221: Chapter 220 The Third Change of Yi: The Pervasive Dream and the Shattered "Language"

Meaning Heritage Digitalization Center, Day Nine.

After the records of the grand historian, Zhou Zhe faced an even more difficult challenge—philosophical classics. If history was the "skeleton" of a civilization, then philosophy was its "soul." And the soul was often harder to "encode" than the skeleton.

When the Tao Te Ching conversion was completed, the first complete "rune ripple" appeared in Zhou Zhe's silver-white Poem Markings—it was a cyclical, unending rhythmic structure corresponding to the cosmology of "Tao produced One, One produced Two, Two produced Three, and Three produced all things." During the conversion, he felt as if he had merged into a flow of existence grander than individual consciousness, understanding that "non-action while leaving nothing undone" was not passivity, but the ultimate wisdom of aligning with the rhythm of the universe.

During the conversion of Zhuangzi, he "dreamed" he had become a butterfly, and then dreamed the butterfly had become him. That state of forgetting both self and object, of wandering with heaven and earth, caused his consciousness to briefly "depart" from his body, circling under the dome of the Digitalization Center for three seconds. β-2's records showed that during those three seconds, his physiological signs almost completely vanished, as if he had truly gone on a "Carefree Wandering."

But the true test was the i ching.

This ancient classic, revered as the "Head of All Classics," has at its core not stories or philosophies, but a meta-model of "change" itself, composed of sixty-four symbols. Every hexagram and every type of change is an abstract simulation of the evolutionary laws of all things in the universe.

As soon as Zhou Zhe made contact, he felt his consciousness being dragged into a boundless "Sea of Change."

He "saw" the Qian hexagram—pure power, the origin of creation, like the moment of the Big Bang. He "saw" the Kun hexagram—a gentle bearing, the mother of all things, like the earth silently nurturing life. He "saw" the Tun hexagram—the hardship of initial creation, like a civilization first opening its eyes from ignorance. He "saw" the Meng hexagram—the confusion of enlightenment, like a child asking "why" for the first time.

Sixty-four hexagrams, three hundred and eighty-four lines—every change projected an independent "universe of meaning" within his consciousness. What he needed to do was find the "rhythmic connections" between these universes and weave them into a complete "meta-meaning rune" regarding "change" itself.

The load index instantly soared to 91%.

β-2's alarm rang through the entire center: "Consciousness load exceeding threshold! Terminate conversion immediately!"

But Zhou Zhe couldn't hear it. Immersed in the "Sea of Change," he saw something even more startling—

When his consciousness perceived the surrounding world through the framework of the i ching, he found he could "see" the "trajectory of change" in all things. Great Strength's flipping spatula was the embodiment of the "Yu" hexagram (Enthusiasm) in his eyes; β-2's data stream was a modern interpretation of the "Bi" hexagram (Adorning); the decisions in Lin Shen's command center were the repeated alternation of the "Jin" (Advancing) and "Mingyi" (Darkening of the Light) hexagrams; and the continuous "chorus of life" in the Martian potato fields was clearly an eternal symphony of the "Lin" (Nearing) and "Guan" (Viewing) hexagrams.

Even more terrifyingly, he "saw" the Hive.

Within the gaze of that "Eye," he "saw" a combination of hexagrams—the overlap of Jiji (After Completion) and Weiji (Before Completion), the coexistence of the paradox of "task accomplished" and "task not yet accomplished." The meaning of this hexagram was: a certain "predetermined program" had been completed, but the true "beginning" had not yet arrived. The Hive was "waiting," but not passively; it was waiting for the "uncompleted" activation in a state of "completion."

He also "saw" a more distant, blurry hexagram—the cycle of the Bo (Stripping) and Fu (Returning) hexagrams. It came from the direction of the Oort Cloud, extremely faint yet incredibly resilient. What was stripped away was the old order; what returned was a new beginning. But between this "stripping" and "returning" lay a dark "abyss" that could not be described by hexagrams.

That was the Reapers.

Zhou Zhe snapped his eyes open, bleeding from his facial orifices, his Poem Markings flickering violently, but there was an indescribable "clarity" in his gaze.

"I... I saw them," he said hoarsely. "Not their appearance, but... their 'logic of change.' The Hive is waiting for the 'activation' command. The Reapers... they are traveling through the 'abyss.' They... they are also part of 'change.' They can be understood, they can be... dealt with."

Then he lost consciousness again. This time, the peak consciousness load: 94%.

The pilot for the Collective Unconscious Network Cradle was originally scheduled to start tonight. But Zhou Zhe's collapse forced the plan to be postponed.

Pilot subjects: 128 volunteers in the Cradle's core area (including researchers, engineers, and logistics personnel). Pilot method: During sleep periods, attempt to build a "tighter" resonance layer than the Mars pilot through the green soil network and Poetics of Emotion equipment.

β-2 optimized the plan based on the Mars data to ensure a wide enough safety margin. But an unexpected variable disrupted all plans—before Zhou Zhe collapsed, his deep entanglement with the i ching caused an abnormally powerful "rhythm of change" residue to appear in the green soil network.

This residue unintentionally merged into the resonance layer when the pilot started.

As a result, the participants' dreams were no longer in the state of "dreaming individually but with slight synchronization" like during the Mars pilot; instead, a true "mutual infiltration" occurred. Some dreamed of standing in an ocean of hexagrams, some dreamed of deciphering a wordless ancient book with colleagues, and some dreamed of becoming a single line within the sixty-four hexagrams, flowing with the overall change.

