Ancient Civilization, Fuxi

As the boy carried the girl across the lake, he also swept the hot water from below into the air nearby. The extreme temperature difference created water vapor and ice crystals that filled the surrounding area, making the skin and spring scenery of the girl in his arms even more hazy.

But under the frigid cold, the veil of mist quickly vanished, revealing her bare skin in the icy world. Her pale, almost colorless hair fell to the slightly warm surface of the lake, creating ripples.

On the other side, the Nuclear Submarine slowly surfaced. Su Qing'an silently chose to walk from the surface of the lake to its side, but she still couldn't escape the strange sense of presence and atmosphere.

The fairy's snow-white eyelashes fluttered, and her pure white, silvery eyes stared directly at Su Qing'an's face, reflecting his dark pupils, without revealing the slightest emotion.

It's a wonderful experience; just being near her makes you feel peaceful and serene.

From that pure and immense soul, the boy could also sense an incomprehensible depth and tranquility.

He was overwhelmed by the solemnity, holiness, and boundless tenderness emanating from it.

The ability to observe the soul seemed to amplify the relevant senses at this moment. Su Qing'an heard the sound of the waves crashing in her ears, her consciousness wavered for a moment, and her expression became stunned.

In an instant, he realized a reality: he simply couldn't regard the being in his arms as a real child.

Su Qing'an couldn't help but ask:

"What do you?"

This is a very strange question.

Only after the question reached her ears did the "fairy's" eyes, which had been glancing at the sky, begin to focus on the being that held her own essence.

She could sense something instinctively abhorrent within the body of this life form; though very faint, it was as vivid as ink spots on rice paper, impossible to ignore.

Yet at the same time, in those gaps, one can witness a radiance that instinctively feels pleasing.

So, the girl chose to answer.

"Humanity."

The concise answer was exactly what I expected.

Su Qing'an could understand the irrefutable evidence that the other party was human. Whether it was the touch of the skin, the flow of blood, the existence of temperature, or even the existence of the soul itself, all of these proved this reality without exception.

Perhaps even he himself doesn't understand why he asked such a question.

"Name?" he continued.

The "fairy" didn't care about her barely clothed state; she was simply sifting through the vast amount of information in her mind to find the answer to the question posed. Finally, her gaze settled on that face, and she arrived at the most suitable answer:

"Fuxi."

Upon hearing the name she mentioned, Su Qing'an confirmed it:

"Your name is Fuxi?"

Fuxi did not respond further. After instinctively filtering the information in his mind, the enormous vortex that naturally gathered would engulf him, isolating him from the chaos of the outside world.

The boy didn't mind her silence; the origin and history of this name existed in his memory.

That is part of the ancient Shenzhou mythology, with countless branches that appear, and it is difficult to verify which answer is considered absolutely correct.

At this moment, the first person Su Qing'an thought of was Fuxi, the first human created by Nuwa, just like Adam created by God, both representing the earliest and most primitive existence.

For some reason, he felt strangely that the name suited the girl in front of him exceptionally well.

Su Qing'an subconsciously wanted to continue asking questions because there were too many illogical and incomprehensible aspects to her existence.

But he quickly realized that her posture was not suitable for a normal conversation.

Thus, under the control of his mind, the nano-armor naturally allocated a portion of its material to the girl's body, transforming it into soft fabric that concealed the color of her skin and her youthful tenderness.

Su Qing'an asked for her advice:

"Shall we talk somewhere else?"

Fuxi gazed at the distant sky, as if seeing the outside world for the first time, his eyes filled with a sense of vastness.

The Honkai Energy amounts of Honkai energy around her gradually spread towards the Frozen Lake, which was originally Pure Land, like a tide. She instinctively sensed this phenomenon, her silver eyes lowered, and the mysterious force field that had previously disappeared was able to unfold again under this innate aversion.

The area within ten meters of him became a purified zone once again, and all molecular-level Honkai Energy was completely wiped out.

Sensing the Honkai Energy Domain forcibly banished ten meters away, the fluctuating sword heart, and the Black Abyss White Flower whose aura had become obscure within the scabbard, Su Qing'an couldn't help but continue asking:

"Is this a capability you can control?"

There has still been no response.

Her eyes were fixed on some unknown place, so empty and ethereal, like an old instrument that had been stuck in a long-term malfunction.

The boy vaguely sensed that Fuxi might have entered a state where communication was nearly impossible.

If she is a human who has been sleeping beneath the ice for a long time, it is not incomprehensible that her thinking is prone to fragmentation.

No matter how powerful the soul may be, its consciousness can still be altered by various encounters.

Even if I had preferred to wallow in that dream two weeks ago, the strength of my soul would not have been an obstacle to my escape.

Therefore, Su Qing'an could only put his doubts aside for the time being. He did not have the luxury or time to choose to reunite with Fu Hua first. Fuxi's existence represented almost new hope, but also meant endless mysteries.

The world is vast, and encountering the unknown is never a rare thing, but what we are seeing and hearing now far exceeds normal logic and imagination.

