Chapter 2463: Men in Shell

　　“Wizardly civilization?”

　　The Fist King chewed on the name for a while. “A civilization that is born by bending to the will of the ‘archmagi’ in the four-dimension and utilizing the energy in the three-dimensional universe by relying on the power of the four-dimensional gods? That sounds like an appropriate name.

　　“Then, why did the guests of the wizardly civilization come to the three thousand Sectors where the Cultivation civilization was located after such a long journey? Were they planning to invade and conquer this place?”

　　“Not exactly. Despite the help of the four-dimensional lives, I don’t think their civilization is so developed that they can conquer a powerful Cultivation civilization billions of lightyears away. They came here as ‘refugees’.”

　　Boss Bai said, “I inferred from the few words they left behind that their hometown—the unstable universe where three-dimensional creatures and four-dimensional gods could communicate freely—suffered an unprecedented catastrophe that swept across the entire universe.

　　“Their hometown was swallowed by the catastrophe, and the entire wizardly civilization was destroyed. The survivors had to flee to the corners of the universe in a panic on countless starships in search for a slim chance of survival. Isn’t it also typical in our universe? Many planetary civilizations have to shift the civilizations to starships after their hometowns are destroyed, turning into nomadic ‘starship civilizations’.

　　“Furthermore, I even suspect that the catastrophe that happened to the wizardly civilization on the other side of the universe was not limited to their civilization, but… was happening to countless civilizations in the entire universe on our opposite side. Too many civilizations were swallowed by the catastrophe and struggled in the vortex of destruction. The runners had encountered the fleeing starships of the wizardly civilization. There were talks, fights, and slaughters. Naturally, those civilizations did not leave any information behind. I don’t know what they were called.”

　　The Fist King’s eyes were brighter and brighter. With a heated tone, he said, “A catastrophe that swept across half of the universe, involving and destroying countless civilizations? That is truly splendid!”

　　“It is truly a splendid, calamitous view.”

　　Boss Bai said with mixed feelings, “Think about such a picture. An overwhelming flood raises a surging tide a hundred meters tall, sweeping across the entire dark forest. There used to be a lot of creatures in the forest, including the insignificant ants, the cute bunnies, and the dangerous hunters who whetted their weapons waiting for their prey.

　　“However, the ants, the bunnies, or the hunters couldn’t put up any resistance under the roaring flood. They could only gather and flee, but however fast they escaped, they could not outrun the swallowing flood. Eventually, most of the prey and predators in the dark forest were drowned, and few lucky survivors could live through the disaster.

　　“That is probably what happened on the other side of the universe a long time ago.”

　　Listening quietly, the Fist King raised a new question. “Boss Bai, didn’t you say just now that the human beings of the wizardly civilization worship and succumb to the four-dimensional lives and regard the four-dimensional lives as their ‘gods’? Why didn’t they ask the four-dimensional lives to help them survive the disaster with the infinite magic.”

　　“That is something that I do not know.”

　　Boss Bai opened his hands and said, “Perhaps beyond the four-dimensional lives, there were even more powerful five-dimensional, six-dimensional, and seven-dimensional lives, and the catastrophe was a punishment from the higher dimensions, and the four-dimensional lives could barely keep themselves safe although they were worshipped as ‘gods’?

　　“Or maybe there were different factions, classes, and races in the four-dimensional lives, and what the wizardly civilization that I discovered worshipped were just a few inferior individuals among the four-dimensional lives?

　　“Furthermore, the four-dimensional lives merely consider the wizardly civilization in the three-dimensional universe as a pet or even a parasite on their bodies?

　　“Some parasites live on our skin or among our hair and feed on the grease that we secrete. As long as we do not feel painful or itchy, we probably wouldn’t bother to deal with them, but do we really care about the life and death of those bugs? By the same logic, why would the archmagi of the four-dimensional universe care about the survival or destruction of a few bugs in the three-dimensional universe?

　　“There’s another possibility. Soon after the wizardly civilization in the three-dimensional universe sprouted, the civilization of the four-dimensional lives was, in fact, destroyed, and the wizardly civilization developed only by sucking the corpses of the four-dimensional lives. The gods that they worshipped were nothing but dead bodies that had withered billions of years ago. Such dead bodies might be able to provide certain power for them under normal circumstances, but what could they have done when a catastrophe happened?

　　“All in all, the catastrophe destroyed everything on the other side of the universe. Only a few starships of different civilizations managed to escape. On the path of exile that nobody knew how long, because of insufficient resources, they attacked and destroyed each other. Probably in order not to die with each other, they had to disperse to all directions of the universe. Some of the starships moved toward our direction.

