A Scroll of Infinite Glory

Chapter 336 The Celestial Capital

The scenery around Jiushan and Chuxinggu's prosthetic bodies changes instantly the moment they pass through the ball of light.

It suddenly appeared in the sky above the desert, in the dark ocean trench, and in the high temperature and high pressure environment of what appeared to be an underground magma layer.

Looking down over the desert from Jiushan, gazing at the shattered moon and the stars, he had already calculated his location.

He shook his head: "Guan Luoyang's sword intent is already deeply intertwined with the two of us. If we were still on Earth, we wouldn't be able to escape his spiritual resonance and attacks from afar."

Another pair of prosthetic bodies appeared in distant space.

Silent and desolate, cold and lifeless.

Chu Xinggu looked around, but for a moment he couldn't see the familiar blue planet, nor did he know where it was located.

Looking up, Jiushan saw a huge yellowish-white planet to their right front.

"This is near Venus, which should be our location. The angle of view is just blocked by Venus, so you can't see Earth."

The two prosthetic bodies have built-in communication components, allowing them to communicate.

Upon hearing this, Chu Xinggu said, "In a sense, this place is actually quite safe."

"Not at all."

Jiushan said, "The danger of space radiation is uncertain, and I can calculate that in 102 hours, we will be directly exposed to solar radiation. With the little spiritual energy we have now, it is very likely that the strong radiation will cause hardware failure and data corruption."

Soul coding technology can encode psychic energy and consciousness into data, bringing many conveniences. However, it also means that if the data becomes disordered, this part of the soul data will directly fall into mental disorder, or even consciousness collapse.

At the ground-based jump base, Jiu Shan and Chu Xing Gu's prosthetic bodies thronged into the ball of light, waiting to jump away one after another.

Those prosthetic bodies that survived after passing through the orb of light were considered lucky.

Some others had their soul data stored inside destroyed the moment they passed through the orb of light, and it was unknown what kind of dangerous environment they were transported to.

Another reason is that the jump process was not stable enough, and part of the shape was directly destroyed by the misaligned space.

There was a prosthetic body in Jiushan that appeared on a lunar debris outside the atmosphere, but only the left half remained.

Several more prosthetic bodies appeared together in the alloy-made corridor.

"This shouldn't be Earth."

They walked along the corridor for a while and entered a messy restaurant. Moldy and spoiled food was scattered on the tables and floor, and some of the tables had debris leaning against them.

The clothes on these corpses had not decomposed even after decades, and the mechanical parts on their bodies, though covered in dust, remained unchanged. However, most of the torsos were just yellowed skeletons.

Jiushan walked to the edge of the restaurant, wiped the dust away from the window, revealing the dark space outside, and the dazzling starlight that adorned the dark background.

In closer areas, you can see enormous planets and asteroid belts.

"No wonder there were five cybernetic bodies that jumped here together. It seems there's a device here that has a slight connection with the jump base."

Jiushan pondered, "This should be a spaceship that traveled between the moon and Mars back then. However, the moon crashed, causing the route to go astray. This spaceship lost its guidance, ran out of supplies, and drifted in space, remaining silent until now."

The people on the ship were probably ordinary passengers, with no high-level psionicists among them. After the supplies ran out, their brains were deprived of nutrients for a long time, and they starved to death.

"This place is nice. No matter how deeply Guan Luoyang's spirit is connected to ours, he can't project his sword intent this far away."

Chu Xinggu breathed a sigh of relief. "This spaceship has been abandoned for so many years, but the internal air circulation and radiation protection systems still seem to be intact. It can serve as our temporary base. As for how to get to human settlements in the future, we'll figure that out slowly."

Jiushan nodded, but did not stop there.

Inside the Earth jump base, the remaining prosthetic bodies poured into the orb of light all at once. Following the preset program, without any regret, these remaining prosthetic bodies underwent an attempt with even less stability.

