Soul of Burning Steel

The silence lasted only for a short time before it was broken by Joshua himself.

Under the white light of the information hall, the soldier let out a sigh of relief. He shook his head and said, "Forget it, no matter what they do, there must always be a war faction and a peace faction."

If there are no contradictions and conflicts between ideas, they are not human beings.

Saying so to himself, he stood up suddenly. Joshua looked around the entire information hall. He looked at the densely packed information storage and laughed: "It is impossible for everyone to have the same thoughts. It is a waste of energy for me to struggle with this kind of thing."

"……Eh?"

And No. 3, who was originally staying behind Joshua and was thinking hard about how to comfort Joshua, blinked and froze for a moment. After a while, she stuttered and said, "Wait... wait, Joe Xiuya, didn't you look very, very...very angry just now?"

Confused and overwhelmed? No. 3 has been holding back this sentence, because these two words have nothing to do with Joshua, who is now calm, steady, and doesn't seem to have the slightest sense of decadence. The artificial intelligence girl even doubts whether her observation system is Something went wrong so that she could see hallucinations even with an artificial intelligence.

"Angry? Of course I'm angry. This group of people haven't even seen the true face of the evil god. They just fought against the black mist matrix. They actually started to think of a way to retreat so early-I know they are cautious, and they think about defeat before they win. , but I'm the only one among them who has seen the evil god, I didn't even want to run away, why are they so nervous."

In this regard, Joshua waved his hand, and a round of silver light wheel appeared behind him. Many translucent crystal fragments flew out of the light wheel, and a large number of data spots flowed in the fragments, which connected the whole world like No. 3. The storage in the information hall, while helping No. 3 to transfer the data, the soldier walked leisurely in the hall: "But that's all, if I have to say it, I'm not angry because of their caution, but simply feel that accurate."

"Unhappy?" Number 3 instinctively repeated a sentence, with a strong tone of disbelief.

"I'm not happy, I'm not happy. Why don't they believe that I can't achieve the realm of a sage?"

Speaking of this, Joshua twitched his lips and snorted: "I can reach the legendary realm from silver within a few years, and reach the state comparable to a god in ten years. At this time, there are at least two days before the invasion of evil gods." More than ten years, even decades."

"At that time, I will definitely be stronger than the Black Mist Mother, and even stronger than ordinary evil gods. If you are lucky, it is not impossible to find a chance to become a sage—look, you are not telling me about the 'weak evil god' Is it news? This is a very valuable clue, if I really find a trace of the sage realm from it, then everything in the future is hard to say."

"the most important is."

Having said that, Joshua turned his head. He patted the head of No. 3, who had been following behind him, and was already listening in a daze. The afterimage of the sage, the warrior who talks and laughs with the gods, how can I need you to comfort me."

"I have saved the world, I have destroyed the world, I have helped a galaxy civilization defeat the void monster that devoured the stars, I have brought a world that even distorts time back to its right track, fate can only be rewritten when I get up early and do push-ups It’s just something, the evil gods are invading, and it’s not in my character to yell ‘it’s over’ right now.”

During the conversation, the countless streams of data flowing in the translucent crystal that Joshua diffused suddenly stopped. The soldier noticed this and said relaxedly: "Okay, the data transmission in this hall is complete, and we can go to the next one."

"What?!"

At this time, No. 3's expression became even more unbelievable. She scanned the information database in shock, and found that Joshua had indeed transferred all the data in the entire information hall within a few minutes. Displaying the progress bar of '100% transfer completed', he murmured: "My transfer speed is 144 times that of ordinary Ultimate-level mages, how come..."

"Everyone is an artificial intelligence, but one is conceived by parents, and the other is created by engineers and researchers. In my opinion, you are just an ordinary human being just like me."

At this time, Joshua was already walking towards the exit of the hall, and he waved to No. 3 behind him: "I still have some things to do at Winter Castle, so I won't accompany you for now... But if there is anything else, For information about the sages, you can notify me at any time."

"Okay, okay."

No. 3 nodded subconsciously, and then watched Joshua's figure leave the hall like this. After a long pause, she suddenly realized in a state of disappointment: "Wait, who is a human?!"

And outside the hall.

Joshua's originally smiling expression quickly became calm and indifferent.

"Sage."

He stretched out his right hand, stared at the palm of his hand, whispered this word, this name, as if he was chewing on the endless deep meaning contained in these two simple words.

