354: Reunion with veteran scientists such as Li Zhenbang

Jingcheng, Xishan Sanatorium.

This is the “Holy Land” of the Earth Federation.

There are no heavily armed guards, no high-maintenance shields.

Only a faint layer of... **“Respect”**... that even God-tier Civilizations dare not touch.

Because those who live here are the backbone who pulled Earth out of the mire back then.

“Cough, cough... Old Li, you made a wrong move!”

“A true gentleman doesn't speak while watching chess! Old Zhao, you rotten chess player, stop giving random instructions!”

Under the grape trellis in the courtyard.

Several white-haired old men, who still looked aged despite having been injected with the most advanced Longevity Serum, were arguing fiercely around a game of Chinese chess.

Li Zhenbang.

The former Director of the Xia Kingdom Academy of Sciences, and the first person to decisively support Lu Chen's Controllable Nuclear Fusion project.

Now, he is over two hundred years old.

Although his spirit was vigorous, the weariness in his eyes could not be hidden.

“What's wrong?”

Li Zhenbang glared, tapping the chess piece in his hand loudly.

“This is called 'Fighting with your back against the wall, then finding a way out'! Just like when we launched the South Heaven Gate project back then, if we didn't risk our lives, how could we survive?”

“Risking our lives?”

Old Zhao across the table snorted, “Back then, Lu Chen led us in the fight! Now that Lu Chen isn't here, what are you fighting for?”

Hearing that name.

The noisy chess game suddenly quieted down.

Li Zhenbang's hand froze mid-air, and his gaze instantly dimmed.

“That's right...”

“That kid... has been gone for ten thousand years.”

The old man put down the chess piece, looked up at the unnatural, artificial blue sky above, and muttered to himself.

“I wonder how he's doing out there.”

“Has anyone bullied him.”

“Has he... eaten on time.”

Even though the entire universe is singing the praises of the Venerated Sovereign of All Universes.

But in the hearts of these old men, Lu Chen will always be the young man who ate steamed buns and drew blueprints in the lab.

“I heard...”

Old Qian next to him sighed, “The Abyss has been very active lately, could it be Lu Chen...”

“Don't think about it, don't think about it.”

Li Zhenbang waved his hand, his eyes slightly red.

“As long as he is alive, and as long as Earth still exists, our old bones... haven't lived in vain.”

Just then.

A gentle breeze blew through the grape trellis.

In the wind, there seemed to be a subtle, long-lost, reassuring aura.

“Director Li.”

A warm, familiar voice, yet filled with endless vicissitudes, sounded at the entrance of the small courtyard.

“This move, indeed, was wrong.”

“If it were me...”

The sound of footsteps grew closer.

That figure walked through the dappled tree shadows and arrived in front of the chessboard.

“I would push the 'Chariot' across the river.”

“Striking directly at Huanglong.”

Li Zhenbang suddenly raised his head.

The “General” piece in his hand clattered onto the board.

He looked at the young man in front of him, wearing a white shirt and a black trench coat, holding a thermos cup.

Time seemed to flow backward ten thousand years at this moment.

There was no divine pressure, no divine light.

Only those eyes, still clear but deep as the ocean.

“Little... Little Lu?”

Li Zhenbang's voice was trembling. He tried to stand up but found his legs were terribly weak.

Lu Chen quickly took two steps.

Under the majesty that all God-tier Civilizations must kneel before, he knelt on one knee and gently supported the old man's arm.

“Director.”

Lu Chen's voice was choked.

“Your student, Lu Chen.”

“I've come to hand in my homework.”

“Ah! Ah! Good child! Good child!”

Li Zhenbang was weeping tears of joy. He tremblingly reached out and touched Lu Chen's face, as if to confirm it wasn't a holographic projection.

It has warmth.

It's real.

“It's good that you're back... it's so good that you're back!”

The surrounding Veteran Scientists also gathered around, each of them moved to tears.

For them.

Lu Chen is not a god.

He is the... **child**... of this civilization. Half an hour later.

By the stone table in the small courtyard.

Lu Chen didn't talk about stories of fighting and killing.

