Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 266 This is what cultivators in the Nine Provinces are like (4k)

This is a vast, pure blue space, approximately one thousand kilometers long, one thousand kilometers wide, and one thousand kilometers high.

And now, a crying 'child' exists at the central intersection of these three 'thousands,' drifting helplessly there.

Supreme Commander: [He's crying? I sensed sadness in his tears.]
Starship AI: [Yes, it's speculated that this is due to being in this unfamiliar space environment.]
Supreme Commander: [Ancient emotions, ancient weeping, textbook sorrow, it's beautiful... but this kind of emotion isn't suitable for communication. Find a way to soothe him; I need to talk to him.]
The Starship AI spent 300,000 Planck time units thinking and analyzing, concluding that the crying behavior was caused by the other party's unfamiliarity with the environment. It believed that as long as the environment familiar to the life form was simulated, the crying could be stopped.

The starship's AI analyzed his lower limb structure, deducing that he was a creature living on Earth. Analyzing his respiratory system, it deduced that he required an atmosphere to breathe. Further analysis of his organs and blood composition, using residual respiratory effects, revealed the composition of the atmosphere. Using this existing intelligence, it then deduced the Earth, the atmosphere, the blue sky refracted by starlight, the white clouds caused by atmospheric water vapor, the oceans, mountains, and lakes extending from the Earth, and finally, a randomly generated grassland resembling grass.

Ultimately, the starship intelligence condensed into a boundless square space within that blue expanse, enveloped by mountains, rivers, lakes, and clouds. This was not any place on Earth, yet it resembled Earth more than Earth itself.

As expected, the target stopped crying.

Starship AI: [I'm awesome.]
Supreme Commander: [Stop being so smug. This is just your job. Alright, step down.]
Starship AI: [Bye~ I'm going to play games. Call me if you need anything.]
The Supreme Commander stepped onto this land—in fact, the race to which the Supreme Commander belonged originally also lived in the ocean. However, unlike Earth's creatures that crawled from the ocean to the land, the Supreme Commander's homeworld did not have land; its surface was entirely surrounded by ocean. This civilization thrived in the ocean for millions of years, and finally, it launched the first aircraft to break through the sea surface and reach the atmosphere, announcing the grand opening of its civilization's development.

The supreme commander simulated the opponent's appearance, transforming into a person with two eyes, a nose, two ears, and a mouth, making only minor adjustments to the facial features to ensure that the opponent could easily recognize him.

The supreme commander stepped onto the soft grass, controlling his right and left legs to move forward alternately, and walked methodically to the target.

The target had indeed stopped crying and looked up at him with her teary eyes.

The Supreme Commander pondered: Excessive psychological fragility and emotional instability are not good things for carbon-based life forms.

[Don't be afraid, I am friendly. Can you sense my intelligent field?] A pale yellow aura pulsated around the Supreme Commander.

Jia Eqing raised his head and stared blankly at the other person.

'Are we still stuck in the stage of thought processes or information-media interaction?'

Seeing that the other party did not react, the supreme commander pondered.

Cultivators naturally possess advanced information exchange methods, including divine thought transmission. Unfortunately, the person here is just a copy. When E Qing tried to mobilize his abilities to spread his divine thought, he could only release a faint quantum field.

"Who are you?" E Qing had no choice but to ask.

The supreme commander clearly heard the sound waves resonating through the air, and a strange expression appeared on his face. He quickly analyzed the meaning of the sentence, which contained only three characters and a question, taking a full second.

Was that long second just to output three characters?
interesting.

Fleet Commander: [I am the commander, the leader of the Galactic Fleet.]
The commander simply couldn't learn this inefficient way of communicating. He kept his mouth tightly shut and instead of using the thin organs in his mouth to generate sound waves, he directly covered it with his intelligent field.

Upon receiving the information from the intelligent field, a look of bewilderment appeared in E Qing's eyes.

For the supreme commander, the emotions conveyed in the other person's eyes could clearly convey more information, so he began to pay extra attention to the other person's eyes, because the eyes were more expressive than the mouth.

"I am Eqing. Do you have anything to eat? I'm hungry," Eqing said softly.

