Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“In fact, we considered the possibility you mentioned before. After I discovered that Wuying Qi controlled remarkable brainwashing technologies that were similar to what the Covenant Alliance had, I speculated whether or not he would commit any insane, heinous crimes with the evil technologies. However, it is terribly difficult.”

Li Yao pointed at his head and said, “The critical factor is energy. As the saying goes, it is easy to change the commander of an army, but it is not as easy to change someone’s mind. It means that the souls, feelings, and self-awareness of human beings are too hard to be easily corroded and twisted.

“As a matter of fact, changing someone’s idea and making him accept the opposite of what he used to believe is a hundred times more difficult than killing him directly.”

“You don’t understand? Let me give you an example. An Immortal Cultivator can kill an ordinary person easily. All he needs to do is to wave his weapon or even to snap his finger. It is not troublesome. However, how much spiritual energy do you think it will take for him to change the mind of this ordinary person, say, directing the ordinary person to kill the people that he loves most?

“Let’s say that the energy cost for the Immortal Cultivator to kill the ordinary person is 1, the energy cost for him to make the ordinary person kill their loved ones will be at least 100, right?

“Furthermore, what if he’s not asking the ordinary person to kill their loved ones, but instead, he’s trying to convince the ordinary person that he is a rabbit? How many illusions does he need to build, how many ideas does he need to implant, and how is he going to settle the conflict between the ordinary person’s existent memories and imported ideas so that the notion that he is a rabbit can be permanently etched in the person’s mind even if the ordinary person returns to society and gets in touch with other people? The energy cost for that will be at least 10,000, right?

“It is needless to say that hypnotization, psychological hint, and brutal brainwashing all involve the deepest mysteries of the soul. The brain and the soul are the most mysterious and dangerous places of all. Even the unparalleled experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage cannot say that they have grasped 1% of the secrets.

“Every in-depth hypnotization will establish a mental bridge between the hypnotizer and the hypnotized. It’s like a weaker version of possession. One moment of carelessness, and a counterattack may be raised. Even the strongest Meditation Healer may be affected by the soul of an ordinary person, to the point that they cannot distinguish reality from illusion, their own brain from other people’s brains, turning into lunatics that wander among thousands of dreams.

“Let’s just consider the memory cell removal, which seems simplest of all. But think about it, from doctors to nurses, and from the operation room to the drugs, if all the resources are exchanged into energy, how much will it cost for someone to lose his memories? However, if the purpose is to kill him, one bullet will be enough.”

After being stunned for a long time, Li Jialing said, “It does make sense. Compared with direct killing, brainwashing does consume hundreds of times more energy.”

“It certainly does. Souls are unpredictable in the first place. Even the seemingly weak ordinary people may have the toughest minds. Not only are such people highly resistant to brainwashing, but they may also unleash a ‘brainstorm’ that will swallow the practitioner.”

Li Yao continued, “I know that ‘brainwashing’ is a cliché in many fiction and games. It’s like the brainwasher only needs to wave his hands or whisper something uncanny while holding his fingers on his temples, in order to brainwash countless people and transform them into his puppets.

“However, games are just games. It is not nearly as convenient in real life. Anything comes with a cost. It’s like Wuying Qi’s brainwashing attack on me in the Seven Seas Grand Market was launched at the cost of the brain of a senior Meditation Healer. The Meditation Healers of Wuying Qinxin’s level are hard to come by. It’s impossible to use them as ‘ammunitions’.”

“What about those Imperial Guards?”

Li Jialing asked, not entirely convinced, “Haven’t those Imperial Guards been brainwashed by Wuying Qi?”

“That’s only on one condition.”

Li Yao explained patiently, “The Imperial Guards worshipped Wuying Qi in the first place and were willing to die for him. They probably voluntarily entered the… let’s call it ‘brainwashing factory’, if such a facility did exist. They were implanted with a certain idea willingly.

“In the meantime, the idea that Wuying Qi implanted in them is in fact not in complete violation with their original thoughts. People tend to believe what they want to believe. The Imperial Guards craved for Wuying Qi’s victory in the first place, and Wuying Qi merely gave their minds a ‘nudge’.

“However, you suggested just now that Wuying Qi is trying to brainwash the ace fleets of the four families. That won’t be so simple.

“The soldiers of the ace fleets are 99% the central and direct descendants of the four families. Absolute dedication to their families has been taught to them since their childhood. They can’t be warier of Blackstar the Great more.

“In order to implant the idea of ‘serve the Blackstar the Great and destroy the four families’, Wuying Qi will have to twist their decades of belief by brute force and completely change their mindsets and worldviews. He will make their interests in real life enemies of their minds. How is it possible? How much energy will it consume in order to conquer those solid ramparts inside their head?

