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Mi refused to speak to Al anymore. Every day she would close her eyes and tell herself, "I'm dreaming, wake up, wake up."
"What's wrong with her?" Joe asked, watching as Mi lay down on the grass again, refusing to communicate.
“She was frightened by the witch’s abilities,” El said with a smile. “She thought that we, who came from different worlds, should not be able to communicate, and the way conscious beings communicated frightened her.”
"Wouldn't that make her realize quickly that she's not human?"
“I don’t know. She thinks that humans are a species created by the witches.” El said after a moment of confusion. “I used to think so too, but humans are just a species that wants to break free from divinity, and the witches just want to help humans complete this process.”
“I know, I know, a shaman is a shaman, not a person.”
"God is very powerful. Not only can humans not escape it, but even the shamans who once coexisted with humans cannot escape divinity."
“It’s okay, El, it’s okay, I’ll be with you wherever you are.” Joe hugged El and repeated it over and over again.
Mi sat down on the rock in the middle of the forest again, trying to cheer herself up. This time, she would listen to whatever El said and never argue back. Then she would leave as quickly as possible. Mi really couldn't find a way to wake up from this dream.
Al and Joe sat down opposite Mi. This time, Mi stared at Al's mouth and asked, "Do you think a person can possess both divinity and humanity at the same time?"
“Of course, humans are products of genes,” El smiled, her red lips moving as she spoke one word after another. “When a child is first born, divinity is dominant, and as long as he is fed and clothed, that’s enough. As he grows up, family, social traditions, and culture begin to educate and influence him, and humanity gradually becomes his dominant attribute.”
"Can't humans abandon their divinity?"
“No, without divine reproduction, there would be no humans, even though some people now refuse to have children. But God knows the hardship of reproduction, and that's why He emphasized pleasure.” El smiled bitterly. “Suffering can be abandoned, but pleasure is something we don’t want to give up. Humans are always making choices, and the development of civilization has provided the option of leaving only pleasure without the pain of procreation. Part of it is the technological means you see, and part of it is that humans have other choices. Same-sex love is just as pleasurable, but without the hardship of procreation.”
“You’re talking!” Mi pointed at El’s mouth. El’s laughter echoed in Mi’s ears. This time, El smiled with her mouth tightly shut. Mi couldn’t help but run out. If she wasn’t dreaming, El must be a terrible witch. Oh, this witch wasn’t terrible at all; she was actually quite beautiful. She was leading Mi down the path of witchcraft.
Mi wandered along the River of Lost Souls. El said that God created pleasure for procreation; the pleasure of fish and water is pleasure, and enjoyment is still pleasure. So, is all of this because of procreation? Imprisonment, invasion, expansion—all are ultimately for the sake of procreation. What a ridiculous yet blatant reason! Human desires and divine desires have ultimately unified; for thousands of years, nothing has been more true than this.
Mi understood why the witches didn't want to return to their original world. Mi also wanted to see the outside world, to see how other species lived, and whether there were any differences. While trying to convince herself otherwise, Mi couldn't help but realize that in any survival mode, expansion was inevitable, and all expansion was ultimately for exploitation. Was war truly eternal, while peace was merely a temporary accumulation of power?
"Divine reproduction is merely traditional, simple reproduction, while humans... humans have broken through the limitations of the reproductive cycle," El said. "Humans learned to hoard food for better survival, and they broke through the constraints of the reproductive cycle to reproduce more. This led to the emergence of tribes, nations, and states, constantly fighting for larger reproductive territories and more resources..."
"You mean the purpose of a nation is still reproduction?" Mi thought for a moment and said, "A nation has another method, which is through immigration, to increase the population. Is the nature of a nation still reproduction?"
“You can think of it this way: any country will pay attention to population growth.” Al thought of the Sixth Elder, who had given birth to thirteen children. She was Morabi’s mother. Given the right conditions, women would become nothing more than breeding machines.
Is divinity invincible?
"Some countries on Earth have experienced negative population growth for a long time. Do you think these countries will disappear?"
"Uh, I don't think so. Those are all very developed countries. If they want to, it's easy for them to immigrate."
"Didn't you notice?"
"What did you find?"
“A powerful nation will plunder the people of weaker nations, just as a strong tribe in earlier times would plunder the women and children of other tribes. This is just a variation in reproduction, using women from other countries to bear their own children.” El thought for a moment before saying, “In the eyes of the Earthlings, the West is a more civilized society. You know bandits, right? They commit crimes, arson, murder, and robbery without any scruples, but they are very loyal within their own bandit dens. They won’t commit crimes within their own dens. So-called colonies are just entire countries full of bandits, plundering the wealth and people of the colonized countries. I think those civilized nations are still plundering the people and labor of other countries, only the methods are no longer so blatant.”
“You’re right, but there’s no solution. Nations also exist for reproduction. As long as nations exist, divinity will not be lost, and plunder will not disappear.” Mi lowered his head and thought for a while before saying, “With the development of technology, artificial wombs may appear.”
Have you forgotten what a new life needs?
"Egg and sperm—I do know about that."
