Chapter 307 Decision

To be honest, Su Zhou, like every young person, had little interest in meetings.

He had also complained to the Sages before, arguing that he was young and impulsive, lacked experience, and was unlikely to offer any meaningful ideas at meetings. He felt he wasn't suited for it and wondered if he could skip them in the future.

But the Sages' answer was very intriguing.

"You can choose not to attend meetings, and you can also choose not to express your opinion, but Su Zhou, since you have the strength, it's best to participate in the process."

It was Wen Sheng who spoke to Su Zhou at the time. The old man sat in his office chair and sighed, "Otherwise, when we announce a national plan, you, as a commander-level, and perhaps a hegemon or even a god-level in the future, suddenly jump out and say in public, 'I don't agree with this!' – The harm caused by that would be far greater than you telling us 'you disagree' in the meeting room."

"Avoiding this kind of pointless internal friction and unifying our thoughts is the purpose of the meeting, even if it's just a formality."

The origin of the Sages' Directorate stemmed from the 'Hundred Schools Alliance', a coalition of almost all sects, schools, hidden organizations, and family inheritances in the An Dynasty before its demise.

Representing the landlord class and the transcendent cultivator class of that time, they witnessed firsthand the counter-current and insane actions of the An Dynasty emperor line, the largest ruling class and the largest transcendent cultivator class, which led to a nationwide rebellion, causing widespread suffering and countless inheritances to be reduced to nothing.

They then vowed to find a 'Great Harmony Governance' that could bring peace to the people and satisfy everyone, whether they were cultivators or ordinary people.

This was the origin of the Zheng Nation.

At the beginning of the founding of the Zheng Nation, the Sages' Directorate had not yet taken shape. At that time, the policies implemented throughout the country were actually different. In fact, it was equivalent to local sects or large families managing their own territories. They would only say something at the Hundred Schools Conference if something happened, and even hide it. Every force that participated in overthrowing the An Dynasty uprising was like a local emperor, and there was even a tendency to become a country.

Foreseeing the great division that this system would cause, the predecessors of the current Thirty-Six Sages, some large sects and their supporters launched a decades-long civil war, which completely resolved the local problem and created the initial authority of the Sages, once again imprinting 'unity' into the cultural meme of the Zheng Nation.

And existences like Su Zhou were actually not uncommon in that era of civil war and conflict – geniuses who accidentally obtained the inheritance of immortals, gods, or some family, and possessed the martial power to break the order. What the Sages needed to do was to think of a way to accept the other party and at the same time make them understand that they 'did not belong to a certain sect', but belonged to 'a country and a nation'.

This may be regarded as the earliest awakening of national will in this world, and it was initiated by the most powerful group of sects – although it sounds a bit like betraying the class, it is not surprising. There are many examples in the world.

Although the sects that served as the prototypes of the Hundred Schools in the past have almost disappeared in today's Zheng Nation, leaving only the Sages' Directorate and major academies, some deep-rooted things, such as ancient grievances and antagonisms, still exist and are common even today.

Fortunately, Su Zhou was not a moralist who couldn't stand dirty things. He didn't care about the secret struggles between the factions of the Sages, and he didn't care about some not-so-clean methods. He responded directly to other people's probing, and Su Zhou always pretended not to hear the hints of forming factions and various friendly gestures.

The open and secret struggles between Military Saint and Life Saint, the mutual buck-passing, the large aerospace and rocket development group under the command of the Space Saint, which is integrating all related enterprises in Zheng Nation into a giant monopoly department, the serious corruption and mutual protection in the Ocean Development Department… Every point of conflict, whether to understand, analyze, or solve it in detail, requires an extremely long struggle.

He can see these things, but he doesn't have the means and power to make changes yet.

What's more, Su Zhou really has no interest in this kind of infighting between humans – since he can't go on a killing spree, it's better to turn a blind eye. If it's really too much, then he can only put on a mask, put on a tights, pretend to be the Dark Knight, and go have a good time.

He only cares about some practical things, such as the permission for some emerging technologies, and actions like those against large mysterious organizations like the Advent Society. Su Zhou always responds and expresses his opinions as soon as possible.

