Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Eight: I Don't Think You Have a Reason to Refuse

The birth of one world, the extinction of another.

The name of the Mother-civilization to which [It] belonged had become indistinguishable in the messages.

Let's temporarily call it "Civilization X."

Just as [It] had said, the form of this civilization was entirely different from that of Earth.

It was a civilization where beings primarily existed as spiritual entities. They were unconcerned with their physical appearance; or, to put it another way, they were a form of spiritual life.

Where this civilization was born cannot be verified amid the immense and complex messages. Perhaps it was some distant galaxy. The distance from Earth was also unknowable.

Its social structure was similar to a beehive.

A Mother birthed countless lives—as needed.

Just like a queen bee giving birth to a vast swarm of workers—only more complex.

There isn't much to describe their appearance. As [It] said, over the long history of their existence, they had conquered galaxy after galaxy, always spawning life forms best suited to the local environments.

This was evidenced by one particular message.

The place where Chen Nuo now found himself was a Mother that this civilization had sent to Earth.

According to [It], the exact time was indeterminable, but it was definitely before human history.

Civilization X believed that over 70% of Earth's surface was water.

Therefore, after assessment and calculation, they deemed the octopus form the most suitable for life on Earth.

So, on Earth, they chose to take the appearance of octopuses.

It must be clarified that the Mother sent to Earth was not a dispatched colonization squad or an invading occupation force.

It was an escaping Seed.

In the messages, this Civilization X had already perished.

The cause of its decline and extinction was due to a peculiar virus—let's refer to it temporarily as a "virus," though it's actually not very accurate. In Chen Nuo's understanding, a virus could only affect the physical aspects of a being, damaging its physiological systems.

But the virus that led to the extinction of Civilization X did not act on the physical aspect of life.

It was a "mental virus."

For a race-civilization of Spiritual Life Forms, this was deadly.

If it were a virus in the ordinary sense, the civilization could have freely changed its form.

But spiritual power was immutable.

According to descriptions in the messages, the origin of this virus was unknown; perhaps it was contracted during the conquest of some galaxy... unknowable.

Even so, this virus was completely ineffective against other civilizations or species previously conquered within Civilization X's once vast and glorious sphere of influence.

It could only fatally harm Civilization X!

Civilization X, which might have existed for an unimaginable span of time, descended into extinction in just a few generations.

The lethality of this mental virus lay in two aspects.

First, it had an incubation period, and the duration was unknown.

Second, it was particularly lethal for Civilization X: in their social system, every life form birthed by the Mother had to form a psychic connection with the Mother to maintain its own life and power.

Their life's sustenance and all their abilities derived from the Mother, requiring a psychic connection that had to be renewed periodically.

You could understand the relationship between the individuals and the Mother of Civilization X as akin to a vast power source and numerous large and small batteries needing to be charged.

If the battery ran out of power, it must be connected to the power source to charge.

Individuals who couldn't "charge" for an extended period would die.

Because of this unique social structure, the mental virus dealt a fatal blow to Civilization X!

Fearing the mental virus would infect the Mother, the civilization's highest intelligence issued an order severing psychic connections with numerous individuals.

This led to the death of numerous individuals.

Then the civilization entered a period of decline.

Until the extinction of their civilization, no solution to this mental virus was found.

So, at the end of the messages received by Chen Nuo, one could see the same situation repeating over and over.

A group of individuals from Civilization X became infected, then, to ensure the safety of the Mother, connections were severed, and a batch died... Then, due to suspicion and fear, the quarantine circle grew larger and larger...

But because this virus had an incubation period of varying, unpredictable lengths, finding any pattern was impossible.

Thus, Civilization X repeatedly discovered that their kin, whom they thought had been isolated and died, leading to the virus's complete eradication, were wrong; new individuals within the safe zones were always becoming infected...

As a result, the isolation zones kept expanding. More and more of their kin died from being disconnected from the Mother due to this isolation.

By the end of their civilization, they had abandoned most of the star systems they had conquered during their prime and had even shrunk their territory to their home planet alone.

Still, they couldn't escape that calamity.

Perhaps one day, upon discovering an individual on their home planet had died after being infected with the mental virus, their social structure completely collapsed!

It is important to re-emphasize: Civilization X consisted of Spiritual Life Forms, and all their communication occurred via spiritual power.

As such special life forms, from the moment of their birth to the pinnacle of their civilization, they never evolved anything similar to vocal cords.

They didn't even have a writing system.

With the virus, spiritual power communication was impossible. There was no communication between individuals, and no communication between individuals and the Mother...

Hence, society collapsed, until destruction came.