El smiled again: "Although I haven't experienced it firsthand, I know that egg retrieval is a very painful and lengthy process, and the whole process is no easier than giving birth to a child."
“You’re right,” Mi lowered her head again. “Do you think there will be a day when artificial eggs will appear? After all, we’ve already started gene screening.”
"Is that even human?"
“An artificial human?” Mi smiled. “That would completely solve the population problem, and divinity would never disappear.”
"Do you think the first cell that was placed on Earth was man-made?" El suddenly asked a question.
“Huh?” This time it was Mi’s turn to be dumbfounded. “So, are silicon-based life forms man-made? Silicon-based life forms are more stable and better adapted to harsher environments than carbon-based life forms.”
“You shouldn’t ask me that,” El said, looking up. “You should ask the guy up there who’s fiddling with the experimental cassettes. Maybe silicon-based life forms also have experimental cassettes. After all, according to your thinking, the witch, as a conscious life form, is already living inside an experimental cassette.”
"Ah, please forget my nonsense." Mi smiled sheepishly, and the little air figure shrank even more. "I still want to learn how to become a witch."
“You’ve forgotten that witches perceive and understand the world through observation.” A bright blue light, like that of sapphires, gathered in El’s bright eyes. “As an experimental subject, one is naturally observed; as a witch, one can also use the characteristics of witches to conduct counter-observation.”
“That’s quite a novel perspective.” Mi chuckled awkwardly, then asked, “According to what you said, if witches are only about observation, perception, and insight, then humans shouldn’t be so different from animals.”
“You’ve finally figured it out,” El smiled slightly. “If an animal’s killing is restrained, it’s because it’s already full. Humans’ killing instinct, amplified by witchcraft, should turn them into monsters that only know how to kill.”
Mi nodded: "Since the shaman is a channel, it can't only lead to the good side, of course I'm talking about the good in the secular sense."
“It seems you’ve accepted becoming a true witch,” El stood up. “Witches also have the ability to infiltrate and guide.”
What does this mean?
“There is no such thing as fairness in the animal kingdom. For animals, the way to solve problems is to fight.” Mi nodded, and El continued, “After forming tribes, humans then formed nations. The fundamental reason is that humans avoided the solution of fighting.”
"You said that humans established these rules."
“These rules are not static; humanity has been constantly revising them,” Al raised a hand. “Of course, some rules are just worded differently. But you must admit that, provided that both sides, or even multiple sides, abide by the rules, humanity has maintained peace.”
"Is this the work of a shaman?"
"Humans have learned to think and to find better solutions, and I think that's what the shaman brought about."
Mi lowered his head and pondered for a while: "Can I understand it this way: the tyrannical part of humanity was brought by the gods, while the part you promised was brought by the witches?"
“No, it is a human choice. The shaman only provides a direction,” Al said. “For example, when a person leaves his habitat under the influence of a shaman, those who follow him are not affected by the shaman. It is still a human choice.”
"Not everyone is a witch?"
“A person is a person. The first person who was parasitized by the witch may have done something extraordinary, but those who followed him must be human.”
"If that's the case, how can people make progress?"
"The problem comes full circle. It's about divinity, or heredity," Al said. "When the first person parasitized by the witch had their brain exercised, the brains of her offspring would be a little larger. That's heredity."
"The witch doctor made people's brains bigger?"
"I think so. Generation after generation of shamans have trained the human brain time and time again, and the expansion of brain capacity is an inevitable consequence."
"In modern society, the human brain volume is almost the same in different countries, but the laws and treatment methods vary greatly from country to country."
“Family, society, nation, tradition, and culture are all the crystallization of human nature; this is civilization.” El said with some sadness, “I’ve said before that it is still humanity’s own choice, and the shaman cannot make decisions for humanity.”
"You mean, even after knowing the differences, humans still made different choices."
"right."
"Why?"
“The simplest point is—you don’t know the pain until you’re cut yourself.” El’s gentle tone was full of compassion. “Empathy is the power of a witch, a power that not everyone possesses.”
"Does that mean that humans don't walk in other people's shoes?" Mi pondered for a moment. "There's a proverb: Before judging someone, walk a mile in their shoes."
"Yes, humans are all different, and all a witch can do is observe."
"Why a witch?"
“No pain can compare to the pain women experience during childbirth, which is why many witches stop parasitizing other witches and return to the witch forest.” El said with a touch of sadness. “Honestly, I think witches who parasitize men enjoy it. They might parasitize again after they break free from their host.”
Are there few male witches in the Witch Forest?
“I don’t know. There are fewer and fewer new witches. You are the first in nearly a hundred years. The last one was Joe. You both came from Earth.” El thought sadly. “I don’t know if the witches are unwilling to return or have found new hosts.”
"Why did I come here?" Mi asked. "Just because I accidentally fell and was captured by the Witch Forest?"
“First, you must not want to die. Only a strong desire to live can generate a powerful consciousness that can be detected by the Witch Forest,” El continued. “Also, you must be a witch. There are many kinds of conscious life, and not every kind is a witch.”
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