Su Qing'an, through Prometheus as a channel and witness, informed Mei and asked her to find a place that could accommodate the other party.

Fuxi possesses the domineering ability to purify Honkai Energy and even completely erase anything associated with it.

Even though there is a clear upper limit, the various Moth to Fire branches and multiple bases have implemented large-scale technologies highly integrated with Honkai Energy, making these areas unsuitable for containing such beings.

In every sense, at this stage where civilization and Honkai are so closely intertwined in order to resist calamity, if Fuxi's power cannot be restrained, it will only cause greater harm.

This is a double-edged sword.

Su Qing'an recalled the detail of how, not long ago, during the rescue, a few drops of blood fell onto the Black Abyss White Flower, causing the Herrscher Core to tremble, and her gaze narrowed slightly.

Fuxi was a purely human being, a fact definitively proven by Prometheus's examination and his own observation.

The fact that she is human is very important; it is arguably the key reason why I have to take it seriously.

Those few drops of blood indirectly prove that, regardless of the origin of Fuxi's abilities, she will be the best subject of study.

If we proceed gradually, find the source of this purifying power, and pass this ability on to the next generation, the so-called Honkai Energy filtering will collapse on its own, and the tragedy that has plagued humanity to this day can be averted.

This is a result that even the most powerful force could not achieve, which shows how important the person in his arms is.

Mei's reply arrived half a minute later; she was always very efficient.

There are quite a few semi-abandoned bases located in the Antarctic Circle. These are all products left over from later generations of the United Nations, and they do not seem too shabby as shelters.

Due to the special nature of its inhabitants, the surveillance and defense technologies employed will adhere to the standards of previous generations.

Out of caution and for convenience, Mei will conduct continuous observations and research through remote control equipment.

The existence of Fuxi will be a top priority for secrecy, and the matter of the Frozen Lake cannot be told to anyone for the time being.

Su Qing'an sent Fu Hua a message, instructing her to prepare to board the vehicle that was about to be sent and return to Brisbane.

He then carried Fuxi to a nearby semi-abandoned base.

However, since her abilities are constantly at work, carrying her while traveling would be much slower than before.

After all, [Thousand Stars], which requires Honkai Energy to recreate the internal and external circulation structure, cannot be used while holding the other party, and the position of constantly expelling Honkai Energy further interferes with his flight.

After understanding the scope of this field, Su Qing'an chose to place Fuxi in the control room of the Nuclear Submarine, while he himself dragged the heavy underwater vehicle from the outside. This method of traveling was more efficient than the other way around.

The existence of Fuxi made him realize once again a problem that had been bothering him for a long time.

Can the power of Honkai truly defeat Honkai?

So far, most of Su Qing'an's efforts and accumulations, and even the things others have given him at the cost of their lives, have only become valuable because they are built upon the existence of Honkai. The advancement of his own combat power is also closely related to this.

If the Honkai Consciousness could do something similar, then everything he had come this far would be like a rock pillar turning to sand in the wind, utterly vulnerable.

The boy, wielding Honkai Energy, surpassed the limits of his physical capabilities, tearing apart the intangible and colorless, leaving behind the howling wind. His eyes were lowered, his lips parted slightly:

"Pure... martial arts."

"Teacher, is there really a road beyond that?"

Su Qing'an never gave up honing his martial arts skills, but throughout the many years of this world timeline, his efforts yielded no results whatsoever.

The limits he could reach in pure martial arts were still less than the destructive Honkai Energy created by a chain reaction of Honkai energy the size of a drop of water.

Immortal Chi Yuan, who has honed his martial arts skills over thousands of years, cannot surpass his current level of mastery in the true sense of martial arts.

This is not only because of his extraordinary talent, but more importantly because no one has been able to reach the path above it.

No one in this world can transcend the mundane and ascend to immortality in the martial arts realm.

Those at the very top might be called immortals by those who don't know the full extent of their existence, but those who reside in that realm know all too well how unbreakable those constraints are.

The Immortal Chi Yuan had long since stopped at that threshold, and from then on, he made no further progress in pure martial arts.

Therefore, Su Qing'an, as a later arrival, did not transcend those thousands of years, but only the years before she stopped at the threshold.

The immortal techniques that the immortals researched in the later years were essentially the manipulation and application of Honkai Energy. They may have also incorporated the power given by the Fusion Gene, but ultimately they could not escape the constraints and had completely lost any trace of martial arts.

The problem that the man had failed to solve even after five thousand years is one that I would find difficult to solve with such a short span of time.

Su Qing'an lacked confidence, but she wouldn't choose to give up.

He inherited all the essence of the Immortal Chi Yuan's martial arts, and this legacy and inheritance is itself the reason to move forward.

Now that the fire has been started, let it burn as brightly as possible.

That gradually settling light and warmth will ultimately not be meaningless.

After initial upgrades to all equipment and instruments, the experiment is scheduled to proceed gradually.

Based on existing information, it is speculated that Fuxi possessed at least basic language communication skills.

The first sentence Su Qing'an used to communicate with him was the official language that would later be passed down to Shenzhou, and the second sentence was the official language of Iceland at this stage, yet he responded to both in the same language.

