HPDBC Chapter 218 The Passage of Time
Chapter 218 The Passage of Time
The first year after the Great Cataclysm in the human calendar. Later historians called it the "Year One of the Alliance Era".
In the early spring of that year, in that enormous underground fortress in the capital of China, a high-level closed-door meeting that would determine the future of humanity lasted for a full seventy-two hours.
Those participating in the meeting included representatives of the remnants of the North American Federation, the military commander of the Russian Bear Nation, the Supreme Councilor of the European Union, and leaders of hundreds of survivor bases of all sizes around the world.
Before the catastrophe, such a meeting would inevitably have been accompanied by lengthy wrangling, exchanges of interests, and endless geopolitical maneuvering.
But now, times have changed.
In the center of the conference table, a holographic projection was playing two scenes in a loop: one was a battle report of 100,000 cyan-gold armored soldiers cutting the Void Vanguard into mincemeat with their cold blades; the other was a video of 100,000 black-armored Yin soldiers stepping out of the Gates of Hell and sweeping away the supernatural Yin realms around the world with overwhelming force.
These two absolutely invincible armed forces, which transcend the comprehension of ordinary people, both point to the Kunlun Mountains, the ancestral mountain range shrouded in clouds in the east.
And China is the only inheritor of the Kunlun tradition in this world.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the old era has been buried in the wasteland along with those four billion souls."
China's top decision-maker placed his hands, clasped together, on the large conference table. Looking at the pale-faced, complex-looking leaders of various countries opposite him, his voice was calm yet carried an undeniable air of authority: "Ten years. We only have ten years. After ten years, true calamity will descend."
"We don't have time to draw up borders anymore, nor do we have the resources to engage in an arms race."
"I propose that, effective immediately, all national institutions be completely abolished and all national borders physically erased. The remaining global industrial base, scientific research capabilities, and human resources should be integrated to establish the [Earth Human Alliance]."
"China will release all its research data free of charge and send Kunlun outer disciples to assist in establishing 'psychic defense lines' around the world. In exchange, China must hold absolute dominance in the Alliance's highest council; and all strategic resource allocations worldwide must prioritize the integration with the Kunlun cultivation system."
The meeting room was deathly silent.
The North American representative opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to use his old nuclear weapons stockpile as leverage to gain some influence. But when he recalled the image of nuclear bombs being as powerless as fireworks in the face of the Void Behemoth, he ultimately lowered his head in dejection.
Strength is the only truth. Faced with the absolute dimensional superiority of the cultivation civilization, the pride of mortals is utterly worthless.
The moment the supreme decision-maker signed his name on the Magna Carta of the Earth Alliance, the concept of the human nation, which had lasted for thousands of years, officially came to an end.
A massive, highly centralized war machine, created to deal with an apocalyptic crisis, began to rumble across this blue planet.
……
Time flies like an arrow, and the gears of the times grind new tracks into the wasteland.
The third year of the Alliance Era.
Humanity has demonstrated an astonishing resilience and rebuilding ability comparable to that of carbon-based life forms. Nourished by the "Heavenly Rain" bestowed by the Dao Lord, Earth's damaged ecosystem has recovered at a speed defying the laws of biology.
From the frozen soil corroded by the void monsters, mutated giant trees tens of meters tall have grown; rivers polluted by yin energy have become crystal clear again under the effect of the [Water Purification Array] set up by the cultivators.
What is most shocking is the crude combination of mortal technology and immortal cultivation formations.
Due to the devastating blows to the extraction and transportation of fossil fuels in the old era, coupled with the complete paralysis of the global power grid caused by the void magnetic field, human scientists were forced to embark on an unprecedented technological path—"psy energy industry".
The first large-scale psionic array power station located in the Central Plains was officially ignited.
Thousands of array masters inscribed countless Spirit Gathering Arrays and Fire Separation Arrays inside the massive reactor. With only a tiny amount of low-grade spirit stone fragments as a catalyst, the arrays could automatically draw in the free spiritual energy between heaven and earth, converting it into an extremely large and stable amount of heat energy to drive the steam turbine, and finally into pure electrical and kinetic energy.
