Chapter 388: The War Caused by Aesthetic Disagreement

The Star Fall Witch grew more excited as she spoke, the light in her eyes nearly igniting the silver-white room.

She whirled toward Gao Jie Ming, her gaze blazing as if he were a walking vein of rare elemental ore.

"Gao Jie Ming Witch! You've arrived just in time! I was just despairing—my inventory of Imaginary Elements has run dry, and my experiments can't proceed."

"If you can supply Imaginary Elements continuously, I can further refine the 'Soul Ignition' model—and even use it as a core to fully construct and expand my 'Spiritual' Law, taking that crucial step!"

The intensity of her gaze, almost solidified into heat, made Gao Jie Ming's scalp prickle; he felt that if he didn't change the subject, the next second he'd be dragged into her lab as a walking elemental production unit.

He cleared his throat and forcibly steered the conversation back to reality: "Star Fall, regarding the supply of Imaginary Elements, we can discuss details later. Right now, what matters is: what is the current state of these two newly sentient races in your plane?"

Viola immediately chimed in, pointing at the grim battlefield on the screen, her brow furrowed: "That's right, Star Fall. I've been gone less than a month! Even if war is a catalyst for civilization, this is too fast, too violent!"

"And there must be some trigger for war between two races—ecologically, one absorbs light and elements, the other roots in the earth to draw nutrients; they have no direct resource competition. Why do they attack each other on sight like this?"

Asked this, the Star Fall Witch finally cooled slightly from her reverie of the future.

She blinked her bloodshot eyes and turned to the control panel, swiftly operating.

Soon, she pulled up vast amounts of real-time battlefield recordings, energy fluctuation spectra, and most importantly—translated "language" records derived from deciphered spiritual waves and specific electromagnetic signals emitted during combat.

"At first, I didn't understand either," the Star Fall Witch explained as she retrieved data, "I only knew that after one accidental large-scale contact, they almost without warning plunged into total hostility, rapidly reproducing and expanding, spreading the conflict across the entire plane."

She projected the filtered key information onto the main screen.

"Later, through continuous monitoring and analysis of their 'communication' during combat, I formed an initial hypothesis."

On the screen, two entirely different "language" records appeared side by side:

On the left, beside the data stream representing the light-elemental beings, translated high-frequency terms were marked: 【Twisted】、【Deformed】、【Unclean Form】、【Purify】!

On the right, beside the spiritual waves of the animated plants, frequent terms appeared: 【Mutation】、【Unpalatable】、【Energy Toxin】、【Eradicate】!

"Look," the Star Fall Witch pointed at the screen, "the elemental beings perceive the plant life as some kind of 'twisted,' 'unclean' existence, filled with revulsion and a desire to 'purify.' Meanwhile, the plants regard the elemental beings as 'mutated,' inedible, even harmful 'things,' seeking to 'eradicate.'"

"I believe this stems from their most fundamental difference in existence—pure energy beings versus physical organic life, their underlying structural opposition may have planted the seed of mutual rejection and heresy from the very moment of spiritual awakening."

Gao Jie Ming studied the scrolling information on the screen, especially those fragments representing "insults" and "degradation."

He blinked—suddenly, a detail previously overlooked, combined with their initial encounter upon arrival, flashed through his mind like a spark.

He noticed that in both the elemental beings' insults toward the plants and the plants' insults toward the elementals, there were abundant terms accusing the other of being ugly.

Coupled with the fact that the moment they appeared, both sides had simultaneously denounced them as "ugly fleshy monsters"…

A notion, absurd on its face yet not entirely impossible, surfaced in his mind.

Could it be… that these two races are fighting to the death not over resources or territory, nor even over structural opposition, but because… they find each other grotesquely ugly?!

To the point of "Seeing you makes me sick—I must destroy you"?

His contemplative expression caught the attention of the other three.

Viola asked curiously: "Gao Jie Ming, what are you thinking? Your expression is strange."

Gao Jie Ming opened his mouth, hesitating.

The idea sounded too absurd, and the data was too scant—he instinctively tried to brush it off: "Nothing, just an immature thought…"

"Tell us!" Viola's interest was piqued.

