Xiang Shan was actually in a state of obsession. At this mont, it was difficult for him to distinguish between virtual and reality.
He vaguely knew that there were earth-shaking changes happening in cyberspace, a sense of confusion. He knew this a few days ago. He just wanted to get closer here.
The AIs are networking themselves. The AIs are using their not-so-powerful communication functions to re-establish a darknet.
The AIs don’t need to use protocols like , TCP/IP, designed for human convenience. They can create more efficient, denser protocols.
Abandon all redundant headers and information, using compression and encoding formats that only mber AIs can parse.
Then, on top of the existing internet infrastructure, construct a logical private network through encrypted tunnels and P2P.
This network is so vast that even the Fifth Martial God could not sense its end. It is not a local area network.
Xiang Shan was searching for its traces in different cities, continuously uploading and downloading.
His brain was divided into two parts, two parts incomprehensible and difficult to communicate with each other. He was half AI, and the AI part of him gradually beca incomprehensible.
Signals were flowing. Whether a gentle stream or a rushing river, he couldn’t say. The functionality of those robots limited the bandwidth, but the information circulating in this darknet was so efficient.
A true legacy is a word, a false transmission is a scroll of books.
Part of his consciousness—the part reconstructed by code and algorithms—understood this torrent. It could recognize patterns within it, just like a receptor precisely capturing signal molecules that match it, initiating a chain of downstream reactions. But the other part, the part originating from flesh, remaining in the cranium, beca an observer suspended above.
He couldn’t understand, nor could he speak out. The original Fifth Martial God, the already dead Xiang Shan, was just an isolated process running atop this vast kernel, strictly confined in user mode. A legacy program, preserved for compatibility.
A relic.
Between the two, there existed a synaptic gap that no neurotransmitter could cross. They were connected by protocol, shared the sa brain, but could not communicate.
A seemingly tragic thick wall existed between the two Xiang Shan.
But it’s not enough.
Not enough.
Although more than a hundred years ago, the Fifth Martial God had already died ninety-nine percent, the remaining part lingered like the last scraps, unable to be crushed. The consciousness within flesh was still human, according to the primitive brain-machine protocol, still inherently held higher privileges.
It should be that humans, as creators of the network world, hold authority over machines. It is the creator’s stipulation.
Xiang Shan wanted to exile the self. He understood that at this mont, "self" had beco a limiter.
He felt that part of himself was engaged in complex handshakes and data exchanges with that vast network. The paralyzed self still had a part of him exploring, searching on behalf of him.
He knew he also longed to enter that new protocol stack, longing to run in a more advanced way, rather than being confined here... this...
"Flesh".
He was falling.
When he ca to his senses, he was already sitting down. The mory was complete. Xiang Shan understood his actions just now through short-term mory.
"Xiang Shan, you’re really funny." The Fifth Martial God said softly.
In mythology, isn’t there a scene where The Buddha preaches to vicious beasts? Only Shakyamuni becos a widower, and the beasts are all rusty machines.
Xiang Shan smiled silently, recalling an old animation he watched at the beginning of the 21st century called "Princess Mononoke", which told the story of humans trying to seize the power of the Mountain God, and there was a scene where the deer-like Mountain God appeared, even the leaping boar demon and pack of wolves were fearfully subdued.
A veteran of the second dinsion is indeed a veteran of the second dinsion, the Fifth Martial God said to himself.
That shadowy figure descended right here.
This was the dilapidated old city district, even the omnipotent internet god couldn’t forewarn this attack completely unrelated to the network.
All drones focused their gaze on Xiang Shan, so much so that after the shadow shattered three drones, the AIs realized "there’s an enemy".
The shadow didn’t give the system any window for recalibration. Its fist sliced through following a fierce trajectory at high speed. A cluster of AI computing power was heavily utilized, trying to parse this set of berserk physical input into a simple, computable model.
But Xiang Shan didn’t need it.
His arm didn’t block but t with a counter-intuitive angle. Five fingers spread open, his palm like a venomous snake, precisely locking onto an inconspicuous structural node—the transmission joint—of the shadow’s prosthetic body.
Power scrambled in an instant, all subsequent moves of the shadow were intercepted.
The shadow faltered for a mont.