And the Zheng Nation currently needs this kind of powerful neutral party.

"A meeting is not just a meeting, it is a place where all parties express their opinions and views, and then inform each other of conditions, and compromise and cooperate."

Muttering this sentence in his heart, Su Zhou chose to skip those things that he didn't understand at all and didn't want to understand, and understand the core ideas of this [Otherworld Development] meeting.

And this meeting, unexpectedly, had a lot of substance, and was not just a simple discussion of which party should preside over the project.

In general, 'Otherworld Development' is specifically divided into two major parts: one is a plan for the realms behind the many spatial gates on Earth, such as the Beast God Realm and the Tianchi Realm.

The second part is a plan to explore the spaceships on 'planetary worlds' such as the moon and Mars, and hopefully find some technology from them.

The first, the development of the Beast God Realm, is now on the right track. Shui Qilin (Water Qilin) An Tuo reported on this matter. As one of the agents of the Earth side in the Beast God Realm, she has witnessed the power of Earth civilization some time ago, seen several space-based weapon strikes and nuclear explosion experiments, and is now very respectful of human civilization.

However, the situation in the Tianchi Realm is much more complicated than in the Beast God Realm.

Don't look at the Beast God Realm as if it has many local forces and powerful divine beasts, but precisely because they have wisdom and civilization, they can communicate and be controlled through various methods.

In the Tianchi Realm, according to the exploration of the Zheng Nation over the past half year, it has been found that there are many powerful dragon vein sea beasts in that ocean realm, forming a huge biological group, and the Tianchi Realm is a completely marine world. Except for a few small islands, there is basically no land, making exploration and development extremely difficult.

Dragon vein sea beasts do not like man-made objects. A submarine and scientific exploration ship of the Zheng Nation were attacked by them. Although they were repelled by the transcendents on the ship, this is undoubtedly a huge threat.

However, to everyone's delight, the space-time channel between the two worlds is extremely stable. Although the ocean current exchange between the two worlds is very rapid, this is exactly where it can be used. Some holy seats said that the nature of the space-time gate can be used to build a huge water-attribute spirit gathering array around it. Through the spiritual energy interaction and ocean current interaction between the two worlds, a large-scale condensation of water-attribute spiritual energy crystals can be created, creating a super-artificial spiritual vein, which will solve the problem of Zheng Nation's per capita number of spiritual veins being at the bottom of the world and the per capita spiritual energy holding rate being comparable to that of developing countries.

"The development of the Tianchi Realm can be handed over to private forces or folk groups in the future."

After reading the feasibility of the underwater artificial spiritual vein, Carpenter Saint added such a follow-up: "When the next spiritual energy outbreak occurs, that is, one to two years later, the 'Transcendent Order' cultivators in the folk should usher in an explosive surge – a large number of citizens with good aptitude and good education can become the vanguard of the Tianchi Realm development after undergoing several months of training."

"Similarly, this can also vent some folk power."

Although Su Zhou didn't quite understand what it meant to vent folk power, the topic quickly shifted to interstellar exploration.

"In about half a year, our country's seventh lunar construction operation will begin."

Space Saint is a middle-aged man whose left eye has been mechanically modified. He has no hair, his right eye is bright, and his lips are a bit thin. Space Saint's left eye flashes orange-red electronic light without any concealment: "At that time, the first batch of 'edge bases' should have been built by intelligent machines. We can begin to investigate and explore the alien spacecraft on the far side of the moon."

The so-called edge refers to the edge junction between the near and far sides of the moon. The moon is a satellite tidally locked to Earth. Its 'near side' always faces Earth, while the land on the other side that always faces away from the moon is called the far side.

Before the revival of spiritual energy, the Zheng Nation had already begun a lunar exploration program that lasted for decades – if spiritual energy did not return, then rely on alien technology to develop. This was the future decision that the leaders at the time were thinking about.

Now, spiritual energy has been revived, and affected by this, lunar exploration has been stagnant for nearly three years. If it weren't for hearing it at this meeting, Su Zhou would have almost forgotten that he applauded the TV when Zheng Nation sent astronauts to the moon for the first time when he was in elementary school.

