Chapter 693
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Chapter 693: The Evil of the Human Circle
Tokyo.
【Pure Land】.
An Qingyu sat in the center of the control room, surrounded by flickering screens, his gaze fixed on all of them, motionless like a statue.
“Qingyu, you’ve been browsing for five hours straight; it’s time to take a break.”
Suddenly, Jiang Er silently approached him, gently waving his hand to plunge all the screens into darkness.
An Qingyu slowly closed his eyes, rubbed his temples with both hands, and sighed deeply, his expression complex:
“Indeed, I’ve come to know something extraordinary…”
“What did you discover?”
An Qingyu remained silent. He quietly stood up and walked to the massive floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the dazzling neon city below.
“Jiang Er, tell me… how much electricity does such a large country consume each year?” he countered.
Jiang Er paused, hesitating for a moment before replying, “It should be around 50 trillion watt-hours?”
“It should be much more than that.” An Qingyu shook his head. “So, how is electricity generated?”
“Nuclear power, natural gas, oil, wind power, hydroelectric power? There should be all of these, right?”
“Correct, but haven’t you noticed a problem?” An Qingyu said calmly. “This country has extremely scarce mineral resources. Where does the gas and oil used for power generation come from?”
Jiang Er stood frozen in place.
“Or let me rephrase the question.” An Qingyu paused. “Without fossil fuels, how do the power plants here generate electricity? Relying solely on nuclear, wind, and hydroelectric power cannot possibly support such a massive demand.”
“What’s going on?”
“The answer is that the power plants here are merely for show; they cannot generate electricity at all.” An Qingyu glanced at the ground beneath him. “The electricity they output all comes from here; the source of all electricity in this country is the 【Pure Land】.”
“Here?” Jiang Er frowned slightly. “But there are no power generation facilities here either. Where does the electricity come from?”
An Qingyu extended his hand, pointing to the figures scurrying like ants on the streets below, dense and numerous beneath the clouds:
“People… or rather, the dead.”
……
“Is death just eternal torment?” Jialan seemed unable to comprehend this statement.
“Let me put it this way.” The knight continued to explain, “For humans to survive, they need water, air, soil, food, energy… and the artifact itself does not automatically generate these, but it can create them out of thin air by absorbing souls.
The people living in this ‘human circle’ drink every drop of water, breathe every breath of air, and even use every kilowatt of electricity… all driven by the souls of the deceased.
Burning the bodies of living beings releases a large amount of heat, while igniting human souls produces astronomical energy.”
“So, to maintain the operation of this ‘human circle,’ a large number of people must be killed, using their souls as nourishment?” Wu Xiangnan pondered. “But what if the number of naturally deceased within the ‘human circle’ cannot keep up with this consumption? Wouldn’t this cycle be broken?”
“It’s not that simple.” The knight shook his head. “Have you forgotten that to preserve themselves, the gods sacrificed the vast majority of lives, and the number of those lives… is counted in the millions or even billions.
Just the lives they sacrificed are enough to sustain the operation of the ‘human circle’ for quite a long time.
So, in a sense, the reason people in the ‘human circle’ can live and offer their faith is that countless ancestors’ souls are burning as fuel for the world they inhabit.”
Jialan spoke with a furrowed brow, “That’s utterly insane.”
“Exactly, so the existence of the ‘human circle’ is inherently evil.” The knight continued, “The more humans raised within the ‘human circle,’ the greater the energy consumption, and the more human souls used as fuel, the heavier the sins of this city.
Disrupting, attacking, or even destroying the ‘human circle’ is one of the core objectives of our organization, the Xie Society.”
“Destroy?” Wu Xiangnan asked in confusion. “What happens to the humans raised inside after the ‘human circle’ is destroyed?”
“Generally speaking, we rarely carry out ‘destruction.’ At most, we blow up the temples or statues used to collect faith and rescue some of the people within.
If we really have to execute ‘destruction,’ it depends on the scale of the ‘human circle.’”
The knight shrugged and replied, “If the number of raised individuals is less than 500,000, we will transfer them to the 【Utopia】 created by the leader, where they can continue to live. If it exceeds this number… we have no other choice but to transfer 500,000 women and children, as well as young adults with special skills, and the rest… can only be left to perish with the ‘human circle.’”
“So, that means… everyone inside will die?” Wu Xiangnan frowned. “Isn’t that mass murder?”
“‘Mass murder’?” The knight raised an eyebrow. “You can interpret it that way, but I hope you understand that this is a fog, and our Xie Society has never been a benevolent organization; we are ‘evil.’
We cannot, nor are we obligated to save everyone. Being able to transfer 500,000 people as kindling into the 【Utopia】 is already the greatest respect we can show to these countries and their cultural heritage.
Moreover, destroying the ‘human circle’ means saving countless souls that are burning in agony. Perhaps for those living within it, it is destruction, but for those tragic souls, it is salvation!”
As the knight’s voice fell, the entire cabin fell into a dead silence.
The howling wind mixed with the buzzing of waves crashing against the ship echoed in the dim cabin. After a long while, Wu Xiangnan slowly spoke:
“I understand… In any case, I will follow the mission and cooperate with your actions.”
“Long live understanding.” The knight smiled slightly.
“So, what should we do next?”
“Every time our Xie Society targets a ‘human circle,’ we first conduct a series of infiltration preparations.” The knight spoke slowly. “Among these, the two most important types of people are called ‘paratroopers’ and ‘sentinels.’
Since the ‘human circle’ is crucial for the divine kingdom, entering the ‘human circle’ is not an easy task. The key to infiltrating the ‘human circle’ lies in finding the ‘gap’ that connects it to the outside world.”
