631: Chapter 626 Is he still alive?

The courtyard instantly fell into a dead silence.

Only the sound of the wind blowing through the alley remained, making a mournful noise.

Fang Zhizhuo, or rather, 'Lame Fang,' slowly lowered the wine bottle in his hand.

His eyes, which had originally been dull and unbearable, were now staring fixedly at Shen Yan.

That gaze was no longer the look of a down-and-out drunkard.

It was the scrutiny and vigilance displayed by a slumbering male lion, startled awake by the presence of a stranger.

The dullness receded, leaving behind only an unfathomable sharpness and world-weariness.

"Who are you?"

His voice was no longer hoarse, but deep and full of magnetism.

Shen Yan did not answer his question.

He simply looked at the other man calmly and spoke word by word:

"Resonant Tidal Energy Matrix."

"One step further is divinity, but also the devil."

"Professor Fang."

"I am here because I want to ask you, exactly how does one take that step?"

Boom!

It was as if a thunderclap exploded in Fang Zhizhuo's mind.

The Erguotou wine bottle in his hand crashed to the ground with a clang, shattering into countless pieces.

The pungent liquor, mixed with the dust in the courtyard, emitted a stinging odor.

All the disguises on his face collapsed at that moment.

The drunkard's expression, the cripple's destitution, the eccentric's isolation... all vanished.

What replaced them was only an extreme shock and a fear originating from the depths of his bones.

He looked at the unfamiliar young man before him, his lips trembling slightly.

Fifteen years.

A full fifteen years.

He had hidden in this forgotten corner of the world, believing that both he and that insane theory would be buried forever.

But today, someone stood before him, easily tearing open his deepest scar and speaking the prophecy that only he himself knew.

"Who... who exactly are you?"

Fang Zhizhuo's voice now carried a slight tremor.

Shen Yan did not answer immediately.

He slowly walked into the courtyard, stepping over a mess of parts, until he stood right in front of Fang Zhizhuo.

The distance between the two men was less than a meter.

Shen Yan could smell the heavy scent of alcohol and sweat on him.

But he didn't care.

He looked at the former genius, now the 'cripple,' and slowly extended his hand.

"My name is Shen Yan."

"Someone who can help you open that door."

Shen Yan's voice was not loud, but it struck Fang Zhizhuo's heart door, which had been rusted over for fifteen years, like a heavy hammer.

After the fear came a deeper layer of vigilance.

Fang Zhizhuo's eyes, which had regained their sharpness, scrutinized the young man before him inch by inch, like a hawk.

He had seen too many people.

Over the past fifteen years, flies had always found their way here following faint clues.

There were capitalists in suits and leather shoes, offering billions in wealth, wanting to buy what was in his head.

There were underground forces with ferocious faces, pressing a knife to his throat, trying to force him to create lethal weapons.

And there were official personnel of unknown status, using vague promises, trying to make him 'hand over' his achievements.

All of them, without exception, had been sent away by him in various ways.

Through madness, through alcohol, through a reckless disregard for his own life.

But the person before him was different.

He was too young.

And too composed.

He lacked the greed and ferocity of those other people, but possessed something even more unsettling.

It was a calmness that seemed capable of penetrating everything, a composure of viewing the world as a chessboard.

This aura was more threatening than any knife.

Fang Zhizhuo slowly straightened up. His disabled leg made his movement somewhat unsteady, but his back was ramrod straight.

In that instant, he was no longer 'Lame Fang,' but the Fang Zhizhuo who once made the entire physics community take notice.

"Door?"

He let out a sneer. The hoarseness in his voice faded, leaving only icy mockery.

"Young man, do you know what lies behind that door?"

"It is Pandora's Box."

"People like you are always trying to pry it open, to seize the power within, never considering that you might be consumed by the disaster inside."

He picked up a half-meter-long steel pipe from the ground, casually weighing it in his hand.

"Speak, what do you want? Money? Or weapons?"

"Say it, then get out of my sight."

Shen Yan paid no attention to the steel pipe in his hand, not even glancing at it.

His gaze remained fixed on the model of the differential clutch on the workbench.

"What I want, you cannot give,"

Shen Yan said lightly.

"What I want is the world you already drew on the blueprints fifteen years ago."

Fang Zhizhuo's pupils contracted sharply.

Shen Yan turned his head and looked directly into his eyes.

"The Resonant Tidal Energy Matrix is not merely an energy solution. It is the foundation."

"It can provide nearly infinite, absolutely stable microscopic energy. This energy is not meant to light up ten thousand cities, but to drive a true 'brain.'"

"A strong Artificial Intelligence with the capability for self-iteration."

"That is your true objective, Professor Fang."

"You don't want to solve the energy crisis; you want to create a new species, a silicon-based 'God.'"

The veins bulged on Fang Zhizhuo's hand gripping the steel pipe.

Every word Shen Yan spoke seemed to be dug directly from the depths of his soul.

These concepts, these theories, had never been told to a second person.

They only existed on his destroyed encrypted hard drive and within his own mind.

"What you are saying... is just the delusion of a madman,"

Fang Zhizhuo's voice was somewhat dry.

"Is that so?"

Shen Yan smiled, took two steps forward, and pointed to another inconspicuous pile of parts on the workbench.

It was a mesh structure connected by fine quartz crystals and wires.

"Quantum Entangled State Information Transmission Model."

"You disguised it as a common signal amplifier, but its structure is designed to solve the latency issue of superluminal information transmission."

"You are building a 'nerve' for your 'God' that cannot be constrained by distance."

"A madman couldn't devise such an exquisite structure."

Fang Zhizhuo fell completely silent.

The steel pipe slipped from his limp hand, hitting the concrete floor with a clang, the sound grating.

He felt as if he had been stripped naked and stood before Shen Yan, all secrets and disguises rendered meaningless.

This young man didn't just know his name and his theories.

He truly understood.

He understood his crazy dream that the world could not comprehend.

"How... how exactly do you know?"

Fang Zhizhuo's defenses finally began to collapse.

"There is always a way to find something out."

Shen Yan did not explain the existence of the system; he merely changed the question.

"'One step further is divinity, but also the devil.'"

"To whom did you say those words?"

Fang Zhizhuo's face instantly turned ashen.

He staggered back two steps, hitting the workbench behind him with a dull thud.

That name was like a brand carved into his bones, burning him every moment for the past fifteen years.

"He... is he still alive?"

Fang Zhizhuo's voice carried an uncontrollable tremor.