Even more bizarrely, the same imagery appeared in all these dreams—a giant "Eye" woven from light and shadow, staring at them from a distance.

That was not the Hive's "Eye." It was the thing in the "abyss" that Zhou Zhe had "seen," which the hexagrams could not describe.

The pilot was urgently terminated. However, 47 of the 128 people stated that in the hours after waking, they could still vaguely "perceive" each other's emotional fluctuations and thought tendencies, as if that layer of "resonance" had not completely dissipated.

"This isn't a side effect; it's a... qualitative change." Lin Shen fell silent for a long time after hearing β-2's report. "Zhou Zhe's 'i ching epiphany' unintentionally injected a new dimension into our 'Collective Unconscious Network'—the ability to perceive 'change' itself. This ability might give us some kind of 'anticipatory' or 'interpretive' advantage when facing the Reapers."

"Or it might drive us mad," Chu Yunshen added, his expression grave. "Not everyone is like Zhou Zhe, able to bear the weight of 'seeing change.' We must establish strict screening and training mechanisms."

Hive peripheral monitoring post.

Ashes stared at the latest data, a rare flicker of emotion crossing his pitch-black eyes.

During the time Zhou Zhe was unconscious and the Cradle dreams were "infiltrating each other," the Hive's "tentacles" received signals from the direction of the Oort Cloud—not complete commands, but broken, intermittent fragments of "language."

After extremely difficult analysis, they barely managed to piece together a few words:

[...Preliminary review... ahead of schedule...]

[...Anomaly... confirmed...]

[...Waiting... activation...]

"Preliminary review ahead of schedule?" Zhao Yan felt his blood freeze. "Didn't they say fifty years? It's only been a few days!"

"Perhaps it's not 'arriving ahead of schedule,' but 'starting the preliminary review program ahead of schedule.'" Ashes shook his head. "The Reapers' 'preliminary review' might not start only upon arrival, but from the moment they 'receive the signal.' They have been observing and evaluating remotely all along. The Hive's 'tentacles' might be the 'sensory organs' they've extended. Now, they may have completed their initial assessment and are preparing to enter the next phase."

"What is the next phase?"

"I don't know. But the word 'activation'... is very ominous."

Canteen, Memory Index Collection Station.

Great Strength set up a small table in the corner of the canteen with a notebook and a pen. Next to it stood a hand-written sign: "Tell your story, exchange it for a free bowl of hot and sour noodles."

At first, no one took it seriously. But after the first person to try it appeared, the situation changed.

It was a researcher in his fifties with graying hair, usually a man of few words. He sat down, ordered a bowl of hot and sour noodles, and after eating half, suddenly spoke: "When my daughter was three, I took her back to my hometown. My mother made her a bowl of hot and sour noodles. She cried from the spiciness, but kept eating through her tears. My mother laughed and said, 'She's just like her father, tough on the outside but soft on the inside.'"

He paused and wrote a few words in the notebook: "My mother passed away last year. My daughter is also three years old this year."

Then he finished the remaining noodles, stood up, and left without another word.

Great Strength looked at those words and was silent for a long time. Then he copied the passage and posted it on the wall.

From then on, a long queue began to form in front of the small table. Some spoke of their first love, some of their dreams, some of the last time they saw someone important, and some of the ecstasy when they completed their first independent project. Every story, from a few dozen words to several pages, was carefully posted on the wall by Great Strength.

Now, that wall was completely covered. From "hot and sour noodles at age three" to "braised pork at age fifty," from "the shock of seeing Saturn's rings for the first time" to "the warmth of the last hug with mother," from "I don't want to be forgotten" to "I want to remember them."

β-2 scanned every slip of paper and established a "Civilian Memory Index Library." It found that the emotional density and complexity of meaning in these seemingly trivial private memories were no less than those of the classic texts recorded in the "Civilization Meaning Archives."

"Perhaps the meaning of civilization is not only hidden in the records of the grand historian and the i ching," it wrote in its log. "It is also hidden in every ordinary person's story about a bowl of noodles, a person, or a sunset."

Late at night, Zhou Zhe woke from his coma.

His Poem Markings had stabilized, but within that silver-white light, there was an additional, faint "hexagram ripple"—the phantom images of the sixty-four hexagrams slowly circulating deep within his consciousness.

He sat up, and his first words were: "Is the i ching conversion finished?"

β-2's light fluctuated slightly: "You completed sixty-two hexagrams before losing consciousness. The last two—Jiji and Weiji—were completed autonomously by your subconscious while your consciousness load was at 94%. Conversion quality assessment: Grade 9.9. This is the most complex meaning rune to date."

Zhou Zhe was silent for a moment, gently stroking the pinch of Martian commemorative soil on his chest. He "saw" its "trajectory of change"—from the red sands of Mars to being mixed with potato Ashes, and then to being cherished by him. It was a tiny yet real journey of meaning spanning across planets.

He looked out the window; the starry sky was still deep. The Hive's "Eye" still gazed, and those new "tentacles" trembled slightly in the dark. Further away, the Reapers were traveling through the "abyss," and broken "language" had already arrived.

But he was no longer just afraid.

The phantom images of the sixty-four hexagrams circulated in his consciousness; he "saw" the laws of change, saw that "Stripping" must lead to "Returning," and saw that after "Completion" (Jiji), there must be "Incompletion" (Weiji). So it was for civilization, so it was for the universe, and so it was for the Reapers.

He stood up and walked toward the door.

"Where are you going?" β-2 asked.

"The canteen," he said. "I heard Great Strength has free hot and sour noodles. I want to go see those stories."