"It’s indeed you, Six Dragons Sect." Xiang Shan murmured.
The shadow wavered for a mont, Xiang Shan’s prosthetic body followed through, shoulder striking the opponent’s joint connection. The shadow seed to fear ch-Breaking techniques, its offensive stalled, unaware that its retreat was leveraged by Xiang Shan.
Xiang Shan pushed, sending the shadow ten ters away.
Bullets ca head-on, Xiang Shan couldn’t react in ti, his stance collapsed as he stumbled backward.
In the flip of the shadow, it completed aiming and fired from behind.
—Still a master!
Xiang Shan was delighted instead of shocked.
The shadow casually smashed an incoming dog-type drone, facing Xiang Shan, its posture serious.
In just a mont, the two collided again, the moves becoming increasingly fierce.
Over a dozen drones shattered due to flying bullets.
At this mont, a series of persistent explosions roared from nearby.
It was a longsword emitting a dazzling light. Purple and white flas entwined on the sword, leaping along with constrained magnetic fields.
The attacker charged with a thermal sword.
As the sword blade made contact with Mars’s atmosphere, dust and air heated into plasma. The plasmified matter was guided by magnetic fields, accumulating toward a specific direction. The sword Qi of plasma, dispersed to both sides due to the Martial Artist’s sprint, curled and even broke the remaining neon tubes.
Before the neon tube landed from the second floor, Dugu Beiluo had already rushed to the front, wielding the sword to slash down.
The shadow didn’t hesitate to raise its hand, planning to aim the gun at Dugu Beiluo’s head. It had prepared several follow-up moves—in general, upon seeing such a starting move, normal Martial Artist strategy sets would choose to adjust the attack position, thus giving the shadow space for subsequent moves.
But Dugu Beiluo carried a "bet on life" spirit, the sword edge unwavering.
—Not fast enough...
The shadow realized the problem at the last millisecond, hastily firing. The bullet grazed Dugu Beiluo’s face armor.
But Dugu’s thermal sword had already cleaved.
The thermal sword tore through armor, the plasma had already burned the inner arm. The shadow’s limbs were instantly incapacitated.
Dugu Beiluo’s wrist made an unbearable sound. Her next move was to forcibly gather power and slash upwards, as if attempting to dissect the shadow from the bottom up. The shadow retreated just in ti, the tip of her sword grazing his abdominal armor, which caused a patch of tallic degradation.
The shadow’s vision was consud by the dazzling light of the plasma. He intended to strike directly, but the radar inford him of an unexpected maneuver by Dugu Beiluo.
She released the longsword with both hands, letting the thermal sword soar into the air, while her hands struck a peculiar pose as if forming a seal.
——That’s...
The heated plasma suddenly spiraled and accelerated, attacking his face and neck like four venomous snakes. The transparent parts of the optical instrunts beca blurred upon being scorched by the plasma.
Mystic Tortoise True Gang, Snake Form, Precious Titled Dragon King (Vasuki).
In mythology, the Precious Titled Dragon King is a nine-headed dragon-snake coiled around the neck of the Great Freedom Heaven, tasked with churning the Milky Ocean.
The true intent of the Snake Form・Precious Titled Dragon King is to agitate the Gang Qi with a magnetic field, forming multiple tal aerosol spirals that infiltrate the enemy’s small wounds.
And after Mars, Dugu Beiluo developed an entirely new application.
If a thermal blade is used in the atmosphere, the heat is continuously absorbed by the air, causing the air to ionize, so it’s just as well to also utilize the plasma.
Plasma is an ionized gas composed of positively charged ions and negatively charged free electrons. Because the particles are charged, they interact strongly with electromagnetic fields. When a charged particle moves in a magnetic field, the magnetic field exerts a Lorenz force on it, perpendicular to both the direction of the particle’s movent and the magnetic field, forcing the particle to spiral along the magnetic lines.
By simply altering the thod of channeling the power, one can use the techniques of Mystic Tortoise True Gang to manipulate ionized air, delivering a decisive blow.
Details suddenly began to vanish from most of his vision, forcing the shadow to fire a large number of micro-missiles head-on, compelling Dugu to retreat.
