Fierce fire burned in the void.

This silver-white world was incinerated by the flames… The Original Will turned into nothingness, and the pitch-black sky was submerged in the light emanating from the silver-white door.

The "dream world" before Gu Shen burned like paper.

Finally, he arrived at a vacuum zone existing between reality and illusion, a place Gu Shen had visited once before, in the well water of the Shrine Mountain.

Before the birth of the Divine Embryo.

Chu Ling’s consciousness would be injected into the ancient well.

The colors of this world were not just black and white; there was another color existing between reality and falsehood.

"Gu Shen."

A mellow voice rang out in front of Gu Shen.

The color of the fierce fire converged in the void. Gu Shen stared blankly at the figure before him, standing where the silver-white door had originally stood.

"Turing… Sir?"

In Gu Shen's memory, the Turing of the dream world should have stood in that position after crossing the gate.

However…

The Turing in the dream had already "disappeared."

Now, he felt the familiar aura of source matter flowing. The dream had been torn apart by the fierce fire. He had completely arrived in the real world, so the one standing before him now… was the real Turing!

"It is I."

Turing smiled. "Judging by your expression, you seem very surprised… Didn't you already guess that, besides you few outsiders, others have been here?"

The ancient text on the stone tablet was left by an unknown outsider.

The candidate for that outsider in Gu Shen's mind—

Was Turing!

"Yes…"

Gu Shen looked at the person before him in disbelief. "I just didn't expect… you to actually be here."

"Otherwise, how do you think your fierce fire was awakened?"

Turing said gently, "The 'awakening of the fierce fire' in the real world takes time. Without external help, it would take you a long time to endure until the power of the fierce fire was fully restored. No matter how resourceful you are, you'd have to restart dozens of times, right?"

Gu Shen paused for a second.

He had long sensed the abnormality in the awakening speed of the fierce fire… but at the time, in the dream world, he didn't have time to investigate it in detail, nor could he.

The awakening of the fierce fire was a good thing!

"You have been… waiting for me here?"

Gu Shen immediately remembered the advice and exhortations Turing had given him before their last parting.

【"Gu Shen, remember, go to the deepest part of the 【Old World】!"】

At that time, Gu Shen hadn't understood the true meaning of Turing's words.

Now, after experiencing the restarted dream…

He completely understood Turing's unspoken meaning.

As long as he wanted to venture beyond the border, 【Deep Sea】 would definitely use all its trump cards to banish Gu Shen to the deepest part of the 【Old World】… but it didn't know that this was not Gu Shen's burial ground, but rather a blessed land exclusively for Gu Shen!

"It can't be considered as waiting for you the whole time."

"I am just a traveler… Every meeting between you and me can be considered fate, or that we are destined to meet."

Turing said something that Gu Shen didn't quite understand for the time being.

He chuckled softly and said, "Didn't you just chat with me earlier?"

"If I know I'm confined in a circle, then I'm definitely the kind of person who will try to get out. Even if I know the result of the escape will definitely be failure, and the result of failure will definitely be death, I won't hesitate in the slightest."

Even when standing before the gap at the end of the world.

Turing didn't back down.

He stepped out and disappeared into the silver-white radiance, as if he had failed.

But now he stood here, his aura exactly the same as in the dream, as if he had succeeded.

"I don't understand…"

Gu Shen murmured, "Mr. Turing… I don't understand… What state are you actually in right now?"

"You want to ask me if I'm alive or dead?"

Turing smiled.

"I am in a state of 'neither'."

He opened his mouth softly, "Just like… Chu Ling in the Shrine well back then. No one can say I'm dead, and likewise, no one can say I'm still alive."

Gu Shen was even more bewildered.

"Remember the ancient text inscriptions you saw in the Dolu River? I left them."

"I am a 'traveler' who has lived for a very long time."

Turing said gently, "Or, you can understand me as… a human who is a little different from you. Because of a disaster six hundred years ago, I obtained a very, very long life. As the 'price' for accepting this long life, I am both one person and a group of people."

Alan Turing was the only man in this world who had fused the Longevity Technique.

He succeeded in living for a very long time.

No one knew the exact time.

