"You seem to be in a lot of pain. Is it really alright?"
"Just now, in the battle meeting, you mentioned the King of Puppets. 'Do you know that you are under his control?' What did you mean exactly?
"Also, when I searched for the files of 'Black Wind King Li Yao' and the damage he caused on Black Castle, I found some unusual intelligence. The Holy Light Academy, Chu Zhiling, Chu Zhiyun … They seem to be related to you, Major. Do you know anything about them?"
Chu Zhixiao was silent. She smoked a cigarette until it was almost on her finger, before she put out the sparkling butt.
She jumped off the windowsill and knelt before Li Yao, observing him carefully.
Li Yao suddenly grew anxious, thinking that he had exposed himself somehow.
"The memory module is seriously damaged," Chu Zhixiao said.
Chu Zhixiao said, "Have you forgotten everything I've explained to you?"
Li Yao was more or less relieved. "What do you mean, Major? I don't know. I only feel that everybody in the yaksha squad, including you, is in great pain, as if somebody has bullied you, and the bully is not the Puppet King.
"Major, you used to study in the Holy Light Academy, didn't you? It seems that the place is not as simple as the training of 'Purgers'. Did anybody bully you there? Hehe. I'll protect you, Major. I won't let any bad guys bully you! "
Chu Zhixiao was dazed for a long time. Then she put on a bitter smile.
"Thank you, Red Pig."
She stuck her forehead to the cold shell of the spider tank and said softly, "You're still the same as before. Every time your memory chip is seriously damaged in a fierce battle, you ask the same question and can't wait to protect me.
"Yes. A lot of things did happen to me in the Holy Light Academy. Maybe I went through some pain, too. But … I've forgotten most of the things. No bad guys bullied me on purpose."
"I don't understand."
Li Yao said, "If no bad guys bullied you, why are you in so much pain?"
"Some things are hard to explain to you."
Looking at the twisted reflection of himself on the shell of the Spider Tank that was as smooth as a mirror, Chu Zhixiao said in a daze, "We live in a foul, evil world. In such a world, order is the most important thing. Only absolute order can allow everyone to live in peace and harmony.
"And in order to protect the precious peace and harmony, in order to prevent the sacred order from being destroyed by the evil spirits, some people have to stand up, endure great pain, make great sacrifices, and receive the blessings of the gods, become the first and last line of defense in the darkness, and fight against the demons that ordinary people can't imagine. This is my duty, and also my destiny. Can you understand?"
"I don't know."
Li Yao asked, "But why does it have to be a major?"
"If it's not me, who is' supposed 'to be?"
Chu Zhixiao smiled and said, "In fact, there is no 'supposed' to be. If I'm not the one who bears the pain, there will be a second person, perhaps my brothers and sisters. If nobody bears the pain and is willing to fight for order, the sacred order will collapse abruptly. The 'soldiers' and 'workers' who used to be in order will all turn into 'Disillusioners', 'Zealots', and 'Ghouls'. Such a world will be a hundred times worse than right now!
"Therefore, since this is my destiny, no matter how painful and difficult it is, I can only grit my teeth and hold on. I cannot shift the pathetic responsibility to the next 'Goddess of Slaughter'. That's all I can do."
"Ah …"
Li Yao's heart was pounding, and he did not know what to say. "So, you know your past very well, Major. I thought that you had forgotten a lot of things, including your own memories!"
"No, I remember very clearly that I was' purged 'many times, and a lot of memories were erased."
Chu Zhixiao pointed at his temples and said, "Did you know that the human brain has the function of erasing memories regularly? Most people forget ninety-nine percent of the things in their life. It is some sort of … self-protection mechanism of the soul. Nobody can move forward with every minute and second of their past. Those who suffer from 'hyperthymia' and remember their past clearly all live in excruciating pain, as if they are in the deepest hell.
"For a person with a special profession like myself, there is nothing wrong with regularly clearing my memories. I know who I am, I know what my mission is, and I know that because of my sacrifice, countless people are living in peace and harmony. That is enough."
"Major …"
Li Yao really did not know how he was going to convince such a Chu Zhixiao.
On second thought, it did make sense. The two negative examples in front of Chu Zhixiao, both the Puppet King's approach and the Imperium of True Human Beings' approach, were not attractive at all. Compared to the dark, evil forces, the 'peace, harmony, and order' of the Holy League were not as bad as they seemed!
