Eternal Night

Chapter 643 On Humanity

"...You're asking me what my bottom line is?"

Wu Pifu smiled, but still answered seriously: "Your bottom line is your family, your mother, your father, and maybe some people in the Rongguo Mansion. That's normal, after all, you've been raised in seclusion since you were a child."

Lin Daiyu's face began to blush again.

In the past, it was a fact that young ladies were raised in seclusion, and this was the proper path for daughters of noble families.

What respectable family's daughter would dare to show her face in public?
But now Lin Daiyu is ashamed of the phrase "raised in seclusion," which is a huge qualitative change.

Ignoring him, Wu Pifu continued, "No matter what, it's good that you have a bottom line. Everyone must have a bottom line. Above that line, anything can be discussed—deception, ambiguity, personal relationships, worldly matters—it can all be discussed, negotiated, and even repeated concessions are acceptable. But once that bottom line is crossed, there's no going back. It's either you or me. Someone has to pay the price in blood. If it's not our enemy, then it must be ours. Understand?"

Lin Daiyu nodded seriously.

Looking at the snow-covered plain ahead, Wu Pifu continued, "My bottom line is people."

Lin Daiyu asked in surprise, "A person?"

"Yes, people."

As Wu Pifu walked, he said, "I want to be a human being, someone who does not violate the bottom line of humanity. At the same time, I want to treat others as human beings. I cannot bully them, kill them, or treat them as inhuman beings just because I have become stronger and more powerful than them. Moreover, when necessary, when I can protect myself, I am willing to do everything to help others. This is my bottom line."

At this moment, Lin Daiyu did not yet understand the great terror in Wu Pifu's words; she only felt joy in her heart.

Because Wu Pifu's words perfectly aligned with her values, as well as the universal values ​​of Confucianism, and even the basic values ​​of most human civilizations.

Because we are human, we must act like human beings; this is the most basic and moral bottom line for humanity.

To be honest, Lin Daiyu was actually afraid of Wu Pifu from the bottom of her heart. It wasn't just that Wu Pifu's appearance was inexplicable, his strength was inexplicable, and he was also inexplicable to her. It was also because as her strength increased, her true nature was also restored, and her perception beyond the five senses or even the six senses was also restored. She keenly perceived some inhuman qualities of Wu Pifu, so she felt fear from the bottom of her heart.

However, Lin Daiyu now fully realized that Wu Pifu's words truly came from the bottom of his heart. It wasn't just what he said on the surface; he genuinely thought the same thing deep down.

Upon careful consideration, Wu Pifu, upon arriving in this world, whether towards himself, the emperor, the Jia family, or even the soldiers in the camp, though taciturn and seemingly ruthless, had never truly humiliated anyone or gone so far as to kill them. Considering his strength, this was actually an extremely great act of restraint and goodwill.

But just as Lin Daiyu smiled sweetly, Wu Pifu continued to speak: "It is precisely because this is my bottom line that I must distinguish between humans and non-humans."

Lin Daiyu seemed to understand, yet also seemed not to: "Human and non-human?"

"Correct."

Wu Pifu nodded seriously, then looked at the blackness in the heavy snow ahead and said, "For example, this noisy Wild Boar Skin tribe in the northern frontier, do you know why I brought you here?"

Lin Daiyu was naturally prepared for this.

Yesterday, Wu Pifu boasted to the emperor that he could sweep across the southeast, northwest, and other directions in ten days, and even made a grand promise to perform the Fengshan ceremony at Mount Tai. Unexpectedly, he did not rush to set off. Instead, he took Lin Daiyu back to the Rongguo Mansion and slept there for one night. The next day, after breakfast, he actually picked up Lin Daiyu and stepped into the air, flying directly into the sky.

In less than half an hour, he flew to the northern frontier with Lin Daiyu, ignoring the various kingdoms and passes in the north, and directly crossed them, bringing Lin Daiyu to the territory of the Wild Boar Skin tribe that had invaded the northern frontier.

Lin Daiyu nodded: "Naturally, I am the one who will kill the chieftain of the Wild Boar Skin tribe. I will travel a thousand miles to take his head, and the Wild Boar Skin tribe will naturally be thrown into chaos."

Wu Pifu laughed and said, "What are you talking about? Who told you to go and kill the slave chieftain of the Wild Boar Skin Tribe?"

Lin Daiyu was surprised, then exclaimed in alarm, "Brother, we have already made a promise to the Emperor. We can't delay any longer, or we'll be deceiving the Emperor. Even if you're not afraid, how can you go back on your word?"

Wu Pifu shook his head and continued forward with Lin Daiyu. Sure enough, they saw a large city ahead, which was Shengjing, the northern city of the dynasty that the Wild Boar Skin tribe had seized. It was also the current capital of the Wild Boar Skin tribe and the core of the political and military core.

“You misunderstand. What I mean is, how could killing just one chieftain possibly throw the Wild Boar Skin Tribe into chaos? They have hundreds of thousands of people, a political structure, and a core network of interests and connections. Even if you killed the entire Wild Boar Skin Tribe clan, let alone just the chieftain, it would only weaken their fighting spirit and disrupt their organizational structure. They would still wreak havoc beyond the Great Wall. So what you need to do is simple. I'll give you two to three days to kill all the non-humans in the area occupied by the Wild Boar Skin Tribe!”

Lin Daiyu's mouth gradually opened wide. She gasped for breath, and after a long while, she said urgently, "Brother, how can this be? Putting aside whether I can kill tens of thousands of people, such slaughter is far too heinous. Moreover, apart from the ringleader, even if the dynasty wins, it will pardon the rest of the people. This..."

