Listening to Gu Qingyi lightly narrate, Chen Yan’s eyes twitched, and he whispered: "Domain Realm... not peaceful? The Prison Suppression Platform you describe seems... like a place of slaughter?"
"Yes, slaughter." Gu Qingyi squinted, as if absorbing the thin warmth from the sunlight, and said softly, "How can there not be slaughter? Without slaughter... many people would die, many, many people would."
As she spoke, Gu Qingyi opened her eyes: "I was sent to the Prison Suppression Platform at the age of fifteen, stayed there for five years, until I nourished my spirit through battle, broke through realm to the Celestial Human Realm, only then could I return to the Gu Family.
I remember the night of the first day when I arrived there, a weapon was thrust into my hand.
For five years, every day, standing on the platform city, wielding a weapon to hack away crazily.
When resting, hiding in the house behind the platform city, even then hugging the weapon to sleep.
When those things outside the platform city weren’t attacking, I could only shrink in the house, holding the cold blades, trembling at the whistling wind outside."
Chen Yan frowned: "Attacking the Prison Suppression Platform... who are these that attack you?"
Gu Qingyi shook her head silently.
Chen Yan thought for a moment and asked in a low voice, "Have you... killed many people?"
"No, I’ve never killed anyone."
Gu Qingyi answered this time; she shook her head seriously, but her words carried a somber tone: "Those things I killed were not people!"
Chen Yan felt a chill in his heart at Gu Qingyi’s words: "Domain Realm, not peaceful..."
Gu Qingyi suddenly opened her eyes, staring at Chen Yan: "Chen Yan, will you go to the Domain Realm?"
"I..." Chen Yan didn’t know how to answer for a moment.
According to Gu Qingyi, cultivation in this world has a ceiling; one can never reach the Celestial Human Realm, always remain at the stage of Mortal Cultivator.
So it seems that if Chen Yan wants to break through in the future, he would inevitably have to go to the Domain Realm.
But... after all, it’s still far off, Chen Yan has never seriously considered it.
And today, just now, hearing these words from Gu Qingyi, Chen Yan even more felt that the Domain Realm is not a beautiful place.
Seeing Chen Yan silent, Gu Qingyi’s tone became very serious and she said softly:
"Chen Yan, if you don’t plan to go to the Domain Realm, don’t ask about these things, and don’t try to know about them."
As she said this, Gu Qingyi looked at Chen Yan more softly, and said slowly: "Besides... thank you for the milk tea you gave me earlier. It’s very delicious, very sweet."
For the rest of the time until noon, Chen Yan didn’t say anything more to Gu Qingyi but quietly relived her words in his mind.
Fifteen... a fifteen-year-old girl, sent to a harsh, limit-surpassing place, then experiencing bloody slaughter.
Passing five years like that?
What kind of days were those?
When I was fifteen, what was I doing?
Staying at school, the most troubling things every day were nothing but studies and exams, thinking mostly about how to seize a basketball hoop with classmates after school, or waiting curiously to see what cool new moves Naruto would learn... from 2000 to 4000 attacks and beyond...
Sighing at the realization that I once thought Naruto was a commoner like me, then helplessly discovering he was actually a second generation, even his past life was the son of an Immortal.
Hmm... what were the girls of the same age around me doing at fifteen?
Thinking about secretly trying out nail art for the first time, wondering if they could sneak away from parents to see a concert, feeling annoyed by homework, thinking a boy from the next class was a bit handsome...
And what about Gu Qingyi at fifteen?
She said: When blood spurted on the face, it was hot...
It’s not that Chen Yan’s impression of the Domain Realm was disillusioned.
Actually, ever since Gu Qingyi mentioned the existence of the Domain Realm, Chen Yan never thought of it as a beautiful cultivation world.
Although Chen Yan had read countless online cultivation novels where everyone seemed to pursue cultivation wholeheartedly, each following their own paths to the great Dao. Occasionally there were Demon Cultivators causing trouble, but always a large group of righteous cultivators cleaning up the evil...
Chen Yan felt such a world couldn’t exist... because it doesn’t comply with logic.
Chen Yan, a philosophy major at university, doesn’t believe it!
From his understanding, for a civilization to be considered a civilization, it must have a set of order and rules to maintain, restricting everyone to perform their duties, putting each in their rightful place, constraining most people on what they can and cannot do.
And to maintain this order and rule set, there must be strong enough violence to ensure no one dares to break the rules—the government, police, army...
Its purpose is to apply iron-fisted punishment to rule violators.
And... in a world where individual strength is revered in cultivation?
How can cultivators with great power follow a set of moral or legal rules, refrain from doing bad things?
What would restrain their power? No government, no police, no army...
Rely on morality? Don’t joke.
If morality alone could maintain civilization... then this world wouldn’t need laws, wouldn’t need violent institutions.
His studies taught Chen Yan, the greatest cornerstone of maintaining civilization is not the morality taught through education.
It is... violence, invoked as punitive force.
The earliest educational book of humanity is the ancient Dragon Country’s "Learning Record"—just over two thousand years ago.