Chapter 59: Humanity with Nowhere to Escape

“You claim to control karma. Can’t you find a library?”

The Yin-Yang Heaven Seal shook its head. “I can only perceive the karma of people and events in the Nine Provinces. I can’t see anything in this world.”

At least the language here wasn’t a problem. For a Mahayana Stage cultivator like Jiang Li and a sentient Immortal Artifact, learning it was effortless. But speaking the language didn’t matter—no one paid them any attention.

Jiang Li stopped a passerby to ask a question. The person neither frowned nor looked surprised. Without even acknowledging Jiang Li’s presence, they simply walked around him and continued on their way.

Jiang Li forcibly grabbed someone, but even then, they kept moving their legs as if they were still walking in place, completely ignoring him.

Answering Jiang Li’s questions wasn’t part of their job.

Jiang Li wanted to find the police, but in this world, where no one committed crimes, there were no police.

“Aren’t you an Immortal Artifact? Think of a solution.”

“Aren’t you the Human Sovereign? You think of one.”

The two stared at each other, at a complete loss when faced with these emotionless people, who knew neither fear nor hesitation, caring only about fulfilling their duties.

“If you two aren’t busy, why not have a chat with me?”

A voice filled with emotion rang out. To Jiang Li and the Yin-Yang Heaven Seal, it sounded like heavenly music. They turned to see a middle-aged man standing on the side of the road, smiling and waving at them.

Jiang Li had already noticed this man with his divine sense, but he hadn’t realized that the man possessed emotions.

“And you are?” the Yin-Yang Heaven Seal asked.

It found it strange that someone here had emotions, but it didn’t feel wary—after all, it didn’t believe anything in this world could threaten it.

Jiang Li, however, remained cautious. He had many theories about the Dao Ancestor’s situation, one of which was that the Dao Ancestor was imprisoned. If this world was capable of imprisoning the Dao Ancestor, then he had to tread carefully.

“A pleasure to meet you, visitors from beyond the heavens. You may call me President No. 506. But I gave myself a name—Ming Zhong. If you call me Ming Zhong, I’ll be happy.”

“I’m the Yin-Yang Heaven Seal, but you can call me Tianyin.”

“Jiang Li.” Jiang Li paused for a moment before asking, “You know where we came from?”

This world was saturated with electromagnetic waves. Instead of handheld devices, their computers existed within the electromagnetic field, allowing anyone to summon a holographic interface in midair. Ming Zhong pressed the air, and a floating screen appeared before them.

Displayed on it was footage of the Yin-Yang Heaven Seal appearing out of nowhere, crying in the sky for five whole days, followed by Jiang Li’s sudden arrival and their descent into the city.

Jiang Li understood now—this world was under total surveillance.

“Where did you two come from? Another planet?” Ming Zhong’s gaze burned with curiosity.

Both the Nine Provinces and this emotionless world were continent-type worlds, though they also had planets. However, these planets had no spiritual energy or oxygen, their environments were extremely harsh, with temperature differences of over a thousand degrees between day and night. No life could survive there.

Unlike celestial worlds, which at least had a few habitable planets, continent worlds had none at all.

Ming Zhong clearly didn’t know this. He assumed that, while all currently observed planets seemed lifeless, there might be others beyond detection that harbored life.

Such as the carbon-based lifeform in front of him and the strange floating construct he couldn’t comprehend.

“Introduce your world first. Then we’ll introduce ourselves,” Jiang Li said.

Ming Zhong led them to a restaurant. Considering that nutrient packs might not suit extraterrestrial tastes, he personally cooked two dishes—both even worse than the nutrient packs.

He also placed a plate of nuclear batteries in front of the Yin-Yang Heaven Seal, leaving it utterly bewildered.

Jiang Li took a polite bite of the food and silently thanked the heavens that he had long since mastered fasting techniques.

“As I said, I am President No. 506, the 506th president. Every person in our world has their future profession determined before birth based on genetic selection. Their name is simply their profession plus a number for distinction.”

“I am an exception. I disliked being called ‘President No. 506,’ so I gave myself a name.”

“Why did you erase your emotions?” Jiang Li asked.

Ming Zhong answered seriously, “Because we want to survive.”

“Does having emotions mean you can’t survive?” The Yin-Yang Heaven Seal found the logic absurd. The people of the Nine Provinces all had emotions, and none of them died because of it.

“I noticed you two only wandered through human territories. You haven’t been to the other side of the continent?”

“The other side isn’t inhabited by humans?”

Ming Zhong brought up another holographic screen, displaying hundreds of monstrous creatures—some had tiger heads and deer bodies, others resembled eight-eyed rhinoceroses, and some were giant serpents wreathed in lightning.

“These are the creatures of the other side. We call them fierce beasts.”

“Currently, over half the continent belongs to them. Humans only occupy a small portion. And our territory is shrinking.”

“At first, these beasts weren’t too strong. Our missiles could contend with them. We believed that, with just a bit more technological progress, we would eventually wipe them out.”

“But we were too optimistic. Our technology advanced, but their evolution outpaced us! In the end, even after launching thousands of nuclear warheads, we still failed to stop them!”

Jiang Li speculated that these might be this world’s equivalent of demonic beasts, cultivating at a rapid pace.

“If this continues, humans will inevitably be devoured by the fierce beasts.”

“We realized that technological advancement requires a foundation. Simply pushing for breakthroughs without laying groundwork is ineffective. So, we chose to remove emotions from several generations, allowing them to focus entirely on accumulating knowledge. Then, a future generation would regain emotions and use the accumulated foundation—like experiments requiring trial and error, or creative inspirations from movies, novels, and dramas—to drive scientific progress. You can’t advance technology with pure logic alone; inspiration is crucial.”

“During the accumulation era, a president with emotions is chosen. During the breakthrough era, a president without emotions is selected.”

“Under this strategy, technological progress accelerated dramatically. We developed mechas, quantum processors, synthetic sun bombs, annihilation cannons, and more.”

“As you can see, we are currently in an accumulation era,” Ming Zhong explained. His eyes gleamed with pride—but then dimmed, his voice turning despairing.

“Yet no matter how hard we push forward, we still can’t keep up with the beasts’ evolution. Every year, our defenses shrink.”

His voice trembled. “Their evolution is simply too fast.”

“Everyone knows that, at this rate, humanity is doomed. But if we don’t do this, we’ll be wiped out even sooner.”

“Can you… save us?” Ming Zhong pleaded.

“Why not leave the continent and migrate to another planet?” Jiang Li asked. With this world’s level of technology, space colonization should have been achievable.

Ming Zhong froze, then asked in return, “You don’t know? The farther we move from the continent, the stronger the gravitational pull becomes. How could we possibly escape?”

Hearing this, Jiang Li walked out of the restaurant and leapt into the sky.

Previously, he and the Yin-Yang Heaven Seal had flown at low altitudes, so he hadn’t noticed. But now, as he ascended higher, he indeed felt the gravitational force increasing. At its peak, even a Tribulation Stage cultivator couldn’t withstand it with sheer physical strength. It wasn’t until he reached ten million meters that the force finally disappeared.

“It really isn’t easy to leave this place,” Jiang Li murmured as he landed.

Ming Zhong stood there, utterly dumbfounded.