The Mie Zhongdao was struggling painfully in the bright gold "embryo", trying to break through the barrier, but he could not break free.
At first, veins and meridians that were as thick as earthworms, boas, and dragons appeared on his body. Then, pink blood beads leaked out of the wrinkles on his skin. The blood beads soon expanded into foam and wrapped him up tightly. At first glance, he looked like a statue made of foam.
The bubbles grew bigger and bigger, emitting glittering brilliance. Along with cracking noises, beautiful, colorful butterflies flew out of the bubbles.
It was like the genetic breakdown of the Mie Zhongdao, showing a weird atavism phenomenon. All the cells in his body became independent individuals and were out of his control.
Li Yao remembered the Tyrannosaurus rex he saw outside the Primeval Relic.
After the Tyrannosaurus rex fell to the ground and died, a lot of butterflies also burst out of its body.
The boundary of life lost its meaning at this moment. Even the concept of "life" itself had to be redefined.
Li Yao did not know whether what he saw was an illusion or real. He could not help but shudder.
"Gulp … Gulp … Gulp … Gulp …"
Mie Daoist's throat made a muffled swallowing sound. His brain waves were like a gradually dissipating whirlpool, becoming blurry. He tried his best to stretch out his arms, but his arms broke one after another. Before they fell to the ground, they turned into countless bubbles and butterflies that flew away.
Soon, he gradually shrank, dimmed, and evaporated like a water stain on the hot ground on a summer afternoon.
"It's a pity that this tester performed well in the beginning. He also realized that the form of human beings was the most perfect evolution direction for carbon-based intelligent lives. Before the entire civilization advanced to the Third World War, he only made one mistake, and he was among the best of all the testers."
The voice said casually, "It's a pity that he still made an unforgivable mistake when he tried to save the civilization in the face of the apocalypse. He tried to develop the human brain on a large scale with the strategy of 'super collectivism'. He activated his brainwaves and condensed the 'consciousness of the swarm', turning our civilization into an enormous swarm of insects. In such a way, most people would be willing to sacrifice themselves, but only a small number of 'queen bees', 'soldier bees', and 'worker bees' could escape.
"From the very beginning, he devoted too many resources to the development of the human brain, the enhancement of brainwaves, and the infusion of the consciousness of the swarm. Very soon, he wasted three precious opportunities and failed shamefully."
"Consciousness of the swarm …"
Li Yao knew that the Pangu had a strong inclination toward the civilization of the swarm in the first place. Although every individual could maintain their independence, the large-scale telepathy and information exchange made them much more reliant and worshipful on the collective than the Nuwa Clan and human beings. After 'castrating' their feelings and free will, they even became tiny screws on the enormous machinery of the civilization.
The Mie Zhongdao was the highest commander of the Pangu remnants. His approach to saving the civilization naturally carried the distinctive mark of the Pangu. It was not strange that he came up with the idea of transforming the entire Earth into a giant beehive.
Li Yao was confused. "Can't the consciousness of the swarm work?"
"Yes. Absolutely not."
Ever since the voice appeared in Li Yao's head, it had been very calm and peaceful, but at this moment, it was brimming with intense disgust and even … fear. "The primitive civilization is a race that emphasizes free will very much. It is not wrong to say that we are somewhat 'selfish'. Even if every individual of us decides to sacrifice for the collective, it should be our 100% voluntary choice instead of any 'queen bee', 'queen ant', or 'heart of the swarm' that makes the decision for us. Can you understand the difference?
"All in all, the consciousness of the swarm, the civilization of the insects, and other evil beings are the greatest enemies of the primitive civilization. Our inheritors can be in any form. It doesn't matter even if they do not have bodies of flesh and blood and can upload their consciousness to the network or the supercomputing cloud, but they can never, never be the consciousness of the swarm or the civilization of the insects. Absolutely not!"
The intensity of the voice was far beyond Li Yao's imagination.
Li Yao, on the other hand, had glimpsed important information from the waves of the voice. "The consciousness of the swarm is your greatest enemy … Therefore, the 'Flood' is a certain kind of consciousness of the swarm, a giant swarm of insects?"
The voice was silent for a long time.
"Of course, it's not so simple."
The voice said, "You don't need to know that right now."
"Then, what about the civilization that the Mie Zhongdao represents?"
Li Yao continued asking, "Will the Pangu civilization be completely destroyed?"
"That depends on you, or should I say 'you'?"