This is undoubtedly a very important event, even more important than the Tianchi Realm and artificial spiritual veins.

After all, no matter how high the technological level of the aliens is, whether they rely on spiritual energy, and what caused them to be shot down by the immortals and gods when they arrived in the solar system, their spacecraft is at least a product of a cosmic civilization that can surpass such a long distance.

In terms of materials science alone, the Zheng Nation and even the human side can make great progress.

Similarly, at the end of this paragraph, Space Saint also mentioned that after this plan is successful, the scale of the lunar base will be greatly expanded. They will also try to use folk power. While conscripting qualified transcendents, East Asia Airlines will train them until they have a basic foundation in aerospace before letting them go to explore freely.

"Strange, why is it always about releasing folk power?"

The more Su Zhou listened, the more puzzled he became: "Why keep releasing it? Could it be that it's been locked up?"

It was an extremely cold joke, but Yan Sheng, as an electronic brain, seriously explained to Su Zhou: [Because if people are not given something to do and their attention is diverted, the large-scale appearance of 'Transcendence Disease' in this world with spiritual energy is only a matter of time.]

[Not to mention, Professor Su, the purpose of your lists and reviews is for this.]

Facing Su Zhou, who was still puzzled, but seemed to have figured something out, Yan Sheng calmly said: [The so-called Transcendence Disease is a common psychological cognition and empathy disorder. When a mortal becomes a mid-to-high-level cultivator, his empathy with ordinary people decreases.]

[Because to him, humans are creatures that are full of filth, have large pores, smell bad, and are all terrible – in fact, this mental illness often appeared in ancient times, which is why there are sayings such as the separation of immortals and mortals.]

Saying that, Yan Sheng shook his head slightly: [They look at humans as if they are looking at a dirty, ugly blood bag wrapped in flesh and feces. This disease has a high probability of occurring from the stage when a Transcendent Order cultivator begins to reshape the internal organs in his body, create spiritual energy organs, and become completely different from ordinary humans.]

——Isn't this what I thought when I was a teenager with chuunibyou?

Commenting on this 'Transcendence Disease' like this, Su Zhou initially didn't care much, after all, he had already passed this stage.

But a second later, he frowned: "Wait, although I have been excellent in character and learning since I was a child, morally good, helpful, and have the right values, I can't guarantee that all the guys who cultivate to the Transcendent Order are as normal as me – if they really have some not-so-good thoughts about other people because of the drastic changes in their own bodies and strength, then things will be troublesome."

[Yes.] Yan Sheng nodded. His projection this time was not so young, and he had a wisp of beard on his chin: [This is why all countries in the world are striving for 'national cultivation'. Because if we don't popularize cultivation, then in the future, we will inevitably have to go through the same erroneous stage that the immortals and gods experienced in the past, that is, the separation of humans and gods, the separation of immortals and mortals.]

[Cultivators, because they have tremendous resources and technology, can live in the best sections, and control most of the resources of society, and only a small number of ordinary people can cultivate, and the best of them will also be absorbed into the system between immortals and gods… Perhaps, at that time, human technology will be better, agriculture will be good, and there will be no worries about food and clothing. They will have extremely high technology, but the lives of most people will be very dull and depressed, even stagnant.]

Not promoting national cultivation is bound to create two classes, and class contradictions are inevitable.

In the ancient era of immortals and gods, whether it was in the East or the West, it had happened that ordinary people and transcendents lived together. Accidents caused by transcendents accidentally led to the death of ordinary people, and some radical transcendents even refused to breathe the same air as ordinary people.

Since the immortals and gods have already taken this old path in the past, there is no need to take it again.

"But, in this case, resources… I see!"

Su Zhou keenly noticed this, and he nodded slightly: "The resources on Earth are actually impossible to supply all the people on Earth – or even the three central areas, the major forces on Earth, to carry out national cultivation."

"So, at this time, we need to develop the resources in other worlds, whether the resources come from another space-time realm or from an alien planet, they are what we need."

