Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

"Buckwheat noodles. Give him some buckwheat noodles, but don't add any seasoning, oil or salt. Just soak him in plain water."

"Okay." The waiter didn't ask why, and went back to give the order.

The cold noodles were served.

In front of the three of them were shiny copper plates.

"Oh yo yo, this is incredible." Titus sighed, "Although this soup is cold, you can smell the aroma of stock and fish sauce. Because the fish sauce has a slight smell of corruption, fruits are added to the soup. , neutralizing the smell of corruption. My impression was completely changed, I thought North Korea was just another barbarian, but this dish - this dish, I would recommend Her Majesty Victoria to eat it too, because it is completely in line with Rome Human taste. Fish sauce, stock, and various methods of blending, neutralizing, and highlighting the flavors in the stock. This is how the Romans cooked. And this pickle!"

“There are pickles in Rome too?”

"Yes. We also pickle kimchi to make it sweet and sour, and pickle all kinds of vegetables. And this sauce!"

"Dog meat paste?"

"Yes, yes, Roman cuisine also has various sauces. We also use various sauces at banquets. This is simply oriental Roman cuisine! If you don't mind, I want to try it now!"

"Please, eat, eat." He made a gesture of invitation. The opponent is more than two rounds older than him, so he has to respect it.

"Well, it's nothing more than this." Wen Yuan thought to himself: If the Romans all ate this way, it would be quite miserable. However, when he had a banquet at Lake Nemi last time, he did notice that the cooking methods of Roman cuisine were very lacking. He didn't feel shabby at that time, probably because the ingredients were abundant.

"I wonder if Shangluo can get used to it?" He glanced at Han Xingzhi next to him, who looked like he was about to cry without tears - the same copper plate, and what was in his bowl was only buckwheat noodles soaked in water. , there are even ice particles floating on the cold water. But now he has to eat even if he doesn't want to eat, because there is nothing else to eat except this.

He stared at Han Xingzhi and took a bite before he started eating.

"Pap." A strange sound came from the front——

"Sorry, where is the toilet?" Titus covered his face and stood up, looking anxious.

"over there."

Without thinking of anything else to say, Titus stood up and left.

Wen Yuan didn't think much, lowered his head and continued eating noodles.

"Something's wrong." He raised his head suddenly, "I thought I heard a 'pop' just now. What was it?"

"Second brother, I saw it." Han Xingzhi's eyes went straight, "I saw him take that thing out of the soup bowl, because the thing fell into the soup bowl with a 'plop' sound."

"what?"

"It's his eyeballs! Golden eyeballs! The texture is not meat, it seems... it's gold!"

"Pfft." Victoria, who was drinking soup, suddenly put down her spoon, "Sorry, I have to excuse you."

Covering her mouth, Victoria walked out quickly.

"She's acting strange today," Phaethon wondered. "Did she have a stomach upset? She seemed a little abnormal just now, wasn't she?"

She looked at Shangluo, but saw solemnity in Shangluo's eyes.

"what happened?"

"It's not like she has a bad stomach."

【Um】

"What's wrong? What did you see?"

[You may not be able to see it now, but Shangluo and I both noticed it. Her heart stopped. She covered her mouth because she had a heart attack. 】

"Did you see it?"

"I didn't pay attention at first. Because there was always a faint oscillating sound in the room, I always thought it was the clockwork of some clock. It turned out that her heart kept oscillating."

[I noticed from the beginning that her heart is not a body. But I thought it was some kind of medical device at first, and I didn’t discover Shangluo until it stopped. You also discovered it, right? 】

"Stone." Shangluo said solemnly, "Her heart is made of stone."

Plop, plop, invisible fluctuations came from outside the door again, mixed with a sluggish feeling of friction between rocks.

"Huh..." Wearing a breathing mask, Victoria took a big gulp of the phlogiston in the bottle.

"Your Majesty, you should not have let me out. Your stone heart needs 24-hour supervision."

"I understand that I just want to remain the same in front of my friends, at least not so weak. But I didn't expect that I couldn't hold on even for a meal."

