Mrs. Shao
The collapse of the "Court of Pride" wasn't a deafening destruction, but rather a silent, unnoticeable melting of ice crystals in a warm current. The surrounding mirrors transformed into a shimmering silver dust, gently enveloping the two embracing. That dust wasn't just simple detritus, but a stream of information carrying the deconstructed rules of "pride" and immense emotional energy, now greedily absorbed and archived by the ancient ship "Guixu," merging it into its vast ocean of data.
Shao Wei could sense Siqi's soul in his arms solidifying at a slow but steady pace. No longer the ethereal, ethereal form it had previously seemed to dissolve at the slightest touch, it now possessed weight and warmth, and he could even faintly sense the faint, simulated heartbeat beneath. He closed his eyes tightly, his long silver lashes still stained with fresh tears, but the long-simmering self-loathing and exhaustion between his brows had dissipated, replaced by a tranquility that bordered on a new life.
However, this tranquility did not last long.
When the last piece of mirror light dust merged into the "Returning Ruins", the entire "Memory Corridor" fragment was connected to the main ship.
Buzz!
A torrent of consciousness that was far larger, older, and colder than before, like a dormant galactic beast suddenly awakening, suddenly poured into Shao Wei's sea of consciousness along the high-dimensional link that had just been established!
This wasn't a remnant of the emotions of the "Court of Pride," nor was it the fluctuations of Si Qi's soul. This torrent of consciousness was pure, vast, and devoid of any emotion, consisting solely of endless, coldly operating rules and data. It was Guixu itself, the true spirit of the ancient Si family ship, dormant for millennia!
In an instant, Shao Wei felt as if his consciousness had been thrown into an information singularity. Countless unfamiliar star maps, complex energy formulas, never-before-seen diagrams of life forms, and ultimate deductions about dimensions, spacetime, and the law of increasing entropy... Like a galaxy bursting its banks, it madly assaulted the boundaries of his cognition! His brain, like an overloaded processor, went blank in an instant, and excruciating pain felt like billions of icy needles piercing the depths of his soul!
“Ugh—!”
He let out a suppressed groan of pain, his grip on Siqi's soul subconsciously tightening. Veins bulged on his forehead, and his body trembled uncontrollably. In his icy blue eyes, data flashed and vanished at an unprecedented speed, nearly drowning out his consciousness.
"Warning! An unknown high-dimensional consciousness has been detected forcibly accessing! The core database is overloaded! The commander's mental threshold is approaching the critical point!" The originally ethereal voice of "Guixu" now took on a sharp alarm tone and echoed in the bridge.
"Wei Wei Shao!" Hong Shun was the first to react. He dropped the tools in his hands and rushed over.
"Don't come over!" Shao Wei suddenly raised his hand to stop him, his voice hoarse and twisted, filled with suppressed pain. He sensed that this torrent of consciousness wasn't malicious, but rather a kind of... cold "assimilation" and "verification." Guixu was confirming whether this new master was worthy of carrying its millennia-old accumulation and mission!
But this verification process is enough to completely tear apart any unprepared consciousness!
Just when his consciousness barrier was about to be broken down——
Si Qi's soul, which had been curled up quietly in his arms, suddenly moved.
He didn't wake up, nor did he show any signs of consciousness. As if reacting from a deeper, soul-originated reaction, his newly stabilized, shimmering soul spontaneously illuminated. It was no longer a silver glow, but a more restrained, deeper, dark blue radiance, like the deep sea in eternal night.
This faint blue luster was not strong, but it carried a strange power of "order." Like the most precise filter, it quietly spread out, gently covering the surface of Shao Wei's violently fluctuating consciousness.
A miracle happened.
The raging, chaotic torrent of consciousness, threatening to burst Shao Wei's sea of consciousness, was tamed and smoothed by an invisible hand the moment it touched this dark blue "filter." The chaotic data stream was condensed into a coherent stream, and the violent energy surge was dissolved into a gentle infiltration. Although the amount of information remained staggeringly vast, the impact was suddenly reduced to a level Shao Wei could barely withstand!
It was Si Qi! It was because he, as a replica of the "key," possessed the essence of power derived from the purest bloodline of the Si family, the same source as the "Guixu." In his unconscious state, it spontaneously served as a "stabilizer" and "translator"!
Shao Wei's pressure suddenly dropped. He gasped for breath and took the opportunity to fully mobilize his spiritual power that had been purified by the "Thread of Life", guiding and absorbing this sorted out ancient knowledge.
Time has lost its meaning on the spiritual level.
