Cyber ​​Sword Immortal Iron Rain

……

Although Bai Lu and his companions set out much later, Xin was not much late - it was even similar to the coincidence in the legend that Xin set foot on the land of Luzon Islands at a critical and delicate time point.

This was half due to the fact that he traveled alone and lightly, and did not need any safety measures to deal with the changes in the white coffin. Fang Bailu drifted in the sea for an extra week just to deal with the consequences and dangers caused by "his own" dream in the coffin. And Xin was so anxious and unwilling to waste even a moment of time, even in what might be his final farewell to Atong.

To reach Luzon from New Malaysia, one needs to cross the Sulu Sea, which is surrounded by Sabah and Medan. It now has a more fashionable and beautiful nickname, which is circulated among fishermen who catch and pick up waste from the water: "The Colorful Sea".

Every time the sun rises, it will shine on all kinds of electronic waste floating on the sea... The sparkling waves are even more colorful. And when the sun sets, in the vast sea that is not polluted by night light, the waste discharged by civilized society and slightly exhausted of energy on the sea surface will flash a little bit of brilliance, even brighter than the stars in the sky.

The inversion of the ocean and the sky - in a sense, this is also a metaphor for digital space: as every household in Luzon is equipped with a digging dojo, naturally there is also special imagination and analogy in this regard.

……

Originally, everything was normal - Xin even suppressed his impatience and worry, and appreciated the unique scenery of the Sulu Sea.

The abnormality began half a day after "that phone call": on the bumpy fishing boat, I answered a new call from Fang Bailu in Luzon, and heard him report that he was safe.

Of course, Xin did not answer with the truth... Unconsciously, he had gradually fallen in love with the convenience and flexibility of lies.

After that, only a few hours passed.

The so-called colorful sea changed color.

……

Suddenly, the Xinhe fishermen found themselves surrounded by "red" -

"Blood sea! Why is it a blood sea!"

The exclamation came from the boatman: But this description is not so appropriate... because the blood is not so bright; nor are these ugly human body fluids pouring into the sea.

What they saw was a bright red, glittering ocean.

This light and color did not come from the setting sun: the red of the waves did not have the slightest hint of the yellow of the sunset. The sea water flickered rhythmically at a frequency of nearly two beats per second, dyeing the entire Sulu Sea into a neon sea of ​​blood, flickering between dark red and bright red.

Only in the gaps between the blinding red lights could one see the source of the light: the scarlet lights came from the waste floating on the sea and in the water. No matter what kind of electronic components they were, they all lit up bright red in harmony with the chorus.

This is a light color that represents warning and error.

Uniform, yet silent——

……

There must have been some kind of error and anomaly that occurred in Luzon's digital space - and this chaos even extended outward, affecting countless wastes outside the archipelago and in the sea.

This may be a rare vision that you will never see again in your lifetime: if you ignore the dangers that lie within it...

Xin had no connection with the Internet. Apart from the basic Yin-Yang Sky Eye, he had not installed any other plug-ins. Therefore, the new information was completely delayed. Even the fisherman who brought him to Manila was unaware of what was happening in Luzon.

Otherwise, the fishermen might not agree to bring along the new proposal.

But at this moment, when anyone could see that something was wrong - the fisherman still abided by the agreement between him and Xin and brought the boy to the coast near Manila: it was not because the fisherman had a spirit of contract that was extremely absent in this era... but because of the sword that Xin pulled out of his spine and placed on his neck.

Indirect violence - deterrence and coercion, is sometimes more effective than direct killing: even in this short journey, Xin has a different understanding.

……

The first step he took into Manila was already a run: before the fishing boat reached the shore, he jumped over the rusted implants and rotten artificial organs on the deck that had not yet been screened and had been fished out from the sea surface and the seabed not long ago, and then suddenly jumped out; he rolled in the sand and smooth cyber garbage on the beach, and bounced up as if he was not affected by inertia—

Then, run at full speed.

This is not the Sanguriguato Village where Fang Bailu and his team landed, but another coast closer to Manila.

