"Colonel Song Guanghe is definitely not out of his mind. The Covenant Alliance wouldn't allow a lunatic to be the ground commander of a resource planet. His memories are very clear, and his head is very clear. He remembers everything in the past."
Zhuge Jinglun explained to Li Yao, "He remembers his childhood in the Imperium as a noble, his wife and his three children, and even the whole process when the Covenant Alliance modified him. But he simply embraced the Path of Ultimate Benevolence wholeheartedly and cut himself off from his past, turning into a member of the Ultimate Benevolence.
"Talk to him. It'll be very interesting. I believe that you'll have a clearer understanding of the Holy League."
Li Yao met "Colonel Song Guanghe" in the secret prison in the depths of the Third Research Institute.
Li Yao's first impression of the colonel was quite good. He was a handsome, well-mannered, clean, and simple middle-aged man. The hospital gown that was wrinkled on other people was as straight as a military uniform on him. Even the top button of the gown was fastened properly.
His face was not as indifferent as the people of the Covenant Alliance up there. Instead, he put on a delicate and warm smile, giving a very warm feeling.
However, it was just an illusion.
Zhuge Jinglun told Li Yao that a nurse and a researcher had already been killed by Colonel Song Guanghe because they were deceived by the warm smile.
Nobody expected that he would kill them. The nurse and the researcher were not important, and he couldn't get away even if he killed them. Also, they did not mistreat him but took good care of him. There was no telling why he killed them for no reason.
After killing two innocent people in a row, Colonel Song Guanghe's cell had been completely sealed. Even the air he breathed had to be filtered before it could be transmitted in. The wall of the cell was made of one-way glass, and the people outside could see everything, but Colonel Song Guanghe could not see what was going on outside.
When Li Yao saw Colonel Song Guanghe, he was watching a soap opera projected on the enormous light beam with his hands on his knees obediently. It was a drama that was specifically designed for housewives and gossipy aunts. It was a drama that was full of chatter and childish love and hate, and it was a drama that screamed and yelled at the slightest thing.
He had no choice. It was part of his research. Zhuge Jinglun would play the emotional movies for him every day, hoping to detect the anomaly of his brainwaves.
It was a pity that Colonel Song Guanghe's brainwaves did not change at all, as if he were staring at a blank wall.
On the bed next to him were some novels and poems. Zhuge Jinglun did not want Colonel Song Guanghe to touch the crystal processor, so the novels and poems were made of rarely-seen paper. The smell of books and ink added a sense of vintage to the small cell.
It was also a test.
Unfortunately, although Colonel Song Guanghe read these novels and poems with great interest, it did not cause the slightest stir to his tranquil heart.
"Colonel Song, I've brought a guest, a real big shot."
Zhuge Jinglun spoke to the cell through the broadcast rune arrays. "He wants to ask you some questions. If you can answer them well, maybe I can consider changing your living conditions into a bigger cell for you."
Colonel Song Guanghe continued to watch without blinking for more than half a minute until the two women on the three-dimensional light curtain were done quarreling. He then retracted his gaze, smoothed the wrinkles on his clothes, slowly got up, and put his hands on the one-way glass.
Although he knew that he could not see what was going on outside, his eyes that were as clear as water still seemed to have penetrated through the sealed cell and reached Li Yao.
"Director Zhuge, just call me 'Song Guanghe'. A name is just a codename, and I haven't been a 'colonel' for a long time."
Colonel Song Guanghe said with a smile, "I'm more than happy to answer all your questions, but there's no need to change my cell. You won't change my cell. You just want to see me burst into fury.
"Besides, this place is great. Human beings are just a speck of dust in the vast universe. This cell is big enough for a speck of dust."
Zhuge Jinglun and Li Yao looked at each other and said, "Do you see how weird the people of Ultimate Benevolence are?"
Thinking for a moment, Li Yao said straightforwardly, "Colonel Song Guanghe, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm very interested in the Holy League and the Path of Ultimate Benevolence. I'm even hoping to resolve the conflicts between the Imperium and the Holy League in ways other than war. Thank you for answering my questions frankly.
"I saw that you were watching a TV series about love and emotional entanglements. How was it? What do you think?"
"It's not bad, honorable guest."
Colonel Song Guanghe said with a smile, "It's very interesting."
