"Just..." The Speaker of the Parliament was sweating coldly, "Sir, we can't do anything. Killing them will only attract more opposition. We should first consider this proposal in the long run..."
"There's no time anymore." Ling Ling shook her head and said.
After learning the truth about the natural disaster from Su Yiyao, Ling Ling realized that the suspended tower would eventually fall.
And, this day may not be far away.
Because the previous civilization and these natural disasters all came from another world, and now that other world is undergoing drastic changes, no one knows when this barely maintained balance will collapse.
“Besides, I didn’t say I wanted to kill people,” Ling Ling said, “Sixteen days and nights ago, I killed 527 people who were wrongly in power, but a few years later, I found that I needed to kill 3,221 more people, nearly half of whom were their descendants.
"These people replaced the previous rulers, implemented even more wrong decisions, and led more people into a darker abyss. So after that, I knew that simply killing people would not solve the problem."
"So, you are planning to..." the Speaker of the Parliament asked doubtfully.
Of course he knew what the wise man said. It was clearly written in the history books. Later, most of these more than 3,000 people got the punishment they deserved under the trial of the law, and a small number of them launched a rebellion but were later put down.
"Give me the list, and I'll ask the secretary general to handle it." Ling Ling said lightly, "I don't have the patience to wait any longer. If I really need to kill someone, I will not show mercy."
Having been a sage for thirty days and nights, Ling Ling is not just a gentle person. What she faces are not only natural disasters and calamities, but also human hearts.
The Speaker of the Parliament hesitated for a moment, but his eyes soon became firm, and he said in a deep voice,
"Sage, do you think this is okay? I will personally introduce this bill at tomorrow's weekly meeting. If there are any obstacles... I will do my best to resolve it and will not let you and the Secretary General worry."
Between the Federal Parliament and the Sage, the Speaker of the Parliament chose the Sage without hesitation. Even though she had been separated from power for three days and nights, she was still very clear that the High Tower Society, the Abandoned Tower Society, and the various federal forces behind them could never be a match for the Sage.
The Federal Parliament has never been a whole, but rather an arena where major forces compete with each other, from which solutions are drawn that are barely acceptable to all parties.
As the Speaker of Parliament, he is well aware of the importance of taking sides at this time.
More importantly... if the Secretary-General were to intervene personally, it would probably trigger another level of unrest.
Therefore, the Speaker of the Parliament used this method to tactfully reject the Sage's proposal.
But Lingling didn't care. The Secretary-General was just her clone. The process was not important. What she needed was the result.
"Well, I'll leave it to you."
Lingling said lightly, then slowly stood up and walked out the door.
Behind her, the Council Speaker had a worried look on his face.
The introduction of this bill is likely to offend countless people...
More importantly, as Speaker of the Parliament, the bills he proposed only required one-third of the votes to pass.
You know, the Sage's previous proposal required two-thirds of the votes to be passed, and it was almost rejected, not to mention that it only required one-third... Even if it was only one-half, it would be enough to pass.
In other words... the passage of this bill will be very smooth.
"Hopefully... nothing will go wrong."
... ... .
After noon.
Su Yiyao was busy in the kitchen, tinkering with something.
Luo Xue was still making careful preparations before entering the ruins of the previous civilization. A fallen immortal boat lost in a foreign land was very dangerous. Even Ling Ling was afraid to go deep into it and only made a simple exploration of the periphery.
If Luo Xue had not entered other immortal boats before, she would not have been sure of stepping in again.
Just then, there was a gentle knock on the door and Lingling walked in.
"Are you still preparing?" Ling Ling asked softly.
"You're back so soon?" Luo Xue sat up and said in surprise.
"It's just some trivial matters that can't be dealt with easily." Ling Ling said, and then she saw that Luo Xue was alone, and asked curiously, "Where's Xiao Yao?"
"She seems to be in the kitchen?"
Luo Xue looked back and saw a petite figure busy wandering back and forth in the kitchen.
"It seems like it's really time for dinner." Ling Ling walked over and sat next to Luo Xue.
Luo Xue looked at the time and it seemed to be about time, but she was not hungry at all.
To be honest, after condensing her spiritual orifice and entering the Soul Condensation Realm, she had already started fasting and no longer had any concept of three meals a day.
However, a dinner party is a rare occasion when one can relax and have a conversation. Besides, it was Xiaoyao who was cooking, so Luo Xue thought about it and put away the tools for deduction in her hand.
