So, that was the reason!
Li Yao could not help but recall a story.
It was a story that Master Bitter Cicada of the Stupa Sect had told him in the Ancient Sages Sector.
The Ancient Sages Sector had not yet been enlightened. When Master Bitter Cicada traveled in the world, he often told the common people stories that were easy to understand so that they could be enlightened.
Master Bitter Cicada had told Li Yao that, a long, long time ago, in the chaotic era when humanity had just risen in the Ancient Sages Sector and even the Cloud Qin Empire had not been established yet, there had once been a very timid noble.
The noble was so timid that he would hide under his desk and shudder in fear when he heard the rumbling of thunder in the sky. In the chaotic era when valor was best known, he naturally became a laughingstock among the nobles.
However, one time, when he was told that his monarch was in trouble and needed help, the timid noble stepped forward without any hesitation despite his fear. He reorganized his chariot and prepared to go to the rescue of his monarch.
His family dissuaded him, saying that he could not even hold his saber or his chariot steadily. How could he fight a war?
The other nobles laughed at him even more. A timid person like him would probably go weak in the legs and be unable to move when he heard the drums of the two armies on the battlefield. He would even need others to save him. Why was he putting on such an act?
The noble, however, replied solemnly, "Timidity is in my nature. It is my personal business, but saving the monarch is a national and public affair. How can I abandon the public for personal reasons?"
Therefore, the timid noble finally refused to listen to the dissuasion of his family and the other nobles and insisted on fighting. In the end, he tripped and fell from his chariot, dying of fright.
At that time, Master Bitter Cicada, Li Yao, and the ten experts of the Ancient Sages Sector were discussing whether or not they should reinforce the Xing Yao Federation and whether or not the Ancient Sages Sector could compete with the Black Wind Fleet even if they joined the chaotic war.
The ending of the story was not very satisfactory. It did not seem to have anything to do with 'courage' in the usual sense, either.
At that time, even Li Yao could not quite understand the main character of this story. Was this timid noble brave or cowardly? Should he go to the battlefield? Should he die in such a ridiculous way?
However, at this moment, after hearing the choice made by the strongest person in the Pangu civilization hundreds of thousands of years ago, he suddenly understood why they had made such a choice.
As individuals, the ultimate experts of the Pangu civilization had every reason to feel confused, scared, desperate, discouraged, and even had a mental breakdown when faced with a force that was billions of times stronger.
However, other than their personal identities, they were also the commanders, commanders, and elite warriors of the Pangu expedition army. They were the most solid barriers that had to protect the entire civilization. They were the sharpest sabers that the Pangu civilization had refined with a hundred thousand years of time and resources. They were the greatest and only hope for their billions of compatriots!
They had no room for confusion, no reason for fear, and certainly no right to despair!
Even if they deleted their deep love for their family, even if they blocked their perception of beauty, even if they castrated their feelings and their hope, and even if they transformed themselves from fleshly human beings into cold, heartless, and mechanical tools that carried out orders, they had a destiny that they had to fulfill. They had to continue fighting even if their enemy was the Blackmakers or the Flood. They had to grit their teeth and persist even if their enemy was the Blackmakers or the Flood.
What kind of spirit was that exactly?
Li Yao had a lot of mixed feelings. Any civilization that was capable of breaking out of the mother universe was destined to be great, glorious, and noble. Such a civilization would never lack heroes and warriors who were willing to sacrifice everything for it.
"Don't be fooled. Make sure to squeeze the water out of Fuxi's words."
The mental devil was slightly calmer than Li Yao. It reminded him, "Even if 'sealing feelings' did work on the remaining soldiers of the Pangu expedition army as a temporary strategy, the temporary strategy could only have been stopped after they brought the remains of the Flood and the black-screen technologies back to their hometown, couldn't it?
"Why did it not stop but even expand from the elites who went to the extraterrestrial domain to all the individuals in the entire civilization who were deprived of feelings and castrated?
"It is obvious that Fuxi must've kept a lot of details to himself, and those details are part of his scheme. Pay attention to them and don't believe everything."
"Got it."
Li Yao said, "There's no need to tell the truth right now. Let's wait until it is done. The most brilliant lies are always nine truths and one falsehood. If it wants to deceive such a meticulous and smart person as Lu Qingchen, it will certainly throw out a lot of truths as bait!
As he expected, Lu Qingchen's soul had mixed feelings too, but he soon regained his calmness and sharpness. Unmoved, he asked, "And then?"
"After all the feelings were sealed, the remaining soldiers of the Pangu expedition army finally regained their ability to work normally. They devoted themselves to the work of analyzing the black-screen technologies and the Flood. Hundreds of years later, they returned to their homeland with tremendous achievements," Fuxi said.