"Evil God."

He clenched his fists, raised his eyes, and said the name in an indifferent tone, not knowing what kind of emotion was surging in his heart.

In the end, all the emotions are condensed into two words that can't hear any emotion at all.

"interesting."

After speaking, his figure disappeared, and a space crack appeared in the space outside the big information bank almost at the same instant. It appeared quickly, and then closed rapidly, as if it was just an illusion.

...

"The speed of human evolution has slowed down."

Moldavia, Wintercastle College, a speech at the end of the year for the graduates.

In the trapezoidal hall, there were nearly a hundred students sitting upright at the front, and behind them, hundreds of other lower-grade students were also sitting upright, staring at the original stage and now the center of the podium.

A middle-aged mage calmly accepted the gaze of all the students. Under the light, he used magic to amplify his voice and sent his voice to the ears of all those present without any tension or hesitation.

"As we all know, humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, and even the extinct centaurs and orcs all have the same blood origin as us in a sense. In the primitive barbaric period tens of millions of years ago, the most The ancient human groups have not yet differentiated. At that time, there were still many alien races in this world, and there were many environments that had not been developed. Our ancestors lived in a warm plain environment and did not move for millions of years. Take a step."

Nostradamus and Israel sat at the top of the hall. The two restrained their breath and watched the middle-aged mage speak calmly. No student or mentor noticed that the two supreme leaders of the empire were at this moment. right behind them. But at this moment, a figure appeared, sitting beside Israel without hesitation, attracting both of them to stare sideways.

Joshua made a 'quiet, watch carefully' gesture to the two of them, and then stopped talking - this immediately stopped Nostradamus and Israel from wanting to inquire, and temporarily put aside the question of Joshua. Xiuya was thinking about what to do before, but turned his head and continued to listen to this long-planned speech.

"However, an abnormal climate change—now it seems that it is the prologue of the first ice age, made our ancient primitive ancestors have to start to migrate away from their homeland. During the long migration process of hundreds of thousands of years, some Some humans went to the wet south full of jungles, some humans went to the dry west full of mountains, and some humans chose to stick to their original places... It can be said that there were as many choices as there were human tribes at that time. Our ancestors For the first time, it began to spread around the world."

"Those who went to the south became the elves of today, those who entered the mountains were the ancestors of the dwarves, and those who stayed in place were the oldest race of barbarians in the cold zone. The halflings and dwarfs all moved into the narrow and warm underground. The tunnel was created, and the lucky ones who migrated to the plains as warm as before are the ancestors of ordinary people like you and me."

"The form of life will evolve due to the environment. This is a fact that we have been able to observe in countless experiments. The sharks and lizards in the north are all of the ice attribute, but almost all the sharks and lizards in the south have water, and the double element of earth. It is no coincidence that fire dragons live around volcanoes, and brontosaurs have traditionally lived on mountaintops in rainy regions.”

The middle-aged mage on the stage is a native of Xishan. His voice is magnetic and thick, and he also has a little Xishan accent, but everyone present does not care, because he has long been in the past few years. His academic skills conquered all the students, so he was able to get this opportunity to speak on stage: "When we transform the world, the world will also transform us. Life is constantly adapting to different environments, and thus becoming stronger from generation to generation - data shows Eight hundred years ago, the average adult strength of human beings was only comparable to the black iron level, but now, in Moldavia alone, our 16-year-old boy has the average strength of the black iron middle level, and this level is becoming unimaginable. speed up."

"But it's all just an illusion." Suddenly, the mage who gave the speech said firmly: "This is not because our life form is rising—it's just an illusion that everyone has meat to eat and everyone can practice. "

"The speed at which life adapts to the environment cannot keep up with the speed at which life transforms the environment."

"Our evolution has actually come to a standstill."

These few words immediately set off a low-pitched commotion in the entire hall. Although these scattered conversations and exclamations were quelled by the instructors present, it can be seen that all the students' eyes have obvious surprised and puzzled.

The tutor on the stage is still giving a speech.

"With the advancement of technology, the popularization of practice methods, and the penetration of extraordinary power into our group—including all civilized life such as elves, dwarves, and halflings, among all intelligent life forms of Mycroft, Our bodies don’t need to adapt to the environment long ago. We have clothes and houses that can keep warm, practice methods that can withstand the severe cold of minus one hundred degrees, and magic and battle energy that can enter and exit the void. It was thousands of years ago, in the last era. , life no longer needs to passively adapt to the environment, and the progress of our ancestors' wisdom is sufficient to replace the adaptive evolution of our bodies."

