The system was silent for a moment and said: [I didn't expect this situation. 】
Ji Ling: [He shouldn't have been here at all. With such a big change in the plot, that’s all you have to say? 】
The system couldn’t argue: [How about this? I'll check to see what's going on, while you deal with him first. 】
Ji Ling: […]
Ji Ling knew that the system was unreliable, and now he had to improvise on his own. He pretended to naturally draw his hand back from Carlos, and quietly put it behind his back, revealing an uneasy expression, "Uncle Carlos, this gift is too expensive for me to accept."
Ji Ting also recovered from the shock just now and said, "I appreciate your kindness on behalf of my son, but please take your gift back.”
Carlos' deep brown eyes beamed with a faint smile, and his tone was soothing, but filled undeniably with determination. He said calmly: "Today is Xiao Ling's coming of age celebration, and I am also his elder. What is sending him a mere planet?"
A mere planet? Blue Ocean Star wasn’t one of those garbage stars without a name.
Ji Ting frowned slightly, and slowly said after a moment of silence: “We’re amongst all the youngsters here. Why don't we go in and talk?"
Ji Ting couldn’t grasp his intention at all. He had no idea why Carlos would suddenly show such grand affection for Ji Ling. Did he want to bribe him? Carlos insisted on the gift, but continuing to refuse in public might spark some unnecessary rumors. That’s why he deliberately invited Carlos in to speak with him alone.
Carlos smiled and gave Ji Ling a deep look. Then he turned and went in with Ji Ting.
Ji Ling saw him leave, only to find that his vest was covered in a thin layer of sweat. Carlos’ appearance just now really caught him off guard.
Of the main characters in the book, Carlos was the one he was most alert of. Although he seemed like a perfect noble, and his every move was polite and courteous, he was actually the most ruthless of them all. He was the type that hid his cold-blooded heart behind a smile.
Emperor Sui, the male lead, was an imperial emperor. Although he was arrogant and aloof, the most he did was look in disdain. No matter what Ji Ling did, he was never moved, and didn’t even bother to fuss with him.
Although Ning Yu, the main shou, was humiliated several times by his schemes, he was a noble and independent *white lotus character. Since he was an honorable gentleman, Ji Ling was never worried that he’d take revenge. Instead, he actually felt bad for bullying him.
Villain No.2, Marshal Brandon, was a close friend and like-minded companion of Emperor Sui. He was a righteous and glorious military man. Although he despised and disdained Ji Ling, he would never scheme pettily behind his back.
Strictly speaking, Brandon wasn’t actually a villain. He just played opposite to Jing Sui in the emotional department as the devoted male rival, because he had a crush on Ning Yu. However, he never turned against Jing Sui, even after losing the war of love.
Villain No.3, Speaker of the House, Wen Yan, was an ordinary member of parliament, and would later become Ning Yu's good friend. This person was at times good and at times bad, which made him difficult to read. Although he betrayed Ning Yu in the end, it was more or less expected.
Villain No. 1, Grand Duke Carlos, was a smiling old fox on the surface. In fact, he was the only one who would use any methods in order to achieve his goals, and saw everyone as just a pawn. If you got close to him and showed a moment of carelessness, you’d die and not even know how you died. Last life, Ji Ling didn't even provoke him, and he still got manipulated, almost losing his life.
I don't know what kind of blessing I drew this time to receive such an expensive gift, but it definitely didn't happen last time.
Ji Ling was worriedly thinking about what exactly went wrong, leading to the plot deviation, when the MIA system finally came back, late.
Ji Ling said lightly: [If you came back any later, you wouldn’t have to come back at all. 】
System: [Why not? 】
Ji Ling: [Because by that time, I would’ve probably been killed off and sent to the re-spawn point already :) ]
System: […]
Ji Ling: [So did you find out what went wrong? 】
The system actually felt kind of bad: [Sorry, the cause of Carlos’ abnormality cannot be determined at this time, because the world crashed, and there was a database failure. 】
He thought for a moment and added: [It is possible that unexpected changes have taken place after the collapse of the world, resulting in a butterfly effect. However, your mission remains the same, so it doesn’t matter. As long as you complete the mission, you can go back. 】
Really? How come I think your answer is just trying to placate me? Who knows how much the plot has changed? Can I even still finish the mission?
But even the system couldn’t explain it, so there was nothing Ji Ling could do, except hope that there weren’t many changes. Fortunately, he was quite familiar with Carlos, so he wasn’t completely defenseless.
Carlos and Emperor Sui had different political views. He had always had ambitions to usurp the emperor’s throne. Since there was a purpose behind everything he did, there was no way he would specially come attend Ji Ling’s coming of age celebration. That’s why there was an 80% chance that today was for his father, Ji Ting.
