631 Two Choices
Deputy Dean Redmond, Deputy Island Lord Fasci, and Defender Whitejail’s expressions changed slightly when they heard that.
“He really lost control,” sighed Defender Whitejail.
“Redmond, Wu Ming is from your Primordial Research Institute,” Deputy Island Lord Fasci said softly. “You handle it.”
Redmond nodded slightly and looked at Xu Jingming. “Junior Brother, haven’t you realized that you have lost control?”
“May I ask how I’ve lost control?” Xu Jingming looked at the three of them.
“You should know very well how much you’ve done in the past six years,” Deputy Dean Redmond said. “I’ll name a few. One, the Ningway case!”
“Am I in the wrong for the Ningway case?” Xu Jingming asked.
“Prince Yuxu, the seventh prince of the Juchen royal family, fulfilled his end of his punishment in a lost bet and slaughtered the native civilizations on a private planet under his command,” Redmond said. “The massacre of the natives on a private planet was completed by Prince Yuxu’s personal guards disguised as space pirates.”
“Haha…” Xu Jingming laughed. “The destruction of a native civilization is actually a punishment for losing a bet. Don’t the three of you find it ridiculous? The most ridiculous thing is that the seventh prince of a medium-sized cosmic civilization royal family didn’t think of eradicating any latent problems after deciding to slaughter a native civilization?”
“He owned this private planet for many years, and cosmic lifeforms have been produced by the natives over the years. These cosmic lifeforms left the planet and served the seventh prince, but what did he do? He casually massacred the private planet after losing a bet, but he never expected that many of the people the cosmic lifeforms cared about lived on that private planet.”
“Therefore, these people became rebels.” Xu Jingming sighed with emotion. “This prince probably doesn’t think much of these trivial figures. Therefore, he didn’t consider dealing with the cosmic lifeforms before massacring the natives. It was only when he suffered later before he realized his problem and began capturing the cosmic lifeforms.”
“He still didn’t want to kill them and instead made these cosmic lifeforms slaves,” Xu Jingming said. “As for Ningway, he’s a cosmic lifeform whose entire family was killed, and his civilization was wiped out. He was captured and made a slave.”
“He spent the rest of his life seeking revenge,” Xu Jingming said. “Is it wrong for me to help him seek revenge?”
Redmond remarked, “You killed Prince Yuxu, the merchant who gambled with him, and all the praetorian cosmic lifeforms in that operation.”
“Yes.” Xu Jingming nodded. “739 people; none were spared.”
“Prince Yuxu deserves death,” Redmond said. “The merchant who gambled with him only wanted him to kill a certain number of people; he didn’t insist on massacring the innocent civilization. This merchant shouldn’t be executed according to the law.”
“Getting the other party to kill a billion people just because of a lost bet? Is there any reason to keep such a merchant alive?” Xu Jingming scoffed.
“Prince Yuxu had a violent personality, and the praetorians have strict military rules. With his order, the praetorians had to carry out the military order. Those who violate the military order would’ve been executed by the law enforcement team,” Redmond said. “Therefore, the praetorians were carrying out the military order. They didn’t dare disobey. They were carrying out the military order and shouldn’t be executed.”
“Since they know Prince Yuxu’s personality, why didn’t they leave the praetorian earlier? To be willing to be a lackey; there is no pity for their deaths,” Xu Jingming said coldly.
Redmond nodded slightly. “Let me ask you about the second case—the Kurao case.”
Xu Jingming recalled one of the people who he had possessed to experience their pain in the past six years—Kurao.
“Kurao was betrayed by his good friend, Florentina, and more than 1,000 people in his entire clan died. His hair turned white overnight, and he swore revenge,” Xu Jingming said softly. “Kurao made a comeback and eventually took over Qing Nation, but Kurao fled to the opposing Xun Nation.”
“After more than ten years of battle, Kurao finally defeated the Xun Nation. Just as he was about to capture his enemy, Florentina, a spaceship out for adventure discovered this planet.”
“This planet was bought by a large family, and Florentina was good at dealing with people. She quickly cozied up to someone important and soared to prominence.” Xu Jingming shook his head. “Kurao was tortured by Florentina, who found killing him beneath her. Instead, she tortured him every day. He was in hell, but there didn’t seem to be an end to that.”
“Coincidentally, I passed by this habitable planet and observed the emotions of all life on it. I discovered the intense pain in him,” Xu Jingming said with a smile. “I fulfilled his wish.”
“You killed 1,132 people in the Kurao case,” Redmond stated. “Some of them deserve death, but most of them don’t. After all, before the spaceship discovered that planet, it’s hard to tell what’s right and wrong in the battle between nations. After integrating into a cosmic civilization, everything was written off. You shouldn’t have killed them because of the grudges between natives.”
“Written off once they are integrated into the cosmic civilization?”
Xu Jingming shook his head. “So more than a thousand people in Kurao’s entire family died in vain? More than 100,000 innocent people were harmed by Florentina, and they died for nothing?”
“The native era is at a different stage from the cosmic civilization era,” Redmond said. “It’s impossible to piece together the conflicts between the native nations. The Cosmic Human Alliance’s laws don’t trace the grudges to the native era.”
“The law doesn’t trace back, but Kurao won’t forget the blood feud,” Xu Jingming said. “Therefore, I helped him take revenge.”
“Junior Brother, have you noticed?”
