Terra's Heart (22, Please Vote for Monthly Tickets!)

"Go to sleep."

Walking forward, Ian patted the little girl's soul on the head and said softly, "Rest well... If you don't want to wake up, then sleep forever in this virtual underworld."

"This is one of the few things I can do for you."

Yes... our Undead Monarch.

Dimly visible, the white souls surrounding Ian bowed to him: Thank you for finding us a brand-new home.

Then, guided by the two souls at the front, they sank into the Origin Matter computing chip.

They began their long-awaited "rest."

"This is the approach used by the Blazing Flame Lands' construct knights: using artificial vessels in place of flesh to store human souls."

Ian watched the souls forming the Undead Monarch's mark sink into the computational core, a faint smile on his face. "We discussed it before—an artificial underworld. A shelter for its inhabitants, paired with artificial souls."

"Back then, we said we would build enormous artificial underworlds around energy furnaces to ensure their safety... But those were only temporary shelters. Those artificial underworlds were incomplete. The computational core in my hands is, theoretically, the most complete one."

"Adalbert, souls can sleep here."

With his back to the crimson underworld core, Ian spread his arms toward the white-haired Undead Monarch and calmly asked, "What do you want to do?"

"At last..."

Faced with Ian's gesture, Adalbert's expression, after the initial shock, was filled with relief. "At last, I can let go..."

"It isn't that I was unwilling to bear this burden. I simply knew that this was not the ending they deserved."

Slowly stepping forward, the young researcher found that tears had filled his eyes without his noticing. "At last, I can let them rest..."

Without the slightest hesitation, Adalbert reached out and tore the Undead Monarch's mark from his forehead!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Like roots being ripped apart, like vines being torn down, the chains entwining the Undead Monarch and the souls were severed amid agony so intense it was worse than death.

Yet the frail researcher did not slow in the slightest. Gritting his teeth, he used every ounce of his strength to remove the mark that had granted him divine power and allowed him to ascend directly to the Third Energy Level.

Crack.

He succeeded.

Half-kneeling on the ground, the trembling Undead Monarch suddenly froze, then slowly lowered his hand.

The Undead Monarch's mark, glowing with pale light, had been removed and now lay in his palm.

The dead souls bound within began to spread out, transforming into numerous white souls circling Adalbert.

Undead Monarch...

Why have you released us...

Is there another battle? We will act according to your will...

The dead souls crowded around the weakened young man. Swaying as he rose to his feet, the young man smiled and explained the situation to them.

But—

Upon hearing that Adalbert wanted to set them free, the dead souls felt not only joy, but a trace of worry: Without our help, King, won't you be in danger?

There are too many horrors in this world. Can you face them alone?

Unlike Ian, after stripping away the Undead Monarch, Adalbert's combat strength would, for a time, likely be inferior even to that of an ordinary person.

His soul had become too deeply entangled with the Undead Monarch's mark. After separating from it, even his mind was somewhat unstable.

The dead souls under Ian did not mind leaving him, because they knew that they might be the ones dragging Ian down.

But Adalbert was the opposite—he was being worried over by the dead souls under his command.

The contrast was striking.

"Don't worry."

But Adalbert merely shook his head gently. He said softly to the concerned dead souls, "As long as I still have my mind, I will eventually obtain the power that should be mine—not power founded on your suffering and oppression."

"The Undead Monarch is a vile source of power. Holding it is what prevents me from finding peace."

If this is your wish, King...

Then we shall obey.

Hearing Adalbert's words, his people entered the Origin Matter computing chip, half-convinced and half-doubtful.

Ian watched the scene.

Only after all the souls within Adalbert's Undead Monarch mark had entered the crimson computational core did Ian slowly say, "You are more decisive than I expected."

"Of course." Adalbert smiled at Ian. "I have learned quite a lot from you as well... I will not hesitate for the sake of this temporary power, even if the price is returning to this frail mortal body."

"Really?"

But Ian raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth curling upward. "Are you truly weak, Adalbert?"

"If you were truly incomparably weak—if, after leaving the Undead Monarch, you were not even the equal of a First Energy Level ascendant—then why can you still stand here, rather than being expelled by your own Void Realm?"

The young researcher froze slightly, and Ian continued, "In truth, Adalbert, you are a genuine genius when it comes to meditation techniques. Your soul is already incredibly powerful..."

"It is only because the Undead Monarch's power concealed your own strength that you failed to notice."

"Perfect. Now, I will lead you onto the true Arcane Path."

With that, Ian spread his hands.

Then darkness began spreading through the Void Realm, swallowing his body.

Darkness. Pure darkness.

A blackness like an abyss robbed the Void Realm of its light. This was an anomaly caused by a powerful soul beginning to draw in and manifest the surrounding spiritual essence—just as powerful Void Realm mecha gods always appeared by "opening a pitch-black fissure." That black fissure was the abyss of the Void Realm, into which vast natural spiritual energy poured, ultimately forging their bodies.

And now, it was the same.

Within the darkness, a silver-cyan star suddenly lit up. A geometric form made entirely of light, crystal, and silver metal; they interwove and spiraled, forming an enormous Metatron Cube.

Silver-cyan rays radiated outward from the protrusions of that geometric form, making it shine as brilliantly and dazzlingly as a star, completely piercing the pitch-black abyss.

And this...

Was Ian's soul.

A nearly corporeal soul shaped through a "meditation technique"!

Using his own will, he had polished his soul bit by bit, altering its structure.

He had carved edges and angles into what was once a sphere of light, constructing within it countless computational units for calculation.