　　“Eventually, the starship that came to the world of Cultivation across the almost infinite black wall was the one, or the half, starship of the wizardly civilization.

　　“Also, crossing the black wall consumed too much of their energy and resources. The ending of the survivors was inevitable. After all the trouble, they went extinct after they fled to the center of our cosmos near the Martial Meritocrats Sector.”

　　The Fist King sighed and said, “Knowing that the destruction of the civilization was inevitable, they still came a long way down here but failed to get away from their doom. It is truly regretful.

　　“Right, what about ‘Gaoists’? Are they the leaders of this ‘wizardly civilization’ on the starship?”

　　Strangeness and uncertainties popped up on Boss Bai’s face, as he slightly shook his head and said, “I’m not sure what ‘Gaoists’ is exactly. Right, in fact, the original word was simply ‘Gaoist’. It was a frequently mentioned word in the debris of the wizardly civilization. It is a transliteration and even has nothing to do with the surname of Gao.

　　“The word was the most frequently mentioned word in the information left by the wizardly civilization, even more frequently brought up than ‘godly power’.

　　“‘Gaoists’ seemed to be some kind of specters or phantoms. But they are no regular phantoms but have been trained by the sages of the wizardly civilization, or even a certain manmade phantom with the special abilities to communicate with the four-dimensional lives.

　　“The people who are capable of using ‘Gaoist’ freely, or who are ‘Gaoists’ themselves, can probably be called ‘wizards’. It is something similar to the ‘Cultivators’.

　　“As the wizardly civilization continued to evolve and develop, they also crafted starships that were enough to accommodate a tiny civilization to roam the universe and explore the unknown, and the core of their starships was the ‘Gaoist’ that had been further strengthened and upgraded.

　　“Let me put it in this way. A powerful ‘Gaoist’ was like the soul of a starship or a fleet. For the wizardly civilization, a starship that was just made was a lifeless object no different from metals and stones. Only when a ‘Gaoist’ was ‘injected’ into the starship would it boast its own soul and life and carry out 300% of the performance.

　　“Furthermore, it was exactly with the help of the ‘Gaoist’ that the starship of the wizardly civilization was able to cross the vast sea of stars and the resourceless ‘black wall’ to arrive at our world.”

　　“I got it now.”

　　The Fist King said, “You suspected that I was a…’Gaoist’ because of my rapid growth in starship maneuvering and my terrifying control over a gigantic fleet.”

　　“Not a regular ‘Gaoist’, but a very awesome, super ‘Gaoist’ that is qualified to be the ‘mastermind’ of a fleet.”

　　Boss Bai grinned and said, “This transliteration is quite hard to understand, but in fact, it meant that different paths may lead to the same destiny. The Cultivation civilization has concepts similar to ‘Gaoist’ too. I knew a specialist named ‘Professor Mo Xuan’, who argued that in a highly developed civilization, the soul and the body could be separated freely, allowing someone to crawl into different shells or even directly use a starship as his shell.

　　“Then, according to Professor Mo Xuan’s idea, it wouldn’t be inappropriate to translate ‘Gaoist’ as ‘men in the shell’.

　　“Fist King, although we haven’t known each other for a long time, you are one of the few friends, or enemies, that I’m interested in making at the edge of the Imperium. Let’s just be honest with each other. Are you one of the Gaoists—men in the shell?”

　　The Fist King was amused. “Why would you think that way, Boss Bai? Just because I learned how to command a major fleet in a battle in only half a year, and I come from the Martial Meritocrats Sector where the starship of the wizardly civilization was destroyed? It was probably just a coincidence.”

　　“Yes, it could’ve been a coincidence. After all, the universe is too huge. Even something with the odds of one billionth is bound to happen one day!”

　　Boss Bai said, “However, you met Li Yao, became friends with him, and was introduced to my place by the guy. So, it can’t be a coincidence at all.

　　“I’m afraid that you do not know Li Yao very well, but anyone who is involved with him and anything that happens around him is not a coincidence, but the greatest scheme and trouble.”

　　The Fist King was lost for words. “… Is that so?”

　　“Exactly. He is like some sort of catalyst that can enhance the troublesomeness and dangerousness of anything by ten times, if not a hundred times.”

　　Boss Bai sighed. “So, since you were introduced to my place by that a*shole, you can’t be a random person, which is also why I have been investigating you.”