The roots of the steel vines are embedded in the spirit vein crystal, and the copper-rust-colored tendrils wrap around the crystal's edges, contracting gently every three seconds as if sucking nourishment. When Feng's mechanical arm drew near, the tendrils suddenly stopped, and the circuit board on the back of the leaf shone a faint light, revealing the code of the pre-epoch - the ancient command of "vital sign monitoring" that Yan Yuanxiu had said.
"There is a resonance of psychic energy and data in the air." Lin Banxia took off her gas mask, her fingertips suspended in mid-air, and could feel the light spots floating in the air current. The light spots were half pale gold psychic particles and half silver data stream fragments, and when they collided, they made a "ding" sound like countless little hammers hitting the eardrums.
Qin Tieluo stepped on the ground covered with gear-shaped petals, sinking half an inch with each step. The ground beneath his feet oozed blue-purple liquid, which was filled with tiny bearings that, when crushed by him, gave off the fragrance of grass and trees. "This godforsaken place is weirder than iron lumps." He kicked the block of the mecha at his feet, and suddenly a metal branch popped out and hooked around his trouser leg as if being coquettish.
Chen Mohen's talismans were fidgeting in his arms, so he simply scattered them all out. The paper floated into the air and was immediately entangled by the light spot, and the ink flowed along the psychic particles, drawing another line of talisman on the tree trunk. The bark of a mechanical tree suddenly cracked open, revealing the lines inside. The moment the lines connected to the talismans, the entire tree lit up like a Christmas tree adorned with lanterns.
"Something's not right." Yan Yuanxiu's data stream suddenly exploded on the ground, the code on the screen jumped wildly, and the characters formed were distorted as if screaming. He tried to manipulate it, but his fingertip was burned by the data stream - something that had never happened before, his code had always been as docile as a flock of sheep.
The data flow suddenly broke free from control and spread along the ground, and wherever it passed, light spots gathered and formed a three-dimensional model in mid-air. It was a huge complex of buildings, with figures in white coats moving through the model, some burying spiritual seeds in the wreckage of the mecha, some pouring pale golden liquid into the petri dish, and finally the image froze on a broken stone tablet inscribed with four words: Fusion Holy Land.
"This is the 'Fusion Experiment field' of the preepoch." Yan Yuanxiu's electronic voice trembled as he pointed to the trees in the model. "Each tree is an energy node. The researchers back then used spiritual veins and machinery as skeletons and data streams and spiritual energy as flesh and blood to create this living forest."
No sooner had he finished speaking than the forest suddenly fell silent. The gears stopped turning, the vines stopped swaying, and even the light spots in the air stopped colliding. Feng Hao's mechanical arm felt a strong resonance, and the blue-purple psychic energy flowed out along the circuit board of the vine like a fish swimming towards the deep sea.
"Click - click -"
The ancient steel tree in the center began to spin its trunk. Its trunk was welded from the wreckage of dozens of mechs, and its armor plate was riddled with bullet holes and scorch marks, with a rusty gun barrel at the top, looking like a scarecrow full of weapons. As it turned, the trunk peeled off layer by layer, revealing the heart inside - a sphere made up of countless electronic eyes, red like blood, staring intently at the intruders.
The red light from the electronic eyes swept over Feng Hao's mechanical arm, paused for half a second, then swept over Su Xiaoli's mechanical dragon, this time for a longer pause. Then the ancient tree suddenly spewed out a black liquid, which fell to the ground and corroded deep pits. But in the pits, thorns with gears grew rapidly, and the spikes of the thorns shone with the cold light of spiritual energy.
"It mistook us for invaders!" Lin Banxia pulled Su Xiaoli back, the mixture boiling in her palm. "It's the lingering power of the Lock Spirit Array. It hasn't recognized us as' of the same kind 'yet!"
Feng Hao's mechanical arm lifted up automatically, and the blue-purple psychic energy collided with the red light of the electronic eye. He saw countless scenes in the red light: the destruction of the laboratory, the researchers' screams, the ancient tree protecting the last stone tablet in the explosion... It turned out that this tree had been guarding something all along.
"Wait!" He suddenly shouted, and the mechanical arm's psychic power shrank sharply, "It wasn't attacking, it was... Warning!"
The movements of the ancient tree did indeed come to a halt. The electronic eye's red light flickered a few times, as if hesitating. Yan Yuanxiu's data stream took the opportunity to analyze and suddenly shouted, "There's my father's signature in its core code!"
The name was like a key, and the red light of the ancient tree's electronic eye dimmed instantly. It turned its body slowly, its gun barrel pointing deep into the forest, where in the darkness there was a faint shadow of a tower swaying - the shape of the spire was exactly the same as the map mark in the old dean's stone house.
Chen Mohen suddenly laughed, picking up a piece of talisman paper on the ground and sticking it on the armor plate of the ancient tree: "I've said we're one of us."
The ink on the paper flowed in through the bullet holes, and the tree's electronic eyes suddenly blinked as if they were blinking. Then it spewed out a pale golden mist, which landed on the mechanical dragon's body. The psychic crystals on the dragon's head immediately lit up, and the green light of the electronic eyes came alive again.
Su Xiaoli was stunned. The mechanical dragon suddenly broke free from her embrace, flew to the branches of the ancient tree, and affectionately rubbed against the electronic eye sphere.
Feng Hao gazed at the shadow of the tower deep in the forest and then looked at his companion beside him. Yan Yuanxiu's data stream was exchanging information with the ancient tree, Lin Banxia's mixture absorbed the mist and became clearer, Qin Tieluo was struggling with the metal branch that hooked his trouser leg, and Chen Mohen was drawing a new talisman for the ancient tree.