He had just revealed it himself: six hundred years. Turing had lived since before the establishment of the Five Continents Civilization. He had personally witnessed the years when the Northern Continent's high walls rose from the ground, and also witnessed the epoch-making transformation of human civilization as it evolved and finally boarded starships. The most important link in this was… what he had personally promoted.

"The original intention of establishing the Ancient Text Society was to develop the perfect 'Divine Infant' in order to cope with super-massive source matter storms."

Turing said softly, "I spent a long time trekking in the 【Old World】, but because of the lack of information, coupled with the civilization's development time being too short, the Five Continents Civilization's technological level would hardly be able to catch up with the starship civilization before the next disaster arrived. But the only advantage is that the Five Continents Civilization possesses the separated Gospel Box, making it easier for them to create 'God Seats,' this kind of extremely powerful transcendent life individual. Back then, the starship civilization's God Hunter Seat relied on its own strength to inflict damage on the super-massive source matter storm… If the Five Continents Civilization can cultivate a perfect transcendent life surpassing the God Hunter Seat, then perhaps there is a chance to change the tragedy encountered by the starship civilization back then."

"Is that… my birth?"

"Yes. But there is also a loser, 'Bloodfire' Owl."

Turing said, "This project could only be promoted by me at the beginning, so I analyzed the different transcendent factors existing in this world and listed the transcendent genealogy. In order to create the most powerful individual, I made a wrong attempt, which was to inject a part of my 'transcendent genes' into the experimental subject… Owl inherited a part of my 'transcendent genes.' It possesses an extremely powerful ability to split its personality."

Turing was not one person.

Owl… was not either.

The power of Bloodfire was devouring and seizing.

Thinking of this, Gu Shen looked at Mr. Turing in disbelief.

"You should also know that Owl is eager to cultivate the Longevity Technique. The compatibility between its 'Bloodfire' and the Longevity Technique is almost 100%. Why is it so compatible? It's actually very simple, just because it inherited my transcendent genes."

Turing said calmly, "And I am the perfect carrier for the Longevity Technique."

Gu Shen murmured, "The price of the Longevity Technique is to draw on life force. To live long, one must draw on the lives of enough people…"

"Yes."

Turing said, "I drew on the lifespans of thirteen thousand people. Because it was voluntary contribution, the Longevity Technique completed the transfer of life in an almost perfect way. I possess a theoretical lifespan of 540,000 years, and I also possess thirteen thousand split souls. These souls actively closed off their own spiritual seas before the 'transfer,' so their 'death' is not a burden to me, but a treasure. My mind almost retains all the spiritual treasures created in the starship era. These thirteen thousand independent souls are the most precious knowledge base in this world, but the premise is that my spirit can withstand the cost of opening the 'treasure'."

"Voluntary?"

"Remember the starship I sent to the Ice Sea? That starship is actually called 'New World'."

Turing laughed self-deprecatingly, "It did reach the New World, but it also encountered an attack from a super-massive storm… The people on the starship felt hopeless to survive, so they decided to choose a 'lucky one' to live on as a seed. They ultimately chose me. When I accepted the gift of longevity, I was just an infant in swaddling clothes. This memory only slowly opened after I grew up. I spent a short and peaceful time when the Five Continents were first opened, and lived a carefree life for the first half of my life."

"..."

Gu Shen was silent.

He didn't expect Turing's lifespan… to come from this.

An entire starship of transcendents, voluntarily becoming a wedding dress for one person.

"In these six hundred years, I have continuously opened the 'treasure vault' sealed in my spiritual sea. I once drank and laughed with the Iron Dome Emperor in the Northern Continent, jointly building the giant wall, and I also cultivated God Seats in the Central Continent, building that towering giant tower… I went to the 【Old World】 to find the lost Dead Sea Scrolls, and I tried to create a super AI that could allow human civilization to avoid destruction, 【Deep Sea】."

Turing murmured, "I walked in the long river of human civilization's restoration. I thought I had done many great things, but now it seems… I seem to have done many wrong things. The giant wall cannot withstand the bombardment of super-massive source matter storms, the Source Tower is decaying and festering, and 【Deep Sea】 has even sparked an unprecedented inland war."

"No."

"I don't think… these are wrong things."

