Chapter 1013 Two Roads

  Chapter 1013 Two Roads.

  Water drops condensed from the mist fell on the moss-covered rocks, the rusted alloy plates creaked, and the rustling sound in the shadows was like a beast grinding its teeth.

  Holding the “never-extinguished” torch in his hand, Qiu Ling walked cautiously in the cabin of the wreckage of the Gemini missile cruiser, checking every corner and explorable area.

  It has been a whole week since he stepped into the ruins under the guidance of the ancestor.

  During this week, he searched almost every broken wreckage scattered in this forest, but still did not find the legendary “holy object”.

  To be honest.

  If it were not for his piety to the ancestor, he could not help but begin to doubt whether the so-called holy object existed.

  Ever since he could remember, he had heard from the elders of the tribe that this palace that fell from the sky existed as early as the beginning of the awakening era.

  At that time, the forbidden forest was not as dangerous as it is now. The tribe would occasionally go to the “Heavenly Palace” to worship their ancestors. Later, as more and more wild animals were active around it and became more and more dangerous, they moved the place of worship to the nearby mountains.

  Logically speaking, if there were really holy objects here, the ancestors of the Qiu Kingdom should have discovered them long ago, and they would not have waited until now.

  ”Here, there is nothing either…”

  After checking the last cabin, Qiu Ling crawled out from under the black alloy plate, climbed out of the wreckage, and then placed the silver metal disc on his knees, waiting devoutly for the instructions of the ancestor.

  However, this time, even the ancestor who had been guiding him forward could not help but have a hint of frustration in his voice.

  ”Where did it go…”

  Logically speaking, it was impossible.

  All the wreckage was here, it was impossible that the reactor was the only one missing.

  No –

  it was not impossible.

  According to the report submitted by Ye Shi, after the second Judgment Day recorded in the Temple of Doma City, the “sinners” led by some of the Gemini crew members returned to the Forbidden Forest Valley and drove the survivors who had awakened their psychic powers to the forest outside the Forbidden Forest Valley.

  Feeling the frustration on the other end of the communication channel, Qiu Ling hurriedly comforted him.

  ”Please don’t be discouraged. There is still one last relic left… Maybe the holy relic you are looking for is there!”

  He was actually very anxious in his heart. After all, his people had already fought with the “traitors” in the forest.

  Under the leadership of a leader named Tunnan, the traitors who were originally scattered in the forest were more united than ever before.

  They claimed to have received the will of the ancestor, not only to recapture the holy relic for the ancestor, but also to recapture the holy land lost at the beginning of the awakening era!

  The mighty army had crossed the stream and formed a formation around the Qiuling area where he had patrolled before.

  Qiuling’s people and brothers were all there, including reinforcements from other clans.

  If it weren’t for the search for the holy object, he would have wanted to immediately take the “divine bow” given to him by the ancestor, ride his wild lizard and fight back to the front line to defend his homeland…

  Looking at the young man with confidence on his face, Jiang Xuezhou was speechless for a moment.

  She certainly knew that there was one last “wreckage” left to explore, but there was no way the reactor existed there.

  To ask why, it was because that was the bridge of the missile cruiser, the source of the signal from the black box…

  It was probably the farthest place from the reactor.

  She had planned to find a way to get the black box after finding the reactor and the remaining helium-3 inventory and solving the worries about the fuel to go home.

  After all, if she couldn’t go back, there would be no point in recovering the black box.

  ”You’re right, it’s not time to give up yet.” She took a deep breath and cheered up again, “The last ruins are handed over to you… You first find a way to find the entrance to the ruins, and a helper will come to assist you in two days.”

  Qiu Ling said respectfully.

  ”Yes, sir.”

  …

  The bridge of the Gemini missile cruiser was stuck on the side of a mountain. The entire semi-arc steel structure was completely turned over and leaned against the mountain.

