315: Chapter 297: Swarm Dao Path (4/4) 315: Chapter 297: Swarm Dao Path (4/4) ——I long to look up at the blue sky.
——I yearn to gaze upon the stars.
——I wish to touch the clouds.
——I want to catch the wind in my hands.
Desires tumble one after another, and wishes cry out, each in turn.
Different people, different wishes, different longings and wanderings.
Carrying sorrow, carrying anger, carrying hope, carrying determination.
All these emotions resonated with Ian, and at this mont, he felt a profound empathy for all of them, the indescribable complex longings so similar to his own.
Imprisoned on this land, surrounded by souls bound by gravity, and those nations who, despite possessing powerful technology, have no desire to step out but instead wage wars against other countries… Each one filled him with sadness and anger.
But…
‘He’ could no longer see.
Once a blond, robust man with sky-blue eyes, he had beco a frail old man unable to open the door to the outside world.
The Redwood Base was like a cage, locking him in this comfortable yet gradually decaying underground space.
Yes, it was comfortable and cozy here.
Yes, he held a high position here.
Yes, he had imnse power and the reverence of the people.
Yes, he had reached the pinnacle of life—he could do anything.
Except for what he wanted to do.
And…
He was about to die.
[When I die, can my body not even be sent out of the ruins?]
[The Great Elder… Your body itself is our most important legacy.
What if an external mutated creature consus your body and obtains the Bloodline Key?
Not to ntion, your Attached Brain must certainly be recovered.]
Even the body itself is property, a fact that could not be more normal.
Redwood People needed special treatnt before they could be buried, because all sorts of nanovaccines, special immune viruses, and Photosymbiotic Fungi in their bodies were technologies left from the previous era.
If leaked to the outside world, while it would not precipitate an ecological disaster, it would definitely have a negative impact.
The Attached Brain, which held inherited mories, was even to be removed after death for mory uploading.
But for the Redwood People, removing the Attached Brain was like taking away half of their soul.
What use would there be for that incomplete body then?
[Alright, I understand…]
No one could detect the faint despair in the voice of the Great Elder.
As well as his resolve.
So, two years later, the automated production line was suddenly damaged due to an accident.
Following this, the restraints in the ecological garden were destroyed.
Both crises threw the entire Redwood Base into turmoil.
The automated production line issue was manageable, as the technological skills were contained within the Attached Brain; whether remaking or repairing it was not difficult, just a waste of ti requiring mining and slting tals.
But the destruction of the ecological garden and the mingling of different Alien Forms within it was enough to unleash a second-degree ecological crisis right there!
In dealing with this massive upheaval, no one noticed that in the depths of the ecological garden laboratory, so highly confidential gene samples were taken.
Then, as if the misfortunes were not enough, Redwood People started disappearing one by one.
They vanished silently overnight, causing unprecedented alarm among everyone, thinking that the Alien Forms from the ecological garden or those left outside were now attacking them.
mbers of the Guard Squad patrolled day and night in their Armor Suits, yet people kept disappearing.
Until one day, a person attempting to leave was discovered by the Guard Squad, but this person had lost their self-will, their mind completely chaotic, spouting nonsensical words as if they had utterly lost their sanity.
After thorough dical examinations, everyone was shocked to find that the Attached Brain at the back of this person’s brainstem had mutated.
This part, which should have been utterly stable, a half Spirit Energy Slug, had begun to devour the human brain, attempting to replace it.
The source of all this was eventually discovered.
After ticulous investigation, the Redwood People horrifyingly found that all the disappearances occurred at the far end of the H-55 underwater channel, the source of the Viewing River, a minor flow from the power unit’s cooling channel.
There, in the purification plant, was a mound made of corpses and an old, small biological laboratory.
Many of the devices inside were of the highest secrecy, existing only in previous era laboratories accessed with key cards.
And only one person could open the laboratory without applying for it.
That was their leader, the Redwood Great Elder.
[What are you doing?!
Madara Qunsen, why would you do this!?]
[Eternal life]
[Are you insane?!
This isn’t eternal life at all, you’re just turning yourself into an Echo.
Even if you could really etch your soul into the Spirit Energy Network of the Attached Brain and beco a Mirror… you would beco a collective of wills of the Attached Brain, not the current you!]
[I don’t care.]
[What… what?]
[I said, I don’t care.]
