540: Chapter 540 Images of the Past

A city full of elegant futurism, with quiet floating traffic in the air, clean streets shaded by green trees, and people dressed decently with peaceful faces.

Children play in parks, and Scholars debate in open plazas. Prosperous, quiet, and hopeful.

"This is our capital, 'Qiguang'," Ember explained calmly.

Then the scene switches. The sky is dyed an eerie purplish-red, and clouds of dark green mist drift from sewer openings.

The mist spreads rapidly, covering streets and buildings.

People start coughing violently, horrible pustules and ulcerations appear on their skin, and they fall in droves, twitching in pain and dying.

The street instantly turns into a living Hell. The footage is filled with shrill screams and crying that don't sound human.

"That group of shameless bandits first used the 'Withering Spore' virus to strike our border city, 'New Leaf'."

"They said it was an experimental accident leak. But our later intelligence confirmed it was a premeditated test and the start of their 'Purification War'."

Then a new image appears: a heavily guarded research institute suddenly exploding and experiencing crossfire from within.

Some people in Wu Qi researcher uniforms, eyes bloodshot, use weapons against their colleagues and guards.

Outside, Void soldiers in military uniforms take the opportunity to rush in, killing everyone they see, smashing equipment, and looting data.

Those "insane" researchers, after completing their internal response mission, were also mercilessly shot by Void soldiers.

"They used some kind of mind control technology or drugs to infiltrate, turn, and control some compatriots with weak wills or who were being blackmailed, creating internal chaos at key points to coordinate from within and without."

"This is a common method they use under the guise of terrorist attacks when seizing our technology."

Next is a third image, showing a place like a prisoner-of-war camp.

A large number of people in civilian or military uniforms are driven into huge factory-like buildings.

The building doors are tightly shut, and faint non-human screams and some mechanical humming come from inside.

After a while, the doors open, and what comes out are no longer living people, but "things" with hollow eyes, stiff movements, and obviously modified bodies, being led away by Void soldiers like livestock.

Chimneys on the other side of the building billow thick smoke.

"'Modification Grounds'." Ember's voice trembled slightly for the first time, though he immediately suppressed it. "They captured our compatriots for live biological modification and consciousness erasure experiments, wanting to create absolutely obedient slave soldiers or labor. Failures, or 'Materials' after the experiments, were burned directly."

"The person who filmed this footage was a warrior of ours who infiltrated behind enemy lines. He transmitted the data to us before being discovered and then perished together with the enemies who came to capture him."

The fourth segment, the fifth, the sixth...

The images hit Konks's senses and reason like a cold tide.

Void soldiers are in art galleries and museums, smashing precious sculptures and paintings with rifle butts, crudely stuffing gold and gemstone ornaments into sacks.

Large transport ships carry away tons of books, manuscripts, and data cores from libraries; the remaining ones, mostly literature, were piled in squares and burned, the fire reflecting the fanatical faces of Void officers.

Captured Wuqi Clan scientists are forced to interpret technical data under severe torture; once they had no more value or resisted even slightly, they were dragged out and shot.

Entire cities, under "Withering Spore" and various later-developed biological weapons, became silent ghost towns, with only scavengers roaming the ruins.

Void high-level officials in occupied palaces hold grand "Gratitude for high heaven's Blessing" ceremonies, displaying looted technological products as "God-given miracles".

...

Even though the protective suit's life support System was normal, Konks felt it increasingly difficult to breathe.

He felt a cold rage spreading from his bones, freezing his blood yet burning his nerves.

Massacres, human experiments, biological weapons, ethnic cleansing, cultural destruction, looting of cultural relics, technological robbery...

Every single one accurately hit the most sensitive and untouchable minefield in the heart of someone who had received an Eastern Federation modern history education and deeply understood the meaning of civilizational suffering and struggle.

In the history of the Eastern Federation, there were also darkest moments of foreign invasion, broken mountains and rivers, cultural catastrophes, and the tragic deaths of compatriots.

Although the country later rose again, that memory had fused into the nation's bones, becoming a mental "disease" of zero tolerance for similar atrocities.