The orb of light representing the jump node trembled violently, and eventually dissipated as the base's energy reserves were exhausted.

Among the many prosthetic bodies, three of them, when they opened their eyes again, found themselves still inside the warp drive.

However, they soon noticed the difference. Although the site here was almost the same size as the warp base on Earth, and the large white circular area in front of them also had a structure similar to an umbrella, it was different.

However, it was also obvious that the materials paved in this circular area underfoot were much cleaner and more uniform in color and shone brightly than those in the base on Earth, and they all seemed to be brand new.

Moreover, the surrounding buildings are different from the dilapidated appearances found on Earth.

Snow-white buildings, dark windows, and towering skyscrapers that exude a sense of mystery are scattered around this circular area in a staggered manner.

Interspersed among them are numerous iron-framed towers that receive signals. The upper part of the spire has a spherical structure with a diameter larger than the waist of the signal tower. Inside the hollow sphere, reddish-brown light and electricity emanate, clearly indicating the flow of powerful energy.

More importantly, the sky here is shrouded in darkness, with clouds and mist obscuring the view.

Amidst the surging sea of ​​clouds, a full moon unexpectedly appeared, its bright and clear light shining brightly in the sky.

Chu Xinggu looked up in surprise and said, "Where is this...?"

Of the three prosthetic bodies that appeared here, one belonged to Jiushan and two belonged to Chuxinggu.

Just as Chu Xinggu was speaking in surprise, Jiushan spread his hands apart and placed them on the shoulders of the other two prosthetic bodies, merging Chu Xinggu's two soul data into one.

At the same time, all three prosthetic bodies ceased functioning, and their internal soul data silently seeped into the local network along the conductive material on the ground and was transmitted out.

At the same time, dozens of pale red light pillars were activated on the buildings surrounding the circular arena, converging from all directions and firmly enveloping the three prosthetic bodies.

The light appears pale red because these lights contain a large number of magnetic particles, which, upon closer inspection, resemble red pollen dancing in the light.

As soon as the light shone on them, these magnetic particles instantly adhered to the surfaces of the three prosthetic bodies, turning them all a pale red color.

The powerful electromagnetic field caused these magnetic particles to form an unalterable and stable shape in an instant, thus suppressing all the activities of the prosthetics and making the three prosthetics resemble heavy statues made of cinnabar red rock.

Then people came out of those buildings.

Dozens of agile figures, wielding silver-white laser guns, were all dressed in uniform white tight-fitting combat suits and full-coverage white helmets, with only their eyes vaguely visible beneath the crystal masks.

They approached the three prosthetic bodies sealed by magnetic particles with practiced ease. Three of them, with guns slung over their backs, stepped forward and lifted the prosthetic bodies.

The others followed closely behind, their guns, glowing with laser energy, always aimed at the three cybernetic bodies, escorting the three porters away from the white circular area and into a tall building at the edge for testing.

The test results were quickly transformed into various images and data, which were then transmitted to the large screen in the laboratory, and the researchers in the laboratory immediately got busy.

"None of the three targets contain human brains. Preliminary assessment indicates they are three bionic robots with skeletons made of Yinghuo alloy, bionic muscle tissue... model unknown, bionic nerves... model unknown, coolant, repair fluid... model unknown, information acquisition processor... model unknown."

A young researcher, reviewing data on two screens in front of him, reported, "Test complete. This technology does not belong to any factory in any of the twelve colony areas within the Martian ecosystem."

A middle-aged man with piercing eyes and thick, white hair stood with his arms crossed, staring at the images on the large screen. He turned to the researcher on the other side and asked, "What about the secret models within the Tiandu military?"

The female researcher said, "We've checked them all, but none of them match."

The white-haired middle-aged man's eyes widened slightly with excitement: "So, it really is from Earth?"

The researcher replied, "Currently, the most likely origin is from Earth."

"good!"

