The amber-encased left ear radiated warmth upon touch. As Lin Wan's fingers brushed the auricle, the corpse-poison variation of "Rainbow Skirt Dance" drilled into her bones—440Hz sound waves carving serrated grooves down her vertebrae, whiskey-scented soul marrow oozing from the fissures. The fetus's vertical pupil contracted to a needlepoint: "Daddy's ear...so noisy!" Yet its black-hole fontanelle involuntarily engulfed the amber, sutra mandalas spinning madly within its iris.
The Burmese warlord's boot ground against the guillotine crack: "The code for one of the brat's eyes—fair trade." Ether-scented Trisolaran coolant seeped from his sole, not blood. Empress Wu's data-cables had already pierced three clone wombs, amniotic fluid gushing as drained zombie skeletons crackled like firecrackers.
"Fair?" Lin Wan's laugh rasped like organs scraping bone. She slammed the amber into her abdominal wound! Shen's ear bones scraped the antimatter fetus as Qin seal-script codes scorched her womb with acrid smoke:
[ENGINE IGNITION EDICT]
By soul marrow kindled
By contracts burned
Seven lifetimes' shackles broken
Ten calamities' scourge frozen
The terracotta starship's bronze hull fissured. The bridge floor erupted with terracotta warriors from Lishan Mausoleum, every Qin soldier's eye socket flashing with the cold gleam of hairpins from Shen's memories.
"No—!" Wu Zetian's high-frequency shriek tore the air. Reader comments on her phoenix robes convulsed—"Save the ear!" "Code is trap!" burning through data streams. Three hundred clone fetuses simultaneously clawed at uterine walls, their nails screeching in resonance with the amber bell—the swamp exploded into boiling fury!
Cochlear Torture Chamber
Lin Wan's glove plunged into the amber. Fingers scraped half a mechanical eardrum from Qin engravings in the auditory canal—cerebral ash from the Cyber Buddha's brain clung to its surface.
"So you dissected Buddha..." She sneered, pinching the eardrum. The warlord's cigar flared, bronze chains shooting from his sole to snare her wrist: "Return it!"
The fetus swallowed the eardrum first! Its pupil detonated holograms:
Shen's POV: Strapped to dissection table
Zhou's mech-arm wielding Wu's hairpick, prying open Cyber Buddha's parietal cortex
Warlord's cigar ash falling on exposed gyri: "Extract auditory nerve...rivet to contract"
Buddha-eye recording
Hairpin impaling Shen's left ear, micro-bell implanted in cochlea
Severed auditory nerve coiled with binary sutras, jacked into Die Face #3
"Now hear why it's noisy?" Chains crushed her glove's filaments. "His hearing...became the die's cog!"
Lin Wan released the chains—letting them pierce her abdomen! Lunging toward the terracotta wreck, she clawed into the sheet-music fuel chamber: "Shen—burn these cursed contracts!"
The self-destruct command unleashed seven hundred fire-streams from the terracotta chest. Each blaze bore a lifetime's contract:
Life 42: Vision traded for 3-day clone survival
Life 319: Left lung for Wu Zhao Die steering rights
Life 700: Heart for delayed Buddha-Mother birth
Flames merged into a giant bronze crossbow—its arrow a magnified replica of Shen's left ear!
Birthing Storm
As the arrow launched, the amber bell shattered. Uncontrolled 440Hz corpse-poison frequencies detonated—every clone belly ballooned hideously—
"Feed...Buddha-Mother!" Wu's data-cables plunged deeper. But clone fetuses bit back, sutra mandalas spreading from pupils to skin. Three hundred infant wails became a sonic tornado, swamp mud geysering with:
Napoleon's bicorne fragments
Trisolaran dehydrator skins
Readers' brain tissue slices
At the vortex center, the Wu Zhao Die tore free—its even faces exposed:
[Face 2] Andromeda Colonial Insignia
[Face 4] Trisolaran Droplet Coordinates
[Face 6] Burmese Temple Blood Map
Lin Wan's fetus devoured the vortex energy! When its ninth mandala ring formed, it ripped its umbilical cord: "Full now...bye Mama!"
The antimatter fetus tore from her womb as the starship disintegrated. Bronze shrapnel rained into the swamp, each fragment engraved with unburned contract clauses. Wu snatched at the hovering fetus—but comment streams coalesced into a golden hand—
"Patrons..." Lin Wan gasped in blood, "...hold my baby tight!"
Buddha's Fall
As the golden hand grasped the fetus, the warlord crushed the Wu Zhao Die beneath his boot! Die fragments flew—Face 2's insignia burned onto his left iris.
"Contract transfer complete!" He laughed, squeezing a phantom trigger. The "bullet" shot through his temple—Shen's pawned auditory nerve bundle!
The nerve-strand constricted the golden hand like a viper. The fetus shrieked toward the boot's crack: "New deal...child for Shen's corpse!"
Lin Wan's mangled glove plunged into earth. She scooped reader-brain sludge, slamming it into her abdominal void: "Baby...one last meal!"
Her placenta-torn uterus convulsed in reverse suction! The fetus hurtled back inside—dragging the nerve-strand with it. The warlord's iris insignia extinguished: "You dare...swallow contracts?!"
The terracotta's final fragment exploded. Flames revealed Zhou's mech-core housing half-charred parchment:
[HIDDEN CLAUSE]
Upon vessel's destruction
Collateral returns to owner
Signed: Shen Living (in laryngeal blood)
Shen's nerve-bundle shot from Lin Wan's womb—spearing the warlord's left ear!
"Agh—!" His scream harmonized with broken bells. Clawing his ear, he scraped out not blood—but cyber-Buddha brain paste mixed with reader-comment slurry.
Wu lunged for Lin Wan's ravaged belly. At her touch, the fetus's ninth mandala blazed open.
"Buddha-Mother..." It licked nerve-strand residue from its lips. "You smell...tastier than the die."
The swamp collapsed. As clones sank beneath mud, three hundred golden beams shot skyward—forming a colossal Burmese temple blood-map. At its central pagoda's spire gleamed Empress Wu's true hairpin.