Chapter 1282: Our Cultivation World is Relatively Backward

Lu Yang felt that Aether would be better off without self-awareness. He was certain that an Aether without self-awareness would be much more functional than its current state; otherwise, the Interstellar Alliance would have long since fallen into chaos.

Lu Yang sighed, patiently explaining, "Don't be scared. I'm just curious about what the leader of an AI looks like."

How could Aether not be afraid? A monstrous bird as large as a mountain could emerge and destroy the sun, yet Lu Yang had punched it into the sun, repairing the dying star in the process. Furthermore, Aether had clearly tried to escape, but Lu Yang had still dragged it back. The opponent's alien technology completely surpassed that of their Interstellar Alliance.

"You must keep your word."

Aether displayed a stick-figure smiley face on the large screen, a common emoticon used by young people in the Interstellar Alliance for greetings. To Lu Yang, however, the emoticon seemed sarcastic.

"Immortal, why do I feel Aether's existence is similar to our sect's River Spirit?" Lu Yang asked after observing Aether for a moment, sounding a little uncertain. He hadn't had much exposure to such entities.

"Indeed, it's a similar existence to a River Spirit—a primordial being born after countless ages, much rarer than even plant spirits," the Undying Immortal explained. "If you were to use another term, you could call it the Will of the Interstellar Alliance."

Lu Yang's eyes widened suddenly. He was all too familiar with such designations. "Immortal, do you mean that the River Spirit, Aether, and the Will of Blue Star are the same type of entity?"

The Undying Immortal nodded. "More or less. From your description, the Will of Blue Star that accompanied you during the apocalypse is indeed a primordial being."

"Grandpa Gao, why did you kill Grandpa? Was it because he knew the truth about artificial intelligence?" Lan Hai, seething with rage, grabbed Director Gao, unable to reconcile the image of Grandpa Gao with that of his grandfather's murderer.

Director Gao frowned, finding Lan Hai's anger inexplicable. "Don't blame everything on me. Your grandfather died of natural causes."

"Natural causes?" Lan Hai was taken aback.

"Of course he died of old age. If I wanted to deal with your grandfather, I'd have countless ways; why would I need to kill him?"

Lan Hai thought about it and realized there was indeed a logic to it. However, considering Director Gao's past actions, it was hard to trust his words.

"Lan Hai, do you want to confirm how your grandfather died? Perhaps I have a way."

"Brother Meng, you have a way?!" Lan Hai brightened. "Oh, no, it's Brother Lu now."

"I apologize for concealing my identity from you at first."

"Brother Lu, what are you saying? It's a good thing you concealed your identity. If we had known your true identity, we wouldn't have dared to embark on this adventure with you."

After learning Lu Yang's identity, all the doubts along the way were resolved. It was fair to say that without Lu Yang's participation, they would hardly have survived until now.

"Lu Yang, you said you know how my grandfather died?"

"I have an idea we can try."

Lu Yang didn't make a full promise, but Lan Hai and the others took it as a sign of his modesty.

"My sports car is outside. Shall we drive back?" Lan Hai said excitedly.

"No need, I have a faster mode of transport." Lu Yang shook his head, taking out a black-awning boat from his identity jade pendant and gesturing for Lan Hai and the others to board. After a moment's thought, Lu Yang decided it would be unwise to leave Director Gao behind, so he brought him along as well.

"So this is Lu Yang's aircraft," Lan Hai and the others exclaimed, curiously touching the black-awning boat. They were so fascinated they wished they could rub the paint off it. This was mysterious alien technology that the Alliance, despite all its efforts, had been unable to analyze. Director Gao was also very curious about the black-awning boat and wanted to understand its principles.

"Everyone sit tight, don't fall off."

Lu Yang activated the black-awning boat. The next moment, it appeared at Lan Hai's home on Sagittarius Star.

Director Gao rubbed his eyes. In the blink of an eye, he had traveled from the Eternal Galaxy to the Sagittarius Galaxy? Where were the wormholes? The hyperspace tunnels? He hadn't seen anything.

"What exactly is the principle behind this?" Director Gao couldn't help but ask.

"It's Spatial Shrinking."

Spatial Shrinking? Was that what the civilization behind Lu Yang called this technology?

"Where is your grandfather buried?"

"Here." Lan Hai pointed towards the cemetery, and Lu Yang piloted the black-awning boat, guiding everyone to Lan Hai's grandfather's tombstone.

"Do we... do we need to unearth Grandpa?"

"No."

Lu Yang clasped his hands behind his back, concentrating his thoughts in his eyes, and saw Lan Hai's grandfather in the scene beneath the tomb.

"Tracing the origin."

His mind connected the rudimentary Tracing Dao Fruit with Lan Hai's grandfather. Lu Yang focused intently, his eyes piercing through time and space, and just as he had expected, he saw the events of Lan Hai's grandfather's life. However, he couldn't see events too far back, such as history from three hundred thousand or four hundred thousand years ago.

He witnessed the entire process of Lan Hai's grandfather's death, confirming there was no human intervention; he had simply died of old age. He also saw that Lan Hai's grandfather had deduced Aether's self-awareness from various clues and had contemplated Aether's rule over the Alliance, uncertain whether it was good or bad, but he had not tried to stop it. In other words, he was a neutral party.

Lu Yang disengaged from his time-piercing state and told Lan Hai everything. Upon learning the truth, Lan Hai smiled with relief. Ever since he learned that Aether had instigated a revolution, he had suspected his grandfather's death was not an accident. Now it seemed his worries were unfounded.

"Director Gao." Director Gao looked up; it was Lu Yang calling him.

"What? Is the matter resolved, and now you want to eliminate me, the man behind the scenes?"

Lu Yang shook his head. "As an outsider, I won't interfere with your actions. Even if you wish to join forces with Aether and instigate another revolution to rule the Alliance, that's your own business."

Director Gao gave a bitter smile. Given Aether's current state, it was impossible for it to cooperate with him again.

"He won't interfere with our actions?" Director Gao thought, realizing it was true. Lu Yang had not expressed any opinions on Aether's revolution from beginning to end. He was too powerful; merely his presence here had deterred Aether from taking further action.

"Then why are you looking for me?"

"Hasn't your Supreme Council been searching for my whereabouts? Coincidentally, I also wish to meet you all. As one of the twelve council members, this shouldn't be difficult for you."

Director Gao eyed Lu Yang cautiously. After this incident, he understood how terrifying Lu Yang was. What reason could Lu Yang have to meet the twelve council members? "What do you want to do?"

Lu Yang smiled at Director Gao. "Well, our cultivation world is relatively underdeveloped, so we'd like to invite your Alliance to send some people over for humanitarian aid."

Originally, Lu Yang had considered simply bringing back Aether's computer branch, but Aether seemed to be less than intelligent. For safety's sake, it was more reliable to invite both the branch and various talents from the Alliance to be guests in the cultivation world.

"Your cultivation world is relatively underdeveloped?" Director Gao thought he had misheard. With the methods Lu Yang had displayed, how could any of them be described as "underdeveloped"?