Chapter 107 The Divine Child Project

What exactly were the Neutrals of Sangzhou Cave researching?

While studying individual ancient characters could be considered "amazing," it inevitably felt somewhat small-scale... The invention of "Winged Iron" couldn't really support a large research project.

Although Gu Shen really didn't want to reveal that he had read Zhuang Su's diary, if Qi Mo didn't mention the "Child of Divine Grace"...

He would eventually have to bring it up.

The word "Divine Grace" opened the final gate of the base.

What appeared before them... were rows upon rows of "nutrient tanks."

Gu Shen was no stranger to these tanks. Many years ago, he had seen them on the tenth level beneath the Flower Sign.

At that time...

He had just arrived in the capital.

Cui Zhongcheng had revealed to him the greatest secret hidden for many years beneath the Flower Sign—

The discontinued gene law.

Now, nearly a hundred life tanks were displayed before Gu Shen. He silently watched the "dim hall," with its bronze pillars imprisoning curled-up embryos. Bubbles constantly emerged from the transparent red-silver glass, indicating that these embryos were still alive.

Gu Shen then realized that this was Sangzhou Cave, not the Eastern Continent capital.

So, the research into the gene law was still continuing...

Just in a different corner.

"...Mr. Gu?"

Zhuang Su noticed that Gu Shen's expression was off.

Gu Shen slowly walked to a bronze pillar. His mood inexplicably became heavy. Looking at the life imprisoned in the red-silver glass, he sighed with a heavy tone, "The gene law was called off many years ago..."

"Ah..."

Qi Mo and Zhuang Su exchanged glances and made low sounds of agreement.

Qi Mo slowly stepped forward, standing shoulder to shoulder with Gu Shen.

They were now very close.

He could feel the gloomy emotion in the young man's eyes.

Qi Mo quickly explained, "Perhaps you misunderstand, the Divine Grace project... is not quite the same as the research into the gene law."

Gu Shen raised an eyebrow.

"You must know the origin of the 'Seven Gods' and the 'Fire Seed,' so I won't go into detail."

Qi Mo slowly said, "The Gospel Box split into 'Fire Seeds,' and the God Seats who inherit the 'Fire Seeds' throughout the ages have all ascended to their positions through continuous effort and compatibility with the 'Fire Seed.'"

Gu Shen nodded.

Yes... that was how it had always been.

Perhaps the luckiest person in all these years was himself.

But even for a "lucky one" like himself, chosen by the Fire Seed in advance, he still couldn't merge with the Fire Seed at this stage.

Even a preliminary attempt would probably have to wait until he was Enfeoffed!

"Have you heard of a theory?"

Qi Mo asked, "If there were enough monkeys in this world... with infinitely long lifespans, randomly typing programs, given enough time, they could even write the [Source Code]."

Gu Shen nodded. "As long as there are enough samples, even if the probability is low, it can still happen."

"Yes."

Qi Mo turned his gaze to the bronze pillar in front of him. "Perhaps among billions of humans, a 'Child of Divine Grace' can be born, whose genetic sequence is perfect. As soon as they are born, they can merge with the 'Fire Seed.' They don't need postnatal cultivation. As long as they are willing, they can immediately become a 'God Seat.'"

"..."

Gu Shen was silent for a moment, then said, "Sounds like that's what the gene law is supposed to do."

"In fact, it's completely different."

Qi Mo smiled and gently tapped the red-silver glass with his fingertip.

"Buzz—"

The silence in the bronze pillar was broken. The "life form" immersed in the red-silver liquid suddenly opened its eyes. Red hair quickly grew out of its body, layer upon layer, instantly hitting the surface of the red-silver glass.

Gu Shen saw a pair of "eyes" that did not belong to humans.

He frowned.

The moment he looked directly at this creature, he realized that he could actually use the authority of "Hades"?

"This is a 'dead person' from outside S12, who was only one and a half years old when they died... We brought them back to the lab and immersed them in red-silver, so this body will forever remain at one and a half years old."

Qi Mo said seriously, "There are no bionic humans created by gene technology in this lab... These are all 'dead people' from Sangzhou Cave, whose bodies are very young. We assume that children under the age of three have not fully developed their consciousness, and they all have the opportunity to become 'Children of Divine Grace,' so the sample age for the experiment is within this range."

"For decades, we have tried various methods to explore the possibility of the true birth of a 'Child of Divine Grace.'"

"Finally, we received 'guidance.' If we want to find a perfect 'Child of Divine Grace,' we need to start from the 'spiritual' aspect."