“Can you understand it? Let’s say that I implant the idea into your head that you are a tall, strong, and handsome man, and that all the women in the world will kneel before your boots and enjoy your conquest, while Long Yangjun also implants an idea into your head, except that the idea is that you are a woman—a masochistic woman, no less.

“Which idea will you find easier to accept?”

Li Jialing hesitated. “Huh…”

“Are you serious? You actually need to hesitate about your choice?”

Li Yao was stunned. “Is there a certain tendency in your heart that you would rather not talk about?”

“Of course not! I certainly prefer the first idea!”

Li Jialing blushed and said, “I understand what you mean now, Brother Yao. People tend to believe what they want to believe. It’s easy for Wuying Qi to brainwash the Imperial Guards, but it will be ten times more difficult for him to brainwash the elite warriors of the four families. He cannot gain the astronomical energy to brainwash the minds that are highly wary of and hostile against him.

“But wait, what about the Covenant Alliance and their brainwashing?”

“The Covenant Alliance’s brainwashing mostly starts from infancy or even embryos. Newborns are blank paper. It’s easy for them to accept the most ridiculous ideas.”

Long Yangjun replied, “Besides, the Covenant Alliance does not only perform the ‘hard brainwashing’ through qualitative changes in the brain; they also have all kinds of educational and religious agencies, so that people will impose psychological hints on themselves every day, strengthening their belief that feelings must be abandoned and they must remain loyal to the Pangu Clan.”

“Even so, the facility for the Covenant Alliance to perform brainwashing still requires massive energy supply.”

Li Yao added, “At the edge of the cosmos, we once discovered a military base of the Pangu Clan known as ‘Kunlun’. There was a factory responsible for manufacturing human beings in it. Naturally, it was responsible for brainwashing the newborns too. The energy that supported the whole ‘Kunlun’ came from a pulsar nearby.

“Only an enormous and special celestial body like the pulsar could’ve provided the energy that the manufacturing and brainwashing factory needed incessantly.

“There doesn’t seem to be any celestial body like a pulsar in the Empyreal Terminus Sector, right?

“Therefore, although I can’t give an estimation on the specific figure, I’m certain that, even if Wuying Qi drains the whole capital planet, turning the scorching core of the planet into silent ice, the energy will still be far from enough for him to brainwash the enemies in space!”

“Even though he finds a way to gather enough energy, the other irresolvable problem is the distance.”

Long Yangjun followed, “Assuming that Wuying Qi does have a ‘brainwashing factory’ below the ground, it’s easy for him to get the Imperial Guards who are loyal to him there. Brain surgeries, magnetic interferences, and radiation procedures will be simple. However, how is he going to deceive the enemies who are all over the space to enter his brainwashing factory obediently? If he is capable of that, no brainwashing will be needed at all!

“All in all, both hypnotization and brainwashing have a radius of attack. It is naturally unrealistic to brainwash hundreds of thousands of enemies through brain surgeries. Then, the only way is to resort to certain intense magnetic waves, say, enhancing the brainwaves by thousands of times, right? However, the brainwaves, the spiritual energy, and all the other radiations and high-energy particles have high attritions during transmission. Chances are that Wuying Qi’s efforts will decay and perish before they pass the atmosphere when he carries out his arts below the ground. How can he attack so many enemies all over the space at once?

“Normally speaking, a large area of mental attack on the battlefield can only be conducted through the magical equipment that is some sort of ‘magnifier’ or ‘enhancer’. It’s like the riot of the Nepenthe believers in the Great Iron Plants half a year ago. At that time, they found a brainwave magnifier that dated back to the primeval war, and they planned to power it with the abundant geothermal energy deep inside the Great Iron Plants so that they could carry out a large area of mental attack.

“However, even such an awesome ‘magnifier’ could only expand the range of the mental attack to a hundred square kilometers, right? On the ground, it is reasonably large, but in a space battlefield, a hundred square kilometers will be no larger than the tip of a needle.”

“Right, the riot of the Nepenthe believers was a classic massive mental warfare.”

Li Yao counted his fingers. “Two conditions were necessary. One was abundant geothermal energy, and the other was the brainwave magnifier. Neither of them could’ve been counted out.

“What Wuying Qi is going to do is ten thousand times more difficult than what the Nepenthe believers intended to achieve. The range of his brainwashing will be the entire space zone, and he is going to control hundreds of thousands of determined, loyal experts who are devoted to their families. So, where can he possibly find the energy source or such an awesome ‘magnifier’? So, it’s impossible. Hahahaha. Rest assured, it’s absolutely impossible!”