Chapter 879: Receiving the Precept (5)

Conquest King waved his hand, opened a can of beer, lifted his head and drank it all the way down: "If you're dead, you're dead; ideals, path, cultivation… all turn to nothing! Those three monks—what they hold in their hearts is to guide their own kind, erase hatred, and carve a non‑violent compassionate path amid the blood‑fire of the Celestial Vessel and the Bountiful People, right? I don't understand that ambition, but I fully approve! Yet they limit their power for the sake of a precept… If even survival is coerced, then the so‑called ideal cannot even be spoken of."

"But— but!" Weibo's face flushed bright red as he retorted excitedly, "If they, like those Bu Li, fight and vent their nature of destruction and killing, then how are they any different from the Bu Li who besieged them? Doesn't that fundamentally deny the meaning of their cultivation?! They chose to become monks of Danlun Temple, not Bu Li warriors!"

"Kid, you still don't get my point." Conquest King lightly tapped Weibo's forehead, though this time the force was not heavy, "In my view, a cultivator's self‑control can only be shown to those who understand them, and facing unreasonable thugs… self‑control is meaningless. If it were you, even if you recognize and respect Danlun Temple's philosophy, would you reason with a Bu Li who would bite your neck the next second?"

"I…" Weibo opened his mouth, for a moment he didn't know how to answer.

Conquest King slowly clenched his fist: "Reason is spoken to those willing to listen. As for the blind, deaf, violent types, you don't need to demonstrate the subtlety of reason, just enough power will do."

——

"Cannot understand. Known: using the Martial Performance Ritual, you wish to petition to have Danlun Temple join the Celestial Vessel Alliance," 0089 said, "but your precept severely blocks the goal's achievement. Logic: through calculation we see that conquering and eradicating the Celestial Vessel, eliminating all non‑consensus entities, is the optimal solution to achieve the goal."

"The 【No Killing】 precept greatly limits your actions; it is an unreasonable algorithm that caused Pi Li to lose his organic life."

Tuona said earnestly, "When I first joined Danlun Temple, I thought the same. This universe repeatedly forces you to use violence; on the road protecting civilians and monks fleeing, you either kill or get killed. I've broken the No Killing precept more than once… I'd rather have my hand snapped by the ring I wear than not tear the enemy's throat."

"Question: What revised your conclusion?"

"I adopted Shemo. I saw the fear in her eyes when she watched me fight. I realized each of us is forging tomorrow's world. I cannot plant seeds of fear and hatred into future soil and let Shemo become part of the blood‑fire cycle. Beyond killing, we still have the right to choose; Danlun Temple's existence is the best proof."

Tuona looked up, gazing at the vast endless sky: "Death is merely the disappearance of the flesh. In this war with the universe as opponent, as long as we still uphold the 'No Killing' precept, we will never face defeat of the soul."

0089: "Record update: I've learned a new definition of 'victory.' Question: No Killing = victory? Question: How to define the soul?"

Tuona shook her head, she did not answer.

——

Luo Xiaohei Chronicle.

When he heard Tuona voice her vision, Jiu Lao felt gooseflesh all over his body.

The vision was so grand that at first he held a few scornful, dismissive feelings toward this Bu Li group, thinking the temple was just a disguise for their slaughter, but now he realized he was wildly wrong.

Danlun Temple's ideology is so advanced, advanced like a beautiful fairy tale. But the fact is, these Bu Li monks are all expending tremendous effort and even lives for the beautiful ending of that tale… just to make tomorrow's world a little better.

"What a great vision," Wuxian couldn't help admiring, "Even if you abandon life, you still keep the precept, that persistence…"

"Can't learn a thing." Nezha stared unblinking at the character in the game console, "Danlun Temple's idea is beautiful, but in reality it's too hard to achieve; the universe itself is a forest full of killing, the best way to strive for peace isn't to stop killing, but to make those ready to kill you realize that if they strike, everyone will perish together, game over."

How do humans call that? Nuclear deterrence? In short, if anyone dares to flip the table, everyone dies, even if they don't care for others, people will instinctively cherish their own lives.

As long as no one dares to be the first to act, peace will naturally arrive. In Nezha's view, if not for the monsters' fists being hard enough, with him and Wuxian supporting, the balance between humans and monsters would have been broken long ago.

When the enemy respects your power, that's true peace—at least that's what he thinks.

——

"In the next memory, a bounty hunter in a corporate uniform, all wounded, lies on the ground; beside him Tuona's aura is gone, his body ice‑cold, dead for many days."

"Emperor Rupert is dead, but the remnants of the anti‑organic equation still lurk in corners of the universe. For these entities, the Interstellar Peace Corporation's order to bounty hunters is single: at any cost, destroy them all."

The bounty hunter clutched his bleeding abdomen, on the brink of death, yet his face still wore a cold sneer: "Am I watching some shoddy comedy? Blood‑thirsty Bu Li, dying to protect Rupert's slaughter weapon. Ha ha ha, turns out the blood‑sucking beasts that kill without blinking also huddle for warmth."

"Come on, I've lost. You can kill me, just like you iron brutes killed my brother back then… Remember, imprint this dying word with your iron head that serves as my urinal, because those still‑alive bounty hunters will chase you to any corner of the galaxy, melt you into a pool of molten iron."

0089, feeling Tuona's death, sensed anger near the concept of organic life in Wuxian; the anti‑organic equation activated, captured his negative feedback, amplified, outputting a conclusion—

"Logic: even if Tuona locked my weapon system, using the remaining annihilation plan in the database, even a single pebble… I could easily erase him."

"Stop."

0089 did not choose to act, but instead gave himself this command:

"Anti‑organic equation, command abort."