Chapter 1974? Hopeless Idiots?
“What?” Han Te and Liu Li exclaid at the sa ti. “Have you recovered your mories?”
All the people from the sky—be they ‘old grandpas’ with ultimate skills, common n and won, or remaining souls ‘stored’ in crystal processors and even rings—as long as they were human beings of a certain form, could not rember anything of their past save their survival instincts.
Gu Zhengyang’s recovery of his mories was unprecedented. Even Li Yao was quite curious.
Frowning, Gu Zhengyang rubbed his temples softly and said, “I do not know whether it is a real mory or just a chaotic nightmare, but when I was dizzy and sleepy every day because of my illness a while back, so mottled fragnts surfaced inside my brain just before my head exploded.
“In those ‘fragnts’, I seed to be wearing heavy tal shackles, which were releasing powerful electric arcs incessantly and stimulated my limbs and internal organs. So guys who were emotionless or wearing tal masks escorted
sowhere.
“The place seed to be nad Hall of Trial or Inquisition. I can’t rember the na clearly now. All in all, I suffered the most unbelievable torture there. Compared with the torture in my nightmare, the deadly battles in the Land of Sins are almost as comfortable as a gentle breeze on a sumr’s evening.
“I don’t know how long I was tortured in the ‘Hall of Trial’, but I was finally escorted to a woman who was wearing a mask with glamorous stripes. She wore a pure white robe and carried a silver gavel that was delicate with fine engravings on it. The silver gavel left a particularly deep impression on
because the woman knocked it hard and declared, ‘Guilty!’
“I do not know what cris I committed. I only rember that I was tortured to such an extent that I even lost the strength to struggle. Then, I was pressed to a tal bed, which felt as cold as ice.
“There, sobody shaved my hair. There were also many cold hands touching my bald head. So tools that were as tough as iron brushed past my skull, too.
“Eventually…”
Gu Zhengyang’s voice was trembling even harder. The iron-made man shuddered again and pointed at his temples. “It felt sobody dig through here with a very sharp drill and then open my skull with a curved jigsaw that looked like a sickle.
“At that ti, I should have been very conscious, so conscious that I could sense the sll when the drill was rubbing my skull and the sound of the high-speed friction. It is probably the most horrible sound that anybody could ever hear.
“The skull shouldn’t bring any sense of pain, but I clearly sensed the pain that could’ve driven anybody mad. It felt as if ten thousand man-eating ants were crawling inside my brains, but I was unable to move my hands or feet at all…
“That was the end of my nightmare. I do not rember anything that happened next. After a long period of darkness, it becos the mories of
in the Land of Sins.”
“Ah…”
Hearing her father’s story and seeing his twisted expression, Liu Li felt so heartbroken that she almost wept. She extended her hands and wanted to touch her father’s face, but she did not dare move further, fearing that she might touch so terrible wound.
“Don’t be scared.” Gu Zhengyang grinned. He tapped his head and said, “I’ve long examined it carefully. There is no scar on my head that indicates sobody opened my skull. The few scars there were all left in the fights after I reached the Land of Sins. That’s why I’m suspicious that it is rely a weird nightmare.”
“Yes. Such a thing couldn’t possibly have happened, right?” Han Te comforted Liu Li, too. “Opening soone’s skull, playing tricks inside, and then sewing the skull without leaving any scar is too strange and unbelievable. Master’s brain must’ve been affected by the chaotic spiritual energy when he was sick. That’s why he had the bizarre nightmare.”
Li Yao, however, knew that craniotomy had been a very mature technology even in the Star Glory Federation a hundred years earlier. Also, the technology of cell proliferation and skin surgery were advanced enough to erase the scars of an operation completely, too.
Then, what were the ‘Hall of Trial’ and ‘guilty’ about?
The Martial ritocrats Sector had completely turned into a weapon laboratory. In such a heavily-polluted, man-made world where the strong preyed on the weak, if ‘new blood’ was not injected from the outside incessantly, it would be impossible to keep the population of ‘test subjects’. Perhaps the locals of the Martial ritocrats Sector should have gone extinct, and the place would’ve been abandoned, hundreds of years ago.
Unless, of course, the lack of test subjects was made up for by the people who were found ‘guilty’ by the ‘Hall of Trial’, after part of their brain cortexes were removed and sothing additional was implanted.
If Li Yao’s soul had teeth, he would have been biting them so hard that they were falling apart.
After thinking for a mont, he realized that the chip in Gu Zhengyang’s hands was rather unusual.
He sent a wave to Han Te’s brain quietly.
Blinking quickly, Han Te said, “Right, master. What exactly is the chip that stores ‘Little Cultivators’ about? You ntioned just now that my masteress gave it to you. Then, where did my masteress get it?”