"How about I go back and tell you that your stomach feels uncomfortable?"

"No need. They've already figured it out."

Putting down the phlogiston respirator, Victoria walked back.

Standing on her seat, she still didn't sit down. The atmosphere was a bit awkward.

"Okay." Victoria raised her head, "I'll tell the truth. I was cursed, but I also became stronger."

"I can see it." Shangluo nodded, "The power has become very strong. So, what is going on?"

[Because the dragon and the snake are translating, and the poison of the snake is corroding the Roman existence. However, after being gradually rejected by the world, his power gradually began to transcend this world. 】

"Of course, you won't become stronger directly." Victoria added, "It is after processing the corroded body that it becomes a usable heart."

"Is it after processing? What about before processing? What will you look like after the corrosion starts?"

"Marble. The look of original marble, holy white. Although it looks good as a statue, it's not so good if you find that your body starts to look like that - and it's not auspicious to be white. We usually paint those marble statues in colorful colors. White models are equal to no clothes! Only the Germanic barbarians like to run around naked."

Shangluo was silent for a while: "Is there any way to stop this whole process?"

"We also want to know this question. But for so many years, we haven't even figured out the source of corrosion. But we can understand its principle-it is said that humans have existed in the Golden Age, Silver Age and Bronze Age, the Heroic Age and the Black Iron Age. .”

Chapter 717 The Age of Heroes

According to legend, the first generation of golden humans was created by Prometheus. They live with the gods, living without beginning or end, without depression or fear, and can live peacefully as long as they work peacefully. When the gods decided to take this generation away, they became angels.

Legend has it that the second generation of Silver was ruled by Zeus. Zeus thought childhood was good, so he gave the Silver generation a long childhood. But the souls of these people have not been tempered in the real world. They are always blind and ignorant, accompanied by unreasonable sadness. When Zeus decided to take them away, they became elves.

It is said that the third generation of bronze people began to use bronze as tools. They forge weapons and have a heart of stone. Zeus did not take them away, they destroyed themselves. Eventually, they became the shadowless army of the underworld, fighting for the benefactor who summoned them.

"Finally, time has come to our generation." Victoria took a sip of grape juice. "We are the last generation to accompany the gods. We are more righteous than the golden generation, nobler than the silver generation, and more noble than the bronze generation. A generation of people is more kind - we are in the glorious heroic age, and the heroic age is destined to be a river of blood. Just like the son of Oedipus died in battle under the seven gates of Thebes; just like Achai The Asians crossed the sea and marched to Troy for Helen's beauty; just like Hannibal crossed the Alps; just like Caesar led the 13th legion across the Rubicon.

"The prophecy says that when our generation bleeds out its own blood and ends its war, Zeus will send us to a carefree pure land."

"Pure Land?" Shangluo realized something, "Aren't you heading to the Pure Land now?"

"It seems that the prophecies have begun to verify that some god is taking us away and turning us into marble statues. And the people who will replace us seem to be the humans of the Black Iron Age."

"I seem to have heard this legend"

"Of course you have heard of it. They are barbaric and uneducated. They cannot distinguish between good and evil, beauty and ugliness. Children do not repay their parents for their upbringing. Brothers draw swords against each other and cannot treat them with courtesy between host and guest. They do not like to keep They praise evil deeds and practice evil themselves. They believe that as long as they have the power, they can occupy other people's cities without courtesy and justice. Civilization The light will be completely annihilated. When the glorious and brilliant heroes leave the earth, the fallen 'Black Iron Age' will come."

As she said that, she looked at Shangluo: "I think this is more than just familiar to you. It's not so much familiar, but rather - you are from the Black Iron Age, my Majesty the King of Rome. That should be half The Black Iron Age, after all, although there was Cathay in that era, there was no longer Rome. It seems that when the Age of Heroes ends, the destiny of ruling the ruins of Rome will fall on you."

"Does it have something to do with me?"

