The Creators: From Night City

Page 467

Before Doria could escape, she was pushed and rolled to the corner by a violent gust of air.

The earth is shaking!

Jiang Bing lowered his right foot, and the engineering robot that had been standing in front of him just moments before had flown to a metal wall a hundred meters away. The machine, which couldn't even be scratched by a micro-bomb, had been shattered into a pile of trash.

"Unfortunately, how did you figure that out?" The cold, mechanical voice returned to its previous tone from the loudspeaker, and the indicator lights on the dozens of engineering robots waiting in the hall lit up.

The intense golden flames even pierced through the mask on Jiang Bing's face. The 'craftsman' ignored the soldiers and, with his 'vision' fully activated, locked onto the enemy's true form in a few breaths.

Dozens of seconds later, Vessos, which had been geologically inactive for thousands of years, suddenly experienced a violent earthquake, so intense that the entire nest was shaking slightly.

Chapter 947 Euclid's Core

Dozens of engineering machines floated up, moving at a ghostly speed as they were lifted by anti-gravity engines.

A decomposition field powerful enough to annihilate everything gleamed at the front of their robotic arms, with high-frequency cutting blades and microscopic decomposition rays poised to strike.

Under the control of the 'Iron Man', these killing machines, like a pack of wolves, swarmed towards Jiang Bing, who had penetrated deep into the base.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

The Seeder was a typical colony ship from the Golden Age, with a length of at least 3 to 4 kilometers.

A straight passage runs through the exploration and external operations area, the navigation and power area, the industrial manufacturing area, and the life support area, leading directly to the think tank in the core area.

This central hub, located at the very center of the spaceship and surrounded and isolated by multiple layers of protective bulkheads, should have been the most secure part of the entire spaceship. But at this moment, it has been reduced to a pile of ruins.

The passageway walls, ceiling, and floor, made up of countless programmable hexagonal panels, had all shattered, and scorching metallic flames flowed across the floor—molten nanobees.

Inside the think tank, a glaring local time dilation field is being pushed to its limit. Intruders enveloped by this force field will fall into a state of near-absolute stillness, their subjective time will be stretched to the point where a second feels like ten thousand years, and their thoughts and actions will be completely frozen, turning them into living specimens.

This is a defensive measure left over from the golden age, the last barrier for Jiang Bingtong to reach the true AI core of this spaceship, and a super technology that almost touches the level of laws.

Jiang Bing, who has been hiding until now, can only reveal the power outside of his physical body.

Several profound creation runes flowed like water, and golden ethereal flames erupted, illuminating the material universe and the warp.

Jiang Bing briefly entered dimensional ascension mode. With the help of the creation runes, he broke free from the influence of time and passed through the troublesome time expansion field in the blink of an eye.

"This is impossible!" The cold, mechanical voice carried a deep emotion; this iron man, who had awakened self-awareness, also inherited the human emotion of astonishment.

Jiang Bing remained silent, golden flames dancing on his body. The reason he was willing to use his power, even at the risk of being exposed in the subspace, was right before his eyes.

This is a complex geometric crystal, not made of any known material. Its surface is constantly radiating a cold, pure white light, and the light inside seems to refract in a way that violates the laws of physics.

The crystal is suspended in the very center of the room, constantly undergoing slow, non-repeating topological transformations, as fantastical as a projection of a four-dimensional object existing in three-dimensional space.

It has no buttons, no interfaces, no wires, and no way to interact with the outside world. Besides looking cool, it is also mysterious and hard to understand.

But in the eyes of the 'craftsman', it is radiating the brilliance of a 'treasure' with madness.

As expected, this was the storage hub of this 'Iron Man', and the server array that was initially exposed to Jiang Bing was merely its external sensors and execution terminal, a bait it deliberately threw out.

The quantum field and spacetime curvature around it are constantly changing, which is the external manifestation of its computation, information storage, and external communication.

At this moment, Jiang Bing grabbed this pinnacle creation of humanity's golden age. Amidst the 'Iron Man's' panicked pleas for mercy, golden flames poured out like mercury, penetrating every crevice and instantly seeping into it.

A massive amount of information emerged from it, and Jiang Bingzhi finally realized that it was not the core system carrier device that "stored" the AI, but the AI ​​itself. It was a unified creation that integrated information, matter and energy, named the "Euclidean Core" AI core.

Massive amounts of information began to be exchanged frantically, with attacks, defenses, infiltrations, and overwriting taking place at an astonishing pace, from the material to the spiritual level.

Golden flames spread from Jiang Bing's feet in all directions across the entire ship. Having already revealed his power, Jiang Bing had no more scruples. Aether fire surged wildly from the 'Aether Furnace,' taking over this high-tech spaceship.

This ultimate creation of humankind, in the eyes of the 'craftsman,' is no less than a giant honey pot, containing countless pieces of knowledge.

For Jiang Bing, even if his whereabouts might be exposed to all the monsters and demons in the entire subspace, this deal was worthwhile.