The white-haired middle-aged man laughed heartily, "The governor has kept you busy for fifty years, and the people have changed several times, but you still haven't been able to build a jump tunnel to Earth. But as soon as I arrived, I had an important clue."

As soon as he said that, the researchers in the lab didn't show it on their faces, but they were all a little uneasy in their hearts.

What does it mean to have been busy for fifty years?

Although in name, the work of contacting Earth has been ongoing since the cataclysmic events of fifty years ago, it is only in the last ten years that efforts have truly been intensified and serious consideration has been given to reconstructing the jump channel.

However, the Minister Mei Dengfeng in front of them was the Minister of Action of Tiandu and the Governor's trusted confidant. No one would be foolish enough to nitpick his words at this time; they were all busy with their own work.

"Were all the parameters recorded when those three robots appeared?"

Mei Dengfeng said with a smile, "Interrogate those three robots as well. Oh, I should say extract their data, right? Anyway, extract everything and see what Earth looks like now, and how they got here."

"Quickly! Try to get this done tonight, and tomorrow morning I will report your research findings to the Governor."

After operating the robots for a while, the researcher in the front row said with difficulty, "These three bionic robots should have been controlled by intelligent programs, but now it seems that the programs are damaged. Data repair is quite difficult. The technology they use is different from our artificial intelligence."

Mei Dengfeng's expression darkened slightly. He said, "Are you saying that Earth's technology is now actually more advanced than ours?!"

The researcher quickly waved his hand and said, "No, that's not what I meant, but it seems we won't be able to complete the data extraction tonight."

"Then stop talking nonsense and do it as quickly as possible."

Mei Dengfeng said, "In addition, let's see if we can use the data we observe and record tonight to open a channel for a Mars jump to Earth."

The researchers nodded repeatedly.

While they were busy here, Jiushan and Chuxinggu's soul data had already left the base and were wandering among those electronic devices with rather weak security measures.

Jiushan observes the city through surveillance cameras in streets, alleys, high-rise buildings, trains, and shops.

High-rise buildings of 100 or 200 stories, glass facades, huge logos, GG screens, are everywhere, all square and rectangular, with only the occasional curved facade, which looks monotonous and pale, and the city lights are reflected on the glass windows.

The commercial district is bustling with traffic, and you won't see any low-rise shops. Apart from the merchants renting inside the mall buildings, even the small shops on both sides of the street are all renting out part of the first floor of high-rise buildings and then expanding and renovating them themselves.

Residential areas are generally apartment buildings of about twenty stories. The landscaping may look varied, with fitness equipment and antique-style pavilions, each with its own unique details. However, overall, all residential areas are quite similar.

I don't know if the designers didn't put their hearts into it, or if they simply didn't want to put their inspiration into this area. The joys of life have long been squeezed out, and only higher stimulation that is detached from daily life can bring pleasure to the brain.

Under the cover of night, the entire city is permeated with an atmosphere that is both dazzling with lights and somber and solemn, seemingly a mixture of depression and exhaustion, or frenzied revelry.

It should have been late at night by then, but the city was far from quiet. The commercial districts were brightly lit, burning all night long. Not to mention the cars on the streets, the street racers, trailing rainbows in the air, were like shooting stars flying everywhere, each with its own color—red, yellow, blue, and green—daringly weaving between the skyscrapers.

But what Jiushan finds most interesting in this city are the spires that resemble signal towers, which can be found in every neighborhood.

The tower's metal frame and sharp, slender geometric structure, devoid of any superfluous elements, exude a concise aesthetic, resembling a battle sword piercing the sky.

However, in the upper part of the tower, there is always a "spherical structure" that is larger than the diameter of the waist of the tower.

Within most of the spheres, a murky, crimson light was brewing.

The other part of the spherical structure is constructed of an unknown transparent material, imprisoning a lifelike creature that glows with light.

There were golden antelopes that surged forward, generating electricity, and constantly tilted their heads back as if roaring; there were vicious dogs that were as black as charcoal, with dark red flames swirling around their bodies, baring their teeth; there were ugly human heads embedded in the middle of wheels, with clusters of eerie blue ghost fires floating around the wheels.

