Tang Dingyuan interrupted him. "What secret mission?"
"Don't be nervous. It's our personal business."
Ding Zhengyang smiled miserably. "There is a very large underground warehouse of sperm and eggs in Fish Dragon City. Not only can it help people preserve their bloodline seeds for a long time, it can also be responsible for the identity, education, and other issues of the surrogate mothers and their offspring after they are born.
"Most of the Immortal Cultivators on Firefly lost many, if not all, of our family in the battle ten years ago. Naturally, we want to leave new offspring. My trusted subordinate took all of our life seeds to the underground warehouse of sperm to store them."
"Why did he do that?"
Tang Dingyuan frowned. "Firefly has its own warehouse of sperm in the first place. For the heroes and the families of the martyrs in the battle, you will be given priority to leave your bloodline descendants, too. Why did he go to the black market in Fish Dragon City?"
Ding Zhengyang sniffed and said, "It's because we don't want our offspring to have anything to do with Firefly and the government-in-exile anymore, in case the tragedy ten years ago happens again. One day, our new offspring will be buried together with the government-in-exile!"
Tang Dingyuan was lost for words for a moment. He said, "… Go on!"
"A lot of things are involved in the issue," Ding Zhengyang said. "It even concerns the future of our offspring after our identities are exposed and our reputation is ruined. It is the most important issue for the Immortal Cultivators like us. My trusted subordinate stayed in Fish Dragon City for a long time before he finally settled every detail.
"It was during this period that he witnessed an assault and a hunt. The pursuers were the Secret Sword Agents and the Dim Moon Squad from the Xing Yao Federation. Those who were hunted were from the CFIA.
"From the looks of it, a rather large underground branch of the CFIA in Fish Dragon City was discovered. The two intelligence agencies of the Federation both sent their best soldiers, hoping to catch all of them.
"We are all Immortal Cultivators. How can we not help our fellow Cultivators when they are in trouble? My confidant took advantage of this opportunity to rescue two of the CFIA's members and established a secret communication channel. In the end, we got to know Lu Qingchen, the president of the CFIA.
At that time, although we were all transformed into Immortal Cultivators, our understanding of the true path of immortality was still very naïve and shallow. Our ancestors fled from the Star Ocean Republic a thousand years ago. At that time, Blackstar the Great had just ascended to the throne, and the theories of the Immortal Cultivators were just born. There were many immature parts in them.
"For a thousand years, we have been hiding here and there. We do not know the latest developments of the Immortal Cultivators' theories in the various Sectors. It is safe to say that we are very frustrated mentally and have a strong thirst for new knowledge.
We all know that Lu Qingchen was the true disciple of Su Changfa, a Cultivator from the Imperium a hundred years ago. Then, the true path of immortality that he brought with him was at least the latest theoretical results from a hundred years ago. It was much more advanced than the 'prototype of the true path of immortality' that we were familiar with a thousand years ago. Naturally, we had to learn more from him.
"With such a purpose in mind, we tentatively invited Lu Qingchen to give lectures on Firefly in secret and hold a 'conference of immortals'.
"At first, we thought that he would have concerns. After all, as the most wanted criminal of the Federation, he was in a very dangerous situation, and it was inappropriate for him to show up in public easily.
"But out of our expectation, he accepted the invitation very quickly. At first, he established a secret communication channel and gave lectures in the form of a 'remote conference'. Later, he even took the risk of showing up on Firefly in person. Many fellow Cultivators admired his spirit of promoting the true path without caring about his own safety at that time."
Tang Dingyuan and Cui Lingfeng looked at each other and saw the surprise in each other's eyes. They did not know that the guy who was known as the most dangerous criminal of the Federation had once snuck onto Firefly without alarming anyone and left without any damage.
Li Yao, on the other hand, was frowning hard, deep in thought.
"The 'brand-new true path of immortality' that Lu Qingchen brought with him," Ding Zhengyang continued, "that has been developed in the Imperium of True Human Beings for almost a thousand years and collided, debated, and melted with the local path of Cultivators of the Xing Yao Federation for a hundred years. It was indeed enlightening and thought-provoking. All the fellow Cultivators on Firefly felt that they were suddenly enlightened and saw the universe and ourselves clearly!"
"What is Lu Qingchen's path?" Tang Dingyuan asked. "Why is it so bewitching?"
"The true path of immortality is the ultimate truth of the universe," Ding Zhengyang said with a smile. "It contains everything and is constantly changing and developing. My understanding is not deep enough, either. How can I explain its essence clearly in such a short time?
"Let me put it simply. Lu Qingchen believes that the 'true path of immortality' and the 'true path of the Cultivators' are not antagonistic but two sides of the same coin. They are the two extreme forms of the same 'superman' that can be transformed incessantly. There are no absolute saints and fiends in the world. Inside a Cultivator's body, too, is a matter of 'Immortal Cultivator' and 'Cultivator'. It is just a matter of proportion."
"Superman?"
Tang Dingyuan chewed on the brand-new ranking carefully.
"Yes. Lu Qingchen actually does not like to use 'Cultivator' or 'Immortal Cultivator' to address all the Cultivators whose spiritual roots have been awakened," Ding Zhengyang explained. "One of the terms that he often uses in meetings is' superman '.
