leonardwarren #377 - Close to the truth
#377 - Close to the truth
The toppled sculpture;
Streets so clean they were spotless, showing no signs of the passage of time;
In a daze, Wang Jixuan seemed to see tall, lanky figures standing around him, smiling and staring at him, constantly saying something.
He subconsciously took two steps back and bumped into Amina's arms.
"What's wrong?"
Amina asked softly:
"I feel like you're wavering."
How could he not waver?
Wang Jixuan calmed his mind, and the surrounding illusions disappeared. He lowered his head, glared at the sculpture, and kicked it hard.
"Brother Wang!" Zheng Shiduo quickly shouted, "Be careful of getting caught!"
Bang.
The lower half of the sculpture shattered.
Wang Jixuan vigilantly looked in all directions, but there wasn't a single drone in sight.
Interesting.
Ji Xiao asked, "Aren't these sculptures protected? I'll try too."
As he spoke, Ji Xiao had already reached the sculpture next to him and placed his hand on its arm.
Woo woo—
A loud siren blared.
Barbell-shaped drones flew in from all directions.
"Warning! Unknown visitors, please do not damage historical relics!"
Ji Xiao froze on the spot, his mouth twitching slightly, but he was essentially a spirit slave of a spiritual cultivator. If the spiritual cultivator couldn't resist that red light, he naturally wouldn't be arrogant enough to challenge it.
Ji Xiao obediently withdrew his right hand.
The drone swarm immediately dispersed.
Wang Jixuan saw that when these drones weren't deployed, they would hide in 'docks' on the outer walls of buildings. Almost every large building had two rows of drone docks.
Zheng Shiduo muttered softly, "Brother Wang, they're targeting you… Why does touching other people's sculptures trigger an alarm, but touching yours doesn't."
"Don't talk nonsense!" Wu Man frowned. "This isn't Mr. Wang!"
"Old Zheng is actually right."
Wang Jixuan had also calmed down at this moment. He squatted in front of the toppled sculpture and said softly:
"This is me."
Everyone was surprised.
Amina asked, "Are you sure?"
"Yes," Wang Jixuan's finger slid along the bridge of the sculpture's nose. "I naturally can't mistake my own appearance. This is what I originally looked like, you should have seen it too, Amina."
Amina nodded. "Although you rarely look in the mirror, that's indeed how you look in your memories."
"I have a guess now."
Wang Jixuan muttered:
"My occupying Mu Liang's body should be the second stage of rebirth.
"Before that, there should have been a first stage.
"I came into contact with this civilization, cooperated with them, and somehow, through some means, became a figure worthy of being commemorated with a monument. But something must have happened later that caused me to fall from grace.
"Whatever happened should be closely related to the destruction of this civilization, otherwise, given how clean everything is here, they wouldn't have allowed this sculpture to remain toppled here without cleaning it up."
Amina crossed her arms and pondered, "You mean…"
"What spiritual energy circuits are, they're originally a combination of restrictions and formations. We cultivators use them to refine artifacts, and this civilization used them to refine people."
Wang Jixuan muttered, slowly standing up, the red mole on his forehead faintly glowing.
He looked towards the center of the city and said softly, "Let's go. We don't need to search randomly anymore. Let's just go in a straight line. We'll investigate whatever we find along the way. It doesn't matter if we don't find anything. Only by finding that remnant spirit will we have answers."
Amina said, "Don't put too much pressure on yourself."
"Pressure?" Wang Jixuan blinked. "I'm just a little angry. Why is it that only this poor Taoist's sculpture is lying down!"
"Uh, okay, then should we stand it up?"
"I'll do it, I'll do it. How can we let a spirit cultivator do something like this? Heh, this sculpture feels really smooth."
"Old Zheng, stay away from my sculpture!"
The group laughed and joked for a while, then quickly started running towards the central district of Cloud City.
It's just that the city was too big, and it would still take them some time to get there.
After they left, the sculpture that had been kicked apart by Wang Jixuan stood crookedly on its stone base, gaining a bit of incomplete artistic flair.
In the sealed room in the corner, Nierda Tema was pacing back and forth.
He wanted to share his major discovery with his new allies.
This discovery shocked him too much. Wang Zheng was actually the spiritual leader and great pioneer of this ancient civilization!
Was the source of spiritual cultivation actually cultivators?
Nierda Tema felt something stirring in his heart, a desire, a desire for truth and historical knowledge.
…
Wang Jixuan and the others arrived at the central district smoothly.
Because they weren't searching separately anymore, they didn't find any large buildings they could enter. Wang Jixuan even tried to see if he could break the formations, but as soon as he got close to the formation, he would attract the attention of a large number of barbell drones.
The Taoist wisely chose to avoid physical confrontation.
Not to mention anything else, the number of barbell drones on just one street exceeded three or five hundred.
