"What?"
Han Te and the Coloured Glaze exclaimed at the same time. "You've regained your memories?"
All the people who fell from the sky, be they the 'old grandpas' who boasted ultimate skills, the ordinary men, women, and children, or even the remaining souls that were 'stored' in crystal processors or even rings, as long as they were human beings in a certain form, it was inevitable that they would not remember anything about their past except for their survival instincts.
It was almost unprecedented that Gu Zhengyang had gradually regained his memories. Even Li Yao was very curious about it.
Frowning, Gu Zhengyang scratched his temples softly and pondered for a moment. "I don't know if it was a real memory or just a chaotic nightmare. All in all, some time ago, when I was so ill that I was about to fall asleep and my head was about to explode, some mottled pieces surfaced from the depths of my brain.
"In the 'pieces', I seemed to be wearing heavy metal shackles, which were releasing powerful electric arcs that pierced into my limbs and bones. Some people who were expressionless or were wearing metal masks escorted me to a certain place.
"It seemed to be a place named 'Hall of Trials' or 'Inquisition'. I can't remember it clearly. All in all, I suffered the most excruciating torture there. Compared to the torture in the nightmare, the life-and-death battles in the Land of Sins were as comfortable as the cool breeze on a summer afternoon.
"I didn't know how long I was tortured in the 'Hall of Trials', but I was finally escorted to the front of a woman who was wearing a glamorous mask. She was wearing a pure white robe from head to toe, and she was holding a small, delicately carved hammer in her hands. The hammer left a particularly deep impression on me because the woman knocked me hard with it and declared, 'Guilty!'
"I didn't know what crime I had committed exactly. I only remembered that I was so tortured that I did not even have the strength to struggle. Then, I was pressed onto a cold metal bed, which was as cold as an ice sculpture.
"In the bed, somebody shaved my hair. Cold hands touched my bald head here and there, and some tools that were as hard as iron scratched my skull.
"Lastly …"
Gu Zhengyang's voice was even more shivering. The tough man shuddered again. Pointing at his temples, he said, "It seems that somebody dug in from here with a very sharp drill and then cut open my skull with a twisted saw that looked like a sickle.
"At that time, I should have been very clear-headed, so clear-headed that every second felt like a year. I could clearly sense the stink of the drill rubbing against my skull and the sizzling sound of high-speed friction. It was the most terrifying sound that a person could hear.
"There shouldn't be any pain in the brain, but I clearly feel a pain that makes me go crazy. It's as if there are ten thousand man-eating ants crawling around in my brain, but I can't move my hands and feet …
"That's the end of the nightmare. I don't know anything after that. After the long darkness, it was my memories in the Land of Sins."
"Ah …"
When Coloured Glaze heard her father's words and saw his incomparably twisted face, she was so distressed that tears almost fell. She reached out her trembling little hand, wanting to touch her father's temple, but she didn't dare to, afraid that she would touch some terrifying scar.
"Don't be scared."
Grinning, Gu Zhengyang tapped his skull and said, "I've already touched it carefully. There are no scars on my head that indicate that my entire skull has been opened. Even if there are a few scars, they must have been left in the battles after I came to the Land of Sins. That's why I suspect that it was just a bizarre nightmare."
"Exactly. That can't have happened, can it?"
Han Te comforted Coloured Glaze, too. "Opening a person's skull, doing weird things inside, and then sewing the skull back without leaving any scars is too bizarre. It must've been the chaotic spiritual energy in your brain when you were ill, and you had the bizarre nightmares."
Li Yao, however, knew that craniotomy was a very mature technology even a hundred years ago in the Xing Yao Federation. Also, cell proliferation and skin repair were very popular, too. The scars left by the operations could've been completely erased, too.
However, what were the so-called 'hall of trial' and 'guilty' all about?
The Martial Meritocrats Sector had completely turned into a weapons laboratory. In such an artificial world where the strong preyed on the weak and seriously polluted, it was impossible to maintain enough 'test subjects' without the incessant 'new blood' from the outside. Perhaps, all the natives of the Martial Meritocrats Sector should've gone extinct hundreds of years ago, and the place would've been abandoned.
Unless countless people who had been declared 'guilty' by the 'hall of trial' had undergone craniotomy, part of their cerebral cortex had been removed, and certain things had even been implanted into them before they were thrown to the Martial Meritocrats Sector to make up for the shortage of the 'test subjects'.
If Li Yao's soul had teeth, they would've been gnawed into pieces by him right now.
Thinking for a moment, Li Yao realized that the chip in Gu Zhengyang's hand was rather uncanny.
He sent a wave to Han Te's brain without batting an eyelid.
Han Te blinked quickly and said, "Right. Master, what's with the chip that stores' Little Cultivators'? You said just now that it was given to you by Masteress. Then, where did Masteress get it? "
Caught in the distant memories, Gu Zhengyang said uncertainly, "According to Masteress, a traveler who passed by the Village of Peace gave it to her when she was very young.