After an unknown amount of time, the terrifying torrent of consciousness finally receded, like the tide falling back into the sea. Shao Wei, drenched in cold sweat, knelt on one knee, exhausted, supporting himself, his arms clasped around Si Qi's soul, steady.
He raised his head. Though his icy blue eyes were filled with fatigue, deeper within them shone an indescribable sense of age and depth, as if glimpsing a portion of the universe's essence. He "saw" the energy signature within the X-7 meteorite, as seen in the Guixu records, when the Si family ancestor first discovered it. It was remarkably similar to the "Threads of Life." He "saw" the aggressive and chaotic nature of the "Original Blood" parasite. He also "saw" the faint connection between the Elders and several even older interstellar civilizations, lost in the dust of history, and... fragments of a vast and desperate plan for the entire galaxy, called "Elegy for Entropy."
The information is still incomplete, and many key parts are still shrouded in mystery, but a rough and chilling outline has emerged.
"'Guixu'..." Shao Wei panted, trying to communicate with the spirit of the ancient ship.
"Authorization verified. Welcome, true successor to the Watcher." Guixu's voice had regained its ethereal quality, but with a hint of submission that hadn't been there before. "Initial consciousness synchronization complete. You have gained access to 62 percent of this ship's basic permissions and 37 percent of the encrypted database."
Shao Wei felt a vague, instinctive sense of control over the various functions of Guixu emerging in his mind. He felt no joy, only a heavy sense of responsibility and vigilance. The power of this ancient ship far exceeded imagination, but it also seemed not entirely harmless.
His gaze fell back on Si Qi in his arms. The faint blue glow had faded, and his soul had returned to its previous shimmering state. It seemed as if the crucial help had drained the little strength he had just accumulated, causing him to fall into a deeper dormancy.
"How is he?" Shao Wei asked, his voice slightly hoarse.
"The stability of the soul has increased to 41%, and the core of consciousness is still in a deep dormant state of repair. The power of 'order' displayed unconsciously is highly compatible with the core protocol of 'Guixu'. It is speculated that it plays a key role in the subsequent unlocking of higher permissions and access to encrypted databases." 'Guixu' analyzed calmly.
Shao Wei silently looked at Si Qi's peaceful sleeping face, and his fingertips gently brushed the outline of his cheek which was faintly lit.
Therefore, it is not just about finding him. Siqi's existence itself may be the key to completely controlling 'Guixu' and uncovering all the mysteries.
At this moment, Ahmet, who had been watching nervously nearby, suddenly shouted, "Commander! We've received a multiply encrypted wide-area broadcast message from the outside world! The source...is untraceable, but the encryption method is very ancient and seems to bear the mark of the S family!"
Gu Zhixing also added: "After preliminary decryption, the content only has one sentence, which is played repeatedly——"
He paused, then recited the words that had no beginning or end, but made Shao Wei's pupils shrink suddenly:
"'Weaving' is not good, and 'Returning to the Ruins' is not the end. Be careful... 'Observer'."
The thread is not good? Does it refer to the "thread of life"?
Guixu is not the end?
What is the observer?!
This sudden information was like a huge rock thrown into a lake that had just calmed down, instantly waking Shao Wei from the brief sense of stability he had gained from initially gaining control of "Guixu".
He slowly stood up and carefully handed over the still sleeping soul of Si Qi to an energy life-support device condensed by "Guixu" for proper placement.
He walked to the main console and looked at the starry sky outside the observation window, which had just experienced the annihilation of the "God's Remains" and still had residual energy ripples. In his ice-blue eyes, the storm gathered again.
The truth is that only the tip of the iceberg has been revealed. The seemingly solid ground beneath our feet may just be another, larger swamp.
He clenched his fists.
Whether it's the mystery of "The Fabric of Life," the so-called "Observer," or the heart-wrenching "Elegy for Entropy"...
He must continue on this path.
With this ancient battleship, with the sleeping soul in his arms, with all the unsolved mysteries and heavy missions.
"Set the course," he began, his voice returning to its usual coldness and determination, but deeper than ever.
"Target—the quadrant where the 'Observer' signal last disappeared. Codename: 'Wall of Silence'."
The ancient ship Guixu trembled slightly, and the ice crystal patterns on its dark silver hull lit up again, like the eyes of a giant beast awakening.
The new voyage points to a deeper and darker unknown.
The "Wall of Silence" isn't a physical entity, but rather a vast expanse of nothingness on a star map. Even stray comets are rare there, dominated by eternal darkness and a background radiation near absolute zero. It's as if the universe took a nap, leaving behind an information vacuum. Conventional detection methods are ineffective there, like a stone sinking into the ocean.
