The Last Sentinel

What exactly does the Perfect City look like?

This brings us to the question of what Neanderthals meant by the concept of perfection.

The same gesture can have different meanings in different tribes.

The same word can have different meanings among different ethnic groups.

Neanderthals appeared 400,000 years ago, reached their peak 200,000 years ago, becoming top predators and the de facto rulers of Earth.

Two hundred thousand years ago, Earth was in the Little Ice Age, with cold temperatures, thin oxygen, and ninety percent of its surface covered by ice and snow.

In this environment, Neanderthals, compared to Homo sapiens, demonstrated superior cold resistance, mastered Mouster stone forging, and were adept at hunting mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, cave bears, and Homo sapiens.

However, the climate fluctuated drastically. With the arrival of the last glacier, temperatures began to rise, the ice caps that had frozen the oceans melted, and Neanderthals scattered in various places. The large food sources they relied on became extinct. Lacking the ability to run and endure, they were surrounded by more and more Homo sapiens and eventually disappeared.

From the history of Neanderthal development, it is not difficult to find a key factor: temperature!

To be more precise, it was cold!

Cold and glaciers were the golden age in the hearts of Neanderthals, and also the era of Neanderthal rule.

Therefore, the perfection that Neanderthals spoke of was not the flawless perfection that Homo sapiens spoke of, but rather coldness, absolute coldness!

The true definition of the perfect city is a cold city, a city of ice and snow, a city of dominance, a city of glory, or perhaps—an imperial capital.

The Battle of Perfect City was the second major inter-ethnic war waged by Homo sapiens against Neanderthals.

In this battle, Homo sapiens will not leave any Neanderthals alive as they did last time; they will carry out a complete cleansing at the genetic level!

Cherry blossoms are in full bloom at the foot of Mount Fuji.

Nestled among the trees, a shrine stands quietly and secluded.

Asama Shrine, full name Fuji-Omuro Asama Shrine, is a shrine with a long history of about 1,500 years. Legend has it that among the first group of envoys to Tang Dynasty China, there was a priest named Shigen Akimasa who learned the finest craftsmanship from Tang China. He built the highest shrine on the summit of Mount Fuji, symbolizing the shrine closest to Amaterasu and Takamagahara. His descendants were highly valued by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, who then allocated the entire Mount Fuji to the shrine, making Mount Fuji his private territory.

At the Fuji Pass, the steps of Asama Shrine still bear the traces of yesterday's snowflakes.

Amidst the silent rustling, a figure draped in a black cloak appeared outside the gates of Asama Shrine.

The shrine seemed to have anticipated the arrival of the enemy, and its dilapidated wooden door creaked open.

An elderly shrine man in white robes, nearing the end of his life, limped out of the shrine's wooden gate, leaning on a cane and wearing wooden clogs. Looking down at the dozens of figures in black cloaks densely packed below the steps, a hint of emotion flickered in his old eyes. "They look so alike! Exactly the same as the Heavenly Army of the Tang Dynasty left by my ancestor."

The man in the black cloak lifted it, revealing a young and energetic face. "You are Shigen Akinobu, a descendant of Shigen Akimasa?"

The old man looked at the young man. "Sir Sentinel? This old man has seen guests from the Tang Dynasty before!"

Ye Feng said, "The Red Right Hand team told me they had already cleared the area beforehand, but you refuse to leave and say you want to see me. Say what you have to say now!"

The old man said, "My ancestors were among the first to be sent to Tang China. They were fortunate enough to go to the Great Tang and stayed in Chang'an for thirty years. My ancestors identified themselves as Tang people and disliked Japan. After returning to Japan, they still identified themselves as Tang people. All the women in my family are Tang people, and this tradition has been passed down to this day. Although I have a Japanese surname, I am actually a Tang person, no different from you."

Ye Feng said, "So, you want me to spare your life and that of the shrine?"

The old man turned to look at the shrine behind him and said, "Whether this shrine or I have a way out is no longer important. The Tang army has arrived, and both thunder and rain are divine grace. However, there is one thing that has been passed down from my ancestors. It is not right for it to be passed on to foreign lands. This thing is a Tang item and should belong to you, a Tang person."

Ye Feng asked, "What is it?"

The old man raised his hand and took out an object. This object was about the size of a palm and resembled an ancient tiger tally. However, unlike the tiger tally, this object was radiant with bronze light. On the front, there was the official script of the Tang Dynasty government, which read from left to right: "Right Valiant Guard Hundred-Household Officer of the Great Tang Dynasty".