"The Land of Sins is full of perils. Even the teams that are doing business in the 'Elysian Worlds' have to be escorted by hundreds of experts in order to travel between the 'Bloody Worlds' and the 'Desolate Worlds'. The so-called 'traveler' is even rarely-seen.
"What was even more amazing was that the traveler was a white-haired old woman. It was said that she passed through the Bloody Worlds, which were guarded by more than ten ferocious gangs at that time, and came to the Village of Peace unscathed.
"I don't know what the old woman saw in Masteress, but all in all, she stayed with Masteress for a while and told her a lot of stories. Before she left, she even gave Masteress a bag of Gold Barley seeds and the chip.
"The old woman told Masteress that the Gold Barley seeds and the chip might be enough to save the entire Land of Sins.
"The Gold Barley could be planted anywhere, but the chip was of paramount importance. If it was exposed easily, it might lead to disasters. The old woman asked Masteress to only tell the secrets of the chip to someone she could absolutely trust in the future and pass on the chip to them.
"After so many years of being together with Masteress, she did not tell me the secrets of the chip until the last moment. It was not until then that I realized what a heavy burden she was shouldering and what a great thing it was.
"You two children are both very good. The Village of Peace has reached a perilous moment. I cannot delay it any longer. I will give the chip to the two of you right now. Whether or not the world described in the chip is real, and what secrets are hidden behind the so-called 'Land of Sins', it's up to you to decide for yourself whether you want to pursue them or forget them."
Gu Zhengyang put the chip back into the metal box and handed the metal box to the two little fellows solemnly. He sighed softly, as if a certain strength that had supported him all the time had been stored in the box and passed on to the two little fellows.
"Starlight!"
The mental devil shouted next to Li Yao's soul. "That's right. The old woman that Gu Zhengyang talked about must be a warrior of 'Starlight', the legendary resistance organization of the Cultivators. No matter how harsh the environment in the Land of Sins is and how closely the angels, or the Immortal Cultivators, are monitoring, the Cultivators of the Martial Meritocrats Sector are still not completely extinct. They are still resisting in their own way. At the very least, they have passed on the ideas of the Cultivators from generation to generation!"
"Very likely!"
Li Yao was rather excited, too.
The Xing Yao Federation had chosen the Devilish Scorpion Nebula and the Martial Meritocrats Sector as the first jump points precisely because they wanted to reach out to the Cultivators' organization in the place.
So far, it was possible that 'Starlight' did exist and had been active since decades ago!
"Dad …"
Coloured Glaze thought for a long time. Biting her lips softly, she asked, "Is Mom a Cultivator? Does she believe in the ideas of the Cultivators?"
"I … don't know."
Gu Zhengyang smiled bitterly. "Compared to the world of birds, flowers, and sunlight in the video, our Land of Sins is almost a living hell. Who of the people who are struggling to survive in the hell does not have their hands stained with blood? Who is qualified to call themselves' Cultivators'? Also, I don't think that your mother agrees with the ideas of the Cultivators very much, does she? "
Coloured Glaze was confused. "Why?"
Gu Zhengyang's face suddenly turned weird. He said gloomily, "Because before she left, she pulled me to her side and whispered something into my ear — all the Cultivators are hopeless idiots, and the Cultivators of the Martial Meritocrats Sector are particularly so."
"Well —"
Han Te and Coloured Glaze looked at each other in bewilderment. The two little fellows did not understand what it meant at all.
Only Li Yao, who basically knew the whole process of the destruction of the Martial Meritocrats Sector, could understand how Coloured Glaze's mother felt at that time.
The woman who tried to grow the Gold Barley all over the Land of Sins must've learned more things through a certain channel, right?
At first, she opened the door to the bandits, allowing the believers of Chi You from the Sand Primitive Sector to work and settle in the Martial Meritocrats Sector. They were even given the right to vote.
Then, she came up with the "original sin theory" and the "bill of comprehensive equality" for the Cultivators, making the power of the Cultivators infinitely suppressed.
In the end, Blackstar the Great, a dangerous person who had metamorphosed into an Immortal Cultivator, was set free. Eventually, he was allowed to return to his "hometown" aggressively with a large fleet of the Imperium and grant the "compatriots" in his hometown the cruelest trial!
The Cultivators of the Martial Meritocrats Sector were much more than just "idiots".
However …
If Coloured Glaze's mother was not a Cultivator, how could she have been idiotic enough to believe that she could grow the Gold Barley all over the Land of Sins, settle all the conflicts on her own, and make everybody live happily and peacefully together?
"All the Cultivators are hopeless idiots, especially the Cultivators of the Martial Meritocrats Sector."
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