Under Li Yao's "patient guidance", Thangka practiced for an entire night in his bed, learning how to control his breathing, heartbeat, and even the spread of his brainwaves.
Li Yao told him that the trick to make his soul hibernate deeply in the darkness and appear to be ordinary on the surface was to imagine his will as a lump of magma that had already been frozen on the outside but was still as hot as fire on the inside, or as a pebble that had all its edges and corners washed away under the impact of a waterfall but still maintained its hardness.
Before dawn, when the wake-up call sounded around the camp, Thangka finally heard his own heartbeat and the sound of his blood rushing through his mind like a tide in the absolute cold silence.
This was a very strange feeling. It was as if his body and thoughts had been completely separated. No matter how his thoughts moved, no matter how agitated his emotions were, his body could remain expressionless and indifferent. His heartbeat and breathing were extremely even.
Li Yao told Thangka that this was a technique that only snipers or assassination experts could master. These assassins in the darkness had to restrain all their physiological activities to the limit, so much so that they were as cold as a corpse and completely integrated with the environment. But at the same time, their brain had to be operating at a super high speed, planning and perfecting every detail of the assassination operation, so that they could seize the most critical 0.01 seconds to strike the target and flee thousands of miles away.
Li Yao himself was the most powerful assassin. Using such a technique to help Thangka conceal his true feelings and thoughts was a waste of talent.
When Thangka opened his eyes, it was as if a brand new door had been opened in front of him, and the whole world had become different.
He sat up straight and expressionlessly looked around at his classmates who were also expressionless. Suddenly, a strange thought popped up in his mind. I wonder how many of my classmates really don't have their own emotions and will, and how many of them are like me right now, clearly having a stormy sea of emotions and will surging in their minds, but not showing the slightest trace of it on the surface?
The class monitor … is she really as indifferent and devout as she shows on the surface?
No, the class monitor must also have her own demons, just like my own demons.
But I don't know what the class monitor's demons are like.
Thangka suddenly didn't hate the feeling of being possessed by demons. It seems, it's quite interesting.
Is it possible that, in fact, everyone has a demon in their body, but they just don't want to talk about it?
In the rapid whistling, Thangka stopped his wild thoughts and began the heavy morning exercise.
The Holy League paid special attention to the physical exercise of the teenagers. Perhaps the heavy exercise completely drained his energy, so he didn't have the energy to think nonsense? Even if he had to carry out heavy purification tasks during the day, the morning exercise subjects didn't lessen his workload at all. But Thangka had already been used to all this. For an entire hour, running and combat training under ten times the gravity was ten times was nothing. He could even practice to hide his emotions and will at the same time to train to train to hide his emotions and to the mind.
After the morning exercise, before the sticky and tasteless synthetic food was served on the table, it was already the second most important moment of the day, which was only second to the holy light at dusk.
All the students, mentors, and soldiers of the purge troop nearby activated their portable crystal processors to a special channel. A 3D light beam shot out from the front end of the crystal processors and condensed into five different images.
They were five solemn, sacred old men in linen with thorns around their waists. They were sitting cross-legged and barefooted.
Their pupils and sclera were indistinguishable, like tunnels leading to the deepest part of the universe. No matter how the 3D images were moved, they seemed to be staring at the eyes of the holder of the crystal processor and even seeing through the brain and heart of the holder of the crystal processor through the eyes.
They were the five Ultimate Benevolence Masters of the five species of the Holy League!
"Praise the gods for allowing your beloved lamb to see the dawn of a new day. The heavens will tell of your glory, and the firmament will spread your name …"
Led by the Ultimate Benevolence Masters, Thangka prayed in silence together with the other students and mentors.
After the brief prayer, he summarized what he did the previous day to the Ultimate Benevolence Masters, including how he reflected on the sins he committed at night and how he executed them. Then, he asked the Ultimate Benevolence Masters if his mental state was stable enough to resist the scourge of more extraterrestrial devils, and if he could continue the arduous and dangerous purification tasks. After receiving the permission of the Ultimate Benevolence Masters, he finally finished the morning prayer.
During the whole morning prayer ritual, Li Yao lurked deep inside the young man's soul and did not come out to ask anything.
He was not scared of being discovered by the Ultimate Benevolence Masters, but he was scared that other people might notice the anomaly if he distracted the young man. After all, the young man had only just learned how to control his brainwaves and biophysical parameters. His methods were not stable enough, and his mind was not mature enough.
