"Wait!"
Li Yao grew anxious and extended his hands into the darkness. "Don't go just yet, Long Yangjun!"
"Why? Haven't you had enough?"
Long Yangjun's laughter was unpredictable. "It's fine. Let's continue next time!"
"No."
Li Yao did not know what to say, either. "You know, on my journey from the Tian Yuan Realm to the Flying Star Sector, to the Blood Demon Sector, the Ancient Sages Sector, and finally to the center of the cosmos, I have been against countless people and killed a lot of experts in person. Some of them were indeed heinous and deserved to die, but some of them might not have deserved to die if they had not been so obstinate.
"If those people were still alive and slightly changed their minds, it was possible that the world would be better instead of worse. We could even be friends. Even sitting down to eat, drink, and chat would be much better than fighting each other to the death.
"What I'm trying to say is that I've killed enough enemies, and it is not a very pleasant thing to recall. Even if you are really not a human being but a hybrid of the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan, it doesn't matter even if you are a monster, as long as you are not determined to do the most heinous and insane things, I still hope that we can be friends, not just partners, and certainly not enemies. This is what I mean. Trust me!"
Long Yangjun did not seem to expect Li Yao to be so sincere. After a brief daze, she asked, "What do you mean by 'heinous and insane things'?"
"You know what I mean," Li Yao said. "It's what the supervillains often do. For example, destroying mankind and so on."
"Hahahaha!"
Long Yangjun burst into laughter. Her laughter was particularly long in the dark tunnel. "Isn't your imagination a bit too rich? Do you still need me to destroy human beings? You have done a great job of 'destroying human beings' on your own. All I need to do is to crouch on the side and admire your work slowly. Why do I have to do it myself and do the extra work? "
Li Yao said solemnly, "Alright. Then, I'll assume that you are not hostile to human beings. In that case, why don't you tell me what you are up to exactly? Maybe I can help you as a 'friend' without asking for anything in return."
After a brief daze, Long Yangjun asked, "Why?"
Li Yao said, "Do we need a reason to be friends? We're all cultivators, so we're all loyal and sentimental! If I have to give you a reason, it's because I think you are not a bad person. When we explored the underground laboratory of the Pangu clan deep inside the Nuwa warship, you could've dealt greater damage to the exploration team with your familiarity with the terrain. But you did not hurt anyone and simply slipped away in an escape capsule. It made me feel that … no matter how harsh your words are, you are still attached to, or rather, looking forward to, human beings in your heart, aren't you? "
Long Yangjun sniffed and said, "When did you learn to be so mushy?"
Li Yao said, "Everything I said was true. If you are willing to believe me as a human being, I am willing to believe you, too. Whatever you want to do, I can help you!"
Long Yangjun fell silent again. She was so silent that Li Yao thought that she had slipped away again. Then, she said slowly, "I told you everything before I left the Xing Yao Federation. I was not lying.
"I was born in a world of ancient Cultivators and grew up as a human being. I even lived in the society of human beings for a hundred years and completely considered myself a real human being. Other than the bizarre dreams, I did not have any second thoughts at all.
"But one day, new bloodlines and identities were awakened to, not one but two. I discovered that I was no longer a member of the world that I was familiar with in the past but from a time and space that was even more distant. My compatriots all perished hundreds of thousands of years ago, and I was the only one left … who had been forgotten to this day.
"The dual bloodlines of the Pangu and the Nuwa Clan entangled and fought inside my body, turning my cells and my soul into a battlefield. Whether it was absolute order or absolute chaos, I was faced with such a dilemma every second. I was also faced with a difficult choice about my identity.
"Who am I? Where am I from? Where am I going? Everybody, or rather, every intelligent life, has been searching for the answers to the three questions since they were born, right?
"From the edge of the cosmos to the center of the cosmos, from the Ancient Sages Sector to the Xing Yao Federation to the Imperium of True Human Beings, everything I did was for the sole purpose of finding the 'ultimate answers' to the three questions.
"I am standing on a fork in my destiny. There are three paths leading to the future in front of me. I can choose to be a member of the Pangu Clan, I can choose to be a member of the Nuwa Clan, or … if possible, I can continue to walk on as a human being.
"How should I choose exactly? I haven't made up my mind yet. Let's wait and see. Is this some kind of 'choice-phobia'? Haha! "
Taking a deep breath, Li Yao tried to speak as calmly as possible. "Can you continue to evolve into a Pangu, the god of the people of the Holy League?"
