59: Chapter 59 Reverse Decoding of Biological STC

The metal walls of the vertical shaft were still vibrating, each tremor like the heartbeat of a behemoth, gradually squeezing rusted bolts from their concrete bases. The aftershocks of a melta-cutter drifted down from above, carrying the ozone smell of ionized air. Lin Yuan leaned against the shell of a cultivation tank; the wound on his right wrist had already closed under the writhing of the Nano-seeds, but the sensation of his bone marrow being gnawed became clearer—it wasn't healing, it was an occupation. A network of blue-purple veins pulsed rhythmically beneath his skin like a biological circuit diagram. Farm control had escalated from the blood level to the organ level, and every heartbeat was accompanied by a faint mechanical click.

"Two minutes and forty seconds." Chen Duo leaned against the corner of the passage, his laser pistol aimed diagonally upward at the ventilation grille. His blind eyes were clouded with a grayish-white film, but auditory compensation allowed him to catch every groan of metal fatigue, the hiss of the hydraulic system above, the snapping of blast door hinges, and the dull echo of heavy power boots treading on the metal grates. His breathing was light, but every inhalation carried a bloody scent—a sign that gene fixation was eroding his alveoli.

Lin Yuan pulled out the Chief Breeder identity card, its edges still stained with their mixed blood, and inserted it into the terminal slot. Red light flashed—not an ordinary red LED, but a biological light that pulsed like blood in a vessel. The holographic projection exploded with crimson text, each character accompanied by a slight neural sting, burning directly onto his retinas:

[Twin Blood Covenant Verification Protocol: 100% Neural Synchronization Required]

[Current Synchronization Rate: 67%]

[Warning: Incomplete synchronization will trigger Gene Lock backlash]

[Physiological Risks: Vagus nerve remodeling / Hippocampal memory overflow / Irreversible pain sharing]

"Chen Duo." Lin Yuan's fingers moved toward his tactical dagger, the patterns on the hilt digging into his palm. "Reopen the Blood Covenant emotional channel, completely. No filtering, no buffering—just raw data."

Chen Duo's breath hitched for a moment, his shoulder muscles tensing like rock. "You know what that means. My memories of interrogation and your childhood in the cultivation tank will blur together. No boundaries, no privacy. Your fear will become my nightmare, and my pain will become your burn."

"Two minutes left." Lin Yuan pricked the newly healed wound on his right wrist, and black blood dripped onto the induction zone, kicking up faint electric sparks. "The logs contain the permission key to stop the Final Sowing, as well as clues to reverse your gene fixation. Chen Duo, I need you to look at me."

Chen Duo turned around, his blind eyes aimed toward the sound. He dug his nails into the wound on his left wrist, and the scabbed-over tear reopened, pouring out gold-red blood—blood that bore the marks of Astartes modification.

"Not look." The sound of blood dripping was crisp and audible, ticking like a stopwatch in the deathly silent passage. "Feel. Feel me, feel all of this."

The moment the gold and red bloods met in the induction zone, Lin Yuan's spine felt as if it were pierced by a high-voltage current, surging from his tailbone to the crown of his head. It wasn't a metaphor; it was a real neural shock. Chen Duo's memories of interrogation flooded in: the smell of charred flesh, the crisp snap of bones shattering under hydraulic pincers, the heavy breathing of the interrogator wearing a respirator, and the darkness—the long, long darkness. In the gaps of those memories, Lin Yuan's childhood flowed back up. Chen Duo 'saw' the perspective floating within the cultivation tank, particles suspended in green nutrient solution, the cold touch of a sampling needle piercing his spine every seventy-two hours, the expressionless face of the Chief Breeder recording data outside the glass, and the serial numbers: 00, Primarch, Container, Non-human.

[Neural Synchronization Rate: 89%... 92%... 97%... 99%]

The system's prompt was no longer a synthesized mechanical voice but had become a resonance of their combined heartbeats.

"Hold on." Chen Duo's voice rang directly inside Lin Yuan's skull, like a resonance from the depths of his brain. Their limbic systems were crudely welded together; pain, fear, and adrenaline levels were shared between them in real-time. "The Purge Main Force has breached the first blast door. I hear the hydraulic hiss of Power Armor. Thirty seconds. They are establishing firing sectors; the Heavy Bolters are preheating."

Lin Yuan bit the tip of his tongue, and the taste of blood became twice as intense through the shared nerves. His fingers flew across the terminal, oblivious to his splitting fingernails. The hidden log's encryption layer was peeled away, and a stream of biological data gushed forth—not ordinary binary code, but a projection of spiral DNA strands, spinning and unwinding in the air.

The holographic projection switched to a yellowed experimental record: "Bio-Self-Organizing Construction Template (Bio-STC) Reverse Engineering Feasibility Report." It bore the Emperors Laboratory badge—a mechanical hand clutching a DNA double helix. The date was forty years earlier than when the Adeptus Mechanicus discovered the first STC. There were dried coffee stains and fingerprints on the edges of the paper.