The Ji family was an old aristocratic family with deep roots. They also had a quite a bit of influence with the imperial aristocrats, and were the representatives of the neutral faction. It was understandable that Carlos would want to pull the Ji family to his side. In short, it was best to let his father, Ji Ting, deal with this kind of complex machiavellian power struggle.
Focusing on completing the mission was better for him.
As long as Emperor Sui and Ning Yu achieved a happy ending, he could go home!
Ji Ling stayed in the banquet hall for a while. When he got tired of dealing with people, he made an excuse to go out and get some air.
Since he’d already gone through the mission before, Ji Ling was as familiar with this place as with his own home. The garden behind the banquet hall was very beautiful. After sneaking out, Ji Ling climbed up a tree and laid comfortably on the trunk. He looked up at the stars surrounding the empire, shining in the night sky. The nine stars gave off a beautiful multi-colored luster, just like colorful gems hanging in the sky.
Those were the nine big satellites of Empire Star, and each one was the size of a small planet. Although they looked beautiful and harmless from here, they were actually weapons of war capable of raising heaven and hell. They could withstand any attack, and were equipped to vaporize enemies to dust. These satellites were important deterrents in maintaining the safety of the capital, and keeping imperial rule.
Ji Ling looked at the sky absently. There was a long history behind the conflict between Carlos and Jing Sui. To talk about the details, we need to first start with the setting of the book.
This book had a very vast world setting. It was said that after the sixth scientific revolution, human beings officially set foot into space and began a new phase of evolution. After thousands of years of development and expansion, they had finally become the overlords of the universe. With humans at the forefront, a large national regime of intelligent life was created, commanding numerous star domains. That is the empire of today.
In the face of all kinds of intelligent life forms and powerful species in the universe, there was only one reason humans could firmly hold their current status…
That was the invention of a genetic evolution agent**.
Before the vast universe, humans couldn’t stand to remain so small. Although they could rely on external factors, their own frailty still made it difficult to survive in the universe, because they were unable to cope with a variety of harsh living environments, and vulnerable to attack by other species.
That's why mankind never gave up on the potential to develop itself.
After countless experiments and sacrifices, humans finally discovered a special substance in the universe thousands of years ago. Using this substance, a genetic evolution agent was finally synthesized that could be applied universally to more than 99.99% of human beings. This completely opened the door to human evolution.
Through continuous evolution, reproduction, and integration generation after generation, humans were no longer the same as before.
Although their outer appearance hadn’t changed much, their physical and mental strength were completely different… They were almost like a new species compared with the humans of the past on earth.
But had this high level of civilization and evolution eliminated the conflicts and inequalities between humans? No.
On the contrary, this evolution led to growing social inequality and conflict.
The first generation genetic evolution agent was difficult to produce, making it expensive. Although it was generally applicable to all human beings, the low production could only supply a small fraction of people. These human beings were strengthened by evolution, thus bringing them higher status. Moreover, children born from an intermarriage of stronger human beings would be inherently stronger as well… Eventually, a class of evolved beings was born, the system of imperial aristocracy in its infancy.
The first generation of evolved humans gradually realized the huge benefits, and began to control the manufacture and use of genetic evolution agents. They had a firm hold on leading edge science and technology, controlling the fate of mankind step by step.
The strong became stronger, and the weak weaker.
With thousands of years of development and a steady stream of cosmic resources, the evolved beings gradually brought about a new race of elites which were completely different from ordinary human beings. They became the ‘imperial aristocracy' as we know it today.
Now that nothing in the universe was a threat to the existence of the empire, nobles completely monopolized the development and use of genetic evolution agents in order to maintain their absolute dominance. If an ordinary civilian wanted to buy even the lowest level evolution agent, they’d need to pay sky-high prices. Sale of high-level evolution agents was completely prohibited to them.
Aristocrats continued to evolve and intermarry within the same class. Although it was increasingly difficult for the more evolved humans to produce offspring, they weren’t willing to intermarry with civilians, believing that this would tarnish the genes of future generations.
Discrimination and inequality, once hidden under the pretense of false fairness, gradually reared its ugly head.
In Ji Ling's opinion, the nobles living on Empire Star were like immortals living in the celestial world. If things continued to develop this way for another few thousand years, they wouldn’t be called imperial aristocrats anymore, but imperial deities!
Ji Ling felt like he could write a paper on this, and title it, "On the Birth of the Deities in the Universe".
