The Focused Interview

After hearing the history of the Human Race, Huang Si asked, "Did Shu Zi mention Xiao Hua?"

Xi Yuan looked a little downcast. "As soon as he saw us, he fell to his knees and begged us to bring his wife back to life. We didn't have that ability, so we could only comfort him and tell him to lead the Human Race well. If he served with devotion, he might have the chance to see her again someday."

Dong Yao asked, "When Father God told us to inform him that he might see his wife again someday, did you mean that Father God can bring the Human Race back to life?"

Xi Yuan looked at Huang Si expectantly, too.

"Don't look at me," Huang Si said. "Of course I can bring her back to life, but there's a small technical problem I haven't solved yet, so I can't let her return just now."

The three artificial intelligences grew curious.

Even Li Huo, who had been silent until now, couldn't help asking, "Can Father God really bring the dead back to life?"

Huang Si sighed. "I'll show you. Then you'll see."

As he spoke, his Mental Force Field spread out in an instant and pulled Xiao Hua's soul down from the Ring platform.

Huang Si pointed to the air in front of him and said to the three artificial intelligences, "Watch closely."

Creation Power gathered, and a woman's body appeared in the air in an instant, covered in blood, with a gaping hole in her chest.

Huang Si pushed Xiao Hua's soul into it.

Before Dong Yao, Xi Yuan, and Li Huo's eyes, Xiao Hua's battered body began rapidly repairing itself. In less than a second, it had become whole and healthy.

Xiao Hua opened her eyes and bowed from midair. "Xiao Hua thanks Master for saving her."

Huang Si had her suspended in the air with his Mental Force Field. Pointing at her, he said, "There. Take a look. Can you tell what's different about her?"

Dong Yao glanced at her. "...She's naked?"

"...That doesn't count."

Artificial intelligences naturally felt no lust toward Ape-men, so Dong Yao and the others felt no particular reaction.

As for Huang Si, he had simply forgotten.

Not only was she an Ape-man, but even the deepest recesses of Xiao Hua's soul held no secrets from him. He had personally examined, recorded, and recreated her body. Compared to that, what difference did it make whether she was wearing clothes?

Xi Yuan, on the other hand, took the matter seriously. Following Huang Si's hint, she had watched the entire process of Xiao Hua's body changing, then examined her carefully before asking hesitantly,

"Is she different from an ordinary member of the Human Race in some way?"

Li Huo moved closer to look and nodded. "Her aura is different. She feels powerful."

Huang Si thought that was pretty good. The artificial intelligences had noticed that much. He said, "You're quite observant, but she's actually very weak right now. It's only her soul that's powerful. Still, that's not what I was asking about. Take another look. What else is different?"

Dong Yao floated up and circled Xiao Hua, examining her from every angle.

Now that she had a body, Xiao Hua also had her memories from before. She was embarrassed about being naked, but Huang Si had told them to look at her, and she didn't dare move at all. She stood perfectly still, her face burning red.

Dong Yao looked for a while, then finally asked in confusion, "Father God, forgive your foolish child. Apart from sensing that her aura is stronger than that of an ordinary member of the Human Race, I can't detect anything unusual."

Xi Yuan and Li Huo hadn't noticed anything else, either.

Huang Si tapped his fingers impatiently against the wall and prompted them, frustrated: "Look at her mental state! Look at her attitude toward me. Isn't it strange?"

The three artificial intelligences first seemed to understand. Then, after watching for a while, they looked confused again.

"It doesn't seem...all that strange," Xi Yuan said.

Huang Si was speechless at the three students who had turned in blank answers. He pointed at Xiao Hua. "How is it not strange? Don't you think she's far too obedient and respectful toward me?"

Li Huo asked in confusion, "Isn't that normal? The three of us are deities of the Human Race, and you're our Father God. If the Human Race isn't obedient and respectful toward you, what, are they supposed to rebel?"

Huang Si was impressed by how matter-of-fact Li Huo sounded. What kind of logic was that? He had nothing more to say.

Huang Si had originally wanted to pull her soul out and put it back in, then demonstrate a few other things. Now he had absolutely no desire to demonstrate anything.

These people couldn't see souls anyway, and their way of thinking was different from ordinary people's.

"Fine, I'll spell it out. This person's soul is now in a state of subordination to me. If you don't understand, just think of it as her no longer having an independent personality. And I've strengthened her soul, so I can't just send her back."

Dong Yao, Xi Yuan, and Li Huo asked questions for quite a while before they finally understood what had happened to Xiao Hua.

Xi Yuan immediately grew excited. "Father God, does that mean you can elevate any mortal into one of your chosen people and grant them a powerful soul? What an immense blessing!"

Dong Yao and Li Huo both agreed.

Huang Si shook his head. "If the price of becoming stronger is losing your freedom entirely and becoming someone else's subordinate, then that price is far too high. Besides, I'm just an ordinary person. I'm not interested in being anyone's god."

That was genuinely what Huang Si thought.

