Chapter 680: Next Millennium
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Li Yao was listening to the tales about 'Star Child', the super genius in crystal processors, from Huangpu Bo, when he suddenly heard an argument in the Grand Illusionary Land. He raised his head and found that Si Koulie, the proposer of the Ice God Project just now, had reappeared on the podium and was confronting Xiao Xuance in fury.
"Just now, Xiao Xuance claimed that the Ice God Project has several fatal drawbacks and would be costly and doomed to fail. Si Koulie found it intolerable and is about to debate with him," Xue Yuanxin explained.
Li Yao was dazed. "He can do that?"
"Of course, although both of them are leaders of major organizations and big shots in the Nascent Soul Stage, the plans they propose will influence the lives of too many people. This is indeed the competition of the righteous path."
Xue Yuanxin opened his hands and said, "They both believe that only their plan can destroy the Temple of Immortals and save the Flying Star Sector. Faced with the competition for the righteous path, the last thing they care about is their manners. Just think about what happened five thousand years ago!"
Li Yao realized that it did make sense. Five thousand years ago, for the competition of the righteous path, assassinations even took place in the Grand Congress. Right now, it could almost be called harmonious since the two of them were merely arguing with each other.
Now that two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were at loggerheads, their intimidating aura was almost tearing the Grand Illusionary Land apart.
Si Koulie was like a ball of lightning that was spitting electric arcs, while Xiao Xuance was as tranquil as a frozen ocean. The anger and aggressiveness from the other party did not influence him at all. He said, as calmly as before, "Please don't be agitated, Leader Si. It might have been too blunt for me to say that the Iron God Project is too costly and doomed to fail. However, my accusation is not ungrounded.
"Firstly, time. By your estimation, how long will it take before the Ice God Project is accomplished?"
Si Koulie craned his neck and replied stubbornly, "With enough manpower and resources, the project will be finished in around twenty years!"
"Twenty years?"
Xiao Xuance smiled and said, "Then, how are we going to cope with the Temple of Immortals during those twenty years while we devote our every penny and all the available resources to the project? You don't think that space pirates and Immortals Cultivators will simply stand by and watch as we carry out the Ice God Project and demolish their den, do you?
"Besides, you said yourself that it is the best-case scenario with enough manpower and resources.
"It is well-known that the Flying Star Sector does not have a central government. Hundreds of sects and thousands of space towns are scattered in the dozens of space zones. How can you make sure that all the sects will provide sufficient resources promptly and willingly?
"Don't forget the tragedy of five thousand years ago when our ancestors tried to collect enough resources to build stellar-level magical equipment, and that was when we still had a central government!
"Let's say we are really putting the Ice God Project into effect. Who's going to decide how many resources a sect is going to provide? What if a sect simply shrugs and says that they cannot provide the resources? Who is authorized to punish the sects when they are hiding their resources? How are you going to deal with the sects that refuse to join the Ice God Project but will share the fruit when it succeeds?
"The Ice God Project looks perfect. But it is founded on the hypothesis that the hundreds of sects in the world of Cultivators work hard together selflessly. Is that possible?
"As long as one or two sects conceal some of their resources for their own interest, other sects will definitely follow them. When a chain reaction is triggered, the entire project will collapse eventually!
"Besides, before Ice Kong is finished, its combat ability will remain zero, no matter how many resources are poured into it!
"If any errors happen to the project, our resources will all be wasted!"
Si Koulie's opened his mouth, only to come up with nothing. He was dazed for a second, before he asked solemnly, "Is the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project any different?"
"Of course it is," Xiao Xuance said peacefully. "The Ice God Project seems intimidating and invincible, but its purpose is still a piece of traditional, if not obsolete, planetary-level magical equipment.
"In comparison, the Grand Illusionary Soldier is a piece of brand-new magical equipment based on big data. It can be called a 'magical equipment cloud'.
"Compared with the Ice God Project, the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project highlights the importance of numbers. It is very cheap to produce a Grand Illusionary Soldier and connect it to the star brain.
"Ice King is absolutely useless before it is successfully transformed. However, even one Grand Illusionary Soldier will boast a certain amount of combat ability, however insignificant it is. As the number of the Grand Illusionary Soldier grows to a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand… The combat ability of the Grand Illusionary Legion will soar exponentially!
"More importantly, the Grand Illusionary Soldier is a piece of free, open-source magical equipment. What is demonstrated in the video is just one model of it.
"In fact, as long as they have the most crucial 'reception array of telepathic thoughts', any sect and refiner can produce the Grand Illusionary Soldier according to their own scheme or even transform their old and outdated crystal suits into Grand Illusionary Soldiers!
"In such a case, the procedure of 'resource collection' can be eliminated. The project will be implemented in the hundreds of sects all over the Flying Star Sector simultaneously!
"In short, the 'Grand Illusionary Soldier Project' is just a standard that we propose. Under the standard, the sects can either deliver their resources to us and ask us to manufacture the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, or they can produce Grand Illusionary Soldiers of their own according to the structural designs and designing principles that we provide.