[The Farm is essentially a Bio-STC testing ground]

[Mechanical STCs originate from the reverse parsing and metallic fixation of biological templates]

[Subject 00 is the only living Container compatible with the biological template]

[Warning: Container stability decreases exponentially with age]

"Lin Yuan." Chen Duo's voice tightened with the shared physiological agony of the Blood Covenant. His retinas were hemorrhaging, but the shared vision allowed Lin Yuan to see himself through Chen Duo's eyes—a ghost surrounded by data streams. "Your heart rate is too fast, 180 beats per minute. The Nano-seeds are using the verification process to rewrite your vagus nerve. It's turning you into a part of the Farm."

Lin Yuan's vision darkened at the edges, but he saw the bottom-most attachment of the log. A 3D star map rotated in the red light, with a marker located deeper underground in the Farm's Lava Tube Zone. It was labeled as the "Original Cultivation Zone," where temperature readings were as high as 400 degrees Celsius, but there was a cold spot, like a block of ice inside a heart.

[THRONE-00-Proto-001 Wreckage Location: Sector-7, Lava-Tube-09]

[Status: Core alive, structural damage at 72%]

[Last Record: Neural link experiment between Primarch No. 00 and Proto-001]

[Warning: Traces of contamination from The Twelfth (THRONE-00-Proto-012) detected]

[Contamination Type: Consciousness parasitism / Neural erosion / Independent personality generation]

The Twelfth. Lin Yuan's breath hitched as he remembered the warning from the stormclaw's machine spirit before its death—the "Twelve" torn apart by electromagnetic interference. THRONE-01 was the thirteenth clone; The Twelfth had already corrupted into an independent consciousness, and it had been growing like a tumor inside the first-generation THRONE wreckage for twenty years.

"Coordinates confirmed," Lin Yuan said hoarsely. Nosebleed dripped onto the identity card and was absorbed, a faint light emanating from its cracks. "But the wreckage is corrupted. Chen Duo, The Twelfth is there... it's waiting for me, for this body, the No. 00 Container..."

The roar of Power Armor servo motors echoed from the shaft above, and the residual heat of the melta distorted the air, creating ripples of heat waves. In ninety seconds, they would be torn in two by Heavy Bolters, or worse, captured alive to become new samples in cultivation tanks.

Chen Duo suddenly lunged forward, pressing his hand over the back of Lin Yuan's. Their blood mixed into an eerie orange-red, forming a complete double helix pattern in the induction zone.

"Complete the verification." Chen Duo's fingers traced binary code into Lin Yuan's palm—the low-level Farm commands that THRONE-01 had been forced to reveal. Each digit was accompanied by neural burning. "Now, you are a Secondary Administrator. Control it, Lin Yuan. Control this damn Farm."

[Verification Complete]

[Permission Level: Area Observer → Secondary Administrator]

[Controllable Units: Automatic Defense Sentinels (Activating)]

[Neural Synchronization Rate Locked: 100% (Permanent)]

[Side Effect Warning: Memory leakage / Emotional resonance / Irreversible pain synchronization]

A stream of data exploded across Lin Yuan's retinas—not as vision, but as direct neural mapping. He sensed the Automatic Sentinels within the cultivation tank matrix. They weren't machines, but semi-biological, semi-mechanical hybrids with pulses and simple feelings of hunger. They raised their barrels; ammo reserves, aiming angles, and firing sectors were mapped directly into his nerves, as if he had gained twelve extra arms.

The vanguard of the Purge Main Force appeared in crimson-painted Power Armor, their Bolter barrels gleaming with an oily light. The metallic clack of rounds being chambered was crisp and lethal. The vanguard raised a hand, preparing to fire.

Lin Yuan raised his hand, fingers splayed, blood dripping from his wrist.

"Stop."

The Farm's broadcast system boomed—not through the air, but through the coercive force of the Secondary Administrator permissions vibrating within the Blood Covenant, pressing directly into the auditory nerves of every biological unit. Automatic Sentinels rose from the gaps between the cultivation tanks, their twelve-linked heavy machine guns aimed at the vertical shaft entrance. The red dots of laser sights splashed across the armor like a coating of blood.

The Purge Main Force vanguard screeched to a halt, the hydraulic systems screaming as power boots scraped sparks against the metal floor. They saw the permission markers: the defense system was signaled in orange as "Allies," while their own IFF identification codes had turned red—Invaders.

"Regroup!" a harsh command barked over the Purge channel, the voice thick with incredulous shock. "The target has obtained secondary permissions. A frontal breakthrough is too costly. Fall back to Node B-7 and wait for heavy mech support. Damn it, this is impossible. A Secondary Administrator requires Twin Prototypes..."

The sound of retreating footsteps and clashing metal grew distant, but it left behind a warning—not of defeat, but of tactical reorganization. Lin Yuan knew they were only temporarily suppressed by the permissions. The pressure was merely postponed for three minutes; the Purge Main Force would not give up, and they would return with even heavier firepower.

