Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 122

Chapter 122 – Hail the Pledge of Freedom

A starship sailed to the border between the Seventh and Eighth Galaxy.

Many years ago, it was a lively place filled with smugglers stopping by the small space stations and trading their goods. Sometimes the Seventh Galaxy would send out their law enforcement and chase the smugglers away, turning the terminal into a hub of chaos. Unable to pass through safely, many merchants that passed through the terminal were forced to hire illegal armed fleets to escort them between the borders.

Of course, this was no longer necessary anymore.

The transfer portals connecting the two galaxies were gone and the Eighth Galaxy completely vanished from sight. For the next coming years, no mechs or starships would be able to pass through between the two galaxies.

The starry skies of the Seventh Galaxy were completely silent, aside from remnants of space waste left uncleaned that could be seen on both sides of the terminal. Even the space stations floating beside the terminals were empty with no traces of other mechs or starships sailing by.

Within a little less than two years, Hope–Harris, had grown more white hair that ironically made him appear more saintly than before.

He was looking through the galactic telescope at this deadzone in space.

“Some said that the Seventh Galaxy lost 60% of its population during that battle; a portion of them died, and another portion fled to the Eighth Galaxy. Now, only some people live on a few dwarf planets on the edge of the galaxy. The spineless Seventh Galaxy government couldn’t handle the unrest after Ankur’s death, and now the Seventh Galaxy is deserted like the foreign lands outside of the Union.” A young man in a long robe poured a cup of hot tea for Hope. “Head Prophet, we should prepare to sail back, there’s no point in sailing forward. The Eighth Galaxy cleaned up all the transfer portals already, there’s nothing aside from space waste left. Besides, that space waste is also a safety hazard.”

Harris turned his head without a word. He was wearing a long robe of unique fabric that looked almost like water shining like a line of broken diamonds under the light. Yet the man under this fancy robe carried a cold and exhausted expression–he was a completely different person than the ‘Hope’ who had once built a farm with a group of inexperienced engineers and chatted endlessly with Lu Bixing about life.

Yet the coldness in his eyes didn’t bother his subordinates; the young man that delivered the hot tea didn’t dare to meet his gaze with the Prophet and turned his head down. His feeling of inferiority was so great the young man could almost kneel down on the floor and pray to the Prophet.

When Harris left the Eighth Galaxy with his group of followers, the regret that lingered in his heart was the bottles of home-made wine that he’d promised his young friend. Despite having some reservations, he’d still decided to trust Woolf when he left the galaxy because he felt as if he were a man carrying nothing aside from faith. Nobody could possibly take advantage of him because he was a poor man with nothing to give.

However, he was wrong. He should’ve also made Woolf have some reservations as well.

When the light of the AUS vanished from the White Tower, when they lost everything and were struggling to survive outside of the Union, it was Woolf that offered a helping hand like a savior. Woolf bowed down to the Union and turned his back to the Union, yet no matter what he did over the years, he had never chased after fame or riches and never fell into the hands of greed. He was a rare single man in the Union without even an offspring.

Harris had always thought that if anyone could understand the pains of the White Tower, it would be Chief Commander Woolf.

But now he knew. Anyone without desires may not always be a saint; sometimes they were simply mad.

The battle 400 days ago shook the entire Union. The Eighth Galaxy became isolated and the Seventh Galaxy was almost annihilated as a result. The story of the two galaxies fighting alongside each other against the pirate fleet until the end was like a tale of tragic heroes that struck a chord with the other galaxies. With the First Galaxy as the lead, the protesting movements within the civilians grew more heated as time passed. The phase of despair brought about by the war was long gone, and the people that survived finally realized that they still had a life to live as they gradually learned to step out of the cradle and embrace the pains of reality.

The sophisticated population of the First Galaxy had their own unique ways of protesting; rather than resorting immediately to violence, they started off with peaceful demonstrations on the streets and kindly asked the ‘illegal’ Glory Troops to leave the galaxy. Rumor had it that the largest demonstration was a street filled with protestors who stood quietly and orderly for over twelve hours, and by the time the pirate police forces arrived to disperse the demonstration, the streets were left clean without a single trace of litter.

They collectively dragged the Glory Troops that took over Wolto like massive burnable trash.

The pirates finally couldn’t withstand these demonstrations. One day, when the President yelled in anger under stress, his subordinates misunderstood his order and opened fire on the peaceful demonstrators that night.