Similarly, whether it is otherworld exploration or alien exploration, a large amount of manpower is needed – at this time, the results of national cultivation can be useful. The power of a large number of folk cultivators cannot be ignored, and can even be used as the main force for some relatively gentle otherworld development – which can also distract these folk forces and prevent them from being idle and starting infighting and discrimination.

And those truly difficult and dangerous other worlds can only be conquered by professionals.

[Yes.]

Yan Sheng thought it was good that Su Zhou could understand this so quickly, and he said with a smile: [The opposition between transcendents and ordinary people is very normal – I don't mean that this is normal, but that its occurrence is logical. So, either we solve this logical problem, for example, think of a way to prevent transcendents from discriminating against ordinary people, or we solve the condition problem, for example, make ordinary people not exist.]

[The mechanical bodies I preside over, and the human body modification experiments that my friend, Life Saint, is currently conducting, are all being carried out in order to solve this problem and achieve true 'national cultivation' – this is also why he and I are on different routes, but we can still become friends, because our goals are exactly the same.]

[However, national cultivation also means that our demand for resources is infinitely upward. We must develop other worlds, even if the price is a war, one war after another – if this kind of thing really happens, then we must use some not-so-good, more dirty means to ensure our continuous victory.]

In a sense, this is actually an expansion of classical militarism – for the sake of resources and reproduction, Earth humans are destined to 'develop' or even 'invade' other worlds. This is an inevitable thing, and it can even be said that this is a necessity.

Because civilization is such a thing.

Obviously, the Sages were thinking very far ahead. In subsequent meetings, they even briefly discussed how the Earth side should infiltrate and analyze them, try to make their civilizations collapse, or divide them according to their internal camps if they encountered advanced civilizations in other worlds. However, since there is currently no such civilization as a practical example, everything is just theoretical.

The Beast God Realm? The Beast God Realm is too low-level to be worthy of being an imaginary enemy. After all, in essence, the real civilized creatures in the Beast God Realm are only those tens of thousands of divine beasts.

Of course, the methods discussed by the Sages also included unconventional methods such as 'intercepting the main food sources of hostile civilizations through specific genetic plagues', 'releasing biochemical viruses to attack the main political and economic gathering places of hostile civilizations', or 'launching a large number of thermonuclear weapons in a thunderous manner to directly destroy all industrial areas of hostile civilizations'.

"There's really no need to say these things…"

Su Zhou couldn't help but frown at these topics. Although he knew very well that these methods were indeed necessary, he still wanted to face the other party with goodwill in the face of a blank target civilization that he didn't know whether it existed or not, and whether it was friendly or malicious.

After all, he had seen the otherworld civilizations of the Divine Wood World and the Reincarnation World… Of course, if the hostile civilization took the lead in showing hostility, then even if he had to carry a nuclear rocket launcher and personally launch a nuclear bomb, Su Zhou would not hesitate.

[It's very necessary, Su Zhou.] Yan Sheng's electronic voice sounded. He seemed to know very well what Su Zhou was thinking: [Just like you said before, world peace is everyone's responsibility, and these topics are all related to your responsibility.]

"I understand, but…"

Su Zhou wanted to argue that he was not a saint, just a little kind-hearted, but soon, he realized something was wrong: "Wait, what, it's all my responsibility?"

"Are you saying that those things just now are all related to me?"

[Huh, didn't you know?]

The young man's reaction startled Yan Sheng slightly: [Didn't Dao Saint tell you?]

Su Zhou frowned: "Tell me what?"

[According to Professor Su's performance in the Beast God Realm and the Demon Beast Realm, coupled with the strong survivability you showed in the test, I'm afraid there is no one on the entire Earth who is more suitable to lead the 'Otherworld Exploration' project.]

Saying that, not only Yan Sheng, but also the other Sages who were discussing the topic, all turned their eyes to Su Zhou.

And Yan Sheng's voice continued to sound.

[…Therefore, we will represent the Central Committee of the Thirty-Six Sages later and appoint you as the 'Vice President of Qin Xing Academy' and the 'Minister of the New World Exploration Department' to oversee all matters related to otherworld and space exploration.]

Su Zhou: ?

The committee has decided, you will be the minister.

Su Zhou: It's not that I'm being modest, you should find someone else.