132: Cradle and Backfire
The initial success of the Guardian God Project was like a shot in the arm for the core of the god-defying plan. Although the one-thousandth of a second of stable time was almost negligible, it proved the Possibility of a path—to temporarily elevate the collective power of billions of consciousnesses, through the framework of the Genesis Blueprint and the bond of Stellar Silver Psionic Energy, to a level sufficient to interfere with the origin of rules.
The Einstein Team immediately plunged into even more frenzied research, attempting to extend the stable time and explore the capabilities this “entity” might possess.
At the same time, Wu Yong’s fleet conducted deeper reconnaissance of the distorted nebula, which was suspected to be the hiding place of the myriad phenomena astrolabe. However, the information returned was confusing—the rules in that area were not flowing stably but showed a periodic “pulsation,” like the heartbeat of a sleeping giant.
Any probe attempting to approach would be pushed away or assimilated by an invisible force during the peak of the pulsation, while during the trough, only an empty void could be captured. The astrolabe seemed to be symbiotic with this area, or rather, it itself was the “Heart Fire” of the rule pulsation in this area, making it difficult to acquire directly.
What Lin Mo cared about most were the fragments of information about the primal cradle that Ling Shuang had captured from the underlying network consciousness.
“That’s not a legend,” the Void Whisperer said after carefully analyzing the prayer fragment, the speed of its conscious star mist circulation visibly quickening, indicating its inner unrest, “That is… a mark… left by… a recorder… older… than us…”
“The primal cradle… is not a… place… but a… ‘state’… the imprint… of that… moment… when the universe… was born… when rules and Heart Fire… first made contact… producing… the first… ‘resonance’…”
The imprint of the “first resonance” at the birth of the universe? Lin Mo’s Heart Fire trembled. This sounded like a pure concept, an event existing at the beginning of time. How could it be “found”?
“The imprint… has not… disappeared…” “It is like… a stone… thrown into water… the ripples… it creates… still echo… in the deepest layer… of the sea of rules…” “Find the ‘point’… where that… ‘echo’ is clearest… perhaps then… you can touch… that initial… power… and… truth…”
Searching for the “echo” of the Big Bang? This task sounded even more ethereal than capturing the myriad phenomena astrolabe. But Lin Mo felt a crucial Possibility within it. If the Purity Faction represented rules and the Star Language Network represented the present of Heart Fire, then this “first resonance” perhaps represented the most primitive, purest harmonious state of both?
Understanding it, or even mastering it, could it be the key to countering the Purity Faction and even cracking Liranta’s “Final Harmony Protocol”?
He assigned this task to Ling Shuang and the Void Whisperer, which required extreme spiritual perception and the ability to interpret the ancient memories of the universe.
---
Just as the Alliance was intensely pushing forward the three branches of the god-defying plan, an extremely faint but entirely different rule perturbation was detected by the keystone probe network in a remote, almost unnoticed abandoned star system.
The star system had been reduced to ruins in an ancient war, even its stars extinguished, leaving only broken planetary debris and pervasive interstellar dust. Logically, there should be no significant rule activity here.
But the perturbation did exist. Its pattern was very peculiar, not a natural phenomenon, nor similar to any known technology or psionic fluctuation, but more like… an extremely fine “camouflage” that attempted to completely mimic natural background radiation but failed.
Einstein initially thought this was a probe malfunction or data interference, but after multiple verifications, he confirmed the reality of the perturbation. He immediately raised the monitoring level of that star system and deployed higher-precision “Shadow” reconnaissance units to investigate.
The images transmitted back by the “Shadow” units filled everyone who saw them with a strange chill.
Within the densest dust cloud at the core of the star system, at some unknown point, a… city had been built. It was not a magnificent metal metropolis, but a low-lying complex of buildings made of some self-repairing dark biomass, growing like fungi on broken asteroids, their structures twisted yet efficient, emitting faint life activity signals.
