’Human King...’

’The worthy shall rule...’

Lin Feng muttered to himself...

’It sounds very tempting.’

Seeing Lin Feng’s thoughtful expression, the corners of Ling Yi’s mouth curved up slightly.

"Your human race has enormous genetic potential, especially in the spiritual aspect. In the future, you may evolve many High Tier powerhouses who possess a Mental Realm..."

"But your race’s evolutionary process is still too short. By taking this shortcut of mechanical evolution, you’d have to wait at least a thousand years before you could return to the true path and begin individual evolution and Awakening."

"For now, your accumulated genetic reserves are not substantial. You’ll need to absorb and learn from other races to eventually form your own Genetic Library."

"And that, too, will require a long process of integration and evolution."

"Otherwise, you’ll end up like the Genetic Warriors or the Samurai Hunter Zergs—just aberrant monsters, forcibly stitched together."

"It’s fast, but the future drawbacks are far greater."

Lin Feng frowned slightly.

"Are there no races in this Cosmos that have taken other evolutionary paths?"

"Like the Mechanical Ascension you just mentioned..."

The upturned corners of Ling Yi’s mouth twisted into a sneer.

"Of course there are. But most of them are the losers of interstellar wars. That’s why they give up their flesh-and-blood bodies to survive as mechanical vassals to more powerful beings."

Lin Feng was stunned. In his mind, Mechanical Ascension was incredibly powerful. Its lethality and unit production speed were in no way inferior to the Zerg Race’s.

In fact, Lin Feng’s plan for the future was for Chen Yanyan to follow this very evolutionary path. With her Mechanical Pioneering Superpower, she could one day command an entire fleet and become a true War Queen.

But now, hearing it from Ling Yi, the strength and status of mechanical beings seemed to be extremely low in the grand cosmic scheme of things...

So he retorted,

"That... that’s impossible. The production speed of a mechanical assembly line is far faster than the cultivation of flesh-and-blood life. Even something as powerful as your Zerg Race’s Biological Nests can’t match the productivity of a factory."

"Besides, their energy consumption is far lower than that of biological organisms. They can cut their power and enter a standby state when inactive, further reducing their energy requirements."

"Given equal resources, the combat strength of a civilization that has undergone Mechanical Ascension should definitely be stronger than one that evolved through flesh and blood."

Ling Yi looked at Lin Feng’s incredulous expression, let out a soft chuckle, and continued along his line of argument.

"You’re right that mechanical beings have low energy consumption. If an entire race were to undergo Ascension, they could survive right up until the day their Origin Star System faces its demise."

"But races that choose this path have two possible fates. The first is to upload the consciousness of the entire race into a digital network, becoming, in our terms, spiritual entities in an artificial Realm."

"If they continue down that path, the culmination of their evolution will just be a matrix of computers deep Underground or in orbit around their star, serving as a vessel for their consciousness."

"They cease all contact with the outside world. Over time, their internal spiritual forms degrade as the program glitches and eventually collapses. So, how is that any different from being dead?"

"As for the second option, cybernetic modification: they transform their flesh-and-blood bodies completely into mechanical ones and form a mechanical Legion. This is probably similar to the fleet under your command..."

"But here’s the problem: this Cosmos is not lacking in powerhouses. Basically, any race capable of interstellar colonization has Cosmic Life forms among them. And for a being of that caliber, even a Nuclear Bomb can hardly scratch them."

"Tearing apart large Mechas or mechanical life with their bare hands is a trivial matter for them."

At this, Ling Yi gestured toward a nearby primitive planet.

"Look at this Mental Realm World. It requires an extremely high energy density to form and be maintained."

"And to give birth to a Mental Realm—or in the future, a Divine Realm—you need an environment of negative entropy to maintain a stable order."

"A flesh-and-blood body, with its massive energy consumption, is the best vessel for cultivating a Mental Realm. As you just mentioned, mechanical modification greatly reduces the need for Energy..."

"Consequently, no mechanical race in this Cosmos has ever produced a Tier Four being or higher."

"Of course, in some remote Star Systems, even races that have evolved Tier Four Life might undergo a degree of cybernetic modification to reduce their energy consumption."

"But they don’t do what you described—have the entire race adopt mechanical bodies as vessels and chips as souls. Cutting themselves off from the outside world is a rejection of integration with the Cosmos. Their destiny can only be stagnation, bringing their entire civilization to a halt."

"An evolutionary path that can’t achieve a qualitative leap will, no matter how great its numbers, be consumed by the ever-increasing entropy of the cold Cosmos and eventually decay into nothing..."

Lin Feng was profoundly shaken by Ling Yi’s theory. The underlying logic was to fight the entropy of the Cosmos with one’s own negative entropy.

And that process of negative entropy was to evolve the most energy-intensive organ—the brain—to give birth to spiritual consciousness, condense a Mental Realm, and finally Upgrade it into a Realm.

This was also what Ling Yi had been referring to as a Divine Realm.

He thought back to the Hive Will Divine Realm she had summoned using a Realm Secret Technique...

Although she later explained that the Void Divine Realm had possessed less than one-ten-thousandth of the complete version’s Divine Power.

And yet, his own Spiritual Attribute, which had already broken its limits and surpassed a thousand points, had been like a speck of dust in the wind before it—so insignificant it was barely perceptible.

Perhaps only a Tier Four Life that had completely mastered a Mental Realm would even qualify as an ant in the eyes of the Deities.

As for mechanical civilizations, they could only quickly sweep through developing, primitive races on a planet. On a cosmic scale, it was just as Ling Yi had said,