Chapter 3990 The Value of Earth

In the end, the short tour had served its purpose.

It not only granted the Aducs a close and personal look at several iconic Larkinson mechs, but also allowed Ves to observe their distinctive reactions towards different spiritual phenomena!

Ves already learned a lot about the Aducs. He discovered that Matriarch Erexi Aduc was not only aware and knowledgeable about spiritual phenomena, but also possessed a formidable amount of spiritual strength.

In fact, if he compared her to himself, her growth was quite admirable in this aspect!

If Ves hadn't boosted his own Spirituality by creating Blinky, he would probably be a lot further behind in this aspect!

Perhaps Matriarch Erexi Aduc was caught off-guard by the strength and capabilities that Ves had displayed. He had shown in multiple different ways that he was far from an ordinary Journeyman!

Ves did not bother to show the Aducs around the remainder of his flagship this time. The Spirit of Bentheim was a sizable capital ship that featured a lot of noteworthy sights.

However, the Aducs already had enough of a taste of the Larkinson Clan for the time being. Ves wanted to move on to more substantive discussions. He became more eager than ever to learn more about his new partners and what they were capable of. He had a feeling that they possessed their own bag of tricks, especially since they developed a rare combination of domains that Ves had never encountered before this point!

He steadily led them to the upper decks where he eventually brought them into the fanciest and most formal conference rooms.

The clansmen had spiced up the place over the years. The additional decorations, totems and panoramas subtly showed off the prosperity and strength of the Larkinson Clan.

Ves sat down at the head of the table while the group of Aducs took their seats around their matriarch.

The more he observed the newcomers, the more he became intrigued by how they managed to develop their spiritualities.

All of Matriarch Erexi's children developed their spiritualities. This was an extremely unlikely occurrence as most humans never activated their spiritualities in the first place.

It was normal for humans to be born weak and deficient in this aspect. Only a fraction of the population developed spiritual potential, but even that did not mean anything if they never activated this property in their lives!

So far, Ves only came across three systematic methods to activate a person's spirituality. Each of them was based on practicing a profession beyond a normal level, which was not easy to do at all. The proportion of people who succeeded in breaking through the extraordinary threshold was simply too low!

This was why Ves found it suspicious that all three of Matriarch Erexi's children had passed every test.

There were way too many coincidences!

First, all three of them developed significant spiritual potential.

Second, the three Aduc scions happened to activate them without fail.

Third, they developed their activated spiritual potential in a targeted direction that caused them to acquire domains that encompassed both life and earth!

If this sequence of events happened to just one or two of the members of the delegation, then Ves wouldn't find it too suspicious.

Yet there was no way that all of Erexi Aduc's offspring were born with amazing talent.

The fact that they developed the exact same domain with remarkably few differences between each other was the most suspicious point by far. People who pursued different passions and professions never developed identical domains!

All of these oddities and patterns indicated that the Aducs definitely possessed their own secrets when it came to spiritual phenomena!

Before Ves was ready to speak up, he spent a bit more time on examining the spiritualities of his guests in greater detail.

He did not detect the presence of a spiritual network comparable to his own. As far as he was aware, all members of the Aduc Family were completely separate from each other. Their nearly identical domains did not produce any spontaneous connections or strange forms of resonance, though they might simply be hiding this capability.

Their spiritual attributes attracted most of his attention. He simply couldn't figure out how they were able to develop these rare attributes.

The life component of their domains was different from his own. Ves focused on the creation of life, which completely complemented his mech designer profession.

As for the Aducs, he did not get the impression that they oriented towards creation.

Their interpretation of life was also different from that of his mother, who focused on the predation of life.

They weren't similar to Joshua either, who excelled at understanding and developing closer relationships with different forms of life.

Instead, Ves had the impression that they saw themselves as regulators and arbiters of life. The best way for Ves to describe his read on their orientation was that they pursued the balance and stability of life!

This certainly fit their occupations. Terraforming was all about generating brand-new cycles of life on planets that previously lacked this quality.

It was easy enough to transform a planet, but it was a lot harder to make the changes stick! A stable ecosystem and cycle of life were needed to turn a globe into a self-sustainable habitat!

While Ves held considerable interest towards their new and interesting interpretation of life, their earth spiritual attribute also played an important role in their spiritual development.

It was quite clear from the start that their interpretation of earth was not comparable to the high-end earth spiritual attribute that Ves had once been exposed to when he last confronted Cassandra Breyer.

Just referring to them both with the same word was a flaw in his own terminology.

Rather than calling it an earth spiritual attribute, it felt more like a more specific orientation towards the transformation of earth!