The starship's intelligence quickly delivered a standard food item based on the composition of the body's components. The food was a perfect sphere, about the size of an apple, containing sugar, fat, vitamins, fiber, trace elements, and water, with a sweet and salty taste.

Hungry Qing wolfed down his food, and after eating, he felt calmer.

[Does your civilization communicate using this kind of messaging? Or is it only you?] The Supreme Commander pointed to his mouth.

"What?" E Qing didn't understand what the other person meant.

"That's how you say it." The Supreme Commander awkwardly controlled the various muscles in his mouth, slowly vibrating out these six drawn-out sound waves.

E Qing asked in confusion, "Why...why...did you...say...that...?"

Supreme Commander: [What I mean is, why are you transmitting information through sound vibrations?]
E Qing asked again in confusion, "This is... talking! Of course... you have to do it this way. How can you communicate if you don't talk?"

Supreme Commander: [Stop dragging your words out! It makes communication even less efficient. What I mean is, why don't you use intelligent field interaction, thought membrane display, high-frequency sound wave vibration, and visible light interaction for more efficient communication?]
E Qing revealed an innocent look in his eyes: "No."

Supreme Commander: [You are an individual developing towards a low-entropy state and energy transformation. Only an extremely advanced technological civilization could attempt all of this. You can communicate quickly through other means.]
E Qing continued to shake his head: "We don't have such complicated ways of communicating; we mainly communicate by talking."

Supreme Commander: [But this method of communication is too inefficient... Oh, I see, you possess advanced memory inheritance abilities.]
The evil Qing remained silent.

Supreme Commander: [None?]

The evil Qing remained silent.

The Supreme Commander understood again: for the target life form, silence is also a way of conveying information.

Supreme Commander: [What level of development has your civilization reached?]

E Qing asked in confusion, "Level?"

Supreme Commander: [These are merely indicators for measuring the development of civilizations. For example, the carbon-based federation in the Milky Way has a civilization level of [SSS] 3S, the silicon-based empire also has a civilization level of 3S, the famous 'Festival Clan' has a civilization level of 1S, the Lord of the Rings civilization you previously belonged to was 2A before its destruction, the silicon-based civilization 'Bubble World,' which is friendly to the carbon-based federation, has a civilization level of 1A, the tidal civilization drifting in the nebula is 9B, the civilization about to leave its home planet and enter the starry sea is 4B, a civilization that uses chemical energy as its main energy source is 1C, a civilization that knows the three laws of thermodynamics is 3C, and a civilization in the era of basic physics understanding is 2C.]
The Supreme Commander transmitted approximately 20kb of data, representing the method for determining civilization level, to the target through an intelligent field in an instant.

E Qing carefully compared the civilization level assessment, then pondered his hometown. His hometown was a typical agricultural civilization, where resources were mainly produced through agriculture, animal husbandry, and small-scale handicrafts such as alchemy and cultivation. There was no industrialization or informatization. Everyone cultivated the "Jiang Li Human Emperor's Strength," but he had never heard of the three laws of thermodynamics... He had heard of Earth, but since the other party was asking about his own civilization, it must be Kyushu.

After spending a long time checking the criteria for determining civilization levels, Evil Qing finally gave a fitting answer.

"My hometown is a Level 2C civilization." (Note: an agricultural civilization that has moved beyond primitive times.)
The Supreme Commander's AI field displayed an inexplicable orange hue, and he was getting a little angry.

Supreme Commander: [Your civilization doesn't even know the three laws of thermodynamics?]
Evil Qing: "I've learned it, I know it, but my civilization doesn't know it."

Supreme Commander: [Don't you even know the law of conservation of energy?]

Evil Qing: "Nobody on our side... believes this." Supreme Commander: [And what's your level of exploration of matter?]

E Qing hesitated. He thought of those weapon and sword cultivators who spent their days by the furnace to refine raw materials, so he cautiously said, "It's still at the surface properties of matter, at the molecular level."

The Supreme Commander's AI field was already faintly turning red.

Supreme Commander: [So, what exactly does your civilization know?]

E Qing retorted, "Does cultivating immortality count?"

Supreme Commander: [What is that?]

E Qing said, "I'll demonstrate for you."

