The immense shock nearly made her forget the pain. She suddenly looked up, once again surveying the vast, grave-like space, shrouded in a faint green light. The dark silver, curved walls towering into the darkness... the intricate patterns on them, like living circuit boards... the vast, scattered debris...
Is this… the last civilization's refuge and weapons depot against the Bacteria Dome, or some similar "Logical Plague"?! The "World Tree Server"… could it be the ultimate defense system they constructed by simulating a plant-based data network?
Just when her heart was shocked!
Buzz——!!!
The entire vast space suddenly shook violently! It was more violent and profound than any tremor in the laboratory before! It was like a sleeping beast turning over in a nightmare!
The platform shook violently! Xu Shuangyao's already weak body instantly lost balance and fell heavily to the ground! The metal platform beneath him groaned dully! Countless dust and tiny pieces of gravel fell from the towering curved wall above! The dark green light flowing deep in the wall flickered violently as if frightened!
Even more terrifying, the low humming sound beneath his feet, seemingly emanating from the depths of the earth, suddenly grew clearer and more violent! It was like countless giant beasts roaring in agony from the depths of the earth! Simultaneously, an indescribable, terrifying pressure, imbued with a corrupted, greedy, all-consuming will, surged madly from all directions, from the depths of the earth, like a viscous, tangible tide, instantly filling the entire space!
This pressure... Xu Shuangyao was all too familiar with it! It was the Fungus Master! It was the aura of the Fungus Master, about to awaken! It seemed... startled by something! Or... was it frantically devouring something?!
"Ugh... Hoo..." Not far away, Pei Du groaned in agony from the violent vibrations and the terrifying pressure. His huddled body trembled violently, and the shadow of the crown of thorns between his brows suddenly lit up with a faint golden light, as if stimulated! But then it quickly dimmed, as if forcibly suppressed by the corrupting pressure! The pain on his face intensified, and his body convulsed violently!
"Pei Du!" Xu Shuangyao ignored the shock and struggled to crawl towards him!
Just then!
"Lost seed..." An ethereal, clear voice with a hint of fatigue and metallic texture sounded simultaneously in the depths of Xu Shuangyao and Pei Du's consciousness without any warning!
Xu Shuangyao suddenly looked up!
In front of Pei Du's curled-up body, in that space filled with a faint green glow, countless tiny, shimmering silver-white points of light suddenly appeared! Like a swarm of fireflies startled on a summer night, the points of light quickly gathered, condensed, and stretched...
In the blink of an eye, a figure turned from virtual to real, quietly floating in the air a few feet above the ground.
That was a young boy.
He looked about fifteen or sixteen, slender, and clad in a strange robe woven from countless emerald green vines and silvery white light. The robe moved without a breeze, flowing with the radiance of life and data. His features were too delicate to be mortal, his skin white and almost translucent, exuding an inhuman purity. Most striking was his waist-length hair—not black, but like the freshest willow branches of early spring, a vibrant emerald green! Tiny, star-like particles of silvery light dotted his hair.
And his eyes… were as clear as the purest mountain spring water, yet his pupils were a strange silver-white. Countless tiny streams of data seemed to swirl and flow slowly within them, reflecting the entire space's ethereal green light, as well as the shambling figures of Xu Shuangyao and Pei Du. His gaze was calm and profound, carrying a piercing compassion and a sense of…ancient vicissitudes that didn't belong to this era.
He was barefoot, suspended above the cold metal dust, his body emitting a soft yet firm emerald green and silver-white halo, isolating the surrounding fungus master's corrupted pressure into a small pure area.
"Qingluo...?" Xu Shuangyao whispered, her voice hoarse. The image of the young man before her was exactly the same as the aura emanating from the giant root! It was him! He had abandoned the root itself and descended in another form...?
The green-haired, silver-eyed youth—the embodiment of Qing Luo—nodded slightly. His gaze swept over the severely injured Xu Shuangyao and the hideous wound on her neck, then over Pei Du, curled up in pain on the ground, his crown tarnished, before finally settling on the metal plate in the center of the platform, engraved with the "Root Pattern." Within his silver-white pupils, the flow of data accelerated slightly.
"You... have awakened the silent tombstone." Qingluo's voice echoed directly into their minds, still clear, but with a hint of heaviness. "You have also disturbed... the decay that is gnawing at the tree's roots."
His suspended body slowly descended, his emerald green bare feet lightly tapping the metal plate inscribed with "Civilization Tombstone." He didn't touch a speck of dust, as if he were merely a shadow in this space.
"This is the 'Source.'" Qingluo raised a slender finger, pointing to the massive dark silver platform beneath his feet, then to the surrounding curved walls towering into the darkness and the lines flowing with a faint green light. "In the previous era, known as the 'Root Era,' intelligent life built this last bastion when the 'Logic Plague' consumed their civilization's network. They attempted to imitate the symbiotic network of plants, the most resilient life form in the universe, and constructed this 'World Tree Server' as a repository of civilization's spark and a final firewall."
His voice carried the rhythm of an epic recitation, and his silver-white pupils reflected countless rapidly flashing ancient images composed of light points: a network of towering metal trees connecting the planet... a plague-like black data stream corroding the nodes... desperate resistance... In the end, the giant tree withered, leaving only this silent tombstone buried deep underground.
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