his hand, about to speak.
"Huh?"
Cheng Xuansu raised her eyebrow and locked onto Li Yao with the redness of her crystal camera. "Professor Luo De, I'm sorry that you have been involved in this matter. You can only blame yourself for being unlucky. Do you have any last words?"
"I don't have any last words, but I do want to say something."
Li Yao looked at Cui Lingfeng and then at Cheng Xuansu. Blinking his eyes, he said, "Firstly of all, I think that, given the vastness of the universe, 'miracles' do happen occasionally.
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