Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1506
The so-called solution of the Nuwa Clan meant appearing in the form of the Nuwa Clan that was surrounded by overwhelming tenebrum energy so that the army of possessed people would be better trained, more hideous, last longer, and cause greater damage.
Long Yangjun said that she did not really care about the consequences or hold any prejudice against the arts of devils that highlighted freedom and chaos. However, she had indeed witnessed what Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan and Extraterrestrial Devil Lu Qingchen achieved in the Star Glory Federation.
The minor outburst of devils before her couldn't have been as huge as the trouble caused by Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan and Extraterrestrial Devil Lu Qingchen no matter what she did. In that case, what was there to appreciate?
The heritages of the Pangu Clan, on the other hand, were newly awakened inside her body and had never been practiced yet. She was somewhat eager to try them.
Therefore, she snuck into the army of miners who were about to go on a rampage and absorbed the devils that were overflowing from their brains. After sucking away all the devilish air and the vindictive thoughts that had been accumulated for hundreds of years, she resolved a great catastrophe before it happened without alerting anyone. The Immortal Cultivators did not even notice it at all.
Absorbing the devils and the vindictive thoughts was just the first step. The situation of the miners did not change, and they were still in agony and wrath. If they were left alone, there were bound to be new outbursts of devils sooner or later.
Therefore, Long Yangjun "kindly" taught them the ways to forget their pain, suppress their anger, and pacify their soul.
The miners were all uneducated, unrefined people, and Long Yangjun was also unwilling to expose her traces and identity. Therefore, she came up with "Serenity Seraph" as her pseudonym and named the shallow tricks that she taught them to be "Serenity Arts".
"I swear that I did not mean anything malicious or have any long-term plan in the beginning. It was purely because the miners were too much in pain and angry and would be mentally deranged at any moment if I left them alone. In that case, they would be really hopeless! Besides… I was very curious whether or not the Pangu Clan's secret techniques to suppress feelings were really effective. That was why I gave it a shot."
Long Yangjun said solemnly, as if it were not her fault at all, "Who would have foreseen that things would somehow go out of control later?"
Chapter 2363: Ideas of Nepenthe |
According to Long Yangjun, she only selected the few most in pain and resentful miners and taught them the "Serenity Arts" so that they could get rid of the incessant and unforgettable agony.
In order to teach the rather complicated techniques to the miners who were uneducated, she had to teach them by using the methods of telepathy and directly stamped the arts into their heads through the transmission of brainwaves.
It was only a minor experiment at the beginning, but she greatly underestimated the potentials of the hominoids below the ground. The Serenity Arts and the methods of telepathy were spread among the miners like a wildfire. They were disseminated from this tunnel to that tunnel, from one mine to ten mines, from the mines to the geothermal factories, and from the geothermal factories to the assembly lines on upper levels or even the financial districts even upper above.
"It was not until then that I realized the underground hominoids had so much anxiety and pain regardless of their class, and that they had such a high demand for the Serenity Arts."
Long Yangjun chuckled, not thinking that it was a big deal. "I like killing and sabotaging best in my entire life, and I've barely done anything good, but the propagation of the Serenity Arts, which helped so many people to relieve their pain, is certainly one of them!"
"But when you 'relieved' their agony and anxiety, you erased their delight and happiness altogether!" Li Yao observed coldly.
"Li Yao, why do you still not understand? Just look around!"
Long Yangjun slightly raised her voice, and her eyes became aggressive. "For the people living in this place, the universe is a hell, their own people are fiends, and living is suffering! They hardly have any delight and happiness. The seething black venoms inside their heads are endless pain and unpacifiable anxiety. Do they have any joy and happiness to be erased?
"I never forced anybody to do anything. Even when I kindly helped the miners who risked being deranged, I told them the side effects of the Serenity Arts and the methods of telepathy in great details truthfully. I said that the tricks were like the leukotomy where parts of the brain tissues were removed, and that while they could help you reduce your pain, it was very likely that you would never taste the feelings of happiness again.
"Can you guess their reply?
"Those miners said that they had never tasted the feeling of happiness in their harrowing life. So, it didn't matter at all!
"At first, I did not know the full features of the Serenity Arts. It was only part of the knowledge that I found from the fuzzy ancestral memories. How would I know that practicing the Serenity Arts would be like drug addiction? How would I know that they would want to be more tranquil after they were tranquilized, more comfortable after they were comforted, and further eliminate all the pain when their pain was slightly relieved?
"But drug addiction or not, if we get to the bottom of it, that was their own choice!
"I was told that the patients who were on the verge of death due to terminal diseases were allowed to inject certain high-intensity anesthetics or drugs to relieve their extreme pain, which is in the spirit of humanitarianism. Then, for the pathetic hominoids living in the underground worlds, are they not suffering mentally terminal diseases when they are about to destroy themselves in the outburst of devils? Is it not in the spirit of humanitarianism to provide the Serenity Arts for them?
"Let me make it more frank. Flies only lay eggs in the gutter. If the world is really peaceful and quiet, and everybody is enjoying their life happily, not a single person will be fooled no matter how I deceive them and beg them to practice the Serenity Arts! But the reality is that they are crying and begging me to relieve their pain for them no matter what the price is. After all, they already have absolutely nothing to lose!"