He suddenly realized that this breathable forest was not an enemy.
It is just waiting, waiting for a group of people who truly understand "fusion" to awaken its dormant memories.
The branches of the ancient steel tree suddenly drooped, as if guiding them. The gear-shaped thorns slowly retracted to the ground, and pale golden sprouts emerged from the rotten pits. In the moment the sprouts spread out, flowers with circuit board patterns bloomed. Feng Hao's mechanical arm touched the ancient tree's circuit board, and this time there was no sting, only a warm current - experimental data from the previous era surging along the metal lines, like a silent epic.
"It says there's a gatekeeper inside the tower." Yan Yuanxiu's data stream resonated with the ancient tree, and intermittent text popped up on the screen. "The gatekeeper guards the first fragment of the Chaos Protocol, but to pass it, one has to go through the 'symbiotic trial'." He suddenly pointed to the tree's electronic eyes, "The content of the trial is hidden in these eyes."
The red light of the electronic eyes lit up again, this time not cold, but projecting images. The first is a sea of fire, where the wreckage of the mecha burns in the psychic flames, and a researcher in a white coat rushes into the fire with a psychic vein crystal in his arms, stuffing the crystal into the core of the mecha - that's the figure of Feng Hao's father.
Feng Hao's mechanical arm clenched violently, and his blue-purple psychic energy rolled beneath the skin. He recalled the bandages his father had worn before his death, which had scorched marks exactly like the flames in the picture. "He wasn't surrendering; he was trying to save experimental data." "It's my trial," he said in a low voice, as the spot of the mixture at his fingertips suddenly resonated with the crystal in the picture.
In the second picture, Lin Banxia's father is smiling wryly at a petri dish, half of which is a highly venomous insect and the other half is a healing beneficial insect. The two insects are biting each other in the pale golden liquid and spitting out the same liquid before death. "The prototype of the symbiotic liquid." Looking at the picture, Lin Banxia suddenly understood the words in her father's notes, "Poison and medicine are born from the same root."
Chen Mohen's picture was the most lively, with the old Taoists of Qingxiao Pavilion cursing around his talisman paper, saying that the crooked talisman was "heretical", but a young Taoist secretly hid the talisman paper in his sleeve - that was Lei Li's appearance when he was young. "He had seen the BUG talismans long ago." Chen Mohen stroked his chin and laughed, the paper of the talisman suddenly burning in his palm. "My trial is to make the old diehards admit that there can be new ways to live with talismans."
Qin Tieluo's picture is the simplest. His father is squatting in the mecha graveyard, piecing together iron lumps with parts he has picked up, humming "Scrap Song", and behind him is a wanted notice from the Federation. "This old fellow." Qin Tieluo kicked the wreckage beside his feet. The toilet lid of the wreckage was spinning fast. "He wasn't picking up trash. He was saving up money to rebel."
In Su Xiaoli's picture, there was no her, only the production line of the mechanical dragon. Countless mechanical dragons are being destroyed on the assembly line because they "develop emotions they shouldn't have", but only one young dragon is secretly released by the researcher, with the researcher's blood still on its claws - that's Su Xiaoli's mother, a mechanic from the previous era.
"It was afraid." Su Little Li gently stroked the scales of the mechanical dragon, the steel creature rubbed against her cheek, and for the first time, a feeling of grievance appeared in the electronic eyes. "My trial is to let it know that having feelings is not wrong."
Yan Yuanxu's data stream suddenly quieted down, and in the last image projected by the electronic eye was his own core code - the program labeled as a "failure", dancing with psychic particles. "I always thought I was a piece of wrong code." His voice was soft, but the data flow drew a complete heart on the ground, "so I was just... Fusing too early."
The electronic eyes of the ancient steel tree suddenly went out, and the forest plunged into brief darkness. When the light came on again, the shape of a door appeared on the trunk of each tree, with different symbols engraved on the lintel - the entrance to the trial for everyone.
Feng Hao's mechanical arm rested on Lin Banxia's shoulder, and the blue-purple light entangled with the pale golden light in her palm: "When you go in, don't believe what your eyes see."
Lin nodded and stuffed a newly mixed bottle into his hand: "This bottle can stabilize psychic power and break it in danger."
Qin Tie Luo lifted the remains of the iron lump and was the first to walk towards the door engraved with gears: "If anyone falls behind, I won't pick up the bones for them when they come back!" "
Chen Mohen pulled Su Xiaoli's mechanical dragon and winked at her: "Don't be afraid. With me here, the talisman paper can burn the illusion to ashes."
Yan Yuanxiu's data stream paused in front of the last door and looked back at the ancient tree. The branches of the ancient tree swayed gently, as if encouraging. He took a deep breath, stepped in, and the stream of data condensed into a band of light behind him, connected to the doors of others like a rope that would never break.
Feng Hao stood in front of his own door, the symbol on the lintel exactly the same as the pattern of his mechanical arm. He gripped the mixture given by Lin Banxia, touched the tassel of his sword on his chest, and suddenly laughed.
The breathing forest whispered behind him, as if to say: Fear is never an enemy, but a mirror that makes you see yourself clearly.
The moment he pushed the door open, the scene behind it caused his pupils to constrict - it was the execution ground where his father had surrendered, Zhao Kun's mecha was holding its gun muzzle, aimed at the back of Feng Zhan's head, and the younger self was hiding in the crowd, staring fixedly at the mechanical hand that was about to pull the trigger.