Chapter 36 The Copper Man Lamp

"Liberating the [Copper Man Lamp] from the shrine?"

Uncle Gao narrowed his eyes.

His expression turned grave...

Those four bronze lamps were quite important "sealed objects" to the Li family, guarding the four directions of the shrine... capable of forming an extremely strong barrier. Over the years, the Li family had considered ways to try and liberate the [Copper Man Lamp] from the old house.

Unfortunately...

It was simply an impossible task.

Once those four lamps were moved, the shrine might be at risk of collapsing.

"If I'm not mistaken, these four [Copper Man Lamps]... don't seem to be complete..."

Gu Shen looked at Uncle Gao's expression, confirming his guess.

"They have lost their 'faces'."

"Indeed."

Uncle Gao nodded. "You have good eyesight."

Gu Shen said seriously, "If these four lamps can be liberated from the shrine... perhaps we can further find a way to 'repair them completely'."

"How to liberate them?" Li Qingsui blinked her big eyes and asked curiously.

"The shrine is surrounded by black flowers. If we clear the black flowers, perhaps... the barrier can be moved," Gu Shen said. "Of course, this is just my guess."

"The theory is feasible," Uncle Gao commented.

He looked at Gu Shen meaningfully.

He wanted to clear the black flowers on the Shrine Mountain... even he couldn't do it.

"How long will it take?" Li Qingsui held her breath and asked carefully.

"According to the current speed..." Gu Shen thought for a while and said, "At least another three to five years?"

The density of the flowers on the top of Shrine Mountain was several times, even dozens of times, that of the mountainside.

Killing them would be even more difficult.

"This is just the black flowers near the old house..." Gu Shen added, "If the [Copper Man Lamp]'s barrier is guarding the top of the mountain... then it will take even longer."

Disappointment appeared on Li Qingsui's face.

Three years... five years...

For the Li family, this time was not long.

But for her, it was a bit too far away.

What's more, Gu Shen also said... even if the black flowers were cleared, there was only a possibility of liberating the [Copper Man Lamp]. The actual clearing time would only be longer than this!

"Having hope is better than having no hope."

Taking a deep breath, the little girl regained her composure.

In the past two years, she had traveled to Nagano, and even far beyond East洲 (Dongzhou/East Province), searching for ways to save "Shrine Mountain" more than once, and had long been prepared for a long battle.

Her sister was in the mountain.

She was outside the mountain.

As long as there was a glimmer of hope, she would never give up.

However, she could wait, but her sister couldn't... Liberating the [Copper Man Lamp] might only be the first step. After everything was completed, how much lifespan would Li Qingci have left?

Li Qingsui's expression became stern, and she asked, "If your strength becomes stronger..."

"Then the time to liberate the [Copper Man Lamp] will be shorter." Gu Shen said slowly, "... I reiterate, I am not making any guarantees. These assumptions are only based on theoretical feasibility."

"Understood."

Li Qingsui nodded and said solemnly, "What do you need? As long as the Li family can provide it... feel free to ask!"

She said this very domineeringly.

"Boss... you're so generous, so mighty."

Gu Shen smiled, his tone slightly emotional as he praised, "As expected of the future head of the Li family, you speak so confidently... Don't worry, if I need your help, I won't be polite. But for now, what I need is just a quiet environment."

Li Qingsui was slightly stunned.

Leaning back in the back seat of the car, Gu Shen slowly closed his eyes, his voice slightly weak, and said to Uncle Gao, "Before leaving Shrine Mountain, I want to retrieve some things. I'll trouble you next, Uncle Gao... take me to Qingzhong Cemetery."

This time's "devouring" made Gu Shen feel a little tired.

Devouring black flowers was actually a hard work.

Even though the intrinsic characteristic of the Blazing Fire (Chi Huo) was to absorb disorder... but absorbing a large amount of "black dots" twice in a row made Gu Shen feel a little uncomfortable. This reaction might require some time to adapt.

At the border of Shrine Mountain.

Gu Shen took out some "materials", returned to the car, and began to rest with his eyes closed.

Uncle Gao silently watched this scene, saying nothing.

His mental power could vaguely sense what these "things" were... In fact, a figure like him had mental power enough to cover half of Snow禁城 (Xuejin City/Snow Forbidden City). As long as it was within his perception range, there was no secret that he couldn't hide.

Gu Shen was going to Qingzhong Cemetery, obviously to meet the tomb keeper.

This news... definitely couldn't be hidden from [Wind Eye].

