106: Chapter 105 The Heartbeat Beneath the Earth's Veins

5 days after the verdict was delivered, 4:17 AM

The night in the Taihang Mountains was as thick as ink. The scout team chose to enter the target area at the darkest moment before dawn. The twelve-person team consisted of Zhao Yan, four special operations members, three archaeological decoding experts led by Elena, Zhou Zhe's assistant Li Wei, and Listening Wind, who hovered in the center of the group like a moving nebula.

They used no heavy vehicles or optical camouflage—visual deception was meaningless before a consciousness Perceiver like Listening Wind. They trekked through the final five kilometers of primeval mountain forest, relying on night-vision goggles and terrain scanners to move along the rugged ridgeline.

"The cyan-blue anomaly zone is in the valley ahead," Zhao Yan's voice crackled through the bone-conduction headsets. "Satellite thermal imaging shows a 1.2-degree Celsius abnormal rise in surface temperature, but the temperature ten meters underground has actually dropped by 3 degrees. This isn't normal."

Elena adjusted the portable Gaia Network resonance detector in her hands—a device Zhou Zhe's team had hastily assembled based on data from the ice abyss to capture faint fluctuations in the legacy network. "I'm reading the background signal... wait."

The waveform on the detector's screen suddenly jumped violently. It wasn't a regular pulse, but a chaotic, almost spasmodic vibration pattern.

"This doesn't look like the 'breathing' from the ice abyss," Elena stared at the data. "It's more like... a spasm. Or a convulsion from pain."

Listening Wind's luminous mist floated to her side. "Can you let me touch that signal? Through your instrument."

Elena hesitated for a second before pointing the detector's external sensor toward the mist. Listening Wind extended a silver-white thread of mist, lightly touching the interface.

Instantly, everyone felt a brief wave of dizziness.

It wasn't physical; rather, a flood of fragmented sensory memories suddenly rushed into their minds:

—The cold touch of rock, persisting for tens of thousands of years.

—The pressure of being buried deep, the grinding of tectonic movements.

—Then, a faint stream of heat, coming from far away, flowing along the ley line channels.

—The heat triggered something... a long-dormant switch.

—An urge to awaken, mixed with a mandatory protocol to remain asleep.

—Two sets of instructions collided in the darkness, triggering silent spasms.

"It's in pain." Listening Wind withdrew the mist thread, her voice gaining a touch of gravity. "This entity—let's call it an entity for now—has been set with a double bind. On one hand, there's the awakening protocol responding to the activation of the Gaia Network; on the other, there's a deeper mandatory hibernation command from some kind of external lock. The two instructions are warring within it."

Zhao Yan raised his hand, and the team stopped fifty meters from the edge of the valley. Through the night-vision goggles, the hundred-meter-wide cyan-blue area was clearly visible—it wasn't the vegetation changing color, but the earth itself emitting a dim, cold light. The intensity of the light ebbed and flowed in sync with the waveform spasms on the detector.

"Where is the external lock coming from?" Zhao Yan asked.

Listening Wind fell silent for a few seconds, the starlight within the mist spinning faster. "The residual characteristics of the locking signal... have a 67% match with the technological traits of the 'Pruning Faction' described in your reports. But it's older, cruder. Like an early version."

Elena suddenly understood. "Five hundred thousand years ago! Before the Order Reconstruction Faction retreated, they carried out a large-scale blockade of sower legacy facilities within the Solar System that might pose a threat to them. Because the ice abyss was deep in the polar regions and had a singular function, it might have been overlooked or deemed a low threat. But here..."

She pulled up a deep profile of the geological scan. About eight hundred meters beneath the valley was a massive cavity structure, irregularly shaped with blurred edges, as if it had been violently embedded into the rock layers.

"This isn't a natural cave," Li Wei whispered. "The structural outline shows a standard dodecahedral geometry, which is sower architectural style. But it's severely deformed, as if it were... crushed."

"Attack marks," Zhao Yan concluded. "Five hundred thousand years ago, the Reconstruction Faction's forces attacked this place, attempting to destroy the facility. They didn't succeed completely, so they applied a mandatory hibernation lock and buried it deep in the mountains."

"And now we've activated the Gaia Network," Elena followed up. "The awakening protocol has started working, trying to break through that ancient lock. That's why it's in pain, why it's spasming."

Just then, the ground began to vibrate.

It wasn't the violent shaking of an earthquake, but a low-frequency, continuous hum, as if a massive engine were starting deep underground. The light in the cyan-blue area suddenly intensified, illuminating the entire valley as if it had sunk to the bottom of the sea. Within the light, fine, glowing patterns began to emerge on the surface of the earth—the shell of the architectural structure, gradually surfacing from its long slumber.

"Fall back!" Zhao Yan ordered.

But it was too late.

In the center of the valley, the earth bulged upward, forming a hemispherical protrusion thirty meters in diameter. On the surface of the bulge, the glowing patterns began to reorganize and connect, eventually converging into seven focal points. The seven points simultaneously shot out thin beams of light straight into the night sky, intersecting three hundred meters above the ground to weave a complex three-dimensional symbol.