After everybody finished the morning prayer and the buckets of steaming "paste" were served, it was not until everybody buried their heads in the buckets that Li Yao asked in a low voice, "That guy just now is your Ultimate Benevolence Masters. Do you have to report your whereabouts and your upcoming missions to him every day?"
"Yes."
Thangka swallowed the paste hard. For some reason, the picture where his monitor stuffed a lollipop into his mouth yesterday popped up in his head again. The lollipop was so sweet that he couldn't tolerate regular food anymore.
It was rather strange that he never realized that the food that he had been eating for more than ten years was so disgusting. It was almost like … a bucket of melted candles!
Thangka struggled to swallow a mouthful of synthesized food. Trying to control his facial expressions, he told Li Yao in his head, "Although we don't see the Ultimate Benevolence Masters in person very often, the Ultimate Benevolence Masters love and guide us in the direction of our progress in such a way. It's like that every day."
"I just noticed that a thousand people are praying together in the camp. There will be even more if the garrisons nearby are counted."
Li Yao pondered for a moment and said, "Also, everybody in the Holy League has to pray in the morning, right? How do you calculate the time of the morning prayer? Do you calculate it according to the rotation cycle of each planet, or do you calculate it according to the same time for all the planets?"
"If we land on a habitable planet, considering the biological clock and our vigor, we will pray in the morning and bathe in holy light in the evening according to the sunrise and sunset time of the planet itself."
Thangka told Li Yao, "However, if we live on a starship and travel in space, our biological clock can be adjusted at will. There is no need to limit it to the rotation cycle of a certain planet. Most starships adopt the same timetable."
"That is to say, at least tens of billions of people are praying in the morning at the same time."
Li Yao analyzed, "But there are only five Ultimate Benevolence Masters, right? However high their level is, it's impossible for them to process the prayers, requests, and reports of billions of people at the same time.
"However, I clearly saw that even the same Ultimate Benevolence Master had different reactions to different prayers just now.
"That is to say, it was not the Ultimate Benevolence Masters who received your prayers just now, but a phantom simulated by certain information. It's fake. Can we understand it that way?"
Thangka was stunned for a long time.
"We have never considered that before."
Thangka said, "The Ultimate Benevolence Masters are the 'first apostles' who have been blessed by the gods. They are made with the last drop of blood that the gods shed in the human world. Is it strange that they can listen to the prayers of billions of people at the same time?"
"Fine. Let me ask you in a different way."
Li Yao asked, not giving up, "Have you ever seen the Ultimate Benevolence Masters in person? The kind that is made of flesh and blood and can poop and pee?"
Thangka was silent for a long time.
"No."
He said, "We usually perceive the existence of the Ultimate Benevolence Masters in a trance during the ritual of holy light. Occasionally, the Ultimate Benevolence Masters will even bestow holy light on one of us so that someone will become his incarnation to deliver his will and enlighten the living beings. Or maybe, the Ultimate Benevolence Masters will manifest enormous illusions in the sky with infinite divine power and deliver the most important decree.
"As for the Ultimate Benevolence Masters in flesh and blood that you mentioned, I … I've never seen them before. It's not strange, is it? After all, the Ultimate Benevolence Masters are so busy that they spend most of their time in deep meditation and communicating with the gods. Why would they waste their time on a nobody like me?"
"Well, I don't want to blaspheme your Ultimate Benevolence Masters and the gods, so I can't say that their tricks are fake."
Li Yao paused for a moment and said, "I can only say this. Assuming that I can control the entire Spiritual Nexus of the Black Castle Planet and have a weather troop that is good at summoning wind and rain, I can simulate the appearance of the Ultimate Benevolence Masters, right?"
Thangka frowned hard.
Thankfully, he had the cover of the "Bucket of Paste", and he immediately realized that something was wrong.
"How can you have such a blasphemous idea?"
Thangka said, "They are the Ultimate Benevolence Masters!"
"Fine, I was wrong. I never meant to pretend to be an Ultimate Benevolence Master. I was only discussing the technical feasibility with you."
Li Yao changed the topic. "Why don't you introduce your mentor to me? Does your dean dine together here?"
"No. The president seems to be dining with the commander of the garrison nearby, but we all have the same food."
Thangka introduced her mentors to Li Yao one by one.
Regrettably, there was no second sunspot among those mentors. At least, Li Yao did not sense as friendly as Thangka from them.
Among the thousand students, some of them did attract Li Yao's attention, but since they were all students like Thangka, it was pointless to swing to them.
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