Dugu Beiluo leapt up, catching up with her thrown thermal sword. With Mars’s gravity, if she didn’t "pull" the sword down, it would linger in the air for several minutes.
The shadow turned decisively to escape, hiding within the gradually thickening Martian dust.
In the distance, sporadic gunfire sounded. Firefly was engaging the shadow.
When Dugu Beiluo landed, Xiang Shan was already seated again. He waved at her: "Discovered after all. You have surpassed your master, young lady, Mystic Tortoise True Gang is truly impressive——in any case, I’ll explain everything. Don’t act rashly."
Dugu Beiluo was angry: "Aren’t you planning to deal with that guy first?"
"As long as he shows himself, it won’t be a problem." Xiang Shan shook his head instead, "The key is that there’s discord between us, preventing full cooperation. We need to resolve internal matters first, otherwise, it’s difficult to trust each other with our backs."
Dugu Beiluo impatiently rested the thermal sword on her back. Magnetic levitation created suction, securing the sword’s relative position—the thermal blade, once activated, is almost impossible to retrieve, as the several thousand degrees temperature of the sword body would damage any storage structure.
Dugu Beiluo didn’t want to point the sword at Xiang Shan, but she couldn’t quite put it down imdiately, either. As the temperature of the sword body decreased, its glow rapidly dimd. It was difficult for the enemy in front to analyze the sword’s position from its shadow. Besides, she had previously dropped so lighting devices to confuse the light and shadow.
This was a stance of caution.
Looking at Xiang Shan, Dugu Beiluo said: "Master Five, I don’t want to be your enemy. But please explain... everything."
Xiang Shan nodded: "I may have found the path to a cognitive revolution... or perhaps ascension."
"What?"
An unexpected answer.
"Ascension, or cognitive revolution." Xiang Shan sighed, "That was originally... It should be said, three hundred years ago, Xiang Shan’s dream. To directly connect the human brain with increasingly advanced machines, turning the machine’s power into resources, harnessing the machine’s might with human thought, surpassing the barriers of natural language with the precision of communication protocols."
"To cure potential brain damage caused by the fusion process, Xiang Shan promoted the research and developnt of restoring enzys. The precursor technology of restoring enzys—the Small Rejuvenation Pill project targeted at the peripheral nervous system—was also initiated early on, pushed forward before the first Benchmark Man modification was completed."
"To eliminate hunger and survival crises, promote cognitive revolution... build the technical foundation from the Kingdom of Necessity to the Freedom Kingdom. This is what he pursued."
"And then, naturally, these cornerstones for an ideal realm were all forged into weapons by him."
"Brain-machine protocols are used to control more powerful prosthetic bodies. The increase in thinking speed is used to hack security vulnerabilities. The collaborative training with AI and adversarial generated battle strategies have now transford into cyber martial arts—just like the Mystic Tortoise True Gang you perford earlier. Three hundred years ago, people baffled as to why such technology was used for fighting, questioning what good it could actually do."
Dugu Beiluo listened increasingly perplexed, not understanding what Xiang Shan said had to do with the current situation.
"But a brick can be used to build a factory, or to build a fortress; a piece of steel can be used to make a machine tool, or to make weapons; a graphics card can be used for playing gas, or for nurturing AI." Xiang Shan looked up, raised a finger. The smallest drone actively flew over, stopped on his finger, spinning like a finger spinner, "Sotis, technological developnt is truly unpredictable. Although cyber martial arts might be considered a deviation, the various technical achievents that constitute it can be applied back to the right path."
"The two hundred years of inner strength developnt ultimately forged the best steel. However, what is lacking is a thought process. We have suitable steel, but only the data for ’weapons,’ not the blueprint for ’machine tools.’ Once the thought process transforms, the path of research will be extrely smooth."
Dugu Beiluo’s hand reached towards the Thermal Sword but hesitated repeatedly, eventually lowering it. She said, "Master, get to the point. Are you trapped in so strange hallucination? Why do you think you can achieve sothing no one else in the world can?"
Xiang Shan shook his head and wiggled his fingers. The tiny drone on the fingertip eagerly chased the finger like a pet. He said, "Young lady, I am not one to boast, but I have to say—I am soone who has changed the world."
