The word 'food' made Li Yao shudder. He gritted his teeth and said, "They can explore the space zones nearby. They can also try to search for the remnants of the fleets after the apocalypse. Maybe they can collect enough resources to build their own space towns and circulation systems."
"You're right," Bai Xinghe said. "But the water in the distance cannot quench the thirst at hand. Developing a new space zone or searching for the remnants in the vast sea of stars will consume a lot of time and resources. They don't have the time or the resources right now."
"Oh, I was wrong."
Bai Xinghe chuckled. It was the scariest smile that Li Yao had ever seen. "It's not that they don't have the resources. It's just that they don't have the resources to keep everybody alive.
"If all the resources are gathered together, maybe one tenth of the Fire Stealers can survive."
Li Yao suddenly thought of a terrible picture.
"The Fire Stealers may be honorable people who are willing to sacrifice themselves," Bai Xinghe said coldly. "But what they are shouldering right now is not just their own lives but the last hope of the entire Flying Star Sector!
"If the stalemate continues, everybody will die. But if some of them are 'sacrificed', chances are that some of them will survive. They will have enough resources to explore new space zones and collect more debris. In the end, there will be a glimmer of hope that the tinder of human civilization in the Flying Star Sector can be passed on!"
"Do you understand it now? The fleet of the Fire Stealers has turned into a small dark forest with limited resources. Everybody has a reason to survive. Even if some of them are willing to sacrifice themselves, there is more than one person on each starship. Some of them might even be the wives and children of the Fire Stealers!
"There is no other choice. The fleet of the Fire Stealers began to attack each other immediately!
"The specific details are untraceable. All in all, most of the Fire Stealers were killed in the internal strife for resources. Only one tenth of them survived by stomping on the bodies of their companions and looting their companions' resources.
"They were like a bunch of ghosts wandering in the sea of stars. With the last bit of resources, they struggled at the edge of the Flying Star Sector for almost a hundred years until the aftermath of the apocalypse passed.
"At that time, they finally found the information from the central area of the Flying Star Sector. I learned that the main fleet was not completely destroyed under the strike of the apocalypse. Many starships survived and are slowly rebuilding the civilization. "
Bai Xinghe smiled bitterly.
"Everything seems to be an extremely absurd and vicious joke."
"The only reason that supports those people to attack each other and commit all kinds of inhumane crimes is everything that they have done as the last space residents. It is all for the continuation of the human civilization in the Flying Star Sector.
"Therefore, although they are guilty, they are not wrong. They just have no other choice!"
"However, after discovering the other survivors, this belief, this belief, this belief that had gradually merged into the blood for hundreds of years, completely collapsed!"
"More than a hundred years ago, when their fathers were carrying out Operation Fire Theft, they were still alive. Even though you have committed a heinous crime, you can stand on the trial platform with righteous indignation! "
"But now, it's their turn. They no longer have the courage to face any trial. "
"Because they know that they are really wrong. They have really violated the bottom line of cultivators, and even the bottom line of human beings."
"Or rather, they have been struggling in the dark forest for a hundred years. After being forced to attack each other time and time again, the morals and rules of human beings in the old days have been torn apart by them. They have established a new set of rules and new morals, which are exactly the rules and morals of the dark forest!
"On the surface, they still have the facial organs, limbs, and appearance of human beings, and they can even speak the language of human beings.
"However, underneath the skin, they have mutated into a new existence, a kind of 'eccentric person'!
"Finally, they ran into some new survivors.
"Maybe the survivors asked them about their backgrounds, but they were too ashamed to tell them everything.
"Maybe, they were caught in the dilemma of running out of resources again and picked up weapons out of habit.
"All in all, they did not join hands with the survivors. Instead, they engaged in the business, killing, and looting that they had done countless times in the past hundred years!"
Li Yao took a deep breath and thought about the edge of the Flying Star Sector thousands of years ago.
He imagined that the hundreds of crystal warships floating in the sea of stars were like hundreds of iron coffins that were full of dead bodies. They collided and exploded, releasing fatal mystic rays at each other.
Colorful halos burst out like flowers growing out of rotting corpses. Countless iron coffins were shattered, and only a few iron coffins were able to break out …
Were the cultivators inside still considered cultivators?
Who were the people inside the coffins exactly?
Li Yao swallowed and struggled to ask, "How did you know such a secret as if you saw it with your own eyes?"
"The descendants of the Fire Stealers cruised at the edge of the Flying Star Sector," Bai Xinghe said casually. "Now that they had started, they couldn't stop themselves. When they ran into survivors again, they often hunted them mercilessly. When they collected enough resources, they would explore new space zones. In the end, they did discover a new space zone, as well as Spider Den, a planet of resources that was almost exhausted from the age of the Star Ocean Imperium."
It was an unexpected but reasonable answer.
