Didn't you go to Teyvat to earn money to support me?

"The Son of Man Project is also my Gene Completion Project," Shen Liang said calmly. "When you become one of my countless genetic archetypes, your abilities can be learned and copied by me. You may not understand what genes are, but that's okay. You just need to know that after we establish trust, or rather... after you belong to me, your innate power will be mine. Of course, you will also benefit from it."

“When did I belong to…” Fa Nan immediately realized that she had indeed formed a bond of trust with Shen Liang, and the proof was the bright holy mark on her left arm.

After the war ended, she quickly accepted Shen Liang's confession and fell in love almost that very day. She also watched helplessly as Shen Liang's mark slowly appeared on her arm.

At first, she wasn't quite sure what the mark meant, and she didn't understand the term "Holy Mark," but she could feel her body absorbing Shen Liang's warmth and power as the Holy Mark appeared, and she could even clearly feel her own strength increasing. At first, she thought it was the effect of the secret technique of the "Book of Yin and Yang Harmony," and she was thinking how obvious the effect of this dual cultivation was. Then she felt Shen Liang stop moving, and when she opened her eyes, she saw a ball of water condensing at his fingertips, which he was curiously flicking around.

Now I realize that this is the ability that Shen Liang extracted from her.

"Which one is Sister Yingda's?" Shen Liang showed the cleaned armor to Fa Nan for identification. "To be precise, which one was the one that Yingda used to use?"

"How did you know it was one of these three?" Fa Nan was taken aback.

“The discarded armor has all been thrown away. Judging from its style, this is an officer’s armor. Most importantly, it has a strong trace of my aura on it. It doesn’t belong to Sister Yingda, so it must be yours.”

At first, Fa Nan didn't understand Shen Liang's meaning, but then she realized that only Ying Da and she had Shen Liang's scent on them. Her scent was stronger, while Ying Da's... had only been there for one night, so it should have been very faint.

She examined it repeatedly and confirmed that the larger of the breastplates belonged to Yingda. Yingda had faced the bombardment head-on and was completely destroyed; there were too many casualties on the battlefield to search for all his belongings. This discarded armor was enough to serve as proof that Yingda had existed on the battlefield.

"What do you want to do?"

“Pheromone marking,” Shen Liang said calmly. “On this battlefield, Sister Yingda’s pheromones are extremely strong. Her soul, or rather… her anger, resentment, sustenance, and killing intent are all left here. By relying on her belongings from her lifetime, we can collect her pheromones here to the greatest extent possible.”

What are pheromones?

"Simply put, it is a necessary item that can bring people back to life."

Chapter 122 Building the Paradise of the Afterlife in Teyvat

Shen Liang gave the Teyvats of this time period a brief explanation of the concept of pheromones. Although he knew it could potentially cause changes in civilization, considering that Raiden had already invented the telegraph, whether or not there was any need to be wary of revealing "epoch-making knowledge" was no longer important.

Moreover, the absence of a time paradox implies that his actions were all correct.

Pheromones were originally used by researchers to describe the communication methods used by organisms to transmit messages through chemical molecules. Some believe that a living being's consciousness, emotions, and even thoughts are essentially chemical reactions within the body. Research has shown that if many people around a person are in a relationship, that person will also want to be in a relationship, and their body will release noticeable levels of estrogen, and even progesterone, which controls ovulation, will increase.

This led to an absolute materialist viewpoint that all actions are "material reactions," even the act of "thinking" itself is achieved through some kind of currently unknowable material reaction.

Later, a more profound view emerged: "Information and matter are the same thing." Philosophers who held this view believed—yes, at this point it was no longer the domain of scientists but philosophers—that as long as the "information" left by something in the world could be completely preserved, that thing could be replicated.

To give an analogy, the ultimate imagining is that there's a portal that can transport you light-years away in an instant. But the actual method of teleportation would be to kill you on this side of the portal, and then clone you on the other side using your DNA, memories, fingerprints, blood type, pupils, personality simulation, social relationship simulation, and so on—using everything else you left behind that can be recognized in the world.

This version of you is exactly the same as the version of you who died, even your memories are synchronized, so this version of you is you.

However, theoretically, no technology can guarantee the extraction of all the information a person leaves behind in the world, so theory is just theory. But under this theory, the concept of pheromones can be elevated, meaning that "all the information that constitutes the cognition of a thing" is called "pheromones".

"Sister Yingda is dead, but in the concept of pheromones, she is not dead." Shen Liang collected Yingda's armor and began to admire the battlefield scenery.

Yes, I admire him. With his amazing memory, he recorded the ravaged battlefield that had not yet been repaired.

"Second sister...isn't dead?"

Fanan didn't quite understand. She had personally witnessed Fanan take the initiative to fight the enemy, burning his bloodline to seal the Golden King Beast underground, waiting for the arrival of divine justice.

Casting that sealing technique requires burning oneself out, and Yingda had already turned to ashes. She was even a little angry, but she inexplicably shut her mouth. She wanted to hear Shen Liang's explanation more.