"What's this?"
Ling Ling looked at the pebbles in Luo Xue's hand and asked curiously.
"I reconstructed the map of the immortal boat in my mind, and this is used to store the map." Luo Xue said with a little embarrassment, "But the more troublesome thing is that there is no jade slip here... I can only use this stone as a substitute."
The so-called jade slip is actually just a stone with strong adaptability to spiritual power. It is made into the shape of a jade slip just to make it easier to preserve.
Even a stone picked up from the ground can achieve the same effect as a jade slip, except that it cannot store as much information as a jade slip.
The Xianzhou map is not complicated. To be precise, the map that Luo Xue remembered is not complicated. This one pebble is enough.
After saving the map to the cobblestone, you can just use your spiritual power to sense it when needed without having to spend too much time trying to deduce it in your mind.
"Amazing magic skills, but unfortunately I can't learn them." Ling Ling sighed. Although she has cultivation, this can only support her to use her supernatural powers...
At the innate realm, it is almost impossible to use most of the immortal techniques, and even the simplest escape technique cannot be learned.
Perhaps, this is what it means to have gains and losses.
"Once I have recorded all the formations and traps that need to be paid attention to, we can set off." Luo Xue said, "The immortal boat I entered before was dead, but this one... is different."
All the fallen immortal boats in Guixu are dead, and all the formations that Luo Xue saw when she entered were almost all paralyzed and destroyed, but the immortal boats left in this world are different.
The former civilization was not confirmed to be extinct until the very end. They simply left behind a suspended tower and headed into deep space.
Therefore, on this trip to the ruins of the previous civilization, Luo Xue and others may very likely be facing an intact immortal boat.
"Um."
Lingling nodded seriously.
At this time Su Yiyao controlled her spiritual energy and brought out all the prepared meals. As soon as she came out of the kitchen, she saw Luo Xue and Ling Ling huddled together chattering about something, so she deliberately made her footsteps louder.
Luo Xue heard the noise and quickly got up and came over to take the dishes.
"Are you done? It's really delicious. Thank you for your hard work, Xiaoyao."
“It’s not hard.”
Although Xiaoyao said this, her little head was slightly raised, and there seemed to be a hint of pride in her cold expression.
She glanced at Lingling beside her out of the corner of her eye. Lingling seemed to notice something, raised her head and smiled at her, with an invisible meaning in her smile.
"Come, A-Ling, try Xiaoyao's cooking."
After Luo Xue brought the food to the table, she greeted Ling Ling while picking up the dishes and chopsticks.
All the food looked quite good, whether it was spirit beast meat or clear soup, they all looked well presented, with good color, aroma and taste.
But Lingling had a strange expression on her face, with some hesitation on her face.
When she wanted to say something, Luo Xue had already started picking up her chopsticks.
Out of trust in Su Yiyao, and the fact that the spirit beast meat she had eaten in the morning seemed to have no problem except that it had no taste, she picked up a large piece with chopsticks and put it directly into her mouth.
But at the moment of entrance, Luo Xue's face changed instantly.
Blue and purple...
"How about it?"
Su Yiyao asked with a slightly expectant look on her face. For her, who was always cold and icy, this was already quite an expectation and her eyes were almost shining.
“Not bad…”
Luo Xue half choked and used her spiritual power to melt these things that she was not sure whether they should be called food.
Chapter 269: The Master of the Immortal Boat
A few days later, the Supreme Council passed a bill without any warning to enforce the ground tower plan.
This move caused a huge sensation in all the suspended towers. Protest marches led by the Tower Club and the Tower Abolition Club took place one after another, and there were also several riots attempting to directly attack the Supreme Council.
However, all these were suppressed directly by the Speaker of the Parliament using the city guards. This was the first time that the Speaker of the Parliament, who was always known for his moderation, showed such a tough stance.
From the beginning to the end, the sage never showed up. Even the bill was expounded in the parliament by the Speaker alone, who emphasized that it was his own will and not instructed by others.
But any discerning person could see that without the approval of the wise, the Speaker of the Parliament would never dare to make such a move, because the reason why he could sit in this position was because he understood checks and balances and the doctrine of the mean.
This matter is still fermenting, but at the same time, Ling Ling has left the suspended tower with Luo Xue and Su Yiyao and returned to the ground.
But they did not go to the ruins of the previous civilization immediately, but came to a place first.