"So... we injected these dead children with the 'Divine Grace Program.'"

Qi Mo slowly said, "We give them spirit... We explore the existence of 'Divine Grace' in a controllable nothingness. This is a vast ocean, and we want to find a boat that can sail on the sea."

The lingering gloom in Gu Shen's heart dissipated a lot.

These people... had already died long ago...

"What is this red hair?"

"It's a mistaken 'awakening'..."

Qi Mo gave a wry smile and said, "You can understand it as the physical body being the [Door] and the spirit being the [Key]. The program we wrote is the wrong 'key,' which can only open the wrong 'door'... This child's awakening ability is 'Crimson Hair,' whose whole body will be covered with scarlet hair. In the known transcendent pedigree, it belongs to the 'C-level' strong attack system transcendent ability, and it often has side effects. It is said that transcendents who awaken 'Crimson Hair' do not live too long."

For a "Child of Divine Grace," this C-level ability was obviously wrong.

"We want to find a 'key' to the correct 'door' among the countless possibilities in the vast sea..."

Zhuang Su said with a heavy expression, "No matter how hard we have tried over the years, the [Door] that the most correct 'key' can open is only the A-level ability [Iron-Eating Mounch]."

Gu Shen pondered, "[Iron-Eating Mounch] is not weak..."

"But it's still far from being a 'Child of Divine Grace.'"

Zhuang Su shook his head and said, "I ask, which transcendent who awakens [Iron-Eating Mounch] can be considered a 'Child of Divine Grace' and be qualified to inherit the Fire Seed?"

"..."

Gu Shen mourned for the little Iron Man for a second.

"We hope to find the 'key' to the 'S-level' ability."

Qi Mo said sincerely, "If you are the [key] left by Mr. Turing, perhaps... you have a way."

"Me?"

Gu Shen was a little surprised.

He never expected that this topic would come back to him in the end.

He recalled the previous conversation and then realized something was wrong.

"Wait..."

Gu Shen asked in confusion, "What do you mean by the 'guidance' you just mentioned? Is there anything in this place that can guide you?"

"No, not a thing..."

Qi Mo and Zhuang Su looked at Gu Shen with deep meaning.

Mr. Zhuang said leisurely, "Think about 'Winged Iron'... and then think about the 'single character research' we just mentioned..."

Not a thing...

Could it be a person?

Gu Shen: "Turing?"

Qi Mo: "Turing."

The convergence of the two voices plunged the base of the Divine Grace project into a long silence. Gu Shen and the two senior members of the Ancient Text Society looked at each other. Qi Mo took out a black iron box from his arms, which was very similar in shape to the array box, but emitted a faint mental glow.

"To be precise... it's the 'program' left by Turing."

Qi Mo said, "In the beginning, he proposed writing the transcendent pedigree. The Five Continents Council thought this would only serve as a 'record,' but this is not the case... Mr. Turing tried to dig deeper into the secrets. This box is the calculation writing of the original [Source Code]. There are countless mental locks on it. So far, we have no way to open it. Only when we encounter difficulties and don't know where to start, the 'program' in this box will give us inspiration."

"Over the years, the 'Divine Grace Project' has been advancing with these fragmentary inspirations."

Qi Mo smiled and came to the 'main brain' of the base. He looked at the codes that were constantly being deduced and performed on it, and said softly, "We named this virtual 'spiritual body' the 'Child of Divine Grace.'"

In the virtual projection on the other side, a small shadow was being conceived, hugging its knees and curled up.

"The members of the Ancient Text Society of Sangzhou Cave have been researching for many years..."

"We have never found the correct 'key.' The spiritual development progress of the Child of Divine Grace is almost 'zero.'"

Gu Shen took the box.

This box was very similar to the array box, but the difference was that his spirit could not be disassembled immediately.

He looked at the box and thought for a long time. In the end, he decided not to hide anything.

Gu Shen said seriously, "Mr. Zhuang, can I ask you a 'presumptuous' question?"

"At this time, you are still so polite..." Zhuang Su shook his head with a smile and said, "How presumptuous can it be? Just ask."

"Okay, then I'll ask."

Gu Shen nodded and said, "What do you mean by the 'resurrection of the Child of Divine Grace' that you wrote in your diary?"

Zhuang Su: "???"

Qi Mo also: "???"

"Zhuang Su, you wrote this kind of thing in your diary..." Qi Mo said with a complicated tone, "and haven't destroyed it yet?"

"I..."

