The Mech Touch

6045 Sanctity of Life

Ves hated how he attracted the attention of each and every councilor.

They clearly showed an elevated level of interest when he was expected to speak. It was as if his opinions carried significantly greater weight than others!

This was an absurd notion. His hard power was not great, and he did not believe his wisdom matched up against all of the other leaders of red humanity.

The main reason why he attracted so much attention was because he managed to shoot into fby inventing a bunch of extremely useful stuff and sharing a few crazy ideas.

While Ves took pride in many of his accomplishments, that did not mean he believed could throw his weight around.

His foundation was unstable. His power base was heavily reliant on the backing of third parties. People tolerated his opinions so long as he remained useful, which was not forever.

This was why Ves never took the initiative to take advantage of his increased clout. A huge amount of interests were at stake during every session of the Interim Leadership Council.

The Expansionist Faction represented by the Limitless Provider clearly wanted to give more leeway to aggressive cultivation methods.

The Hunting Association served as an excellent positive example, but its orientation towards hunting threatening beasts constrained its appeal.

Relatively few humans were willing to becfull-thunters. They did feel an attraction towards nature and disliked the act of venturing into the wild just so they could risk their lives to hunt down dirty beasts.

There were other ways to engage in predatory cultivation that could achieve faster results, and it did not involve going on repeated legitimate hunts.

Ves had a few ideas of what that might entail. This was because he was thinking about the possibilities of predatory cultivation as well.

He did not think it was wise to share too much of his actual thoughts on this occasion.

How should he respond?

The council wouldn't give him the tto think about all of the political implications of leaning in one direction or another, so he could only form an answer that partially reflected his true opinions.

"I think both sides of the argument have raised good points." Ves slowly spoke from his high-backed seat. "In my opinion, this debate should be framed by how far we are willing to sacrifice our humanity in exchange for greater power."

"What do you mean by that, professor?"

"It is easier to plunder than to build." Ves stated. "That is a universal rule that applies to many stuff. Cultivation is no different. That said, there is always a price for everything. Trying to grow stronger by plundering the strength of others is an inherently more dangerous and risky means of developing your power. It takes a large amount of discipline and forethought to maintain control over yourself. Not everyone can be as exemplary and strong-willed as the Huntsman. The temptation of greater power has seduced many people over the ages, to the detriment of many human victims. Yet it is undeniable that the unending pursuit of power has also propelled the human race far beyond its heights. Can any of you ever imagine that the Age of Conquest would make our civilization so large and powerful if people weren't as motivated by plundering the tech and resources of rival alien empires?"

Although the Age of Conquest definitely possessed a hidden cultivation angle that added a darker context to this period of human history, that still did not ruin the splendor of this glorious age.

"Humans are weak." Ves continued to address the councilors. "Unlike the Seven Apex Races or the phase whales, we cannot rely on the inherent abilities that we are born with. The only way for us to exceed our limits is to be smarter and more proactive than the other races. Plunder has always been a part of our success story. I think it would be a grave mistake for us to limit the use of certain methods because you find them distasteful. I think an argument can be made where it is permissible to utilize certain controversial methods so long as they are strictly regulated."

"That is too reckless, professor! As you have stated yourself, temptation will always lead people to lower their bottom line. We cannot rely on honor and laws alone to protect our population from incidents such as the ones presented by the Evolution Witch."

Ves grimaced. "We are at war. We cannot constantly hold the moral high ground when doing so will just cause us to lose a lot of other ground to the aliens. One day, our enemies will surround the meaningless ground that we are left with and finish the job. I think that if we want to survive the difficult years and decades ahead, it is not enough for us to pursue high-minded ideals. We need to be more ruthless and willing to lower ourselves to the level of our enemies, who have no intention of being merciful towards us. Why should we protect them from our worst tendencies? They are not humans like ourselves. They are not protected by human rights by definition."

The implication was that trying to be too soft on this issue might make it seem as if the councilors were siding with the dreaded Cosmopolitan Movement.

This was an absolute taboo!

Almost no one could afford to bear the infamy of supporting the cause of the treacherous cosmopolitans.

"It is not about protecting our alien opponents, Professor Larkinson." A third-class statesman spoke with a steady voice. "It is protecting our own dignity. From our understanding, any form of cultivation that expressly encourages the killing of other beings is inherently dangerous and corrupting. If you gaze into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. Pursuing strength through harming others is not sustainable. If these demonic cultivators are unable to prey on hostile aliens, it may take one snap for them to prey on fellow humans instead."

The Web Mistress also decided to add her voice to this argument.