Even at such a close distance, Xin could still only vaguely sense the existence of that network of flesh and blood - not much stronger than when he was thousands of miles away in New Malaysia.

The Fang Bailu in the white coffin was either still asleep or already... dead. Xin knew better than anyone how huge and even endless the vitality of the Double Helix Wonderful Tree was - he should be the human who had been in contact with this way of immortality for the longest time among all living beings.

The only thing that made Xin feel a little relieved was the little emotions he extracted and sensed from the flesh and blood network...

He didn't really possess some kind of supernatural telepathic ability, and these emotional fragments were not transmitted through the neural pipelines of the ordinary network or wireless signals - but in the undegenerated and extremely developed vomeronasal organ of Xin, a special blend of pheromones in the air, which was a mixture of androstenone and estratetraenol, was captured -

If it hadn't been cracked and studied by some laboratories, this mixed pheromone that could carry dense messages would only come from the carrier of the double helix tree.

……

……

Chapter 316: The Unforgivable Sins (Part )

……

……

Dark

Blackness loomed over the road ahead of the new run.

I have never seen such a dark night, without a single ray of light: in the wilderness outside Kuala Lumpur, even at nightfall, the sky is enveloped by the light released by the endless cloud of advertisements in the city.

The children of the wilderness always have to learn to fall asleep in the brightness that shines through their eyelids and envelops their tightly closed eyes: the same is true for the new nature born in the wilderness.

As for the residents in the city... at least in Kuala Lumpur a few days ago, in the ruined city that was almost completely destroyed by the Xihe Girl, one could still find a little neon light: the lights in the city were never completely extinguished, or at least they were shrouded in a hazy halo; so that the homes of these survivors would not fall completely into the night.

……

And the dead silence—

There was no noise that people would make when they were living: even from the coast at the edge of Luzon Island to the scattered shacks in the city, there were occasional vehicles covered with plastic sheets on both sides of the road.

But there is no resident moving around outside. It is said that the ritual people of Luzon have multiple souls in one body, which makes their movements clumsy and always brings the noise of ping-pong: but no sound can be heard from those iron-clad huts.

Shin is still running... but he doesn't understand whether he is heading in the right direction. The electronic equipment that was originally prepared to guide Shin to Manila stopped working for unknown reasons.

Before this, he had tried to contact Fang Bailu: but it seemed that the network environment in Luzon was far more chaotic than he had imagined, and he could not get any response - and none of the other people who followed Fang Bailu to Manila gave Xin an answer.

But he had no choice: he would not stay where he was, waiting for the mobile computer to become usable again by chance or luck. He would just keep running straight in the direction he had chosen arbitrarily when he got off the boat.

Xin felt that this was definitely better than standing still and not moving forward.

……

I was running in the darkness - I didn't know if it was because of the thick clouds in the sky, but there was not a single moonlight shining down.

He had not modified the lens and membrane, nor had he replaced the eyeball itself to add light-free vision: in such a dark night, it was difficult for Xin to see the direction of the road ahead; if it were not for his limb coordination ability that was far beyond that of ordinary people, Xin would have been tripped by debris on the road and the wasteland.

click!

Once again… his new toes collided with the steel-like metal that stretched across the asphalt road. He was suddenly thrown off balance as he rushed forward at high speed, and his upper body was about to be thrown to the ground by inertia—

Snapped!

The new palm slammed down on the rough ground beneath his feet, then he flipped over using his palm and five fingers as a fulcrum, and once again landed lightly but tiredly.

"Is it in this direction?"

Finally, he felt a little confused and bewildered: although he had almost resolved every stumble, these rotations also unconsciously changed the direction of his running. However... he was not sure that he was heading towards Manila.

……

Just as this thought came to mind, something strange happened.

The night is no longer pitch black mixed with hazy gray—

Brand new colors diffused in the new vision.

It appeared at some unknown time...

fog.

At first, it was just a hint of crimson that emerged from the gray and black background.

It floats thinly in the night, spreading from the top of the new head to far away.

And now, there are some solid places, even like ribbons floating in the air, floating and extending to the distant border.

……

what is this?

