Bearing the blue sky

Chapter 339 The Unique Trait!

Zhu Ge squatted on the thickest branch, her gaze fixed on the approaching young squirrel.

Its movements carried a rhythm remarkably similar to his own when he was young.

It's not the exact same pace, but a pace that is forming and being refined by time.

imitate!

It is important to know that one of the greatest abilities of living beings is imitation.

Humans imitate bats' echolocation, streamlined bodies, and the rules of physics, chemistry, and biology —

In short, imitation and creation are what have made human civilization possible.

At this time, the phenomenon of this transmission of experience became increasingly apparent.

Before Zhu Ge's eyes, the young squirrel would pause briefly when passing through a fork in the branch, using its nose to check for any remaining traces of scent on the surface of the branch before continuing on its way.

When selecting fruit, it first sniffs its scent before deciding whether to pick it; when storing food, it chooses drier and more secure locations.

These are all things Zhu Ge once did, and the young squirrel is acting in the same way he once did.

This is the transmission of experience.

You notice that the young squirrel is growing at a similar pace to when you were young.

Its movements possess a precision honed by time, and its efficiency in selecting fruits continues to improve, as if it has found the most suitable learning method for itself and is absorbing your experience at a faster pace.

It is learning your behavioral patterns more efficiently than other younger individuals in the group.

Your choice is—

First, observe and guide it more intensively, consciously displaying more behavioral sequences in your daily activities, and systematically passing on your accumulated experience to it.

Second, while maintaining observation, also allow it enough space to explore independently, ensuring that it develops its own behavior while imitating you, rather than becoming a complete copy of you.

Third, select other young individuals within the group for training, creating multiple directions for inheritance and reducing the risks associated with a single inheritance path.

He could feel the presence of the young squirrel.

Its gaze lingered briefly on the branch of the tree canopy, confirming its direction, before continuing along its path.

The young squirrel resembles someone being guided forward by an elderly person, following the path traversed by the blessing song.

Zhu Ge naturally chose to systematically pass on his accumulated experience to it.

You choose to observe and guide it more intensively, consciously displaying more behavioral sequences in your daily activities, and systematically passing on your accumulated experience to it.

You begin to increase the frequency of your presence near its activity area, leaving clearer scent markings and traces along its likely paths.

[When it observes you, you choose to display a more complete sequence of behaviors—from discovering the fruit to judging its ripeness, from choosing the angle to pick it to adjusting your center of gravity, from choosing the storage location to exchanging information with other individuals in the group—each step is fully presented within its field of vision.]

It is absorbing your experience with greater efficiency, as if it has found a learning method that highly matches your behavioral patterns, capable of capturing the details and rhythm of your every action.

Your behavioral patterns are being transmitted to it with greater fidelity than before.

The young individual's growth rate continued to accelerate, and its movements already possessed a precision remarkably similar to his own.

It no longer needs to hesitate as much when picking fruit, and it can now find the most effortless route when patrolling the border.

The young squirrel is growing at a pace similar to that of Zhuge when he was young!

You observe that the squirrel's abilities are approaching your level, performing foraging and border patrol tasks with almost perfect synchronization. It is acting in your way, living at your pace.

It is becoming the complete embodiment of your experience.

Your experience is being continued in it with even greater fidelity.

You have found the most suitable medium for this inheritance.

Your existence is shifting from an individual life to collective memory, from a single Three Squirrels to a way of life that can be passed down.

Your existence transcends the boundaries of time through inheritance, and continues through the community.

You have completed the transition from an independent existence to a node of inheritance.

You have left behind a framework of experiences that can be used sustainably within this canopy, and it continues to exist as a collective.

Your life is coming to an end. You can choose where you fall, or you can choose where you turn into decaying matter.

Therefore, you have made a unique choice for this theme simulation. Please decide carefully.

[First, by lying on high ground, the body's nutrients return to the soil within the tree canopy through rainwater and fallen leaves, completing the material cycle in the most direct way.]

[Second, fall beside a young sapling, allowing your body to provide the most direct nutrients for the growth of the next generation, completing your final act of inheritance before the end of your life.]

[Third, fall in the area where you and the young squirrels spent the most time together, so that the group can witness your departure in the most familiar place and understand the meaning of life and death.]

The only choice!

Zhu Ge was suddenly struck by a jolt.

finally come!

The right choice has arrived!

Zhu Ge squatted on the thickest branch, feeling the three choices unfolding before him.

Unique choice.

What he had been waiting for for so long was now appearing in his perception as three clearly visible paths.

He didn't rush to make a decision, but instead let them unfold fully in his consciousness, feeling the texture and weight of each path.

The first path: fall down on a high place.

His body will return to the soil at the highest point of the canopy, and nutrients will slowly seep into the area below through rainwater and fallen leaves, where they will be absorbed by the plants and microorganisms that are active in the lower canopy.

This is a clean and efficient cycle, without superfluous rituals or extra meanings, only the flow of matter within the laws of nature.

This path will not leave a visible mark on the group.

The young squirrels will not see where he fell, will not pass by the rain-soaked soil in the days to come, and will not remember that he ever existed each time they pass by.

He would quietly disappear from a high place, as if he had never existed.

The second path: fall down next to a young sapling.

His body will provide the most direct nutrients to that sapling that has not yet grown.