A clean street showered by fresh blood exposed the true nature of the Glory Troops overnight, nobody bought into their delusional “Glory Empire” propaganda anymore.

The sounds of rebellion grew louder as the Union held up their justice, summoned the Central Militia throughout the galaxies to “fight alongside our people against our common enemies.”

The battle in the Seventh Galaxy didn’t simply destroy two whole galaxies; due to Lin Jingheng’s infamous tenacity on the battlefield, the AUS still suffered a great loss despite having Woolf controlling the game from afar. The internal conflict in the organization magnified as the important figures of the mania faction were assassinated, which then created a clear-cut break between the two factions. Harris, who had been working his way back up the organization, was naturally pushed onto the stage by Woolf.

Harris was a strong advocate of the anti-war agenda and would never resort to violence if conditions permitted. Once the AUS got back onto its feet, the anti-war faction single-handedly threw down the trigger-happy side of the organization and retreated all its troops from the Union.

The reunited Union and Central Militia centralized their power to push out the remaining Glory Troops and Freedom Corps pirates.

Everything was moving towards the right direction as the beacon of peace could be seen from afar; the Union was ready to arise from the ashes.

The AUS was under the hands of Woolf, the Freedom Corps selling opium were forced out of the market to take shelter for the meantime, the laughable Glory Empire was digressing and slowly backing down from their throne. Pushed to the edge, the Glory Troops held the entire First Galaxy hostage as they faced the Union in a grand stalemate.

But Harris knew that this stalemate wouldn’t last long. The President had no more tricks up his sleeves and could never win against Woolf.

Who could possibly win against the old Chief Commander?

Nobody knew that the tragic and heroic battle that turned the entire tide of the war had been a meticulously planned assassination plot against Lin Jingheng.

The AUS feared him because the Silver Ten was their nightmare. They were sacrificial lambs that gave their heads to Lin Jingheng, and even though Woolf never made it clear, the old Chief had been reluctant to mess with the young commander in the beginning.

Until the forbidden fruit was revealed by accident and Lin Jingheng became the necessary sacrifice.

All the pirates in the AUS thought Woolf was joking; how could invading the Seventh Galaxy trap Lin Jingheng? It almost sounded like a tale of fantasy. Lin Jingheng’s hostility towards Ankur was more than obvious and he would never step foot in the Seventh Galaxy. If the AUS attacked Ankur, perhaps this young commander would simply watch from the sidelines with popcorn in hand.

But the AUS were the losers by Lin Jingheng’s hands; they couldn’t even touch the young commander with their resources, so they could only listen to Woolf in despair to uproot this nightmare of theirs.

They didn’t expect that plan would work out.

Harris also only found out after the fact that the Silver Ten couldn’t make it to the Eighth Galaxy because they were stopped by the crossfire within the Union.

Woolf had watched Lin Jingheng since he was born, as he grew up, and even personally helped him up the ladder to become the top commander of the Silver Fortress. He watched the young man for nearly 50 years, saw through every inch of his soul to the point where he knew Lin Jingheng better than the young man knew himself.

What did it all mean in the end?

The starship turned around slowly as Harris took a sip of the hot tea. The hot water burnt his tongue but his heart remained cold.

Lin Jingheng had to die because he still remembered who he was. Ever since he decided to mingle in the war instead of pulling his bargaining chips back, and allowed the Silver Ten to prioritize helping the citizens of the Union, he had already decided his own fate.

Harris’ fate was already determined as well. He had to continue being Woolf’s puppet because the White Tower’s ceaseless eyes watched these troubled times; no matter where mankind was heading toward, he couldn’t watch the New Sidereal Era end in bloodshed…even if he knew Woolf’s true colors and understood that peace would be built on crimes and lies.

Harris had some people place a few self-brewed wine bottles inside a small ecopod and pushed it out toward the direction of the Eighth Galaxy; he watched the pod float in the emptiness of space. He gave one last look in the direction of the Eighth Galaxy, unsure how Lu Bixing was doing right now.

Perhaps not well , he thought. It was the destined path for those people who believed in something and wanted to do something for the world.

And when they finally entered the forest of darkness, they would realize that everything they had looked up to and treasured were all shackles and ropes. If they couldn’t let go of those restraints in time, regardless if they were a powerful giant or a wise scholar, they would be strapped to their foolish ideals against all odds.

