The unique opening put Li Yao and his companions into a deep and solemn atmosphere.

　　There was no need to mention Li Yao, who had been through a lot with Wei Qingqing before. Even Long Yangjun and Ling Xiaole were quite interested in the female teacher who had volunteered to pass on the tinder of the civilization of mankind to billions of years in the future.

　　However, what they were more curious about was the children and the ‘old grandpas’.

　　Sensing their confusion, Wei Qingqing smiled and gestured for them to walk on the lawn on which the children were playing with each other.

　　“The Tinder Base includes quite a large park. More than fifty thousand workers and their families live in this place. So, this is more or less a town that has everything that you need,” she explained. “Schools, hospitals, stores, and entertainment facilities can all be found here. Naturally, we have our own kindergartens and elementary schools.

　　“These little guys are all the children of the researchers of the Tinder Plan. I’ve spent the last five years with them in a school here.”

　　“Miss Wei!”

　　“Miss Qingqing!”

　　Seeing that they were walking close, many children stood up and greeted them. It was not hard to tell from their smiling faces that Wei Qingqing was quite popular among the kids.

　　Wei Qingqing smiled. She suddenly looked at the kids while she closed her hands and opened them, presenting a blossoming flower from her palm. Then, she pouted her cheeks and blew at the flower, and the flower flew out in the wind like a dandelion, attracting a lot of children to chase it amid laughter. There was nothing but joy on the lawn.

　　Wei Qingqing’s body of flesh and blood had already been destroyed in the beast tide outbreak more than a hundred years ago. As a spectral Cultivator, she did not have a real entity. Her current shape of a human and the colorful dandelion were naturally both illusions.

　　However, the fact that she could create such a vivid, almost real illusion and make it drift a hundred meters away was still indicative enough of her high level of Cultivation.

　　She was an ‘Illusionist’ in the first place, one of the weirdest professions in the world of Cultivators who had the ability to shape their writing into all kinds of illusions.

　　“Miss Wei, what are the ‘old grandpas’ over the children?” Long Yangjun asked.

　　“They were known as ‘Half Intelligent Virtual Educational Telepathic Thought Amalgamations’ when the patent was published,” Wei Qingqing said. “But since it is too long and awkward, everybody simply calls them ‘old grandpas’ because they are truly like old grandpas who are knowledgeable and answer our every need.

　　“It is a virtual educational program, or some sort of virtual teacher, if you will. Technically speaking, it is not complicated. All you need to do is combine the curriculum of the twelve years of compulsory education together with all the content on the Grand Encyclopedia of the Federation. However, in the Tinder Base, the research institute wants it to be more independent with a higher performance in decision-making. Not only should it be a good teacher for a student, it should also be a good life companion and even a good helper in a battle.

　　“Let me put it this way. They are hoping to project an ‘old grandpa’ onto a harsh, unpopulated, alien planet. As long as it detects a life form similar to mankind, it will automatically formulate the entire education system and upgrade route according to the environment to help the life form learn everything of our civilization from scratch, from the most basic baby babbles and arithmetic to the most complicated arts of refining and combat techniques.

　　“When the student is in danger, the old grandpa should be able to foresee the unpredictable factors and protect the student.

　　“It’s like this—”

　　Wei Qingqing raised her hand. Bright green, hazy mists of light surged out of her nonexistent fingertips and condensed into a translucent shadow in midair.

　　It was a white-haired old man who looked amiable but had intimidation deep inside his eyes.

　　Li Yao scratched his chin hard. Why did he feel that the old man looked somewhat similar?

　　“This is the old grandpa of the tenth generation that we are currently developing,” Wei Qingqing said. “The standard template is named ‘Old Yao’. It is built with ‘Li Yao’, the great hero of the federation, as the prototype.”

　　“…” Li Yao.

　　“Wow. How interesting!” Long Yangjun exclaimed.

　　The ‘Old Yao’ waved his hands, and an enormous blank light beam suddenly appeared in front of him. Then, he began teaching the simplest words such as ‘people’, ‘mountain’, ‘sky’, and ‘sun’, while simple figures, pictures, and characters appeared on the light beam.

　　Then, the content on the light beam suddenly changed into the fundamental disciplines of the college level.

　　After a presentation of a literacy lesson, ‘Old Yao’ demonstrated the most standard body exercise from the federation’s military. Then, he made quite a few typical postures where one could absorb and summon natural spiritual energy. In the end, he became motionless.

　　Wei Qingqing smiled. “From the first generation to the tenth generation, the development of the old grandpas has seen significant progress. But there still seems to be a long way to go for them to meet the needs of all unknown environments and species, which is our goal. So, we have brought them to our kindergartens and elementary schools as ‘toys’ for the children in order to collect more usable data!”