Zhuang Su's expression was very exciting at this moment. He knew that he could not explain himself clearly, and his voice became smaller and smaller. He was obviously doubting his life. "I clearly burned it clean..."

Speaking of this, he looked at Gu Shen with a resentful expression.

Peeking at diaries, this is too presumptuous!

"Don't worry, this matter will not be spread."

Gu Shen said calmly, "I just want to know... what does the 'resurrection of the Child of Divine Grace' refer to?"

Zhuang Su looked at Qi Mo.

The latter nodded.

He sighed softly and said, "Since the experiment has not been carried out, we suspect... that the 'Divine Grace' project may have been going in the wrong direction all along."

"In the past, the higher-ups of the Ancient Text Society temporarily sent us here. Before they could deliver the specific tasks, they encountered a purge..."

"Only this box and the simple information on the 'Child of Divine Grace' were left."

Zhuang Su said seriously, "Such a huge workload is meaningless to carry out in Sangzhou Cave... We have few people, backward technology, and nothing..."

"That's right..."

The real gene law was actually carried out in the Eastern Continent, with abundant funds and many geniuses!

The research team built by Lu Cheng in Flower Sign was much stronger than Zhuang Su's few people!

"So we suspect that the 'Child of Divine Grace' does not need to be created by us."

"He has always existed."

"And... he exists on Sangzhou Cave!"

……

……

Gu Shen thought of Adam's last Peering.

[On the Tan Yao active volcano, there is a small shadow standing.]

The Eye of Fate saw that the future Child of Divine Grace stood on the top of Tan Yao Volcano, triggering the destruction of the entire Sangzhou Cave.

He asked with a hoarse voice, "What... do you mean by this?"

"I observed the fluctuations of the 'password box.'"

Zhuang Su slowly said, "When we first arrived at Sangzhou Cave, this iron box was completely sealed and no information would be transmitted... At that time, our experimental projects were to find the spiritual gene of 'Divine Grace,' and to try to crack the 'password box,' but both progressed slowly. Qi Mo thought it was a research technology problem, but I think it was because the 'Child of Divine Grace' had not yet awakened."

"In the years that followed, the 'password box' occasionally generated fluctuations."

"We relied on the reminder of this 'box' to find some 'spiritual passwords' of transcendent abilities..."

"Qi Mo believes that this is Mr. Turing guiding us. I do not deny that this is 'guidance,' but I believe more that it is the gradual awakening of the 'Child of Divine Grace' that caused the 'password box' to loosen."

Gu Shen looked down at the box in his palm.

"So... you think this box is a 'navigator'?"

"Yes."

Zhuang Su said in a low voice, "After the awakening experiment began, the vibration of the 'password box' became more and more frequent. So three years ago, I left the 'S3 living area' and embarked on the journey to find the 'Child of Divine Grace.' I circled the island and even went deep into 'Tan Yao,' but unfortunately I had no gain. If my guess is true, then the only reason should be that I am not qualified to pick up the 'navigator.'"

"Mr. Turing is no longer here."

Qi Mo said, "No matter which of these two guesses is correct, or both are wrong, it doesn't matter... because we have no choice. Qi Mo and I will stick to our original ideas until the end."

One, insist on finding the correct program corresponding to the "spiritual gene."

The other is to look for the possible "Child of Divine Grace."

The end they spoke of was not the appearance of results.

But death.

Of course, they were not the only ones. There were many people behind them. Gu Shen still remembered the children who looked at him with curious eyes... When Qi Mo and Zhuang Su fell, there were other young "Neutrals."

They would take over the torch and continue to burn.

"I think... I may have a way to solve the difficulties you are encountering."

Gu Shen gently weighed the box.

He found a quiet corner, sat down, and twisted a wisp of blazing fire and pressed it on the iron box...

"Chih."

This box could withstand extremely high temperatures.

But Gu Shen's spirit collided with countless "passwords" at this moment.

"Chu Ling."

Gu Shen's consciousness came to this closed sea area similar to the array box. He looked at the billions of floating and rolling numbers in front of him and spoke softly.

After calling out that name, that ethereal, spotless, slender white figure suddenly appeared beside him.

Gu Shen asked, "Can you crack the 'password' in this box?"

Chu Ling replied, "The password is very long."

She did not say no.

Gu Shen understood.

He smiled and made an inviting gesture of obeisance.

Chu Ling stretched out her ten fingers. In this void spiritual sea, her ten fingers began to blur and turned into countless digital codes, merging with the torrent in front of her.