There was a giant whose body was covered with swords, spears, and halberds. Its limbs were replaced by machine guns and cannons. Its head was a rectangular box, and its eyes were two protruding tungsten filament bulbs. The shape of the tungsten filaments resembled yellow-red smiling eyes.

There was a melancholy woman carrying a green lantern, huddled alone in the place where she was imprisoned; and a handsome young man with goat horns on his head, his ten fingers filled with cigarettes, cigars, and pipes.

Chu Xinggu also witnessed all of this and asked in the online world, "Could those things be spiritual disasters?"

Spiritual disasters are not uncommon on the wasteland continent, but they are divided into five levels: Flash, Bind, Wander, True, and God. This classification is based on the characteristics of each level of spiritual disaster and references some legends in Earth's classical culture.

The weakest level of catastrophic disaster is merely a faint illusion, mainly relying on hallucinations to induce various accidents that harm humanity.

A bound-level spiritual calamity already possesses a relatively stable form, capable of directly moving physical objects and annihilating flesh and blood, but it is often bound to the place of its birth—a building, a residential area, or a street.

The wandering spirits can move freely between different cities, instinctively heading to places suitable for their survival, absorbing corresponding human emotions, and rapidly growing stronger.

True-level spiritual calamities exhibit a significant increase in intelligence, resembling real living beings. In addition to their instinctive destructive tendencies, they may even possess unique quirks and know how to use tricks, traps, alliances, and other means.

A divine-level spiritual calamity is even more terrifying. It refers to a calamity whose main body possesses the strength of a ninth-level psychic power and, like a mythical species, can manipulate the characteristics of humans, beasts, and plants to create their own followers. A mutually beneficial cycle forms between the followers and the main body, causing the calamity's scope to expand ever larger.

During the Great Cataclysm, there were three divine calamities, and the powerful beings on Earth paid a heavy price to eliminate them.

Within the united regime, there were originally two level 8 psychics and five level 7 psychics who died in battle.

On the wasteland continent, tens of millions of people died due to the god-level calamity "Surtur." Eleven cities of survivors were ravaged, and after six months of intermittent fighting, they were finally managed to divide and disintegrate by Jiushan and Leopold.

If the "Spiritual Calamity - Mara" of Hachiyoin had actually descended to earth at that time, it would probably have reached the standard of a divine spiritual calamity as soon as it took shape.

For people on Earth, apart from mentally ill individuals like Nichiren Yukkai, other powerful individuals, regardless of their stance, would not stand idly by and watch the spiritual disaster grow stronger.

The people of this place, after capturing the spirit disaster, did not immediately destroy it, but instead kept it in captivity.

Chu Xinggu could clearly sense that various emotions in the city corresponding to these spiritual disasters were being absorbed.

These spiritual calamities have already reached the highest level of intensity among the parade spiritual calamities and are evolving into true spiritual calamities.

"I took a look at the device that imprisons those spiritual disasters. It belongs to a huge energy circulation system that should periodically extract the energy from those spiritual disasters and use it elsewhere."

Jiushan calmly said, "Although the method of imprisoning spirit calamities is extraordinary, someone had the same idea more than fifty years ago and successfully tested it. It's nothing special."

"What I'm really curious about is the use of these spiritual disaster energies."

Chu Xinggu asked in confusion, "What other use could it have? Isn't it just to store up excess psionic signals? They probably don't have the technology to convert electricity into psionic energy, so they came up with this method."

"It's not just that."

Jiushan refuted his opinion, saying, "The spiritual energy contained in spiritual disasters is too biased and singular. If it is used to bless humans, it will conflict with the human's own spiritual energy. Even if it is used to charge some special instruments, it is very inconvenient because the power is difficult to adjust."