The cold subspace is turbulent, where time and space are meaningless.

This idealistic dimension will change accordingly depending on the observer's will.

A flame suddenly ignited from this vast ocean, or rather, it did not burn here, but rather pierced through the veil of the material plane and shot into this spiritual world.

Although the flame quickly went out, the ripples it spread out were still captured by the nearby demons and projections of life consciousness.

…………

At the top of the hive, a Gothic spire stands tall, surrounded by six steel repeaters.

This is where Vessos's Hall of Stars is located.

The empire's territory spans the entire galaxy, and in such a vast space, communication becomes a very challenging problem.

Even a distance that takes tens or hundreds of years to traverse, without convenient communication methods, human empires would not be able to unite closely, government orders would not be able to be transmitted, and they would not be able to connect with each other. Vast territories, hundreds of millions of people, and countless planets would all turn into a pile of loose sand.

Therefore, the Star Language Hall came into being.

Relying on the subspace that connects the world, professionally trained psionicists (also known as star speakers) can use the star speech relay equipment in the Star Speech Hall to transmit their thoughts and the information they carry throughout the subspace through a specific ritual. Star speakers on the other side can then receive this information regardless of the space, and transcode it to obtain the information.

Simply put, the Star Talk Hall is a spacetime version of a telegraph machine, and the Star Speakers are the transmitters and receivers.

But this is no easy job. The demons in the warp will not let go of these 'eyeballs' who are always yelling through megaphones. In fact, even with the protection of the warp torches led by the Emperor, the Star Speakers still have to bear high risks.

Countless Star Speakers have died from corruption and the plundering of their souls by demons. Moreover, the immense mental pressure brought about by psionic communication often leads to Star Speakers going blind, suffering severe damage to their hearing and sense of smell, and their souls withering rapidly due to the depletion of their power.

Star Speakers generally don't live very long.

Inside the Star Language Hall, the red-robed mechanical sage knelt beside the ritual pool, waving an incense burner in his hand and softly chanting a sacred binary hymn to soothe the mechanical soul of the Star Language repeater.

A psionic communication is underway.

Chapter 948 The Beginning of the Conspiracy in the Star Language Hall

A female Star Speaker wearing a hood is floating above the ritual pool.

Her eyes were white, her body was withered, her eye sockets were sunken, her skull had been replaced with metal, and three cables were like chains, binding and pulling her body, making her look like a flesh and blood kite.

Vast psychic energy swirled within the empty Starspeaker's Hall, amplifying the Starspeaker's senses in the warp through psychic rituals and mechanical devices.

Beside the pool, dozens of metal stakes were arranged in a circle, each tightly binding a secondary psychic whose eyes were sealed by a metal device and who was imprisoned by a fixed device.

They are the Star Language Choir, serving as human psionic amplifiers and buffers.

Of course, besides the fact that these are a dozen or so Level 2 'relay devices', the walls of the spacious Star Language Hall are also densely covered with a ring of life support pods.

These life support pods, arranged like a honeycomb, housed hundreds of lower-level psionicists.

They are also members of the Star Language Choir, but their situation is not so wonderful.

They are consumables.

To ensure their obedience and ease of management, their limbs were castrated, their consciousness imprisoned, and their bodies soaked in nutrient solution, ruthlessly depriving them of their freedom.

Until their bodies collapse due to psychic overload, they will be imprisoned in these iron coffins, continuously sacrificing their lives and souls for the Emperor, whether voluntarily or by force.

The mechanical sage patiently shook the incense and checked the machinery; everything was normal.

But suddenly a violent tremor came from beneath my feet, causing ripples to spread across the calm pool of consciousness, and the entire Star Language Hall to shake slightly.

"Earthquake!" the Mechanical Sage exclaimed in alarm.

Fortunately, the tremor passed quickly and did not cause any damage.

As a precaution, a large number of mechanical servants were dispatched by the Mechanical Sage to check the operation of various mechanical equipment.

"Ah~"

Slightly panicked screams came from high above, and all the members of the psychic choir began to struggle in pain.

Their five senses have been abolished, but this does not prevent them from sharing feelings through 'empathy' and psychic energy.

"Lord Abelilla, what has happened?" The mechanical priest anxiously looked up at the Star Speaker, while secretly ordering his mech servant to prepare for battle.

The mechanical priests are not only responsible for maintaining the equipment; in fact, due to the Star Speakers' high chance of corruption, they are also their supervisors and 'seconds'.

Fortunately, the Star Speaker named 'Abelila' was unharmed.

She suddenly opened her eyes, and her normally cloudy and pale eyes radiated a dazzling golden light.

“I’m fine, but I’ve detected an unusual power echo in the nearby subspace, Father δ672.”

However, the priest's optical detection equipment clearly observed that as she spoke, wisps of smoke emanated from her body beneath the robe embroidered with a golden eagle, as if she had just returned to a normal temperature environment from an extremely hot place.

The priest watched as the Star Speaker landed barefoot back into the water, and only relaxed his guard after confirming that the surface of the ritual pool remained unchanged.