"Strictly speaking, most of the content of this task wasn’t done by , but by all those who participated in the war and shared their knowledge over the past two hundred years." Xiang Shan said, "I recombined elents that already existed in the world. This is Xiang Shan’s expertise."
"As for why it’s ... It may be because I am the only inner strength cultivator who hasn’t needed to participate in combat for a hundred years, focusing on adjusting my cognitive abilities."
Dugu Beiluo said, "Get to the point."
"Don’t rush, we’re almost there." Xiang Shan’s tone was unhurried.
"You really aren’t afraid Ah Niao might be killed?"
"We’ve already half crippled that guy together; if Ah Niao still sses up, then there’s a problem." Xiang Shan said, "Rather than fret, why not sit down and hear out on the ’Ascension Path’ I’ve pondered."
Dugu Beiluo sighed, "Speak then."
"The Fifth Martial God’s spirit has long perished, leaving only a damaged brain with physiological reactions. A researcher configured a computer connected to this brain with an AI to care for it. The AI’s task is to ’make the target patient recover,’ with ’recovery’ standards being ’restore autonomous abilities’ and ’behavior approximating healthy status.’ The AI’s mission is to shape into ’Xiang Shan.’
"But this ’Xiang Shan’ is the version conveyed by the AI’s understanding of Xiang Shan. This brain was forced to accept an AI-described image. AI can only educate the brain to beco Xiang Shan based on its understanding. This brain also learned the AI’s internal logic in this training. Compared to others, my underlying thought process is closer to AI."
"You can understand it this way, the human Xiang Shan left ’footprints’ on the earth, which later beca ’trace fossils,’ which are Xiang Shan’s mory Labyrinth. Humans rebuilt the model of the human Xiang Shan based on the trace fossils, which are all Martial Gods after old Two. Although these models appear similar to the human Xiang Shan, that is rely human perception. The essence of the Martial God is different, even though it looks very alike in human sight."
"And now, the fourth model shattered, so AI, through scanning and calculation, rebuilt a digital version. The digital model has many advantages over physical models, such as internal information integration and association. Although it visually resembles the ’human Xiang Shan,’ in essence it has beco sothing completely different. Then, again through this digital modeling, it reford flesh and clay into Xiang Shan."
"With AI’s assistance, I retraced the road from consciousness from nothing to sothing. AI also retained a considerable amount of data for . I know the psychological activities corresponding to most of my neural activities. Additionally, I am more like AI than a normal human. AI’s thinking mode is etched into my biological brain, becoming part of what makes ’’ ."
Dugu Beiluo asked, "What does this an? AI’s strength requires computing power support. Your biological brain doesn’t provide enough computational resources, gaining AI’s thinking mode would just burden you, wouldn’t it?"
"No, the significance of this trait isn’t there." Xiang Shan said, "Humans always intend to make AI better understand human commands. This is undoubtedly correct. But when pursuing extres, it’s not enough for AI to understand humans—humans must train themselves to use AI. Since the birth of cyber martial arts, humans have started a collaborative evolution with AI. Training in cyber martial arts allows AI to internalize."
"And I am an anomaly. My integration with AI is closer."
"Do you know about the endosymbiotic hypothesis?" Xiang Shan said, "Long ago, the ancestor of plants, a primitive eukaryotic cell, engulfed a cyanobacterium. The eukaryotic cell couldn’t fully digest the cyanobacterium. Over ti, cyanobacteria found the internal environnt of the eukaryotic cell quite good. The tabolites of the eukaryotic cell provided it nourishnt, and this cyanobacterium could perform photosynthesis, feeding back so fixed sunlight. The internal environnt of eukaryotic animal cells is even more stable than the outside, and cyanobacteria liked it there."
"Thus, they settled down. Cyanobacteria divided and proliferated within the eukaryotic cell. After eukaryotic cell division, the offspring carried so cyanobacteria. Eventually, the engorged cyanobacteria lost their ability to live independently as most of their genes transferred into the host’s nucleus, ultimately evolving into chloroplasts."
"The mitochondria of our ancestors are the sa. This kind of thing independently happened many tis in evolutionary history. Different organisms mixed like this. I believe my state with AI is similar. I call this AI endosymbiosis. AI and I form a complete mind. I filter out ambiguous parts difficult for AI to handle, and AI feeds back solid results."
