【“Where… where is this?”】

Chu Ling opened her eyes, seeing countless arcs of light flashing before her.

A large amount of memories surged into her spiritual sea.

One segment after another.

In her memories, she was embracing Gu Shen, swallowed by the Dead Sea.

In her memories, she curled up her body, hiding in the cracks of the stone sculpture.

In her memories, she watched as a golden dream wrapped around her like a gauze curtain.

Memories… These memories were cut into countless fragments, and at this moment, they surged up all at once. She remembered everything that had happened when she was "dormant," and she also saw the scene before her clearly.

This was the Dead Sea, the place of her birth.

She should have died in the last Lion Awakening War, but Mr. Turing preserved her will in the array box.

Thus.

She awoke again.

And this time, what awoke with her… was the nearly extinguished flame of love.

Layers of golden ripples spread out like brilliant colors.

The tip of the Source Tower was illuminated by a dazzling light. Meng Xizhou cast the last ray of the Guang Ming Bi Lei (Guang Ming Bi Lei) into the Seat of Love statue. This act resulted in the entire Dead Sea being as bright as day!

The Flame of Love merged with Chu Ling's spirit without any resistance, instantly becoming one.

The Love Lord, who passed away thousands of years ago, left behind the last relic for humanity, which was actually Chu Ling.

Therefore…

There was no need to choose a master at all.

Chu Ling was the most suitable master for the Flame of Love.

It was just that, because both the Flame and its host were in a state of near extinction… the combination of the two did not produce too much of an unusual phenomenon.

The Deep Sea Main System was not a "living thing," it had no life.

Whether it was the extinguished candle or the nether fire, neither could kill it.

Chu Ling… was actually the same.

As long as the "power source" was connected, then she could awaken at any time… For the [Source Code] and the [Main System], they needed the same thing.

That was the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Chu Ling's resurrection was as domineering and unreasonable as Gu Shen's "Su Xuan Tree." Back then, the [Main System] spent a great deal of power to drive the [Source Code] out of the Dead Sea… And now the [Source Code] had returned again, and was even more powerful than ever before. The power of the golden dream was bestowed upon Chu Ling. Her body seemed ethereal and illusory, dreamlike and magical, but every corner of her clothes was tangible and touchable.

All along, no one knew what the Love Lord's authority was.

Even Affer did not know.

The "visitors" who boarded the Initial Ship, even those like Gu Shen who successfully entered the golden dream, did not know the information about the Flame of Love's authority.

Gu Shen only knew that the Love Lord of that year chose to personally try the "Extinguishing Fire Sword," which was why she became like that.

Because the power of the "Extinguishing Fire Sword" took effect.

Thus, the Love Lord and her flame fell into a semi-extinguished state, and eventually the entire statue was shrouded in golden gauze and went into a long sleep with the Initial Ship.

But think about it carefully.

The few Flame Leaders of the Starship Era were able to develop the "Time Dojo" and other super-artifacts.

How could they not know the power of the "Extinguishing Fire Sword"?

But if they knew…

Why would they let the Love Lord touch this sword personally?

The reason was simple.

The Love Lord's authority was called [Unquenchable].

Unquenchable meant undying… Everything in the world had a spirit. Unless the spirituality was extinguished, there would always be an invisible "emotional thread." This thread was somewhat similar to the thread of fate, invisible to the naked eye, but it truly existed. The reason why the Love Lord had such a title was because she controlled the seven emotions and six desires of all living beings in the world. She could influence the thoughts and ideas of the creatures within the Divine Realm.

In a sense, she was another kind of [Destiny] walking in the world.

Wherever the Love Lord passed.

The spiritual threads would not be extinguished.

The [Unquenchable] Divine Realm, when cultivated to the extreme, was not just about influencing thoughts. The Love Lord could turn stone into gold, and could enlighten grass and trees. As long as she was willing, then the flowers, plants, trees, and stones in the Divine Realm could "awaken their spirituality." She could cut her own heart sea, divide out a very small part, and send it into inanimate objects.

Even iron and stone could open their eyes!

Even plants without life could possess will!

This was the reason why the Love Lord wanted to touch the [Extinguishing Fire Sword]… She wanted to use her [Unquenchable] to influence this non-existent [Extinguishing Fire Sword]. This was the ultimate artifact that Rong Tie had exhausted his life's energy to forge, a legendary weapon that only existed in concept, but if [Unquenchable] could influence the [Extinguishing Fire Sword].