Fuxi said, "My predecessor, the Fuxi system, was also given a 'supreme mission' of paramount importance, which is the 'meta logic' that I mentioned just now. It was to figure out how to save our civilization with my computational ability and how to preserve our civilization for a long time so that we could break out of the darkness and march into the extraterrestrial domain in the most perfect form at the most appropriate moment."
"Oh?"
Lu Qingchen was slightly dazed. "The Pangu civilization did not abandon the plan to march into the extraterrestrial domain?"
"Of course not," Fuxi said.
Fuxi said, "Although nobody can resist the fear of the extraterrestrial domain and the desperation caused by their insignificance emotionally, all the fears were sealed and deleted at that moment.
"Think about it from the perspective of 'absolute rationality'. Hiding in one's hometown will never lead to a future. However thorough the conspiracy is, it will be found and torn apart one day. Is there a difference between living on one's last legs and waiting to be killed for ten thousand years and a hundred million years?
"Therefore, after the civilization developed to the maximum, marching into the extraterrestrial domain and exploring the multiverse was the only choice, even if the end of the choice was destruction.
"The only problem was the right time and the perfect form.
"We had to choose the most appropriate moment. It would be best if the Flood and the Flood Legion were the furthest away from our universe that was enshrouded by the black-screen. Our civilization had to develop to the maximum and integrate all the resources and information in the black-screen, making full use of them until there was not a single drop of extra energy left. Only by marching out at such a moment would our odds of survival be the highest.
"Following the two paths, I began to think long and hard about the problem of 'ultimate salvation'. Together with the remnants of the expedition army who returned, I performed 'social surgery' on the entire Pangu civilization, gradually sealing abundant unnecessary technologies and … people's feelings."
"Hehe. You're finally showing your true colors!"
Lu Qingchen sneered. "Even if what you said just now makes sense, and the remnants of the Pangu expedition army had to seal their feelings in order to erase their fears and complete the mission, why should they seal the feelings of all the people?"
"You don't understand the social form of the Pangu civilization and the spiritual needs of the people. It's the result of the precise calculation of the Fuxi system," Fuxi explained.
Fuxi explained, "After hundreds of thousands of years of development, the Pangu civilization had already reached the peak of civilization. The people were no longer bothered by daily necessities like human beings. No. Those low-level things were far from enough to satisfy the ordinary people of the Pangu civilization.
"For a hundred thousand years, the Pangu civilization had existed for the goal of marching into the multiverse. All the people had gotten rid of their vulgar interests and considered philosophical questions such as the development of civilization, the truth of the universe, and the meaning of existence. The expedition army was their only hope, their only pleasure, and their only answer.
"Everyone is anticipating that the expeditionary army would bring back news of the Multiverse and inform them of the way to leapfrog their civilization. If the expeditionary army were to bring back such terrible news, every individual of the entire civilization would crumble or at least be disheartened and lose interest in living."
"Our mission was so difficult that every individual had to continue to fulfill their duty, dedicate themselves wholeheartedly, and burn fiercely for a hundred thousand years or even a million years before we see a slim chance of survival.
"After decades of precise calculations and logical deduction by the 'Fuxi system' on the way back, I discovered that, once the unprepared people were told the truth, it was possible that the entire Pangu civilization might fall apart or even collapse abruptly. In their desperation, people were capable of doing all kinds of insane things.
"Famine, riots, civil war.
"Blood, violence, mutual destruction.
"Even in the most optimistic future, the people would completely lose the courage to march into the multiverse due to fear and desperation. They would once again indulge in sensual pleasures such as debauchery, gambling, entertainment, and so on. They would pass millions of years in a daze and eventually disappear without a trace, just like the countless civilizations that had appeared between the Shadowmakers and the Pangu civilization.
"Such a future greatly conflicted with my 'meta logic'. For the sake of the Ultimate Salvation, I would never allow such a future to happen.
"Therefore, I awakened some of the commanders of the expedition army who were hibernating and showed them the many futures that I had deduced — civil war, collapse, and dying without a cause. I also pointed out to them that sealing emotions was the only way to keep the entire civilization running efficiently, so that everyone would continue to work hard, contribute silently, and sacrifice a hundred, or even a thousand, or even ten thousand generations in order to save the entire civilization in the end.
"No, at the time, I did not want to permanently castrate the emotions of all the individuals of the entire civilization. It was still a temporary strategy, but the scale of 'temporary' had been expanded to hundreds of thousands or even millions of years.
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