Translator’s notes
*White lotus = pure, kind, virtuous etc
**It doesn’t explicitly say that the evolutionary agent only promoted beneficial changes, but I think we can surmise that after thousands of years of experimenting, they’ve tweaked the process to be pretty good ^^
The system was silent for a moment and said: [I didn't expect this situation. 】
Ji Ling: [He shouldn't have been here at all. With such a big change in the plot, that’s all you have to say? 】
The system couldn’t argue: [How about this? I'll check to see what's going on, while you deal with him first. 】
Ji Ling: […]
Ji Ling knew that the system was unreliable, and now he had to improvise on his own. He pretended to naturally draw his hand back from Carlos, and quietly put it behind his back, revealing an uneasy expression, "Uncle Carlos, this gift is too expensive for me to accept."
Ji Ting also recovered from the shock just now and said, "I appreciate your kindness on behalf of my son, but please take your gift back.”
Carlos' deep brown eyes beamed with a faint smile, and his tone was soothing, but filled undeniably with determination. He said calmly: "Today is Xiao Ling's coming of age celebration, and I am also his elder. What is sending him a mere planet?"
A mere planet? Blue Ocean Star wasn’t one of those garbage stars without a name.
Ji Ting frowned slightly, and slowly said after a moment of silence: “We’re amongst all the youngsters here. Why don't we go in and talk?"
Ji Ting couldn’t grasp his intention at all. He had no idea why Carlos would suddenly show such grand affection for Ji Ling. Did he want to bribe him? Carlos insisted on the gift, but continuing to refuse in public might spark some unnecessary rumors. That’s why he deliberately invited Carlos in to speak with him alone.
Carlos smiled and gave Ji Ling a deep look. Then he turned and went in with Ji Ting.
Ji Ling saw him leave, only to find that his vest was covered in a thin layer of sweat. Carlos’ appearance just now really caught him off guard.
Of the main characters in the book, Carlos was the one he was most alert of. Although he seemed like a perfect noble, and his every move was polite and courteous, he was actually the most ruthless of them all. He was the type that hid his cold-blooded heart behind a smile.
Emperor Sui, the male lead, was an imperial emperor. Although he was arrogant and aloof, the most he did was look in disdain. No matter what Ji Ling did, he was never moved, and didn’t even bother to fuss with him.
Although Ning Yu, the main shou, was humiliated several times by his schemes, he was a noble and independent *white lotus character. Since he was an honorable gentleman, Ji Ling was never worried that he’d take revenge. Instead, he actually felt bad for bullying him.
Villain No.2, Marshal Brandon, was a close friend and like-minded companion of Emperor Sui. He was a righteous and glorious military man. Although he despised and disdained Ji Ling, he would never scheme pettily behind his back.
Strictly speaking, Brandon wasn’t actually a villain. He just played opposite to Jing Sui in the emotional department as the devoted male rival, because he had a crush on Ning Yu. However, he never turned against Jing Sui, even after losing the war of love.
Villain No.3, Speaker of the House, Wen Yan, was an ordinary member of parliament, and would later become Ning Yu's good friend. This person was at times good and at times bad, which made him difficult to read. Although he betrayed Ning Yu in the end, it was more or less expected.
Villain No. 1, Grand Duke Carlos, was a smiling old fox on the surface. In fact, he was the only one who would use any methods in order to achieve his goals, and saw everyone as just a pawn. If you got close to him and showed a moment of carelessness, you’d die and not even know how you died. Last life, Ji Ling didn't even provoke him, and he still got manipulated, almost losing his life.
I don't know what kind of blessing I drew this time to receive such an expensive gift, but it definitely didn't happen last time.
Ji Ling was worriedly thinking about what exactly went wrong, leading to the plot deviation, when the MIA system finally came back, late.
Ji Ling said lightly: [If you came back any later, you wouldn’t have to come back at all. 】
System: [Why not? 】
Ji Ling: [Because by that time, I would’ve probably been killed off and sent to the re-spawn point already :) ]
System: […]
Ji Ling: [So did you find out what went wrong? 】
The system actually felt kind of bad: [Sorry, the cause of Carlos’ abnormality cannot be determined at this time, because the world crashed, and there was a database failure. 】
He thought for a moment and added: [It is possible that unexpected changes have taken place after the collapse of the world, resulting in a butterfly effect. However, your mission remains the same, so it doesn’t matter. As long as you complete the mission, you can go back. 】
Really? How come I think your answer is just trying to placate me? Who knows how much the plot has changed? Can I even still finish the mission?
But even the system couldn’t explain it, so there was nothing Ji Ling could do, except hope that there weren’t many changes. Fortunately, he was quite familiar with Carlos, so he wasn’t completely defenseless.
Carlos and Emperor Sui had different political views. He had always had ambitions to usurp the emperor’s throne. Since there was a purpose behind everything he did, there was no way he would specially come attend Ji Ling’s coming of age celebration. That’s why there was an 80% chance that today was for his father, Ji Ting.
