"It's just a video."
Chu Zhixiao asked, "Have you ever doubted that the Ultimate Benevolence Masters might be faking it?"
Li Yao realized that the King of Puppets' bewitchment had planted a seed of suspicion in Chu Zhixiao's heart.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have asked if the Ultimate Benevolence Masters were faking it.
Of course, for Li Yao, Chu Zhixiao's suspicion wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It was only a matter of who guided the suspicion, whether it was Li Yao or the King of Puppets.
"I knew what those people in my family were like. What's there to be suspicious about?"
Yun Haixin said with a bitter smile, "Even without the video of the Ultimate Benevolence Masters, I knew that my wife and children must've had a hard time in the family. Their lives might've been in danger."
"And then?"
Chu Zhixiao continued asking, "You knew that your wife and children were in danger. What did you do then?"
"Then, the Ultimate Benevolence Masters gave me two choices and offered to make a deal with me."
Yun Haixin's eyes lost focus as she sank into her painful past. "At that time, my children were about to reach adulthood. Under the schemes of my enemies, it was very likely that they would be sent to a secret training camp with an extremely high mortality rate. Even if they could survive the harsh training, they would become assassins who could not see the light of day for the rest of their lives, or assassins who specialized in doing dirty work. That sort of character was not part of the mainstream.
"Or maybe, they would've been sent to the frontline and died meaninglessly as cannon fodder like me.
"If they really fall into such a fate and are separated from their mother for a long time, you can imagine what will happen to my wife. She was not a strong woman to begin with. First, she suffered the blow of losing her husband, and then she had to help her two children solve the problem. She was almost driven crazy.
"I don't need the Ultimate Benevolence Masters to tell me. I know very well that if I don't take action now, my family will be ruined.
"The two choices that the Ultimate Benevolence Masters gave me were very simple too. Firstly, he could 'brainwash' me like how he did to the other captives of the Imperium, erasing my memories and myself so that I could live the rest of my life in a daze.
"And the forces of the Holy League will also give up on monitoring my wife and children, leaving them to fend for themselves and be bullied to death by the enemies of the family.
"If I desire … the help of the gods, then I'll join the Holy League with a clear head, maintain my own appearance, and complete the tasks given by the Ultimate Benevolence Masters.
"As long as the mission is accomplished, I can do whatever I want. I can curse and complain however I want. It doesn't matter even if I grab a certain person of the Covenant Alliance and curse him. Can the gods … forgive my recklessness and ignorance?
"Then, the Ultimate Benevolence Masters will activate all the forces of the Holy League that are lurking in the Imperium to help me rescue my wife and children and send them to the Holy League!"
"I think I understand now."
After thinking for a while, Chu Zhixiao said, "It happened 20 years ago. However, you've joined the Yaksha Squad for less than 10 years. What tasks did you carry out in the past 10 years?"
"Many tasks. For example, the identification of the Lurkers."
Yun Hai thought to himself. "Many 'spies' that have been carefully raised with tremendous resources have to be tested by the authentic natives of the Imperium before they are sent to the Imperium. The flaws and loopholes that they reveal without them knowing will be corrected so that they are more 'perfect'. I am both a Meditation Healer and an expert in the Nascent Soul Stage. Naturally, I am most suitable for testing them. Such a job cannot be replaced by the brainwashed 'soldier bees' and 'worker bees'.
"It's true that a clear-headed person of the Imperium can evaluate the people of the Holy League from a different perspective and find the flaws that we can't. You are indeed very valuable.
"However, I still don't understand why you were willing to do it.
"Even though your wife and children are living a miserable life in the Imperium, don't you despise the ignorant life of the Holy League the most? Why did you agree to let the Ultimate Benevolence Masters bring them to the Holy League?"
"Of course, there was a condition, which was the Eternal Light."
Yun Haixin said, "The Ultimate Benevolence Masters showed me the life on the Eternal Light. The life was … illusionary but peaceful and happy.
"The Ultimate Benevolence Masters promised me that as long as I served the Holy League well, even if I hated the Holy League in my heart, my wife and children would be able to live on the Eternal Light forever as long as I accomplished the task.
"Of course, their memory area would be sealed. They would no longer remember the past and would think that they were born in the City of Light. However, their self-awareness would still be preserved. They would still have the feelings, hobbies, and habits of the past. They would get rid of the darkness and welcome the light. They would live a happy and carefree life in this tiny world of Cultivators!"
Chu Zhixiao opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.
"Isn't it ironic?"