His voice was so loud that even the three legendary powerhouses at the back of the hall could clearly hear it. Israel had a calm expression, Nostradamus had an uncertain expression, and Joshua nodded with a smile.

"Our wisdom makes us unique. The pan-human civilization circle has become the hegemon of the entire continent. Since then, except for civil wars, our race has no challenges. Because of this, our evolution has completely stagnated, or in other words, it has become very slow and can no longer keep up with us."

The mage who gave the speech was very devoted, and it could be seen that this was the deepest thought in his heart. He looked around the hundreds of students and mentors in the hall, and shouted loudly: "Now, our civilization is about to enter the void—any race can Do not rely on practice methods, do not rely on magic equipment, directly enter the void with the body?!"

"No! Not even dragons! Except for ancient dragons and giant void beasts that only exist in legends, no life can survive in the void with a physical body! We humans have the ability to enter and exit the void, but we don't have the physical body to match it , This is the glory of our wisdom, but it does not mean that we should accept this weakness! It is time to change, our wisdom should not accept this fragile carrier, natural evolution needs tens of millions of years to achieve a major progress , but that was a matter of the ancient barbaric era, now, we should take the initiative to change!"

"It took hundreds of thousands of years for the ancestors to change from drinking blood to learning how to cook with fire. It took them hundreds of thousands of years to develop from living in groups to tribal age. It took them 100,000 years to play with stone tools. It took tens of thousands of years to build large houses. They just learned to forge metals 8,000 years ago, and then reached the peak of civilization 1,300 years ago! The speed of progress of civilization is simply not what natural evolution can keep up with It’s worth mentioning that the primitive tribes in some remote islands in the far south, their residents’ physical fitness is not even as good as our twelve-year-old boy—natural evolution has lost its meaning, and we cannot rely on mutation to adapt to the void and adapt to this multiverse. infinite world!"

"Only through wisdom, magic, battle qi, and through our wisdom to transform our bodies, can 'human beings' and 'smart life' adapt to this void age and this vast and boundless multiverse. This is me."

Having said that, the speech mage pointed to himself, then stretched out his hand, pointing his fingers at all the grades of the students present: "It's you too."

"It is the direction that all of us, the entire civilization, should strive for in the future."

The speech mage on the stage was still saying some concluding words, and the students on the stage were clapping wildly, and the loud applause could be heard echoing throughout the hall, but it didn't matter anymore, because at the end of the hall, several legendary strongmen There was a muffled quarrel between the two.

"Joshua!"

Nostradamus said angrily in a low voice: "Is this your plan? You want to promote the rationality and legitimacy of 'body modification' within the Academy of Winterhold, and then use these students as a starting point to promote your idea to the outside world." Those theories?!"

As he said that, the old mage thought of the densely packed "perfect human prototype experiment" in the fourth practice room of the Ten Thousand Worlds Sacrifice, and those unimaginable void monsters that should only appear in nightmares. He couldn't help letting out a sigh of relief: "You really intend to transform the entire human race... You are not joking."

"I never joke, at most tell a few bad jokes. Nostradamus, at least eight years ago, you should have discovered this."

Joshua didn't care about the old mage's question. He calmly looked at the lecture instructor who was flushed and excitedly waving to the cheering students, and said in a low voice: "The current human beings are still stagnant at at least a hundred The original species ten thousand years ago, our wisdom stagnated his evolution, so it should be promoted again by our wisdom. This is the first step for our civilization to become a real void civilization."

"Who do you think you are? A god, or a sage? Can you be sure that the transformations you are going to do are really suitable for human beings?"

Nostradamus rubbed his temples. He had calmed down and said seriously: "Although human beings are indeed fragile today, they are at least stable—our civilization and our society are based on this fragile body. If one day, everyone suddenly can fly, then our architectural style and society will change drastically, and what you have to do now is not just to let humans fly, but to turn humans into extraordinary beings.”

"This kind of change is enough to cause great turmoil in our society and civilization, and people will no longer be people—the most important thing is, you can't be sure if this kind of transformation is safe! Even so, you still have to do it !"

