Chapter 401: Isis
"Civilization is merely cruelty made more orderly than barbarism, because reality itself is cruel."
Huang Ji murmured those words, while Feis sneered.
After so many years in the Illuminati, he naturally found it easy to accept an interstellar society like this.
In fact, he felt rather contemptuous of it.
Once, he had held advanced civilizations in awe and entertained all sorts of fantasies about them. But the more he learned, the more he realized alien civilizations were nothing particularly special. At least when it came to human nature, they were much the same.
They simply pursued fame and fortune with a little more finesse.
Feis folded his arms. "The hypocrisy of advanced civilizations amounts to nothing more than this. They bully the weak and profit at others' expense. Morality and order are merely fig leaves."
Huang Ji laughed. "Haha! Feis, when you point a finger at someone else in judgment, at least three fingers point back at you."
Feis stiffened. True enough. Hadn't he taken much the same path to become a Sword-Keeper?
Huang Ji said calmly, "Let's spare ourselves the lofty rhetoric, too. Acting for the benefit of oneself and one's people is a principle that has remained unchanged throughout the ages, across countless civilizations. Without order, pursuing your own interests inevitably harms someone else's. So ultimately, the Star Alliance's existence is a positive thing. It benefits both sides. Without it keeping everything as controlled and orderly as possible, the Milky Way would only be worse."
"However flawed a peaceful age might be, it still beats an age of chaos."
Feis considered this. Indeed, the Star Alliance's existence meant the powerful had to pay a price for acting with impunity.
However hypocritical that price might be, it at least maintained peace on the surface. That alone