"If a certain sect does not approve the Grand Illusionary Project, it's perfectly fine. They can choose to stay away from the project.
"After all, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers that other sects produced will only be responsible for protecting the towns and sailing routes within the territory of their sects.
"Open-source, free, and agile. These are the three core principles of the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project!"
After finishing his speech, Xiao Xuance gestured toward Si Koulie in a 'please enlighten me' sign.
Si Koulie's face was as red as pig's liver, as he said, "The bottom line is, the Grand Illusionary Solider is still a piece of defense magical equipment. Even though they are stationed everywhere in the Flying Star Sector, the best they can do is protect the sailing routes from space pirates. How can they annihilate the space pirates completely?"
"Ants can bite an elephant to death when there are enough of them. Changes in quantity will inevitably lead to changes in quality," Xiao Xuance said casually. "Protecting the sailing routes is just the first step. When we have enough Grand Illusionary Soldiers to form a Grand Illusionary Legion, we will wage a war against Spider Den immediately.
"After all, the soldiers are cheap cannon fodder. All we are going to lose are just some resources.
"By our estimation, if four fifths of all the sects start to produce the Grand Illusionary Soldiers with abundant resources on a large scale, an army with reasonably good combat ability will be formed within two years to protect the sailing routes from the scourge of space pirates. In five to seven years, an enormous Grand Illusionary Legion will be ready to attack Spider Den.
"The specific data and process of the calculations have been sent to everyone seated in the hall. You can check for yourself whether or not I am bluffing.
"The Grand Illusionary Project not only takes much shorter time than the Ice God Project but also boasts another great advantage.
"The Ice God Project is a suicidal plan. After a huge collision, all our resources devoted in the twenty years will be gone!
"What if the Temple of Immortals have other moves?
"In comparison, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers are not likely to be wiped out in the war despite being mere cannon fodder. But even if they are, reproducing a batch of them is much more convenient than building another planetary-level crystal warship!"
Si Koulie was rendered speechless. He took a long breath and glared at Xiao Xuance. "What about security? The Grand Illusionary Soldiers are commanded by the virtual star brain. If the Temple of Immortals invades the Spiritual Nexus and gains control over the star brain, won't they be able to manipulate the entire Grand Illusionary Legion?"
With a thin smile, Xiao Xuance replied, "Since crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus were invented, there have always been concerns regarding such magical equipment that can simulate the mind of mankind. Many fictions also depicted the blackout of the Spiritual Nexus and the crystal processors, which developed independent consciousness and became evil.
"But please rest assured, everybody.
"Firstly, for the sects that are willing to join the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project, we will open the source code and the log of the production of the virtual star brain as much as we can so that all of the sects will know the development process and operation mechanism of the virtual star brain.
"Secondly, we will provide a 'star brain clone', or 'child brain', if you will, for every space zone. The Grand Illusionary Soldiers in your space zone will be directly under your own control.
"In fact, it is impossible for the Grand Illusionary Group to maneuver all of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers at once. The universe is too vast, and there is always a lag to transmit telepathic thoughts via the Spiritual Nexus. The Grand Illusionary Group in Heavenly Saints City is not able to control a Grand Illusionary Soldier dozens of space zones away directly, is it?
"Thirdly, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers rely on the network to perform the 100% of their combat ability. Once the network is cut off, their combat ability will drop to 5% of their original, and they will be no better than scrap metal.
"Even if the crystal processor experts of the Temple of Immortals succeed in hacking the 'star brain clone' of a certain space zone and seize abundant Grand Illusionary Soldiers, all the Spiritual Towers will still be in our control.
"As long as we cut off the Spiritual Nexus, all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers that have lost control will immediately be paralyzed.
"Look, even if the Grand Illusionary Soldiers are hacked by the Temple of Immortals, we have backup plans to cope with it. But Leader Si, what if the Temple of Immortals infiltrates or even steals your Ice God warship after it is successfully built?
"Do you have any emergency plans?"
Si Koulie coughed hard and said, "Well—"
Xiao Xuance smiled and stopped further harangue. He turned to the camera and extended his hands, while he spoke sincerely. "Fellow Cultivators, since we are having a 'Millennium Meeting' today, our eyes must not be restricted to here and now!
"Space pirates and Immortal Cultivators are just insignificant obstacles in the future path of the human civilization of the Flying Star Sector.
"Now that we are gathering the resources of the entire Sector to build a piece of planetary-level magical equipment again after five thousand years, we must lay a solid foundation for the development of the Flying Star Sector in the next thousand or ten thousand years!
"Close your eyes and imagine that, when the scale of the Grand Illusionary Legion is large enough, the robotic soldiers will not only defend the sailing routes and towns in our back but also develop the planets whose environments are too harsh for human beings. They can also serve as pioneers to explore new worlds so that the brightness of the civilization of the Flying Star Sector will illuminate the entire universe in the next millennium!"