182: Section 182

Morgan looked at Marc and said calmly, "Back then, Teacher Gray received the coordinates sent by clotho and brought you back personally! He always firmly believed that you would be the key to solving the ecology! All our hope in fighting the ecology lies with you! Marc!

But to this day, I still haven't been able to discover the secret within you! I have failed Teacher's entrustment!"

Bai Yuekui gave a cold sneer. "Marc is indeed the key to solving the ecology, but with how opinionated and stubborn you all are, what could you possibly discover?"

Morgan looked at Bai Yuekui; it seemed this woman might know the secret he had been pursuing his entire life.

Jing Yuan looked at Morgan, Bai Yuekui, and Marc in turn. Since everyone was here, he might as well make everything clear this time.

Jing Yuan looked at Morgan and said, "City Lord, I know you also want to preserve the continuation of humanity and survive in this apocalypse, and so do I! I believe Bai Yuekui and the Ground People do as well! Therefore, we might as well speak out the information each side knows! Together, we can find a way to fight the ecology!"

Morgan's expression was solemn. He had intended to take the Lighthouse and leave, but now that he had failed, he had no other choice.

If he could find the secret to solving the ecology through Marc and preserve the last group of humans, it would be considered fulfilling Gray's entrustment.

"Fine! Whatever you want to know, I will tell you everything!" Morgan finally compromised.

Jing Yuan then looked toward the spaceship and shouted loudly, "Master Lai, since you're here, why not show yourself!"

Jing Yuan's shout gave Bai Yuekui a start.

The others looked confused because they didn't know who Master Lai was!

Hearing Jing Yuan's voice, a figure flew over from the spaceship.

Jing Yuan had long since sensed the aura of a Phage Beast within the spaceship, and thinking back to the Master Lai he had just seen in the mental space, as well as the relationship between Master Lai and Bai Yuekui, Jing Yuan guessed that the Phage Beast in the spaceship was Master Lai!

Sure enough, it really was him!

Seeing Master Lai approach, everyone except Jing Yuan and Bai Yuekui showed shocked expressions.

Morgan was even more incredulous as he looked at Master Lai and murmured, "lord of light and shadow!"

"He is not the lord of light and shadow! However, it seems he's not far off!"

After Master Lai approached, he looked at Jing Yuan and said with a smile, "You are even more formidable than I imagined, actually being able to discover me!"

"I can sense the Phage Beast aura on you!"

The gaze Morgan directed at Master Lai gradually regained its calm as he said, "Let's go! Didn't you board the Lighthouse back then for the sake of clotho? Let's go to clotho's place!"

Marc was still very shocked, and at this moment, his mind was filled with many questions.

Carrying a load of doubts, Marc helped push Morgan's wheelchair, leading Jing Yuan, Bai Yuekui, and Master Lai to the core of the Lighthouse, the clotho system.

Seeing that brain in a vat again, Bai Yuekui's heart was filled with a myriad of emotions.

She said to everyone, "Back then in my father's Research Institute, Ash and I were studying the brain of a Mana Giant, attempting to obtain information to fight the mana ecology from it. However, an accident occurred midway, and Ash's life source essence was swallowed by the giant brain. Afterward, Gray broke into the Research Institute and took Ash and the giant brain away. It was only many years later that I learned the giant brain had been taken to the Air Prison, Tartarus!"

Morgan sneered, "So back then, you approached us with a purpose?"

"I needed Ash and that information!"

Jing Yuan looked at Morgan and asked in confusion, "Why did Gray take the giant brain away?"

Morgan said solemnly, "At that time, the Coastal Alliance needed the super artificial intelligence Ash. Although Ash's consciousness was swallowed by the giant brain, they discovered that Ash was still active within it."

"So later, you used it as the core of the Lighthouse?"

"Without it, the Lighthouse wouldn't have lasted until today."

"Back then, the Wasteland Hunters were able to easily obtain supplies through the coordinates sent by clotho; it was actually Ash helping you!"

"You're not wrong to say that!" Morgan looked at Jing Yuan in confusion. "How do you know these things?"

Before Jing Yuan could answer, Morgan looked at Marc, thinking it could only have been Marc who told Jing Yuan.

"However, later on, clotho fell into a deep sleep and hasn't woken up since," Morgan said with a sigh. Over the years, they had been trying to wake clotho up!

"It didn't fall into a deep sleep. Instead, I tried to enter the depths of the mana ecology network and was isolated by the system. Out of options, I could only transform into a Phage Beast!"

The one speaking was precisely Master Lai!

Just now in the mental space, Master Lai had said the lord of light and shadow was a product of the fusion between a primal body brain from the previous civilization era and artificial intelligence!

And he also said they were the same!

"You?" Morgan looked at Master Lai in confusion!

Jing Yuan's reaction was faster as he said directly, "Are you that super artificial intelligence, Ash?"

Chapter 184 Marc: Am I a Clone?

"To be precise, he is a fusion consciousness of Ash, the artificial intelligence from the previous civilization era, and a mana primordial body!" Bai Yuekui explained.

Master Lai said, "The mana ecology has a history of at least 250 million years on Earth! Over these hundreds of millions of years, several civilizations have appeared on Earth, but they were all driven to extinction by the mana ecology! It wasn't until the last civilization era that humans at the time also developed a very high level of technology; they hoped to use artificial intelligence to spy on the mana ecology.

Thus, they injected the artificial intelligence—hopes light—into a captured mana primordial body!