As he spoke, the old man raised his hand and sent the Tang Dynasty token into Ye Feng's hand.

Ye Feng held the object and examined it carefully. He discovered that the back of the bronze token was decorated with some strange patterns that he could not understand. At first glance, these patterns were quite similar to the legendary Sanxingdui culture, but at first glance, they did not seem to belong to the decorative patterns of the Tang Dynasty.

Ye Feng asked, "What is this? Which government office in the Tang Dynasty did your ancestor obtain it from?"

The old man at the shrine said, "This item is called the Star Token, also known as the Star Plate. It was bestowed upon my ancestors by Lord Yuan Tiangang, the Director of the Imperial Observatory of the Great Tang Dynasty. Lord Yuan Tiangang also left a message saying that if the Tang people ever come to Japan, please return this item to them."

Ye Feng hesitated and asked, "Yuan Tiangang, the great geomancer and expert in fortune-telling from the Tang Dynasty?"

Ye Feng dared not harbor even the slightest feudal or traditional thoughts when it came to these ancient Chinese figures.

As you can see, the stone tablet in Luoyang, the capital of China, depicting the first duel between Zu Chongzhi and the God Formula, is still vivid in our minds.

The ruins of Shendu, excavated during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian, are still in use today and remain as solid as a rock. They don't need any repairs at all; at most, they might be expanded.

This shows that the ancient arts of geomancy and fortune-telling, in an era when spiritual energy still existed, were absolutely comparable to modern science.

But why is Yuan Tiangang giving me this thing?

There were no instructions either!

Could this be the key to some great Tang Dynasty treasure?

Or perhaps, this is a sacred relic of China?

Speaking of which, Long Yan mentioned so many other sacred relics from around the world, but why were China's sacred relics never mentioned? China should theoretically have the most sacred relics, yet Long Yan didn't mention a single one. On the other hand, Japan still has this token.

Ye Feng asked, "Besides this item, has Lord Yuan Tiangang instructed you on anything else?"

But in front of Ye Feng, the old man from the shrine had already closed his eyes and was no longer moving.

King Arthur stepped forward, scanned his wrist with the scanner, and said, "The man is dead, boss."

Ye Feng glanced at the shrine and said, "Let's see this shrine and its owner off."

The knight behind him skillfully threw out an incendiary bomb, and soon after, a huge flame shot into the sky.

Amidst the snow-capped mountains, the flames of the shrine and the white snow-capped peaks create a breathtaking scene.

Some containment teams patrolling the area noticed the situation and approached.

"MTF - Jia Shen Strategy Team Report!"

"MTF—Xin Chen·Ji Tianping has met the Order of Punishment Knights."

"BRF—Initial Control Team has met with the Sentinel."

"..."

The closer they got to the top of Mount Fuji, the more containment teams came into view. Most of them were ordinary C-class or B-class teams. Teams with letters in their names were logistics and order teams. Only the A+ teams without prefixes were the main combat teams.

For ordinary squads, seeing Ye Feng's squad was like ordinary people seeing celebrities; they all looked at those squads with envy. If it weren't for battlefield discipline, the line of people asking for autographs would definitely be incredibly long.

"sentinel!"

A middle-aged commander in a silver-white combat uniform saw Ye Feng and approached him excitedly, "Finally here! What took you so long! We've been assembled here for three hours!"

Ye Feng asked, "How's the situation?"

The commander said, "After receiving your request for battle, Captain Zhao said you were being too slow. The space carrier is ready and can clear the roads at any time to directly open a passage to the underground world."

"Wait a minute," Ye Feng said, "Can't we go directly to Perfect City?"

The commander raised his hand and pointed, and a three-dimensional projection map appeared in the night sky in front of him.

First, a blue planet appeared, then the location of Fusang on the planet began to zoom in, and then the entire map presented a topographical structure with a vertical cross-section from the front.

The regional distribution of Perfect City is completely different from that of [Luoyang, the Divine Capital].

【Luoyang, the Divine Capital】is a standard artificial space excavated from beneath the earth's crust, thus creating a base for Homo sapiens.

The Neanderthals' perfect city was not just an underground base; it was an underground world.

They dug straight through the earth's crust, reaching the boundary of the Fusang continental plate. Then, they forcibly excavated all the soil beneath the plate, creating a vast underground world. It is said that there is even a sun, a moon, mountains, and rivers inside.

Of course, the most prominent color was still glacial white, and coldness was the dominant color of the entire Neanderthal culture.

