American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

Shuen tried to activate the new ring on his hand.

The ring flashed with light, and a small, radiant sun materialized before him.

"Using this will make it easier to borrow the power of the main body, and it can also be used as a flashlight and a hand warmer."

Xiu En nodded with great satisfaction, giving high praise to both the feel and functionality.

Hal seemed to understand something as well.

"So, so-called willpower is just a trigger? A switch to activate some kind of greater power?"

He began to doubt whether he had been focusing on the wrong things in all his battles over the years.

"More or less."

Xiu En casually replied.

"Your ring was used as fuel by your willpower to ignite the main valve of that huge gas cylinder at the Legion headquarters. Oh, no, your willpower could work even without the main valve, thanks to the power of the Green Light. Next time, you can try using it without the ring."

My principle is similar, but the energy source and output method are completely different.

Hal fell silent. He looked at the green light ring on his hand, then at Shuen's gold ring, his eyes filled with confusion, but more than that, with a sense of understanding.

It turned out to be the case.

I understand!

At that moment, he suddenly felt a tiny bit of agreement with Xiu En's foodie theory, which he always talked about.

Xiuen's thoughts returned to the topic he cared about most.

"Since this most beautiful entity of will can provide the recipe, what about the other colored behemoths of light? Do they also only provide the recipe, or do some of them provide high-quality meat?"

Hal was finally pulled out of his reflection on his own power.

He was taken aback when he heard the question, then gave a wry smile.

He readily admitted his ignorance.

"I have no idea."

"Before this, I, and the entire Green Lantern Corps, always believed that only our green light and the forbidden yellow light existed in the universe."

"The Guardians have never told us anything about the emotional spectrum. So, like you, I know nothing about the other Lantern Beasts."

This was also the first time he admitted to an outsider that the Green Lantern Corps was not omniscient or omnipotent.

This candor, stemming from his newfound understanding, made him more peaceful in his attitude towards Xiu En.

He now resembles more of an adventurer about to embark on an unknown journey of exploration with his companions.

"but……"

"Since yellow represents fear, its lantern beast... is most likely something with a very low sanity level, extremely ugly, and capable of causing everyone who sees it to lose sanity like crazy. It can't possibly look like an ion shark, like a mascot."

"Ugly? That's precisely the point! The more oddly shaped the ingredient, the more surprisingly delicious it is!"

"ha?"

Hal felt that he would never be able to understand this guy's thought process.

Xiu En couldn't wait any longer; he pulled up Hal, who hadn't even reacted yet.

"Let's go! Next stop! We're going to try that sea urchin sashimi you mentioned! The ugliest in the universe, but definitely the best-tasting!"

Hal composed himself and began to seriously study the star map that the Guardian had transmitted to him.

As the legion's ace, he could recite the route maps of almost every sector of the known universe, but the map in front of him was filled with large blank areas and dark areas marked with the unknown and danger.

"How is it?"

Xiu En's clone came closer, glanced at the star map, and then decisively gave up trying to understand it.

"Have you found the location of that ugly sea urchin?"

"no."

Hal shook his head, a serious expression on his face.

He zoomed in on the star map and pointed to several coordinate points that were flashing with faint red, orange, and purple light.

"According to intelligence, the approximate activity areas of the Red Lantern Legion (Wrath), Orange Lantern Holders (Greed), and the Blue Stone Legion (Love) of the Purple Lantern Star are marked here."

His fingers traced across a vast expanse of empty space.

"But the yellow light, which represents fear, has no coordinates on the map related to its home planet or the light beast."

Hal frowned.

"That's not right. Fear, as a primal emotion, should have very intense energy fluctuations, and it's impossible for it to leave no trace at all."

"Could they be hiding themselves?"

Xiu En guessed.

"Possibly."

Hal nodded.

"It's also possible that the Guardians deliberately concealed these coordinates. Their fear of the yellow light far exceeds that of other spectra."

This thought cast a shadow over Hal's mind.

Just as the two were at a loss with the incomplete map, Hal's green light ring sounded an alarm.

He looked down and saw that the ring was automatically filtering and marking spectral energy sources on the star map that represented high levels of danger.

Then, a bright yellow dot appeared on the orbital map of sector 2814, the solar system, and the third planet.

The location of the light spot is Earth.

"Damn it!"

Hal couldn't help but swear.

"What's wrong?"

Xiu asked curiously.

