Chapter 530: Past Affairs on the Moon
The off-road vehicle convoy drove across the desolate lunar wilderness, traversing nearly a hundred kilometers of nothing but dust.
There were no trees, no insects, and it appeared even more barren than the ice plains of Earth's polar regions.
The native life forms that once inhabited the Moon, the Moon Dust Demons, had long since been annihilated in the wild, save for a very few live specimens preserved in human laboratories.
From both a utilitarian and a threat perspective, humanity could not tolerate the presence of sentient alien life forms on their home planet.
Of course, there was also a very important reason: they weren't cute at all!
From a human aesthetic viewpoint, they could even be called ugly; their shells were rough, their angles sharp, and their appearance vaguely resembled a hybrid of a cockroach and a praying mantis, utterly incapable of inspiring any protective instincts.
Something so hideous could simply be exterminated without arousing the indignation of any animal welfare organizations. Biodiversity could be sufficiently maintained by the live specimens in laboratories.
...
Having lost this sole indigenous life form, the lunar surface, outside of human settlements, had become utterly desolate, leaving only dead silence.
In a mere ten years, while also managing the fortress-like transformation project, humanity hadn't had much thought to spare for improving the lunar environment; ensuring billions of people could merely survive was already a significant achievement.
"Could this fellow have been cultivating so intensely that he hadn't even explored the Moon's surface?" Yun Ru Yan, codenamed Red Fox, felt rather perplexed by the white-robed man silently staring out the window beside her.
"Judging by his gaze, could he have been in seclusion for too long and developed autism?"
News occasionally reported instances of cultivators who, imitating ancient texts, entered secluded cultivation, put down their phones, and avoided human contact for two years, only to emerge with slight speech impediments...
Just as this string of thoughts flashed through Yun Ru Yan's mind, her gaze happened to collide with that of the white-robed man, who had turned to look at her.
"What's your name?" After a few seconds of mutual gaze, Bai Mo slowly asked.
The white-robed figure was one of his avatars, left on the Moon.
When not activated on a typical day, it remained in a dormant state, which was why outsiders perceived the bookstore owner as someone who seemed to do nothing but sleep all day long.
Comparatively speaking, this avatar was like an arm belonging to Bai Mo, but one with an extremely long reflex arc.
Every piece of external information had to be transmitted from the Moon to Earth, processed by the Earth's main body, and then sent back to the Moon for a response. It was precisely the distance between Earth and the Moon that caused a delay of several seconds in his control over his lunar avatar.
Thus, unless there was something exceptionally important, Bai Mo wouldn't activate them.
...
As for the books in the bookstore, they were merely fragments of memory that unconsciously surfaced in his dreams—all ephemeral products of illusion, so naturally, there was no issue of them being stolen.
"Yun Ru Yan." Although she felt her flattery was unlikely to succeed, she still tried her best to leave an impression, forthrightly stating her name.
Even though the debate between the Dao of Emotion and the Dao of Ruthlessness had continued for many years, she had never truly heard of anyone achieving the fabled Supreme Ruthlessness.
Everyone lived under the same sky; the complete separation of gods and mortals was merely a distant, ultimate ideal.
"He's still willing to speak proactively; maybe I still have hope!"
"Someone from the Yun Family?"
"Yes, the Tianqing Yun Family," Yun Ru Yan immediately replied.
"The former Tianqing," she added.
"After all these years, Yun Jie should also be Six Tiers by now," Bai Mo recalled events from over a decade ago.
"You... know the family head?"
As one of the former supreme leaders of the superpower Huaxia Federation, most people on Earth had heard of the name Yun Jie.
But what Yun Ru Yan was asking was clearly not just that; she wanted to know if they had any personal relationship.
Under the deeply rooted, sprawling tree that was the Yun Family, she was nothing more than an insignificant twig, with only the most distant of familial ties to Yun Jie's main branch.
Aside from sharing the surname Yun, they had no interaction whatsoever on a daily basis; it was solely through this meager patronage that her family's social status was maintained.
Over two decades, if the core figures had the inclination, it would have been more than enough time to cultivate a colossal interest group centered around a multitude of Five Tiers and Six Tiers powerhouses.
"In another hundred years, how much different will they be from the Bloodline Houses of the Manghuang Realm?" Bai Mo suddenly pondered this question.
The circle of superhumans was becoming increasingly insular, with all power, martial strength, and wealth concentrated in their hands.
The synergy of avatars, automated machines, and big data program engines allowed a single high-tier cultivator to unleash the productivity of hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of people.
Ordinary individuals, relying solely on their personal work capabilities, simply couldn't compete with such monsters in the workplace; most could only pick up the scraps of jobs they deemed undesirable.
...
"It's been almost ten years since we last met," he said after several seconds of silence.
Their conversation abruptly ceased, leaving only the whoosh of the car.
...
Approximately two hours later, the convoy stopped outside a villa in the suburbs.
"Are they truly that afraid of me?" Bai Mo scanned his surroundings.
Outside the solitary villa, only a few small soldiers stood guard, yet directly above them, three satellite orbital cannons were aimed from space.
Buried underground were two small hydrogen bombs, along with an unknown bomb that exuded a faint mystical aura, seemingly possessing extremely potent cursing abilities.
Without even checking their passes, the two soldiers had already opened the villa's main gate; they seemed to vaguely know what lay hidden beneath them, appearing somewhat uneasy.
Yun Ru Yan, kept in the dark, eyed the two incredibly irresponsible soldiers with suspicion.
"Even if there are only projection avatars of important figures inside, they shouldn't be so relaxed. It's almost as if they completely don't care about someone secretly infiltrating."
"I'll wait for you outside." Yun Ru Yan, sensing the mood, wisely chose to remain outside; a strange subconscious instinct within her was warning her never to follow him in.
...
Just as Bai Mo crossed the outer gate, the inner room's door automatically swung open.
However, from the outside, the room appeared pitch-black, nothing visible within; to Yun Ru Yan, peering from a distance, it somewhat resembled the gaping maw of a man-eating monster.
"Welcome." The moment he stepped through the inner door, over a dozen voices spoke in unison.
The inner room, which appeared utterly black from the outside, was in fact brightly lit.
Eighteen projection avatars, appearing as real as flesh and blood, sat around a gigantic circular table before Bai Mo; the vast majority of them were old acquaintances of his.
The only empty seat was precisely the one closest to him.
Comments