The video ended.
There was no applause at the end.
It was because, including Xie Wufeng, all the lecturers, professors, and students of the Sky Fantasia Academy were looking at their hands beyond their control.
It was as if a tiny, vulnerable, and immature 'child civilization' was really being nurtured inside their palms and was about to be born.
The intense strength contained in Professor Mo Xuan's voice, which was as calm as a crystal processor, penetrated the barrier of time and space. Li Yao, who was watching the video decades later, could not help but open his hands.
For some reason, he suddenly recalled the day when he attacked the pulsed neutron star more than a hundred years ago in the vacuum near the Kunlun relic.
At that time, he had already decided to explore the depths of the dark nebula, but he did not know whether or not he could return alive. Therefore, he absorbed the essence of the sun and the moon, collected the spiritual energy of the universe, and condensed the enormous spiritual energy of the pulsed neutron star, leaving some seeds of life.
When the night was dark and the road ahead was long and unpredictable, the seeds of life that were left behind would give birth to better, stronger, and more evolved offspring. Humans would be fearless and filled with the courage to protect, fight, and move forward!
It was the case for individuals. Was it not the case for the civilization of mankind as a whole when it traveled in the dark universe?
As the saying went, the father and the son fought the tiger together. The civilization of mankind at this moment was still too lonely after all. Wouldn't it be better if a child civilization was created where the father and the son fought against the darkness and evilness of the universe side by side?
Li Yao looked out of the window in a daze.
Right now, the artificial dome of the circular world was gradually replaced by the night sky. The lights in the thousands of households were waning.
On the noisy streets of the downtown area, a lot of citizens were walking slowly on the street with the old and the young on their way to the restaurants for dinner.
The children were either holding their parents' hands to play on the swing, running around their parents, or pestering their parents for this and that. They were laughing and chatting, carefree and innocent.
The smiles hidden deep inside the wrinkles of the parents, on the other hand, seemed to be even more intense and brilliant than the smiles of the children!
Looking at the heartwarming scenes, Li Yao's heart was in turmoil as he was filled with mixed feelings.
A hundred years of hibernation was nothing more than the blink of an eye. When he was in the Ancient Sages Sector, he did not feel the passage of time at all. He even thought that he was a young Li Yao in his twenties or thirties.
However, after he returned to the Federation and truly sensed the passage of a hundred years, his mentality had a subtle change, too. He actually started to think of himself as Monster Li, who was a hundred years old.
"Child Wenming … Child … Aiya, I didn't expect that even Ding Ling Dong would silently adopt a daughter. However, the seed of life that she and I left behind back then doesn't seem to have been taken out to nurture!"
Li Yao had read the relevant files carefully. If the life seeds of the dominator of three Sectors and the God of War of the Federation did give birth to offspring, such explosive news would certainly be known by everybody in the Federation.
Such a thing did not happen.
He didn't know whether he should feel regret or heave a sigh of relief.
However, on second thought, if he met Ding Ling Dong after he returned to the Federation and a few teenage girls and young men suddenly popped up and called him 'dad', it would be rather horrifying.
Li Yao could not help but shudder when he imagined such a scene.
It was so horrifying. He might as well not have a child!
From the perspective of a Yuanying, he was still young and in the prime of his life. He still wanted to wander in the sea of stars. He might as well leave the matter of having a child for another time!
Li Yao calmed himself down and suppressed the random thoughts in his head. He asked Ling Xiaole curiously, "I've watched the video. It was indeed thought-provoking. I wonder what happened later. Was a 'child civilization' born under Professor Mo Xuan's efforts?"
"Of course not."
Ling Xiaole sighed and puffed her cheeks. "How can it be so easy to create a new life with self-awareness and a highly-developed civilization? It's not like I'm really writing a fantasy novel!
"If you cannot understand the difficulty of the matter, let's give you an example. Let's give you a primitive planet that has an atmosphere and liquid water and is generally suitable for the birth and reproduction of life. Then, you are given some unicellular life that is tenacious and has infinite possibilities of evolution. How long will it take for you to raise them into a real civilization?"
Li Yao nodded his head, deep in thought.
It was true that the birth of life could not be accomplished overnight. Even though the rules of evolution in the virtual world were different from those in reality, and even if the speed was dozens of times higher, it would still be of little help compared to the long period of time required for the birth of life.
It was needless to mention the fragility of the life at the beginning. It was very likely that the life would perish halfway!
Ling Xiaole went on. "Decades ago, a research team led by Professor Mo Xuan did try to explore in the relevant direction. Like looking for a 'primitive planet' that was suitable for the birth of life, they established a 'virtual planet' in a tiny corner of the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus. It was a DLC that belonged to the research team, or rather, a tiny 'incubation pool of child civilizations'.
