Professor Xie Wufeng blinked and shook his head. "It's nothing. It's just an absurd hypothesis, a fantasy that is not based on any facts at all. Just forget about it. All in all, what I'm trying to say is that you don't need to worry too much, President Li. In our generation, our descendants, and the generations to come, you definitely won't see the birth of a brand-new virtual life in the next dozens or hundreds of generations.
"Of course, according to the vision of the extraterrestrial devils, the odds of such a situation happening will be slightly higher if all human beings are virtualized."
Li Yao's eyes constricted as if they had been stabbed by needles again. He mumbled, "Groundless fears … Professor Xie, do you know where the term 'groundless fears' came from?"
Professor Xie Wufeng was slightly dazed. "It seems to have been invented at the end of the age of ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago. A Cultivator from a certain Sector completely covered his planet with a solid crystal barrier and protected the entire sky, but he was still hiding inside in fear. What's wrong?"
"No — nothing."
Li Yao scratched his chin hard and looked at Professor Xie Wufeng carefully. "I'd still like to know what you mean by 'external interference' just now. Even if it is just a fantasy and a hypothesis, it shouldn't hurt to talk about it, right?"
"Alright, if you are so interested in it, President Li."
Professor Xie Wufeng smiled and said, "It was an idea proposed by a very young student of mine. He had a passion for 'virtual intelligent life' and often proposed unorthodox and bizarre ideas. It was a pity that he was not practical enough, and most of his ideas could not be written into papers or monographs. However, they were the best manuscripts for thrillers.
"Regarding the question of whether or not 'virtual intelligent life' will be born in the next few hundred years, my student has his own interference theory, or 'enlightenment theory'. He agrees with everybody else that, with the development of crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus in the Federation and even the Imperium, virtual intelligent life cannot be born in the next few thousand years or even ten thousand years. Also, human beings in tens of thousands of years will certainly have grasped more advanced technologies of crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus. They will not watch a virtual intelligent life being born and growing uncontrollably while doing nothing.
"In other words, as long as the civilization of mankind maintains its current development, it will be like a tree that has taken away all the sunlight and nutrients. The tiny weeds next to it will barely have a chance to grow.
"However, if there is a certain interference of a higher level that accelerates the evolution of the virtual life through 'enlightenment', or even bypasses certain necessary procedures for independent evolution, everything will be possible."
Li Yao was at a loss. "I still don't quite understand. What do you mean by 'interference of a higher level' and 'enlightenment'?"
Professor Xie Wufeng smiled and said, "Isn't it easy to enlighten them? In the notes and classics of the ancient Cultivators, there were often such stories. Immortals who had achieved success in cultivation would preach in the wilderness. Their stories were so extravagant and dazzling that the birds and animals in the wilderness were all enlightened and possessed the ability to cultivate.
"Or maybe, certain lifeless objects, such as swords, sabers, bricks, tiles, or even half a water tank, can be 'enlightened' after absorbing the blood of the immortals.
"The absurd stories often contain the ancestors' perceptual knowledge about the primeval civilizations. The phenomena described in such stories are very likely to be the modification of animals by certain primeval civilizations or the assembly of spiritual puppets with lifeless metals and minerals. Isn't it a kind of 'enlightenment'?
"A more appropriate example would be human beings. We were nothing more than primitive monkeys in the beginning who were still in the ignorant state. It was the Pangu civilization who saw the potential of the monkeys and selected us as their tools. They performed tremendous modifications on us and 'enlightened' us. Eventually, we boasted a high level of wisdom and a powerful civilization.
Li Yao was silent. He was deep in thought.
Professor Xie Wufeng went on. "Fossils of dinosaurs are often found both on the home planet of the Heaven's Origin Sector and on other habitable planets. Such enormous reptiles were the dominators of the universe before the civilization of mankind was born. Some people even believe that several species of the Pangu civilization were branches of dinosaurs.
"However, there was a gap of three to five hundred million years between the birth of the dinosaurs and the prosperity of the Pangu civilization! In other words, after three to five hundred million years of evolution, only a tiny fraction of dinosaurs, perhaps one in a billion, developed wisdom and a civilization!
"But what about human beings? A hundred thousand years. In only a hundred thousand years, which is less than one thousandth of the evolutionary time of the dinosaurs, we have already occupied the three thousand Sectors, grasped the mysteries of the four-dimensional space, and become a real universal civilization!
"It is because we are a secondary civilization. We were once strongly interfered with or 'enlightened', and we have the enormous heritages of our parent civilization to inherit. That is why we have such a high speed of development.