Before she said anything, Yun Haixin mocked himself first. "I am an Immortal Cultivator, but I would rather die than let my wife and children live the life of an Immortal Cultivator. I would rather abandon my beliefs, bear the crime of 'traitor', and cooperate with the unpardonable devils in my eyes, just so that my wife and children could live in an illusionary world of Cultivators.
"Yes. You and I both know that the world of Cultivators is fake. It can't exist. Even if it does, it won't last long.
"But I don't expect it to last long. A hundred or two hundred years will be enough for me. As long as the 'humanity experiment' of the Ultimate Benevolence Masters can continue for another hundred or two hundred years, and my wife and children can live a comfortable and happy life in the City of Light, I will be satisfied. My responsibility as a husband and a father will have been fulfilled."
Chu Zhixiao's breath became heavy and disordered.
It was obvious that the Heavenly Lady of Massacre had never felt such intense feelings of a human being. The waves that were as ferocious as a flood cast her into deep shock and confusion.
"You …"
She thought for a long time and asked, "Have you ever seen your wife and children after all these years?"
"I haven't seen them in person, but I often see the videos of them living in the City of Light."
Yun Haixin said, "Haven't you always wanted to know what supported a clear-headed man of the Imperium like me to persist in the hell that is the Holy League for so long? No matter how much I hate this place and how much I hate my job, I am still dutiful and dutiful?
"They are the only reason. The glimmer in hell is the most powerful force that keeps me alive!"
Chu Zhixiao took a deep, deep breath.
"Your wife and children are not born and raised on 'Eternal Light', and nobody has discovered them in the past twenty years?"
She asked.
"No. There is a very perfect procedure here that allows the outsiders to blend in seamlessly."
Yun Haixin said, "Not just my wife and children, but also the families of many people from the Imperium are all here."
"Well —"
Chu Zhixiao was dazed. "Why?"
"Don't you understand? There are all kinds of reasons. For example, to create real 'Lurkers'."
Yun Haixin smiled both sorrowfully and weirdly. "Do you think that the 'Lurkers' are the guys who have been deeply brainwashed? Then, you've underestimated the Ultimate Benevolence Masters. Brainwashing and 'simulating feelings with computational ability' will be discovered no matter how sophisticated their disguises are.
"It's impossible for such artificial 'Lurkers' to sneak into the highest level of the Imperium and pry into the most central secrets.
"Let me tell you what the real 'Lurkers' look like. They are definitely not the people of the Holy League, nor are they the people of the Imperium who are brainwashed after being captured by the Holy League, nor are they the underground hominoids at the bottom level of the Imperium who worship the gods passionately. They are people like me who believe in the law of nature!
"The more experienced the Immortal Cultivators such as us are, the more they are aware of the darkness and evilness behind the true path of immortality, and the more they do not want their descendants to live in the country of the Immortal Cultivators.
"Therefore, the Covenant Alliance brought our family to the 'Eternal Brilliance' through all kinds of approaches and made them live a dreamy life. They forced us to cooperate with them in such a way.
"Their targets are all carefully selected. They are all people who love their family deeply and are willing to give up everything for them. Therefore, almost nobody refuses them.
"Just like that, we are clear-headed, self-conscious, and have abundant feelings, but we are still 'willing' to become the Holy League's accomplices. We either work for the Holy League like me or lurk inside the Imperium and send intelligence to the Holy League incessantly, helping the Holy League understand every detail at the core of the Imperium.
"The idiotic authorities of the Imperium use the 'Ring-Tu Test' to identify the spies of the Holy League. Yes, the latest Ring-Tu Test can identify almost all the people of the Holy League who have been brainwashed, but it can never catch people like me because we are not brainwashed in the first place and still maintain strong self-awareness and feelings!
"Do you understand it now? The 'spies' that you usually see are just insignificant characters and low-level intelligence agents. Even the spies who seem to have been carefully trained are just camouflage and bargaining chips that can be sacrificed casually. They were intentionally discovered by the authorities of the Imperium.
"The value of the 'spies' is to mislead the authorities of the Imperium into thinking that they have grasped a way to catch the spies of the Holy League. Little do they know that the real spies are not brainwashed at all!"
Not just Chu Zhixiao, even Li Yao was secretly shocked after hearing that. His soul was covered in cold sweat.
"The feelings of human beings …"
Chu Zhixiao mumbled, "How weird and terrifying."
"Yes. Human beings are such weird and terrifying things. They are willing to sacrifice everything and burn themselves for an illusionary dream."
Yun Haixin's face couldn't have been more sorrowful. Looking at her shivering hands and listening to the furious roars outside, she mumbled, "It's a pity that the dream is broken now."
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