Gu Shen shook his head, his tone firm, "Without the giant wall, not to mention resisting the 'super-massive storm,' the Northern Continent would have given up half of its land long ago. Even the Guburg Storm seven years ago, the Northern Continent would not have been able to stop."

Turing paused for a second.

"Although the Source Tower is now decaying, the Central Continent once emitted the most dazzling brilliance in the Five Continents under the guidance of this giant tower."

"As for 【Deep Sea】, your original intention was to make all of humanity better. The creation of the spiritual network… did bring about epoch-making changes in the Five Continents Civilization. If we can win this war, then is what you have done really a wrong thing?"

Gu Shen said slowly, "Now that fate is undecided, I think… there is still a chance for everything."

Gu Shen's previous words caused Turing to fall into deep thought.

Now that he came back to his senses, he smiled and said, "Indeed, everything has not been concluded… It's just that I have lived for too long, and sometimes, I can't help but feel a little恍惚(huang hu - absentminded)."

Earlier, he stood here, watching the trajectory of the world in the dream world.

Looking at that "young" self.

Although he was only a few years younger.

But under the "shaping" of the Original Will, Alan Turing in the dream world was spirited and unstoppable, and for a moment, it reminded him of his truly "young" years.

"The banishment array patterns mastered by 【Deep Sea】 are actually a variation of the ancient text on the Traveler race's stone tablet."

Gu Shen's eyes lit up, and he murmured, "You had already prepared a backup plan. Once 【Deep Sea】 mastered the ancient text, it would touch this giant black hole at the 'end of the Old World'."

The disordered land condensed by this black hole had already given birth to its own intelligence.

According to the rules of the dream world, a pure spiritual entity like 【Deep Sea】 could not enter it as an "outsider," so 【Deep Sea】 could only feel the extremely chaotic disordered source matter and the extremely barren aura of the Old World!

Based on the "risk assessment mechanism" established by Turing when he created 【Deep Sea】.

This area would naturally become the most dangerous area that 【Deep Sea】 considered… without exception.

"You guessed very accurately."

Turing smiled as he looked at Gu Shen, indicating for him to continue.

Gu Shen frowned and asked, "Then what about Zhou Jiren, who entered the restarted dream in advance? At that time, 【Deep Sea】 had not yet mastered the banishment array patterns…"

"Could it be said that the opening of the disaster zone in Pi Yue City… was also inevitable? From the moment Teacher and the others entered Pi Yue City Fortress, the ending was already doomed?"

He looked towards Turing.

"The existence of the banishment array patterns needs someone to verify it." Turing sighed softly. "If 【Deep Sea】 masters the array patterns, it will definitely check them. If it senses 'Zhou Jiren's' aura and confirms the fact that the former Grand Judge was banished by the Traveler race, then the effect of these array patterns will be confirmed. So you can understand it as… Zhou Jiren's banishment was directed by me. I needed someone to be banished, but I didn't expect it to be that old fellow."

Gu Shen paused for a second. He suddenly realized a very crucial issue.

"To engrave the ancient text on the stone tablet, only the 'Traveler' himself should be able to do this… If you were the one who engraved the banishment array patterns…"

Then.

The Traveler's true self should be "old acquaintances" with Alan Turing?

At this moment, Gu Shen's stagnant thoughts were instantly cleared!

The reason why 【Deep Sea】 could complete its eleventh upgrade so smoothly was because Zhong Gui abandoned his "physical body" and handed over control of the Traveler's true body to 【Deep Sea】, so 【Deep Sea】 obtained everything it wanted…

The "news of death" of Zhou Jiren and his group back then could only be learned by searching the spiritual sea of the Traveler race giant.

In this inland war that humanity faced, the Traveler race played an extremely important role.

"The Traveler race is an incomparably sharp longsword. Now it is stabbing into the human hinterland, but if the 'Traveler's true self' completely awakens, then everything will be different."

Turing said calmly, "This sword will always only be held in one person's hand. That person is not Deep Sea, but… Zhong Gui."

Gu Shen took a deep breath.

"In the previous dream world, the only reason my fierce fire would awaken so quickly… is only one possibility."

Gu Shen said seriously, "You changed the environment my physical body was in, accelerating the flow of time in my real world."

He stared into Mr. Turing's eyes.

"So the world outside is…"

"A Time Dojo?"

(End of Chapter)