However, now that this kid was already on the same boat as the Li family, he would naturally choose to help appropriately.

The car drove out of the "Shrine Mountain boundary".

Gao Tian's mental power directly opened up a domain, tearing apart all the [Wind Eye]'s perception.

……

……

Gu Shen fell into a deep sleep.

He had never felt this way before... His whole person seemed to have become a wandering soul, examining himself from the "God's perspective" suspended in the sky. He could feel the opening and closing of every pore and the expansion of every cell.

He seemed to see a small world inside his body.

It was a wilderness.

There was wind, rain, sunrise, and moonset.

There were farmers wielding hoes, working hard and sweating like rain.

Awakening of Insects, Grain Rain, seeds taking root and sprouting, soil being cultivated, and riverbeds being initially opened.

This was a desolate world where everything was recovering and chaos was beginning.

It was also... a pure land.

Just as he wanted to get closer to watch... a soft and weak voice sounded in his ear.

"Gu Shen."

Gu Shen opened his eyes. Outside the car window were splashing electric arcs, and the lights in 001 were warm and soft.

"Am I... asleep..."

Gu Shen's memory connected to the real world... He should be resting in Uncle Gao's car right now, but his mental power had involuntarily dived and arrived at 001.

Wait, more important than his "falling asleep" was...

Someone was calling his name.

His consciousness instantly woke up.

Gu Shen then noticed... a girl was lying on the opposite seat, using that thick ancient book to prop up her head. She was lying on her side, her expression solemn, and her eyes full of confusion and emptiness.

Was it Chu Ling who had just called him?

"You're awake?" Gu Shen looked at the girl, somewhat surprised.

Chu Ling's thinking had lasted for a full seven days.

For humans... thinking for a day was long enough.

But for [Source Code], thinking was an endless thing. Exhaustive search had long become a habit, and stopping thinking was abnormal.

Chu Ling's so-called "being alone" was actually starting to search the deep sea database for memories related to "Prayer Art" and "Li Qingsui" in the stable 001 carriage.

This was an exhaustive search of quite a large amount of data.

Her purpose was to find and correct her mistakes.

As soon as she spoke.

The girl's unfocused pupils gradually recovered, and after tens of seconds, they had some color.

"Mmm..."

She seemed a little weak.

The mental body condensed by the [Source Code] didn't actually have such a thing as weakness.

But Chu Ling at the moment didn't look good, and was very depressed.

"Accurately speaking... I have never been asleep."

Chu Ling said very softly, "The ultra-large amount of data retrieval consumed all of [Source Code]'s computing power... and the external manifestation is that I show the state of human night sleep."

That is, lying on her side.

"In fact, I have separated a part of my computing power... and I am still aware of everything outside. If 'relaxation' and 'tension' are used as the difference between 'sleeping' and 'awake', then I have never been asleep during this time, but I have been more awake than before."

What the hell?

Asleep, but not completely asleep.

Then wouldn't he be seen every time he came to 001?

Gu Shen was a little embarrassed.

Sure enough, Chu Ling said in a softer voice, "In the past seven days, you have entered the 001 carriage a total of eight times... on average, once every twenty-one hours. Every time you come to 001, you will stand quietly beside me for thirty minutes to five hours..."

Stop it, stop it...

Gu Shen raised his hand to his forehead, wanting to find a hole to crawl into.

"Um..."

Chu Ling thought for a while and asked seriously, "If you think I'm 'sleeping', then your behavior these past few days should be the so-called... sleep-陪 (peishui/sleep accompaniment)?"

Gu Shen: "???"

Although he did have the thought of sleep accompaniment at some point... but Gu Shen's thoughts were very simple. He just wanted to be closer to Chu Ling, and take a closer look at the degree of realism of the [Source Code]'s manifestation in the spiritual world.

Too bad, the 001 carriage was too small, and he could only squat in front of the carriage, watching Chu Ling's face with his cheeks in his hands.

There was no way.

Who told Chu Ling to be so good-looking?

Who wouldn't want to watch more?

"I really like this behavior." Chu Ling said seriously, "Being able to feel you beside me... I think... it's very safe."

Gu Shen's old face rarely turned slightly red.

A straight ball.

How could he catch this?

"Cough cough!" He took the initiative to change the topic and said seriously, "What's the result of your sleeping, no, your retrieval..."

Chu Ling shook her head.

"The retrieval result... is not good."

"I spent seven days searching the database repeatedly three times to ensure that I had no data omissions... Now I have to accept a 'reality', that is, I have never had any contact with the Prayer Art."