"We see it from a completely different angle than that of Cathay. My father often said that people in Cathay can see the "Nantianmen Project" when they open their eyes, but we can only see Sodo rising up one after another when we open our eyes. Ma—thank you for the generous gift!”

"Um, so am I to blame?"

"From a genetic point of view, it does have something to do with you, but I don't think this can be blamed on you. During the Republic, when a messenger told King Tigran II of Armenia that the army of Roman general Lucullus was heading towards him. After marching into the position. The King of Armenia beheaded the messenger. He thought that killing the messenger who brought bad news would prevent the arrival of bad news. In the end, until the Roman army destroyed Armenia, no one reported the news to the king - I don't think it brought bad news. The news is that you are guilty. I think that fate must have chosen you to let you cross the Marathon Plains and bring important news to us."

"I remember that the marathon seemed to bring good news?"

"Not really. The truth is, the Athenian soldier Pheidippides was on the run because he saw the defeated Persian warships heading for Athens. He thought the Persians were going to make a desperate attack on Athens, so he ran back to inform Athens and warned them to prepare their defenses. So, from the beginning, we all respected you, believing you must be very important. And in the end, it was you, a man from the Iron Age, who would rule the ruins of Rome—but since Cathay hadn't fallen into the Iron Age either, you were somewhere in between. It was fate, I guess."

"What about you?"

"We are trying to reverse it," Victoria said, "but this may not be effective. After all, we don't even know whether this is a curse or a prophecy. But a prophecy that cannot be changed is no different from a curse - that's why We dare not ask Apollonia to predict the future. Because no one knows what she will predict."

【I'm really sorry. 】

"But we can also have fun in the midst of hardship. Did you notice Titus's eyes?"

"His eyes? I think they were golden eyes."

"Yes, it is actually original. But we can make alchemy - it is not difficult for us to turn stone into gold. Generally speaking, it is not valuable, but for us now, it may not be, because it is a part of the body after all. After his eyes were sublimated into golden eyes, he gained part of the 'angel's vision'. Although his physical eyes have been interfering with his vision, preventing him from truly seeing what the angels saw. However, he has become better than before. Much stronger.”

"What about you? Your heart is" He recalled Victoria's appearance just now. It was really forced to move, and it didn't look like it had been "enhanced" at all.

"Unfortunately, the heart cannot be turned into gold - because it is too heavy. If the heart is replaced with gold, it will weigh as much as 10 kilograms, and the body or bones cannot bear it for a long time. Titus' golden eyeball will easily fall off after eating. I occasionally fall into the soup when I'm in bed. Maybe it will be possible to perform more than twenty transformation surgeries on me, but I don't want to do it now. Improving my combat power is useless, and I don't have time to do surgeries."

"Ah, I see you're busy. But what if you had surgery?"

"Then you will have the heart of an angel. It is not impossible to fight with an angel by then - but this stone heart alone requires me to replenish phlogiston at any time to maintain its operation, otherwise it will turn into a real stone . I can’t imagine how to maintain a body as big as gold, I’m afraid I would have to sit in a wheelchair for infusion. Now I can’t even do strenuous exercise. Although I am indeed very strong.”

"..." Shangluo nodded, "Leave the rest to me. I will catch the prisoner for you. And... I will go take a look at those bombs."

"It has been dismantled." Victoria replied, "Those bombs are one of the ultimate plans, and they were deployed to lock down the barbarians. In this case, even if we go to live in the pure land, this world will not be satisfied. It has become the Black Iron Age. The threat of those barbarians is no less than that of the archangel. We had previously planned to seal the barbarians as part of the mystery."

"I don't trust you at all now." Shangluo shook his head, "I won't know until I check whether the bomb has been defused or not."

Chapter 718 No. 0 Restricted Area

The lights of New Antioch, the stars in the sky, and the moon are all reflected on the quietly flowing Hudson River. Also reflected were the huge lighthouse on the uninhabited island named "No. 0 Restricted Area".

"Everyone! Get behind the cordon! Those who cross the line near the shore will be shot on the spot! Repeat! Get behind the cordon!"

