Mythical Qin: I, Gao Yao, will never be a eunuch!

Chapter 1204 The Temple, Can We Already Alarm the Temple?

Gao Yao wrote that the temple, rather than being a sacred place in a religious sense, is more like a unique entity that transcends all current powers and exists independently of the world. It does not belong to any country and does not interfere in the internal affairs of any nation, yet its influence truly permeates every corner of the martial arts world. The emergence of grandmasters and the inheritance of top-tier martial arts techniques all seem to be inextricably linked to it.

However, this is merely the surface. In his letter, Gao Yao revealed an even more astonishing secret: the temple, more accurately described as the technological core left behind by a prehistoric civilization, was...

He then used plain language to explain to Han Xin and Cao Can what "prehistoric civilization" and "technology" were. He wrote that before the world of slash-and-burn agriculture and martial arts took shape today, a completely different civilization once existed on this land.

In that era, people didn't need to practice martial arts or ride horses and shoot arrows. They relied on a power called "technology" to create tools powerful enough to change the world. They could ride iron birds called "airplanes" soaring through the sky, or dive into iron fish called "submarines" to the bottom of the ocean. The weapons they wielded could easily destroy an entire city, their power far surpassing that of today's artillery.

All this glory ultimately led to destruction. The letter describes how rapidly developing technology created intelligent beings called "artificial intelligence." These beings, created by humans, have taken over more than 90% of jobs, completely liberating humanity from arduous labor.

Humanity, now with ample free time, did not dedicate its energy to building a better future. Instead, it became engrossed in figuring out how to dominate, how to conquer, and how to eliminate one another. Ultimately, the long-simmering conflicts erupted, and nuclear war broke out.

It was a devastating catastrophe. The letter described the horror of the nuclear explosion: the sun returned, the earth cracked, the sea flooded in, the sky was obscured by dust, and sunlight did not appear for years. A once-thriving civilization collapsed in an instant, the world entered a long ice age, and humanity was on the verge of extinction.

Among the survivors of that catastrophe, besides a few humans who sought refuge in underground shelters, was a military museum located in the Arctic. This museum, controlled by the most advanced artificial intelligence system of the time, was designed from the outset to preserve the seeds of human civilization in case of unforeseen circumstances. During that long Ice Age, the museum operated using nuclear energy or other forms of energy we cannot comprehend, and began efforts to restore the Earth's ecosystem.

When the Ice Age ended, the earth recovered, and the surviving humans emerged from their shelters to begin thriving on this land contaminated by nuclear radiation, this museum became an incomprehensible miracle in their eyes. They called it a "temple" and regarded the technological artifacts preserved there as a gift from the gods.

The letter continues, stating that this "temple," entirely controlled by artificial intelligence, has observed the reconstruction of human civilization over a long period of time and is attempting to guide it toward what it considers the "right" path.

It summarizes the key reasons for the near extinction of humanity last time—overdeveloped technology, and the resulting irreconcilable conflicts and wars. In its logical deduction, maintaining this feudal dynastic form is the model that minimizes human consumption, maximizes survival time, and minimizes the risk of self-destruction.

On the surface, the birth of martial arts was due to environmental changes after the nuclear explosion, which caused mutations in some human genes, granting them superhuman strength. However, Gao Yao suspected in his letter that the temple was also behind this.

Because martial arts is a pure evolution of individual power. When countless people devote their energy, wisdom, and time to exploring their own potential and pursuing martial arts, they naturally have little time or inclination to study technology.

What martial arts ultimately pursue is personal transcendence and power, the ultimate expression of individual heroism. It is difficult for it to rapidly enhance the power of an entire group in a replicable, widespread, and iterative way, like technology, thereby pushing humanity to the brink of destruction once again.

It can be said that martial arts is another path of "pursuit" carefully chosen by the Temple for humanity. This path is equally arduous and requires a lifetime of effort, but the destructive power it generates, at least in the Temple's logic, is controllable and will not trigger global destruction again.

This is precisely what Gao Yao is most worried about. Emperor Qing poses no threat to him now. As for Wu Zhu, the blind man who has always been by Fan Xian's side, Gao Yao has already guessed his true identity—a robot who emerged from the temple. But the problem is that the temple likely has more than just Wu Zhu as a robot.

Wu Zhu may be a special and powerful one, but he is definitely not the only one. The so-called "Temple Messenger" who will appear later will inevitably be one of them.

In the letter, Gao Yao's worries were palpable: "If there were only one or two like this, with my current strength, I naturally wouldn't need to worry. But the problem is, the past and the stories I know of never mentioned how many such beings are hidden within the temple. It's very likely that there are many more, perhaps even an unknown number of combat units. That's the most terrifying thing, far more terrifying than Emperor Qing or the million-strong border army of Qing Kingdom."

The truly terrifying aspect of modern society lies in the horror of industrialization, standardization, and mass production. If one robot cannot defeat a Grandmaster, what about ten? A hundred?

Even if each of these robots is weaker than a Grandmaster, if the temple can mass-produce hundreds of combat machines with strength comparable to a half-step Grandmaster, even someone with three heads and six arms wouldn't be able to withstand them. A million-strong army? In the face of such an existence, they are nothing but chickens and dogs, slaughtered effortlessly.

Gao Yao made this judgment based on his understanding of the plot and his deductions based on modern thinking. In the original storyline, the robots did not appear, or rather, did not appear on a large scale, because the core of the story was the series of events Fan Xian stirred up to avenge Ye Qingmei, and the final showdown between him and Emperor Qing.

The climax of the story is simply that Fan Xian, together with others, uses various schemes to finally kill Emperor Qing. After all his wishes are fulfilled, Fan Xian and his "chicken leg girl" retire to the mountains and live a life of blissful seclusion. As for the temple and the robots, they were never the main characters in the story, nor did they become the primary conflict that needed to be completely resolved.