"Is there a problem?"
Long Yangjun chuckled. "It has occurred to me that both the people of the Federation and the people of the Holy League are highly prejudiced against the Pangu and the people of the Holy League. You are always saying that you want to liberate all the people of the Holy League and help them 'awaken', but how do you know that the people of the Holy League need to be liberated and want to be 'awakened'?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
Li Yao said angrily. "Those people of the Holy League have been deprived of feelings and free will. They are incomplete and miserable machines!"
"Wrong," Long Yangjun said.
Long Yangjun said, "I told you before I left the federation that human beings did not have feelings in the first place. It was only because their brains were invaded by the extraterrestrial devils, like a crystal processor that was infected by a virus, that they developed feelings and self-will.
"Of course, it is not bad to have feelings and self-will, but even without feelings and self-will, they are just another normal state and do not need to be saved by anybody.
"Irregularity is the norm of life in the first place. If all lives are exactly the same, they will not be far away from destruction. Human beings with feelings and self-will are like birds in the sky, and human beings without feelings and self-will are like fish in the water. Perhaps the birds feel that the fish swimming at the bottom of the water is a form of confinement and suffocation, but if they drag the fish out of the water by force, it will only cause a greater tragedy.
"Besides, the lives of the 'birds' like you are a mess, too. Thousands of meters down from this tunnel, there are countless smoky underground towns where tens of millions of people live. You must've heard a thing or two about the miserable and painful lives of the human beings who live there, haven't you? What, do you want to liberate the people of the Holy League and let them live the same life as the bottom-level people of the Imperium? "
Li Yao was rendered speechless for a moment.
He could not go against his conscience and say that the 'hominoids' who lived at the bottom level of the Imperium and were exploited and even slaughtered blatantly would certainly have a better life than the 'demi-humans' in the Holy League who did not have feelings and self-will.
The more she talked, the more excited she became, as if Li Yao had drawn out the deepest resentment in her heart. "The more I know about human beings, the more scared I am of the smart and brutal creatures like you. I used to think that everything around me was like this because I grew up in the ancient, underdeveloped Ancient Sages Sector. But when I came to the Federation and the Imperium, which were more advanced, civilized, and modern, I discovered that nothing had changed. If anything, it was worse.
"You invented all kinds of powerful, terrifying weapons with the excuse of conquering the sea of stars. Those weapons were a hundred times more destructive than the magical equipment of the Ancient Sages Sector. But as soon as they were produced one second, you would throw those weapons at your own kind without any hesitation in the next second.
"Your elites and leaders said all kinds of lofty, righteous words to deceive the innocent and the ignorant to fight each other under all kinds of awesome banners. But after all the lofty words were stripped away, they were always found to be stealthy and selfish.
"Compared to the Ancient Sages Sector, the materials in your modern society are obviously much more abundant. Those who are rich, powerful, and strong have more resources than they can spend in ten lifetimes. Even a business leader or even a senior white-collar worker lives a more comfortable life than the emperor of the Ancient Sages Sector. But in the corners below the ground, some people are still starved to death after crying all night long. Why is that?
"From the ancient times to the modern times, from the Federation to the Imperium, I've seen so many … incomprehensible and even unimaginable things. What reason do you want me to convince myself to become a member of such human beings again? Let's say — let's say that I don't want to be associated with the evil but go to the Holy League and evolve into a real Pangu, leading the people who have no feelings, no selfish desires, and no evil to seek a brand-new way of life and civilization. Would that be insane, unpardonable, and unpardonable? "
Li Yao was deeply shocked by Long Yangjun's words.
He felt that her words were even sharper than the invisible wind blades and air swords just now.
He did not have any answers to the questions. He simply clenched his fists and said, "If you want to change the world, you don't have to go to the Holy League. You can change it even if you stay in the Imperium! Stand next to me, fight side by side with me, and give the reformists a hand. As two travelers at the edge of the cosmos, we can take care of each other. Whatever training resources or magical equipment or weapons you need, the reformists will have everything that the Dongfang family has! "
Long Yangjun chuckled in amusement. "Hey, hey, hey. Are you too immersed in your role, or have you really been brainwashed by Queen Li Linghai and transformed from a Cultivator into an Immortal Cultivator? You are here as a lobbyist for her to persuade her to surrender? "
"Of course I remember that I am a Cultivator, and I know exactly what I am doing."
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