Chapter 162

"Isn't 80% a bit too much?"

Su hadn't fully recovered from the shock she'd just experienced when she was stunned by what Ai Yue said, "I thought the limit was fifty percent."

Although he said such things, Su was actually quite fast at flipping through the data. According to the data, all the known abilities could be resisted and optimized by the third-generation Soul Steel. Of course, considering that the metal itself was very effective against the power of some of the Herrscher, the data was not particularly exaggerated...

No, wait, all the Herrscher?

"Besides that, there are other things that haven't been tested yet."

Seeing Su's somewhat absent-minded expression, Ai Yue had to pat him on the shoulder to wake him up, "Don't forget why I called you here."

Su couldn't help but look at him silently. "You still haven't told me what you asked me to help with."

Didn't I say so?

Ai Yue blinked, then turned his head away nonchalantly, "It's not a big problem, it's the same to talk about it now."

As he spoke, he walked behind the metal ingot and beckoned to Su: "Come on, use your abilities to interfere with me through this metal ingot."

"Oh."

Su subconsciously agreed, then realized, "It can even defend against mental energy?"

No wonder the test data just now included data on the Eighth Herrscher.

"That's the theory, but we haven't tested it yet."

Ai Yue shrugged. "At present, we can only say that the third-generation Soul Steel can indeed interfere with mental power, but it is still uncertain whether it can detect hostility."

"Distinguish hostility..."

Su was momentarily at a loss for words to express her feelings. "It's just a piece of metal. Shouldn't we not have too high expectations? Even humans, without professional training, can't distinguish hostility."

"In theory, machines are even better at distinguishing hostility than humans, because the wave frequencies emitted by mental energy carrying different emotions are also different. You are a mental perception type, you haven't forgotten that, have you?"

Ai Yue shrugged and explained briefly, "In short, don't worry, it's not like I can't stop it."

As he spoke, he showed the other person the Herrscher Core on his gauntlet.

If it weren't for the need to identify a specific target to release hostility, this experiment wouldn't have required Sue's help at all.

"I see."

Su nodded, no longer dwelling on it, and then opened his eyes to look at the metal ingot in front of him.

To be honest, given Ai Yue's status in his heart and his own personality, it was really difficult for Su to feel any hostility towards the person in front of him. So, after a long time of preparation, Su finally found a bit of a feeling.

Immediately afterwards, he frowned slightly and let out a soft exclamation.

When the mental energy passed through the metal ingot, it did indeed feel a kind of obscure and difficult feedback, just like a normal human walking normally encountering a narrow gap and having to carefully squeeze through it sideways.

This feeling is truly unprecedented.

Su didn't know how to describe his feelings at that moment, because he had never encountered such a situation before.

Although there are still many secrets in the realm of the mind waiting to be discovered, one thing is certain: only living beings possess the concept of "mind," and inanimate objects, even Artificial Intelligence that has come incredibly close to humans in terms of thought, logic, and emotions, do not possess such a thing.

Spiritual power, on the other hand, originates from the power of the mind. It is something that only living beings can possess, and conversely, only living beings have the ability to interfere with or come into contact with spiritual power.

In other words, nothing other than living beings has the ability to even come into contact with spiritual energy. The limit of human science is merely the ability to observe the wave frequencies emitted by spiritual energy.

But the metal ingot in front of him completely overturned Su's understanding. He did not sense any trace of spiritual power on the metal ingot, but when he controlled his spiritual power to penetrate the other party, he actually felt the restriction. This situation even made him a little dazed.

What puzzled him even more was that after continuously releasing his power on Ai Yue for more than thirty seconds, the sensation he felt actually intensified.

If before it was just a narrow gap that forced people to squeeze through sideways, now Su felt as if she had crawled through a dog hole, and could only crawl on the ground to get through.

The third-generation Soul Steel can not only truly limit the penetration of mental energy, but it can also optimize itself to further limit the penetrability of mental energy waves.

If this performance can also achieve the "80% improvement" mentioned by Ai Yue, then the third-generation Soul Steel, under absolutely ideal conditions, can almost withstand the abilities of 95% of the Mental Perception Fused Warrior.

"It seems to be effective."

Ai Yue didn't even need to look at the test results; he already knew everything from Su's expression. "How are you feeling?"

"I really want to say 'This is not scientific'."