Redmond gazed at Xu Jingming. “You no longer have any reverence for the law! You do things according to your understanding and kill anyone you want. In the past six years, you’ve done it 701 times. No matter how noble their status is, you didn’t show any mercy.”
“You killed those that only needed a century’s imprisonment according to the law.”
“Some lackeys were forced to take orders. The law states that a slight punishment is sufficient, yet you do not cease killing them.”
“According to the law, grudges between natives are not to be pursued. Yet, you killed them all the same.”
Redmond looked at Xu Jingming. “You ignore the law and everyone’s identity. You follow your heart and kill as you wish. Junior Brother… What does the law mean to you?”
“You violate the law time and time again! You’re breaking the law and committing a crime!” Redmond stared at Xu Jingming.
“I understand.” Xu Jingming nodded.
“You said that you are very lucid,” Deputy Dean Redmond said. “You are lucid, yet you still break the law. Aren’t you losing control?”
“Senior Brother,” Xu Jingming said softly, “what’s the law for?”
“The law is for better order in the Cosmic Human Alliance, allowing people’s actions to be more in line with the common understanding of goodness,” Xu Jingming said. “Repaying kindness with kindness and taking revenge with hatred is in line with people’s basic understanding. It’s not about rigidly adhering to the law! The law is dead, but humans are alive. If humans do not know how to be flexible, humans will only be akin to machines.”
“The law is dead, but people are alive.” Redmond nodded. “Yes, that’s why the law has many supplementary clauses. The law can be slowly improved, but… it’s not a reason for you to violate the law.”
“Senior Brother, go ahead and punish me according to the law then.” Xu Jingming remarked, “According to the law, I have sufficient authority. These crimes I committed only deserve credit deduction, right?”
“For the cases, deducting 100 million credits from you would do.” Redmond nodded. “But the cases of you killing those people aren’t important. The three of us came because of something more important—you lost control.”
“I lost control?” Xu Jingming looked at them. “How?”
Defender Whitejail said, “Wu Ming, you’ve broken the law time and time again! You still think that you’re sober and that you’re right. You think that breaking the law isn’t wrong… If this isn’t losing control, what is?”
“Would you have violated the law like this before your high-dimensional corruption?” Deputy Island Lord Fasci asked.
Xu Jingming was stunned.
Before the high-dimensional corruption… He had never thought of violating the law.
Since when did he begin ignoring the law?
“Have you noticed? You’ve long ignored the law and do whatever you want. You still think that you’re sober and that you’re right,” Redmond said. “Yes, your explanation makes sense. The law has certain flaws, but to govern a total of 34 cosmic sectors and a massive number of cosmic human civilizations, our laws have always been a work in progress.”
“This is a law agreed upon by the three Paramounts and discussed and confirmed by generations of outstanding figures. Everyone agreed that this is a law that shall govern the entire human race.”
“You think you’re right and that the law is wrong. Who do you think you are? You’re smarter than all the human ancestors in history, including the three Paramounts?” Redmond said. “Today, you, Xu Jingming, may believe that the law is wrong. Tomorrow, another person will believe that the law is wrong. If everyone doesn’t abide by the law, how is the Cosmic Human Alliance to be managed?”
“This is a relatively well-defined law that balances all aspects,” Redmond said. “Ignoring you, an Origin lifeform, even the three Paramounts—who can clearly forcefully implement laws—don’t believe that what they come up with are necessarily perfect. Therefore, they only affirmed the laws after discussing it with many outstanding people of the Cosmic Human Alliance. Moreover, we are still perfecting it over the generations through the virtual world’s monitoring.”
Xu Jingming fell silent.
“Although you killed Lunardo after being corrupted by high-dimensional space, you still respected the law back then. You still knew to submit evidence before sentencing him to death.”
“What about now? You don’t care about the evidence anymore. You took action just by observing some of the so-called truths,” Redmond said. “Are the truths in a person’s memory facts?”
“Since when did you kill as you please?” Redmond looked at Xu Jingming.
Xu Jingming kept silent.
The three of them looked at him and didn’t say anything else.
After a long time…
“This is high-dimensional corruption,” Xu Jingming murmured. “Unknowingly, even though I think that I’m very clear-headed, my understanding of the world, the law, and everything is constantly distorted.”
“What I did before I was corrupted was naturally within the legal framework. After I was corrupted, I would occasionally exploit loopholes in the law to leave others helpless against me.”
“And now, I’ve completely ignored the law and raised myself above the law. Moreover, I believe that I’m right.”
Xu Jingming looked back. “My behavior and the way I handle things have been changing. If this continues, I don’t know what will happen to me.”
Redmond and the others heaved a sigh of relief when they heard that.
“There’s still hope,” Fasci said with a smile.
“He finally knows his problem,” Whitejail said.
Redmond nodded and said, “Junior Brother, we’ll give you two choices now. One, we’ll punish you with the deduction of 100 million credits. You have to realize your mistake and not commit it again. Two, if you still can’t control yourself and kill as you wish, we can only imprison you!”
“Choose one of the two paths,” Redmond said.
“Choose one?”
Xu Jingming lowered his head and said softly, “I’m in endless misery and suffer day and night. If you don’t let me wreak havoc, I’ll definitely go crazy.”
“You want me to control myself? I can’t control myself anymore!” Xu Jingming looked up at the three people in front of him. “I choose to be imprisoned!”