  Due to this strange posture, the entrance of the entire ruins was completely suspended in the air. It was almost impossible to climb in without some rock climbing skills. It

  was difficult to enter this ruins, let alone explore it.

  The horizontal corridors all turned into slanted wells.

  In addition, the ancestor said that it was the most unlikely area for the existence of holy relics, so Qiu Ling did not choose this most remote wreckage as the first target for exploration.

  But now it seems that this place where it is least likely to gain something has become their last hope.

  Following the vines hanging from the steep alloy wall, Qiu Ling climbed up after a thrilling climb and finally climbed to the entrance of the Gemini bridge wreckage.

  A group of carnivorous birds built their nests in the dark cave entrance. When they saw the intruders climbing up, they all quacked and pounced on them, biting them with their claws and sharp beaks.

  Qiu Ling was caught off guard and almost fell from the cave entrance. Fortunately, the light projected by the silver metal disc scared the flock of birds, allowing him to seize the opportunity to roll into the cave, then pull out the burning fuel rod and wave it, driving the group of carnivorous birds away.

  Looking at the flock of birds quacking away, Qiu Ling finally breathed a sigh of relief.

  Those beasts will definitely come back.

  He didn’t dare to stay at the entrance for long. He took out the rope given to him by the ancestor and hung it on a solid place. Then he turned over and jumped into the corridor that was erected like a slope, and explored the interior of the bridge.

  The situation here was a mess.

  A large amount of debris blocked the entrance, so he had to rappel down while trying his best to clean up the garbage blocking the entrance.

  But while he was doing this, he accidentally discovered several suspicious details.

  At the end of the shaft, there was a pile of black charcoal.

  Someone had made a fire here!

  ”There are signs that someone has lived here…”

  Qiu Ling stretched out his index finger and picked up a bunch of carbon residue, rubbed it with his thumb, and frowned slightly.

  ”It was left behind a long time ago.”

  As for how long ago it was, he couldn’t tell.

  At this time, the silver metal disc hanging on his chest emitted a light blue beam of light, scanning the wreckage on the ground for a while, and then swept around.

  After a moment of waiting, the voice of the ancestor floated into his ears.

  ”It was left behind in the early days of the Awakening Era. It should have been shortly after the Gemini… this palace crashed into the atmosphere.”

  Qiu Ling showed a surprised expression on his face. He didn’t expect that the ancestor had such magical powers.

  However, he was only surprised for a short while, and his attention was soon attracted by the half-open alloy door on the side.

  A horizontal wooden stick supported the door panel, forming a convenient switch structure.

  He pressed the wooden stick down, then squeezed through the crack of the door sideways and entered the interior of the room. He looked around with the “never extinguished” torch and was soon shocked by the layout inside.

  This upside-down room was transformed into a living area, with wooden tables, chairs, and beds… The shape is the same as that in their tribe!

  And it is much more exquisite than what they made!

  Maybe the objects in their tribe were actually learned from here!

  ”…This is the home of the ancestor.” Qiu Ling muttered to himself, moving the light source in his hand, and soon noticed the alloy wall next to him covered with withered vines.

  There were rows of words engraved on the rusty alloy wall, but unfortunately he couldn’t understand what was written on it.

  Don’t say he couldn’t understand it.

  Even Jiang Xuezhou, who was sitting in front of the terminal on the synchronous track, couldn’t understand it.

  The baptism of time has made those words blurred and distorted, and the only remaining scribbled scratches are like ghost paintings… Maybe this is not a human language at all, but some abstract pattern or meaningless essay.

  ”What’s written on it?”

  Qiu Ling asked in a low voice, but the silver disc hanging on his chest did not answer.

  It seems that the ancestor also has something he doesn’t know.

  But at this moment, a soft voice suddenly came from behind him.

  ”I saw Him.”

  Startled by the sudden voice, Qiu Ling turned around abruptly, only to see a girl about his age standing at the entrance he had passed through before.

  ”Who?”

  ”Dora.”