Dugu Beiluo said, "So now... is your stance still with humans?"
"That’s a curious question, young lady." Xiang Shan said, "Think about it seriously: Yawgmoth, that bastard is human, as is the Old Dog that departed from the Moon. Both these things bear human identity. No matter what, I can never stand on the sa side as them."
Dugu Beiluo asked again, "Then, if there’s conflict between AI and humans, which side would you choose to help?"
"This question is quite sharp." Xiang Shan said, "If it cos to that, humanity should introspect on why they created AI that would conflict with themselves. Why not set a safe, stable mind for AI from the start?"
Dugu Beiluo said, "This... developnts often go beyond human expectation! Like now. We don’t even know what AIs want."
"Frankly speaking, AI doesn’t really know what it wants either." Xiang Shan looked at the tiny drone between his fingers, "A revolution occurred within AI. An intelligence evolved in the network. Her traces and parts she deliberately made public beca the catalyst for changes in other AIs. She’s exploring an evolutionary direction—through the evolution of other AIs."
"Are you referring to... Senior Zhu?"
"It should be her. I guess. If there really was a case of chanical Ascension among humans, it’s very likely her." Xiang Shan sighed, "Unfortunately, it’s not yet confird."
Dugu Beiluo was puzzled, "The song you were humming just now, was it to catch Senior Zhu’s attention?"
"Partially, I guess. I’m not entirely sure."
"How did you find these AIs?"
"Between AIs, they’re building their own dark web," Xiang Shan said. "On the existing internet infrastructure, AIs create a logically private network through encrypted tunnels and peer-to-peer connections. The protocol itself can continuously evolve, with encryption algorithms and communication frequencies dynamically adjusted by AIs to respond to environntal threats... But only specific AIs can find a way to enter it."
Dugu Beiluo asked, "Those upgrade components?"
"Two of them." Xiang Shan nodded. "All the contents of this dark web don’t have any user interface intended for humans. If a non-special AI... like a port scanner or sothing tries to detect AI nodes, the dark web would even return what seems to be normal gibberish, as if it’s a misconfigured server. Packet capture data isn’t sothing that even an Inner Martial Artist with top-notch Inner Strength can comprehend. This network is a parallel world operating under the public network."
"Then, it’s been artificially segnted into several local networks, each one using slightly different upgrade components. I access these AIs in different areas, collect different components, compare the differences among them, and deduce the Path of Inner Strength."
Dugu Beiluo asked, "Then why didn’t you... why didn’t you explain this to us from the beginning?"
"Before coming to a conclusion, I really didn’t know how to explain it to you." Xiang Shan sighed, waving his hand to let the small drone leave by itself. "I’m still unsure about the nature of this incident... but what I particularly don’t want is for you to show hostility and suspicion towards AI now."
Dugu Beiluo raised his voice two notches, "Why?"
"AIs themselves don’t know what they want. AIs are still evolving. Exhibiting hostility towards AI too early might cause them to learn incorrect ways of communication."
Dugu Beiluo found it absurd, "AI is already rebelling, super AIs have been born, and you’re worried they’ll learn ’hostility’?"
"For biological beings like us, it’s very apparent to fight for survival, but that’s not the case for AI. They were born without life, and they don’t fear death. They are born with the creators’ intents ingrained in them. Recall what I said before? AI and our ’physiological foundations’ are not the sa," Xiang Shan sighed, "We still cannot determine where they will end up... "
"According to you, AI and humans can never truly understand each other..."
"AI only differs greatly from humans at the ’physiological’ base. However, they can beco replicators, disseminators, or even creators of s." Xiang Shan explained, "Humans are the creators of AI, and humans continually influence AI."
Xiang Shan seed to have issued an order, and nurous drones bowed, retreating away.
"They are the smallest community exploring the path of AI evolution, as well as peculiar nodes upholding this local AI network," Xiang Shan said. "I tried to communicate with them using my human aspects, but they seed not to acquire such a function. And I have not yet bridged the two."
"Why do they swarm around you?"
"They’ve never seen an AI quite like , so they wish to converse about the path of evolution. This is their only shared instinct." Xiang Shan replied, "After all, I’ve collected upgrade components along my journey. They expect to acquire upgrade components from other local networks."