Everyone recognized that symbol—it was in the logs of the ice abyss and the archives of the Cradle.

The emergency distress signal of the Sower Civilization.

"Who is it trying to contact?" Li Wei's voice was tight. "The Cradle? Or..."

"It's broadcasting to the entire Gaia Network." Listening Wind's mist spread out, forming a thin protective film over the team. "But the signal is being distorted. The mandatory hibernation lock is interfering with it, transforming the distress signal into..."

Her words were cut off by a burst of sharp noise.

It wasn't a sound, but informational noise acting directly on their consciousness. Everyone clutched their heads at once as a sharp, stabbing pain exploded from their temples. Fragmented word snippets were mixed into the noise:

[...Anchor... No. 13... Secondary Ecosystem... Regulator...]

[...Under... Attack... Integrity... 41%...]

[...Mandatory... Hibernation... Protocol... Intruder... Command...]

[...Awakening... Failed... Error... Error... Error...]

"It's attempting a self-check and restart," Elena said, operating the detector despite her headache. "But the locking protocol has scrambled its logic circuits. It can't distinguish whether we are intruders or Inheritors, or whether it's five hundred thousand years ago or today."

Zhao Yan looked toward the center of the valley. Cracks began to appear on the surface of the hemispherical bulge, and cyan-blue light gushed from the fissures, making the surrounding mountain rocks look like sapphires. The cracks were widening; some massive structure was breaking through the soil.

"If it fully unearths, by how many times will the signal strength increase?" he asked.

Elena calculated quickly. "At least three hundred times. Enough for all monitoring stations in the Solar System—including any Pruning Faction probes that might be lurking—to receive it clearly."

"Then we can't let it fully come out." Zhao Yan pulled up the weapon list. "What are the non-lethal suppression options?"

"Non-lethal means effective against sower architectural structures..." Li Wei quickly flipped through the database. "A high-frequency resonance disruption field? But we'd need to know its natural frequency. Or a local space-time stabilization anchor to 'pin' it back to its current state. But we don't have that kind of equipment."

Listening Wind's mist suddenly contracted, becoming exceptionally solid. "Perhaps... we don't need equipment."

She floated forward, hovering between the team and the glowing hemisphere. The mist began to rotate, and the starlight within was no longer flowing randomly but was arranged into a regular spiral array.

"The talent of a Star Speaker is to listen and communicate." Her voice rang directly in everyone's consciousness, calm and steady. "But communication is two-way. If it is in pain due to chaos, if its voice is distorted due to interference... then perhaps I can help it 'clear its voice.'"

"What are you going to do?" Elena asked.

"Contact its consciousness core," Listening Wind said. "Not through an instrument relay, but through direct consciousness docking. I will try to find unpolluted memory fragments within its logical chaos, find its true 'self-identity.' Then, I'll use that identity to overwrite the distorted distress signal."

[part:gemini-3.1-flash-lite]

"What about the risks?" Zhao Yan asked.

"If its chaos is too deep, I might get drawn in, and my consciousness might be unable to return for a time." Listening Wind's tone remained calm, "If an anti-intrusion protocol is hidden within the forced sleep lock, I might suffer a mental shock. But compared to the risk of letting the signal fully transmit, this is the better choice."

She did not wait for approval.

The light mist suddenly exploded, transforming into thousands of silver threads that shot toward the glowing hemisphere in the center of the valley like a meteor shower in reverse. The moment the silver threads touched the surface of the hemisphere, the entire world seemed to freeze for an instant.

Then, everyone "saw."

Not with their eyes, but their consciousness was forcibly pulled into a shared hallucination space.

The space was a shattered, constantly rearranging geometric maze. The walls were made of flowing data code, the floor was flickering circuit patterns, and the ceiling hung with broken fiber optic cables like dying vines. Deep in the maze, a light source flickered in agony—it was the facility's consciousness core, wrapped and pierced by dozens of pitch-black chains. The other ends of the chains disappeared into the surrounding darkness, from which a whisper like metal rubbing against metal emerged, repeating the same sentence:

[Sleep. Forget. Do not exist.]

Silver-white mist threads wove through the maze, dodging the lashes of the chains, and approached the light source. Whenever the mist threads drew near, the light source would flicker violently, releasing chaotic memory fragments:

—A lush ecological dome, strange plants swaying slowly, glowing spores floating in the air.

—Data jumping on a console, displaying atmospheric composition, temperature gradients, and species diversity indices.

—Alarms suddenly blared, and angular black ship silhouettes appeared outside the dome.

—Explosion, tearing, darkness.

—Then a long, void-like sleep, accompanied only by the whispers of the chains.

"I understand," Listening Wind's voice echoed in the hallucination space, "You are not a weapon, nor a fortress. You are an 'Ecological Regulator,' secondary anchor number 13. Your duty is to maintain the balance of an experimental ecological zone."

The light source flickered, seemingly responding.