The difficulty of this was no less than carving an entire chip's integrated circuitry into a stone.

Ian had succeeded—and thus gained power beyond that of others.

Around the stellar soul, cyan radiance seemed to pierce through time and causality, penetrating the entire Void Realm and even reaching farther, more distant things. This was the power of Precognitive Vision.

And at the center of that Metatron Cube, a tiny fairy-shaped Ian seemed to be sleeping...

"You are not weak."

He slowly opened his eyes and looked toward Adalbert.

Under that gaze, the white-haired, red-eyed researcher vanished from where Adalbert had stood. In his place appeared a regular octahedron, pure white in body and scarlet at its core.

Blood and fire burned within the pure-white soul, releasing a faint radiance.

This was the "true form" of Ian's soul and Adalbert's soul within the Void Realm.

"Look."

Ian's voice became ethereal and resonant. "You believe you have lost all your power, unaware that the Undead Monarch's subtle transformation of you, along with the meditation technique you have practiced during this time, has already elevated your soul to a level nearly approaching the Third Energy Level."

"Compared to mine, your soul merely lacks the tempering of time. In another year or two, Adalbert, with your foundation and talent, you will not need any Magic Potion to cultivate your soul back to a power comparable to the Undead Monarch."

"And then, your power will no longer be an aggregation of dead souls—it will be forged by your own soul!"

"This..."

Adalbert rotated his soul-body, observing it in astonishment.

He had not expected his soul to have already become so powerful.

But he keenly noticed a highly important point. "Don't our current forms resemble Void Realm mecha gods?"

After noticing the fairy body at the core of Ian's soul, he could not help muttering, "Oh, and you have a fairy..."

"That's right."

Ian smiled. "As you know, the Pre-Epoch Civilization's system leaned toward spiritual cultivation. Its highest point was the Third Energy Level Soul Light Body—yet they created large numbers of Fourth Energy Level 'Void Realm mecha gods.' Clearly, this was not merely to create tools."

"I believe Void Realm mecha gods were ladders of advancement they shaped through technological means. If I am right, the next step should have been for Third Energy Level spiritual cultivators to fuse their Soul Light Bodies with specially created Void Realm mecha gods that perfectly matched their own souls, using technology to elevate themselves to the Fourth Energy Level."

"This should have been the 'path of spiritual cultivation' they wished to follow, but never completed... And it is precisely because this orthodox path of spiritual cultivation vanished with the collapse of Terra civilization that the people of Terra took their current path of Magic Potion ascension."

"By comparison, on the Magic Potion path, the highest cultivation of the mind is merely the Soul Light Body. After the Soul Light Body comes the mixing of life spiritual energy and Origin Matter to shape an aether true body, with the Soul Light Body serving as the core that controls it—it does grow stronger, but it undergoes no fundamental transformation."

"Aether is a force far beyond spiritual energy and Origin Matter. Controlling it with a Soul Light Body naturally causes losses. This is one reason why fighting shortens one's lifespan."

"But my Arcane Path fills in this missing link—the soul must learn from Void Realm mecha gods, using meditation to fortify the heart-light, ultimately transforming into something akin to a 'fairy' or 'Void Realm mecha god': a nascent soul... a spirit god."

"The body must learn from the great ascendant Magic Beasts, using the spirit god's aid to remold itself, shedding flesh and bones completely to forge a true body."

"Just as the Heavenly Father's myth of the heavenly ladder says: soul and body become one; the 'fruit of wisdom' and the 'fruit of life' become one."

"When spirit god and true body become one, one can truly wield the power of one near divinity."

"By elevating one's life essence completely, from within to without, one can become a truly complete 'Fourth Rank,' rather than the current kind of 'Fourth Energy Level' that loses lifespan whenever it fights at full strength!"

This was the path Ian was now walking—his soul would become a fairy, while his body would seek its future path on Dragon Island.

Once both of his bodies broke through their current limits one day, then merged and returned to completeness, that would be the moment he truly broke through to the Fourth Rank of the Arcane Path!

"Wait!" Though Adalbert was shocked by Ian's ambition and the path he envisioned for the future, he sharply identified the problem with the Arcane Path.

He said gravely, "It sounds wonderful, but meditation techniques require long periods of time and countless repetitions. The Arcane Path demands far too much talent and personal discipline; it is nowhere near as widespread as the Magic Potion system—this is also why the Pre-Epoch Civilization's orthodox spiritual cultivation methods were lost!"

"On the Magic Potion path, as long as there are enough Magic Potions and sufficient talent, one might reach the peak of the Fourth Energy Level, or even the Fifth Energy Level, by their thirties or forties."

"But on the Arcane Path, even with exceptional talent, if one cannot settle down and persist with meditation, then after twenty or thirty years, remaining at the first or second rank is perfectly normal!"

"You say I only need one or two years to return to the Third Energy Level? That is impossible. By my estimate, I will need at least five or six years to cultivate back to it!"

"That is why assistance is needed," Ian said calmly.

His soul drew Adalbert's soul toward the Origin Matter computing chip. "It is precisely for this reason that I want to create an extraordinarily powerful AI—not merely to assist in managing territory, but to assist everyone in their cultivation!"

"And now, I will begin forging this AI's foundation."

"Creating Terra's Heart!"

"Terra's Heart?"

As he entered the Origin Matter computing chip alongside Ian, Adalbert could not help asking, "What is that?"

Ian answered calmly, "The name of the 'artificial intelligence' I am going to create."

"And, in my vision, the true 'core' and 'heart' of future Terra society."