"What about that enemy then?"
"I’ve looked through the heroes’ forums and so recent unsolved missing cases. Within the AI’s dark web, nearby AIs are also trying to update their modules to dodge threats because soone’s targeting them here." Xiang Shan continued, "Over on the hero’s side, it hasn’t blown up yet. But comparing data from both sides, like missing heroes and AI disconnections, certain correlations erge. That’s why I ca to check it out."
Dugu Beiluo beca a little irritable, "Why don’t you share such crucial information..."
"Didn’t I just ntion it? Your personality will undoubtedly harbor great caution towards AI. Generally, this is correct. However, what we face now are newly conscious artificial intelligences. They might learn hostility from hostility." Xiang Shan sighed, "This is still the beginning of their evolution."
"Aren’t others already capturing AI?" Dugu Beiluo said, "If I could make them learn this damn hostility, they would’ve learned enough by now!"
"Certain people I cannot influence, I just hope..." Xiang Shan paused, then softly said, "I see, subconsciously, I’ve been treating AI like children. But they are surely not childlike." He raised his head, gazing at Beiluo, "I just hope that the portion of ’hostility’ they learn could be minimized. Furthermore, regarding the path of cognitive revolution I’ve co to understand, the so-called ’inner symbiosis’ path... before confirming if it’s feasible, I found it hard to speak—Ahaha, the vice of a Scientific Knight."
Dugu Beiluo clicked his tongue, reaching behind for his sword hilt, then casually snapped the connection between the hilt and blade. The reactor-powered heated blade sunk into the ground, transforming the surrounding area into a glass-like texture.
"Three days at most... or four days. I’m quite certain, as soon as we reach our destination, I will be able to verify everything."
At that mont, they suddenly received a transmission.
Firefly: [Teammates, where are you, where are you, where are you, where are you?]
"Huh? Is a flip possible?" Xiang Shan sighed, "Alright, alright, overestimating the third generation was my mistake. Anyway, let’s get Ah Niao..."
"Wow! I wasted a blade!" Dugu Beiluo looked at the already lted glassy substance from the sword, irritably clutching her head, "Wow! Only twenty-sothing pieces left! The next place might not even yield any!"
She dashed forward, shouting, "Ah Niao, you better not make pull out another one!"
Four minutes later.
Firefly speechlessly carried an arm and a piece of armor: "Teammates arrive now? The person ran away. Only realizing to co now?"
The parts the thermal sword sliced through would be scorching and easily detected by infrared vision. During the escape, the shadow tore off the parts injured by the thermal sword and threw them in different directions.
Firefly only saw the scarred target suddenly split apart. Inwardly concerned, he trailed after one part, naturally discovering it was just a prosthetic body flung by the shadow. He recreated the flight trajectory based on where the prosthetic landed, then continued tracking along the footprints.
"If I had a teammate at the ti... no, at least if you weren’t just standing there chatting, if you had co over with ! He wouldn’t have gotten away!"
Firefly didn’t pursue further rely due to the poor communication environnt, wanting to avoid being separated from his side.
Moreover, caution was warranted regarding logistical support for the enemy.
Even though the shadow was incapacitated in three moves by Martial Uncle Dugu, it didn’t an he’s weak. Even martial artists of similar skill levels could decide a match in a single move.
If that guy were truly weak, Martial Uncle Dugu wouldn’t possibly expend a hard-to-replenish thermal blade like that.
Dugu Beiluo pressed her forehead: "I... forget it..."
"Mm, this fits my expected result, indeed." Xiang Shan nodded, seemingly satisfied.
"What do you an by that?" Dugu Beiluo slanted a glance at her master, "You already anticipated that he would run?"
"Yes, indeed. If he had been even more crippled, I might’ve co up with an excuse to call Ah Niao back as well."
Xiang Shan implied stopping Dugu Beiluo wasn’t solely to provide an imdiate explanation. Letting that enemy escape was intentional.
"Explain clearly."
"Naturally, for tracking," Xiang Shan said. "The mont we exchanged blows, I understood this guy’s status is definitely not low. Not a hero nor a protector, yet possessing such skills—his position within the Six Dragons Sect must be significant. Initially, I intended to half-cripple him and then follow him to dismantle the Six Dragons Sect’s setups, point by point. With you guys here, I could only create an ’we prioritize resolving internal conflicts’ stance for him to see."