Until one day, a kin member infected with the mental virus eventually connected to the Mother during their incubation period without being discovered...

That was when the death knell tolled for Civilization X.

The Mother, being the apex of collective intelligence, was forced to make the final decision.

It severed Itself, leaving behind a clean, uninfected part of life, and abandoned the vast majority that was infected or suspected of being a potential risk.

Then, abandoning Its home planet, all Its kin, and individual lives, It began a long flight.

In the end, naturally, It escaped to a place as remote and outlying as Earth.

According to the description in the message, during the escape, fearing that It hadn't run far enough and that the mental virus's spread was too vast, the remaining Mother exhausted almost all of Its strength to maximize the distance of Its flight to the very limit of Its energy.

Earth was not a planned destination; rather, it was a random stop after Its energy was depleted during the flight.

This civilization did not have many restrictions regarding the environment for survival... Earth was merely an unintentional choice for a resting place.

Then, here, before It fell into a deep slumber, It chose Its form:

An octopus.

This decision was based on the fact that 70% of Earth's surface is water.

The Mother calculated that the octopus form best suited the environmental conditions of this planet's surface.

When Chen Nuo received this message, there was one thing he did not understand.

That is, the octopus form... Did the Mother originate it based on Earth's environment, creating it from scratch? Or did octopuses already exist on Earth at that time, and the Mother merely copied it?

This point was not clearly mentioned in the message.

And it was as the Mother arrived on Earth that an accident occurred.

Chen Nuo didn't know what this accident was—it wasn't mentioned in the message.

The Mother crashed somewhere on Earth, in the ocean...

Before the crash, the Mother struggled with all Its might to birth a batch of [Seeds], scattering them across Earth.

These Seeds were the last of Its kin, individual lives It conceived by expending Its remaining power before the accidental crash.

Some of these life forms resembled the shape of octopuses, while others took on other biological forms.

After all, the Mother had made the best choice at the time: not to put all Its eggs in one basket.

It created some beings suitable for the ocean and others suitable for the land.

Then, It fell into a long sleep.

These birthed Seeds shared a common mission—to find the Mother!

Find the Mother and then reawaken It!

For some reason, that initial batch of Seeds seemed to have failed in their mission.

As if they just vanished without a trace.

Thus, the Mother has lain dormant since It fell to Earth, right up until today.

It remains unknown how many tens of thousands of years this process took, or what exactly happened—what accidents prevented the first batch of Seeds from fulfilling their mission to activate the Mother.

These messages, although seemingly vast and complex, reached Chen Nuo's understanding through spiritual transmission and reading, all in just a minute or two.

This information had answered most of the questions in Chen Nuo's mind.

But there were still some questions.

Since… before the Mother fell into a deep slumber, It hastily nurtured a batch of Seeds. Then, those Seeds did not succeed in finding the Mother according to their mission. So, how did Ishii Hisako—or rather, her former master, the Sect Hierarch—learn of everything here? And where did the octopus, which served as the "Key," come from?

These questions weren't addressed in the messages.

Because these messages were left by the Mother... At that time, It was already on the verge of deep slumber at the bottom of the sea and had no knowledge of any mishaps that might have befallen the Seeds out in the world.

Therefore, It naturally couldn't pass on that information to Chen Nuo.

In Chen Nuo's view, this Civilization X was fascinating but also extremely dangerous! The fascinating aspect was that they had no so-called gender relations, nor did they have what one calls love, families, or those types of social relationships. The smallest unit of their social structure was the individual. There was no sexual reproduction; every kin was an individual born from the Mother. Their legacy was also very interesting. All their civilization's history, skills, knowledge, and so forth, required no physical medium for recording. Instead, at the moment of birth, the Mother directly instilled everything into each individual. Every member of the civilization—every kin—did not experience a learning or growth period. From birth, they were a qualified component of the civilization, already possessing all the skills they needed. Of course, this civilization also did not have the profession of "teacher."

However, this civilization was also extremely dangerous! As a form of spiritual life, or rather, something akin to spiritual life—they hadn't reached the level of a complete Spiritual Life Form. Because they had not entirely cast off the constraints of the flesh. Their civilization's survival still had to rely on the environment and on a physical body that could adapt to the environment for the construction and continuation of their civilization. Anyway, this type of civilization was also exceedingly terrifying. Especially for Earth.

Once the Mother was activated, what It would do next didn't need to be stated; everyone understood! Colonization! Rebuilding their civilization! On Earth!

So, what of Earth's indigenous accompanying civilization, humanity? That question, again, didn't need to be stated; it was understood!

