Chapter 673: Earth
Song Junlang’s words were very casual. That earth-shattering news seemed to be as simple as drinking a gla.s.s of water in his eyes. However, the calmer he was, the more Xiao Lin’s heart raced.
After a long period of silence, Song Junlang sighed, saying, “Do you think that you understand the academy and the colonists very well?”
Xiao Lin shook his head. He had thought that he understood a lot from what he had seen in the past few months, but he realized today that he might not know anything at all.
“All along, plans regarding our future have come from a lot of differing opinions, such as how to treat the natives. Some people suggested making them submit through martial might, while others have suggested working together,” Song Junlang slowly said.
Xiao Lin nodded, as that was something he knew.
Song Junlang smiled bitterly as he continued, “There might have been a lot of opinions on how to treat the natives, but in the end, it’s still an external matter. It will not affect much, no matter how much everyone argues. However, there’s an even more sensitive question, which is how we treat Earth. That was definitely a ticking time bomb. For many years, everyone did everything they could to avoid the topic. If someone actually wanted to put the topic on the table, it would involve countless things!”
Xiao Lin remembered what the dean had said to him, and asked with a strange look, “I know that Earth’s spatial laws have been on the brink of collapse, so the academies established a rule not allowing usage of any power that would tax the laws on Earth. So where does everyone differ in their views on Earth?”
Song Junlang sighed heavily as he looked at Xiao Lin. “This question isn’t that hard to think about. You’re someone who has been to the New World a few times, and you’ve interacted with Li Cheng. I trust that you’ve definitely thought about that issue, only you wouldn’t dare to.”
Xiao Lin fell silent again, and only bitterly spoke after a moment, “Surely it can’t be?”
“When it comes to the colonists, our greatest problem is actually our population. It’s also an extension of the problem with the natives. Even with the Law of Resurrection, there are far, far too few of us. After our rapid expansion in the initial few decades, the current scope of the colonist territories is actually at the limit of our abilities to control. Even though the academies are constantly expanding their numbers, it’s still hard to fulfill our needs. Because of that, someone finally brought up something that no one had suggested, but everyone had been considering: immigration!
“It would no longer be only selecting the elites like what the academies are doing, but large-scale immigration. We would use potions to overcome Planet Norma’s environment to live there. Those people plan on giving the immigrants a higher status than natives, but still a lower status than the elites from the academies, since we are all from Earth. Those people would be forced to rely on us after going to Planet Norma, so they would be more trustworthy.”
Xiao Lin could not help but interrupt, “However, immigration like that isn’t something that would go well. Not many people would be willing to abandon their homes to run over to Planet Norma. And it’s not just them. Even internally within the academies, there aren’t that many people who would be willing to abandon our ties with Earth either.”
Song Junlang said, “You’re right, which is why there are so many people in the Earth Division. Many of them deliberately stopped at Gold-rank to be able to return to Earth. However, that’s actually disadvantageous to the advancement of the colonial territories. In truth, the development of the colonies have stalled for many years, and many of the expansionists are not happy, but there is nothing they can do. Before they solve the problem with our population, expanding will only bring us instability. There are still many countries in Planet Norma who bear animosity toward us. In the eyes of the expansionists, Earth has slowly become our burden…”
“So they want to destroy Earth?” Xiao Lin finally said what he had thought about for a long time. Only, it shocked him that he was no longer as afraid of the notion when he brought it up.
It was true. After Song Junlang’s explanations, Xiao Lin could not help but admit that Earth did hinder their development on Planet Norma, and it was something that was unacceptable.
“They’re playing with fire!” Xiao Lin said.
“That’s right, they really are playing with fire. Before, the old dean suppressed them, and they did not dare to do anything, but now…” Song Junlang fell silent again. He was increasingly quiet that day. It meant that, even though Department Head Song knew what was going on, he was helpless to do anything.
Xiao Lin’s mind was in a mess, but after the incident with Li Cheng, he actually thought about the matter a lot. Even though Song Junlang did not say anything directly, he still continued to speculate, “It should be very easy to destroy Earth with our strength, but they can’t do that. At least, they can’t do it openly. It would not only be rejected by the academy, it would also incur the hatred of those who migrate over. It would be hard to get them to listen, and they might even work with the natives to rebel… So, their plan is to use someone else’s strength instead. They want to borrow the power of the natives to destroy Earth. That way, everyone will have a common enemy, and with that, the expansionists won’t even have to motivate anyone to fight…
“Opening a wormhole to Planet Norma on Earth is only to achieve one thing, which is to get the Normese to destroy Earth. No, maybe they only want to push Earth to the brink of destruction, and then they would head to Earth like saviors, saving humanity and, thus, achieving their wishes!”
“They’re crazy! Don’t they know that, even in the colonies, many of us still have friends and family on Earth!”
Xiao Lin got even more emotional as he spoke because he thought about his parents. If Earth was really invaded in the future, who would be able to guarantee which people would be able to survive?
“We absolutely can’t allow them to do this! If we make everything known…”
“Don’t even think about it!” Song Junlang violently interrupted him. “If they have already dared to make their move, it means they’ve already had sufficient preparations. Furthermore, do you really think it’s something just a few people or even just one academy can do?”
“What do you mean? There are other academies in the mix?”
“Power and wealth is something that can captivate anyone. You would need to face the entire group of them that will benefit from this. Do you really think you can fight them?”
Xiao Lin once again fell silent. After a long time, he asked miserably, “What can I do?”
“Move your parents over here as soon as possible. If it’s that, I might be able to help you.” Song Junlang was quiet as usual. It was obvious that he had already antic.i.p.ated all of this.