"Interesting?"
Li Yao asked in surprise, "How so? Does it touch your heart?"
"For example, we all know that ants can release special substances by waving their antennae. They communicate with each other and establish a rigorous social system."
Song Guanghe said, "If we are ants, we will be able to sense a lot of information from the material. I can feel the love and hatred of ants, and I can feel the bravery and fury of ants. The confrontation of two ant colonies is like a war between two countries. Countless inspiring heroes and shameless scoundrels will emerge. Many touching legends and even a magnificent epic will be left behind.
"It's a pity that we are not ants but human beings. Therefore, when we see the confrontation of two ant colonies below the tree, we will only find it 'interesting', but we cannot understand or care about the love and hatred of ants, the heroes and villains of ants, and the legends and epics of ants, right?
"By the same logic, when I watch these so-called emotional TV series made of emotions and two female human beings fighting for a male human being, it's like watching two groups of ants fighting or two female gorillas fighting. It's' very interesting ', that's all."
If it weren't for the fact that the guy could hear him, Li Yao would've whistled for Colonel Song Guanghe.
The Clan of Ultimate Benevolence was indeed different from the bottom-level people of the Holy League. Their minds were very clear, and they had their own logic. It was not so easy to 'correct' them.
"Then …"
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao asked again, "If the TV series cannot touch you at all, what about your past self? Director Zhuge said that you remember everything in the past very clearly. You remember your wife and your children. Even they cannot touch your heart? What do you think of your past self? "
"Yes, my past self."
The delicate smile on Colonel Song Guanghe's face remained unchanged, as if it had been deeply engraved. He shook his head slowly and said, "It was truly a dark period that I do not want to look back on. I was bewitched by the extraterrestrial devils, driven by my animal instincts, and influenced by the crazy people around me. I was drowned in the swamp of sins together with them, unable to free myself.
"At that time, I was greedy for power and lust. I flattered and begged the experts, schemed against my companions, and exploited and even killed the weak for no reason.
"I could kill my best friend without batting an eyelid in order to fight for the right to command the family's battle group. I could also marry a woman I didn't even know in order to climb up the social ladder. I even used the most extreme methods to train my own flesh and blood for some meaningless vanity and made them participate in the most dangerous survival trials. In the end, my youngest child was killed.
"I was addicted to the aura of power and the pressure of strength, and I was completely enslaved by the extraterrestrial devils. The most evil time, I even killed five hundred innocent villagers in my eagerness to claim military credit by pretending to be a member of the Holy League. I had to do it because almost all the noble officers on the frontline did the same.
"Sins. They were truly boundless sins. I shudder when I think of them. I really don't know how my past self was soaked in the black swamp without knowing it. I even felt that I was like a fish in water!
"Thankfully, all the sins are in the past. The Ultimate Benevolence Masters enlightened me on the real path and gave me a chance to wash away my sins in the past. I finally found my own peace.
"Honorable guest, whatever your identity is exactly, I believe that you must be an Immortal Cultivator, right? Then, you must've been soaked in the swamp of sins without knowing it, just like me in the past. I sincerely hope that you can realize your sins sooner, get rid of the life in the darkness, and find … the ultimate peace that belongs to you.
Li Yao's eyelids twitched. "Ultimate peace? Is that why you killed a nurse and a researcher? "
"Yes. I sensed the sins in them," Colonel Song Guanghe said casually.
"More importantly," Song Guanghe said casually, "I saw that they still had their conscience and were struggling in the swamp of darkness, but they did not know how to wash away their sins. Therefore, I gave them a hand and brought them back to eternal tranquility from the ocean of misery.
"Do you not feel that you are forcing other people by doing that?"
Li Yao said, "When you were captured by the Holy League, you were brainwashed by coercion too, weren't you? What's your comment on such coercion? Don't you think that human beings should have the right to choose their path freely?"
"If a person wants to cut his artery, won't you kick the knife in his hand away by force?"
Song Guanghe asked back, "If someone is about to hang himself, won't you go and 'carry' him down by force? If you see someone struggling in the fire pit, do you want to ask him politely first and get his permission before you save him?
"Freedom. What is freedom exactly? Should humans really have the freedom to harm their own bodies, to take drugs, to waste resources recklessly, and to kill each other?
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