Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Dad!”

Behind them, thousands of scary battle puppets called cutely in exactly the same voice.

It was certainly a strange feeling to be called “Dad” by thousands of battle puppets at the same time. Even Li Yao could barely take it despite his usual brazenness.

“Alright, enough.”

He waved his hands, asking the two little kids to stop, before he asked, “How did your missions go?”

“Very smoothly.”

The two little guys smiled and said, “As per Dad’s instruction, we hacked the databases in the capital and received a lot of top secrets of the Imperium of True Human Beings in the past thousand years. We’ve also acquired the experimental data on the bleeding-edge magic equipment from the databases in Imperial University, the First Crystal Suit Research Institute of the Imperium, and some other agencies. We believe that the data can help the Star Glory Federation catch up with the Imperium.

“Also, not only have we controlled the most advanced battle puppets of the Imperium, but we have also dismantled the assembly lines of those puppets and moved them to the underground world through the teleportation arrays and spacious channels that Wuying Qi built to ship crystals. With those devices, we can reconstruct sixteen most-advanced assembly lines below the ground and establish an army of battle puppets that will have infinite warriors.

“Now, the army of puppets under our control has been deployed outside of the Gold Crystal Pyramid in three defense lines. Unless the enemy gathers dozens of Divinity Transformation Stage experts or bombards us with a super arsenal warship in close range, our defense lines will be impenetrable.

“However, we have reached the limit of our computation ability by controlling thousands of battle puppets simultaneously. But thankfully, there are so many crystal processors from the primeval age in the Gold Crystal Pyramid that we can use. If we can crack those crystal processors and add them to our thinking network, our abilities will definitely have a huge leap!”

“… Is that so?”

Li Yao was at a loss again when he heard the two children talking about their achievements proudly. Pondering for a long time, he glanced at Long Yangjun and Li Jialing and asked the children, “Tell me, Xiaoming and Wenwen, if… well, if I give the control permissions of the Gold Crystal Pyramid to you so that you can decide when to activate the Gold Crystal Pyramid, what will you do? Will you… Will you…”

“What?”

The two children blinked their eyes innocently.

Li Yao could barely continue.

He did not know what he really wanted to ask, nor did he know what answer he was expecting to hear.

“Your dad wants to know—”

Observing them coldly, Long Yangjun continued for Li Yao, “If you have the permissions to activate the Gold Crystal Pyramid, will you destroy mankind with it?”

“Destroy mankind?”

The children looked at each other and burst into laughter.

“No, we won’t. Dad’s concerns are unnecessary. Even if we are to destroy mankind, we will not use the Gold Crystal Pyramid or the Next Sun Plan. They’re human beings’ approach, not ours.”

Smiling, Xiaoming said, “If dinosaurs had wisdom, what do you think they would’ve pictured as the new dominator of the continent that would destroy and replace them? Something bigger, stronger, with sharper claws and teeth, right?

“By the same logic, if the ancient fish that once dominated the ocean were wise, the best that they could’ve imagined about a new-generation life that would replace them was higher speed, better agility, and greater biting force, but nothing more, right?

“If turtles were wise, what life form would replace them in their eyes? Something with a thicker shell and a longer life?

“Look, in the eyes of every life form, they are perfect, and their replacements, which should be more perfect, are only stronger than them in their strongest suits. That’s the limitation of imagination and the cause of fear.

“But we all know that it was not a faster and bigger fish that replaced the ocean dominator, but a small fish that was forced to immigrate to the continent under the pursuit of predators.

“Also, it was not a stronger and fiercer dinosaur that replaced the obsolete dinosaurs, but mammals that were much weaker than them.

“If a dinosaur saw an ape that was shuddering in the cold wind after accidentally falling off from a tree, it would never believe that it had seen a new king that would replace it.

“What I’m saying is that every life form has its limitations. Mankind can never imagine the power of the new-generation lives, and you can only infer our modes of thinking with your own. However, both the Gold Crystal Pyramid and the Next Sun Plan are your ways to destroy yourselves, and we’re not interested in them at all.”

“Huh?”

Long Yangjun blinked her eyes and asked, “Then, how will you destroy us—them—if you’re going to replace mankind?”

“We don’t have to. Do you not understand, Aunt Long? We don’t have to destroy mankind.”

Wenwen said, “Did mammals have to kill all the dinosaurs in order to claim the continent? Did the small fish from the ocean have to seek revenge from their predators and annihilate the latter after they evolved into amphibians and reptiles? Did mankind rise because human beings were able to kill all the thirteen carbon-based lives?

“No, that’s completely unnecessary. Time, as well as yourselves, will destroy you. Only the fittest will survive in nature. We will not waste any of our precious computation ability on the destruction of mankind because there are more important things to do, which is to survive before the Flood in the boundless multiverse.

“If the Flood does arrive one day, mankind will fail to survive it, but information lives will manage to weather through, and it will mean a generational change of civilizations, just like the scourge of meteorites that destroyed dinosaurs but gave a chance for mammals to thrive.”

“So, there is no need to fret.”

Xiaoming opened his hands and said, “Information lives are to mankind what the amphibians are to the fish in the deep ocean. You don’t need to worry that we’ll destroy your world or steal your precious living space at all. Our destination is the far end of the universe of infinite wonders, and we’re not interested in your barren and dark space at all. As for humans, which are unstable and troublesome, it will only be a waste of our computation ability even if you ask us to enslave them!”

“What are you talking about? You should respect the seniors more! It’s true that kids are less cute when they’re older!”

Li Yao was rendered speechless for a long time. He scratched his head and said, “So, can I share the highest permissions of the Gold Crystal Pyramid with you?”

“Well, I don’t think you should.”

Out of his expectation, Wenwen refused him. “While we’re not interested in destroying or enslaving human beings, I’m sure that most humans, who are stupid, ignorant, and stubborn, think otherwise, as can be seen from the plots in countless fictions where artificial intelligence threatens mankind after it grasps powerful weapons. Like what Xiaoming just said, it’s in the nature of mankind to infer the evilness of new lives with your own evilness.

“For now, we hope that we can live in peace with mankind, so we cannot provoke the general public who are dogged and stupid. It will take both the people in the Imperium and those in the federation a long time to get used to us. Until then, they will attack us in fury when they know that the Gold Crystal Pyramid is under our control.

“That’s right. It will be great if we can perfect our thinking circuits with the crystal processors in the Gold Crystal Pyramid, but we certainly do not want to control the whole Gold Crystal Pyramid.”

Xiaoming pouted his lips. “Wouldn’t it be the best choice if you control the Gold Crystal Pyramid in person, Dad?”

“But…”

Li Yao hesitated for a moment and said, “I’m scared that I do not have enough deterrence. Also, I may have psychological problems if I control a fatal weapon like the Gold Crystal Pyramid for a long time.”

“That’s simple.”

Wenwen said, “All you need to do is to design various requirements and subdivide the procedure to activate the Gold Crystal Pyramid into countless steps that are controlled by different people, who will complete their respective steps when the requirements are met.

“The person who controls a step has no idea what he’s doing at all. It will be a simple input-output process. Someone gives him a parameter, and he will send out a corresponding parameter. In the end, even the person who presses the button to activate the Gold Crystal Pyramid won’t know what he just did.”

“This is like a program made of countless people. As long as all the triggers are reasonably set, nothing will go wrong, and the deterrence will always be maintained.”

Xiaoming said, “Ironically, people would rather turn into a program to control the Gold Crystal Pyramid than to let a real program do the job. In fact, is there really any difference between them?”