Su quickly composed himself and shook his head slightly in response to Ai Yue's teasing. "But considering that such a product is your work, it doesn't seem so surprising."

It can only be said that Ai Yue is indeed a magical person. As long as he is involved, people will find it easier to accept anything that is unreasonable.

More than anything else, Su was now concerned about something else. "Will the production process of this third-generation Soul Steel be complicated?"

If such a terrifyingly powerful alloy could be implemented on a large scale—no, even if it were only supplied to the first generation of Fused Warrior first—it would be a huge boost to humanity's combat power.

"Well, it's definitely not simple."

Ai Yue subconsciously glanced around the laboratory. "However, if it's just a small supply, it's not a big problem for the time being."

As a revolutionary product, the third-generation Soul Steel not only boasts ultimate performance but also increases manufacturing costs. Even disregarding raw materials, the normal manufacturing process alone requires more than 300 steps, and each step demands extremely high precision. A slight mistake would mean all previous efforts were wasted.

Of course, Ai Yue can temporarily make up for it through the system, and given some time, he will also be able to develop a solution to simplify the production process, so these are not problems.

"In short, let's build a box first."

Putting aside the tedious work ahead for the moment, Ai Yue picked up the metal ingot and started playing with it. "By the way, I remember you came to see me in the first place. Is there something you need?"

"It's Aponia who's looking for you,"

Sue then remembered something. "She said she had something to tell you about the 'Finality'."

Ai Yue's hand froze in mid-air. "Why didn't you say so sooner?"

A large question mark suddenly appeared above Su's head.

Did you give me a chance?

Chapter Thirty-Five: It's time to make a pair of scissors.

When Ai Yue and Su returned to the central hall of the lunar research base, everyone had already gathered there, waiting for their arrival.

Although everyone's expression was different, they all revealed the same emotion—solemnity.

Even Pardofelis sat properly in her chair, looking deep in thought, as if pondering some major issue that would affect the fate of humanity.

"What's wrong? Why do you all look so gloomy?"

Although he had already heard snippets of information from Su, Ai Yue still said with a smile, "I just heard about it, something about the Finality, but where did you get this news from?"

"These are murals we discovered in the ruins."

Eden showed the information from the mural to Ai Yue, saying, "According to Nia, it may contain some secrets about the Honkai."

"Above the Herrscher, there exists a special being that is the origin and end of all calamities. Its appearance signifies the Finality of civilization."

Aponia said slowly, "The so-called Honkai is what spread to the world from its hands."

Ai Yue stared at the mural in front of him, speechless for a moment.

He hadn't told anyone about the Cocoon of Finality, so he was genuinely surprised when he first heard about Finality.

However, upon calm reflection, it seems that this is indeed the right time to make the matter of the Cocoon of Finality public—at least it should be clarified at a meeting of the high-level members of the Moth to Fire.

After all, they have already defeated eleven Herrscher. If they can defeat the twelfth Herrscher, then they will face the Herrscher of Finality.

Although he suspected that Dr. Mei had already deduced this fact through research, now that there was concrete evidence, it was clearly no longer appropriate to keep it a secret.

Of course, before that, Ai Yue had more important things to do.

"Ai Yue?"

Seemingly noticing Ai Yue's distraction, Aponia stopped and looked at him. "Do you have any other ideas?"

"He probably already knew."

Before Ai Yue could respond, Mobius chimed in, "Moreover, proving the authenticity of the mural's content is still a problem, isn't it?"

As a scholar, Mobius's first reaction to such information was to question it—in her view, information that has not been verified cannot be accepted as truth in its entirety.

As for information that is difficult to verify, Mobius also had his own methods. "Ai Yue, do you think the content of this mural is credible?"

Clearly, in Mobius's view, if Ai Yue, then it was true.

Aponia couldn't help but look at Ai Yue —she couldn't prove whether the message conveyed in the mural was entirely true to reality, although her intuition told her that the content was trustworthy, but such a claim was clearly not enough to convince everyone.

Or rather, "her intuition" couldn't convince everyone.

"I believe you,"

In response to Mobius's question, Ai Yue nodded slightly, "I obtained the information on this through other means, and its credibility is quite high—at least the part about 'the Finality' is true."

"Then I'm all set."

Mobius nodded readily. "Aponia, you can continue."

