Chapter 388 A War Caused by Aesthetic Views
The Starfall Wizard became more and more excited as he spoke, the light in his eyes almost setting the silvery-white room ablaze.
She abruptly turned to Jemin, her gaze intense, as if she were looking at a walking vein of rare elements:
"Wizard Jemin! It's so good to have you here! I was just worried that our stock of Imaginary Element was running out, and the experiments couldn't continue."
"As long as you can continuously provide imaginative elements, I can further improve the 'Ignition of Spiritual Intelligence' model, and even use it as the core to completely construct and expand my 'spiritual' laws, taking that crucial step!"
The intense, almost tangible gaze sent chills down Jemin's spine. He felt that if he didn't change the subject soon, this research fanatic might drag him into the lab and turn him into a human-shaped, self-propelled element-producing machine.
He coughed lightly, forcibly steer the conversation back to reality: "Lord Starfall, we can discuss the supply of the Imaginary Element later. What's more important now is the current situation of these two newly intelligent races in your plane?"
Viola immediately echoed, pointing to the horrific battlefield on the screen, her brow furrowed: "That's right, Starfall. I've been away from here for less than a month! Even if war is a catalyst for civilization's development, this is too fast, too intense!"
"Besides, there has to be a trigger for a war between two races, right? From an ecological perspective, one absorbs light energy and elements, while the other takes root in the earth to draw nutrients. There is no life-or-death resource competition between them, so why do they fight like this as soon as they meet?"
When asked by the two, Starfall Wizard finally calmed down a bit from his daydreams about the future.
She blinked her bloodshot eyes, turned around, and quickly began operating the control panel.
They quickly retrieved a large amount of collected real-time battlefield records, energy fluctuation spectra, and most importantly—the "language" records of the mental fluctuations and specific electromagnetic signals released by both sides during the battle, which had been deciphered.
“At first I didn’t quite understand either,” the Starfall Wizard explained as he retrieved data. “All I knew was that after a chance, large-scale contact, they fell into a state of complete hostility almost without warning, and multiplied and expanded at an astonishing rate, spreading the conflict to the entire plane.”
She projected the selected key information onto the main light screen.
"Later, through continuous monitoring and analysis of their 'communication' during battles, I came up with a preliminary hypothesis."
On the light screen, two completely different "languages" were recorded and displayed side by side:
On the left, next to the data stream representing the elemental beings of the light cluster, are labeled the deciphered high-frequency terms: [Twisted], [Aberrant], [Unclean Form], [Purification]!
On the right side, next to the mental fluctuations representing the activated plant, the following terms frequently appear: [Mutation], [Difficult to Swallow], [Energy Toxins], [Cleansing]!
“Look,” the Starfall Wizard pointed at the screen, “the elemental creatures seem to regard plant life forms as something ‘distorted’ and ‘unclean,’ filled with a desire to reject and ‘purify’ them. The plants, on the other hand, see the elemental creatures as ‘mutated’ things that cannot be used as nutrients or are even harmful, and intend to ‘eliminate’ them.”
“I believe this may stem from the fundamental difference in their forms of existence—the completely different physical composition of pure energy bodies and physical organic life forms, which creates this opposition in the underlying structure, perhaps sowing the seeds of mutual exclusion and regard as heresy at the very beginning of spiritual awakening.”
Jemin intently analyzed the scrolling information on the screen, especially the fragments of words that represented "insults" and "degradation."
He blinked, and a previously overlooked detail, combined with their initial encounter upon arrival, flashed through his mind like a spark.
He noticed that in the "language" used by both elemental beings to insult plants and plants to insult elements, there were a large number of words used to accuse the other of being ugly.
Considering that they were immediately condemned as "ugly fleshy monsters" by both sides upon their appearance...
An idea that sounded somewhat absurd, yet not entirely impossible, came to mind.
Could it be that... the root cause of the deadly battle between these two races isn't resources or living space, nor is it their opposing forms, but rather... that they both think the other is too ugly?!
It even escalated to the point of "I feel disgusted just looking at you, I must eliminate you"?
The other three noticed that he was deep in thought.
Viola asked curiously, "Jermin, what are you thinking about? You look so strange."
Jemin opened his mouth, then hesitated.
The idea sounded so absurd, and the data was far too limited, that he instinctively tried to deflect the question: "It's nothing, just a preliminary thought..."
"Tell me about it!" Viola said, intrigued.
The Starfall Wizard also cast an encouraging glance his way.