The entire city was interconnected, with at least hundreds of thousands of barbell drones.
And these were just small machines used to maintain order. If there weren't any powerful ancient autonomous weapons here, Wang Jixuan wouldn't believe it even if he was beaten to death by the remaining Cali Nose.
"Shall I fly you over?"
Amina suggested:
"I should have passage privileges here."
"No rush yet," Wang Jixuan refused again. "It's just a matter of spending an extra hour or two. We'll also learn more about this civilization."
"The scenery behind is all the same."
Amina also felt a headache:
"I just want to know what interesting things will happen when you face that ancient remnant spirit.
"This is a bit beyond my comprehension."
Wang Jixuan laughed, "I suddenly remembered just now that when we resolved the Sixth Pillar incident, the ancient remnant spirit once revealed a piece of information…"
"What?"
"The Three Realms Playboy."
Wang Jixuan curled his lips:
"I suspect now that I'm this Three Realms Playboy. This name is too frivolous, but it's quite in line with my current state of mind.
"I was still wondering how I transcended the edge of demonic transformation so easily.
"It turns out that my demonic transformation might not be the first time?
"I was saying, I'm a righteous cultivator, how could I use demonic techniques so skillfully, and even mistakenly thought I was a rare demonic genius!"
The Taoist couldn't help but complain a few more times.
Zheng Shiduo raised his hand and suggested, "Brother Wang, why don't we let Ms. Amina take me and Ji Xiao to scout ahead!"
The others immediately seconded the proposal.
Wang Jixuan considered for a moment: "Alright, you guys fly over first and try to contact that ancient remnant spirit. I'm already here now, let her speak her mind if she has anything to say."
"That's what we should have done a long time ago."
With a wave of Amina's slender hand, Zheng Shiduo and Ji Xiao's figures floated up and were dragged by her towards the distant palace complex.
She had already successfully broken into it once last time, and even if there were formations blocking her, she could easily pass through.
Not to mention, today's palace complex was unusually calm, with no formations blocking it at all.
After Amina and the others left, Wang Jixuan called out to Wu Man and took him for a stroll down the street.
Wu Man observed Wang Jixuan's expression and comforted him softly: "Mr. Wang, don't put too much pressure on yourself. Although this matter is related to you, I believe you're not a bad person."
"This has nothing to do with being a bad person or a good person."
Wang Jixuan muttered:
"I need to know what happened back then, why my memory doesn't have this part, my roots come from my remnant soul.
"I had once reached the Great Ascension stage, just half a step away from ascending to the Upper Realm, but I was struck to death by the Ascension Tribulation.
"Now I only have the memories before my death and after waking up in Mu Liang's body.
"Moreover, how did I survive the ancient civilization tens of thousands of years ago? What is my relationship with them? Did we collude and then turn against each other, or was I plotted against?"
Wang Jixuan gently exhaled.
"Of course, the purpose of our coming here this time is still to open the planetary barrier.
"After all, the past is already in the past. We'll take revenge for grievances and repay debts for grudges. We still have to look forward in everything."
Wu Man encouraged: "Mr. Wang, if you can think like this, it's a blessing for human civilization."
Wang Jixuan patted the young man on the back.
He said, "While they're not back, I'll first weigh the combat power of these drones. You stay away, don't get hurt."
"Wasn't Nierda Tema directly subdued…"
"That red light can restrain core circuits and spiritual energy circuits, but it can't restrain my demonic techniques."
Wang Jixuan changed the subject:
"Can the photography equipment still be used?"
"Yes, other than communication equipment, all other electronic equipment is working normally."
"Go find a high place and film my fight with these drones later. This might give Old Fu some inspiration for developing autonomous machines."
"Yes."
Wu Man solemnly agreed, turned around, and with a few leaps, jumped to a street-facing residence that wasn't covered by formations.
After Wu Man was ready and set up the miniature camera;
Wang Jixuan rolled up his sleeves, shook his neck, a cold smile flashed across his lips, and gently stomped his foot. The stone bricks on the ground covered with a thin layer of spiritual energy directly shattered, and pieces of gravel floated up.
Flicking his fingers, the gravel flew on its own;
With a light flick, the formation light wall of the building in front showed slight ripples amidst the intense sound of air being broken.
Woo—
A loud siren blared!
Dozens of barbell drones closest to this place started up at the same time, surrounding Wang Jixuan from all directions.
Wang Jixuan took the initiative, adopting a horse stance, circling his hands as if an old man in the park practicing Tai Chi, gently swaying his body. A wave of magic power emanated, and the surrounding floating gravel shot out like miniature missiles.
The sounds of explosions echoed incessantly.
Half of these dozens of barbell drones were destroyed.
Is that all?
Wang Jixuan even felt he had overreacted a bit, but in the next second, two beams of red light shot towards him, causing Daoist Wang's brow to twitch with a premonition.
