Chapter 783: The True New Life
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
As for whether being a female priest was a hardship, she was the one who knew the best.
The female priest had the highest status in the Federation of Milky Way and was respected by all in the world. The female priest had no need to attend to the ritual of praying, etc.; all she needed to do was to attend some significant events. She could choose to take vacations at will except that she was not allowed to engage in any dangerous activities, like joining the tour group to observe the windstorm of the permanent star at a close distance.
It sounded like an almost prefect lifestyle. Yet in fact, a female priest had to learn a large amount of knowledge about the distant ancient civilization and then memorize it over and over again day in and day out to ensure that the knowledge wouldn’t be forgotten, which meant they wouldn’t be able to have much extra time to enjoy their lives.
Due to the prevalence of the gene modification, the regular humans in the Federation of the Milky Way could live more than one hundred years. The female priest Jing Jiu met today was less than forty years old and she needed to choose an heir because her physical condition was already very weak. Was it because she had withstood a tremendous mental pressure all year long?
Zong Lizi wished to be a female priest, but could she withstand such a pressure? Many female priests over the years must have had some sort of mishap or opted to give up; and that part of the ancient knowledge was lost as a result. Would she be the next to do the same? Jing Jiu thought that the most pressing issue for the potential female priests was that they couldn’t have any descendant according to the rules even though they could, like regular folks, fall in love and get married. He didn’t expect Zong Lizi to think this way. Jing Jiu felt surprised to hear her answer, though he didn’t care so much about it.
None of the Cultivation practitioners in Chaotian wanted to have any descendants, save for those who knew that they had no way to ascend.
It wasn’t until the arrival of the Immortal Taiping that the Cultivation practitioners didn’t even have a strong desire to take on disciples.
After Zong Lizi went to her bedroom, Jing Jiu looked at the starry sky again and went over his conversation with the female priest that day.
She knew that he came from another world. It should be the instruction from the so-called god, meaning it was the teaching passed down from the distant ancient civilization.
It seemed that both the Federation of Milky Way and Chaotian were the preparations made by the distant ancient civilization when it died along with the Sea of Dark Matter.
It was more sensible that the two worlds had chosen two different paths rather than one being thrown out by the other.
If the outcomes were planned by a certain person of the distant ancient civilization, it was understandable that he would be regarded as god by the female priests and the humans in the Federation of the Milky Way.
Such a deed was truly the achievement of someone as powerful as a god.
Jing Jiu felt a sense of admiration for that person, which was of course rare for him.
In order to check out the details of all this, he thought that he must go to the Main Planet to investigate the tightly guarded remains of the distant ancient civilization and the woman mentioned by the female priest. However, he hadn’t met the Snow Girl yet and had no idea who the ascendant hidden in the Federation of Milky Way was; and he hadn’t found out the routes in the warped black holes…
If he only followed Zong Lizi around, it would be dangerous.
Thinking of all this, he got up and came to the bedroom. He picked up the memory chip given to her by Jiang Yuxia and read all the information in a few minutes.
After that, he summoned the sword source and uttered the instruction of the Two-Mind Connection inaudibly as he placed his hand on Zong Lizi’s head.
…
…
Zong Lizi had a dream.
She saw a god in her dream.
She couldn’t see the face of god clearly. Like the frescos in the Fire-Passing Pagoda, they looked like being close by, but one would forget how to describe them after they turned around.
Yet, she was certain that he was the god.
“Are you willing to serve me all your life…as a female priest?” god asked her.
She uttered “hmm”. But she thought the answer was not polite enough and said “I am” hastily.
Next, the god told her that a female priest would live a tedious and hard life though they were respected by the people.
God also told her that such a life was indeed unpleasant after she had enough such tedious experiences.
Zong Lizi found god was very friendly; so she took the courage to ask him if she could quit when she found the life of female priest was too hard.
Many female priests had had the idea of giving up or spreading the knowledge of the distant ancient civilization to the outside world when they couldn’t withstand the responsibility during the long history of human revival, but they had all died as soon as they had such an idea. Yet, Zong Lizi didn’t know anything about it; she looked at this god with her eyes opened wide, expecting an answer.
It seemed that the god didn’t expect her to raise such a request. “It’s up to you,” he said after some thought.
Having said that, the god left. The whole space became warm and comfortable as a red glowed.
Immersed in the red light, Zong Lizi felt extremely comfortable. The boiling hot sensation made her come up with some strange thoughts; she felt like bathing in the lava.
After a long while, she opened her eyes.
She seemed to still be able to see the scenes in the dream even though the ceiling of the bedroom was the only scene before her eyes.
She had slept much better ever since she met Jing Jiu; but she felt she had the best sleep last night.