"You're right. It is the world that is wrong!"
Li Yao stood straight and argued, not giving in at all, "It is exactly for that reason that we should change the world instead of changing the people who are exploited and enslaved by the world!"
"Do not say 'we' when it is only your personal opinion."
Long Yangjun said casually, "Perhaps you are a benevolent great hero who swears to save all the people, but as for me… Even if I am not a bad guy, I am still just a selfish person who is only willing to do things that I am capable of when my own interests are not hurt.
"If I can help somebody by lending my hand, I wouldn't mind doing so, but if you are asking me to challenge the entire world at the risk of my own life, hehe, I'm afraid that it will be too demanding and outrageous, isn't it?
"Besides, the situation at that time was highly emergent, and the devils would break out at any moment. I did not have any choice at all. If I did not teach them the Serenity Arts, I would be watching them be mentally deranged and consumed by violent feelings and desires, degenerating into insane, mad people! That was the only cure in my pocket. If you were in my shoes, what could you have done?
"Li Yao, just give up your biases and think about it calmly. If I have not lied about anything up until so far, can you find anything wrong with what I did? Was it in violation of your chivalry? If your soul were in my shell, and you were faced with thousands of 'half lunatics' who were about to go on a rampage when you were entirely on your own, would you have made a better choice?"
His eyes bloodshot, Li Yao stared at Long Yangjun and thought hard for a long time. Then, he managed to say, "While you do have some points, I am still suspicious that you are not as kindhearted and innocent as you claim to be. You taught the miners the Serenity Arts probably because you wanted to test the power of the technique or to figure out its specific usages. After all, the knowledge retrieved from 'ancestral memories' can be fuzzy and disordered. It was necessary for you to test and sort it through! Don't deny it. Although I do not have any proof, it was probably the fact based on my understanding about you!"
"Look, you are being cynical again, aren't you?"
Long Yangjun said with a smile, "Even if that was what was on my mind, so what? Is the almighty Father Li going to punish someone for what they think? Is thinking in violation of any law?"
Li Yao coughed and said, "We're off the topic. Let's focus on Nepenthe. What is that about exactly?"
"Very simple. As more and more people learned the methods of telepathy and then practiced the Serenity Arts, they naturally formed a secret society."
Long Yangjun opened her hands and raised them, as if she were surrendering, to show her innocence as she said, "That thing was truly not within my plan. The gathering of so many people would not do me any good! However, on second thought afterward, I realized that the birth of such an organization was a necessity because human beings could only be effectively motivated by certain instructions or when seeking the significance of their lives."
Li Yao was confused. "What do you mean?"
"Literally what I said. Everybody is living for something, not just to eat and sleep."
Long Yangjun said, "Human beings were manufactured by the Pangu Clan and Nuwa Clan as their tools in the beginning. Since they were tools, their users would naturally pack certain instructions into the heads of humans so that humans could do their work dutifully, right?
"After all the primeval civilizations perished and human beings survived, they began to be driven by their feelings and desires. The significance of their lives is the satisfaction of their feelings and desires. It is exactly because feelings and desires can never be satisfied that human beings have been moving forward incessantly.
"Do you understand it now? The orders from the Pangu Clan or the Nuwa Clan and the orders from the desires in their heads are all the 'significance of life'.
"But right now, the underground hominoids who practice the Serenity Arts have suppressed their feelings and desires to an extremely low level, resulting in the shortage of inner motives in their hearts. In the meantime, there is not a supreme being such as the Pangu Clan or the Nuwa Clan, which gives them orders from the outside. Here comes the question. What exactly are they living for under such circumstances?"
"Right!"
Li Yao was greatly enlightened. "This is indeed a very serious problem. Human beings cannot lack beliefs. Even the most evil or cheesy beliefs are still the motives to push people forward. Those who have completely lost their beliefs are like spiritual puppets without given orders. They will not have any reason to do anything at all!"
"Therefore, since they have lost their beliefs of the past, they will naturally search for or create new beliefs as the significance of their lives."
Long Yangjun said, "That might've been caused by my neglect, but I couldn't have seen it coming, could I? Thankfully, they did not need my help to come up with a set of new ideas, which were the prototype of the doctrine of Nepenthe.
"The doctrine of Nepenthe holds that all the sufferings in the world are because of excessive desires, and all the mortals in the universe are tortured by the devils of desires. Even the high and mighty Immortal Cultivators are but slaves and puppets of the devils in their heads.
"It is exactly because they are haunted by the devils and they have lost their sanity since a long time ago that the Immortal Cultivators exploit the ordinary people brutally and the ordinary people abuse each other, turning the whole universe into a boundless hell of infinite darkness and horror.
"Therefore, there are no 'Immortal Cultivators' in the world at all but only the possessed people who pretend to be Immortal Cultivators. What rules over the Imperium of True Human Beings is exactly the devils!
"Even though all the planets in the three thousand Sectors are drained, it is impossible to meet the demand of the possessed people whose feelings of ravenousness are as deep as black holes. They are essentially the worms of the universe and will drag the three thousand Sectors into destruction.