Li Yao took a long breath in relief. So, the space pirates are the descendants of the Fire Stealers. That explains why the space pirates, who had no roots, were capable of developing a planet and savaging the entire Flying Star Sector. There was no way to annihilate them.
Bai Xinghe bent down slightly and stared at Li Yao without blinking. He said creepily, "Do you think that the space pirates are only the descendants of the Fire Stealers?"
Li Yao's body shivered. "What do you mean?"
Bai Xinghe's voice seemed to be coming from a very, very deep well. "Do you want to hear another story?
"You've heard so many unrealistic stories just now. Now, let's talk about a more recent one. Tell me about my experience and how I came to Spider Den."
Li Yao felt that his heart was cold.
It was well known that Bai Xinghe's starship was caught in a cosmic storm when he was young. He was rescued by a space pirate who happened to pass by and sold to Spider Den as a slave.
Was there more to the story?
Bai Xinghe was as emotionless as a dead tree. Without waiting for Li Yao's reply, he went on. He continued, "My parents were both Cultivators. However, they were both independent Cultivators who had left their sects and were free Cultivators. The two of them bought a carrier for themselves. Making a living was not the most important thing. What mattered most was that they learned the customs of other space zones so that they could train their mind.
"I lived on the carrier with them since I was born. Except for the loneliness, I was quite carefree.
"When I was seven years old, we encountered a super storm that was comparable to a space swirl during a long voyage. In order to avoid the super cosmic storm, we deviated from the sailing route and were blown to an unknown place. The carrier was seriously damaged. A lot of fuel and food were destroyed. Our communication magical equipment was completely wrecked, too.
"Us and the entire world. We lost contact with each other.
"At that time, a starship larger than ours was involved in the same cosmic storm and was blown to an unknown space zone together with us. At the critical moment, the starship saved us.
"However, the starship was seriously damaged, too. All the communication and navigation magical equipment had lost their functions.
"The cosmic storm was still raging. They could only fly further and further away in the unknown space zone in search of a peaceful haven.
"My parents were very grateful. Of course, we were very grateful to each other for saving our lives. We resisted the cosmic storm together in the same boat and formed a deep friendship, too. "
"At that time, everybody thought that the cosmic storm would be over soon. The cosmic storm will be over very soon. We will repair the navigation and communication magical equipment on at least one starship and reach out to the nearest space town for rescue. "
"But as it turned out, the duration and scale of the cosmic storm were far beyond everybody's expectation.
"Almost a hundred space towns near the main sailing route were involved. They could barely take care of themselves. There was no way that they could send help.
"In the meantime, after we were scourged by the aftermath of several cosmic storms, our starship was even more seriously damaged. There was no way for us to repair it.
"A month later, the cosmic storm finally died down. But we drifted to a desolate place in the depths of the sea of stars, too.
"The little food and fuel we had left were running out.
"The navigation and communication magical equipment were far away from being repaired, too. A lot of new damage had been added to them. Maybe the two starships would fall apart at any moment.
"At first, nobody expected that the situation would deteriorate to such an extent.
"When we were in the same boat, we openly told each other about the amount of resources we had. We even traded some resources in a very friendly manner, exchanging what we needed."
"Therefore, we are very clear about how many resources each other has."
"Then …"
Bai Xinghe suddenly fell into silence.
His face seemed to be covered in a rusted mask.
He said in an inhuman tone, "We launched an attack.
"My father, a righteous Cultivator, a Cultivator who had risked his life to protect ordinary people, a Cultivator who had fought more than ten space pirates more than ten times and who had almost ten unhealable scars, launched a fatal attack on our savior under the pretext of another deal when the enemy was unprepared!
"Everyone has been killed by us!"
"All the resources were taken away by us!
"Their starships have been dismantled into the most basic components to strengthen our starships."
"However, haha. Everything was in vain. When my parents were about to finish everything, the aftermath of the cosmic storm came again and blew our starships into pieces again. We were pushed to the depths of the sea of stars!
"In the end, everybody was dead. I was the only one lying in the debris of the starship, when I was discovered by a starship of space pirates that had fled to this place in a hurry to avoid the hunting of the Cultivators.
"While they were looting the debris, the space pirates took me as a product and sold me to Spider Den as a slave in the darkness.
"After hearing the story, do you think that my parents deserved their just desserts?"
Li Yao did not know how to comment.
"You may not believe it," Bai Xinghe said, "but before the cosmic storm, everything my parents did was worthy of the name 'Cultivators'.
"If there were only two of them on the starship, I dare say that they would rather kill themselves than attack their saviors.
"However, when their two beloved sons were on the starship, the situation was different."
Bai Xinghe's voice grew softer and softer, until it was so soft that it seemed to be coming out of Li Yao's ears. "Although I was only seven years old at that time, to this day, I still remember clearly what my father said to my mother when he sent me to the safety capsule when the war was about to begin.
"Only one of them can live.
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