It seemed that she had vigorous energy and unknown strength in her body now; and she could vaguely feel that she had more information in her brain though she couldn’t pinpoint what it was.
The water seeped out, producing hot steam. Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, she looked at her reflection with flush on her cheeks and thought she was rather good-looking.
In the next moment, she found something and pulled her silvery hair apart; to her surprise, she found the dark roots of her silvery hair. Now her hair was a mix of colors.
The electric toothbrush gave off a buzzing noise. She was pondering the change of her body while brushing her teeth. She felt it rather odd. After she finished brushing teeth and drinking two mouthfuls of water from the tap, she went to the deck.
“I think you’ve been doing something to me,” she said to Jing Jiu who was lying on the chair.
She was aware that Jing Jiu was abnormal. This youth was certainly not a regular person if not a rarely-seen weirdo since he had never slept on a bed and preferred staying on the chair on the deck and lying on the lawn even in the rain.
“The foam of the toothpaste,” said Jing Jiu while looking at her face.
Zong Lizi wiped her face reflexively, but found no foam. She knew that he didn’t say it to tease her; he did it because he had no intention to explain to her. Feeling indignant, she pouted her mouth and turned to leave. “I’ll go to a barbershop after school. You wait for me on the lawn,” said she.
Jing Jiu was displeased to hear this, commenting, “Why do all of you girls want to cut your hair short?”
Zong Lizi said contentedly, “New hair had grown. I need to dye it.”
Due to the illness and the failure of her gene modification, her hair had been grayish since a young age, and it was the sort of mixed gray that looked unsightly, which is why she had had her hair dyed silvery with her saved money until now.
Dyeing hair was not considered a part of governmental welfare program. She had to pay for it herself. It had been the costliest expense for her over the years.
Her new hair had grown that day, and it was the healthy black hair. She was certain that her illness had been cured; so she was in an excellent mood.
“Change the color,” suggested Jing Jiu.
Feeling surprised, Zong Lizi asked, “Then…what color do you like?”
“Red,” said Jing Jiu.
Zong Lizi suddenly recalled the red light and lava in her dream the night before and agreed with the suggestion in her mind, but she didn’t agree verbally, simply because she was trying to give him a hard time. “There are many kinds of red,” she said while wavering her eyes.
Jing Jiu could learn the amount of knowledge similar to that learned by a regular person in three years each time he got online. As such, he had learned a great deal of useful and useless information. “Swine feather red,” he replied casually.
…
…
This guy cared about nothing, and yet somehow managed to care about the color of her hair. Maybe…Zong Lizi thought of all this while looking at the distance outside the window. She saw the lawn in the midst of drizzles and the conspicuous blue speck on it while thinking wildly and feeling thrilled.
The lecture was about the ancient history, the events that had happened in the beginning of the Federation of the Milky Way.
The female professor spoke expressionlessly, and the students listened with just as much expression. A tedious and sleepy atmosphere filled the classroom.
The students at the University of Stargate were all outstanding ones with a first-rate family background. A vast majority of them had already gone through the inputs of basic knowledge. They could recite the ancient history backwards. As such, they had no interest in listening to the lecture, and likewise, the female professor was not interested in teaching the knowledge. However, when she noticed that Zong Lizi, an exchange student from the underground neighborhood, paid no attention to her lecture, she couldn’t help but feel a little displeased.
“The Namei Dynasty had three large laser guns in the last fort of the northern plateau, Pingye State. What method did the army of the Federation employ to break through the defense?”
The female professor gazed at the window and said expressionlessly, “Student Zong Lizi, please answer the question.”
The tedious atmosphere in the classroom had suddenly become energetic; a dozen gazes were fixed on Zong Lizi.
If it occurred before, nobody would pay attention to her even if she didn’t know how to answer the question, but the situation was different now.
Everybody knew that she had registered for the primary selection for female priest. They had discussed this among themselves in private and would like to know where this exchange student from the underground neighborhood got her confidence from.
The gazes were filled with curiosity, doubt and hostility.
Zong Lizi came back to her senses only after a moment of bewilderment, wondering what had happened.
Jiang Yuxia repeated the question to her in a low voice.
Zong Lizi thought it should be the content only the students in the faculty of military history should learn. “Teacher, the course material doesn’t tell us the details of the Battle of the Northern Plateau.”
The female professor remarked expressionlessly, “If you are only asked to learn the materials by rote, why would you come to the University of Stargate? Your classmates would have no need to attend the lecture.”
Zong Lizi felt helpless. As she was about to say “Sorry, I don’t know the answer” and sit down, she was suddenly struck by a bright light in her mind; a few lines of words appeared in her brain. She read the lines of words reflexively, “It’s because the base of the new M laser gun had a supporting structure…”