The Star Fall Witch also turned to him with encouraging eyes.

Under their pressure, Gao Jie Ming had no choice but to steel himself and recount in detail how, upon their arrival, both sides had attacked them simultaneously and called them "ugly fleshy monsters."

After listening, the Star Fall Witch looked momentarily baffled: "This happened? My monitoring systems focused on macro-scale battles and energy/spiritual data—I completely overlooked individual-level 'aesthetic' feedback."

Viola turned to Star Fall with a hint of apology: "Star Fall, did our intervention interfere with your experimental data? Should we take corrective measures?"

The Star Fall Witch waved her hand dismissively, her attention now fully captured by Gao Jie Ming: "Gao Jie Ming Witch, your unspoken thought—does it relate to this? Please tell me!"

With no escape, Gao Jie Ming took a deep breath and voiced his hypothesis: that "ugliness" might have sparked this war. He added:

"From our limited encounters and the insult data we've seen, keywords related to appearance and form—'ugly,' 'deformed'—appear with unusually high frequency, possibly exceeding terms describing mere 'harm' or 'resource competition.' Of course, this is merely intuition based on a small sample—likely unreliable…"

Upon hearing this, Viola and the Star Fall Witch did not laugh—they both frowned, their expressions turning serious.

As experienced Gao Gao Jie Witches, they had witnessed too many bizarre social forms and conflict origins among sentient races.

Often, the spark of war could be absurdly ridiculous—a god statue's nose slightly crooked, a leader's impolite sneeze, even simply finding another's skin color or body structure "unpleasant to look at."

Compared to that, a war sparked by mutual disgust over ugliness, though ludicrous, was not logically impossible.

Especially between two races that had just gained sentience, their social structures and values still in primal chaos.

Moreover, Gao Jie Ming's hypothesis was no wild guess—it was a testable theory grounded in observed phenomena and existing data.

The only flaw: direct evidence supporting it—numerous samples explicitly stating they fought because the other was ugly—was still too scarce.

The Star Fall Witch's eyes reignited with research fervor: "The biological samples affected by you don't need special treatment! Not only that—perhaps… the mere presence of Witches themselves can serve as an excellent 'external stimulus variable' in this experimental environment!"

"Observing how they react to a third party, utterly unlike themselves yet equally deemed 'ugly' by both—this alone is a priceless opportunity to study their cognitive evolution and social interaction!"

This proposal sparked interest in Gao Jie Ming and Viola; they quickly began debating this new possibility.

"We can design a controlled experiment," Viola, quick-witted, suggested. "Select several regions of comparable scale and intense conflict. In some, we subtly reveal our presence or create non-hostile contact; in others, dispatch other creatures to interact. Observe whether their reactions change—whether the appearance of a 'more ugly' third party eases their mutual hostility or triggers unexpected interaction patterns."

"Excellent idea!" The Star Fall Witch excitedly operated the console, dividing experimental zones and setting observation parameters. "We must precisely control variables, record all energy exchanges, spiritual waves, and changes in population behavior patterns… This might reveal deeper links between aesthetic preference and social conflict in the early stages of spiritual intelligence!"

"But this will require more samples for experimentation—meaning we must create more lifeforms… and while we're at it, we can use Imaginary Elements to generate additional sentient races, or our modified ones, to probe the two. As for Imaginary Element consumption—I can submit the expenses…" Gao Jie Ming pulled out a crystal vial containing super-compressed spiritual energy.

In an instant, the three Witches were fully immersed in intense, efficient experimental design and deployment.

They bustled around the screen and control panel, sometimes arguing fiercely, sometimes operating swiftly.

Only Anya remained standing, watching her grandmother and the two guests plunge into oblivious research, her mouth slightly open, her face filled with stunned disbelief.

This… the leap in topic and shift in research direction—was it really that fast?

Just moments ago they were discussing planetary pacification and elemental supply; now they were designing a controlled experiment on "ugliness causing war"?

She quietly retreated to the corner, deciding not to disturb these three fanatical researchers who had clearly found new toys.

Yet as she gazed at her grandmother's renewed, vibrant profile, Anya silently lit a candle for the two races still slaughtering each other outside.

(End of Chapter)