Chen Duo slumped, and Lin Yuan caught him. Their blood mingled on their arms, indistinguishable now. The Blood Covenant was still burning, their shared physiological data pulsing like twin hearts in the same chamber. Lin Yuan could feel Chen Duo's gene fixation accelerating like ice spreading through his veins, while Chen Duo could feel the Nano-seeds writhing inside Lin Yuan like countless ants devouring his nerves.

Lin Yuan saw fragments of Chen Duo's memories: a twelve-year-old Chen Duo hiding in the ruins, clutching half a piece of moldy bread, the sound of Scavengers' treads behind him, and fear—pure survival instinct. In Chen Duo's perception, Lin Yuan's childhood was replaying: the cultivation tank serial number, No. 00, Primarch, Container, the face outside the glass, the coldness of the sampling needle, and loneliness—a manufactured loneliness.

"Your eyes..." Lin Yuan touched the corner of Chen Duo's eye, where golden blood flowed. The blood was warm and tasted of metal.

"Not restored." Chen Duo's voice was very soft, exhaustion weighing on him like a mountain. The Blood Covenant made him share Lin Yuan's physical depletion. "But... I can see you. Not with my eyes, but through you. Your position, your body heat, your heartbeat. You're glowing on my neural map."

Not with eyes, but through the neural link. The Blood Covenant had solidified from a temporary emergency link into a permanent neural bond, sharing perception, memory, and pain, as if two brains had been forcibly sewn together. It was a binding deeper than any oath, a deprivation of privacy more absolute than any surveillance; they had become each other's hostages and fortresses.

The terminal screen flickered, and the final segment of the log played automatically, accompanied by the static and biological current noise of twenty years. The face of the Chief Breeder appeared in the projection—he looked exactly like Lin Yuan, but with wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and graying temples. His voice carried a tired tenderness and a mad persistence.

"If you are seeing this record, the Twin Blood Covenant has been established," the Breeder said, the green indicator lights of the cultivation tank matrix behind him looking like an electronic forest. "The first-generation THRONE was not a machine; it was the first living being to successfully host a Bio-STC template, created through gene editing and mechanical fusion... the first god. But it was in too much pain—so much pain that it split off a twelfth consciousness to bear it. Do not trust The Twelfth. It is no longer us. It has fallen in love with pain, and it wants more Containers to share it..."

The projection suddenly distorted, torn apart by electromagnetic interference as if the signal had been forcibly cut. Lin Yuan's right wrist throbbed with pain as the Nano-seeds writhed frantically, responding to a distant call. A low resonance echoed from the direction of Sector-7, like a sleeping behemoth turning over. He looked into the darkness where the coordinates pointed; something was waking up, hungry, waiting for fresh nerves to plug in.

Chen Duo grabbed his wrist. Their blood was still mingling, and the orange-red droplets hissed as they corroded the metal floor. Through the Blood Covenant, Lin Yuan felt Chen Duo's resolve, hard as steel, resisting the encroachment of fixation.

"Twenty-two hours left," Chen Duo said, his voice vibrating directly against Lin Yuan's eardrums through the Blood Covenant. "Go get the first-generation THRONE wreckage, then kill The Twelfth. Before it fully wakes up."

Lin Yuan pulled out the identity card. It was covered in fine cracks like parched earth, but biological light flowed within them. He helped Chen Duo stand. The Automatic Sentinels formed a defensive formation, their barrels aimed at the entrance to the passage leading to Sector-7, their biological sensors glowing red in the dark.

Deep within the Blood Covenant, in their shared neural space, memories were leaking into each other like water flowing between two cups. No secrets, no isolation—only two souls welded together by fate standing back-to-back, prepared to walk into a deeper hell.

The terminal screen gave a final flicker, displaying the precise coordinates of the first-generation THRONE wreckage and a line of small text that looked as if it were written in blood:

[Final Sowing Countdown: 11 hours 17 minutes]

[Suggested Action: Immediately acquire the proto-001 core to delay the fixation process]

[Warning: The Twelfth's consciousness activity is increasing]

Lin Yuan took the first step, and Chen Duo followed closely behind. Their pulses beat in sync within the Blood Covenant, like two heartbeats of the same body. Behind them, the shadows of the Purge Main Force were regrouping at Node B-7, and the rumbling of heavy mech treads began to roar; ahead, in the darkness of the lava tubes, The Twelfth's corrupted consciousness waited for fresh flesh, its laughter faintly audible through the static of the Blood Covenant.

Lin Yuan placed his hand on the still-warm laser pistol, sending a simple pulse to Chen Duo through the Blood Covenant—not words, but pure intent, like the low growl of a beast:

[Forward]

A smile tugged at the corner of Chen Duo's mouth, though his eyes were still blind and gene fixation was eating away at his internal organs. He raised his gun and aimed into the darkness ahead. The shared perception in the Blood Covenant allowed him to "see" the coordinates Lin Yuan saw; the two souls became each other's beacons in the darkness.

"Forward," he said.