The female captain and all the ghosts looked at Li Yao in disbelief, not knowing whether they were looking at a genius or an idiot.

“Think about it. If we really inherited such an enormous ‘legacy’, we would have grasped countless mysteries and rules overnight and possessed the power to destroy the world.

Li Yao opened his arms and continued, “There is no need for our experts and scholars to think independently, because all the cutting-edge technologies, cutting-edge theories, and possible directions have been pointed out by you. There is no need to think and explore at all. At the same time, it is impossible for them to raise any doubts or rebuttals about your theoretical system, because the gap between us is too large. It is like the confrontation between a primary school student and a college student. They can only be led by the nose by you obediently.

“And once our experts and scholars, the smartest, the most paranoid, the least blind believers of authority, the people who are filled with the desire to explore and the curiosity to explore, worship your theories and laws, they will no longer have their own opinions, and their imaginations will be killed prematurely. Wouldn’t that mean that our civilization has completely lost the spirit of independent exploration?

“As for our warriors… Right now, all the human experts have gone through all kinds of hardships in order to possess great strength. Our strength all comes from ourselves. Even the children of the noble families, who have accumulated their strength with tremendous resources, require their own tenacious will and a thousand times of tempering in order to digest and absorb it. Even the scheming and cruel internal strife between the Immortal Cultivators is also a form of tempering!

“If our experts possess ‘strength a hundred times greater than that of the Giant God Soldiers’ overnight, I don’t know what kind of impact such an impact will have on the belief of the experts and whether or not it will bring a destructive blow that will turn all the human experts into powerless, willless waste!

“After all, as long as you have the golden key, you can directly inherit the legacy. Why do you need to suffer? Why do you need to play with your life? Why do you need to cultivate?

“As for our people, our social system, and our moral code, everything about the civilization of mankind has been based on the current training system, the resources available, and the productivity level. What will our society, our ethics, and our entire civilization become if everybody has the strength to split a mountain in one night? Will the entire civilization be mentally deranged and collapse overnight?

“In conclusion, the civilization of mankind has completely fallen to the ‘greatness, glory, and advancement’ of the Primeval Civilization. We worship you and follow your lead. Our thinking patterns and evolution are completely limited in your framework. It is impossible for us to question your path, your technology, and your ethics, let alone change anything.

“As a result, as I said just now, a smaller version of the Primeval Civilization will appear. Is it meaningful? Is it useful? Can it resist the flood and find new hope?

“Therefore, I’m not playing any tricks. I’m sincerely rejecting your gift. The legacy of the Primeval Civilization might be a very good thing, but it is not suitable for us right now.

Finishing his speech, Li Yao smiled and bowed to the female captain and all the ghosts of the Primeval Clan, expressing his sincerest gratitude.

“You said…”

The female captain hesitated for a long time before she smiled, too. “Fair enough. Maybe it’s too early to inherit the legacy of the Primeval Civilization. The right path of a civilization is to develop slowly with independence and hard work. But have you ever thought that time waits for no man? A flood is coming at any moment. Its claws and teeth might have already reached into the small universe. There might not be enough time for you to develop peacefully for thousands of years.

“It was not easy for you to come this far and see a glimmer of hope to save the civilization. Are you really going to return empty-handed?”

“It does seem a pity.”

Li Yao scratched his hair and grinned, revealing his shining teeth. “However, after so many adventures, I’ve figured it out. Whether or not a civilization can be saved does not depend on one person, much less a so-called ‘gold key’. If all human beings are united and unleash all their wisdom and courage, is the ‘gold key’ really important?

“Besides, I never said that I would return empty-handed. Thanks to you, I’ve found… the real treasure.

“What?”

The female captain was slightly surprised. “You rejected the ‘gold key’ of the Primeval Civilization and said that you’ve found the ‘real treasure’. What is it exactly?”

“Before I started the ultimate test, I heard the last words of a certain tester of the ‘super-brain civilization’. He said—’Be vigilant, my friends. There are no ancient treasures at all. We are the greatest treasures of all’.

Li Yao smiled like a trumpet flower that had bloomed to the maximum. “Thanks to those words, I was able to stop at the last moment and see through the so-called ‘ultimate test’. Right now, I finally understand the full meaning of those words.