　　Li Yao and ‘Old Yao’ stared at each awkwardly for a long time. In the end, Li Yao coughed and said, “So to speak, you are planning to send the ‘old grandpas’ to billions of years in the future to edify new civilizations?”

　　“Yes, of course!” Wei Qingqing opened her virtual arms and bathed in the virtual sunlight comfortably. “I’ve spent my whole life teaching children. I’ve seen so many young and naïve children gradually grow up. In fact, from the perspective of a higher level, isn’t the so-called Monument Plan or the Tinder Plan a compulsory education program on a universal level?

　　“Many civilizations that are in an ignorant state may exist in the universe in billions of years’ time, like the naïve children. Whatever their life form is, if our ‘old grandpas’ can bring the essence of the civilization of mankind to them and offer them enlightenment, won’t they be the continuation of our civilization?

　　“Of course, the lives bred on different planets and different environments are bound to be in different forms. Perhaps it will be difficult for them to understand the entirety of the civilization of mankind, but one tiny bit will be enough.

　　“Think about it. On a bizarre planet in billions of years, an intelligent life form that looks like a metal octopus is born in a boiling swamp. Such a life form and their social structure will definitely be vastly different from mankind. But with the help of an ‘old grandpa’, they begin to understand our concepts of ‘love’ and ‘protection’ and even include the concepts into their own civilization because they feel that such feelings are good. What a beautiful universe it will be!

　　“To achieve such a purpose, even the tenth generation of the ‘old grandpa’ does not have enough robustness and universalness. The specialists in the Tinder Base are still working on it, but I can’t wait any longer! Ha. Just let me be the first ‘old grandpa’ and search for the children in the universe. Oh, that’s not right. If I am the candidate, I should be an ‘old grandma’.”

　　Ripples spread out on Wei Qingqing’s body, and she truly turned into a friendly, adorable grandma whose back was hunched and whose hair was white.

　　Seeing the image that he had never seen before, Li Yao was somewhat lost.

　　“Miss Wei, I’m rather curious about one thing. Have you ever considered the danger of the ‘Tinder Plan’?” Long Yangjun asked. “Will certain alien species deep inside the universe take advantage of certain information carried by the Tinder Plan and threaten the civilization of mankind? After all, the universe is too vast and dark. Other than ‘children’, tremendous ferocious and voracious animals are lurking, right?”

　　Wei Qingqing smiled casually and replied, “Of course, we’ve thought over the problem. That’s why every piece of ‘tinder’ has been installed with the barriers of the highest level. It cannot be opened for a million years. If it is opened by brute force, the self-destruction procedure will immediately be activated.

　　“The information stored inside the tinder, on the other hand, will not exceed the college level in the federation today. It should be fundamental knowledge for all the civilizations in the universe.

　　“After a million years, if the civilization of mankind still exists, it will probably have developed into a form and a level that none of us can imagine right now. How can the unknown alien species, however ferocious they may be, use our fundamental theories that our outdated by a million years then?

　　“On the other hand, if the civilization of mankind goes extinct within the next million years, which, based on the mind-boggling path of development in the past forty thousand years, is a highly likely possibility, then the alien species will not be able to jeopardize us because we no longer exist.

　　“Yes. We don’t deny that the Tinder Plan entails some danger. Perhaps the universe is truly full of darkness. But that is why we should throw torches around to ignite the grass and bushes and illuminate our environment so that we can find more of our kind and companions that we can communicate with!

　　“Otherwise, won’t we spend our entire life shuddering in fear in the darkness, fearing that we can never get out of it?”

　　Wei Qingqing’s words cast Li Yao, Long Yangjun, and Ling Xiaole into silence.

　　Wei Qingqing continued smiling and said, “In fact, don’t underestimate the difficulty of searching for a civilization in the universe. By the calculation of the specialists in the Tinder Base, the odds of us finding an alien species in the next million years are no higher than one billionth. Perhaps we will have to drift for tens of millions of years in the sea of stars before we have a chance of finding a new life.

　　“By that time, there is a great chance that the civilization of mankind will have already been destroyed, just like the Pangu Civilization and the Nuwa Civilization were.

　　“It is possible that the brand-new species who receive our old grandpa and inherit the essence of our civilization will return to the homeland of their ‘teacher’ and help the offspring of their ‘teacher’ make a new mankind and recreate our civilization. Who knows?

　　“If one isn’t enough, we will send thousands of old grandpas into the universe. Some of them will certainly run into a good student, right?

　　“Circulation brings prosperity. Perhaps this is the best solution to keep the civilization of mankind alive forever!”