The voice said, "Look. A new batch of testers is ready for the challenge. They seem to be your kind."
In Li Yao's eyes, more than ten golden embryos popped up one after another in the place where the Cultivators of the Annihilation Realm turned into bubbles and butterflies. Countless human beings were crouching inside them like babies.
Li Yao's soul was immediately constricted to the minimum.
Ding Ling Dong, Long Yangjun, Boss Bai, Yan Liren, Li Jialing, Li Linghai … Those human experts had finally broken through all the obstacles and marched into the black space gate for the ultimate test!
Li Yao immediately felt that his mouth was dry, and his heart was almost jumping out of his chest.
"What if …"
He stammered, "What if they made more than three mistakes in the test? Will they end up like the Mie Zhongdao?"
"Of course."
The voice said, "Their bodies will raise the height of the tower by one millimeter, and the Pangu civilization and your civilization will be the one hundred and second civilizations that perish here."
"Unless I pass the ultimate test and receive the primordial legacy, it will be possible to stop their test, right?"
Li Yao asked, "Is that so?"
"Yes."
The voice said, "Are you ready to push on with our civilization?"
Li Yao was silent for a long time.
Then, his soul waves swam toward the only choice and touched the bright gold option softly.
As the bright gold option turned into streaks of brilliance, all the options and deductions that followed were accelerated abruptly. Li Yao did not even need to make a choice. Everything was moving forward naturally.
No, it was not a test or a game at all, but something like a "cutscene". The voice was telling the real history of Earth to Li Yao in the vivid torrents of information — the last story of the ancient Earth in the primordial era.
"You've made the right and only choice," the voice said.
The voice said, "In the real history of Earth, the person in charge of the 'March into the Universe' project at that time was the fifteenth chairman of the Earth Council, Wan Zanghai. He was the kind of iron-willed man who was almost perfect.
"Before he embarked on the rise of the 'savior' and the 'devil', he was active on the land of the post-wasteland era as the 'highest executive of the Water Purification Industry Consortium'.
"After World War III, the entire Earth was polluted. Clean drinking water became a hard currency, and the efficient, reliable, and low-energy water purification technology was something that could decide life and death. Wanzanghai first developed a variety of water purification technologies and equipment as an outstanding inventor and earned his first bucket of gold. Then, he showed amazing business acumen and united all the water purification companies, becoming one of the most powerful forces on Earth at that time. What was even more commendable was that he also had a noble personality and a holy heart. He did not monopolize the water purification technology to earn excessive profits. Instead, he transferred a lot of technology and precious water to those who needed it at a low price or even free of charge. As a result, he established a good image and a distinguished reputation among the underground people, the radiation people, and the cyborgs. Regardless of his camp or position, almost everybody regarded him as a 'saint' — at least at that time.
"Therefore, no one had any objection to Wanzanghai becoming the chairman of the Earth Council. Most of the people even believed that only a 'saint' like Wanzanghai could supervise the magnificent plan of 'marching into the grand universe'.
"However, it was all just a disguise. The so-called holiness and kindness were just preparations for deeper and darker goals. Wanzanghai was not a saint at all. He had long been in cahoots with the nobles and the magnates. He was even a spokesperson jointly promoted by the nobles and the magnates. He was an 'artificial saint' whose purpose was to win the trust of the ordinary people with his so-called generosity and selflessness, making the ordinary people believe that Wanzanghai was capable of supervising the plan of 'marching into the grand universe' so that they would behave themselves and not cause any trouble.
"Think about it. Without the support of the nobles and the magnates, how could Wanzanghai squander the precious water purification resources on his own without being obstructed by any interest groups?
"In short, the nobles and the magnates had long been prepared to abandon most of the people and escape on their own. Wanzanghai was just a puppet that they had carefully packaged for that purpose.
"However, the nobles and the magnates who thought that they were high and mighty and that they had everything under their control had far underestimated Wanzanghai's ambitions.
"The nobles and the magnates were using him, and he was also using the nobles and the magnates.
"At that time, an organization named 'Celestial Man Cult' quietly rose. Its believers were mainly the radiation people, the modified people, and the superhumans who had mutated under the influence of spirit energy.
"They advocated the theory of genetic superiority. They believed that only those who were most sensitive to crystals and spirit energy carried the best genes and were most qualified to survive.
"Regardless of money, status, or power, only genes were the most important. That was the slogan of 'Celestial Man Cult'.
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