Lu Bixing’s joke was right, mankind would indeed die from faith.

Though weren’t all rules, morals, and sense of justice in human society a product of mankind’s imagination? [1]

Then faith was the same; it came from the void of nothingness that would eventually pass through time and space until it burned into ashes.

In a galaxy far away, Lu Bixing held the Prime Minister’s physical health report in his hands.

Through the small glass window on the medical capsule, he looked at the sleeping Prime Minister. The old man lost more weight and grew much weaker than before; he was slowly being killed by his own body.

Lu Bixing asked: “How long does he have left?”

The doctor responded: “From my experience, he has between three to five months. However, because of how painful the process is towards the end, most people won’t wait until the last moment of their natural death and choose to be put down.”

Lu Bixing asked again: “What about resting?”

The doctor shook his head as he gave a difficult smile: “You should know that this condition doesn’t have much to do with lifestyle.”

The doctor saw the young temporary Prime Minister fall into a daze for a moment before he turned and nodded towards the doctor, then walked away after keeping the report in his personal device.

Aside from the check-up report, the Prime Minister also handed him an official letter of appointment.

The old Prime Minister officially announced his resignation and passed this isolated galaxy over to the young man’s hands.

Lu Bixing walked down the pedestrian road by himself down towards the central plaza.

Many people in Milky Way City knew him; Lu Bixing had always been sociable and friendly, so many people turned and greeted him on the road. A number of cars even stopped by to ask if he needed a ride, only to be turned down politely as the young man walked into the central plaza.

The dusk skies fell quietly as the last of the people left the plaza for the day, leaving only a small robot selling iced tea running around aimlessly while its boss fell asleep to the side. There used to be two different clocks in the plaza, one in Woltorian time and the other in standard Qiming time; due to the time differences caused by differing planetary orbit and rotations, a day on Qiming did not equate to a day on Wolto. People living on natural planets were often used to living with two different time systems, but thankfully they no longer needed to as the Woltorian clock got taken down. The people on this planet no longer needed to keep up with the schedule of the Union’s standard time.

Lu Bixing stopped and looked at the large stone statue of Lu Xin. The people here loved him and had done their best to recreate the details of their beloved hero — even the details on the hair were carefully sculpted. A small balloon caught onto a piece of hair on the statue at this time and made the scene seem a bit comical.

The child that had lost his balloon stared at the statue with a pout on his face, tears welling in his eyes. As the hero and spiritual idol of the Eighth Galaxy, there were always guards protecting the statue in the plaza. Nobody dared to touch this holy relic so the adult beside the child had no choice but to drag the child away, and the child finally cried out loud.

“Hey, wait, don’t cry.” Lu Bixing gave a nice tap on the guard’s shoulders, and to the surprise of everyone around, he rolled up his sleeves to climb up the statue. The young man glanced at the statue for a short moment as he pulled the balloon off and handed it back to the child.

The guard was in complete shock: “Lu….Lu…”

Lu Bixing held his hand out and said: “Do you think Commander Lu Xin would mind?”

The guard couldn’t respond. Prime Minister Edward had already announced his retirement and handed the letter of appointment publicly, so starting tomorrow, Lu Bixing would be the new Prime Minister. Since the new Prime Minister said he didn’t mind…well, perhaps nobody would mind.

Lu Bixing walked down the stone stairs from the statue and found a place to sit down near the last step. He lit up a cigarette in the night breeze; the shop owner that was sleeping earlier finally woke up and looked at him in surprise, then gave the young man a courteous bow. Lu Bixing nodded his head in response with an airy look on his face, looking out with a difficult to read expression.

Lu Bixing wasn’t someone who hid his emotions in the past. He felt that everyone had emotions and feelings and that it wasn’t shameful to express them, but almost overnight, a wall built up around his heart, quietly locking away all his emotions.

Nobody knew that when he received the Prime Minister’s sudden appointment, he had just finished decoding the protection of the forbidden fruit system inside Zhanlu. Of course, the system had stopped running long ago and was left with only some data. Lu Bixing checked the names of all the higher-ups in the Union on the list of the forbidden fruit and felt that he would also revolt if he were the director of the White Tower.