The fire of hope in Chu Zhixiao's heart had to be ignited with a brighter, more brilliant, and more beautiful ideal country — the country of the Cultivators!
"If only there was a country where everybody was free and happy, where there were no evils."
Li Yao intentionally said, "If you could live in such a country without so many terrible responsibilities, Major, you would certainly be happier than you are right now!"
Chu Zhixiao smiled and made a gesture, activating her portable crystal processor. Drawing complicated runes in midair, she retrieved a new file and inputted it into the mainframe crystal processor of the spider tank.
"Such an ideal country does exist. It is the country of the Cultivators," Chu Zhixiao said in a low voice.
"However, such a beautiful country can only exist in dreams. If it is put into practice, it will only lead to catastrophes on a greater scale."
The words' country of the Cultivators' chilled Li Yao's soul.
He thought that his identity had been exposed, or that the existence of the Xing Yao Federation had been discovered.
However, after reading the file that Chu Zhixiao sent over carefully, he discovered that the 'country of the Cultivators' that Chu Zhixiao talked about had nothing to do with the Xing Yao Federation.
The file recorded a project named 'Eternal Light'.
It was some sort of experiment that Li Yao could not describe in words. He could only call it 'humanity experiment' for now.
The Holy League was more inclined to a 'starship civilization' than the Imperium and the Federation. Many ignorant 'soldiers' and 'workers' lived their entire life on a certain starship. The enclosed starship was their entire world. As long as their memories were erased from the very beginning and false information was inputted from the outside, it was possible to deceive them into whatever environment and history they were living in.
Therefore, other than warships, carriers, and mining starships, there were almost a hundred such unique 'experiment starships' in the fleet of the Holy League. They had been drifting in the sea of stars for hundreds of years with all kinds of 'initial conditions' set up, specifically to observe how the human beings on the starships would evolve into their tiny 'starship civilization'.
For example, on some of the experiment starships, they would intentionally lead the human beings to the edge of the Pangu universe, where there were no human beings or resources, in order to observe what the human beings on the starships would do when they were caught in desperation.
Some of the experiment starships were maintained at 50% of the minimum resource supply all year round to study the living conditions of human beings in the extreme shortage of resources.
Some of the starships had a normal supply of resources, but the ratio of male to female crew members was 100 to 1, or 1 to 100, in order to test the evolution of human society in the extreme gender imbalance.
Another very interesting experiment project was named 'Doomsday'. All the crew members on the starship were captives of the Imperium. After being brainwashed, they were convinced that the Imperium of True Human Beings had been completely crushed by the Alliance of the Holy Covenant, that the Holy League had occupied the entire Pangu universe, and that they were the 'last hope of the civilization of mankind'.
This' Last Hope 'drifted in the sea of stars. Occasionally, some starships of the Holy League would be arranged for them to' crush 'so that they could earn certain resources and struggle to survive.
The 'Doomsday' project had been implemented for more than 370 years. The first batch of captives of the Imperium who were brainwashed was long dead. Right now, most of the crew members were the fourth or fifth-generation successors. They had no doubt that they were the 'last people of the Imperium' and that they were resisting stubbornly for the dignity of the civilization of mankind. Therefore, a lot of soul-stirring and bizarre stories happened. Those stories were all transformed into complicated experiment data and transmitted to the heads of the five Ultimate Benevolence Masters through the Fuxi system. As for the purpose of the project, Li Yao had no idea.
The "Eternal Light" project and the "Doomsday Lonely Ship" project had the same effect.
When the first batch of brainwashed experiment subjects boarded 'Eternal Light' in their dizziness, they were told that they were from a bright and beautiful country of Cultivators. All the habitable planets outside had been obliterated in a destructive war. Even the boundless sea of stars was filled with fatal radiations and storms. Only the inside of 'Eternal Light' was safe. Also, when their ancestors boarded the starship, they carried tremendous assets and resource recycling facilities with them, so that they would have incessant resources forever.
Nurtured by the inexhaustible resources, 'Eternal Light' had turned into a perfect paradise. Nobody on board had to worry about their survival. Everybody had been raised to be positive and righteous. Naturally, a lot of pure, flawless Cultivators were born, too. The path of the Cultivators was the mainstream of society. There was barely any distinction of position or class, and there were few conflicts and conflicts. Everybody lived together happily and harmoniously, as if they were living in … an illusionary dream.
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