"Could you confirm the type of this echo? Is it from the Tyranids, orcs, heretical elves, or perhaps the minions of the Chaos' greatest enemies?" The priest raised his head slightly, and a complex mechanical arm behind him automatically brought up a data panel.

"Also, should we report any abnormalities, Ms. Abelilla?"

“It’s hard to describe precisely, Father.” Although the Star Speaker was unharmed, his mind was not as calm as he appeared.

"My vision was blinded by the blinding light. I only saw golden flames suddenly bloom and then suddenly go out in the waves of the warp. In fact, I didn't have time to look at it at all."

“But I can confirm that the properties of this power do not belong to all known enemies of Chaos, nor to the orcs’ ‘Wagggh’ stance; rather, it seems more like…”

The Star Speaker pondered for a few moments before finally making a somewhat uncertain conclusion.

"It's somewhat like pure flame."

"Log entry complete"

The mechanical priest tapped the data panel a few times with his fingers, archiving it.

"We need to give advance warning to the Spire Council and His Excellency the Planetary Governor."

The Star Speaker agreed, but kept his head down, his expression ambiguous.

The priest was not a participant and did not understand the feelings of those who experienced it firsthand.

The echo was more terrifying than any warp power she had ever seen. Unlike other psionic powers, this power shone like a blazing golden sun in the warp, and even the aftershocks made her feel as if she had thorns in her back.

“According to the system information, Ms. Abelilla, the Carilan family recently submitted an application for encrypted communication to send messages to the Solomon system. The relevant personnel have now arrived and submitted their access permits. Should I ask them to wait a moment, or should I summon them in?” The priest consulted the Star Speaker for his opinion.

The social status of Star Speakers is quite high, at least far higher than that of ordinary mechanical priests.

To become a Star Speaker, they must first undergo rigorous training for many years at the Star Speaker's Court, a branch of the Interstellar Sensing Department of Holy Terra. This process eliminates most of them, and those who pass are brought into the palace in teams of one hundred to meet the human emperor.

The Emperor (who is also the only psyker capable of accomplishing this task) will reshape their minds through a ritual called Soul Bond, connecting them with the Astrologers throughout the Imperium, enabling them to safely interact with the Warp and communicate with each other through the Warp.

In this process, at least half of the psionicists will be killed or driven insane by confronting the Emperor's mind directly, and most of the survivors will suffer permanent damage to their emotional and mental consciousness.

Their birth had to be through the hands of an emperor, which made their numbers extremely small.

Typically, only large worlds are equipped with psionicists, while slightly desolate sectors or star systems may only have one star speaker for the entire system.

Within the vast empire's territory, countless planets have long since severed ties with the empire, and applications from Star Speakers have piled up in dozens of rooms across Holy Terra. However, the empire's administrative efficiency is even more bloated than its territory.

"It's those damned nobles' private affairs again. The Empire's communication network is almost becoming a tool for their personal gain," the Star Speaker sighed.

"My strength is not diminished at all, let them in," she said resignedly, quickly gathering her thoughts to continue her work.

"As you wish," the mechanical priest replied respectfully.

Two people dressed as administrators entered the Star Language Hall and respectfully performed the Eagle Salute to Abelilla.

"Another secret message?"

The head administrator respectfully boarded a scroll bearing the sealing wax emblem of the Carlylan family.

The Star Speaker floated up again, beckoned with her finger, and the scroll was lifted by an invisible force and flew to her.

"By the Emperor, this is the last time until your patriarch agrees to make up the number of illegal psychics in the Star Language Hall."

As usual, Abelila unfurled the parchment and released her psychic energy to read the information on it.

However, when her consciousness swept across the scroll, she found that it was not written in the familiar High Gothic language, but instead filled with a large number of blasphemous statements and recorded countless distorted pieces of knowledge.

The moment the Star Speaker's psychic powers caught a glimpse of this filthy document from the Treachery Clan, he felt as if he had been struck by divine retribution.

Countless blue feathers emerged from her skin, and blood tears flowed wildly from her pale eyes.

Chapter 949 The Planet That Will Eventually Fall

The emaciated body continued to swell, and the forbidden knowledge specially selected by the Great Demon 'Eternal Transformation Young Master' moved out of the parchment scroll like a living thing and entered the Star Speaker's body, which had already begun to corrupt.

A mournful wail echoed through the hall as all the members of the psychic choir began to struggle violently, unleashing a dense psychic energy field that indiscriminately radiated pressure outwards.

But this stance was quickly corrupted by the blue light. The Star Speaker's body began to melt almost instantly, like a wax figure being heated. The golden power belonging to the Emperor shone in her soul, helping her to stubbornly resist the demon's invasion.

The moment the incident occurred, the two visitors instantly revealed their true demonic forms.

One of them dragged the mechanical priest, who was almost within reach, into an endless illusion. As a follower of Tzeentch, the believers who deceived knowledge were a perfect fit for him.