Although his subsequent attempts to probe failed to elicit a response, he still believed that Fuxi likely possessed an extremely rich linguistic ability.

This alone is enough to completely overturn the possibility that it was uncivilized.

The Honkai has a history of over a hundred years, and the previously Frozen Lake, due to their interesting natural phenomena, have not been unexplored.

Historical monitoring reports of this Frozen Lake indicate that a similar phenomenon did not occur approximately 57 years ago.

Using this point to rule out the possibility that Fuxi did not exist beneath the Frozen Lake before this point is not a feasible reason.

The mechanism of [Purification] is unknown. Judging from the phenomenon that it was eliminated for a period of time before, it is reasonable that Fuxi did not activate this ability even though he was buried in the ice of the rock layer.

Mei made many hypotheses about this, one of which is that Fuxi came from ancient times.

That is, the civilization that was destroyed by the Honkai.

Long ago, the Moth to Fire organization discussed whether Honkai was the first time in human history.

Or perhaps this is truly the first time it has appeared in the field of civilization's view, but what if this large-scale mechanism for selecting civilizations had already successfully selected another ancient civilization before?

That might be a more technologically advanced human civilization, which also struggled against the Honkai, fighting desperately on the front lines for their own artifacts, squeezing the last potential and everything of their entire race, just to drive out the Honkai.

But they failed.

Thus, the civilization we know today came into being.

No one can rule out such a possibility, because the years are too long and the cleansing of the Honkai is enough to obliterate any trace of its past.

Even after Mei had developed the linking technology of the Sea of Quantum to a mature stage and explored and searched for it without success, she did not rule out this possibility.

After all, there's a high possibility that the previous civilization, if it truly existed, didn't develop the relevant technology. The path of science can branch out into countless streams and rivers; who can be certain that they would necessarily develop this technology?

Moreover, no one knows for sure what stage that civilization, even if it truly existed, was Honkai by the Honkai.

If they hadn't been able to withstand the first few Herrscher, it's probably not surprising that they wouldn't have had time to study the Sea of Quantum.

Not every civilization can have such outstanding and brilliant researchers as Mei; the existence of technology cannot prove anything.

But if a civilization leaves no trace, then whether it ever existed is actually not important.

Many within the Moth to Fire hope that the hypothesis of an ancient civilization will hold true, as this would mean the possibility of gaining access to the experiences of their predecessors and various information about the Honkai. Given their current precarious situation, this naturally gives them a great deal of confidence.

At this stage, although the appearance of Fuxi is illogical and inexplicable, it precisely meets people's desire for another civilization.

That is, mysterious.

It is common sense that things originating from ancient civilizations are incomprehensible; rather, it is more accurate to say that technologies and legacies that are perfectly comprehensible are precisely useless.

In fact, Mei had initially suspected that Su Qing'an might be a surviving human from an ancient civilization.

Artificial Stigmata, advanced human manipulation of Honkai Energy technology, unknown and mysterious origins, extensive knowledge of Honkai, and information and data about future Herrscher —these elements can actually be explained by the inheritors of ancient civilizations.

Moreover, this hypothesis is much more credible than the idea of another world.

However, given that the prototype of the World Bubble technology has already emerged in recent days, and given that Su Qing'an really had no reason to lie, Mei has gradually eliminated this thought from her mind.

The appearance of Fuxi now undoubtedly fits this hypothesis.

Furthermore, given that Mei had already made similar speculations about Su Qing'an and had learned from such a precedent, she naturally believed that there was a high probability that Fuxi was a remnant of an ancient civilization.

Logically speaking, there are very few other possibilities that could explain the current state of Fuxi's existence.

Mei stared at the image on the screen, remaining silent.

Fuxi resides on the third underground level of the base, some of which resembles the entertainment venues on a luxury cruise ship, with intelligent robots on standby to guide visitors.

It also includes a three-bedroom, one-living-room space as a substitute for home, complete with all necessary items and corresponding audio explanations.

On the same floor, there is also a series of corresponding testing equipment and experimental devices, responsible for detailed daily investigations.

During the half-month observation, the girl was like a mindless doll, manipulated at will. Apart from automatically deploying her [purification] domain to completely strip away all Honkai Energy in the area around her, she had no autonomous actions.

The research has made zero progress.

Even though Fuxi's blood had the effect of expelling Honkai, it was observed by instruments to be no different from ordinary blood, and her own medical examination report showed nothing unusual.

Mei attempted to glean some information and his true origins from him, but due to his stubborn, doll-like, wooden demeanor, no gentle methods could achieve any communication with him.

Fuxi does not need to eat; no matter how much of her hair was sampled and cut or how much blood was extracted, it would return to its original state in a short time.

The medical report clearly shows that he is a human being in the purest sense, but these abnormalities are undoubtedly things that no human could have done.

Mei gazed through the light screen at those silvery-white eyes and murmured:

"You're bleeding, but not frostbitten?"

She recalled all the details Su Qing'an had described and the images recorded by Prometheus, and vaguely understood something in her heart.

Perhaps...