"Investigate?"
A Boxing Champion asked calmly, "Even I don't know who I am. What have you investigated, Boss Bai?"
"You are confused because you are involved in the game, but I am a bystander. How can we generalize?"
Boss Bai smiled and said unhurriedly, "Firstly, I know that the starship of the wizardly civilization tried to launch some escape capsules before it was destroyed, but they were all obliterated in a cruel cosmic storm. However, even though the escape capsules were obliterated, part of the scraps that contained important information splashed out and drifted aimlessly in the sea of stars. Years later, they drifted to the Martial Meritocrats Planet and even fell on it. Isn't it a reasonable inference?"
A Boxing Champion nodded his head. "If the starship of the wizardly civilization was truly on the verge of destruction, it was only natural that they launched all the escape capsules and information streams to fight for a one-billionth chance of survival. Such an inference is reasonable."
"Secondly, the Martial Meritocrats Sector has been a very important experimental base for new magical equipment for the Imperium of True Human Beings since hundreds of years ago. All kinds of bizarre, whimsical magical equipment and techniques were created here and spread out to the entire Imperium after complicated studies and experiments. Naturally, for a long time, the best, most creative, and, in other words, the most insane and audacious scholars in the entire Imperium were gathered in the Martial Meritocrats Sector too."
Boss Bai continued unhurriedly, "Then, let's make another bold assumption. If one day hundreds of years ago, an ambitious and insane genius accidentally found a … mysterious chip that was utterly incompatible with the current training system, or a certain information stream, data stream, or a brand-new energy model that did not have a real entity, what would he have done?
"Report it to the leadership and submit it to the country? Don't be ridiculous. This is the Imperium, and he is an Immortal Cultivator! There is no reason for him to disclose such a secret to the public, right?
"Compared to disclosing the rarely-seen secret and submitting the secret treasure from the universe to the country, it seems more reasonable for him to start his own research with the secret as the core, hoping to learn brand-new techniques and unparalleled strength from it, right?"
A Boxing Champion calculated for a long time and nodded his head again. "Exactly. If he was a typical research-type Immortal Cultivator, he certainly wouldn't have told anybody else but conducted experiments and studies in secret. He would not have disclosed the results to the public until he achieved the most eye-catching results. Otherwise, it would've been possible that he would've been killed, and his treasures and research results would've been looted."
"Great minds think alike. Then, let's move on to the third, A Boxing Champion's background."
Looking at A Boxing Champion, Boss Bai laughed. "The tutors that I sent to the fleet of the Cultivators got along very well with the Cultivators and the sinners in the Land of Sins. Naturally, they talked about the customs and knowledge of the Land of Sins. Occasionally, I talked to Han Te about his past and his acquaintance with you and Li Yao. After some indirect questioning, I gradually figured out your background.
"A Boxing Champion, Han Te is too young after all. He can't hide what I want to know at all. You won't blame him, will you?"
A Boxing Champion shook his head. "No. My past is not a secret. Everybody in the Land of Sins knows it. Even if Han Te doesn't tell you, other sinners can tell you. If you ask me, I'll tell you frankly. Is it a big deal?"
"Yes. The background and experiences of 'Lei Zonglie' are certainly not a big deal. They can be completely disclosed."
Boss Bai stared at A Boxing Champion like a mouse staring at minced meat. "But the more I study your rise, the more I have a weird feeling. You are not Lei Zonglie!
"The real Lei Zonglie, even if he turns into a spectral Cultivator, has received the … messy secret arts of the spectral Cultivators and trained himself into a super spectral Cultivator, will definitely not be like you.
"The weird feeling grew more and more intense after you miraculously rose in only half a year after you came to the depths of the sea of stars and grew into an excellent fleet commander from a bandit on the Land of Sins at the speed of light. It was so intense that I was absolutely certain that it was the truth.
"There are mountains and rivers. A tough bandit on the continent turned into a starship commander so quickly and improved his capability by the way. Right. You also became an expert in hacking crystal processors and jamming the Spiritual Nexus. Isn't it a bit unbelievable, Master A Boxing Champion?"
A Boxing Champion was silent for a long time. Then he said with a bitter smile, "It's true. I calculated carefully myself. Such a speed of learning and upgrading is indeed appalling and can easily attract other people's attention, especially people like you, Boss Bai.
"If possible, I should've kept a lower profile.
