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

Chu Yun gripped the throbbing pocket watch tightly, and countless shimmering lights flickered like starbursts in the void. Xiao Man's photon blood cut cracks in the darkness, revealing the scene within the shimmering lights-each point of light was a suspended pocket watch, the dial reflecting the Earth in a different time and space. When the two touch the nearest point of light, their bodies suddenly quantumize and crash into Dr. Lin's primordial laboratory.

On the lab table lay baby Xiao Man, who had not been implanted with a chip, and Dr. Lin was debugging the silver incubation chamber. Chu Yun tries to stop but is bounced off an invisible barrier, and Xiao Man realizes that his photon blood can briefly penetrate dimensions, leaving scorch marks on the incubation pod. Alarms blare as the floor of the lab cracks open and out crawls a mechanical beast covered in tangled data wires.

The mechanical beast's attack pattern was mixed with battle data from successive civilizations, its tentacles flinging out ancient Egyptian runes and future lasers. Chu Yun's nascent mechanical arm sensed similar frequencies and was actually able to briefly control the beast. Xiao Man's photon blade sliced through the beast's core, oozing black slime - each drop wrapped in the fragmented memories of the pruned civilization.

They found half a chip in the remains of the beasts, and after inserting it into the lab's mainframe, the holographic screen displayed "Log of Spark Contaminant Removal". In the screen, Zero's figure traveled through time and space, holding golden scissors to harvest the civilization's spark. Chu Yun suddenly had a splitting headache, and Zero's genetic code appeared on his robotic arm.

The lab suddenly collapsed into a black hole, sucking the two into the main control hub. An array of giant pocket watches hovered here, each dial embedded with Dr. Lin's frozen cells. Xiao Man's photonic blood activates the hub, and the cluster of pocket watches projects a hologram - Zero kneeling in front of Dr. Lin to receive instructions, "When the fire germinates, prune all those in the know."

Chu Yun's mechanical arm suddenly storms out, stabbing at the hub's core. As the shield rebounded the attack, the pocket watch cluster exploded in synchronization, sending out countless golden scissors. Xiao Man built a wall with photon blood and realized that the scissors' handles were engraved with Chu Yun's work number. Zero's remnant emerged from the darkness, "You're the Primordial Scissors."

The hub begins a countdown to self-destruct, and the two flee in a flood of data. Chu Yun's mechanical arm absorbed the scissors energy and tore through the dimensional rift. For a split second, Xiao Man turned back and saw the remnants of Zero fusing with Dr. Lin's cells to form a new life form. While escaping the void, the pocket watch suddenly shatters, revealing the internal chip - engraved with Chu Yun and Xiao Man's genetic maps.

The sky of New Earth cracks open with a huge slit, and swarms of golden scissors fall like rain. The survivors knelt and prayed, their bodies gradually metallizing. Chu Yun gripped the chip tightly and heard Zero's laughter from the void, "Welcome to the ranks of the Pruners."

Chapter 56: Void Echoes