Chapter 607: Within the Immortal Apricot Grove
In the Immortal Realm, within the Immortal Apricot Grove, an immortal was giving a lecture here, creating an atmosphere of complete peace and harmony.
This place was once the sacred ground where the Confucius Sage taught Confucianism. In the past, immortals gathered here in great numbers, with seventy-two Golden Immortals coming to listen to the Confucius Sage’s teachings.
Although the Confucius Sage was no longer present, if one could calm their mind, they could still hear the content of the Confucius Sage’s lectures from countless ages ago, which was truly miraculous.
Now it was being used by the Immortal Realm for other purposes.
Under the immortal apricot tree, the Executor of Karma was giving a lecture.
“Today we will learn how to safely destroy worlds.”
“The collective will of living beings may generate a new Heavenly Dao. This is the absolute line that must never be crossed. Therefore, we must approach world destruction from multiple angles.”
“There are three key points to destroying worlds: concealment, gradualness, and uniqueness.”
“Concealment means ensuring the living beings don’t detect our actions. This is relatively simple. As Celestial Immortals, using methods to remain undetected by mortals isn’t difficult and requires no further elaboration. We’ll mainly discuss gradualness and uniqueness.”
“Gradualness means being steady. Destroying a world is a lengthy task that cannot be rushed. If you’re impatient, you might end up like Baiye Immortal, creating the embryonic form of a Heavenly Dao and requiring a Golden Immortal to clean up the mess.”
When Baiye Immortal was mentioned, all the immortals shuddered. Baiye Immortal, who was hanged at the Southern Heavenly Gate, served as a cautionary example for everyone.
“I believe the appropriate duration for destroying a world should be between one thousand and ten thousand years. Too short, and it’s easy to generate the embryonic form of a Heavenly Dao; too long, and unpredictable changes are likely to occur.”
“Now let’s discuss uniqueness. Each world has its own independent culture. Not to mention anything else, cultivation civilizations and technological civilizations have enormous differences.”
“However, cultivation civilizations are relatively easier to handle. In worlds where power is concentrated in individuals, upper-level cultivators easily oppress lower-level cultivators for power, while lower-level cultivators exploit mortals. With pressure transmitted through multiple layers, only the upper-level cultivators benefit.”
“The phrase ‘one general’s achievement is built upon ten thousand skeletons’ also aptly describes cultivation civilizations. When one cultivator grows into a great power, their hands are stained with countless people’s blood, and to obtain even greater power, they will kill even more people.”
“What we need to do is simply give some hints to the upper-level cultivators, and they will actively destroy the world in exchange for power. By that time, the remaining population will be too small to generate the embryonic form of a Heavenly Dao, allowing us to directly intervene and destroy the world.”
“Technological civilizations, however, are not so easily dealt with.”
Hearing this, all the immortals sat up straight with serious expressions. Indeed, technological civilizations were quite troublesome and not easy to destroy. Multiple attempts were often needed to find the weaknesses of a technological civilization and destroy them.
The Executor of Karma hadn’t destroyed many worlds himself. The reason he qualified to teach in the Immortal Apricot Grove was precisely because most of the worlds he was responsible for were technological worlds.
Among all Celestial Immortals, he had the largest proportion and highest number of technological worlds under his responsibility, with the best results.
“Technological civilizations also follow the rule of the strong preying on the weak, but it’s not as evident because their individuals are very weak.”
“However, technological civilizations have another problem: a severe imbalance between attack and defense.”
“May I ask, Executor of Karma, what does this mean?”
“For example, we are all Celestial Immortals. If two Celestial Immortals were to attack each other, how long would it take to determine a winner, or could a winner even be determined?”
“Our attack methods are quite similar, and our defense methods are roughly the same. You attack while I defend, I defend while you attack – the exchanges go back and forth, appearing extremely lively, but the actual damage caused isn’t substantial.”
