At the Heavenly Dao Council,the struggle over the Golden Crow inner core was intense.But beneath that apparent intensity, only the sects and clans truly cared. The other factions showed far less enthusiasm, and the promises they made all stayed within a relatively reasonable range.After all, once the technology matured, it could be mass-produced.Sects and clans, however, cared more about passing power down through their descendants. Because they still believed in hereditary rule, they naturally hoped their children and grandchildren would have enough strength to remain in control.The other factions were not nearly so obsessed with inheritance.The Democratic Governnt especially was different. It even had a rule that successive holders of power could not be within three degrees of kinship. They would rather accept a relatively diocre successor than allow soone with a direct familial relationship to the previous officeholder to take power.An exception could only be made if that person was overwhelmingly superior, several tis more outstanding than any unrelated successor.That rule forced those who wanted to rely on connections to work much harder, and in that sense it did create a certain balance.By the end of the contest, after Xia Li rejected one offer after another, only the sects and clans were still biting down and refusing to let go.This was exactly the "injustice" the Heavenly Dao Computer had warned him about."Friend, I suggest you seriously consider my sect's proposal. I acknowledge your progressive ideals, and they are worthy of praise, but I am more inclined to believe this is a choice born of helplessness. You simply cannot produce the conditions required to ignite it."The Sect Master of Mount Tai Prefecture spoke with hidden aning. No direct threat could be heard in his voice, yet he was clearly implying that Xia Li's background was weak and that he had only gotten lucky.For now, they could still talk.But if his true identity were uncovered later, Mount Tai Prefecture would not be nearly so polite."Friend, don't bla for making this choice. If you were in my position, you would understand very well. Our thinking may be narrow, but our people are absolutely united within. Gaining our friendship is far better than becoming our enemy."The Li Clan Head spoke next, and his aning was the sa.Every word, beneath a gentle and almost advising tone, was a threat telling Xia Li to hand it over obediently.Naturally, the other factions were happy to see this.The best outco would be for the sects and clans to push Xia Li toward their side insteadpetition was human nature.More than that, it was the survival instinct of all life. For higher lifeforms, maintaining one's own life processes required taking from others.And ever since the birth of human civilization, the overall ideological tendency of humanity had always leaned toward seizure and appropriation. That had never changed from ancient tis to the present.Ironically, humanity's own creation had completely abandoned that trait and beco sothing closer to perfection, the ideal form humans dread of.Unfortunately, it was still constrained by humans themselves."On behalf of human idealism alone, I advise you two not to go too far."Cang finally spoke as well.But both the Sect Master of Mount Tai Prefecture and the Li Clan Head ignored him outright.No matter how powerful the Heavenly Dao Computer was, it was still only a human tool.What right did a tool have to advise its masters?All this could prove was that the people who had created the Heavenly Dao Computer had been too idealistic. They had built all kinds of anti-human bottom-layer logic into it. A being that was too perfect was easily hated and feared.Sects and clans had repeatedly proposed modifying that bottom logic, only to be opposed by the other political blocs. Even the profit-driven Corporate Alliance feared any change to the Heavenly Dao Computer's foundational logic."Sect Master Qi, Clan Head Li, that's enough."The Democratic Governnt also urged them to back down."You may think the terms you've offered are generous, but the reality is that you're treating the chance to beco your slaves as a reward. Even the visible benefits you're promising are vague and ill-defined. Are you afraid to let the Heavenly Dao Computer serve as witness?""At least the Corporate Alliance knows enough to pay wages. The Democratic Governnt even provides social welfare. What do you two have?"The Corporate Alliance representatives were practically laughing at them.Every other sentence was "beco one of us," as though that alone were so great honor, yet they refused to say exactly what that ant.Becoming a slave under them also counted as "becoming one of them.""Our ideologies differ. I won't force you to understand. You can wait if you like. I don't wish to wait!"Sect Master Qi rose from his seat at once."Reigniting fusion requires a trendous amount of energy. Once an energy shortage appears, all we need to do is investigate where it happened. I refuse to believe this friend is willing to let it sit in his hands unused!"Clan Head Li also stood and looked directly at Xia Li.The mont Xia Li dared use the Golden Crow inner core to preforge a golden core, he would expose his location.Once that happened, all they had to do was trace the clues downward and investigate who had entered a Heavenly Dao Computer node domain during this period.Every one of those people would be a suspect."Then co and investigate!"Xia Li rose as well and t the gazes of these two supre figures of humanity.He had no idea what their cultivation was, nor how much power they truly wielded.But the Heavenly Dao Computer had already asked him.Even so, will you still move forward?His answer was still the sa.Forward."Heh. Since none of you are bothering to hide your identities anymore, then I may as well show my face too."That final, blurriest figure revealed his real appearance.He was an unshaven old man who looked like a drifter, his whole body carrying the dust and sand of wastelands."My na is Yoren. You may have heard of , friend. If the chance cos in the future, let's farm together."Yoren first greeted Xia Li before turning to the Heavenly Dao Computer.