His intuition warned him not to confront it head-on!
He leaned back and bounced away, the two beams of red light grazed past his shoulders on either side, striking the ground where they were neutralized by the formation's light membrane.
This red light was a bit strange.
Their power wasn't particularly great, but the strange thing was the power fluctuations contained within.
Wang Jixuan had intended to experiment anyway, and constantly dodging wasn't the solution.
He spun in mid-air, joined his hands into a sword finger, and directly unleashed streams of sword energy.
Sword energy crisscrossed, and explosions occurred one after another. The barbell drones themselves didn't have strong defensive capabilities. Wang Jixuan deliberately left two drones behind and grazed the red light with the outside of his left arm.
His left arm almost instantly lost sensation!
There was no numbness or paralysis, it just felt like he had lost the arm.
He immediately channeled his magic power to impact his left arm, and swept his right hand, instantly blasting the remaining two barbell drones to pieces.
Wang Jixuan's entire left arm turned red, and a drop of blood was forced out of his fingertip. A wisp of red light dissipated on its own, and his left arm gradually regained sensation.
Daoist Wang was a little shocked.
What was this thing?
It resembled demonic energy, but wasn't demonic energy. It had sealing properties, and it wasn't just effective against core circuits and spiritual energy circuits, it almost sealed his physical body.
However, now didn't seem to be the best time to ponder this question.
Woo woo—
Sirens blared!
The surrounding spired buildings flashed red lights continuously, and hidden outer compartments on the building exteriors opened simultaneously, with hundreds or thousands of barbell drones rapidly converging.
They kept repeating something.
Wang Jixuan couldn't understand it.
It was probably something about discovering an intruder.
As the drone swarm surrounded and attacked, Wang Jixuan smiled calmly, turned and ran, rapidly forming hand seals, directly using Smoke Escape, leading the drone swarm in circles.
Wu Man, who was filming from the side, became increasingly nervous.
He quickly made a discovery and shouted to remind him.
"The closest firing distance for the red light should be twelve meters!"
"Sir! More drones on the periphery are being activated!"
"The sky! Look at the sky, sir!"
Wang Jixuan, who was kiting the drone swarm, looked up and saw a crack opening in the simulated blue sky, and unmanned boats two meters long flew out.
Well, after the small ones came the big ones.
A slight sneer crossed Wang Jixuan's lips. He leaped up, no longer holding back, and surging black energy erupted, condensing countless Qi swords.
Hurry!
Shoo shoo shoo!
The sound of piercing air never ceased, ten thousand swords moved in unison, disrupting the sky.
Wang Jixuan sneered, his figure almost fading, switching positions in the black energy, making it impossible for the drones to lock on.
A large number of drones exploded continuously;
This dead city seemed to be welcoming a fireworks extravaganza.
But the unmanned boats didn't just have that mid-range red light attack, they were equipped with capture clamps at close range and weapons similar to miniature missiles at long range.
Before long, Wang Jixuan was circling in the air with a dark mass of unmanned boats.
Hearing the explosions outside, Nielda Tamon, who had been waiting for a long time, finally couldn't bear it anymore.
This strong man suddenly yanked open the fence in front of him, leaped up, looked towards Wang Jixuan's location, and then wisely chose to avoid his attack.
Some drones came to pursue him.
The golden armor on Nielda Tamon's body bloomed with golden light, and his figure rushed straight towards the palace complex in the central area.
Seeing this, Wang Jixuan, who was fighting wits and courage with these drones, thought that Nielda Tamon wanted to take advantage of the chaos to seize treasure. He directly activated his demonic power, and countless skulls bloomed in the black energy, smashing pieces of unmanned boats wherever they passed.
Wang Jixuan's figure shot towards the direction Nielda Tamon was heading.
Wu Man, holding the filming equipment, couldn't keep up with their speed at all, and could only try to film distant views.
Almost as soon as Wang Jixuan arrived at the periphery of the palace complex.
Buzz!
A thick light wall appeared out of nowhere, directly bouncing Wang Jixuan's rushing figure back.
The light wall was arc-shaped, and at the center of this arc, the ancient remnant spirit raised its scepter and forcefully threw it down.
A shockwave erupted from the center of the main hall, instantly sweeping across the central area, rippling towards the entire city.
The unmanned boats stopped chasing;
The drones quickly returned to their positions;
Autonomous maintenance drones began to operate, repairing the slightly damaged buildings everywhere.
Wang Jixuan and Nielda Tamon stood in front of this light wall, one on the left and one on the right.
These two rivals looked at each other, and surprisingly nodded in tacit agreement, and began to brew their strongest offensive.
"Enough."
A clear and cold voice came from inside the palace:
"I don't want to hurt you. Please do not disturb the sleeping dead. You could have come directly to me."