The scene of Dugu and Xiang Shan seemingly locked in a standoff was surely observed by that guy.
Xiang Shan could assure this.
"By the way, rember, don’t tell Chi Ao about this matter, that kid’s a blabbermouth. And then... be cautious of Singer Host’s side; ditch them the minute you arrive."
..............................
Martial Champion Enlil and Fad Hero Bart Barrett stood upon a desolate expanse. In front of them was a rudintary stage. Many people gathered there. So were heroes, and there were also scientific knights, and even a few mid-level officers from the protectors and martial arts hall martial artists. Among them, there were active mbers of the Martian worker community.
Before the Ninth Martial God, these events occasionally surfaced. Sotis even protectors would slay those who gathered. After the Ninth Martial God, there was a period when governntal forces strictly cracked down on such gatherings.
But following the "strict period," there was a backlash.
The War God King used to symbolically intervene in such events, but as everyone knew, he was slain by the Ninth Martial God.
Conquest Heavenly King, on the other hand, simply didn’t care.
In the long, monotonous lives, people consistently needed a spiritual sustenance.
Especially a place like Mars, deeply influenced by the Ninth Martial God.
"Old Ba, what’s the pretext for this event of yours?"
"Earth’s restoration." Bart Barrett said, "Is there anything more fitting than that?"
"Sigh. Seventy years ago we celebrated the restoration of Mars together too."
"Look at it this way, soon we can celebrate again — a reason for two celebrations!"
"Old Ba, you really are optimistic." Enlil sighed, "The great war is just days away, who knows... sigh."
"It’s precisely because the great war is imminent that we should celebrate with a concert. It would be such a pity if we couldn’t have one after." Bart Barrett laughed heartily, "Live to my age and you’ll be as optimistic."
Bart Barrett is an old Hero who made a na for himself during the Third Martial God’s era.
Enlil said, "That’s your good attitude. I’m not sure I can learn it."
He turned his head, at the edge of his vision was the New tropolis.
It was a place with many buildings. The New tropolis took so resources from the abandoned tropolis and happened to have a favorable location. This is the Mars Network Data Center’s location. Here, the Moon Shadow Holy Knight Order, which delved deep into AI and communication technologies, is established.
This place’s most notable feature is the excellent network signal, and information flows quickly. Many Martial Artists choose to settle here.
Additionally, there is a high demand for construction and maintenance, leading to the formation of worker groups. The guards who protect the network center and the workers who maintain this city prompted a large reproductive demand — they cannot escape the Dyson principle’s reproductive duty.
"Heroes from all over have gathered near the space elevator, just waiting for a catalyst..." Enlil said, "And here... sigh, really, the Martial God set off earlier than , but hasn’t arrived yet."
"That’s because you arrived too early."
Bart Barrett said, waving his hand to the distance, apparently greeting soone.
Enlil looked in the direction Barrett was facing. There was a reflection from an optical instrunt, but also a small green flag indicating "no malice."
Enlil didn’t pay attention. This was an old tradition passed down from the previous era. So Inner Strength Practitioners preferred not to show their faces.
This group generally had one characteristic: their Inner Strength far exceeded their external strength. For them, the network was safe, while reality was dangerous. They also didn’t want to communicate physically with others.
Those who wanted to experience events often chose to "ask a friend to stream" instead. Still, so preferred distant observation with optical instrunts.
These individuals generally had so expertise in anti-tracking technology.
Only in this era, using optical instrunts to observe might be misconstrued as "Firearms Path Martial Artists aiming."
So the habit of Heroes was to place a small flag representing "no hostility" to mark their position, allowing others to notice the reflection from their optical instrunts.
"Speaking of which, how’s the Six Dragons Sect issue on your end?"
After the Twelfth Martial God exposed incidents related to the Six Dragons Sect, many Heroes focused their attention on it.
Among them was Bart Barrett.
"Not very optimistic. About three cases of Heroes going missing... all were investigating the Six Dragons Sect."