The Night Owl had long been stored within Guixu's internal hangar, like a mothership carrying its daughter craft. At that moment, the atmosphere within the bridge—or rather, the command space projected by Guixu's core consciousness, more in tune with human perception—was solemn.
Kestrel attempted to navigate the simulated navigation interface before him, his green eyes fixed on the dark area representing the "Wall of Silence," which was constantly devouring the scanning signal, his brow furrowed. "There's no reference point, no gravity, and even the curvature of space seems flat, almost fake. How can I find this 'Observer' in this place?"
On the screen before Ahmet, the encrypted message from an unknown source was repeatedly analyzed. "The encryption method does bear resemblance to the early technology of the Si family, but it's more... ancient, more concise, like some kind of prototype code. The word 'Observer' doesn't have a direct match in the open database of 'Guixu', but it does show signs of frequent queries in the access logs of several encrypted areas."
Gu Zhixing immersed himself in the large amount of information about ancient interstellar civilizations and abnormal cosmic phenomena that he had just downloaded from the 'Guixu' basic database, trying to find clues related to the "Wall of Silence" or the "Observer".
Shao Wei stood at the control station, eyes closed. His consciousness wasn't completely absorbed into Guixu's database, but rather a large portion of it, like the most sophisticated radar. Using himself as the core and combining Guixu's amplified perception, he repeatedly scanned and sensed the unsettling "wall."
He didn't rely on conventional detection methods. After initially integrating the ancient knowledge of Guixu, he understood that some existences and some areas required "consciousness" itself to "observe."
Time slipped away in the silent search. Hours passed, and nothing was found. The darkness, like the deepest sea, swallowed up all attempts.
Just when even Shao Wei began to doubt the authenticity of that information, or to consider whether a more radical method was needed to stimulate that area—
Si Qi's soul, which had been quietly placed next to the command seat and covered by an energy support device, suddenly moved again.
This time, it wasn't the unconscious energy resonance of before. His brow, composed of faint light, furrowed slightly, as if he had experienced some extreme discomfort, even... pain, in his sleep. The faint light around him began to flicker, the frequency rapid, as if sending some chaotic distress signal.
Almost at the same time, Shao Wei suddenly opened his eyes!
He sensed it!
It wasn't through the Guixu scan, nor through his own mental detection. Instead, it was through the invisible yet tenacious connection between him and Siqi's soul. An extremely weak, yet sharp, malicious, and cold "sight" suddenly shot out, like a venomous snake hidden in the darkness, and accurately "nailed" Siqi's soul!
That "sight" is not a physical existence, but more like a high-dimensional information disturbance force, with a pure, inhuman meaning of "examination" and "analysis", trying to penetrate the exterior of Siqi's soul and peek into its core composition rules!
The violent reaction of Siqi's soul body stems from the pain of being forced to "analyze"!
"'Observer'!" Shao Wei instantly understood! It wasn't that they had found each other, but that the other party... had always been there, "watching" them! It wasn't until Si Qi, this special soul that merged the essence of the "key" with the experience of the "container," appeared that it truly piqued its "interest"!
"Lock on the source of interference!" Shao Wei gave a stern order to Guixu in the mental link. At the same time, he stepped over to Siqi's life support device and pressed his palm on the device casing without hesitation!
The vast and pure ice-blue energy with the purifying properties of the "Threads of Life" poured into the life-support device like a warm tide, gently wrapping and protecting Siqi's violently fluctuating soul, forcibly isolating the malicious "sight"!
The fluctuations in Si Qi's soul immediately calmed down a lot, his frown slowly relaxed, and he fell into a peaceful sleep again.
That isolated "sight" seemed to pause for a moment, then become even more "focused" and... "curious"? It no longer attempted to penetrate Shao Wei's defenses, but instead, like a microscope with adjusted focus, began to "scan" Shao Wei more meticulously, scanning the energy characteristics he released and his connection to Guixu!
"Analysis of the Observer's behavior patterns: Demonstrates a high degree of inanimate logic, prioritizing information collection and rule analysis. Target shifted to the Commander." Guixu's ethereal voice carried an unprecedented solemnity. "Attempting to reverse-trace its information anchor point... Encountering strong interference... Coordinates cannot be locked, but the information flow points to a... logical paradox point within the Wall of Silence!"
A logical paradox point? A self-contradictory spatial coordinate that shouldn't exist in the physical universe?
Shao Wei's eyes flashed. He understood. This "observer" wasn't hiding behind the "wall." It was likely part of the "wall" itself, or rather, the embodiment of the laws of that anomalous space! A non-living consciousness whose sole purpose was to observe and analyze the "abnormal information" in the universe!