At the center of the city, there was a huge organic structure, pulsating like a Heart Fire, slowly and continuously releasing that rule perturbation which attempted to masquerade as natural background.
Even more unsettling was that the reconnaissance unit captured figures moving within the city—these were creatures whose forms were somewhere between the Sharp Advance Collective’s standard human form and some kind of arthropod. They moved swiftly, silently, and with extreme efficiency, communicating with each other through an undecipherable bioelectric signal.
Their technology clearly integrated biotechnology with the mechanical style of the Sharp Advance Collective, but it was even more… pure and extreme.
“Are they remnants of the Sharp Advance Collective?” Wu Yong stared at the holographic image. “What are they doing hiding here? This kind of biotechnology… I’ve never seen it before.”
“No, not like remnants,” Dr. Einstein analyzed the data, his brows furrowed. “Although their technological path shows traces of the Sharp Advance Collective, it’s more… ‘optimized.’ All emotional expressions, artistic pursuits, and even individual differences deemed ‘redundant’ have been removed, leaving only pure survival, efficiency, and evolution.
This is like… a new species born from some extreme ideology.”
“Liranta…” Lin Mo slowly spoke, a cold glint in his eyes. “Is this one of the ‘sparks’ she scattered?”
Just then, the “Shadow” unit seemed to trigger some alert mechanism. The pulsating “Heart Fire” at the city’s center suddenly accelerated, and a powerful, no longer disguised, rule scan wave instantly locked onto the reconnaissance unit!
“We’ve been discovered! Retreat!” Wu Yong immediately ordered.
But it was too late. Several dark red bio-energy beams shot out from the city, not to destroy the reconnaissance unit, but like a viscous net, capturing it and rapidly dragging it into the city! In the last moment before the signal was cut off, an extremely brief mental message from the captors was transmitted back, cold and efficient:
“Identification: External observation unit.”
“Assessment: Potential threat / Research sample.”
“Processing: Capture. Analyze. Assimilate.”
“For… the ‘final form’.”
The signal abruptly ceased.
The conference room fell into dead silence.
“Final form…” Ling Shuang murmured. “Liranta isn’t just calculating against the Purity Faction and us; she’s also cultivating this… thing… in the corners of the universe?”
“This might be part of her ‘harmony protocol’,” Lin Mo’s voice was low. “Using this extremely ‘optimized’ life form as the ‘basic template’ for a new universe? Or, is it some kind of… biological weapon… to deal with the Purity Faction?”
Whatever it was, this discovery indicated that Liranta’s plan was far grander and darker than they had imagined. Her tentacles had long reached into corners the Alliance couldn’t oversee, silently conducting dangerous creation experiments.
“We must clear out this stronghold,” Wu Yong said with murderous intent. “We can’t let it continue to develop!”
“No,” Lin Mo shook his head, his gaze deep as he stared at the city image disappearing into the dust cloud. “Don’t alert them for now.”
“Why?”
“Because this is also a ‘variable’,” Lin Mo’s lips curved into a cold arc. “A ‘variable’ Liranta created with her own hands, which might exceed her control. These ‘final form’ lives, they are extremely rational, extremely efficient; their sole goal is ‘evolution’ and ‘perfection’. When they develop to a certain extent, when they come into contact with Liranta, or the Purity Faction… what will happen?”
He looked at everyone: “Liranta wants to observe our conflict with the Purity Faction. Then let her also taste the flavor of being backfired by her own ‘perfect creations’. Encrypt and archive this star system’s coordinates, raise the monitoring level, but for now… leave it alone. We need more ‘backfire’ to forge the sharp blade that will ultimately tear apart her plan.”
Fighting fire with fire, driving out a tiger with a wolf. Lin Mo’s strategy became increasingly ruthless, and increasingly close to the dangerous edge. But in this game concerning the survival of the universe, any mercy or hesitation could lead to an irreversible end.
In the shadows of the Alliance, new threats and new “allies” were quietly emerging.