And now, on another planet, in another civilization, he saw such similar, even more ruthless and systematic evil, cloaked in religious garb.

His fists clenched tight inside the protective suit, knuckles turning white.

He could almost hear his reason cracking.

The holographic image finally stopped.

Konks stood there, not speaking for a long time. He needed time to calm the emotions that were almost bursting out.

Ember waited quietly. Bai and Black Stone were also silent. They understood this impact.

Every Wuqi Clan person who sees these complete records for the first time has this reaction.

"...I understand." After a long time, Konks finally spoke slowly, his voice a bit hoarse but exceptionally firm. "I completely understand."

"Everything Void has now is built on your corpses, blood, and tears."

"Yes." Ember's voice returned to calmness, but beneath that calmness was a cold hardness like ten-thousand-year-old ice.

"Now, can you tell me," Konks took a deep breath, forcing himself to be calm and think about more practical issues, "what is the current situation of your Wuqi Clan?"

"Like you, like Bai, like everyone here—why do you all look like this?"

Ember nodded, gesturing for Konks to sit. Bai and Black Stone also found places to sit.

"The way you see us now," Ember pointed to himself, "is a complicated matter."

"But for now, you only need to know that we exist in this form because we had no choice, and also to collect on a debt."

Konks didn't press further.

He knew there must be deeper, darker things behind this, and Ember had his reasons for not saying now.

"Our people, currently scattered across various hidden strongholds on this planet, total about one million. Most of them are new members we've managed to... add over the past hundred years or so."

"They remember the same things, more or less, and carry the same burden."

Ember pointed around. "This place is just one of many strongholds. Most people have already moved to a new base."

"Because of our war with the Void authorities."

"War?" Konks's spirits lifted; this was one of the issues he cared about most.

Under such high-pressure control from Void, there was actually a war?

"Yes, war." Ember's deep red "eyes" flashed. "We hit their resource transport convoys, sabotage their remote facilities, steal their intelligence, and kill their low-level officers and madmen..."

"They've also never stopped their purges against us. The 'Stone-Cracking Cannon' is a weapon they specifically developed to deal with bodies like ours."

"Over the past few decades, we've suffered heavy losses, strongholds have been taken down one by one, and our range of activity has been continuously squeezed."

Ember paused, his tone seemingly carrying a bit of gratitude. "But about a year or so ago, the intensity and frequency of the Void Defense Force's attacks on us suddenly decreased significantly."

"The large-scale mopping-up operations are almost gone, with only routine patrols remaining."

"This gave us precious breathing room, allowing us to invest more resources into base construction, equipment updates, and personnel transfers. Our overall strength has recovered somewhat."

A year or so ago? Konks's heart stirred. That was exactly the point in time when the Company and the Eastern Federation began contact with Void!

Now it seems, ten to one, it was Rex, the Commander-in-Chief of the Interstellar Defense Force, who, after seeing the Company's military power and obtaining purchase permits for some Company weapons, shifted his main energy and resources to the construction of the Space Force.

To draw more resources to deal with the opportunities and threats brought by a more Advanced civilization, it would naturally affect the supply on this front.

A small ripple in history could actually have such a fundamental impact here.

"This war," Konks asked slowly, his eyes becoming serious, "what do you want? What is the final goal?"

Ember was silent for a moment. Only the humming of operating equipment filled the hall. Then, he answered word by word in that hoarse but firm voice.

"At first, it was to survive. Then, it was revenge. Now—"

His "gaze" looked at Konks. "We want the bandits' crimes to be known by everyone, for the usurped civilization to return, and for our history to no longer be a light sentence in Void textbooks: 'the end of the Age of Ignorance'."

"To let this land return to the correct path."

"If possible," Ember's voice carried a steel-like will, "we want to see those usurpers pay the price they deserve for their ancestors' crimes and their own."

"We want to exist honorably among the stars, not as a pile of iron-clad wreckage that has to hide in the shadows while being hunted."

Meeting Ember's "gaze" that seemed to burn with an inextinguishable fire, Konks slowly and forcefully nodded.

"I understand," he said. "Then, let's talk about some new things.""}],