  ”How did you get in–” Qiu Ling just said half of his words, suddenly stopped talking, squinting his eyes and staring at her, “You are a traitor.”

  Dora stared at him intently, without saying a word.

  Just as the atmosphere between the two sides gradually became stiff, the silver metal disc hanging on Qiu Ling’s chest suddenly let out a light cough.

  ”Don’t get excited. I asked her to come.”

  The stiff atmosphere relaxed a little.

  Although he didn’t completely let down his guard, Qiu Ling did loosen the dagger he had already grasped.

  Dora moved her eyes away from him and looked at the wall behind him.

  Following the rusty lines, she found the first line of the poem and continued to recite it in a dreamy voice.

  ”I wandered in a maze with no exit, unable to find where to go. Until I raised my head and looked up at the sky.”

  ”A pair of invisible eyes hid behind the clouds and stared at me for a long time. I finally saw Him, just like staring at the ever-changing clouds, and the clouds also stared at me, just like staring at a living mural.”

  ”We both showed surprise on our faces.”

  Qiu Ling stared at her blankly, with a confused expression on his face.

  ”What are you talking about?”

  Dora said in a quiet voice.

  ”That’s the message left by the ancestor. I can understand the symbols he left.”

  ”These characters should be a poem when put together… The poet may want to say that He is the cloud in the sky and we are the murals on the wall.”

  Qiu Ling swallowed slowly, and felt his scalp tingling.

  He heard from the elders of the tribe that the traitors in the forest are all believers of the “Tree of Insof”. And with the help of that tree, they can do some tricks.

  But that’s all they can do. No matter

  how rich the spiritual world is, it can’t make up for the shortcomings of these traitors in the material world.

  Even if these guys can talk to trees, they can’t stop the flames and swords of the Qiu Kingdom.

  Relying on the methods left by the ancestors, the national strength of the Qiu Kingdom is booming!

  Sooner or later, they will be able to restore the era before the barbaric era and return to the old days of infinite prosperity!

  And by that time, I’m afraid these traitors will still be alive in the tree!

  But…

  he has to admit that this guy is good.

  Even if he knows “beast language”, it’s not easy to climb here.

  Just as Qiu Ling was thinking this, Dora walked to the mural and stretched out her index finger to feel around the wall, and soon found the next chapter of the poem.

  ”We were all surprised. We were not supposed to meet, but we bumped into each other by accident.”

  ”He smiled and told me that the exit was not far ahead, but it would be a waste of effort to cross it, because there was a new maze ahead, extending to the end of the world, and I only had a short time left.”

  ”I asked Him how I could float in the sky like Him, and I begged Him to give me more time, but He laughed and left.”

  ”This encounter has already exhausted my life, and both He and I know that we will never see each other again.”

  Dora, who stood in front of the mural, paused for a moment after reading the poem to the end, with a hint of confusion on her face.

  ”Poet, Qiu Shiye… the fifth tribe?”

  ”What does that mean?” Qiu Ling asked hurriedly.

  Dora shook her head.

  ”I don’t know… maybe it’s the name of the ancestor?”

  As she spoke, she looked at the silver disc in her hand.

  However, the silver disc did not make a sound, as if it was shocked by the story she translated.

  Most of the ancestors were slow and always lost their voices while talking. She had experienced this before, so she waited patiently.

  However, the young man standing opposite her could not wait any longer.

  It was not until then that he noticed that she was carrying something similar to his – the glowing treasure given by the ancestor.

  But these were not the main points. Qiu Ling was more concerned about the meaning of this message.

  Especially when he heard the surname of the ancestor, he could not ignore it.

  ”I mean this poem! What does he want to express? Is the exit of the maze at the end of the world? So we have to look for it outside the valley?”

  Dora’s eyebrows showed a trace of worry.

  ”I don’t know… I think maybe the whole poem itself is what the ancestor wants to express. He wants to say that he is the person in the painting, and He is the cloud in the sky. He has an uncertain and countless future, but he can’t see the road ahead. He can see everything, but he can’t do anything. He can only float in the sky and watch quietly.”