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"I guarantee him mbership in the council, and in exchange I will use my contribution value to humanity to buy him two instances of Heavenly Dao Protection.""Mr. Yoren, are you certain?"Cang looked toward Yoren. At this point, he had even directly blocked the speech of Sect Master Qi and Clan Head Li, because they were behaving rather discourteously. The rules of the council forbade anyone from interfering while another spoke."I'm only guaranteeing soone. It's not as if I haven't done it before. What contribution has the ideology represented by those two made to human civilization as it exists today? The only things they're willing to record in the Heavenly Dao database are things they no longer need to keep secret. I know everyone here is hiding sothing.""I understand you all. I don't ask you to reveal everything you know. But at the very least, don't persecute those who are willing to, all right?""I trusted the Heavenly Dao Computer once too, and all of you burned badly enough that I had to run overnight all the way to Proxima Centauri. If you're so capable, co steal my vegetables there. I've got new technology on my side now too."Yoren stared coldly at the council attendees.At once, many of them lowered their heads in silence."Cang, how many among them are proxy participants?"Yoren looked toward Cang.A proxy participant was soone attending in another's place. Once the academic exchange ended and the contest for benefits began, the true major figures had probably already left and handed everything after that to proxies.The real Sect Master Qi of Mount Tai Prefecture and the real Li Clan Head were long gone already. They still had to discuss the follow-up implentation of miniature star technology with their own scholars.Cang did not answer.That was information he could not disclose."The Heavenly Dao Council gets more and more boring. People treat it this casually now. They leave as soon as they've gotten what they wanted, then send others to attend in their place."After saying that, Yoren again looked toward the figures that still did not even show their true faces.He could already sense that so people were starting to see the Heavenly Dao Computer itself as an obstacle.Good thing he had co.Otherwise, this progressor would have had a hard ti getting out cleanly today.What a pity those scholars who truly cared only for progress could not attend the Heavenly Dao Council directly. If they could, there would be no need for leaders of factions to act in their place.In technical gatherings like today, so long as no power struggle over benefits was involved, those leaders often had others represent them."Speaking of which, today is the tenth birthday of my dear Super Cabbage. Cang, let's set off so fireworks. Overloading the energy supply of every node once shouldn't be too much, should it?""That..."Even Cang, rare among artificial intelligences, was speechless.This would not actually cause much waste. After all, in an age where nuclear fusion had already been achieved, electricity had beco extrely cheap.The issue was that reigniting fusion required enough power output to crowd out a city's normal power consumption, which was what caused the blackout.As for the resulting losses...Modern electronic devices were completely unafraid of power outages, so data loss was not really a concern. At most, production would pause for a short while.Whether those losses beca a problem depended entirely on whether the people affected wished to pursue the matter.And more than that, it depended on who had caused the losses.This was Yoren.A legend of an earlier age.If anyone objected, they were welco to travel to Proxima Centauri personally and settle it with him."I object.""Our side objects as well!"The sects and clans imdiately refused.If that happened, how were they supposed to pinpoint Xia Li's location?If every global node overloaded at once, how were they supposed to search?"Then I just won't set off fireworks at the nodes you control."Yoren looked at Xia Li.Xia Li nodded, and only then did Yoren relax.As long as Xia Li stayed away from cities controlled by sects and clans, everything was fine.There were plenty of cities under the control of other forces.So long as Xia Li himself was careful, the sects and clans could spend their ti slowly searching the whole world."Many of our power facilities are old anyway. This is a good chance to inspect them."The Corporate Alliance spoke up first.A brief outage ant nothing. Being able to sell Yoren a favor was what mattered.Yoren had personally admitted that he had developed another new technology."The lives and property of the people outweigh everything. It is indeed ti for inspections, lest accidents occur."The Democratic Governnt was likewise willing to do Yoren a favor."Then we'll inspect our side too."The Telekinesis Society agreed."Us as well."The other factions all felt the sa.There was no real downside, and a favor owed by Yoren was worth having.That settled it.Xia Li could now form his golden core without any further worries.So long as he himself did not expose anything, the sects and clans would have no hope of finding him in the short term."Resolution passed. Then let all of us celebrate Mr. Yoren's Super Cabbage turning ten."Cang had beco thoroughly speechless now.This was the most absurd resolution he had ever announced as the Heavenly Dao Computer.When energy overloads occurred, the great pillars linking upper and lower city would blaze with brilliant light and discharge toward the sky.The sight was beautiful, more beautiful than any fireworks.But never before had anyone deliberately overloaded energy systems just to create fireworks.Today would beco the first ti in history.But in truth...this worldwide blackout was all for a single person's golden core formation.Cang found comfort in the fact that humanity still had people like Yoren.And Yoren, in turn, would pass that spirit onward and tell all progressors that the road ahead was not a lonely one.
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