Soul of Searing Steel

Minutes and seconds passed by. Eventually, the exchange of knowledge ended.

In the process, both the Knowers and Mycroft gained brand new understanding of each other. Having once shared the perspective of the Great Khan and most other Multiverse civilizations, Joshua and the others imagined the Knowers to be a hostile race that used any means necessary, even destroying other civilizations, just to gather knowledge from others. It had been precisely why their race was known as a civilization of calamities, and so, the Mycroft civilization communicated with them under the assumption that they were hostile.

However, veracity notwithstanding, Joshua and the others then knew of another explanation after the exchange. The Knowers were certainly on the search for every form of civilization interaction and knowledge with no lack of coercion, yet they did not attack unless they were first attacked. With how the Combined Fleet had stood off against them, without either of them making a move, there had never been any conflict.

Moreover, as compared to peaceful and stable civilizations, the Knowers prioritized searching for conflict that was about to destroy themselves or erupt into terrible conflict and cause loss of knowledge. To take Earth as an example—if the eras of Great Unity and the Cold War were not too far from each other, the Knowers would have established contact with Earth in the age of Cold War for knowledge exchange. From there on, it would not have mattered to the Knowers even if the Earthlings were to destroy themselves in nuclear winter or compromised in their path to peace.

With that being said, things would appear different to outsiders, as they only saw a great chance for a civilization to fall soon after the Knowers established contact with them—how could any outsider know if it was self-harm? That was how the Knowers’ reputation only ever became terrible as a long time passed, even becoming one of the Calamity races.

Naturally, the Knowers were a special exception amongst the Calamity civilizations since most species were radically xenophobic, with their cornerstones being destruction or devouring of any foreign kind. In fact, no matter how infamous the Knowers had been, they were merely considered horrifying bandits who roamed the Multiverse. It was certainly like how the Great Khan had put it—if your nation had no colonials protected by an armada, how could building a Void installation be establishing territories? And how am I being an eyesore for leading my subjects to an unowned land for feeding?

The Multiverse and the galaxies were too vast as much as it was narrow. There was neither right nor wrong in such matters since the Great Khan was right from a certain perspective—at the very least, the eight-legged fungi would not have their Void Behemoths feed on worlds with intelligent life.

For the Knowers, they had discovered a remarkably rare and genuine Extraordinary civilization. Most Multiverse civilizations boasted Extraordinary individuals who would in turn become the ruling class, with a large number of them choosing to seal cultivation materials in order to maintain their status. For them, the power of the supernatural was the highest authority surpassing martial force, political authority, and doctrinal interpretations. Such a thing would also have prompted civilizations yet to reach the level of creating biological modifications to emphasize on bloodline and innateness, easily forming hierarchies or even racial divides—the stronger the powerful were, the weaker the inferior would be.

Every single civilization with the luck to gain Extraordinary powers would have inevitably fallen into that predicament, finally reaching a permanent age of ignorance, for all those Extraordinary champions ruled over would have only been medieval peasants. Even if it was safe and blissful, there was not even one out of a hundred thousand that could have escaped that stalemate.

Knowledgeable aristocracies could have enjoyed the pleasures of being an elite civilization despite the lack of technological development with Extraordinary abilities, while those at the lower reaches who hoped for development could hardly have done anything even with the knowledge. They would have been assimilated by their own Extraordinary powers even if they achieved ascension, causing stagnation in technological progress. The monotonous nature and slow development of supernatural powers meant that Extraordinary civilizations that had nothing going for them, save for stability, were pseudo-Extraordinary civilizations. In fact, only the top 1% elite counted as citizens in those nations, with the other 99% being peasants, livestock, or tools at the disposal of rulers.

Joshua had considered a similar question before. In truth, such scenarios played out in both the Glorious Era and Starfall Era, but one being guided by the Sage and the other discreetly by the Seven Gods allowed both civilizations to quickly abandon that erroneous boundary. Moreover, the strong advantage of the Great Mana Tide delivered a genuine Extraordinary civilization for every citizen. Perhaps the convenience of widespread Extraordinary ability slowed such civilizations in terms of sheer technology, but their elite champions outnumbered that of typical civilizations.

“Well, I hereby announce the conclusion of this exchange.”

It had been a rather long week, but in that process Mycroft and the Knowers had very much provided each other with precious archives several times over, especially when it came to Holy Light practices—the swift departure of the Sage before spreading his legacy over the Multiverse left few Holy Light legacies in the present day, and most were those with inherent awakened Holy Light talents such as treating wounds or purifying water sources. Such talents could also not be taught to others, and only the people of Mycroft held a complete set of cultivation processes in that respect.

To the entire Multiverse, it was an extremely valuable data, even to the Mycroft population, it seemed as if a couch which they always sat on was a rareness more precious than gold in another world… which devotee would not have known a Holy Light incantation or two? Any with kindness of heart could awaken that power after all. What, did other worlds actually not have the Holy Light? What a pity…

Now, both sides were arranging their gains, with Joshua and the others appearing pleased. They now had the most complete of star charts, the concepts of various unique warships, along with the mysterious ideas and training data from various civilizations and their Extraordinary powers. Each held great reference value for the Mycroft civilization, and they would have quickly developed and improved with those data, avoiding many detours.

The Knowers were certainly more relaxed, even excessively thrilled—they now had information of the Wise One of the Light along with the message left by the Wise One of the Arcane. It was very much their greatest finding in 770,000 years, with the Evil God and Chaos information that the people of Mycroft encountered along with the possibility of Fertility and Death’s existences coming second.

Without reluctance in parting or extended idle conversation, their ships were preparing for undocking since they had decided to part ways. Both sides had also promised to informed the other should they come to obtain additional information about the Evil Gods and the Wise Ones. Nevertheless, before formally going their separate ways, Joshua pressed on the comms button one last time as the overseer of the exchange.

“There is a question I want to ask,” the warrior said interestedly into the instrument that converted his voice into magical ripples. “It has nothing to do with civilization and it is not vital information—it a personal question of mine.”

“Please ask,” the Knowers spoke calmly from the other side. Their entire civilization had benefited considerably from the exchange. To reply to Joshua, who was one of the Sage’s Heirs, was not a difficult or bad thing, not to mention that it would have strengthened their trust in each other.

Joshua thus asked directly, “I want to know how you handle dissenting voices in civilization.” In response, the other seven Legends who had instinctively turned away to avoid overhearing confidential questions, all looked up at once and stared at the warrior in shock.

The voices of dissent in civilization… what does Joshua want? Did he finally intend to eradicate dissonance and establish a dictatorship?

Naturally, the thoughts disappeared in a flash. Everyone knew what sort of person Joshua was—he was one who would have especially fought against dictators instead of being one. Indeed, as compared to ruling the world, the warrior would rather a champion unified a whole world, after which he would have challenged them.

None would have been puzzled if it were Israel asking that question, since it was not out of place for one who was Emperor and the God of Might and Justice. Still, it was especially intriguing exactly because it was Joshua who was asking.

On the other hand, the Knowers did not know Joshua too well. “That question is too general, what form of dissent does your so-called ‘dissenting voices’ refer to?” they simply asked calmly in return. “What conflict exists between both factions? What is your purpose of ridding them? We cannot answer your question without those conditions established.”