The middle-aged commander pointed to the map and said, "As you can see, from the surface to the Earth's interior, the order is: crust, ocean, mantle lithosphere, mantle asthenosphere, mantle mesosphere, outer core, inner core, and core stellar source."

"The Fusang region is, strictly speaking, the collision zone between the Pacific Plate and the Eurasian Plate."

"This place is very interesting. When the Eurasian Plate was pushed up by the Pacific Plate, a huge gap was created between the two plates. This gap preserves a large-scale scene from the Ice Age and is sealed between the rock layer and the asthenosphere, so it has been well preserved."

"After the Neanderthals discovered this place, they began to excavate and lay out the site."

"They started this project around the Middle Ages. First, they dug a 90000-meter-long vertical tunnel through the continental plates, directly connecting to the surface of the Paleozoic continent. Then, they built a very complex stellar energy introduction device along this 90-kilometer-long tunnel. By aligning the particles of sunlight and filtering out excess ultraviolet rays, they created ancient sunlight that was closest to that of the Neanderthal era when they ruled the Earth!"

Ye Feng crossed his arms and said, "On an ancient glacial continent, they created ancient sunlight that's closest to that of the Ice Age. What are the Neanderthals trying to do?"

The middle-aged commander's eyes gleamed. "It's simple. They want to recreate the living environment from the Ice Age."

Ye Feng asked, "Will it work?"

The commander did not reply, but at that moment, a sound came from the chat group.

Hongmeng's First Deepest Affection: Hey guys, these heretics back home are something else! This looks so familiar...

Wuji Demon Lord: Neanderthals are creating a planetary origin, or rather, the will of the Great Dao!

Ye Feng: The Will of the Great Dao? What is that?

Wuji Demon Lord: This concept is still quite far removed from your current stage of cultivation. How can I describe it to you? Simply put, the ancient continent where Perfect City is located gave birth to a god. This god is the god of that continental plate. That god said spiritual energy exists, so spiritual energy exists on that continental plate. However, your surface has no spiritual energy, or rather, even if it does, it is already in the end times of spiritual energy. When you Homo sapiens on the surface attack Perfect City on the ancient continent, don't be fooled by the fact that it's on Earth; it's practically the same as time travel!

Ye Feng: What you mean is that entering the ancient continent is a completely unfamiliar little world. The physical rules and even scientific theorems on the surface of our Earth do not exist in the perfect city of the ancient continent.

Wuji Demon Lord: It's not that it doesn't exist, but rather that its effect is very limited.

HarmonyOS's First Deepest Affection: In short, be prepared to face a game with maximum negative buffs on the road!

Fifteenth-level martial artist: To put it bluntly, you might not even see Charlie before you start experiencing various negative buffs such as dizziness, weakness, bleeding, and unconsciousness!

After listening to the expert's advice, Ye Feng suddenly became more vigilant about the Perfect City Ancient Continent. He turned to the commander beside him and said, "Do you think it's possible that we could drop a doomsday bomb along this 90-kilometer underground tunnel, causing a massive underground explosion that would completely destroy this ancient continent?"

The commander shook his head vigorously, "We've tried this trick before. Back in World War II, when Atlantis was carrying out its punitive operation against Fusang, Atlantis used this trick. At that time, Atlantis directly sent thirty doomsday bombs. The commander at the time was full of confidence, thinking that one doomsday bomb could destroy the Antarctic continent, so this would be a piece of cake."

"But in fact, once the doomsday bomb was inside, the operating procedures were completely interrupted, and we lost the ability to remotely control the doomsday bomb."

"Later, the Human Alliance dispatched multiple containment teams to conduct underground surveys, discovering that the physical laws and rules of the ancient continent in the underground world are different from those of our surface world!"

"Although it's only a 90-kilometer vertical distance, it's like two different worlds!"

"To put it bluntly, there doesn't seem to be a physics section down there! A containment team reported seeing Neanderthals flying down there..."

At this point, the commander glanced cautiously to his left and right. "Sir Sentinel, you mustn't spread this around, or you'll end up in a mental hospital. The world down there is utterly absurd; it's not materialistic at all, it's like a completely idealistic, charlatan civilization!"

Ye Feng nodded, inwardly exclaiming in surprise, "What the commander said is exactly the same as what the big shots predicted!"

Sure enough, despite the fact that it is only 90 kilometers away as the crow flies, or a half-hour drive away, it is a surface world, a secondary ancient continent.

This really does echo Lu Xun's words.

Strategically, we should despise the enemy; tactically, we should take the enemy seriously.