As if caught in mories from a long ti ago, Gu Zhengyang said, not very certainly, “According to your masteress, it was a gift of a traveler who passed by the Village of Peace when she was little.
“The Land of Sins is in peril. Even the comrcial groups among the ‘Elysian Worlds’ have to hire hundreds of experts as guards before they do business in the ‘Bloody Worlds’ and the ‘Desolate Worlds’. ‘Travelers’ are almost too rare to ever co across.
“What was even more unusual was that the traveler was a white-haired old lady. It was said that she passed through more than ten ‘Bloody Worlds’ occupied by the most ferocious gangs and reached the Village of Peace unhard.
“I do not know what the old lady saw in your masteress, but she spent so ti with your masteress and told a lot of stories to her. Before she left, she offered your masteress a bag of seeds of the Gold Barley and the chip.
“The old lady told your masteress that the seeds and the chip could perhaps save the entire Land of Sins.
“The Gold Barley could be grown anywhere, but the chip was of paramount importance and would mostly likely lead to disasters if revealed easily. The old lady asked your masteress to share the secrets of the chip and pass it only when she t soone she could absolutely trust.
“Although your masteress and I were together for many years, she never told
the secrets about the chip until the last mont. I only learned what a burdenso and remarkable thing she had been carrying then.
“You two kids are both very good. Now that the Village of Peace has co to a dangerous mont, I cannot wait anymore. I’ll give the chip to the two of you. Whether or not the world described in the chip is real, and what secrets are hidden behind the so-called Land of Sins, will be your choice to pursue or forget.”
Gu Zhengyang put the chip back to the tal box and then handed the tal box to the two of them solemnly. He then sighed softly, as if so sort of strength that had been supporting him was sealed in the box and passed on to the two little fellows.
“Starlight!” the ntal devil shouted next to Li Yao’s soul. “That’s right. The old lady that Gu Zhengyang talked about must be a warrior of ‘Starlight’, the legendary resistance organization of the Cultivators. No matter how harsh the environnt in the Land of Sins and how close the surveillance of the angels, or the Immortal Cultivators, the Cultivators of the Martial ritocrats Sector have never been completely wiped out. They are still resisting in their own way, or at least passing on the ideology of the Cultivators generation after generation!”
“It is very possible!” Li Yao felt thrilled.
The Star Glory Federation had selected the Martial ritocrats Sector in the Devilish Scorpion Galaxy partly in order to reach out to the local organization of Cultivators.
From the signs, it was very possible that Starlight did exist and was still active decades ago!
“Dad…” After thinking for a long ti, Liu Li bit her lips softly and asked, “Was mom a Cultivator? Did she believe in the ideology of the Cultivators?”
“I… don’t know.” Gu Zhengyang smiled bitterly. “Compared to the world of singing birds, fragrant flowers, and warm sunshine in the video, the Land of Sins is practically a living hell. Who struggling to survive in this hell does not have a pair of hands stained with blood? Who is qualified to call themself a Cultivator? Also, I don’t believe that your mother agrees with the ideology of the Cultivators very much.”
Liu Li was puzzled. “Why?”
Gu Zhengyang’s face suddenly turned weird. He said mysteriously, “Because before she passed away, she pulled
to her side and whispered, ‘All Cultivators are hopeless idiots, and those of the Martial ritocrats Sector are particularly so.'”
“Well…” Han Te and Liu Li looked at each other in bewildernt. They did not understand what it ant at all.
Li Yao, having the basic knowledge about the whole process of the Martial ritocrats Sector’s destruction, was the only one who could more or less understand the feelings of Liu Li’s mother at that ti.
The woman who tried to grow the Gold Barley all over the Land of Sins must have learned more things through certain channels.
First of all, they opened the gate to the believers of Chiyou from the Sand Primitive Sector and allowed them to work and live in the Martial ritocrats Sector. They even gave the foreigners the right to vote.
Then, they invented the theory of ‘original sin’ for the Cultivators and passed the Bill of General Equality. The rights of the Cultivators were suppressed infinitely.
In the end, they let ‘Blackstar the Great’ Wuying Qi, the dangerous criminal who had changed into an Immortal Cultivator, run away. Eventually, the guy brought the fleets of the Imperium back to his ‘hotown’ and granted his ‘compatriots’ the cruelest judgnt!
‘Idiots’ did not begin to describe the Cultivators of the Martial ritocrats Sector.
However…
If Liu Li’s mother were not a Cultivator, how could she have been idiotic enough to believe that she could grow the Gold Barley all over the Land of Sins, that she could appease all the conflicts on her own, and that everybody could live together in happiness and peace?
“All the Cultivators are hopeless idiots, and those of the Martial ritocrats Sector are particularly so.”
Perhaps, the innocent woman had said the words with a smile before she left the mortal world.
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