"Your house is on fire?"

"Even worse than that!"

"The map shows a significant yellow alert has appeared on Earth!"

He zoomed in on the map again and again, finally pinpointing the coordinates to a name that made his eyelids twitch uncontrollably.

"Right here in Gotham!"

"Gotham again?!"

Hal had heard about the outrageous rumors that had recently surfaced in the city over the past few months.

What is this double sun in the sky? What is this metal god that eats metal? What is this man-eating plant? What is this prayer that heals and saves lives?

He always thought it was Barry Allen playing some silly joke on him again.

"It's still millions of light-years away from here to the next marked target, the Red Lantern Corps."

"The situation is this: either we continue to gamble on this incomplete map to the next star system, or we go back to Earth, to your damned homeland, and find a way to drag that yellow-glowing bastard out! You choose!"

He was too lazy to think about the conspiracies involved; he just wanted to resolve the tangible problems as quickly as possible.

Xiu En's eyes lit up.

"I have to go home! I wonder what new flavor of cookies Afu made today!"

"..."

Hal felt that his tolerance for this guy was about to reach its limit again.

Hal thought that Shuen would use that teleportation trick again.

But he was wrong again.

Shuen raised his hand towards Gotham, and the newly worn gold ring gleamed slightly.

The next second, before the two could even blink, the cold and monotonous space around them instantly transformed into a sea of ​​clouds dyed orange-red by the setting sun.

The strong winds high in the sky brushed against my face, carrying the scent of Earth's air.

Hal floated above the clouds, staring blankly at his green light ring, which he hadn't even had time to calculate the jump path, and then at the silhouette of the city bathed in the sunset in the distance.

He was completely stunned.

It's even dumber than before in the Ion Shark Nebula.

From the edge of a star field, they instantly returned to the solar system.

"Damn it!"

"What exactly is the working principle behind this ring?"

However, when he looked towards Gotham City, he witnessed the most bizarre and surreal scene of his life.

On the western horizon of the city, a normal-sized, orange-red sun was slowly sinking, turning the clouds in the sky into a magnificent sunset.

Directly above them, in the very center of the sky, another star, radiating golden light, hung steadily, illuminating the entire city of Gotham as bright as day!

Two suns in the sky?!

It's actually true!

Hal pointed to the extra golden sun in the sky, then to Shuen beside him, then to the sun again, and then back to Shuen...

His fingers were frantically circling in the air from shock, and his mouth was agape for a long time.

Aside from his trip to Gotham for the Crime Syndicate, he hasn't spent much time on Earth since, and even when he does come to Earth, he never goes back to Gotham.

I never imagined that what I heard before was actually true!

"Holy crap! Really?"

"Relax, field staff."

Before Hal could recover from the immense shock of the world he was experiencing, a figure emerged from the golden sun in the sky.

To be precise, it was the light of that sun that automatically converged and transformed into another Xiu En in front of Xiu En's clone.

This newly appeared Xiu En has a completely different aura from the purchasing agent Xiu En.

He was surrounded by a golden aura, and his eyes were calm and dignified, devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

He floated quietly in the air, seemingly merging with the sun behind him.

Without a doubt, he was the sun clone who worked in Gotham City and was responsible for maintaining the city's purification. And perhaps because of the twin suns in the sky, this Shuon looked much more serious than the Shuon next to Hal.

"Hi, you work upstairs."

Xiu En's clone, who was in charge of purchasing, waved and greeted his other self.

"How's work lately? Has Gotham's PM2.5 level been kept below 50?"

"The main sources of pollution have been largely eliminated. Only the underground sources of the curse remain stubborn, but Ivy has submitted a new landscaping renovation plan. Overall, everything is going smoothly. But I don't recommend you tell me this nonsense."

"Okay, okay."

Purchasing agent Xiu En shrugged.

"Have you noticed that in this city, there are some pungent yellow signals or fear energies, like spoiled stinky tofu?"

"Fear energy? My daily cleansing primarily targets large-scale leyline pollution and malice. I haven't really paid much attention to individual emotional energies."

"Can you scan it now, please?"

"That's what purchasing agent Xiu En said."

The Gotham Sun clone nodded, then closed its eyes.

The next second, the golden sun behind him shone brightly! Golden probes spread out from the zenith in all directions, enveloping the entire Gotham City!