The earliest list was composed of almost the entire Eden Committee staff and the politicians in the parliament who were clearly sided with the Committee. Even the people that were making the laws themselves wanted to escape the surveillance of the system.

The second half of the list was more complex. Starting with the first director of the White Tower, Doctor Hardin, the list began to include the opposing sides of the political stage–with Chief Commander Woolf’s name being the highlight of them all. From the list, it wasn’t hard to deduce who was behind the pirate forces.

Yet no matter how much he searched, from top to bottom until the very last name on the list–Lin Jingheng, he couldn’t find Lu Xin anywhere. The name of the man who had secretly kept the forbidden fruit was nowhere to be found on this list.

The forbidden fruit ran on Zhanlu, and even Lin Jingheng himself didn’t realize the true functions of this system. Therefore, it must be Lu Xin himself that wrote the protection code; there was no way he never saw this list.

Lu Bixin turned his head towards Lu Xin’s statue. The statue and the man with nothing left exchanged their gazes across time; the Pledge of Freedom carved under the statue suddenly became a little too difficult to look at.

Did you still believe in this stuff when you left? Lu Bixing thought, knowing that the statue had no thoughts and couldn’t answer. The young man continued to impose his ideals onto the silent statue: I don’t believe it anymore. Someday in the future I’ll personally crush it down. This isn’t anything personal, please don’t take it as disrespect, Commander Lu.

Now was not the time. He still needed this garbage to maintain order in society; the fragile and weak Eighth Galaxy still needed this spiritual drug to keep going.

Lu Bixing extinguished the cigarette and tossed it into the trash, then turned and smiled at the guard: “Thank you.”

The guard saluted him and responded: “All hail the Pledge of Freedom.”

Lu Bixing got onto an armed mobile through a platform in Milky Way City and went back home. He’d remodeled his home a little under Zhanlu’s butler permissions and cleaned up the entire house from top to bottom. Even the flower garden outside in the yard was reorganized to better taste. The basement was fully transformed into a laboratory as well, but Lu Bixin had never again stepped foot into the locked attic since that time.

“Good evening, Headmaster Lu.” The house said, “I saw the medical report on your personal device, what awful news. I hope your mood is alright.”

Aside from Zhanlu, perhaps nobody else would ever call him “Headmaster Lu” anymore, and nobody would remember that naive dream called the Starry Sea Academy.

“Hm, I’m okay.” Lu Bixing answered carelessly, “Illness and death are natural parts of human life.”

Zhanlu said: “I have organized your work files already, do you wish to look over them?”

“I’ll deal with it tomorrow.” Lu Bixing already changed into his slippers as he walked down to the basement. “Is the result of the experiment from yesterday ready to view?”

Zhanlu: “The analysis report is complete, however, please excuse my bluntness; Headmaster Lu, a proper scientist should control his dangerous curiosity.”

Lu Bixing laughed in response and walked into the lab without a word.

Zhanlu continued: “If it affects the health and life of my master, I will…”

“Reject the orders of your master?” Lu Bixing questioned in a gentle voice, “Have you tried it before?”

Zhanlu fell silent for a while: “I am unable to defy your orders. You have turned off my automated protection function during my self-repairing process, but I strongly encourage you to turn it back on.”

“Thanks, but no,” Lu Bixing said, “I need some quiet time to read the analysis report right now.”

Zhanlu recognized it as an order and fell silent.

Lu Bixing put on his headphones and cancelled out all noise from his surroundings as he opened up the analysis report–beside him, a biochip rested inside a small specimen medium.

Aside from the list of names, there was a portion of a biochip research analysis within the database of the forbidden fruit. While it was incomplete, to Lu Bixing who had Zhanlu on hand, it was more than enough.

It was a biochip they’d once obtained from the hands of the Freedom Corps; after taking it apart and readjusting it several times, Lu Bixing concluded that the chip was essentially safe for clinical experiment.

Lu Bixing made a little mark on the analysis report, placed the biochip inside a syringe and injected it into his arm.

At the same time, on a hidden dwarf planet two galaxies away, a pod that had been silent for almost two years finally gave a small reaction.

[1] Mankind came to dominate the world as the alpha species due to their ability to cooperate, and the reason for their ability to cooperate comes from the human cognitive capacity to process the concept of ‘fiction.’ Therefore, large-scale human society is built upon concepts such as nation-states and financial institution–this is a key concept that came from Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.