His experience has been passed on to the young squirrels, and his substance will nourish the next generation of plants, completing a cross-species transmission at the end of his life.

This is a direct, material inheritance that does not involve any consciousness or knowledge.

It's simply a process of nutrients being transferred from one life form to another!

This path will leave a visible mark on the growth of that young sapling.

It will grow faster in its nutrients, its leaves will be more lush, and its roots will grow deeper.

Those squirrels will pass by it in the days to come.

They see its abundance, but they don't know the relationship between its abundance and its disappearance.

Meaningless.

Zhu Ge's consciousness locked onto the third option.

The third path: He fell in the area where he spent the most time with the young squirrels.

His body will return to the soil on the branches most familiar to the young squirrels, completing his final existence in the area where they are most active.

They will see his body gradually merge with the tree bark.

Each time I passed by, I could sense his presence slowly dissipating.

Every time I sit on the same branch, I can feel the traces of his presence.

This path will leave a visible mark on the group.

Those young squirrels will see a way of ending in his departure.

It will establish a connection between his position and collective memory.

In the years to come, he will carry his experiences and the way he left with him as he faces his own end.

Zhu Ge felt the differences between these three paths.

The first path is a purely physical loop, without any transfer of consciousness.

The second pathway is interspecies material transfer, with the final nutrient transfer completed at the end of life.

The third path is the continuation of collective memory—his departure becomes part of the collective experience, and those young squirrels not only learn how to survive, but also how to end things.

He remembered the two older squirrels.

They played a silent role in his growth.

They demonstrate sequences of behavior to him, provide demonstrations when he needs them, and after he leaves, his experience continues to exist through him.

It didn't teach him how to leave.

"Fallen in the area where you spent the most time with young squirrels."

Zhu Ge let out a long breath and made his choice: "Let the community see my departure in the most familiar place, and understand the meaning of life and death."

You chose to fall in the area where you spent the most time with young squirrels.

Your body leaves the thick branch that has been crouching there for so long, moving down the trunk, through those familiar branches and forks.

[Walk along those paths you've traversed repeatedly throughout the long years, stop at those branches and twigs you know best, and check their positions and conditions one last time.]

The young squirrels slowed as they passed you, their tails brushing lightly against the branches, their noses pausing briefly where you had stood, as if to confirm that your breath was becoming thinner than before.

Stop in their most familiar area and sit on the branch you've walked with most often.

Your movements are no longer as agile as they were in your youth, but they remain steady, carrying a composure honed by time, maintaining a final balance and rhythm in every move.

Your body is slowly returning to the ground, completing your journey through this canopy in one fell swoop.

The young squirrels are approaching you. They crouch down a short distance away, their eyes fixed on you.

It made no sound, simply existing silently, as if confirming that your presence had completely blended into the air of this area, becoming part of their memory.

They are witnessing your departure.

They are learning the meaning of life and death.

This was a grand personal funeral, and also a perfect rebirth for the community.

Zhu Ge sensed the approaching young squirrels.

They are distributed on nearby tree branches, some perched on high places, some standing on low branches, and some hanging on branches close to the trunk.

Their postures are all different, but their gazes are all pointing in the same direction.

The young squirrel that was becoming his successor was sitting closest to him, its gaze fixed on him.

He felt his presence slowly leaving his body, spreading outwards in a more gradual way than he had anticipated.

He was blending into the branch he was crouching on and the air around him, becoming a part of the memories of those young squirrels.

The young squirrels will not forget him, because his behavior has been absorbed and continued by them, and they are continuing to exist as a group, carrying his experience and the way he left with them.

What a wonderful feeling—Zhu Ge closed her eyes.

His body was slowly merging into the surface of the branch, as if it were being slowly absorbed by the bark.

He completed his final existence in this canopy in the most complete way, becoming part of that branch, part of the memories of those young squirrels, and continuing forward as a group.

Your body is completely merging into the surface of that branch. Your breath is utterly dissipating into the air.

The young squirrels are active near where you were, moving in the same ways you once did, carrying the framework of experience you left behind, and adding new textures to the future of this tree.

Your existence continues as a collective.

You have completed the transition from individual to collective, and are becoming part of the inheritance itself.

[Simulation ended.]

[Gained unique trait: Exquisite.]

[Exquisite: Even a stone monkey possesses an exquisite heart, its skin covered with forty-eight thousand hairs.]

Her only special trait is her exquisite beauty!

Zhu Ge felt a surge of joy, then sensed that she was being pulled away from the squirrel's body.

He opened his eyes and saw that the sunlight outside the window was already fully bright, and the clouds on the terrace shimmered with a bright, warm white light under the sun.

Its daybreak!

After a night of simulation, he gained a trait called "Exquisite"!

Unique trait!

How strong is Kunpeng? He was able to fight against cultivators with his mortal body and carve a bloody path through Jianshan Village.

How powerful is a spider? Even a proud fisherman in a straw raincoat can be bound by spider silk and unable to move.

Even the non-unique trait of "secrecy" played a particularly significant role.

Only the passive trait [Fallen Scale] is currently accumulating.

However, [Fallen Scale] is also Zhuge's trump card.

The effect of [Fallen Scale] is also very strong; the ability to collect dissipated energy alone is very powerful.

He has accumulated a lot of power during this journey, and if he were to unleash it, it could be described as a devastating attack.

"Let me see the effect of this [exquisite]."