While the Gotham Sun clone was conducting a city-wide scan, the Shuon clone, responsible for sourcing supplies, was also busy.

While the Gotham Sun clone was conducting a city-wide scan, the Shuon clone, responsible for sourcing supplies, was also busy.

Before he could even speak, the sunflower on his shoulder automatically turned towards Gotham City.

A green halo appeared at the edges of the petals, and they began to establish high-speed data connections with the microscopic plant network that spread throughout every corner of the city, even deep into the sewers and abandoned subway lines.

Ivy, the newly crowned Green Ruler of All Things in the Ximu Realm, is conducting a comprehensive search across every nerve ending in this world.

Compared to Xiu En's sweeping, macroscopic scans that seem to descend from the sky, her search method is more capable of easily capturing the emotional fluctuations hidden in the shadows of the concrete jungle.

"I think Xiaohua is more efficient than that silly Xiu En in the sky."

"The purchasing agent, Xiu En, said confidently."

Looking at the strange sight before him, Hal finally couldn't suppress his confusion.

He moved closer to Xiu En and pointed to the golden sun in the sky, which had entered silent scanning mode.

"that……"

He asked hesitantly.

"That one in the sky, he's you too, right?"

"uh-huh."

Xiu En nodded.

"Then why does he seem so different from you in terms of his demeanor?"

Hal struggled to organize his thoughts, trying to describe the feeling.

"He gives me a cold feeling, completely different from your... well... lively personality. Aren't you two clones of the same person? How can your personalities be so different?"

"Oh, you mean this?"

"A clone is essentially a part of us."

"The purchasing agent, Xiu En, said, raising his hand and conjuring a small ball of golden flame. He then had a leaf from the sunflower on his shoulder extend and gently brush over the flame.

"Each projection is like cutting a piece of raw dough of humanity from the original body. This dough itself has no flavor, but you can shape it into different shapes and put it in different ovens to bake, depending on the needs of the mission."

He pointed to the sun's doppelganger in the sky.

"For example, his mission is to maintain purification and absolute order. So he comes out and hangs in the sky as the sun, purifying and filtering negative energy. Heaven knows why Gotham has been purified so many times and still can continuously generate all kinds of negative energy."

"Usually, this kind of work is done by the main body, but since the main body is currently in the Ximu Realm, the clone is doing it. It's like putting a lump of dough in a furnace and baking it at a high temperature of 1,000 degrees Celsius for a long time. The moisture (humanity) inside will naturally be baked away, leaving only the hardest charcoal (divinity). So he seems less humane, unlike my lively and outgoing personality."

Purchasing agent Xiu En swayed his body, a hint of smugness in his voice: "And me, I need to experience different worlds. It's like turning dough into bread, distributing it among people, exchanging it, and letting it experience all sorts of things. This process gives the dough a variety of new flavors, and these flavors, in turn, make the original dough at home more human."

"Therefore, these clones are essentially social practices undertaken by the original body in different environments in order to maintain and refine its own humanity."

Hal Jordan fell silent.

He opened his mouth.

Comparing the training of human nature to baking bread?

But what's outrageous is that he actually understood it.

And I think this theory makes a damn good point!

Hal began to think about these questions he had never cared about before.

He looked at Xiu En beside him.

Perhaps this guy isn't as unreliable as he seems on the surface?

Just as Hal's thoughts drifted to the frontiers of the universe, two voices pulled him back to reality almost simultaneously.

"Found it."

The indifferent voice came from the sun's doppelganger at the zenith.

He slowly opened his eyes.

"A source of fear energy has been detected in the Gotham City center coordinate area, at longitude XX, latitude XX."

He reported to those below.

"The energy source is shielded by a complex architectural structure that mixes lead, asbestos, biotoxins, and various psychotropic drugs. The energy reaction is weak, but the properties are highly uniform."

Another sound came from the sunflower head on the shoulder of the purchasing agent, Xiu En.

"Hmph, I've locked it down on my end too."

Sunflower pouted.

"That smell... I know it all too well. It's from that abandoned cell at the very bottom of Arkham Asylum. It's Jonathan Klein. That Scarecrow bastard, messing around with his disgusting stuff again. This smell of dread... it's the same kind of thing he used to soak seeds!"

Both intelligence reports ultimately pointed to the same person.

"scarecrow?"

Purchasing agent Xiu En's expression turned amused.

"He's out again? And where did he get the yellow-light energy?"