Ding Zhengyang explained, "The so-called 'superman' is a person who is born of mortals and surpasses them, but who is bound by the attributes of mortals in the end. Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators are too obviously biased toward good and evil. However, 'superman' does not have good and evil in itself. They can be good and evil! "In the Imperium of True Human Beings, as long as one's spiritual root is awakened, one will be a 'true human being'. However, Lu Qingchen believes that the awakened spiritual root can only be regarded as a 'superman'. From a 'superman' to a 'true human being' who completely recognizes himself, the civilization of mankind, and the entire universe, there is still a long way to go."
"Sophistry."
Cui Lingfeng could not help but remark coldly, "Of course, there are no perfect saints in the world, and there are not necessarily unpardonable devils who are devoid of humanity at all. However, 'good guys' and 'bad guys' can generally be distinguished.
"Of course, good guys and bad guys, Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators, can be distinguished. However, Lu Qingchen believes that the critical factor that determines whether a 'superman' will become a Cultivator or an Immortal Cultivator has almost nothing to do with his own will, beliefs, and morals. It is purely determined by the environment, just like the 'Color-Changing Fish'."
Tang Dingyuan was slightly dazed. "Color-Changing Fish?"
"The Color-Changing Fish is a small fish that lives in the blue, frozen ocean of the Forest Ocean Sector of the Xing Yao Federation," Ding Zhengyuan explained. "The fish no larger than a palm are best known for their teamwork and cooperation. They often patrol and hunt together in thousands of groups. Even when they are faced with prey hundreds of times larger than themselves, they are not scared at all. Instead, they charge at the prey without caring about their own safety, like a well-disciplined army.
"The Color-Changing Fish have a very remarkable feature. No matter how harsh the living environment is and how scarce the resources are, they will not leave any of their compatriots behind easily. When other ferocious beasts in the ocean intend to swallow them, they will even establish a 'battle net' and revolve at a high speed like a tornado underwater, making it impossible for the enemy to bite them.
"It sounds like a rather inspiring animal. It is exactly because of their teamwork and cooperation that they were loved by the people of the Federation for a while.
However, after studying the features of the fish carefully, the marine biologists of the Federation discovered that everything was just an illusion.
It was true that the harsher the environment was and the scarcer the resources were, the more united the fish would be. But there was a limit to it!
When the scarcity of resources exceeded a certain 'tipping point', the fish that had been 'united and friendly' a moment ago would launch the bloodiest massacre on their compatriots without any hesitation. They would eat the old, the weak, the sick, and even their own children that they were protecting the day before, greatly reducing the size of their community. In the end, the only ones left would be the strongest, most agile, and most bloodthirsty species!
It was exactly because of their features that resembled chameleons that they were nicknamed 'Color-Changing Fish'. Many people, after discovering the truth, called them 'Devil Fish'.
Devil Fish. Hehe. They were probably the 'Immortal Cultivators' of fish, right?
However, what exactly caused them to turn from the 'fish-type Cultivators' who were united, friendly, and supportive to each other yesterday into the 'fish-type Immortal Cultivators' who were brutal, bloodthirsty, and did not even spare their own kind today?
"The environment is just the environment. Any creature is a product of the environment. However proud we human beings claim to be the wisest of all creatures, we cannot get rid of the biological attributes that originate from nature." Good and evil, even if they do exist, are not determined by our beliefs, beliefs, feelings, and so on, but only by the environment.
That's what Lu Qingchen said. "
One word after another, Tang Dingyuan declared resolutely, "I am a human being, not a fish!"
"It's the same. In the boundless universe that is so dark that there is no boundary, how much more advanced can a human be than a fish?"
Ding Zhengyang smiled miserably. "In the past thousand years, Firefly has been fleeing in the darkness. It has been the best 'laboratory of humanity'. In retrospect, for the sake of 'survival', our ancestors did a lot of dishonorable things, such as artificial breeding of offspring by force, leaving the old people above a hundred and fifty years old on their own, not allowing the choice of freelance jobs, compulsory labor, a secret police system that had too much authority but no supervision … Many of the policies did not seem to have been made by the Cultivators."
"They were all extraordinary approaches in extraordinary times," Cui Lingfeng said coldly. "But in any case, we stuck to the last boundary and did not turn Firefly into a paradise of lawless animals where the strong prey on the weak!
"It was with the iron-fisted policies and the contributions of all the crew members that we were able to walk all the way to this day as' Cultivators'!"
"Wrong. You couldn't have been more wrong!"
Ding Zhengyang raised his voice again. This time, he did not look crazy but extremely calm. There was deep pain between his eyebrows, as if he had seen through all the truth. "The reason why you stuck to the last boundary and kept your identity as' Cultivators' was not because of your firm beliefs, not because of the 'iron-fisted policies', and not because of the 'everybody's contributions and sacrifices'. It was only because of the environment. It was because the environment was not harsh enough, and you were not pushed to that point yet!
Do you remember the 'Color-Changing Fish' that I mentioned just now? You were just lucky enough that the environment did not reach the 'tipping point', which is why you did not reveal the 'devilish fish' side! "
Cui Lingfeng heaved a long sigh. "Ding Zhengyang, how could you be fooled by such a low-level trick?"
"It's very simple."
Ding Zhengyang smiled like a twitching viper. "Because I know the 'Rebirth Plan.' Any Cultivator in the sea of stars can hardly guarantee that their belief will not be shaken after they learn the 'Rebirth Plan.' Speaker Cui, can you introduce the 'Rebirth Plan' of the highest secret to Captain Tang, or should I do it?"
Cui Lingfeng's face immediately turned pale.
"The Rebirth Plan?"
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