"They tried to create virtual lives in the small world known as the 'Virtual Spirits Sector'. Of course, they were not advanced lives that boasted self-awareness but primitive virtual lives at best, such as' virtual fungi, virtual algae, or virtual trilobites'!
"I don't know much about the mechanism and the terminology in that regard, but this is basically what it means. Can you understand it?"
Li Yao thought for a moment and asked, "Something like a crystal processor virus?"
Ling Xiaole nodded. "More or less, but it was certainly much more advanced and complicated than a crystal processor virus. Professor Mo Xuan hoped that the 'virtual ancient creatures' could reproduce and evolve on their own so that human beings could understand the mysteries of the birth and evolution of 'virtual lives'."
Li Yao was fascinated. "What happened later? Did it work?"
"No. The birth of life is mysterious, unpredictable, and manipulative. It is not certain that new life will be created just because all the factors that can give birth to life are gathered. There are billions of planets in the universe, but no more than one billionth of them can really give birth to life, even if it is the most primitive fungus. Even the tiniest factor can lead to the premature death of a primitive life."
Ling Xiaole looked rather gloomy as she spoke. "Everybody has their limits. How can it be so easy to be a 'creator'? Professor Mo Xuan failed. The 'Virtual Spirits Sector' completely collapsed and turned into a barren, silent digital ruin. Eventually, it was sealed and stored. The failed attempt was perhaps the most devastating strike of the New Federation since it was founded a hundred years ago. "
Li Yao thought for a moment but was still confused. "Wait. The so-called 'virtual lives' are nothing but groundless things in the first place. Nobody expected them to be born in decades. It was supposed to be a cutting-edge experiment in the first place. Even if the experiment did fail, it did not seem to be the 'most devastating strike', did it?"
"No. The collapse of the 'Virtual Spirits Sector' was not a big deal per se, but it led to several serious consequences."
Ling Xiaole explained, "At that time, the few most important members of the production team of 'Civilization', including Professor Mo Xuan, Professor Su Changfa, and Su Changfa's disciple Lu Qingchen, all joined the 'incubation team'."
Li Yao blinked. "You mean Lu Qingchen, the most wanted criminal of the Federation right now and the president of the CFIA?"
"Yes."
Ling Xiaole said, "He was not a bad guy from the very beginning. A hundred years ago, he was Su Changfa's only true disciple, and Su Changfa, on the other hand, made the greatest contributions to 'Civilization' only after Li Yao. Therefore, in the early years of 'Civilization', Lu Qingchen was naturally Su Changfa's right-hand man. He was one of the core members of the production team of 'Civilization', the most excellent content architect, and the creator of virtual worlds.
"Professor Mo Xuan, Su Changfa, Lu Qingchen, and a bunch of the most excellent crystal processor specialists of the Federation created the special DLC 'Virtual Spirits Sector' together. It was supposed to be a simple experiment to verify certain fundamental theories and rules. But for some reason, something went wrong in the experiment and raised a serious accident.
"The accident directly led to Su Changfa's death. Then, Professor Mo Xuan was frustrated, too. He believed that, with the development speed of the crystal processors and the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus in the Federation right now, it was impossible for a virtual life with self-awareness to be born in the next five hundred years. Also, we were faced with the military pressure of the Imperium at the time. Therefore, he was forced to shift to other fields of study. Eventually, Professor Xie Wufeng took his place.
"More importantly, the accident and his master's miserable death planted the seed of rebellion in Lu Qingchen's heart. He eventually joined the Imperium of True Human Beings and became the president of the CFIA!
"If history can be hypothesized, perhaps we can imagine that, if Professor Mo Xuan had not been so radical as to launch the experiments of the 'Virtual Spirits Sector' in a hurry when the conditions were not yet mature, Su Changfa would not have been killed, Professor Mo Xuan himself would not have been frustrated, and Lu Qingchen would not have joined the Imperium's side because of the stimulation.
"Then, wouldn't the situation in the Federation be much better today? After all, the CFIA is the biggest trouble within the Federation! "
So, that was the case. He did not expect that so many things would happen outside while he was sleeping.
The accident that Ling Xiaole described so casually could not have been so simple. Su Changfa was killed in such a way. Even Professor Mo Xuan was frustrated. That was really …
Wait!
Li Yao frowned. He suddenly felt that something was not right.
Based on their experience on Firefly, and especially the rebellion that Ding Zhengyang and Cheng Xuansu launched under the instigation of Lu Qingchen of the CFIA, Li Yao and Long Yangjun had analyzed before that Lu Qingchen was probably one of Jin Xinyue's men who had intentionally created the 'CFIA' to attract all the Immortal Cultivators so that they could be captured once and for all.
However, Ling Xiaole was claiming that Lu Qingchen had joined the Imperium's side because of the collapse of the 'Virtual Spirits Sector' and the miserable death of his master Su Changfa.
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