“Yes. The tester of the super-brain civilization was right. Compared to the primeval treasures of the Primeval Civilization, we are the treasures that are worth cherishing and exploring.

“Before the civilization of mankind and the Pangu Civilization, the corpses of a hundred generations of pioneers had been lying here. I believe that the pioneers gathered the essence of their entire civilization—the most advanced magical equipment and war machines, the bravest and most intelligent warriors, and even the last bit of their strength for the ultimate test. When the test failed and their civilization was about to be wiped out, they must’ve left the sincerest last words and the most abundant information.

“All the magical equipment, the war machines, the remains of the warriors and the wise men, and even their entire history are buried around the tower, constituting the main body of the primeval relic.

“Isn’t the civilization of a hundred generations of pioneers more worth studying than the Primeval Civilization?

“In terms of the degree of evolution of their civilization, they are almost the same as the civilization of human beings. The highest level of their civilization is not much higher than that of the Pangu civilization, and the lowest level of their civilization is no lower than that of the civilization of human beings thousands of years ago. Not only are they valuable enough for us to study them and provide abundant nutrition for us, we also don’t need to worry that their influence will be too strong and lead our civilization into a ditch.

“In the meantime, the civilizations of a hundred generations of pioneers have been growing without any restraints. There are all kinds of weird evolutions and social forms. The history of their rise and fall can give us countless enlightenment and lessons. They can help us discover countless unexpected problems and even inspire us to embark on an unprecedented path!

“If we can calm down and absorb the civilization of a hundred generations of pioneers together with the essence of the Pangu Civilization, wouldn’t it be safer and more efficient to meld the hundred and one civilizations into one civilization than to swallow the Primeval Civilization recklessly?

“I think this is the answer that the tester of the super-brain civilization thought of before his death. That’s why he said that the real treasure is not the Primeval Civilization but ourselves. We are the pioneers who were born in the Pangu Universe and eventually fell to the Heaven’s Tower. It’s a pity that there are so many corpses and last words of the civilization of the pioneers that we can study. They are more than enough for the civilization of today. There is no need for us to break into the Heaven’s Tower and run any tests at all. It’s a pity that the previous pioneers were too unconfident in their own civilization and were too greedy about the so-called ‘ancient heritage’. They always believed that the older they were, the stronger they would be. The ancient heritage would certainly help them solve all their problems. There is no such thing as a bargain in the world!”

“You…”

The female captain exclaimed, “He is really different from other testers.”

“It’s probably because my luck hasn’t been very good. Every time I want to take a shortcut, I will suffer a big loss. Slowly, I will understand that there are no shortcuts in the world, right?”

Li Yao shrugged his shoulders and opened his hands as he said, “The shortest shortcut is to step on solid ground. It’s better to have one’s own than to have one’s own. Compared to the legacy that falls from the sky, it’s more comfortable to enjoy the strength that one has painstakingly earned!

“If I had understood the logic earlier, I wouldn’t have had to climb the damn towers and run the tests at all. But this is good, too. At the very least, during the tests, I saw the history between Earthlings and the Primeval Lord of Heaven clearly. Even though the history you presented to me was false, the lessons I learned were real. Also, I saw the vastness of the sea of stars, the brilliance of civilization, and the brilliance of all kinds of species. These are the more precious secret treasures compared to pure strength, right?”

“Maybe.”

The female captain smiled noncommittally. “Do you really not want the legacy of the Primeval Civilization, not at all, not ever?”

“Who says I ‘never want to’? I’m not that stupid. I didn’t want to look at something that had already been studied by my predecessors and had to study it from the beginning—as I said just now, the time just hasn’t come yet.”

Li Yao said confidently, “I firmly believe that the civilization of mankind has enough wisdom to analyze and digest the essence of a hundred generations of pioneers, to carry on their legacy, and to become the strongest, wisest, and brightest super civilization in the history of the Pangu Universe. By then, we will be qualified to inherit the legacy of the Primeval Civilization. As long as your legacy does exist somewhere in the Pangu Universe, be it in a secret space zone, the space surrounded by black walls, or even in the folds of time, we will definitely find it.

“Do you understand? Of course, we yearn for the legacy of the primeval era, but we don’t want anyone’s charity. We have to explore and excavate with our own hands—the road is below our feet. This is how we walk!”