"Wait, I have a question,"

Su spoke up from the side, "Doctor Ai Yue, I'm not questioning you, but I still want to know, what exactly are these other methods you mentioned?"

"Of course, it's when I become the Eleventh Herrscher."

Ai Yue said casually, "The powers of all Herrscher actually come from the same source. This source didn't have a specific concept before, but I think what Aponia called 'the Finality' is quite apt."

"You've never mentioned this before, have you?"

Mobius, standing to the side, couldn't help but stare at Ai Yue. "Also, I'd like to confirm, if these powers are indeed considered to be granted to certain humans by a higher-dimensional being, then will it lose its own related abilities by giving away these powers?"

"Well, I hope that's the case too."

Ai Yue shook his head. "But unfortunately, we can't approach such a being with that mindset."

Ai Yue understood Mobius's thoughts. The other party clearly hoped that the Herrscher that humans had already defeated could weaken the so-called "Finality" ability, thus gaining some advantage in the final battle.

However, the reality is that the power displayed by the Herrscher of Finality is a hundred times stronger than the previous twelve Herrscher combined.

It is an enemy that human civilization can never defeat head-on. In other words, from the moment the other side begins to interfere with human civilization, this cycle of despair is destined to continue forever until a miracle occurs.

Ai Yue couldn't help but think of Elysia's existence—clearly, not every generation of human civilization will produce Elysia. Her existence is less a miracle and more a hope left behind by the previous civilization after its struggle, just like the Moth to Fire preserved for future generations of human civilization.

From this perspective, perhaps this is actually what the Cocoon of Finality expects—in the endless cycle, generation after generation of human civilization, through this moving relay, finally completed the originally impossible task, successfully overcame the test left by the Cocoon of Finality, and broke this cycle.

Unfortunately, because of his presence this time, the Cocoon of the Cocoon of Finality is destined to fail.

"In short, 'The Finality' is definitely the most powerful enemy that humanity has ever faced."

Once he regained his senses, Ai Yue said, "I hope that none of you here will have any wishful thinking. Let's proceed with the subsequent work with the expectation that it is 'a hundred times stronger than the Eleventh Herrscher '."

"Then what's the point of working?"

Mobius couldn't help but say, "Being ten times stronger than the Eleventh Herrscher is enough to wipe out the entire Moth to Fire, but a hundred times stronger? I'm afraid it could stand on the moon and wash the entire surface of the Earth, right?"

It must be said that although this was Mobius's complaint, it inadvertently revealed the truth—in the original storyline, the Herrscher of Finality did indeed stand on the moon and directly cleanse the entire surface of the Earth to restart the cycle of reincarnation.

"Complaining is one thing, but the work still needs to be done."

In response to Mobius's complaints, Ai Yue only used cruel words to provoke him, "Aponia, besides that, is there any other information on the murals worth noting?"

"According to the mural, before the Finality comes, humanity will experience thirteen calamities brought by dark meteors."

Aponia said, "However, if we consider each meteor as the birth of a Herrscher, then the content of the mural obviously cannot correspond to the Herrscher we have encountered."

In the mural, the disasters caused by each meteor are different, but if viewed in order, they are clearly quite different from the Herrscher they encountered.

"This kind of thing is also easy to explain."

Su said from the side, "Based on the patterns we've summarized so far, the Herrscher will obviously make certain targeted changes based on humanity's countermeasures, so it's very likely that each civilization will face a different Herrscher."

"But the total number of Herrscher shouldn't change, right?"

Eden said, "So, we still have to face the threat of two Herrscher?"

"That's how it seems at the moment, but it's hard to say for sure."

Ai Yue nodded and said vaguely, "However, having a clear goal is still very important. At least we can be sure that the Finality will not come before then."

"Besides that, there's the 'thread of fate'."

Seeing that everyone had briefly ended their discussion, Aponia continued, "According to the mural, the 'Threads of Fate' is a manifestation of the Finality's control over human civilization. If it cannot be severed, then humanity will be unable to break free from the Finality's shackles."

"The threads of fate, isn't that the one you can see?"

Mobius frowned and said, "But how can we cut these things? We can't even see them, let alone touch them."

"In fact, we may not need to do anything special."

Aponia smiled faintly, then looked at Ai Yue beside her, "As long as Ai Yue is here, the day when we break free from the threads of fate will come sooner or later."