The more Ves explored their earth domains, the more he gained the feeling that they were obsessed over vast projects that involved the large-scale transformation of large terrestrial planets!

This was their true passion! The Aducs were so dedicated to their jobs that they derived a huge amount of satisfaction with each completed terraforming project!

Ves figured that this was how the Aducs were able to develop their own spiritualities. It was almost identical to how mech designers gained spiritual sustenance for completing meaningful mech design projects.

"Have you seen enough?" Matriarch Erexi Aduc abruptly broke the silence.

Oops. Busted.

Ves responded with his version of an awkward and genial smile. "My apologies. It is not every day that I come into contact with remarkable individuals such as yourselves. I have just shown you what I can do, but you have yet to reveal anything about your own capabilities. Can you blame me for being curious?"

"I think we are all lacking in understanding towards each other. This is why we must communicate with each other. Exchanges lead to greater mutual understanding."

"Well said, madam. Since I just showed off my mechs, let me start by asking a question. Do you have any special inheritance or method that has allowed you to develop your psionic power in a systematic fashion?"

His question immediately provoked a subtle reaction from the matriarch's children.

Even though they had received enough training and had been specifically reminded by their mother to maintain their composure, their spiritual fluctuations couldn't be hidden.

Matriarch Erexi was smart enough to realize that Ves likely picked up on this activity. She did not bother to issue a denial.

"I will share this much with you since the MTA holds you in high regard. Your guess is correct. We are one of the few human groups in the galaxy that hold an ancient inheritance. We will not divulge any further details on it as we have an obligation to guard this secret. It is the reason why we have survived for so long. I would not have admitted this if you were not as observant. I hope you understand."

"I do. I have my own secrets which are inconvenient for me to share. This kind of makes it a lot harder for us to hold a meaningful exchange."

The meeting had taken an awkward turn. Neither Ves nor the Aducs wanted to share too many details about themselves. Exposing their core strengths made it possible for others to exploit their vulnerabilities. Neither of them wanted to expose any possible weak points.

The two leaders passed the time by chatting about minor details. Ves inquired about the Aduc Family's rise in the galactic heartland while Matriarch Erexi asked about the Larkinson Clan's rapid rise.

"I admire your work, patriarch. You have taken a brutish, destructive machine of war and turned it into an evolving work of art. There is much about your mechs that deserve greater recognition. I believe it will not take long for the wider public to develop a greater appreciation of your products."

"Thank you, madame. I am afraid that I am not as familiar with your work. I do not possess a thorough understanding of the terraforming business."

"That is not a surprise. Few people in human space know anything about the intricacies and challenges of converting hostile rocks into livable planets. We would love to show you our best and most successful terraforming results, but we would have to accompany you back to the Milky Way Galaxy in order to accomplish this. Showing you the planets that we have brought to life through our efforts in the form of projections and descriptions simply cannot do them justice."

That was helpful. Not.

"Can you describe your philosophy towards terraforming? As professionals, find it useful to understand the underlying thoughts behind someone's approach towards their work and passion."

"Planets are life." Matriarch Erexi stated. "The globes where many different forms of life have emerged are natural incubators of life and existence. Without planets, there would be no stable, protected habitats where large and complex forms of eukaryotes have evolved throughout the history of every galaxy. Humanity has emerged from Old Earth, which I once had the pleasure of touring on the most defining pilgrimage of my life. Stepping foot on the ancestral planet of our species is an unforgettable experience. I pity you for entering the Red Ocean so soon. The introduction of beyonder gate technology has made traveling to our ancestral Sol System faster and more convenient than ever, but the cost of traveling there from our current location is too prohibitive."

Ves casually shrugged. "I don't particularly feel I am missing out. The vast majority of humans today never have the opportunity to visit Old Earth, and they are not any worse for it. To them, humanity's origin is too far away from their lives. They are much more attached to their own home planets."

"That is one of our purposes, actually." Matriarch Erexi smiled. "From the moment I visited Old Earth and felt at home in a manner that I have never experienced anywhere else, I vowed to give others the opportunity to enjoy similar experiences. Humanity may have expanded to our stars, but cold metal coffins like your starships offer no true warmth to our species. Only the warm and motherly embrace of a planet filled with life can give our race the invisible sustenance that we need. Though we are not a religious family, we aspire to spread life to any planet, much as the mythological god known as Gaia has brought life to Old Earth."

"That… is an interesting philosophy. I cannot say I agree with everything that you say, but I can respect your passion and your motivations. I am sure that a lot of people in the Red Ocean will be happy to live on the planets that you will terraform in the future."

The Aducs all looked proud at this remark. It was their greatest pleasure to allow planets and human populations to flourish in places that were previously hostile towards life!

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