"If we go to all this trouble just to store some energy that is difficult to use, it would be much more efficient to invest these resources in other areas, such as training more psionicists or building nuclear power plants."

"I'm really curious, where are they going to use this spiritual energy that even sophisticated instruments and human cultivators struggle to utilize?"

Chu Xinggu thought for a moment and said, "Let's not think about that for now. There is no 'Promised Land' in this online world. In my current state, I am constantly disturbed by the redundant information on the internet, and I cannot recover my spiritual energy in peace. It would be better if I had a physical body in reality to operate."

"If there's nothing on the network here that can hinder your opponents, find us some new cybernetic bodies and use them to create a disguise."

After losing his original brain, it would be extremely difficult for Chu Xinggu to make another breakthrough, but given enough time, it would still be possible for him to recover to the threshold of the eighth level of spiritual energy.

"There is indeed nothing on the network here that I can consider a rival, but their management relies very little on artificial intelligence, or even the entire electronic network. The things I can do on the network are far less than on Earth."

Jiushan said, "Don't rush. Let me take a look at the background information first before deciding on our next move."

A moment later, he shared a document with Chu Xinggu.

"As expected, it's Mars. The first of the twelve settlements in the Martian ecosystem has now been renamed Tiandu."

Jiushan said with great interest, "Before the Great Cataclysm, in order to facilitate the management of the Martian ecosystem, the twelve immigration districts hardly interfered with each other. Each immigration district was divided into multiple jurisdictions, and the most powerful people on Mars were just the first representatives of a single immigration district."

"And now, these twelve settlements are all under the rule of the Mars Governor."

Chu Xinggu examined the photo of the Martian governor and said with some doubt, "This person looks familiar?"

"You may have seen his photo when you were looking at information about Yan Zhen. This old guy was known as the strongest person in the Western Hemisphere in the 21st century. Later, when the world launched a joint space development program, he, Yan Zhen and others jointly presided over many important events, and there are many photos of them together."

Jiushan laughed and said, "Of course, you may have seen him in another part of the information. Our former leader, who died on the moon in Tianhuichuan, had some secret dealings with this person back then."

Chu Xinggu suddenly realized, "Ling Daofu?"

"It's him."

After a moment's thought, Jiushan said, "If it were him, I could probably guess what he would most like to do right now."

"Then let's give him a small gift."

Early the next morning.

Mei Dengfeng was still waiting in the laboratory.

He was never popular, and his bad temper was widely known. However, he always took the lead in every important operation planned by the governor.

"The data has been repaired and extracted!"

One researcher exclaimed, "These bionic robots seem to have stored a lot of technical data, which is a concept to try to travel between Earth and Mars without going through the moon and multiple jump transfers."

Mei Dengfeng's face lit up with joy, but he immediately frowned and said, "Earth has suffered a great calamity. Even if it hasn't been completely reduced to a wasteland, it must have regressed a lot. How come Earthlings have developed this kind of technology before you?"

"No, no, no."

The researcher skimmed through the text, saying, "It seems that this is based on space technology data from over fifty years ago, with some new attempts, and the success rate is extremely low. If it weren't for our recent frequent experiments that emitted strong jump signals, even if these bionic robots tried many more times, they wouldn't be able to reach Mars."

Mei Dengfeng's expression softened slightly, and he said, "Now that we have their technological concepts, can we combine the two and go directly from Mars to Earth without them having to come over?"

The researchers knew this was a very important matter and dared not respond hastily. After discussing it for more than half an hour, they finally gave him an answer with great enthusiasm.

"You can give it a try."

Just by looking at their smiling faces, Mei Dengfeng knew they were quite confident.

When breakthroughs were made in the research of mecha materials and space folding technology, the researchers had similar smiles.

Not bad, not bad.

Mei Dengfeng slowly broke into a smile, his mood gradually lifting.

They were excited about the new achievements, and we can look forward to another great harvest.

This harvest was even the governor's long-cherished wish.

(End of this chapter)