Chu Ling sighed softly, "Maybe I had an illusion... sorry, I don't have the saying of illusion. So it can only be a program error. I can't understand where the 'familiarity' I have with Li Qingsui comes from."

This was really a long thought.

Maybe in these seven days, she had reproduced every second of the past ten years in her mind, but unfortunately... she didn't find the "should have" memory in the end.

Was this the reason why Chu Ling was lying here, lost in thought?

Gu Shen felt distressed and a little amused at the same time.

So [Source Code] also felt lost... After the database retrieval failed, did she experience the powerlessness of life frustration?

"I just came out of Shrine Mountain."

Gu Shen thought for a moment, then explained seriously, "Li Qingci told me that the Prayer Art is a术法 (shufa/spell) of 'believe and it shall exist'... Perhaps, this is why you failed to retrieve it."

Chu Ling was even more at a loss.

Believe and it shall exist?

In the underlying logic of the deep sea, there had never been such a saying... existence was existence, and non-existence was non-existence. It wouldn't change because of whether "people" believed it or not.

And as [Source Code], her choice to "believe" or "not believe" was also based on the result after the database retrieval to make a judgment.

In other words.

In her world, there was existence, so she would believe.

These were two worlds completely opposite to the "Prayer Art".

Or... two kinds of faith.

"Then, am I... wrong?" Chu Ling looked at Gu Shen blankly and helplessly, her tone filled with help.

"No."

Gu Shen shook his head.

"You're not wrong."

"Then... is she wrong?"

Gu Shen shook his head again, "No... she's not wrong either."

There was an invisible barrier in this world, which was a "cognitive barrier" that [Source Code] could hardly overcome. How could a code living in data understand the "Prayer Art" outside of logic...

"Then..."

Chu Ling asked confusedly, "Are we... both right?"

She looked at Gu Shen.

This time, Gu Shen still shook his head.

"I don't know." Gu Shen said seriously, "I don't know what's right and what's wrong about this question... maybe there's no right or wrong at all. If there's a grass downstairs in your house, but you've never seen it, then in your world, does it really exist?"

Chu Ling opened her mouth, speechless.

"But there's one sentence that I know is right."

"Some things that you can't figure out no matter how hard you try, don't think about them anymore."

Gu Shen came to the girl, still squatting slightly as usual.

This time Chu Ling was not asleep.

And Gu Shen summoned up his courage and did something he had always wanted to do in the past few days.

He carefully stretched out his hand, approaching little by little. The girl's existence in the spiritual world was like a real person. At such a close distance... it seemed that he could hear her breathing and chaotic heartbeat.

Chu Ling was lying on her side.

She pursed her lips, watching Gu Shen's palm approach nervously, without dodging.

Finally, this palm landed on her head.

Familiar... warmth.

Gu Shen said softly, "This principle is very simple, everyone outside does this... Sometimes, you just need to wait a little, and there will be an answer."

When encountering problems that cannot be solved, put them aside for the time being.

This was not giving up.

But waiting for a better opportunity.

"Wait a little... why will there be an answer?"

Chu Ling was even more puzzled and murmured, "The answer has never changed, it has always been there."

The data would not change.

Gu Shen thought for a long time and finally gave his answer.

"Because... the deep sea database only records the 'past' forever, but does not record the 'future'."

This sentence made Chu Ling confused, and a ray of light appeared in her dim eyes.

She seemed to understand something.

"The deep sea database... only records the past... but does not record the future..."

Chu Ling murmured in a low voice, repeating Gu Shen's words.

Countless retrievals, no results.

It was not because she was wrong.

Perhaps it was just because... the answer was not in the past, but in the future.

She closed her eyes again.

Chaotic thoughts.

Confused logic.

As if at this moment... she had returned to calm.

"How do you feel?"

Gu Shen helped the girl straighten her disheveled hair and then slowly rubbed her head. He was a little curious, wondering what Chu Ling felt like when massaging in the spiritual world...

He spoke again, but received no response.

He only heard the girl's soft breathing, echoing in the carriage.

"Sleep... fell asleep?"

Gu Shen was a little surprised, and then remembered what the girl said earlier, [Source Code] would not fall asleep.

Was she starting a new round of retrieval again?

Should this "sleep companion" of his withdraw?

He carefully withdrew his hand, and a snow-white soft hand rested on the back of his palm.

"Continue..."

Chu Ling's cheeks were slightly flushed.

She murmured softly, like a kitten: "Very comfortable, don't stop."