The Ji family was an old aristocratic family with deep roots. They also had a quite a bit of influence with the imperial aristocrats, and were the representatives of the neutral faction. It was understandable that Carlos would want to pull the Ji family to his side. In short, it was best to let his father, Ji Ting, deal with this kind of complex machiavellian power struggle.
Focusing on completing the mission was better for him.
As long as Emperor Sui and Ning Yu achieved a happy ending, he could go home!
Ji Ling stayed in the banquet hall for a while. When he got tired of dealing with people, he made an excuse to go out and get some air.
Since he’d already gone through the mission before, Ji Ling was as familiar with this place as with his own home. The garden behind the banquet hall was very beautiful. After sneaking out, Ji Ling climbed up a tree and laid comfortably on the trunk. He looked up at the stars surrounding the empire, shining in the night sky. The nine stars gave off a beautiful multi-colored luster, just like colorful gems hanging in the sky.
Those were the nine big satellites of Empire Star, and each one was the size of a small planet. Although they looked beautiful and harmless from here, they were actually weapons of war capable of raising heaven and hell. They could withstand any attack, and were equipped to vaporize enemies to dust. These satellites were important deterrents in maintaining the safety of the capital, and keeping imperial rule.
Ji Ling looked at the sky absently. There was a long history behind the conflict between Carlos and Jing Sui. To talk about the details, we need to first start with the setting of the book.
This book had a very vast world setting. It was said that after the sixth scientific revolution, human beings officially set foot into space and began a new phase of evolution. After thousands of years of development and expansion, they had finally become the overlords of the universe. With humans at the forefront, a large national regime of intelligent life was created, commanding numerous star domains. That is the empire of today.
In the face of all kinds of intelligent life forms and powerful species in the universe, there was only one reason humans could firmly hold their current status…
That was the invention of a genetic evolution agent**.
Before the vast universe, humans couldn’t stand to remain so small. Although they could rely on external factors, their own frailty still made it difficult to survive in the universe, because they were unable to cope with a variety of harsh living environments, and vulnerable to attack by other species.
That's why mankind never gave up on the potential to develop itself.
After countless experiments and sacrifices, humans finally discovered a special substance in the universe thousands of years ago. Using this substance, a genetic evolution agent was finally synthesized that could be applied universally to more than 99.99% of human beings. This completely opened the door to human evolution.
Through continuous evolution, reproduction, and integration generation after generation, humans were no longer the same as before.
Although their outer appearance hadn’t changed much, their physical and mental strength were completely different… They were almost like a new species compared with the humans of the past on earth.
But had this high level of civilization and evolution eliminated the conflicts and inequalities between humans? No.
On the contrary, this evolution led to growing social inequality and conflict.
The first generation genetic evolution agent was difficult to produce, making it expensive. Although it was generally applicable to all human beings, the low production could only supply a small fraction of people. These human beings were strengthened by evolution, thus bringing them higher status. Moreover, children born from an intermarriage of stronger human beings would be inherently stronger as well… Eventually, a class of evolved beings was born, the system of imperial aristocracy in its infancy.
The first generation of evolved humans gradually realized the huge benefits, and began to control the manufacture and use of genetic evolution agents. They had a firm hold on leading edge science and technology, controlling the fate of mankind step by step.
The strong became stronger, and the weak weaker.
With thousands of years of development and a steady stream of cosmic resources, the evolved beings gradually brought about a new race of elites which were completely different from ordinary human beings. They became the ‘imperial aristocracy' as we know it today.
Now that nothing in the universe was a threat to the existence of the empire, nobles completely monopolized the development and use of genetic evolution agents in order to maintain their absolute dominance. If an ordinary civilian wanted to buy even the lowest level evolution agent, they’d need to pay sky-high prices. Sale of high-level evolution agents was completely prohibited to them.
Aristocrats continued to evolve and intermarry within the same class. Although it was increasingly difficult for the more evolved humans to produce offspring, they weren’t willing to intermarry with civilians, believing that this would tarnish the genes of future generations.
Discrimination and inequality, once hidden under the pretense of false fairness, gradually reared its ugly head.
In Ji Ling's opinion, the nobles living on Empire Star were like immortals living in the celestial world. If things continued to develop this way for another few thousand years, they wouldn’t be called imperial aristocrats anymore, but imperial deities!
Ji Ling felt like he could write a paper on this, and title it, "On the Birth of the Deities in the Universe".
Translator’s notes
*White lotus = pure, kind, virtuous etc
**It doesn’t explicitly say that the evolutionary agent only promoted beneficial changes, but I think we can surmise that after thousands of years of experimenting, they’ve tweaked the process to be pretty good ^^