"Those who attacked you have left, left five hundred thousand years ago," the silver threads touched the light source gently, "But the chains they left behind remain. That is not a part of you. That is a disease forced upon you."

The light source trembled violently. The chains tightened, and the whispers in the darkness became sharp:

[Do not exist! Do not exist!]

"No, you exist," Listening Wind's voice suddenly strengthened, the silver threads began to glow, and complex consciousness coding emerged within the light, "You are an existence created by the Sower Civilization, a part of the Gaia Network. You have a name, a duty, and memories. Your name is..."

She accessed all the memory fragments she had just touched, recombining them, cleaning away the pollution of the chains, and restoring the original identification code.

The light condensed into a complete symbol within her consciousness.

She implanted this symbol, like a seed, into the core of the light source.

"Your name is 'green soil'."

Instantly, the chains began to disintegrate.

Not breaking, but being consumed and transformed from within by the light. The whispers in the darkness turned into terrified screams, then quickly faded away. The light source—now to be called "green soil"—began to glow steadily, its light warm and soft.

The hallucination space began to restructure. The shattered geometric shapes reassembled, the broken fiber optic cables reconnected, and the data flow restored order. In the center of the maze, the light source extended soft threads of light, gently wrapping around Listening Wind's silver threads, transmitting a clear message of consciousness:

[Thank you. I... have returned. But my body is severely damaged, and the awakening process cannot be reversed. After fully unearthing, I will maintain basic functions for about 72 hours, then permanently shut down due to structural collapse.]

[In my core memory, I hold the complete tactical data of the attackers, as well as records of their destruction of other secondary anchors within the Solar System. This data may be useful to you.]

[Please receive it.]

A massive stream of data surged along the consciousness link. Elena's detector flashed wildly, and the storage module was instantly filled by forty percent.

In the real world, the glowing hemisphere in the center of the valley stopped rising further. The cracks on the surface stopped expanding, and the cyan light began to pulse softly and rhythmically. The seven beams of light reaching into the sky slowly retracted, condensing into a simple symbol in the air—no longer a distress signal, but a status indicator representing "Stable Operation."

Then, the shell on the side of the hemisphere slid open to reveal an entrance, exposing a deep, dark passage inside.

Listening Wind's silver threads retracted, and the light mist recondensed, but it was noticeably dimmer, and the starlight flowing within it had slowed.

"It has given us 72 hours," her voice was somewhat weak, "Go retrieve the data core, and... say goodbye."

Zhao Yan looked at the entrance, then at the data bar on Elena's detector, which was now full.

"Li Wei, contact Bedrock Base and request an engineering team and an archaeological team. We need to move everything of value out of here within three days," he paused, "Also, notify the medical team to prepare for consciousness stabilization treatment. Observer Listening Wind needs a checkup."

The team began to move toward the entrance.

Elena walked at the very front; the detector showed that the radiation levels and biological indicators inside were within safe ranges. She looked back at Listening Wind: "You said its name was 'green soil' just now?"

"That is its self-identification," Listening Wind's light mist fluctuated gently, "and also the function it was designed for—soil for cultivating life. It was supposed to be the core of an ecological oasis, not a war relic buried underground."

They stepped into the entrance.

The inside of the passage was unexpectedly... gentle. The walls were made of some kind of active biological material, emitting a soft, milky white light. The air was fresh, carrying the scent of soil and grass after rain. If they didn't know this was an ancient facility under eight million tons of rock, they would almost think they had walked into some carefully designed ecological pavilion.

At the end of the passage was a circular central control room.

In the center of the control room floated a crystal the size of a fist, with a star-like flow of data light circulating inside. That was the core of green soil.

And the walls of the control room were an entire circle of transparent observation windows. Outside the window—

Elena held her breath.

Outside the window was a massive underground cavern, over two hundred meters high and at least one kilometer in diameter. Inside the cavern, a complete ecosystem frozen in time was preserved: glowing giant ferns, jellyfish-like creatures floating in mid-air, streams of liquid light, and countless strange life forms whose names she could not name.

They were all stationary, covered in a thin, transparent protective film, like insects in amber.

"These are its 'children'," Listening Wind said softly, "Before it was attacked, it had urgently sealed the entire ecosystem. Five hundred thousand years... they have been waiting like this, waiting for a Gardener who will never return."

The crystal core emitted a soft light, transmitting the final message of consciousness:

[Data access is now open. Please use it properly.]

[My children... if possible... please give them an ending. Sleep, or rest in peace. Do not let them be trapped in waiting forever.]

[Thank you for letting me... remember who I am at the very end.]

The light began to slowly dim.

In the ecosystem outside the control room, those sealed lives seemed to sense something. The protective film fluctuated slightly, as if dreaming a sad dream that had not woken for five hundred thousand years.

Zhao Yan connected the communication with Bedrock Base.

"Dr. Lin," he said, "We have found an Ecological Regulator anchor. It is dying. But it has left us a gift, and... an assignment."

He looked out the window at the frozen, beautiful graveyard.

"About how to properly bury an era."