“Technological civilizations are different. They themselves are fragile and weak, unable to even defeat wild beasts, yet they can create firearms and artillery, and even more exaggerated weapons like nuclear bombs, plasma cannons, and so on.”
“Can they themselves defend against these weapons? Bomb shelters? Defensive fortresses? Can such things accommodate everyone?”
Speaking of this, the Executor of Karma sneered coldly. The answer was obvious – mortals simply couldn’t withstand these exaggerated attacks.
“In my view, technological civilizations are like young children wielding destructive weapons. Once two young children meet, they will simultaneously activate their weapons and perish together.”
“What we need to do is simply provide the two children with even more powerful weapons.”
“If a technological civilization has advanced weapons and contains multiple internal factions, we can help them develop weapons, stir up conflicts among internal forces, and let them operate independently. Before long, they will attack each other, causing a sharp decline in population.”
“This approach also doesn’t worry about generating the embryonic form of a Heavenly Dao, since they still have some defense systems that are better than nothing, giving people hope for survival.”
“Once large-scale war breaks out, it will continue for years or even decades. They will degenerate from developed civilizations into wastelands, making them much easier to deal with at that point.”
“I have already destroyed multiple civilizations using this method.”
“So that’s how it is.” After listening to the Executor of Karma’s lecture, all the Celestial Immortals had sudden realizations and gained new ideas about how to destroy worlds.
Their original methods had been too crude.
The Netherfire Immortal Lord sent a voice transmission to the Executor of Karma: “Executor of Karma, that’s enough for this lecture. The Immortal Emperor has given temporary notice to convene a Golden Immortal meeting. As a Half-Step Golden Immortal and my deputy, you need to attend as well.”
“Yes.”
The Executor of Karma briefly gave a concluding remark and left the apricot grove.
“You lectured well. Choosing you to be responsible for technological worlds back then was indeed the correct decision.” The Netherfire Immortal Lord said indifferently.
“Thanks to your guidance and cultivation, Immortal Lord.”
“You’ve been handling Honghu’s world for some time now. How is it? What are your thoughts?”
“It’s going alright. Honghu did quite well. I’ve learned a lot from the methods he left behind for destroying worlds.” Although the Executor of Karma didn’t like Honghu, he knew better than to show it in front of his superior.
“That’s good. Honghu was ambitious for great achievements and went alone to the Underworld, leaving not even his bones behind. Don’t follow his example.”
The Executor of Karma acknowledged the advice.
The death of a Celestial Immortal had caused quite a stir in the Immortal Realm. After all, this was a Celestial Immortal – besides the Immortal Realm itself, who else could kill a Celestial Immortal?
The Immortal Realm had a traitor in its midst.
When the Immortal Realm investigated this matter and questioned the Executor of Karma, he was immersed in grief over the Executor of Honghu’s death. At that time, he said that the Executor of Honghu was a good immortal who cared about the Immortal Realm, and had privately told him that he felt frustrated by the Immortal Realm’s passive attitude toward the Underworld, and was determined to win honor for the Immortal Realm.
As for where the Executor of Honghu went afterward, the Executor of Karma claimed he didn’t know.
When other immortals were questioned, none knew where the Executor of Honghu had gone before his death.
The Immortal Realm thus concluded that the Executor of Honghu had gone alone to the Underworld and was killed by the Ten Yama Kings.
“Although your cultivation is sufficient to serve as my deputy, you yourself have destroyed too few worlds to command respect from others.”
“Assigning Honghu’s worlds to you also serves to add to your achievements. I plan to request the Immortal Emperor’s approval to credit all the worlds Honghu destroyed to you. You should seize this opportunity and also destroy all the worlds that Honghu hadn’t yet destroyed.”
The Executor of Karma smiled happily on the surface, but secretly he wished he could kill the Netherfire Immortal Lord.
What kind of bullshit decision was this? Among the worlds the Executor of Honghu was responsible for, there was that tough nut to crack – the Observer Civilization.