E Qing immediately sat cross-legged, wanting to demonstrate to the supreme commander, but when he circulated the high-dimensional energy within his body, his expression suddenly changed. He incredulously sensed the energy within his body, and then looked inward at his spiritual platform...

There is no spiritual altar.

E Qing seemed to realize something.

He looked around, then inwardly focused on the quark-level nascent soul surrounded by high-dimensional energy, and calmly said to the Supreme Commander, "I am... a copy of you, right?"

The supreme commander blushed with surprise: [How did you know?]

Jia Eqing said, "I just chatted with my nascent soul. It can't speak, it only has energy, no consciousness... and even the energy isn't spiritual power, it's the energy here, very high-level, very high energy level, but it doesn't obey my commands."

As he spoke, E Qing conjured a molecular longsword. With a swing of the longsword, a quantum sword aura burst forth. The quantum sword aura flickered in the air and happened to be in existence when it struck a distant mound. The mound was cleaved with a deep gash, which pierced directly through the 1000m×1000m×1000m space. The blue spatial barrier rippled with layers of light before finally dissipating completely.

After taking care of all this, Jia Eqing slowly sat down on the ground.

"I'm fake...I'm fake."

The Supreme Commander sensed that things were going badly... According to federal law, clones that lack self-awareness or are unaware that they are clones can be appropriately dissipated and erased. But this clone only checked its own status once and then knew that it was a clone, which was simply unbelievable to him.

After saying that, E Qing knelt down on the ground and banged his head on the ground. No matter how the Supreme Commander tried to pull him up, he couldn't get up.

"[Should we clear him out and regenerate a new one? I have the target's initial data here.]" The starship AI floated over and said quietly.

Supreme Commander: [From the moment he realized he was a clone, he became a legal free man of the Carbon-Based Federation and cannot be destroyed or recreated.]
[Tsk, well, figure it out yourself then.] The starship AI drifted away with another gloating laugh.

Jia Eqing listened to the whole thing without any reaction, not even a shred of will to live. He just knelt on the ground as if he were dead.

The supreme commander waved his hand, erasing the earth, sky, mountains, lakes, and grasses. Finally, the azure space disappeared, and E Qing appeared in the silver-white cabin.

"You are not a clone. In the name of the Supreme Commander, I now grant you citizenship of the Carbon-Based Federation. Do you accept? You can live freely among the stars, enjoy the Federation's protection, have more freedom, and be exempt from the Federation's legal responsibilities."

The supreme commander spoke these words earnestly and deliberately.

E Qing looked up, his eyes dry and lifeless: "But three questions are troubling me."

The Supreme Commander replied as if he had been prepared: "You are yourself. You come from the First Fleet of the Carbon-Based Federation. You will go and pursue the meaning of your own life."

Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?

All three key questions have been answered.

E Qing struggled to his feet. He looked at the other person with a strange expression for a while, and finally, he reached out his hand.

"Just call me Xiaoqing. I was 3 years old before, and now I am zero years and one day old."

The supreme commander did not reach out his hand, but instead opened his arms and hugged him, convinced that the most important function of those two upper limbs was to do this.

The hug lasted for ten seconds, which was a long and luxurious time.

"Can you tell me about your world? I'm very curious, how do you, a species that transmits information at a rate of 1 to 10 bits per second through the resonance of sound waves via thin membrane organs, produce individuals like you who are low-entropy and high-energy, without the inheritance of memory?"

Xiao Qing said, "That's hard to say." He looked around. "You seem to be the highest-ranking official here, you must be very busy. How much time do we have to chat?"

The Supreme Commander checked the time: "It will take more than 10 time particles to reach the first spiral arm, which, in your time unit, means at least forty years. I think I have about thirty-nine years to listen to your story... but you must give me at least one year to command the fleet."

Xiao Qing said in a low voice, "I don't have spiritual power, so I can't project my thoughts. The information I convey is transmitted at a very slow rate. Can you really tolerate this snail-paced communication for you?"

The supreme commander appeared very confident: "I have 39 years. In these 39 years, you can speak slowly, and I will listen slowly."

...

...

...

"Alright, let me start with Jiang Renhuang punching the universe and beating the river of time."

"...What the hell?"

(End of this chapter)