  After a pause, she continued.

  ”You are too obsessed with the only result. Not everything has a unique explanation.”

  Qiu Ling stared at her blankly, with an expression of incomprehension on his face.

  In his cognition, everything in the world has a set of accurate and correct rules, and there are also incomprehensible rules for things that are incomprehensible.

  And as they delve deeper, the “incomprehensible” part will become clearer sooner or later.

  However, this guy told him that there is no unique explanation.

  Perhaps this is the reason why they cannot reconcile with the traitors. They have fundamental differences in their understanding of the world.

  ”Maybe, but I probably understand why we still can’t understand each other after so many years…”

  Qiu Ling sighed softly, and his expression suddenly showed a touch of relief.

  Looking at the murals on the wall that he couldn’t understand, he was silent for a moment and then said.

  ”…But at least, we finally understood the revelation left by the ancestors.”

  After a pause, he retracted his gaze from the murals and looked at the girl named Dora.

  ”I will take my people to the end of the world and explore a more distant world… The holy land is no longer useful to us, I will return it to you.”

  That was something he suddenly remembered.

  A long time ago, when the forbidden forest was not as dangerous as it is now, the clans of Qiu State would go to this relic to worship their ancestors on the second day of judgment every year.

  And the Senate was formed in the process of worshiping ancestors.

  Since then, an unwritten rumor has been circulating in Qiu State.

  Their ancestor, the ancestor surnamed Qiu, left a fable belonging to them in the ruins.

  If anyone can understand that fable, he can become the leader of Qiu State! Become the “king” who commands hundreds of clans!

  Now he came here under the guidance of the ancestor, and the Senate has witnessed the miracle of the silver metal disc in his hand.

  When he leaves here with the information on the mural, he will be the undisputed king of Qiu State!

  ”But where is the end of the world?”

  Dora looked at Qiu Ling, with a hint of reluctance in her crescent-like eyebrows.

  ”Since the ancestor came from heaven, even if you measure the earth with your feet, there is a world outside the earth… that is a place that you can never reach with your feet alone.”

  In her opinion, it was too pitiful to spend a lifetime doing a meaningless thing.

  In fact, they still have another choice, that is, to accept each other and become a family again.

  However, this is just her idea.

  Things that seem meaningless to her may not be so in the eyes of others.

  Besides, he also recognizes the reality.

  They are destined to be different.

  ”Then go to the end of my life and go to where I can go.” Qiu Ling smiled faintly and continued without thinking, “As for the world outside the earth, my descendants will see it for me.”

  That is his destiny. It is

  also the destiny of all “Qiu people”.

  They are born to go farther and find the end of the world!

  Just like their ancestors.

  The world that he has no chance to see, he and his descendants will see it for him!

  Dora stared at the young man in front of her in a daze, and finally said nothing more.

  As she said herself, not everything has a unique understanding.

  Everything has its own laws of operation, but whether it has “meaning” is determined by people.

  He realized his “meaning”, and that was the “self” that the “Qiu people” had been looking for.

  Suddenly, she could not see his future.

  I don’t know when, the bond between them has quietly disappeared.

  Qiu Ling looked at the girl in front of him solemnly and nodded slightly.

  That was the highest etiquette in this forest and valley, except for kneeling.

  ”Thank you for telling me the name of my ancestor and the words on the tombstone… We will never see each other again.”

  After saying that, he took off the silver metal disc hanging around his neck and gently placed it on the table beside him.

  He has fulfilled his promise and found the last relic in the entire quiet forest.

  If there is no relic, it can only mean that the holy object has never been here from the beginning.

  As for now, he must save his people and take them out of this valley!

  Dora watched his back until he disappeared behind the half-open door.

  Her intuition told her that maybe things are not so absolute, and their descendants will meet again.