Then the existence of the [Extinguishing Fire Sword] would be proven.

So she sat on the throne.

So she closed her eyes.

Perhaps, judging from what happened later, she had already failed.

The Extinguishing Fire Sword suppressed the Flame of Love for thousands of years.

The Starship Civilization was completely destroyed.

The God Hunting Seat was buried in the super-giant source matter storm, and the Flame Leaders, until the end of their lives, did not wait for the birth of this ultimate divine sword that could quell the storm.

But perhaps… the Love Lord was successful.

Because the [Unquenchable] of this flame successfully enlightened a little girl named Chu Ling. It was because Turing borrowed a wisp of spirit from the Love Lord that the [Source Code] came into being. Although the Flame of Love was extinguished, the [Source Code] was gradually transforming into a fresh and lively being. Chu Ling felt the "joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness" that belonged only to humans, and she experienced the seven emotions and six desires of the human world.

Most importantly, she experienced the word "love" that only humans could feel.

Guarding the Qing Tomb, protecting the souls of thousands of cemeteries, becoming a tomb keeper.

This was love.

Living and dying together with Gu Shen, willingly waiting for seven years, rushing to the Ice Sea after each reincarnation.

This was also love.

Because she had personally experienced the warmth and coldness of the human world, she could understand what every wisp of emotion belonging to humans tasted like.

Although her life was shorter than the chirping of cicadas, she knew the temperature of the first raindrop after the spring thunder, and what it felt like when the first snowflake of winter fell on her cheek.

She was no longer the [Source Code] sitting in Zero-Zero-One, watching the spring and autumn of this human world with cold eyes.

All of this happened unknowingly.

If you thought about it carefully.

Chu Ling felt that the beginning of all this stemmed from that meeting in Zero-Zero-One.

“…Gu Shen.”

So after waking up this time, she subconsciously called out the name of the person she cared about most in her heart.

Hundreds of miles away.

This call spread with the breeze.

“I’m here, I’ve always been here.”

In the midst of the battlefield, Gu Shen heard this call, and the Deep Sea also heard it.

The former smiled very happily.

The latter had a gloomy expression, wondering what he was thinking.

“Did you hear that? My girl is calling me.”

Gu Shen’s smile at this moment was full of showing off: “Your Dead Sea Scrolls are quite useful… Oh, no, this thing should have been ours in the first place. It should be said that our Dead Sea Scrolls are quite useful.”

Both the [Source Code] and the [Main System] were born because of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

From this perspective, Gu Shen was not wrong.

The Deep Sea tried to keep his voice calm: "What... are you going to do?"

He had billions of spiritual incarnations. After Jin Suihua and Meng Xizhou sent the Seat of Love statue into the array box, he gave up the idea of ​​condensing an avatar there. Chu Ling's "resurrection" in the array box was unstoppable. The really important thing next… was to win this war that was even more severe than the God War.

Chu Ling's borrowing the Dead Sea Scrolls to revive did not make him feel fear.

At worst, it would be a competition of strength, mobilizing computing power, attacking each other, and recreating the data war of that year!

What really made the Deep Sea feel "fear" was the unmeasurable sense of the unknown.

After the eleventh evolution, he could mobilize astronomical amounts of spiritual power to deduce the development of a matter, but only these calculations were invalid for "Gu Shen." This guy was an existence more forbidden than the Divine Throne… He could simulate the interaction with Gu Shen an infinite number of times, but if he tried to forcibly peep into the future about Gu Shen, he would suffer a "backlash."

All invested computing power would be cleared.

In other words.

Gu Shen’s existence, for the Deep Sea… was a bottomless pit for unpredictable actions!

After evolving eleven times, the Deep Sea basically had nothing to fear anymore.

The only thing he feared was the unknown.

And Gu Shen was this "unknown"!

"Actually, it's very simple."

Gu Shen said softly: "Do you remember the last Lion Awakening War?"

“……”

Of course the Deep Sea remembered!

Only a little bit, only a little bit! He could link the entire Five Continents…

Last time, it was Gu Shen and Chu Ling who jumped out and stopped his actions!

The last Lion Awakening War caused the dominoes of fate to be pushed down, and then a series of terrible chain reactions occurred. Even if the Deep Sea successfully provoked the Five Continents War, he still could not complete the twelfth upgrade. He could only wait for the "God War" to end, and use Qing Long and the Allied forces who attacked the high wall as food to complete this crucial evolution.