He just rambled on about his experiences outside, like a wanderer returning home after many years.

He talked about the wonders of The Abyss, the scenery of the Higher Dimensions, and how the aliens learned to play Mahjong like Earth people.

The old men listened with great interest, occasionally letting out gasps of amazement.

“So you're saying...”

Li Zhenbang took a sip of the tea Lu Chen personally poured, his eyes radiating the light of wisdom.

“That so-called 'Supervisor' is actually just a high-level 'Programmer'?”

“And we are all code?”

“Yes.”

Lu Chen nodded and pulled out the **bio-skeletal chip** he had bought from The Abyss black market.

“This is the evidence.”

“Wang Peng said this was an admission ticket.”

“But I always feel...”

Lu Chen placed the chip on the stone table.

That ancient, desolate chip radiated a sense of... **Reality**... that was completely incompatible with this universe.

“The material of this thing does not belong to any known substance sequence.”

“Even the 'pangu project' system cannot fully analyze it.”

Li Zhenbang picked up his reading glasses and put them on.

He leaned closer to the chip and examined it carefully for a long time.

Suddenly.

The old man's hand trembled violently.

“This pattern...”

Li Zhenbang's voice became extremely serious, even carrying a hint of terror.

“What's wrong?” Lu Chen's heart stirred. “Have you seen it?”

“I haven't seen the actual object.”

Li Zhenbang put down the chip, took a deep breath, and looked at Lu Chen.

“But do you remember the incomplete notebook we found in the abandoned Area 51 basement back when you first developed Controllable Nuclear Fusion?”

Lu Chen's pupils suddenly contracted.

Was that... a human archaeological discovery from before he got the system?

“On that notebook, a similar symbol was drawn.”

Li Zhenbang dipped his finger in the tea and drew a distorted, Möbius Strip-like pattern on the table.

“The author of that notebook was a survivor of the last epoch... no, the last Cosmic Cycle of the Earth Civilization.”

“He left behind one sentence.”

Li Zhenbang stared at Lu Chen and said, word by word:

“**'There is an eye outside the wall, named... The Observer.'**”

“**'The real world contains not only code, but also... the Weight of the Soul.'**”

Lu Chen looked at the pattern, then at the chip on the table.

It was as if a bolt of lightning struck his mind.

Code?

Soul?

“I understand.”

Lu Chen suddenly stood up and grabbed the chip.

He finally knew why 'pangu project' couldn't analyze it.

Because this was fundamentally not a product of the technological side.

This was the key to the... **Idealistic Side**!

That “Programmer” didn't use a computer.

He was using... **Consciousness** to write the universe!

“Thank you, Director!”

Lu Chen bowed deeply to Li Zhenbang.

“That one sentence of yours saved me ten thousand years of detours!”

“Are you leaving again?”

Li Zhenbang looked at him, his eyes filled with reluctance, but mostly understanding.

“Mm.”

Lu Chen tightly clenched the chip in his palm.

“I need to go verify a hypothesis.”

“An... ultimate hypothesis about who we really are and where we truly came from.”

He turned around and looked outside the courtyard gate.

There, Su Qingying and Wang Peng were already prepared to depart.

“Go.”

Li Zhenbang waved his hand, sat back down in front of the chessboard, his back to Lu Chen, his voice aged yet firm.

“Don't be afraid.”

“We'll watch the home front.”

“Even if the sky falls...”

The old man dropped a chess piece, making a crisp sound.

“These old bones of ours can hold it up for you for three or five seconds!”

Lu Chen's eyes felt warm.

He didn't look back, striding out of the small courtyard.

Outside the gate.

The sun was shining perfectly.

Lu Chen looked at the chip in his hand, a hint of mad laughter curving his lips.

“Idealistic Side?”

“Consciousness writing?”

“Interesting.”

He picked up the communicator and spoke to Wang Peng on the other end:

“Wang Peng.”

“Prepare your 'Toll Money'.”

“The place we are going this time...”

“Might not be a 'computer'.”

“But rather...”

“The 'Programmer's'...”

“**Brain**!”