"This is... "
Luo Xue stood in front of a group of dilapidated tents and suddenly felt a little dazed.
Clearly thirty days and nights had passed, as long as three thousand years ago, yet this gathering place for barbarians that carried her memories of more than ten years was almost the same as it was in the past.
Its dilapidated appearance looked like it had only been destroyed for a hundred or two hundred years at most, not like it had been there for three thousand years.
"I have placed a time-delaying ability here. Of course... it can only work on items, which can extend their shelf life." Ling Ling said softly, "Unfortunately... three thousand years is still too long."
Luo Xue didn't say anything. She walked past the burnt tents, the rusty cauldrons, the cellar with dried blood, and finally sat in front of a small mound of earth as usual.
These were the companions of Luo Xue and Ling Ling who died in the natural disaster. The uncles and aunts who set out to find another safe gathering place that year had long since turned into a handful of earth and were buried somewhere unknown.
Her memory of just a few years is such a long time of change...
Ling Ling and Su Yiyao both held their breath and did not disturb Luo Xue.
They all knew about Luo Xue's situation, and they were also very clear that the sister who had once taken care of them still looked the same as she did back then.
They have all grown up, but she hasn't. She is still that young girl, who has not completely shed her childishness.
"Let's go." After an unknown amount of time, Luo Xue stood up, turned around and looked at the two of them, her eyes calm and indifferent, "It's time to set off."
Ling Ling and Su Yiyao nodded silently. They looked at each other secretly and rarely reached the same idea.
—Let’s take a temporary truce and stop tormenting Luo Xue.
The meal that Su Yiyao had cooked with all her might almost caused Luo Xue to suffer internal injuries. If she wasn't already a cultivator, any ordinary person would have died from the poison if they had eaten it.
But for Luo Xue, it wasn't a question of whether it was poisonous or not... it was just that the taste was not right.
To be more precise,... Su Yiyao used Ling Ling's research potion as a seasoning, and what she made was comparable to an experimental reagent. The various complex flavors could kill anyone's taste buds.
Mainly because Luo Xue didn't want to embarrass Su Yiyao, she still gritted her teeth and finished it.
Ling Ling didn't eat it because she could smell that the ingredients in the food were her medicine...
Su Yiyao was so confused that she didn't know anything at first. It was not until she was excitedly planning to prepare dinner that Ling Ling quickly pulled her aside and told her everything.
As for Ling Ling... She really looks like a good wife and mother on weekdays. She mainly torments Luo Xue at night, so she disappears as soon as Luo Xue has a rest time.
Of course, nothing really happened. At most, Luo Xue woke up and found herself buried in Ling Ling's arms...
Compared with thirty days and nights ago, the natural disasters on the ground do not seem to have weakened much. In addition to the scorching heat of up to 50 or 60 degrees during the eternal daytime, sandstorms, earthquakes and other disasters occur from time to time, and mutated wild beasts also launch indiscriminate attacks from time to time.
But these are nothing to the people today.
After personally stepping into the natural disaster, Luo Xue deeply felt the terrifying spiritual power contained in these natural disasters. Any natural disaster is at least equivalent to the attack of a powerful Yuanying level, not to mention the ubiquitous eternal day disaster.
The closer they got to the ruins of the previous civilization, the more frequent the natural disasters became. In such a violent spiritual environment, even Su Yiyao was unable to use her magical powers, and the few of them could only walk there.
I don’t know how long I walked, but it seemed that after crossing a certain boundary, everything became clear.
The scorching heat of the eternal day was isolated, and the surrounding air instantly became much fresher, without the unpleasant smell brought by the spiritual disaster.
However, the surrounding environment seemed to be shrouded in endless white light.
"We are almost at the ruins of the ancient civilization." Ling Ling's expression became more serious. "There is an illusion set up nearby. You need to take a specific route to enter. You should follow me first..."
"No need."
Luo Xue interrupted softly. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, the nodes of the formation around her began to collapse. Large areas of blank space fell silently from the sky, revealing the true appearance of the barrier.
Ling Ling looked at all this in astonishment. It took her decades to finally break through this illusion, but Luo Xue only needed a few breaths to make the illusion completely collapse.
Seeing Ling Ling so surprised, Su Yiyao explained, "The nodes of the formation here are already very fragile. Ah Chou can easily find the weak points of the formation and break it with one strike.
"If it is a complete formation, it will probably take several hours."