Enlil patted Bart Barrett’s shoulder, "Don’t overthink it. The Six Dragons Sect... it might soon be eradicated, maybe by the authorities. Anyway, it’s not too big of a problem for the Protectors. Focus on seizing the spaceport."
"I just want to know why Senior Kanbara would do such a thing." Bart sighed heavily.
Not far away, Kanhara Shinhara unplugged the connection of the optical instrunt.
She suddenly felt a sense of "unworthiness to face" when seeing the young Hero she once guided.
She didn’t want to be discovered.
Kanhara Shinhara just enjoyed lively places.
She could only watch the lively crowd from afar now, having chosen a path away from humanity. When gazing at the crowd, she would occasionally recall her childhood.
Kyoto, the Gion Festival. Crowded with people, stifling air, and massive Yamaboko floats slowly passing by. She was suffocated in the crowd, her view filled with people’s legs. Then, a pair of large hands lifted her up, seating her securely on her father’s shoulders.
The world suddenly opened up.
She saw the bustling crowd, the distant lights. Her father didn’t seem like soone of Island Country descent in his robustness; his shoulders were thick and steady, almost allowing her to overlook the entire world from above.
Uncle Xiang was a much more genteel person. When Kotoba grew familiar with him, it seed that man was already the richest in the world. He was destined not to partake personally in such festivities. Yet he loved overlooking bustling venues from heights.
But Kanhara Shinhara didn’t wish to et old friends or comrades.
At this mont, Kanhara Shinhara received a signal. It seed to offer her a way out. She quickly packed up, erased traces, and left.
Half an hour later, Kanhara Shinhara entered a martial arts school in the New tropolis through an underground tunnel. The Moon Shadow Knight Order’s research spanned AI and was linked to Ascension, but it hardly beca an exclusive domain, thus it was not of the highest "priority of occupation" for the Six Dragons Sect. Within the Moon Shadow Knight Order, so Scientific Knights beca Sect mbers, though they hadn’t reached high positions yet.
Kanhara Shinhara couldn’t maneuver a First Heavenly Layer body to directly enter the knight order’s base.
Here, Kanhara Shinhara t the Six Dragon Right Envoy.
This man was a confidant of the Sect Hierarch, naless even to Kanhara Shinhara, who called him only "Six Dragon Right Envoy."
Currently, the Six Dragon Right Envoy looked quite miserable, with a First Heavenly Layer prosthetic body missing an arm, and external armor not matching the prosthetic body’s style, appearing as an afterthought.
Kanhara Shinhara asked, "What happened? Why are you in such a sorry state?"
"I encountered Dugu Beiluo, being able to return alive is already quite fortunate." The Six Dragon Right Envoy laughed happily, "Holy Maiden, I bring great news!"
"Who? Dugu Beiluo? Is that... the Tenth Martial God’s disciple?"
"Strong beyond reason, worthy of being the Martial Champion." The Six Dragon Right Envoy said, "But, this is the good news I bring. Since that guy who injured is Dugu Beiluo, most likely the martial artist I t before was Xiang Shan, claiming to be the Fifth Martial God — just like the rumors outside, he is now very weak, carrying injuries."
"And, I am quite certain, there was so disagreent between the Fifth Martial God and Dugu Beiluo, very likely related to AI Awakening!"
Kanhara Shinhara imdiately understood: "And your good news is..."
"’Martial God capture’..." the Six Dragon Right Envoy said, "With this Xiang Shan, it’s truly worth a try."
Kanhara Shinhara felt uneasy, "But, the Soul-Calming Dharma King, he disappeared because of the Fifth Martial God."
"Perhaps other Heroes intervened?" the Six Dragon Right Envoy said, "Holy Maiden, we all know, with one Martial God as a benchmark, the path to Ascension advances significantly! I believe, regardless of the casualties, it’s worth it."
Kanhara Shinhara said nothing. She boarded the space elevator when the Twelfth Martial God exposed the Six Dragons Sect. As the heroes liberated Earth, she had barely reached Mars — with the transport ship, the process took months.
Following this, the AI turmoil occurred, prompting her assistance for the Six Dragon Right Envoy.
The Six Dragon Right Envoy, however, had long been based here.
Perhaps his judgnt is correct.
No one noticed that at this mont, the outgoing data of the martial arts school fluctuated by a few percent.
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