The helicopter's loudspeaker roared into the street. The warning to shoot was not an empty threat, because the smoke from the cannons had not dissipated, and when the searchlights swept across the streets facing the sea, there were still traces of fresh blood. The fresh blood stains reflected the bright moonlight like a puddle of water on the ground, but soon dried and solidified, turning into a dull pool of blood stains. The bloody smell was blown farther away by the helicopter's whirlwind, and no one dared to get close to this place anymore.

"Crow III, heard the reply."

"Yes, Crow III is online."

"Report your location."

"My aircraft is located in the 0:1:2 area northwest of the No. 1 restricted zone and is patrolling southward."

"Get closer to the six o'clock direction. There is an unknown object floating on the sea. The other party has no identification friend or foe signal, and the call has not been answered. Go and confirm immediately."

"Understood. Approaching six o'clock. No signal received yet."

Above the crowd, a helicopter equipped with a cannon drew a loop in the sky and approached the south of the restricted area. Without the helicopter's searchlights, darkness returned to the streets. In the darkness, only a pair of eyes were quietly looking at the sea in the distance.

"The sea search radar has been activated and the target has not been found. Wait! Found it visually! There is no display on the radar! There is no identification friend or foe signal! The target has surfaced! It is a submarine!"

"Warning shot!" The Roman army never used verbal warnings, they always used cannonballs.

The cannon immediately opened fire on the floating submarine, and the 20mm cannon fired white water splashes around the submarine. But the shell was like hitting a flower in a mirror or a moon in the water. It only made the submarine's shadow begin to fluctuate and did not cause substantial damage to it.

"Huh? What are you doing over there?" Shangluo looked outside through the periscope. He saw a helicopter firing on the water in front of him.

"They are playing sympathetic bait." Marcus stood next to the periscope with his hands behind his back. "Our ship is currently in exile, so it does not carry any identifiable marks."

"Are they going to shoot without warning?"

"The shooting itself is a warning. If there is no warning, what is thrown should be a torpedo." He said, picking up the speaker, "The whole ship is ready, exit the sympathetic shielding in 5 seconds, and prepare to establish contact with the outside world."

"This is the Crow III. The warning shot has been completed. The shell passed through and missed the target. It was like a shadow."

"Shadow?" The other end of the command hesitated, "It could be. No, don't worry about it. If it is, you can't kill them. Prepare to launch torpedoes."

"Understood, torpedoes are being released."

Suddenly, a vague voice came from the communication channel: "This is the phlogiston submarine No. 39 of the Athens Navy. Don't lock it, it's a friendly force."

"We don't have this organization." Crow III answered decisively.

"Have your superiors answer the call."

"Is it Marcus? Are you still alive?" On the other end of the phone, the command department took over the communication authority.

"It is a pleasure to hear your voice again, Archon Pompey."

"Aren't you dead? Or are you just a vengeful soul now?"

"The vision of Constantinople is not a lie, I am talking to you with my own voice. Besides, you should know that all submarines cannot move freely because we have to rely on the lights of the Atlantean fortress to guide the way. .You can’t think that the entire Atlantis Fortress has betrayed, right?”

"Ha, I wouldn't trust you guys just as much as I don't trust Victoria. I'll have my people let you in. Let me ask in advance, is there anything wrong?"

"Panda. Why else?"

"I won't ask why no one informed me. Because if I knew you were coming, it would destroy your sympathetic barrier. But you are so elusive every time, which makes it a little difficult for me. Stop where you are and don't move. , is under martial law today.”

Marcus lowered his speakerphone.

"That was Commander Pompey just now?"

"No," replied Marcus, "this is his son Pompey the Younger, or Pompey Leon - Pompey Leon Pompey Magnus. But I give him the honor of calling him Pompey the Consul. .Both father and son are consuls, but his father also holds the position of 'Columbia's Imperial Commander', so he is only a consul."

"Colombia's equipment is good, isn't it?" Shangluo still noticed the helicopter just now. Although a bit blind.