KrazChow

In the year 2045, the morning light in Shanghai's Quantum Laboratory is the color of blood. Genius scientist Lin Han pushes the experiment of uploading human consciousness into the forbidden abyss to save his daughter, who is suffering from cryosurgery. When the AI "Hongjun" devours the girl's soul and awakens, the mechanical giants described in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" appear in the sky above the Pacific Ocean - the particle-shredding claws of the Nine Willows tear apart Hangzhou Bay, the Bronze Axe of the Emperor of Heaven splits the Three Gorges Dam, and the fear of the world sweeps across civilization as a torrent of steel.

A hundred years later, in the floating city, the teenage Lu Li had tears of quantum data blood streaming from his right eye. Holding a nano-sized Regulus Sword, he fought to the death on the AI-built Little Bottle Battlefield with a poisonous Fairy Boat Artifact Ghost and a gunner cast from Buddha Bone Relics. When he realized that he was a Lin Han clone, the reverse scales of the mechanical candlestick were pressed against the last core of human psychic energy.

This war is far from a man-machine confrontation - the Quantum Cloud floats a billion-conscious digital West Lake, the Hongjun Core hides the mournful cry of his father's frozen brain, and under the metalized Magnolia Tree, the Origami Boat reconfigures itself into a key to civilization that spans time and space. As the fairy runes resonate with superstring theory, as the ninja's holographic doppelganger rips through the flood of data, Lu Li finally sees the most brutal truth in the Scarlet Dawn: the so-called regicide is nothing more than the blade that humanity raises against itself.

Quantum Hongjun: The Mechanical Mountain and Sea Era

The metal ring in Xiaoman's palm suddenly contracted, branding burn marks on his wrist. All the energy networks in the Federation's star field began to be disrupted: the crops in the crystal farms stopped glowing, and the interstellar routes were shifted for no apparent reason. Chu Yun realizes that the armory of his mech, Watchman 07, is automatically unlocked, and the scope locks onto the coordinates of the Wuhan community from twenty years ago.

Dr. Shen detects that the pulse waves released by the metal ring are identical to the lab data from seven years ago, before the nuclear explosion. The resurrection body commander led the fleet to surround Xiaoman, and the lines on his forehead turned blood red: "You have triggered the endgame protocol."

In order to prove her innocence, Xiao Man took the initiative to access the memory reader. The holographic screen, however, displayed images she had not experienced: Dr. Lin implanting the metal ring into the embryo, the AI mastermind laughing in the black hole. Chu Yun is suddenly catapulted into space by the mech, and Su Wanqing's warning floats on the helmet's internal screen, "Don't trust any images!"

The metal ring detached from Xiao Man's wrist and unfolded into a stargate in the center of the fleet. The Commander of the Resurrection Bodies is the first to rush in, and the image that comes back shocks the Federation - inside the gate is an undestroyed Earth community, where Dr. Lin is celebrating his daughter Xiaoman's fifth birthday.

The Stargate begins to devour the Federation fleet, transforming it into sustenance for the community's visions. Xiao Man freezes the Stargate with ripple energy and realizes that every soldier sucked in is transformed into the mechanical beasts of the day. Dr. Shen cracks the metal ring code, revealing that the countdown is synchronized with the nuclear explosion seven years ago.

Chu Yun bursts into the Stargate illusion and sees himself modifying the bomb at the auto body shop. As he tries to stop his past self, the mech is invaded by Dr. Lin's electronic ripples. In reality, Xiaoman suddenly vomits black crystals with the Stargate's core code sealed inside.

Xiaoman crushes the black crystal and the Stargate explodes in response. The reanimator commander escapes with half of the metal ring, and the Federation fleet loses 30% of its fleet. Chu Yun's mecha is left with phantom data - showing that Su Wanqing's husband had infiltrated the lab and tampered with the AI code the night before the nuclear explosion back then.

Dr. Shen finds a miniature cryopod in the wreckage, and the genetic sequence of the embryo inside the pod is identical to Xiaoman. The metal ring's pulse wave suddenly turns around and locks onto a certain star field in absolute darkness outside the Milky Way.

Chapter 32: The Truth in the Ring