This marks the official end of the fossil fuel era for humankind and the beginning of the "cyber cultivation" stage.
The city began to be rebuilt. But this time, what rose from the ground were not glass-walled skyscrapers, but a massive complex of buildings resembling steel fortresses, with defensive runes laser-engraved on their exterior walls.
The old paper money has been completely abolished, replaced by the [Spirit Crystal Certificates] issued by the Alliance Bank. The anchor for this currency is no longer gold, but rather real cultivation resources—spirit stones.
The agricultural system also underwent a near-revolutionary transformation.
After absorbing modern agricultural systems, breeding techniques, and large-scale planting experience, the disciples of Kunlun Spirit Plant Garden are no longer limited to the few spirit plants they initially knew. A whole set of spirit plant crops, represented by [Platinum Corn], [Golden Rice], [Earth Vein Potato], and [Rejuvenating Bean], have been successively cultivated, selected, and promoted throughout the country.
Some of them are tolerant of poor soil, some are resistant to spiritual pressure, some have extremely short growth cycles, and some are naturally endowed with the effects of warming and nourishing blood and strengthening muscles and bones. Although these crops are far from being true cultivation resources, they are sufficient to serve as the basic food for the mortal society of the new era, supporting the daily consumption of a large population.
Therefore, since the formation of the spiritual plant agriculture system, food and clothing have never been the most acute contradiction in human civilization. As long as one is willing to work hard on the construction site of rebuilding the city, or work in shifts in the armory or weapon-making workshop, the spiritual food and basic supplies distributed by the system are enough for a family to live a stable life.
However, being well-fed does not necessarily mean happiness.
As the cultivation civilization fully integrates into the mortal world, a "class chasm" a hundred times more brutal than old-era capitalism begins to irreversibly form in human society.
The name of this natural barrier is "Spiritual Root".
The compulsory education system for all citizens has been completely rewritten. In every rebuilt school, the first lesson is no longer math and Chinese, but "Basic Breathing Techniques".
Every year, cultivators from the alliance would take spirit-testing orbs to various cities to screen talents.
Even the child with the worst pseudo-spiritual root will be immediately taken away by the Alliance's high-level departments, and the whole family will be promoted to a higher status and moved into the inner city with abundant spiritual energy; while if they have a mid-grade or even high-grade spiritual root, they will be sent directly to Kunlun, and from then on, they will leap over the dragon gate and become a true dragon in the nine heavens.
However, the harsh reality is that 80 percent of the people in this world are ordinary people without spiritual roots.
Whether you were a wealthy tycoon or a brilliant scientist in the old days, everyone is equal before the insurmountable barrier of "spiritual root." Without a spiritual root, you can't even draw qi into your body. As for the path of body cultivation, although it can be considered another way out, its near-monstrous resource consumption is enough to shut out 99% of people.
……
At the end of the third year of the Alliance Era.
The world's major cities have presented a picture of extreme fragmentation. Take Shanghai Fortress City as an example.
A massive levitation array supported an entire magnificent "floating inner city." There, the sun shone brightly, spiritual energy abounded, and various rare birds and beasts soared through the air. High-ranking cultivators in embroidered Daoist robes and high-ranking alliance officials drank tea and discussed Daoist principles here.
Below the floating city lies the lower city, a place perpetually shrouded in darkness, filled with the hum of exhaust fans and the smell of cheap engine oil.
Those mortals without spiritual roots, dressed in tattered winter clothes, skillfully operated CNC machine tools on the factory assembly line, tediously carving the most basic [armor-piercing patterns] on alloy sword blanks.
They occasionally looked up at the floating city shrouded in the array of light above them, their eyes no longer filled with the fervor of the initial tribulation, but only with deep numbness and deathly silence.
They have plenty of food and clothing, but no way to climb higher.
In the old days, social classes could be broken through through hard work and luck; but in the era of cultivating immortality, social classes were firmly welded together by innate genes.