Chen Nuo didn't know if humanity would accept sharing Earth with an alien civilization, but he certainly wouldn't. If it wasn't about sharing, but about enslavement, about being ruled over? Then, the answer to that question was even easier to find: the vast majority of humans would not agree.

So, what if they resisted? Faced with a civilization of Spiritual Life Forms, nearly all of humanity's current weapons, which act on the physical level, would be ineffective. None could completely kill off this Civilization X—perhaps they could injure many individuals, but against the Mother, a Pure spiritual entity, even nuclear bombs were useless. And as long as the Mother wasn't dead, It could endlessly create new individuals. It couldn't be completely annihilated.

One could foresee that, once this Mother awakened on Earth or regained Its strength... It would surely be a catastrophe for human civilization!

Chen Nuo stopped his reverie and then let out a soft sigh, "So now, what do you plan to do?"

"Awaken the Mother."

[It] answered Chen Nuo with a message.

"The Mother has accumulated and recovered some energy during Its long slumber. Although It is still far from Its optimal state, It has reached the threshold for awakening. However, awakening the Mother requires a vast amount of spiritual power."

Chen Nuo nodded, "So, I am a qualified charger?"

"In terms of your language system, that metaphor is quite apt."

Chen Nuo shook his head, "Although I am very confident in my spiritual power, to awaken a Mother that represents an entire civilization, is my spiritual power enough?"

[It]'s response was very direct, "Not enough."

"What should we do then?"

"We can..." [It] began, seemingly falling silent for a moment as if searching for the best and most suitable language.

After a pause, [It] found an appropriate analogy, "We can do it in installments. Provide some each time, and after multiple repetitions, we can reach the standard for awakening."

"Multiple times? How many times?" Chen Nuo inquired.

"Based on my scan of you and a quantitative assessment of your spiritual power, if you alone were to perform the awakening, you would need to repeat the process fifty to fifty-five times. That's the approximate range."

Chen Nuo fell silent for a while.

Then he asked, "I'm an Earthling. Awakening your Mother, what's in it for me?"

"During the process of awakening, you can connect to the Mother and receive spiritual power feedback from the Mother."

[It]'s answer surprised Chen Nuo. "The Mother doesn't need your power to survive; Its own spiritual power has grown sufficiently for It to awaken. What It needs is an activation step—the awakening itself.

But during the process of awakening, each time you provide spiritual power to the Mother... your own spiritual power will also receive feedback from the Mother.

Your spiritual power will also grow stronger.

To put it simply: however much spiritual power you provide to the Mother, your own spiritual power will increase by that same amount!

Perhaps using the word 'provide' isn't quite accurate.

More precisely, it's an exchange."

Chen Nuo was astonished. One, he was astounded by the sheer amount of spiritual power the Mother needed... He had to input spiritual power fifty times... Don't forget, with each input, his own spiritual power could double! Then the next input would be equivalent to providing twice his original spiritual power, and it would double again! The third time, it would be four times his original amount! With this geometric growth, still more than fifty times was needed! The second point of surprise was... If his spiritual power could grow like this... then... After fifty exchanges and geometric growth, to what terrifying extent could his spiritual power reach? A powerful Wizard from the Telekinesis Mentality Series might explode just from his gaze!! Indeed, it was the Mother of a once powerful civilization that had dominated countless star systems!!

Chen Nuo sighed.

"What if I refuse?"

[It]'s answer was straightforward, "I will kill you and forcibly seize your spiritual power."

"And then?"

"Then these other three will receive all the Mother's gifts, enhancing their abilities. They will then go out as new Seeds to find more individuals to 'recharge' the Mother. Yes, 'recharge'—I'm borrowing your analogy."

"Do you believe you can kill me?"

"Yes. Based on the level of spiritual power you've demonstrated, you are far from being my match. I can draw upon the Mother's spiritual power to control and kill you.

My previous restraint from forcibly scanning and indoctrinating you was purely out of respect for a guest who might awaken the Mother.

We are a civilization, not beasts.

Moreover, once you provide the spiritual power to awaken the Mother and truly connect with It... you will essentially become one of our kin."

Chen Nuo gave a wry smile, "Then I really should thank you for your previous courtesy..."

"Believe me, once you connect with the Mother and feel the experience of infinitely enhancing spiritual power, you won't regret it.

For a primitive race like yours, still reliant on physical bodies and material aspects, the experience of limitless spiritual power growth, once tasted, is hard to relinquish.

This is a path of evolution!

An opportunity for a lower being to ascend to a higher state of existence.

I don't think you have any reason to refuse."

BANG BANG BANG, you get what I mean.