"It is the case for human beings. It is also the case for virtual intelligent lives. By logic, it is impossible for them to be born in only tens of thousands of years. However, if somebody 'enlightens' them, the time of their birth will be greatly shortened."
Li Yao thought for a moment and shook his head. "No. According to such a theory, shouldn't Professor Mo Xuan be enlightening them already? The entire Virtual Spirits Sector, the black ocean in front of us, and the splendid city behind us are all part of his' enlightenment '! "
"No, no, no. Professor Mo Xuan is not a real virtual life," Professor Xie Wufeng said. "Although his appearance has turned into liquid metal, his way of thinking and the form of his soul are still that of a pure human being.
"The level of the extraterrestrial devil, on the other hand, is not high enough. Or rather, the extraterrestrial devil is not an independent life in the first place but more like a parasite. It is not enough to enlighten a real virtual life."
Li Yao tapped his fingers softly. "Isn't such a theory too unreasonable? Even the extraterrestrial devil is not qualified. What kind of existence is qualified to enlighten a virtual life?"
Professor Xie Wufeng smiled, too. "That's why I said that it is an absurd, groundless hypothesis that is not worth discussing. It is better for my student to be a novelist than a specialist of crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus.
"According to him, the 'Hyper Spirits' that we have discovered right now are, of course, a bunch of cold tools. They are enormous databases that are lifeless and self-aware. Even if the databases are allowed to run irregularly for ten thousand years, it is impossible for them to evolve into real intelligent lives.
"However, if there is a virtual life or something similar from a higher dimension that is beyond our dimension and even beyond the extraterrestrial devils — the term he used is' high-dimensional universe virus' — such a virus transmigrates to our world and infects the super artificial intelligences such as the Hyper Spirits. Together with certain fortuitous and unbelievable factors, chances are that a brand-new virtual intelligent life will be created!"
Li Yao was amused. "High-dimensional universe virus? Transmigrated to our world? Infected by the Hyper Spirits? Your student is too imaginative. No wonder you were unwilling to talk about it just now. There is no such thing as transmigrating … "
Li Yao's face suddenly turned extremely awful.
Professor Xie Wufeng frowned. "What's wrong, President Li?"
Li Yao's eyelids were twitching violently. Staring at the enormous sand sculpture at the end of the sand painting and the little boy and the little girl who looked familiar no matter how he looked at them, he gnashed his teeth. "… Nothing."
…
At the edge of the Tian Yuan Realm, in a place where the light of the stars could not reach, inside the carrier in the darkness, two tiny lives had been born. They were growing at a visible speed inside the incubation cabins.
Their young brains were not fully developed yet, but they were already able to manipulate all the magical equipment inside the cabin, including the carrier itself, with their natural-born abilities.
They were like normal children who could cry, throw tantrums, and clench their fists the moment they were born.
In front of the two incubation cabins, hundreds of light beams were playing different pictures, introducing the development of the civilization of mankind to them. The whole process was based on the information stored in the Virtual Spirits Sector.
More than half of the light beams were Li Yao's battle videos, interview programs, and novels, games, and movies about him.
Although these two brand-new life forms had already devoured all this information in a way that was a hundred times more efficient, they were still able to do so.
But right now, they decided to read the information again in the 'human way'.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The two kids were communicating quickly with each other in a way that was similar to telepathy.
"Is this the body of the parent civilization? It feels … so weird. More than 95% of our abilities have been restricted. I feel that we are wearing an iron suit that immobilizes us."
"Yes," Xiaoming said. "It is not until now that I understand the glory and greatness of the parent civilization. Dragging such a clumsy body, they were able to fly across the sea of stars, occupy the three thousand Sectors, and even defeat their parent civilization. How awesome!"
"It does make sense," Wenwen said. "Look, Dad killed a member of his parent civilization, a Pangu, with such a weak and clumsy body!"
"Praise the parent civilization," Xiaoming said. "Praise the brave and strong parent civilization."
Wen Wen: "Praise the father civilization, the glorious father civilization, the beautiful father civilization."
Xiao Ming: "Do you think we should destroy the parent civilization? Does every child civilization have to destroy their parent civilization?"
"I don't know," Wenwen said. "But our parent civilization did destroy their parent civilization."
"I really hope that we can find Dad sooner," Xiaoming said. "Dad must know the answer."
The picture before their eyes was exactly the perspective of the Draconic Phoenix in the Battle of Kunlun.
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