At the urging of the two, Jemin had no choice but to bite the bullet and recount in detail how they were attacked by both sides of creatures when they were first teleported there, and how they were unanimously called "ugly flesh monsters".
After hearing this, the Starfall Wizard looked bewildered: "Is that so? My monitoring system mainly focuses on the macro-level battle situation and energy and spiritual data. It has indeed overlooked this kind of individual-level 'aesthetic' feedback."
Viola then looked at Starfall and asked with a hint of apology, "Starfall, did our intervention interfere with your experimental data? Do we need to take any remedial measures?"
The Starfall Wizard waved her hand, indicating that it was nothing to worry about. Her attention, however, was completely drawn to Jemin, and she pressed him for details, asking, "Wizard Jemin, was your hesitant thought earlier related to this matter? Please tell me!"
Seeing that he couldn't avoid it, Jemin took a deep breath and voiced his conjecture that "ugliness" might trigger a wave of war. He even added:
"Based on our limited experience and the abusive messages we've seen so far, keywords like 'ugly' and 'distorted,' which relate to physical and morphological aversion, seem to appear unusually frequently, perhaps even more so than words simply describing someone as 'harmful' or 'competing for resources.' Of course, this is just an intuition based on a small sample and may not be reliable..."
Upon hearing this, Viola and the Starfall Wizard did not find it funny at all. Instead, they both frowned and showed serious expressions of thought.
As experienced high-ranking wizards, they had witnessed far too many bizarre social structures and origins of conflict among intelligent races.
Often, the triggers for war can be absurdly ridiculous—perhaps because the nose of a statue of a deity is slightly crooked, because the opposing leader sneezes rudely, or even simply because the other party's skin color or body structure is "unpleasant to look at."
In contrast, while the idea of war arising from "mutual dislike of each other's ugliness" may sound absurd, it is not entirely impossible in logic.
Especially between these two races that have just developed intelligence and whose social structures and values are still in the nascent stage.
Moreover, Jemin's conjecture is not a wild guess, but a hypothesis that needs to be verified based on observed phenomena and existing data.
The only drawback is that there is too little direct evidence to support this hypothesis—that is, a large number of samples clearly indicate that the fights occurred because of the other party's ugliness.
A renewed passion for research ignited in the Starfall Wizard's eyes. She quickly said, "Those biological samples that you've influenced don't need special treatment! Not only do they not need it, but perhaps... the very existence of the wizards can serve as an excellent 'external stimulus variable' to be introduced into this experimental environment!"
"Observing how they react when faced with a third party that is completely different from each other, yet which they also regard as 'ugly,' is itself a valuable opportunity to study their intellectual evolution and social interaction!"
This suggestion piqued the interest of both Jemin and Viola, and they quickly began discussing this new possibility.
“We can design a control experiment,” Viola said quickly. “We can select several areas of similar size and intense conflict. In some areas, we can show our presence to a certain extent or even make some non-hostile contact. In other areas, we can send other creatures to make contact and see if the reactions of both sides will change. Will the appearance of a ‘uglier’ third party ease the conflict between them, or will other unexpected interaction patterns emerge?”
"Excellent idea!" The Starfall Wizard excitedly operated the control panel, beginning to divide the experimental area and set observation parameters. "We need to precisely control the variables and record all energy interactions, mental fluctuations, and changes in population behavior patterns... This may reveal a deeper connection between aesthetic preferences and social conflicts in the early stages of the birth of spiritual intelligence!"
“However, this would require a larger sample size for the experiment, which means creating more organisms… We can also use the imaginary elements to create more intelligent races, as well as the races we have modified, to test the two races. I can reimburse the consumption of the imaginary elements…” Jemin directly took out a tube of crystal containing super-compressed spiritual energy.
In the blink of an eye, the three wizards were fully immersed in the intense and efficient work of designing and deploying the experiment.
They busied themselves around the light screen and control panel, sometimes engaging in heated discussions, sometimes operating at lightning speed.
Anya was left standing there, watching her grandmother and the two guests instantly become absorbed in their research. She opened her mouth, but ultimately said nothing, her face filled with astonishment.
This... the topic shift and the change in research direction are too fast, aren't they?
We were just discussing dimensional rebellion and elemental supply, and now it's turned into a comparative experiment about "ugliness causing war"?
She quietly retreated to a corner, deciding not to disturb the three enthusiastic researchers who had clearly found new toys.
Looking at her grandmother's revitalized profile, Anya silently lit a candle for the two races still fighting to the death outside.
(End of this chapter)
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