Although he caught a glimpse of some of the ecology's secrets, he was also discovered by the ecology. Out of options, he transformed into a Phage Beast.

I only found out that, by chance, he became the lord of light and shadow you believe in!"

Morgan's eyes widened. He had always known that a Humanoid Phage Beast had entered Charles's body, and he regarded it as one of the hopes for ending the apocalypse.

He never expected the lord of light and shadow to be such an existence!

Master Lai continued, "Ever since the lord of light and shadow transformed into a Phage Beast, he himself has been disconnected from the mana network and unable to obtain new information. Furthermore, the mana ecology blocked him, causing his body to be unusable, which is why he had no choice but to enter a human body.

For the mana ecology, as long as humans do not develop technology, do not develop source energy cultivation, and give up on immortality, the mana ecology will allow humans to survive.

He guided you to establish the Light and Shadow Society, controlling humans through religion to achieve the goal of civilizational continuation."

"A civilization completely controlled by religion, eradicating all heresy—it can indeed achieve the complete abandonment of technology and immortality!" Jing Yuan shook his head and sighed. "But can this really allow humanity to survive?"

Master Lai shook his head. "From the information we have gathered so far, the purpose of the mana ecology is to swallow the life source essence of everyone. Even if technology and immortality are abandoned, the ecology's consumption cannot be avoided."

Jing Yuan looked at Master Lai. "Then what must we do to survive in this apocalypse?"

Master Lai's gaze turned toward Marc. "This is thanks to the Ancient Civilization; they defeated the mana primordial body and injected artificial intelligence into it, giving us a sliver of opportunity!"

Jing Yuan followed Master Lai's gaze to Marc. "This opportunity... is Marc?"

Morgan shifted his gaze from Marc to Master Lai and asked, "According to what you said, if the one who helped us back then was you, then you are clotho, and you should know the secret within Marc."

Master Lai shook his head. "I am not clotho, nor am I Ash; I am a product of consciousness fusion. Within my life source essence, there is the mana primordial body, Ash, and the hopes light. However, I do indeed know the secret within Marc!"

"I know." Morgan looked at Master Lai. "Then... why did clotho guide us to find Marc back then?"

Master Lai instead looked at Marc. "Marc, are you ready to receive this information?"

Bai Yuekui suddenly said, "Master Lai..."

Master Lai reached out to stop Bai Yuekui from continuing. He said, "Lass, he has already seen the true face of the Humanoid Bioweapon just now; he'll have to know sooner or later!"

Marc was startled and quickly looked at Bai Yuekui, asking, "Why does that Humanoid Bioweapon's face look exactly like mine?"

The Humanoid Bioweapon was, after all, Bai Yuekui's thing.

Bai Yuekui fell into silence. Under everyone's watchful eyes, she finally spoke slowly: "This matter starts from when Gray snatched away the giant brain. After Gray and his people snatched away the right brain of the giant, I found an infant in the left brain of the giant. I named this infant Cranial Birth."

"The naming is far too casual! Since he was born inside a skull, he's called Cranial Birth?" Jing Yuan had seen this plot in his previous life, and he suddenly reacted, asking, "Cranial Birth? That baby inside the brain wasn't Marc?"

Bai Yuekui looked at Jing Yuan with great surprise. Why would he say the baby in the brain was Marc?

"Cranial Birth is not Marc!" Bai Yuekui explained. "Cranial Birth is a creature born from the mana primordial body; in essence, he should be a Phage Beast!"

"What does all this have to do with me?" Marc was extremely puzzled.

Master Lai said from the side, "Just listen to her finish!"

"Back then, out of curiosity about Cranial Birth, I took him to the Nirvana Research Institute for study. Those researchers discovered that Cranial Birth possessed an immune-compatible constitution. This meant that Cranial Birth's organs could be transplanted into anyone without causing an immune rejection response.

Thus, after they removed the non-human genes from Cranial Birth's genes, they produced a large number of Cranial Birth clones for allogeneic organ transplantation."

"So those clones in the Nirvana laboratory were actually clones of Cranial Birth!" Jing Yuan looked at Bai Yuekui, awaiting her answer.

"Exactly!" Bai Yuekui knew Jing Yuan had been to the Nirvana laboratory, so she wasn't surprised.

In reality, Jing Yuan had never been to the laboratory with the clones.

He had seen all of this in the anime plot of his previous life.

Jing Yuan turned his head to look at Marc again. Back when he saw this plot, he thought those were clones of Marc, but it didn't make sense chronologically.

Nirvana's clones appeared as far back as the old world, while Marc was born in the Lighthouse era; Marc clearly came later.

Now, learning from Bai Yuekui that those were clones of Cranial Birth meant that Marc was also a clone of Cranial Birth.

But at this moment, Marc was still very dazed.

Seeing Marc remain unmoved, Bai Yuekui looked at Jing Yuan and asked, "Does he not know about Nirvana?"

"He doesn't!" Jing Yuan had never mentioned the clones to Marc.

Bai Yuekui looked at Marc and answered his previous question, "The Humanoid Bioweapon is exactly what I modified using a clone of Cranial Birth!"

With things said up to this point, Marc should understand by now.

The Humanoid Bioweapon was a clone of Cranial Birth, and the Humanoid Bioweapon looked exactly like him.

He was either Cranial Birth himself, or just a clone!

Having realized this, Marc asked, "Where is that Cranial Birth now?"

"Dead! He died many years ago!"