  However, that will be a matter of who knows how many millennia…

  In

  the synchronous orbit, on the bridge of the Orion missile cruiser, Jiang Xuezhou, who was sitting in front of the terminal, took a deep breath and remained silent for a long time.

  ”The fifth tribe…”

  What fifth tribe…

  It clearly said “five tribes”!

  As for that Qiu Shiye, it is estimated that he is a physicist of the five tribes, just like Wu Xinghuan of the Orion.

  It’s just that the former’s action is obviously much stronger. Not only did he lead a group of primitive people who had not awakened psychic power to burn the first “sacred tree”, but he also almost killed the psychic awakeners who supported another group of crew members.

  This guy is definitely a lunatic!

  It’s possible that the Gemini was smashed down by him in order to destroy the “sacred tree”!

  Of course, he may not really think of killing those psychic awakeners. After all, there are still many “traitors” who escaped into the forest and developed into the current forest tribe.

  If he really kills them all, there is no need to give special instructions, just turn a blind eye is enough.

  With the cruelty and barbarity of primitive people, it is impossible to leave any survivors.

  Even in the early days of slavery, slaves were not used as labor, but as human sacrifices and living sacrifices.

  As for the so-called “Second Judgment Day” and “You are from heaven” by the locals… that series of fables from the Tree of Insof, I am afraid they are all “spoilers” told by Him to those who can hear His whispers.

  Of course, due to the limitations of their vision, those primitive people can only understand this.

  Jiang Xuezhou still remembered that it was mentioned in Ye Shi’s report that the crew of the Gemini had clearly explained Him using the dimensional theory.

  However, since those primitive people could not understand the concept of dimension, they actively abandoned those overly advanced theories, and instead used primitive worship and more abstract “higher existence” to understand the Tree of Insof.

  This can already be regarded as a typical case of failed enlightenment.

  ”The clouds in the sky, the paintings on the wall… too abstract, does he want to express that he is a high-dimensional creature? Or does he just want to express that he is an outsider…”

  Thinking of an old man curled up in the ruins, holding a green crystal and writing poems on a steel plate, Jiang Xuezhou suddenly felt a little sympathetic to that guy.

  He was probably crazy at the last moment of his life, and even forgot his identity as a physicist.

  Of course, maybe this information was not originally left for the “earthlings”, but for the locals who visited the ruins later-even the descendants of the psychic awakeners who were once driven into the forest by him.

  The most direct evidence is that this poem was not written in human language at all.

  Perhaps it was out of repentance after a sudden awakening, or perhaps it was out of helplessness and compromise with reality. In short, there was nothing wrong with his choice. After all, from his perspective, the situation on Earth might not be more optimistic than that on Gaia.

  Jiang Xuezhou tried to deduce from his perspective.

  The 17 crew members who left the Gemini were obviously opposed to the “Final Battle” plan.

  From their perspective, the “Final Battle” plan was probably successful. The Gemini crew members who “predicted the Orion’s prediction in advance” had uploaded the virus to the Orion’s shipboard server and reshuffled the Earth’s ecosystem.

  No one could have imagined that an unknown power engineer would pull the switch at the last minute and put the “Final Battle” plan on hold for 215 years.

  If this is the case, from Dr. Qiu Shiye’s point of view, the little green people on Gaia are the only bloodline of mankind left in this universe.

  He can only use more easily understandable pictographic patterns to leave the information he has spent his entire life to future archaeologists before his life is about to come to an end.

  After reviewing this buried history, Jiang Xuezhou’s mood was also complicated.

  She successfully recovered the research results of Dr. Qiu Shiye, but the most critical reactor was gone.

  ”…Did they move that thing away? This is too strange.”

  Staring at the picture on the holographic screen, Jiang Xuezhou whispered.

  The boy named Qiu Ling had already left, and she did not speak to keep him.

  Because there was no need.

  Since he was determined to leave with his people, this prehistoric war of primitive people would surely end soon.