"Humans are constrained by both laws and cultural norms. How we act towards our enemies is an important indicator of how civilized we are as a race. I would have thought that you of all mech designers would value the sanctity of life. There is no need to stand up for the rights of hostile aliens, but we should not debase ourselves and throw away our own humanity by treating our current enemies as literal prey. We are already strong enough to defeat them with our mechs. Cultivators may be able to assist in the war effort, but their ability to inflict damage and resist attacks can never keep up with modern war machines."

These were all valid arguments, but Ves possessed a different opinion from the Web Mistress.

He becreminded of the Destroyer of Worlds. Her sense of urgency caused her to reluctantly embrace the potential of darker forms of cultivation.

If even a god pilot believed it was necessary to rely on predation in order to prepare her for the most powerful alien enemy that was on his way to subjugate the Red Ocean, then any attempt to restrain such efforts was counterproductive!

"We would all like to live in a utopia, but it can never happen." Ves retorted. "That said, I do not entirely disagree with your argument, Your Excellency. We must continue to respect the sanctity of life. The only compromise that we should make is to limit this treatment to fellow humans. We cannot compromise our respect towards other human life. However, our empathy should end there. When it comes to the native aliens, they are similar to exobeasts. They are all filled with valuable resources that can provide great value as long as you know how to exploit them. Everyone here understands how short we are of resources. How can we possibly have the luxury to refuse to make use of them when we live in a poor corner of the Red Ocean?"

That argument seemed to sway a fair amount of councilors. At least it made it harder for those who supported greater restraint to push forth their arguments.

"I agree with Professor Larkinson." The Limitless Provider grinned. "His insights into life should be respected. Humans are neither good nor evil. We simply are. We try to encourage humans to be kind to our fellow brothers and sisters, but we cannot maintain a strong and healthy society by being generous and charitable to everyone. We recognize that we must occasionally be cruel to each other and ourselves in order to advance our power and wealth. The aliens deserve even less than that. They are locked in eternal competition against our race. Both humans and aliens are fighting to obtain greater territory and resources because we all know that if we fall behind, our extinction will not be long in coming."

The Expansionists were obsessed with enabling humanity to thrive across the stars.

In many cases, that meant trampling on the territory and lives of a lot of alien civilizations!

Plenty of alien species had gone extinct due to humanity's relentless drive for territory and resources!

In this context, what difference did it make to allow cultivators to plunder the souls or other mystical energy from the corpses of alien bodies?

An eager expression appeared on the Limitless Provider's face. "We cannot fight the Red War by fielding duty-bound soldiers alone. Our race is too selfish for that. We can only encourage soldiers to fight against the overwhelming number of aliens that are preparing to invade our space by luring them with incentives. If that is the case, why not tempt them by permitting them to practice a cultivation method that allows them to directly grow stronger by killing our alien opponents? As long as we organize this correctly, we can mobilize a large number of volunteer soldiers to fight against the forces of the Red Cabal. The pursuit of strength will bring out the best of us no matter whether they are mech pilots or not. Even foot soldiers can becheroes as long as they spill enough alien blood!"

That was a powerful argument! Ves was a bit taken aback by the Expansionist leader's aggression!

He had to admit that there was a lot of logic behind her argument. It was true that so long as soldiers gained a means to break through their mortal limitations quickly by fighting against the aliens, they would definitely volunteer in droves! There would be no concerns about trying to maintain people's enthusiasm towards participating in a difficult war!

The Evolution Witch finally chose to weigh in herself.

"<nullb>We must respect the life of other humans, but harbor contempt towards the life of aliens. We can be merciful towards our fellow brothers and sisters, but we must be ruthless in extracting the greatest value out of hostile aliens. There is a place for more predatory forms of cultivation, but they should only be practiced by a select group of humans who have earned the right to benefit from them. Even then, they must subject themselves to strict control and inspection to prevent any abuse."

"You sound as if you have already made a choice of who should be allowed to practice demonic cultivation methods." Master Goldstein commented.

"<nullb>The answer is obvious. Only the New Elites are suitable to practice such methods, if they choose to do so. Linefighters, warfighters and warlords are the only humans who are in frequent contact with the native aliens. They are also the humans who most need the rapid growth in power. They are already under varying degrees of monitoring due to their special status. Furthermore, their training, discipline and combat tempering has allowed them to forge the inner strength and willpower to resist temptation."

That… was a brilliant idea. By combining demonic cultivation with an older and more established framework, it beceasier and less risky to implement this new policy change.

However, the proposal did not receive universal approval.

"Is it a good idea to give humans who are most immersed in violence the ability to grow stronger by killing more enemies?"