——I don’t care whether I’m Human or not, I don’t care whether this violates morals or not, I don’t care if this will destroy the ecological balance of Redwood Base.
——I don’t care about you, nor do I care about myself.
—— Life, soul, mory, self, all these things are shit, they’re garbage, they only breed despair and pain.
Can the Worm Nest network carry the complete ?
Ridiculous, so what if it can’t?
Only boring fools like you would fuss over such trivial details, no wonder you’re still content to stay in this underground tomb.
—— I can’t see, which is regrettable, but at least that newborn life can leave this place, with an eternal body, with an undying soul.
—— Then, to see the stars.
Flesh and blood cocoons wrapped in Fluorescent Crystal Clusters and living tal were pulsating as if they wanted to stretch out a hand beyond the relics deep below the ground, beyond the layers of rocks and the churning seas.
It wanted to extend a hand to touch, to touch the real, unsubstantial wind, to touch the clouds in the sky.
To touch the stars above the clouds, above the firmant.
This was its wish, as well as the wish of the person who had created it, and even of all those who had beco a part of it.
Those who, although not speaking it out loud, who, without really thinking it, say ‘I don’t want to leave the base,’ those people’s most sincere wish deep within their hearts.
—— Even apes will look up at the stars, so why not humans?
An intense emotion, whether it was despair or enlightennt, was assaulting Ian’s heart.
Was it a calm statent, or an angry roar?
Unknown, the phantasms of the past flitted through his mind, bringing violent emotional turmoil.
And it made the young man resonate from the bottom of his heart.
[We’re the sa…
we’re alike…]
A voice arose, filled with genuine emotion: [We all similarly yearn for the distant, yearning to see those things we can’t usually see…]
[The relics are a cage, life spans are cages, morals are cages, the body is also a cage, isn’t the sky also a cage?]
[We want to break free from cages, break the shackles…
We’re alike…
I know that you’re soone just like …]
The intangible Nest Will reached out its Spirit Energy and flesh and blood tentacles towards Ian, who stood motionless, as if in embrace.
From the shattered flesh and blood human forms, nerve and blood vessel-like filant structures extended out, with the texture of spores, reaching forward and wanting to climb onto the young man’s face.
[Let’s unite…
We will beco one, an immortal unity…]
[Let’s break free from the cages together…]
But these tentacle spores were cut by a dull-edged longsword.
Ian silently raised the sword, clearly still imrsed in the psychic assault created by the Nest Will—a very special Spirit Energy Technique that relies on empathy and resonance to initiate, beginning to erode gradually as long as there’s so similarity in thought.
No, not erosion, nor parasitism.
It was a contribution.
The Nest Will shared all of itself with Ian.
It wasn’t an attack; there was no hostility.
As long as they harbored the sa feelings, the sa resonance, they were one, they were a single will…
If Ian’s spirit was firm enough to discard the influences of other soul fragnts, he could beco the Worm Nest.
Beco the true Nest Will.
But he still raised the sword, and the Inscriptions on the Heavy Abyss Iron Sword lit up one by one; the pale golden light shone with a unique glow under the silver-blue and green radiance.
Ian took a deep breath, as if he was communicating with the Nest Will before him, as if he was talking to himself.
He said, “Because I know the truth, I know what the future looks like, I am a person living in ‘the future.'”
He said, “A thousand years later, humans are still repeating the sa boring wars, cycling under the sun, never tiring of it.”
He said, “I’m not yearning.
I’m convinced.
I don’t just want to touch the stars, I have to find them.”
He said, “Nest Will, no matter who you are, whether you’re a piece of soone or a newly born life—whether you believe it or not, I don’t care, I have to tell you.”
“There are no stars left out there.”
“Our world is enveloped by the Infernal Heaven of imprisoned stars, the canopy above is pitch black, there’s no guidance there, no Heavenly Kingdom or distant lands, none of the thrilling brilliance worth getting excited about, the starry sky you imagine never existed from the start.”
—— I know this, and you do not, you’re just imagining.
—— You might be confused, lost.
—— And I’ve decided, made up my mind, still to go forward, still to climb.
So saying, Ian actually laughed, revealing a heart-felt, joyous, yet crazy smile: “But what of it?
I don’t care about such things.
Let there be cosmic monsters outside or subspace disasters, only boring fools would fuss over these trivialities.”
“I will find the truth, go Above the Sky.”
“This is where we differ.”
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