Pei Du's shattered, thorny body fell heavily onto some kind of elastic, thickly covered ground...? The immense force of the impact caused the "ground" beneath him to sink slightly, shaking off several giant, softly glowing leaves.
The excruciating pain was like a maggot in his tarsal bones, gnawing furiously at his remaining consciousness. Every breath tugged at the wounds all over his body, bringing a tearing pain. His molten gold composite pupils struggled to focus amidst the excruciating pain, the thorny chains of data spinning around their edges dimmed like dusty gears.
The vision becomes clearer little by little.
There is no cold steel cemetery, no wriggling filthy roots, and no scarlet mechanical compound eyes.
Above my head, there is... a dome.
A transparent dome, unimaginably vast, seemed to envelope the entire world. Beyond it lay not the starry sky, but... a deep, tranquil void, gently flowing with bands of light as brilliant as a galaxy... These bands, a soft, milky white, pale gold, and light blue, slowly flowed and swirled, like nebulae from the dawn of creation, emitting an ancient and mysterious radiance, illuminating the entire space like a dreamlike wonderland.
And under the dome...
Pei Du's golden pupils slowly swept across this strange world.
He lay in the midst of a boundless... forest? But the trees here were far from the filthy, twisted roots of the original tree. They were tall, upright, and lush, their branches and leaves shimmering with a translucent, strange texture, like a blend of jade and crystal. Their massive leaves, like pieces of the finest jade, emanated a soft, shimmering hue of emerald green, pale gold, and faint blue, illuminating the entire space with breathtaking beauty. Clear streams meandered through emerald meadows, their waters gurgling, their bottoms strewn with pebbles that shimmered like stars. The air was filled with a fresh, pure, herbaceous fragrance, and every breath seemed to cleanse the filth and fatigue deep within the soul.
In the distance, the outlines of strange mountains, composed of some kind of translucent crystals and flowing with energy, could be vaguely seen. Further away, the ruins of a massive, elegantly shaped building, resembling an ancient temple, seemed half-hidden within the glowing forest, blending perfectly with nature.
Serene. Peaceful. Filled with an unimaginably majestic, pure breath of life. This contrast, like heaven and hell, formed a stark contrast with the filthy chaos of the Mother Tree's core and the cold, dead silence of the cradle's shadow.
Where...is this place?
Just as the doubt arose, a faint but clear throbbing came from the giant thorny palm that he was holding tightly against his chest.
Pei Du lowered his head suddenly.
The huge, cracked thorn palm slowly loosened.
In her palm, Xu Shuangyao's tiny body lay curled up, quietly. She remained unconscious, the uncontrolled crimson lines and burning codes beneath her skin completely vanished, leaving only a nearly transparent fragility. At her heart, the faint light of her original consciousness still flickered tenaciously, though as faint as a candle in the wind. Her long eyelashes cast a fragile shadow against the nebula's radiance flowing outside the dome.
Pei Du's huge thorny body slowly and with great difficulty half-knelt up, the movement affecting the wounds all over his body. Dark green energy liquid mixed with silver data streams continuously seeped out from the charred holes, dripping onto the soft grass below that was emitting faint light, making a slight "hissing" sound, and then being absorbed and purified by the vibrant grass.
His molten-gold composite pupils, edged with dim data thorns, spun with difficulty, piercing the surface of tranquility and scanning the surroundings. Extremely pure life energy enveloped his shattered body like a warm ocean, bringing a faint sense of healing. However, it was incompatible with the violent conflict of dark green, dark blue, and chaotic data forces within his body, even faintly repelling them.
In the distance, the remains of the huge crystal temple half-hidden in the glowing forest have an ancient and peculiar architectural style. The energy patterns flowing on the surface carry an indescribable sense of precision and order, which is different from the cold logic of the cradle and is closer to a... harmonious natural rhythm?
Here... could it be...
A name flashed through Pei Du's confused and painful consciousness like lightning.
The last fragmented bytes transmitted by the gravekeeper's data tombstone suddenly became clear in my mind:
[…Leading to…‘The Cradle’…Shadows…]
[…low-level…data interface…]
[…Emergency…Escape Protocol…]
The place they had just fallen to was Cradle Shadow—the cemetery of the exiled Old Ones. And this place, deeper within the cemetery, enveloped by a vast ecological dome, flowing with pure life energy and housing the remains of an ancient civilization...
[…'Cradle'…Shadow…]
Beneath the shadows...isn't it utter darkness? But...a forgotten light? A buried...Eden before the birth of the "Cradle"?
Pei Du's huge body swayed slightly, his molten-gold pupils fixed on this unreal world of beauty. A cold and frightening thought exploded in the depths of his consciousness:
They escaped from the mechanical cemetery, but seemed to have fallen into the core of a bigger, older, and more...unknown mystery!
Just then!
Buzz——!
A huge, gentle, yet irresistible wave of will, carrying an irresistible sense of tolerance and... scrutiny, like a sleeping forest god awakening, slowly rose from the deepest part of the glowing forest, gently, yet incomparably clear...enveloping the entire space, as well as the broken thorn giant on the platform and the fragile girl in his palm.
This will is ancient, pure, and vast, carrying a majestic breath of life. It is completely different from the greed and chaos of the mother tree, and is incompatible with the cold logic of the cradle.
It "watches" them.
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