Yu Lian gazed into the robot lady's deep gray eyes. But even with his current eyesight and spiritual perception, all he could make out was an arc of electricity flickering among tiny nanocells. Well, even that might just have been an image simulated by the swarm of nanomachines.
As for seeing through the windows to the soul, and discerning emotions, thoughts, souls, or will from the slightest changes in someone's gaze—that was, of course, completely impossible.
This silicon-based intelligent civilization's guiding AI was still smiling naturally, but now she had a touch of the divine impartiality that treated all beings as equals.
Yu Lian couldn't help looking toward the whale dance.
Are we really going to hunt these spirits?
He hadn't even done anything yet, but just thinking about it made him feel as if he'd already become a sinner against the universe.
"Skywhales?" he asked again.
"Yes, skywhales." Little Gray answered as calmly as before.
"Barbaric." Yu Lian looked straight at that flawless face, so full of divine impartiality, and made no effort to hide his contempt.
Feifei clasped Yu Lian's hand tightly, her face filled with sorrow and reluctance. "I thought they were truly sacred and friendly creatures."
"They certainly are. Even in the previous era, they were regarded as auspicious symbols." Her smile grew wistful and moved, and her clear voice sounded like that of a well-trained natural history museum guide.
"The Forbidden Matters School believes that skywhales are actually projections of certain higher-dimensional beings into our low-dimensional universe. One important reason is that as they grow, their bodies gradually become energy and information."
Yu Lian thought of Snowflake again. Although she was a baby weighing several million tons, her current size made her seem a little on the light side.
So that was it—becoming energy and