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

Behind the Stargate were ruins with countless clock parts floating around. Chu Yun's mechanical arm magnetically attracted to the gears, and Xiao Man photonic blood mapped a countdown on the dial. The remnants of the Silver Ghost's energy formed a compass, pointing to the largest broken pocket watch - with Dr. Lin's photo embedded at the core.

One by one, Federation survivors traverse the stargate and discover that each cog is engraved with a civilization number. The remnants of Dr. Shen's bionic body suddenly reconfigure, pointing at the giant clock tower and laughing maniacally, "This is the real pruning log!" Golden scissors descend from the top of the tower, their blades dripping with time resin.

Inside the clock tower is a circular prison, each cell holding a different Dr. Lin from a different time. Memories flood in as Xiao Man touches the bars: each Dr. Lin is in his own universe trying to stop the pruning. Chu Yun finds the operations log in the control room, and the latest entry reads, "Seeder Chu Yun, pruning recommendation: remove immediately."

The Silver Ghost's compass suddenly storms out and stabs Xiao Man in the back of her neck. Clock gears emerged from her pupils, and her body automatically walked towards the pruning table. Dr. Shen's bionic body handed over the golden scissors, "This is what you were born for."

Xiao Man is forced to watch the pruning image: the Federation fleet led by Chu Yun turns into a saboteur, causing three universes to collapse. The Silver Ghost whispers in his consciousness, "You are the original Time Gardener." As the scissors are about to fall, Chu Yun snaps the gears with a golden pointer, and time and space fall into stasis.

The Drs. Lin's cells collectively burst open, and the Dr. Lin consciousnesses of all time and space merged into balls of light. Dr. Shen's bionic body suddenly turned the scissors to stab itself, "Error program... Terminate..." The clock tower begins to collapse, and the sea of gears forms a vortex.

Xiao Man finds a silver pocket watch in the center of the vortex, and on the inside of the cover is a picture of her as a baby. Chu Yun uses his mech to prop open the escape tunnel, and behind him comes the hissing of a metal beast - the failed pruning of time and space begins to give birth to monsters. When the last person escaped the clockwork graveyard, it was no longer the Federation universe outside the stargate.

They were floating in a strange sea of stars, with a square formation of tens of thousands of dormant pods floating in the distance. A certain pod suddenly lit up with an indicator light, and through the observation window, there was another Chu Yun sleeping inside, with "Gardener Candidate 002" emblazoned on his chest. The silver pocket watch suddenly vibrated, and a blood-colored countdown appeared on the dial: 00:49:00.

Chapter 47: The Clock Graveyard