“David Engelmann said that a person dies three times. The first is biological death, which is when the heart stops beating and everything turns to dust, like Sister Yingda.” Shen Liang said slowly, “Everything will return to dust, that’s the law of the world. Even Aunt Möbius cannot truly live indefinitely, because the resources of the universe are finite, and the existence of life must also be finite. Even those who claim to be immortal will die.”

"But, darling, you won't," Mistylin interjected. "You're the one who's ruining the universe."

Shen Liang ignored her and continued speaking.

"The second is the death of sociology, which, in layman's terms, is when a person is buried and all interpersonal relationships disappear. Banks... money shops cancel his accounts, the General Affairs Department cancels his household registration, and he ceases to exist in this society."

Fa Nan seemed to be deep in thought.

"But the third death is the true death, which is 'the world's forgetting.' The last person in this world who remembers you has forgotten you, the last person who loves you or hates you no longer exists. Civilization has existed for thousands of years, and you are just a grain of sand buried at the bottom of this long river, and there will never be any information about you again. This is the real death, and the entire universe is no longer related to you."

"This third death is a complete death where 'even pheromones no longer exist'."

"Understood?"

Fanan is one of the most well-read people among the martial arts-oriented Yaksha race. It's not that she doesn't understand philosophy; after thinking for a while with her head down, she asked, "So, Liang'er, your current actions are to collect as many pheromones as possible? I understand, but why is that?"

“In the face of ‘worldly perception,’ a person’s life or death is not determined by the first or second death; only the third death is true death. And clearly, Sister Yingda is far from reaching the point of the third death.” Shen Liang said patiently, “Therefore, relatively speaking, as long as a person’s pheromones can be completely preserved, she is alive!”

As long as this person's pheromones are still present, then they are... alive!?

The difficulty of the attack was terrifying.

But she quickly pressed on, "But Second Sister's pheromones couldn't be intact. Her physical body is dead, gone to ashes. At least, the pheromones of 'physical concept' and 'memory concept' are completely gone. She truly no longer exists in this world! Even if there are traces of her life... that's not enough. You said 'completely preserved,' but how can those traces of a person's life be preserved when they're dead?"

Fanan suddenly understood, and was somewhat annoyed! In fact, the so-called "real death" is just nonsense! Only when a person is "alive" can they provide "living pheromones"!

How can one preserve "complete pheromones" after a person has passed away? It's simply impossible to "completely preserve traces of a person's life"!

Like Yingda, all that remains of her are the clothes she wore, the bed she slept in, the cosmetics she used, and the bowls and chopsticks she ate from... But all traces of her life are gone. Her laughter and chatter with her brothers and sisters on their spring outing, her heroic spirit as she charged into battle with her armor stained with blood, even the alluring shyness of the night she was tricked into Shen Liang's tent and awakened her interest in boys... These elements that made up her life have long since vanished. There are no books to record them, and even if they were written down, would that be considered "complete preservation"?

Those vivid scenes from Yingda's life now only remain in her memory...

In my memory...

memory……

Fanan suddenly raised her head. She felt as if she had grasped something, and seemed to be able to vaguely understand Shen Liang's meaning.

“Yes, the largest and most complete source of ‘living pheromones’ is right here.” Shen Liang pointed to her head, revealing a childlike smile. “Didn’t expect that, did you, Sister Fanan?”

"You! You mean..."

“As long as I retain the memory of Sister Yingda, her pheromones can be extracted from me. As long as I remember, she will not die… and neither will you.” Shen Liang looked at the vast battlefield. “It’s not just you, it’s everyone around me. This is the true ‘infinity,’ an infinity that even Aunt Mebius never touched. As long as I remember, everyone will exist somewhere in this world forever. As long as I live, this oath will remain forever.”

Fa Nan was instantly shocked by the length of time implied in those words.

Death is not the end; being forgotten is. But as long as Shen Liang lives, he will never forget. This is a true way to achieve immortality, anchoring himself to the world, with everything that has ever appeared on this land forming a backup in his mind.

In this way, he can save and revive his loved ones an endless number of times.

"...Anyway, this isn't the first time I've done something like this," Shen Liang said in a low voice.

After a brief moment of shock, Fa Nan was overjoyed and almost jumped for joy. She understood what Shen Liang meant. In short, if he could remember Ying Da's existence, he would be able to revive Ying Da sooner or later, because on the "world" level, Ying Da had not truly died.

In some ways, she was the same... Even if she were to die unexpectedly one day, thousands of years later, Shen Liang would be able to revive her through his memories.

"But how exactly should we do it?" Fa Nan hugged Shen Liang and spun him around, almost wanting to lift him up high with joy, but then quickly put him down to save face for her boyfriend, asking repeatedly.

“I need some time.” Shen Liang thought for a moment. “To revive someone, the pheromones I have in my memory can only guarantee a portion of her life. The traces of her life have disappeared on the earth and merged into the ley lines. It’s like when you die, the molecules, atoms, and compounds that make up your body react with other things and become free. I need to use the ley lines to aggregate these free pheromones and finally revive her from the ley lines.”

