A Utopian Small Society, the Cradle of Geniuses

[At the entrance, He Xiangdong gestures for you to come over.]

["Mr. Chen Dong, welcome to our underground base."]

[A-Dou, sitting atop his horse, exclaims in amazement.]

["Uncle Chen, you were right. They really are an underground organization!"]

[You look around. Thanks to the effects of "Reverse Engineering," you can see that this place is filled with all kinds of cultivation artifacts.]

[Arrays are everywhere, maintaining the stability of the environment.]

[The glowing sphere overhead is an innate spiritual treasure. Behind it is another, slightly smaller sphere that is currently unlit. It is also an innate spiritual treasure, presumably used to imitate the moon.]

[The cliffs along the perimeter are covered with countless caves. Strange birds lurk within them, seemingly the guardians of this space.]

[The cultivators here have basically all mastered divine patterns. You can see many cultivators using divine patterns to help farmers and workers with their labor, or to speed up the construction of bridges and roads.]

[The divine patterns they use come in three different colors: golden commoner patterns, red noble patterns, and a black imperial divine pattern that you had only seen Chen Yue use in your previous simulation.]

["Someone here uses imperial divine patterns?"]

[He Xiangdong nods.]

["These are heavenly patterns."]

["Heavenly patterns?"]

["Divine patterns are divided into heavenly, earthly, and human patterns. They were originally created by the ancestors of our human race so that even low-level cultivators could borrow a portion of the power of great divine abilities.

That way, even those with poor aptitude could possess some means of self-protection.

After the 'Great Uprising,' our human race was instead forbidden from learning divine patterns.

Those alien races stole our divine patterns and changed them into imperial, noble, and commoner patterns.

They even divided the right to learn divine patterns into different ranks.

But when our ancestors divided divine patterns into three categories, it was only because they had three different levels of difficulty.

If you don't want to spend too much time learning them, you learn the simplest human patterns. If you want to learn the most powerful and difficult ones, you learn heavenly patterns. That's all there is to it."]

[From He Xiangdong's explanation, you hear another unfamiliar term.]

["The 'Great Uprising'?"]

[He Xiangdong pats you on the shoulder.]

["Mr. Chen Dong, there are many things here that you could never have learned about in the outside world. Why don't we sit down and talk about them slowly?"]

["Sounds good, sounds good."]

[You love gathering information more than anything.]

[Coming to this base of the Kindling Society really was the right choice!]

[He Xiangdong first settles you and A-Dou into the base.]

[He also gives you a brief introduction to the base's basic situation.]

[The Kindling Society's original goal was to protect talented individuals from persecution by the alien races.]

[But protection alone was not enough. Once they brought people here, they had a responsibility to nurture them.]

[With the help of capable and principled individuals—people like Ji Wuqing, who came from a major power but was willing to "betray" it—the Society gained access to resources that could be supplied to talented cultivators.]

[The Kindling Society did not remain hidden forever, either. They organized battles and seized cultivation resources from the alien races.]

[However, the targets they chose were generally small factions on second-class stars. They would gather a group of experts, raid those factions, and flee as soon as the job was done.]

[The bases of the Kindling Society were where these human prodigies and the captured resources were gathered.]

[There were many such bases throughout the universe. Purple Vermilion Star was merely one of them.]

[Human aptitude was like opening a blind box. Thus, even among the descendants of geniuses, ordinary mortals would sometimes appear.]

[The Kindling Society generally would not let these mortals leave the base to fend for themselves. As long as they were willing, they could remain in the base and continue living there.]

[Although the Kindling Society's bases were underground, the environment could be transformed through arrays, allowing them to grow crops, herd sheep, raise fish, cultivate silkworms, and more.]

[As the number of mortals increased, there was an ample labor force, and all the necessities of life could be produced independently.]

[The base was like a utopia, with neither rulers nor the ruled.]

[Everyone simply did what they were good at, then improved their lives through barter.]

[Of course, they no longer used barter now. Each base had its own currency system.]

[The higher-ups of the Kindling Society assigned some people to manage order within the base, but they could hardly be called rulers. At most, they were like neighborhood property managers, handling a few public affairs.]

[Since members of the Kindling Society could be assigned to new missions or have their identities exposed at any time, they might be unable to return to the base for a long while.]

[As a result, the base's "property managers" were constantly changing. Whoever happened to be staying at the base and had the time would take on one of those positions.]

[Within the base, you see the talented members of the human race being protected.]

[There is nothing particularly unusual about them.]

[The younger children attend school alongside ordinary children, memorizing ancient texts, learning arithmetic, and studying astronomy and geography. If they fail to complete their assignments, their teacher still smacks their palms with a ruler.]

[Once they reach the appropriate age, they have to cultivate while completing their studies, running back and forth between the two and refusing to neglect either. Someone supervises them to make sure of it.]

[Sometimes, when it is the busy farming season, they have to work in the fields alongside the residents.]

[When they grow older and complete their studies, cultivation becomes a lifelong pursuit, and dedicated masters guide them one-on-one.]

[Later, when they encounter a bottleneck in their cultivation or become lost in life, they have only one option left—venture out and gain experience.]

[The Kindling Society understands that one cannot raise strong flowers in a greenhouse.]

[They allow these protected prodigies to choose whether or not to leave the base.]

[About seventy percent of them choose to leave.]

[Some grow stronger and eventually return, carrying on the Kindling Society's ideals.]

[Some establish themselves elsewhere and never come back.]

[Some fall along the path of gaining experience.]

[A few even become traitors and reveal the secrets of the bases.]

["There are traitors too?"]

["Of course there are. Human nature is complicated, and temptations are everywhere."]

["Then you shouldn't let them leave."]

["What would that make this place—a prison?"]

["Wouldn't you be putting yourselves in great danger if you encountered a traitor?"]

["Whether or not there are traitors, the cause we pursue is dangerous all the same."]

["Still, you've managed to continue for so many years. You must have some kind of defensive mechanism in place."]

["Naturally. But every base has its own methods, so I'm afraid I can't reveal ours to you. If you choose to stay here permanently, you'll learn about it in time."]

[He Xiangdong leads you around the base, introducing you to its various features along the way.]

[At last, you arrive at the subject you had most wanted to learn about from the very beginning.]

["On our side, we call that event the 'Great Uprising.' Among the alien races, they refer to it as the 'Great Counterattack.'"]

["I think I can guess what that means…"]

["It seems no one on Firelight Star ever gave you a proper introduction to this matter. Communication there is conducted through isolated channels, so conversations like this are indeed rare. If you want to know about it, I can explain everything in detail."]

[Standing on the main street of the base, He Xiangdong looks up at the innate spiritual treasure that imitates the sun, suspended in the sky. After letting out a sigh, he begins to recount the story.]

["It all goes back to the era of the Celestial Emperor…"]