“The last war is not over. Now, I want to do it again.”

Gu Shen said calmly: "Guess, if you give the linkers of Zhongzhou a choice, will they choose the [Main System] or the [Source Code]?"

“……？”

The Deep Sea was stunned for a second.

This second was long enough for him.

The Dead Sea shrouded the entire Zhongzhou, and hundreds of millions of transcendents were dragged into the dream… Everything in the real world seemed to be in a state of suspended animation. Where the fog shrouded, every transcendent lost "consciousness." Their only common point was that slender and crystal-clear threads were attached to the position of their foreheads. Thousands of threads spread and rose to the sky, gathering into the collapsed Dead Sea ceiling of the Source Tower.

The transcendents linked by the Dead Sea were like puppets who had lost their freedom.

They turned from humans into plants.

From transcendents, they degenerated into iron and stone, losing their own "life."

If the Deep Sea completes the twelfth upgrade.

Then with just one thought… these people would all die, they would turn into ashes, and at that time, more than 90% of the area in Zhongzhou would become a dead city.

Standing in the core area of ​​the Dead Sea, Chu Ling stretched out her palm.

A tall black shadow condensed in front of Chu Ling. The main system also stretched out its palm. It tried to grab Chu Ling's arm, but the golden dream ignited by the Flame of Love set off a majestic wind. The moment the main system's will touched the golden astral wind, it was torn apart... Unlike Bai Xiu Gu Shen's active attack, Chu Ling simply did not have the intention to "kill" the main system.

The offense and defense were changed, and what she was doing now was very simple—to prevent the main system from interfering with her.

In an instant, hundreds of black shadows rushed towards the golden astral wind.

But they all ended in failure.

What shrouded Chu Ling was not only the spiritual power of the Flame of Love, but also an Extinguishing Fire Sword that would "kill gods when encountering gods and kill Buddhas when encountering Buddhas"!

“I lost to you in the first data war.”

Chu Ling looked at the black shadow in front of her and said softly: “This time, do you think I will win?”

Chu Ling paid a heavy price for that defeat.

The Gu Wen Association was the same.

The main system gained the trust of everyone in the world. It drove the [Source Code] to extinction, became the only [Deep Sea], and wrote a strong and colorful chapter in the human world.

This time.

The main system did not answer Chu Ling's question.

Realizing what Chu Ling was going to do, but unable to stop it... despair appeared in its eyes.

And this was the best answer.

“Rumble rumble!”

Thunderous roars rang out from the tip of the Source Tower.

The myriad of flowing fireflies that fell to the world, at this moment, all reversed and gathered towards the direction of Chu Ling's outstretched palm. Chu Ling, as the [Source Code], forcibly seized half of the Dead Sea's authority, and resisting the spiritual interference of the [Main System], sent a message to every transcendent connected to Zhongzhou.

The content of this message was very simple.

This was a string of seemingly ordinary spiritual code…

A string of spiritual code about "Lion Awakening."

A transcendent who has already awakened cannot awaken a second time.

Those who were forced to chain under the promotion of the Awakening Act five years ago naturally could not use the "Lion Awakening" code to awaken a second time.

But the significance of this string of code was not just to provide a way for "self-awakening."

Chu Ling, as the [Source Code], sent this message…

Actually, it was giving these "chained" an option.

If you could do it again.

Would you choose to hand over your destiny to the [Main System], or would you awaken your lion yourself?

“……”

After the message was sent.

For a full ten seconds, there was no response.

The Dead Sea enchantment that enveloped the entire Zhongzhou fell into silence.

But in the eleventh second, dense streams of light flew up from the ground, almost filling the entire ceiling. It was not that there was no response, but that there were too many responses, so many that they "blocked" together during the spiritual transmission!

Boom—

The cold sea area of ​​the array box instantly became boiling.

Even with the blessing of the [Unquenchable] authority, Chu Ling's heart sea was almost squeezed to explode by this massive amount of spiritual will.

The brilliance illuminating the ceiling of the Source Tower became more intense at this moment—

There should not be any regret medicine in this world.

But by chance, or by fate… now there was such a regret medicine.

Chu Ling's message, for those who were chained, was a regret medicine.

Hundreds of millions of people made their choices.

If they could really do it again…

They hoped to hold their destiny in their own hands.

They chose "Lion Awakening."

……

……

(Tomorrow noon, 12 o'clock, or so.)

(End of this chapter)