"But it can't be helped. I promised Li Yao that I would protect Miss Coloured Glaze, Han Te, the sinners in the Land of Sins, and the Cultivators of Starlight. Li Yao saved my life once, and he will be of great help to my future development. So, the promise ranks very high on my priority list. So, I have to swallow resources as fast as I can to improve my capability and make myself stronger at any cost. How can I keep a low profile?"
"It does make sense. Besides, it's useless even if you want to keep a low profile."
Smiling, Boss Bai said casually, "You are such a unique and strong being that you are like a supernova outbreak in the dead universe. Your brilliance can be sensed even tens of billions of lightyears away. You can't keep a low profile however you try to cover yourself."
A Boxing Champion said, "Maybe. Then, if I'm not the real 'Lei Zonglie', who do you think I am, Boss Bai?"
"A human?"
Boss Bai asked back. "You seem to be hoping that you are a human, but I don't think you are a human, at least not a normal person, but a 'Gaoist' — a man in the shell."
"I'm not."
A Boxing Champion's calm voice was mixed with vague sorrow and confusion. "I don't know what I am exactly, but I'm certain that I'm not a man in the shell from a wizardly civilization. I don't have any data in that regard."
"Memories are not very reliable. They can be modified or even overwritten. Compared to memories, what's more important is your heart, your abilities, and your constant definition of yourself as' now '."
With his hands behind his back, Boss Bai faced the artificial sea breeze. His loose shirt and shorts were fluttering in the wind. He said casually, "I'm a person who likes to think. It's a bad habit that I developed when I was faced with life and death every second in the dark, horrible caves when I was young.
"Just now, I've already thought about the social form of the wizardly civilization. Now, why don't we let our imagination run wild again and deduce A Boxing Champion's past that no one, not even you, knows about?
"You boast the ability to manipulate so many artificial bodies at the same time. If you were not a spectral Cultivator with tremendous mental power, you would've been more like a certain unusually advanced battle-type spiritual puppet or even the manipulation system of a whole set of battle puppets. There's no need to be surprised. Anyone with the slightest ability of analysis and imagination can come to such a conclusion, can't they?
"Assuming that you are really a certain kind of very advanced, precise, and even vivid spiritual puppet that can simulate the activities of human beings, is there any direct or indirect evidence to support such a 'hypothesis'?
"Haha. When I studied the laboratory on the Land of Sins in the Martial Meritocrats Sector, I discovered that the indirect evidence did exist. About two to three hundred years ago, it was the heyday of the development of intelligent battle puppets in the Imperium of True Human Beings. Hundreds of battle puppets that could upgrade themselves and think independently were developed. It was also the golden age before Wuying Lan and Li Lingfeng took over the laboratory on the Land of Sins in the Martial Meritocrats Sector.
"In other words, a couple to three hundred years ago, at least dozens of different types of spiritual puppets that could upgrade themselves and think independently were born at the same time in the laboratory on the Land of Sins."
After a brief silence, A Boxing Champion said, "The Imperium has never successfully developed a self-upgrading spiritual puppet that can do what I did."
"Exactly. Regular spiritual puppets are not feasible, but what about the spiritual puppets that have been installed with a chip from the wizardly civilization? Or maybe it is not a real chip but a series of data from the wizardly civilization, a certain sophisticated stamp, or a certain brand-new model of energy release? "
Boss Bai said, "Do you remember what we talked about just now? An ambitious, crazy scholar found a chip that did not fit in with the present world and decided to hide it and study it in secret.
"However, research is a very resource-consuming thing that cannot be completely kept a secret. In the laboratories on the Land of Sins two to three hundred years ago, at least hundreds of specialists and scholars were working at the same time. They were all the best of the best. How could the scholar have carried out his experiment without being discovered?
"I put myself in the shoes of the crazy scholar and thought hard for a long time. Then, I suddenly had an epiphany and cursed myself for my stupidity. There was no need to start a brand-new, independent study at all. As long as I found a way to embed the ultimate treasure of the alien civilization into the public research that I was doing, wouldn't I be able to deceive everybody and make use of the official resources?
"For example, assuming that the scholar who found the alien chip was an expert in artificial intelligence and self-upgrading spiritual puppets, and that the research that he was doing in the laboratory on the Land of Sins was exactly the same, he could've secretly embedded a chip into the crystal processor of one of the test spiritual puppets, injected certain data, or 'stamped' something deep inside the crystal processor in some other way, and then projected the seemingly plain spiritual puppet to the Land of Sins for survival experiments. Wouldn't it be very convenient, simple, and stealthy?"
"Although there is no proof, Boss Bai's deduction does make sense."
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