"What's so great about pardoning non-humans?" Wu Pifu asked in an unusually calm tone, looking at Lin Daiyu with a puzzled expression. "Humans are naturally not to be killed, but what's so great about pardoning non-humans and violating the natural order?"

Lin Daiyu opened her mouth to speak, but seeing Wu Pifu's calm and indifferent eyes, she almost lost the courage to speak. As Wu Pifu pulled her closer and closer to the gates of Shengjing, she immediately said, "Brother, what is a human? What is a non-human? This must be explained clearly."

Wu Pifu paused for a moment, seemingly deep in thought. Lin Daiyu immediately breathed a sigh of relief and was about to offer some advice when Wu Pifu spoke first: "Yes, you are not me, so you can't easily distinguish between humans and non-humans. That's really not good."

Lin Daiyu felt a sudden sense of relief and was about to speak when Wu Pifu spoke up before her, saying, "Alright, I'll take you to distinguish between non-humans, and then you'll know what non-humans are."

Lin Daiyu was somewhat bewildered, but Wu Pifu pulled her up into the air again. However, instead of entering Shengjing, they headed towards various farms, villages, towns, and other places around Shengjing.

The Wild Boar Skin Tribe rose to prominence between the Changbai Mountains and the Heilongjiang River. The tribe was originally a savage race with a small population, but they were fond of killing, capable of killing, and dared to kill. After their rise, they ravaged the area beyond the Great Wall. Because of their small population, almost all adult men of their race had to become soldiers, and farming and other labor were only possible by plundering the people of the country and taking them as slaves.

This is a slave, a real slave!

They had no personal freedom, no guarantee of life, let alone private property. The men had to do hard labor in the fields, or the strong ones would become slave soldiers or cannon fodder. The women, in addition to working, were also raped by the people of the Wild Boar Skin tribe.

These things were originally a part of the culture that was despised during the thousands of years of dynastic changes. Although there must have been burning, killing and looting in the wars of the dynasty, no regime that aspired to unify the nine provinces would allow such chaos to continue. Moreover, even the soldiers or bandits who burned, killed and looted knew that such things were evil and bad.

However, the Wild Boar Skin tribe was different. They plundered people from other countries and enslaved them, dividing their sons and raping their daughters. This was their cultural tradition, something they openly discussed without any embarrassment, and it was even part of their laws and customs.

Wu Pifu possessed a super brain; once activated, it enveloped the entire area beyond the Great Wall. Thus, he easily found hundreds of cases where men and women of the dynasty were imprisoned, guarded, forced to work, and raped. Countless corpses were also carelessly buried. The Wild Boar Skin tribe members, who were the masters, even if they were not nobles but merely savages, could kill such slaves at will without any punishment.

Essentially, the Wild Boar Skin Tribe is now an armed criminal organization operating under a slave system.

Lin Daiyu was so disgusted by it that she vomited.

She literally vomited, and vomited several times in a row, crying as she vomited.

However, Wu Pifu showed no pity whatsoever. He dragged her to witness the most tragic events, and even saw several sudden incidents due to the super brain's monitoring. One was a group of people from the newly captured Kingdom. Among them, a couple stood trembling and were immediately assigned as slaves by the Wild Boar Skin Tribe army to an armored soldier. Whether the armored soldier was deliberately humiliating them or simply couldn't bear it any longer, he dragged the man's wife into the forest. When the man tried to stop him, he was immediately whipped to the ground and appeared to be about to be beaten to death on the spot.

Another example involves a citizen of a captured country. A ten-year-old child somehow angered soldiers from the Wild Boarskin tribe, who immediately dragged him behind their horse, intending to drag him to his death.

"Now do you see what is human and what is non-human?"

Wu Pifu landed and stepped directly on the horse-riding wild boar skin tribe soldier, crushing him into a pulp with a single stomp.

The dozens of Wild Boar Skin tribe soldiers around them were stunned. They had witnessed Wu Pifu descend from the sky and were momentarily confused. Holding their weapons and bows, they were unsure whether to fight back or run away.

Lin Daiyu was already beyond tears. Wu Pifu had taken her to see the place for a whole morning and noon, for more than three hours. She had truly witnessed the ugliest, most terrifying, and most grotesque scene in the world. Compared to this, the so-called sins and ugliness within the Rongguo Mansion were as laughable as the jokes of a young lady in her boudoir.

"Now, do you still think that just punishing the ringleaders is enough?"

Wu Pifu questioned, "Now, do you still think that killing these non-human beings is against the natural order?"

Lin Daiyu lowered her head and remained silent, while dozens of horsemen around her were about to tentatively draw their bows and shoot arrows.

Wu Pifu looked up at the sky and suddenly said, "If you still think this way, then I will seal your martial arts and hand you over to them for a few days. I will go and deal with the troubles on the western, southern, and eastern borders first, and then I will come back to find you and see if you still think this way."

Lin Daiyu suddenly looked up, reached out and caught a long arrow that had been shot at her between her fingers, and said loudly, "No need, brother, I know. They are all just beasts and demons in human skin. They are not human. Killing them will not bring any retribution or divine punishment. Such things should not exist. Brother, just watch, I..."

"Come and kill them all."

The next second, Lin Daiyu flipped her hand, the long arrow reversed, and a Wild Boar Skin tribe soldier clutched his throat and fell off his horse.

Then, amidst the flying sand and stones, Lin Daiyu lunged at these creatures draped in human skin.

(End of this chapter)