  The forest people would return to their holy land to declare victory, and the valley people would embark on the migration road with the fables of their ancestors. This planet is vast and their future is bright.

  Next, Tunnan would probably personally apologize to Ye Shi, and then search the entire forest to find the lost reactor and the helium-3 reserves on the reactor for them.

  If they still couldn’t find it until the end, they could only make plans to spend the rest of their lives on this strange planet. They

  couldn’t expect the primitive people to refine helium-3 for them.

  ”Respected Ancestor… What should we do now?” Standing in front of the silver metal disc, Dora’s face was full of confusion and hesitation.

  She vaguely realized that she seemed to have successfully helped her tribe avoid a bloody ending, and even took back their holy land without bloodshed.

  However, there were still many things she didn’t understand.

  Including the poem.

  Including the murals and clouds described in the poem.

  Jiang Xuezhou, who was sitting in front of the terminal, took a sip of the coffee cup, but didn’t say much to her.

  Sometimes being too smart is not a good thing.

  For example, the boy named Qiu Ling is very good, just smart enough, and he also learned just enough from the murals.

  That is the best result.

  ”Don’t think too much. Primitive people should do their job as primitive people. If I must give you a piece of advice, you’d better spend some time studying the stars, figure out the calendar, and then figure out your own language and come up with writing.”

  ”Even if you are determined to abandon writing and language in the future, I think it’s better to invent them first. Otherwise, before you find a way to awaken your spiritual power stably, you will be eliminated by your competitors on the same planet.” Did

  I say too much?

  This should have been something they themselves summarized from the twists and turns of history.

  But it seems that there is no point in saying this now.

  Jiang Xuezhou coughed lightly, interrupting Dora’s thoughts.

  ”… Let’s not talk about those things. Tell your leader for me. Just say that the arrow of judgment has been drawn. If he doesn’t want to see the sacred tree of Doma City reduced to ashes in the flames, he should stay put for seven days and let those ‘criminals’ leave… This is a punishment for his arrogance in imprisoning the ancestor.”

  She couldn’t really release neutron torpedoes on a group of innocent civilians, but there was no problem with strategic intimidation.

  The people in the valley were going to withdraw anyway, and Tunnan didn’t need to take risks after weighing the pros and cons.

  Dora took note of this advice and continued to ask hurriedly.

  ”Can you… take me to the sky?”

  She knew it was a presumptuous request, but she couldn’t help but ask it.

  The future king of the Qiu people understood the mission of the Qiu people from the poem, and she also understood her own things.

  They were going to the end of the world, to conquer the maze under their feet, and to find the exit of the maze.

  And the children of the Tree of Insof were going to go to the sky and become the clouds floating above the maze.

  Hearing the pleading voice, Jiang Xuezhou yawned.

  She could guess what Dora was thinking.

  This little girl probably made a metaphysical mistake, mistaking the ancestor from the sky for the cloud in the poem.

  In fact, it was not.

  They were also people in the maze, but they walked farther, so that as a primitive person, she seemed to be standing on the cloud.

  There was no “Tree of Insof” on the earth, and it was unclear whether there would be anyone in the future, but at least in the future that Jiang Xuezhou could foresee, the wastelanders who inherited the Human Union would most likely devote more energy to the material maze.

  However, if she herself had that intention, bringing her back to Earth might be a good choice.

  At least this would help the reborn human civilization understand other dimensions outside of itself, as well as new laws that were originally unknown.

  Thinking of this, Jiang Xuezhou’s heart moved slightly, and a mischievous smile appeared on his face.

  Anyway, it was a decision, so why not take this opportunity to test someone.

  ”Ahem, it’s not that easy to go to heaven… But seeing that you are sincere, I will show you a way out of my pity.”

  ”The ancestor imprisoned by your chief is actually a very important person. He can decide who to take away from the mortal world.”

  ”If you really want to go to heaven, go and ask him for help!”

  (End of this chapter)