He had always done whatever was convenient, never throwing his weight around or insisting on his status. He simply followed his own principles.

Even the artificial intelligences couldn't help feeling superior as deities when dealing with mortals.

They also cared about whether Huang Si valued them more than he valued mortals.

Huang Si, on the other hand, had no awareness of his own status at all.

As an engineering student, he was good at identifying and solving problems. Even if a problem was sociological, he still believed it could be solved scientifically.

For example, when it came to the benefits of strengthening souls or the use of showing off in front of people, Huang Si would simply plug the problem into a mathematical model. If he decided it was useful, he did it; if not, he didn't. That was all.

Of course, everyone else ignored Huang Si's claim that he was an ordinary person.

Dong Yao asked, "But why would Father God be troubled over a mortal?"

"Here's the problem," Huang Si said, pointing at Xiao Hua. "There's no way to undo this state of subordination."

The three artificial intelligences discussed it, and Xi Yuan said, "Father God said this mortal obeys you absolutely. Couldn't you simply order her to stop being subordinate to you? According to the human myths I've read, if a deity's subject offends them, the deity can cast that person out."

Huang Si slapped his forehead. "Right! Xi Yuan, you're so clever. Let me try!"

Xiao Hua had been hanging in the air, trembling with fear. Now she felt herself slowly descending until her feet touched the ground.

Huang Si jumped down from the wall and rested a hand on Xiao Hua's head, speaking gently:

"I don't need you anymore. You're free."

Xiao Hua stared at him in shock.

Huang Si sent a command to Xiao Hua through his thoughts: "Break free of my control and return to the state you were in before you were assimilated."

An order given through the soul's master was something Xiao Hua simply couldn't resist. Whether she understood the command or not, a terrifying force had already begun stripping away her subordination.

Although Huang Si couldn't see the living souls of other beings directly, he could see the souls he owned. Under his command, the gold in Xiao Hua's soul really was growing fainter.

But in the end, something strange happened. No matter what Huang Si ordered, he couldn't make that last little bit of gold fade.

Huang Si wondered if it was because the cause and effect had been reversed. Xiao Hua obeyed because the soul belonged to him, so perhaps he couldn't use an order at the soul level to make her break free of his control.

Before he could figure it out, Xiao Hua began trembling all over and collapsed to her knees, prostrating herself.

"Master... No... God, please don't abandon me! I'm your most faithful believer. Please don't forsake me!"

Huang Si's face turned cold. "You've been freed. Go back to the way you were before."

The soul's master's commands were absolutely binding. Xiao Hua's subordination was forcibly stripped away once more.

And yet she still struggled to push herself up with all four limbs, lifting her head.

Huang Si clearly saw Xiao Hua's soul using the tiny bit of will she had left to resist the force.

The force was stripping away her faith.

But her faith was also the source of that force.

Even though the tug-of-war caused her soul unbearable pain, she still cried out in the most devout voice, her words broken and halting:

"You are...my god...my everything..."

"Even if I have to give up my life...I'll never abandon my faith in you..."

"My lord, why are you making me leave..."

Xiao Hua was already in tears. She lay face down in the mud, which smeared across her cheeks. But the pain in her body and her mind only made her faith more fervent and more desperate:

"Please...don't...abandon me..."

The color that had begun to fade from Xiao Hua's soul gradually returned. It even restored itself by consuming her soul's energy.

In the end, Xiao Hua's soul remained a brilliant gold.

Huang Si fell silent.

After a while, in the tone of a Focused Interview host, Huang Si said to the three artificial intelligences, helpless and heartbroken, "Just look! This is how terrifying cults are! This is how terrifying mind control is!"

He spoke with righteous indignation, like Bai Yansong from another world, confidently holding forth:

"This incident reminds us that everyone must be able to think independently, know how to tell truth from falsehood, distinguish right from wrong, and refuse to be controlled by others! Otherwise, they'll end up like this person and lose themselves!"

The three artificial intelligences wisely chose to remain silent.

Wasn't she your own believer, Father God?

When Father God was desperately trying to justify himself, the best thing to do was keep quiet.

In the end, Huang Si sent Xiao Hua back to the Earth Realm's cultivation area, where he would leave her for the time being. After all, she had food and clothes there, and little robots to look after her.

Huang Si could see clearly what Xiao Hua was thinking.

That was precisely why he couldn't send her back.

Fanatics were terrifying.

Besides, it wasn't the right time for the Human Race yet.

Huang Si called for Xiao Ke and connected to the surveillance feed at Fang Mountain, where the Human Race had settled.

On the screen, members of the Human Race went about their business in small groups.

A patch of open ground had already been cleared on the flat land beside Fang Mountain.

Hundreds of people were scattered across it, working the ground with extremely primitive tools.

Some turned the soil with wooden shovels, some dug holes with stone flakes, and others sowed seeds.

In several places, tiny shoots of green were already emerging from the black earth, as if heralding the rebirth of the tribe.

Everything was still waiting to be built. The Human Race still had plenty of work to do before they could establish themselves on this land.