"Otherwise." Joshua replied indifferently: "Whether it is suitable or not, how do you know if you don't transform? Do you think the practice of fighting qi and magic is not transformation? Then what are legendary powerhouses like me and you? Lichization, element Isn't this a special transformation that cannot be universally transformed into a mage who transforms into a soul, transforms into a soul, and is a magician of rune culture, stronger than a dragon, faster than a bird, and a warrior who can go in and out of the void with his body?"

"I just want to make this kind of modification popular to everyone. It's weird that you can't understand me-I didn't intend to force the modification, but to make our civilization adapt to this behavior bit by bit, let them Take the initiative to transform yourself.”

"What's more, I'm a human being." Joshua pointed at himself, and then at Nostradamus and Israel: "You are all too. Even we are all human beings. Why is it not after they remodeled?"

Nostradamus seemed to be planning to refute, but Israel, who was in the middle of the two, gestured helplessly, signaling both of them to stop talking: "Okay, there's nothing to be arguing about such a trivial matter, teacher, are you I feel that this kind of transformation will cause social turmoil, and even induce the collapse of "human self-identity", and Mr. Radcliffe is thinking about the future. He is indeed right, our civilization is entering the boundless void, A fragile body is indeed a dragging burden."

"You guys quarreled once before about the evil god, why bother to quarrel again, this kind of problem is not..." At this point, His Majesty the Emperor pondered for a moment, then sighed: "Okay, we can decide this matter. "

"I know, Master Nostradamus, you are not completely denying my idea."

But at this moment, Joshua spoke again. He turned his head and looked at the old mage with a headache expression on his face. The soldier's tone was calm: "It's just that you feel that such a big matter requires careful consideration, and it will take decades to complete it." Make a plan, and then implement it in a very stable manner—this is the only way to push the entire civilization into that new era smoothly and without chaos."

"But we're running out of time—we've all started thinking about whether we should turn people into souls and store them in the coordination circle to take them away, so what's the point of transforming humans?"

The soldier said in a low voice: "If you don't try, you will never have another chance. This is true for resistance and confrontation——so am I."

After speaking, Joshua got up and left the hall, leaving only Nostradamus and Israel sitting on their seats.

"……Ha ha."

After confirming that Joshua's life response had completely disappeared in the fluctuations of time and space, Nostradamus, who was originally depressed and dull, changed his expression and laughed softly. He let out a breath, and he didn't know whether it was relief or joy Said: "He finally has the idea of ​​'wanting to become stronger'."

On the side, the avatar of Israel also nodded slightly, and he sighed: "I really didn't expect that we played this role."

Nostradamus closed his eyes, and he said in a tired voice: "Joshua...he is the fastest progressing and closest to a sage in the entire Mycroft world, even including the data of the Glorious Era. Man... I said that a few years ago, and I'm going to say it again."

"If we say who is most likely to achieve the 'realm of a sage', then in the whole world, there is no third person except him and Igor, and Igor is already an old man with great talent, but the structure has been limited to In terms of Mycroft's civilization, only he, Joshua, can surpass him, and only he, who has already wandered in the multiverse at a young age and traveled through many worlds, has the opportunity."

"But this guy only has the belief of 'challenging a strong enemy' in his mind, but he has no determination to 'become stronger'-for him, strength is just a ticket to challenge. It is a tool, and his talent is really good, even if he doesn't care about it, he can quickly become stronger, which makes his concept of this aspect even weaker."

Israel nodded in agreement: "And now, he wants to become stronger. For the first time, he didn't think 'one day I will challenge the sage', but 'I want to achieve the realm of the sage as soon as possible'. Although it seems the same After all, how can you challenge a sage without the realm of a sage? But the most important thing for the former is to 'find a sage', while the latter is to 'become as strong as a sage'... It can be regarded as turning his thinking around."

"etc."

Suddenly, Nostradamus frowned: "Do you think Joshua has discovered our purpose?"

"Take care of him."

Israel shook his head indifferently: "So what if he finds out? This is his own idea, and we are just providing an opportunity—this is not a lie. After all, if he can't achieve the realm of sages, we can't." It is absolutely impossible to lead a group of ignorant and uninformed feudal subjects to a decisive battle with the evil god like this."

"Everything is just as Joshua said - if you don't try, you will never have another chance."

Return to normal update, ask for a monthly ticket.

Alas, I'm in a low mood, if I knew it earlier, I might as well not watch TI and update it normally.