"To protect the universe and recover the real tranquility, the first thing that is to be done is to annihilate the feelings and desires in one's own head and to return to the original, pure state. Then, it is necessary to help other people who are tortured by emotions and extricate them from eternal pain and anxiety. In the end, everybody must be united and go to 'purge' the fake Immortal Cultivators living on the surface of the planet without fear.
"The universe will not embrace the ultimate salvation until the last Immortal Cultivator is purged and destroyed. Henceforth, human beings will live in peace with the universe carefreely forever without any wars among themselves!"
Chapter 2364: The Innocent Long Yangjun |
"Wait, wait, let me see…"
Li Yao blinked his eyes quickly and asked in suspicion, "Why do the ideas of this Nepenthe sound so much like the approaches of the Covenant Alliance? It's almost like a small replica of the Covenant Alliance!"
"Yes, you're absolutely right!"
Long Yangjun nodded her head heavily and said, as if she had been greatly wronged, "That's why I said that I was innocent. Nepenthe was not founded by me at all, and their core ideas did not come from me. It was the spies of the Covenant Alliance who were behind everything!"
"The spies of the Covenant Alliance?" Li Yao suddenly grew alert.
Li Yao was told that the Immortal Cultivators' tyranny on the underclass naturally raised the intense resentment and resistance of the underclass. Since the ideas of the Cultivators had declined a thousand years ago, the spies of the Covenant Alliance had a perfect opportunity to occupy the vacuum.
The Imperium today was teeming with spies of the Covenant Alliance everywhere. They had a set of solutions that could perfectly simulate feelings to help them pass the "Ring-Tu Test" of the Imperium that was supposed to distinguish human beings from "demi-humans". They had been spreading the ideas of the Covenant Alliance blatantly in the Imperium, exactly like what was described just now, including the philosophies that desires were the greatest enemy of a civilization, and only by completely purging and erasing the possessed Immortal Cultivators could a civilization live in peace with the universe, etc.
Such ridiculous thoughts would have absolutely no market if they were in countries like the Star Glory Federation, where the nation was thriving, the society was in order, and the people boasted independent will and a healthy mind.
However, under the cruel governance and suppression in the Imperium, countless people including a lot of Immortal Cultivators were living in the deepest agony, and they could not see the future of the country where everybody brutalized each other like beasts in a jungle. As a result, some of them did abandon the true path of immortality and shift to the Path of Ultimate Benevolence that gave up personal desires for the beliefs.
Li Yao once encountered a colonization team of the Imperium in the Kunlun relic. Tang Qianhe, the navigator in the team, was a spy of the Covenant Alliance who betrayed the true path of immortality and joined the Path of Ultimate Benevolence.
Of course, Tang Qianhe, who was at the peak of the Core Formation Stage, was a rarely-seen senior spy. They would not expose themselves easily. Instead, they would lurk like ghosts in a deep ocean. Only when they were involved in great events such as an opportunity to bring a member of the Pangu Clan back to life would they rip their masks and reveal their true appearances.
But there were still tremendous low-level spies, as well as chess pieces who did not know that they were being manipulated in their ignorance, who disseminated the Path of Ultimate Benevolence in the territory of the Imperium inexorably and fearlessly.
Their feelings being highly repressed, they naturally did not have any fear for death but only had infinite loyalty for the Path of Ultimate Benevolence. They were absolutely not scared of death no matter how the Immortal Cultivators suppressed them. Even if ten thousand of them were killed today, they would pop up again tomorrow like wild grasses that could never be burnt up.
The Empyreal Terminus Sector was a power vacuum where the four Kurfürst families checked and balanced each other. The Immortal Cultivators' reign over the bottom-level people was relatively feeble. Naturally, the underground worlds here were the best places of activities for the spies of the Covenant Alliance and the believers of the Path of Ultimate Benevolence.
In the meantime, the Covenant Alliance's techniques were of the same origin as Long Yangjun's heritage. They were highly exchangeable and complementary. Some of the spies of the Covenant Alliance were also aware of the tricks similar to the Serenity Arts, except that theirs were errored and incomplete and not as good as Long Yangjun's.
The methods of telepathy were the same. The people of the Covenant Alliance could communicate via telepathy, but their methods of telepathy had been misinterpreted far too many times and were naturally not as good as Long Yangjun's first-hand techniques.
In any case, after the underground hominoids practiced the Serenity Arts and the methods of telepathy under Long Yangjun's tutelage and organized themselves, they immediately attracted a lot of spies of the Covenant Alliance and believers of the Path of Ultimate Benevolence like magnets.
The governance of the Imperium of True Human Beings on the bottom level was messy and corrupted, but the spies of the Covenant Alliance had been deeply rooted at the bottom level, dedicated to solving the practical problems of the poor folks. When the problems were unresolvable, they were still willing to comfort people's traumatized minds. Therefore, the spies of the Covenant Alliance were quite popular at the bottom level. However the Imperium brainwashed the people, there was always a group of people who sympathized with or even supported the spies of the Covenant Alliance, which made it the best soil for the Path of Ultimate Benevolence to bloom and fruit.
