Qin Dynasty: They've all turned into zombies, what's there to fear about a rebellion?

Xiaomeng sat amidst the rubble and broken tiles, clutching the dimly lit Qiuli sword in her arms.

Her face, which was usually calm and composed, was now filled with a profound sense of existential unease.

"road……"

She murmured to herself, looking at her fair, jade-like hands, "If the physical body is just a shell, then what about the inner core we cultivate, the true energy we refine, even this beating heart...?"

"Consider the hardware."

Su Ming hung the flashlight on his waist, casually pulled over a reasonably intact chair, and sat down in front of Xiao Meng with an air of nonchalance.

He crossed his legs, and even pulled a handful of sunflower seeds from his pocket, cracking them open as he spoke:

"Little sister, your perspective is still too narrow."

"You Taoists emphasize 'cultivating both body and mind,' believing that the body is a precious raft for crossing the world. If the raft is broken, the person will drown. So you desperately try to repair this wrecked boat, hoping to keep it afloat in the sea of ​​suffering a little longer."

"But this is a dead end."

Su Ming spat out a mouthful of sunflower seed shells, his eyes sharp:

"The physical body is a carbon-based organism, it's matter. And as with matter, it oxidizes, wears down, and ages. No matter how well you cultivate, you can only extend its shelf life from seventy years to seven hundred. What about seven thousand years from now? Seventy thousand years from now?"

"He still has to die."

Xiaomeng's delicate body trembled.

This is precisely the ultimate question that she, and indeed all the Taoist sages throughout history, feared most.

Is there an end to immortality?

"Then... what is the Imperial Preceptor's opinion?"

Xiaomeng raised her head, and for the first time, her eyes were devoid of arrogance, only filled with a bewildered thirst for knowledge.

"Simple."

Su Ming snapped his fingers. "Let's think about it another way. Since the ship is destined to rot, why should we stubbornly cling to it?"

"Why can't we extract the people on the ship... that is, your 'soul'?"

"Extract...soul?" Xiaomeng's pupils contracted.

"That's right."

With a flick of his wrist, Su Ming conjured a palm-sized crystal panel emitting a faint blue light in his palm.

This is the system's built-in data visualization terminal.

"Watch."

Su Ming tapped the panel lightly.

"Buzz—"

A blue light screen was instantly projected into the air, densely covered with countless green codes and runes, which were binary data streams translated from Qin Dynasty Small Seal script.

"This is you."

Su Ming pointed to the rotating three-dimensional human body model on the light screen.

"This is your bone density, this is the direction of your meridians, this is your brainwave frequency... even your memories, your personality, your understanding of 'Tao', all of these are data here."

"data?"

Xiaomeng stared blankly at the ball of light and shadow, a realm she had never explored before, unfamiliar yet filled with an extreme rational beauty.

"In my hometown, the so-called soul is called 'stream of consciousness' or 'program'."

Su Ming stood up, waving his arms like a pyramid scheme lecturer, his tone fervent:

"The body is merely the physical form, a vessel, like the scabbard in your hand. If the scabbard is broken, just replace it!"

"Just save this data that represents your 'soul' and upload it to the 'cloud'... oh, which is the Heavenly Dao."

"Or, download it into a mechanical body that will never decay."

Su Ming suddenly leaned closer to Xiao Meng and pointed to the mechanical corpse puppet next to them that was undergoing self-repair:

"Look at it."

"Its body is made of black iron, and its core is powered by corpse energy. As long as I don't order its destruction, it can still move, fight, and think even after ten thousand years."

"If I were to infuse Master Xiaomeng's memories and consciousness into a top-tier mechanical puppet..."

Su Ming's voice was filled with a devilish allure:

"Then, wouldn't you be immortal?"

"As long as the data exists, you can 'possess' and be reborn an unlimited number of times. You can be a body of steel, a torrent of data, or even a ripple existing between heaven and earth!"

"This is the true meaning of ascending to immortality!"

boom!

Xiaomeng felt as if a thunderclap had exploded in her mind.

Mechanical ascension!

Data immortality!

This shocking theory completely shattered the Taoist beliefs she had built up over the past eighteen years.

Previously, her pursuit of "harmony between man and nature" meant allowing the body to conform to nature.

Su Ming's "Tao" is to allow the soul to transcend nature and master matter!

"This...this is insane..."

Xiaomeng clutched her chest, her breathing rapid, her cheeks flushed with extreme excitement. She stared at the "self" on the screen, composed of countless points of light, and an unprecedented sense of dread washed over her.

It was a fear of the unknown, but also a yearning for the truth.

"Is it crazy? I think so too."

Su Ming grinned, put away the light screen, and sat back down in his chair. "But in this world, only madmen can change the world."

"How is it, Master Xiaomeng?"

"Your 'Heaven and Earth are Indifferent' is too simplistic. How about trying my 'Mechanical God Cult'?"

Xiaomeng fell silent.

She lowered her head, looking at the Qiuli sword in her hand, which had been with her for ten years. She once thought that the sword was the Dao, but now it seemed that the sword... was nothing more than a bunch of metal atoms arranged in a specific order.

If we could truly break free from the constraints of the physical body and transform into an invisible and formless stream of data, wouldn't that be the true realization of Zhuangzi's "free and easy wandering"?

"What...what should I do?"

After a long while, Xiaomeng raised her head, her voice trembling but firm.

At this moment, she was no longer the high and mighty leader of the Heavenly Sect, but an apprentice kowtowing before the gate of truth.

"It's very simple."

Seeing that the fish had taken the bait, Su Ming's smile instantly turned somewhat lewd (crossed out), and became somewhat meaningful.

He rubbed his hands together and pulled out a “data transmission cable” (actually just a copper wire with talismans attached) that was connected to the system terminal and was flashing an eerie red light from his pocket.

"To understand data, you can't just talk about it; you have to do it yourself."

Su Ming stood up and approached Xiaomeng step by step, his eyes gleaming with the glint of a big bad wolf eyeing a little white rabbit:

"Would you like to experience it for yourself?"

"I have a unique technique here called 'data exchange.' Commonly known as... cough cough, spiritual communion."

"God... Godly friend?"

Xiaomeng was stunned. Her originally pale face turned bright red in an instant, all the way to her ears.

This term is quite obscure and ambiguous in Taoist classics!

"Don't get the wrong idea! It's on a spiritual level!"

Su Ming, with an upright and dignified expression, held up the copper wire in his hand and said, "I'm just transmitting some of my 'data' to you so you can intuitively experience what 'the rhythm of code' is."

"Come on, close your eyes and relax."

"You might feel a slight tingling or swelling sensation; that's a normal signal transmission response."

As Su Ming spoke, he stretched out his large hand holding the copper wire and slowly reached towards Xiaomeng's smooth and full forehead.

"Don't be afraid, I'll be there soon."