Almost at the moment of seeing the strange color, the answer came to Xin's mind -

Because of the sudden mutation, he also appeared in a new body.

More, faster, and denser synapses are jumping around in the new brain, making his nerve plexus more prosperous and dense:

This was a sign that he was approaching the Double Helix Wonderful Tree.

Xin felt hungry and thirsty; his stomach and intestines spasmed and made noises because of the need for heat and nutrition. The sudden numbness, itching and pain in the front of his nasal cavity, and even the deformation caused by the swelling, made Xin pause for a moment: the vomeronasal organ - the blind sac and the accessory olfactory bulb in it were expanding and becoming more developed; they were used to capture and distinguish pheromones floating in the air.

……

The changes in these pheromone receiving organs are also reflected in other new senses:

The red mist that rose up and floated in the night sky was the pheromone released by the double helix tree to Xin, which was a visual signal naturally transformed in the brain. This extremely strong message was forcing Xin to experience it with all kinds of senses, including vision.

The hazy mist seemed to become clearer and clearer...

The new body was changing uncontrollably... and it was becoming more and more closely connected to the invisible red mist and the flesh-and-blood network formed by the pheromones - this had never happened in New Malaysia: whether it was when the Xihe girl was still sleeping in deep sleep, or when the new self was reborn with the way of immortality and regained his life...

Such an abnormality has never occurred before: it seems to symbolize something ominous.

……

Xin was once the incarnation of a user of the Way of Immortality, and later became a receptor derived from the Double Helix Wonderful Tree...

This gravitational force may represent the attraction from the giant tree of flesh and blood itself: just like the offspring instinctively want to return to the mother's body; Xin also longs to touch the double helix tree again.

Or maybe: Fang Bailu is calling him——

Is this true? Is it the dream talk in that head, welcoming the new coming?

……

Although all the electronic devices that Xin brought with him were damaged for unknown reasons and lost their original functions; and the unknown darkness also obscured the information that could be provided by his vision.

But from now on, Xin will never lose his way from this coast to Manila again.

Because in his field of vision, the red fog was becoming increasingly turbid and thick, spreading from above his head to the road ahead:

At the end of the guidance should be Fang Bailu’s head—and the double-helix tree.

……

With the red fog as a backdrop, Xin could vaguely distinguish the chaos floating over Manila:

Those incomparably clear stars that can be seen in the open ocean, near the sea, and even on the shore; when they pass through the zenith of Manila, they are swallowed up by the darkness that is like thick fog and a veil.

If it were a brightly lit weekday, the neon lights in the city would naturally overshadow the brilliance of the stars...

But now, Manila is completely dark: even if the backup energy still exists, there are not many machines that need to use electricity - and there is no way to hide the stars in the sky.

Can……

A strange object that was like a "lid" but only covered the sky enveloped the capital of Luzon.

……

……

Chapter 317: The Unforgivable Sins (Part )

……

……

The wonderful double helix tree - whether it is the mantis, Xin and Atala that are its derivatives, or the flesh and blood network based on the neural plexus and pheromones scattered in the air...

Ultimately, it is the recipient's perception of reality, and the reflection that appears in the material world. Whether it comes from Fang Bailu or Xihe Girl: the way of immortality is such a subtle and mysterious tool - to some extent, it confuses the boundary between the mind and the world, allowing humans to reproduce their thoughts and ideas in a distorted form in this world.

This is essentially no different from other tools created by humans after understanding and summarizing the laws governing the operation of the universe: it simply goes through a long process cycle and delivers the resulting results to the owner with extreme convenience.

The human mind is inherently chaotic, like a sea in a storm - and when this scene is somehow reproduced in the human world, it naturally carries with it that distortion.

……

Without any prior intelligence gathering, anyone can discover the hidden anomalies in Manila:

Xin, who had just arrived in Manila by water, also felt the danger in the air - this uneasiness came from the unknown: for people who are often immersed in the ocean of information, the claustrophobia of the Internet represents blindness.

Even the new city, which is only in the process of rebuilding Kuala Lumpur and gradually relying on the narrow space squeezed out by reality and data, cannot help but be enveloped by this worry.