Fanan didn't understand anything about atoms, molecules, or compounds, so he could only listen attentively.

"This will probably take several hundred years. I've done this before. Teyvat and Earth are both on the Imaginary Tree, so the method should be similar. The main problem now is how to control the ley lines. As far as I know, the ley lines are centered on the World Tree... I think I should probably go to Sumeru." Shen Liang looked to the west. Beyond the Abyss of Layered Rocks lay the verdant Sumeru Kingdom. Liyue and Sumeru bordered each other, and even by carriage, it would only take half a month to get there.

Having made his decision, and seeing that it was getting late and he had collected most of Yingda's belongings, he turned and returned to his tent. Fa Nan was busy with military affairs, so the two parted ways for the time being.

With no one around, Misterin finally lay down on her side on the bed. Unlike the soft, large bed in the dormitory, the tent, even in peacetime, was just a simple bamboo mat, and Misterin felt a little uncomfortable lying there.

But the feeling of "discomfort" is a good thing; it's something that can only be felt by someone with a physical body.

Misterlin stroked her cold, slender waist. Because she had been frozen in the coffin for many years and could only move for less than an hour each day, the coldness of her skin had seeped into her blood vessels, and her skin was pale and crisp. Such skin would be pierced by the slightest touch. If it weren't for the super strong physical recovery ability of an S-class Valkyrie, Misterlin would be covered in wounds every day.

In fact, Shen Liang had to be very careful when she was with her, as her delicate skin could be injured if pinched too hard. Ever since she finally made physical contact with this little wildcat, it's understandable that Shen Liang had been hoping that she could act in physical form, even if it was only for half an hour each day.

Mistelin initially wanted to refuse, after all, once was already too much, and it wasn't really hers after all... However, she couldn't refuse the conditions offered by Shen Liang.

In response to Mistelin's excuse that her body was too fragile to be touched, this spoiled and arrogant little wolfhound actually chose to abandon his dignity and humiliate himself by... being the one below?

Whenever she thought about it, this gentle and kind white-haired mature woman could only bite her lip and repent in her heart over and over again. She had to repent every day... not to the little wolf dog, but to this saintess.

"I'm sorry... this is the last time... I'm sorry... this is the last time... I'm sorry..."

However, repentance is something that should be done only for saints.

What Mistelin didn't tell Shen Liang was that after so much gene fusion, the time she could stay out of the coffin had also increased significantly... In the past two weeks, her endurance had reached a full hour. Beyond an hour, even if the body wasn't so resistant to her control, the Honkai erosion would become uncontrollable.

However, the signs of improvement are already very obvious, although Shen Liang may only feel that Mistelin has made considerable progress in cultivating zombies.

Before nightfall, and before the two little fox and little doll, who were always vying for attention and would come to sleep with her, appeared, Mistelin leaned against the headboard and looked at Shen Liang, who was studying the earth's veins. She couldn't help but whisper, "Baby... were you trying to recreate your... paradise of the past here with those words you said today?"

As a stigmata will that has experienced both the Fire Chasing Civilization and the Earth Civilization, Misterin is one of the few people who knows the true ownership of the Paradise of the Past.

She knew whose Paradise of the Past belonged to; it was a database created by the previous civilization with all its might, and the true master of this database was Shen Liang.

But she also knew why the Son of Man, who was still young when the Fire Chaser civilization was destroyed, was qualified to rule the Paradise of the Past.

“You don’t need to do this, baby, you’re too tired,” Mistelin said softly.

“Anyway, it’s not the first time,” Shen Liang repeated.

“You don’t need to use the same words you used to deal with me, my darling… I am a product of a previous civilization, and I have witnessed your fifty thousand years of solitude.” She said softly, “This is not a responsibility you should bear. The dead should return to dust, why be so attached to it?”

Shen Liang just smiled.

"Anyway, it's not the first time."

Yes, it's not the first time.

Mistelin knew all too well what Shen Liang wanted to do; the Fire Chasing Civilization had already made him do it once. Create a database to record the people he wanted to record, and then, when the time was right, bring them back to life.

It seems reasonable, wonderful, and... a way that will never hurt anyone.

But that only applies to those in the paradise of past lives who are immune to harm, and those living in the ley lines... that's all. For them, millions of years are but a fleeting moment; death and resurrection are like a slumber.

However, they need to rely on Shen Liang's memories to maintain their pheromones, so what Shen Liang didn't tell Fanan was that for him, who couldn't give up his job, this was a punishment that would last for millions of years.

No one can help him bear this burden, because only a son of man can do this.

As a son of man with perfect genes, surpassing humanity, the genes he conceals are far more than just the "snake molt" given to him by Möbius; the same goes for the "absolute memory" from Möbius. He never forgets; he cannot forget anything that has happened every minute and every second over millions of years, unless a part of it is sealed away by death.