"It's still analyzing us!" Hong Falcon's face turned pale as he looked at the alarm on the console, which was jumping wildly, indicating external information intrusion. "It's trying to break through the firewall of 'Guixu'!"
"We can't let it succeed!" Ahmet's fingers flew, reinforcing the data defenses. "It's parsing too fast! Our encryption algorithm is being rapidly learned and cracked!"
Gu Zhixing suddenly raised his head, a look of determination flashing in his eyes. "Commander! The Guixu database mentions a theoretical method for dealing with high-dimensional information life forms—information pollution! Use a large amount of disordered, contradictory, and meaningless junk information to bombard its processing core, forcing it to overload or temporarily shut down!"
Information pollution? Shao Wei instantly understood the logic. For a consciousness that relies heavily on logic and rules, disorder itself is the most deadly poison.
"Execute!" he said without hesitation.
Guixu responded immediately. Vast computing resources were mobilized, no longer for defense, but to proactively spew out a massive, carefully crafted stream of junk information—random mathematical formulas, contradictory physical laws, meaningless fragments of poetry, fragmented memories, and even the chaotic emotional data Shao Wei had absorbed from the "Court of Pride"!
This colorful and illogical torrent of information, like cosmic noise, slammed into the invisible "sight"!
The "scanning" behavior of the "observer" stopped instantly!
It was like a gourmet enjoying a delicious meal, only to have their mouth suddenly filled with mud, sand, and industrial waste. For the first time, that icy gaze began to fluctuate violently, conveying a clear sense of confusion, rejection, and even... anger!
efficient!
But a warning from Guixu also followed: "Information pollution is effective, but it cannot last. The Observer is rapidly adapting and establishing filtering mechanisms. Estimated effective time remaining: 47 seconds."
47 seconds!
"Red Falcon!" Shao Wei shouted.
"Understood!" Hong Falcon was already prepared, his hands turning into afterimages on the simulated control interface! "Engine overload! Target - that damn paradox point! Crash into it!"
The Guixu ancient ship abandoned all concealment and defense, concentrating all its energy on its engines and bow ram! Ice crystal patterns on its dark silver hull erupted with dazzling light, like a retrograde blue comet, charging brazenly towards a coordinate that couldn't possibly exist on the star map!
This is not a regular voyage, but a nearly self-destructive way of forcibly breaking into an abnormal space with chaotic logic!
The ship's hull trembled violently, as if it would disintegrate at any moment! The scene outside the observation window became bizarre, colors reversed, and the laws of physics disappeared and disappeared! They felt like they were passing through a kaleidoscope, as if they were falling into a crazy dream!
47 seconds! 46 seconds! 45 seconds!
The interference of the "Observer" intensified again, trying to distort the space in front and exile 'Guixu' to an unknown dimension!
"Hold steady!" Shao Wei completely synchronized his mental power with the core of 'Guixu', forcibly stabilizing the ship. Like the most determined helmsman, he steered this ancient giant ship, cutting through the waves in the turbulent flow of rules!
30 seconds! 20 seconds! 10 seconds!
Just as the shield of Guixu sounded a piercing alarm, indicating it was about to break, and the information pollution was about to lose its effectiveness—
The bow of the ship seemed to have broken through an invisible, sticky membrane!
All the bumps, noises, and bizarre sights suddenly disappeared!
'Guixu' rushed out of the chaotic airspace and entered a place...which is difficult to describe in words.
There's no up or down, no left or right, no stars, no sun or moon. There's only a boundless, slowly rotating "ocean" of countless tiny points of light. Each point seems to represent a piece of information, an event, a branch of possibility. And at the center of this ocean of information, suspended is a vast, complex structure composed of purely logical optical cables, constantly disassembling and reassembling itself.
So, is that the true nature of the "Observer"?
And at the core of that logical structure, Shao Wei felt a... more ancient, more obscure, but familiar fluctuation that made his soul tremble.
That is... an energy signature that originates from the "Thread of Life", but is even colder and more... objective!
The "Observer" and the "Weave of Life" are indeed related!
At this moment, the huge logical structure seemed to notice the intruder and stopped reorganizing itself. Countless "sights" focused like searchlights on the hull of the "Guixu" and Shao Wei in the bridge.
An overwhelming and irresistible flow of information came like a tsunami, directly flooding over!
This time, it's no longer about scanning and parsing.
But... ask questions.
A cold, grand question that rang directly in everyone's mind:
"Definition: Existence."
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