Zuo Jia Mingwang, Awaken! Secrets of a Lost Civilization!

As they went deeper through the passage, a massive plaza appeared before them.

Scattered across the plaza were box-shaped objects of varying sizes.

Lin Junyu recognized them at a glance from their appearance. The smaller ones were flying cars from the ancient civilization, while the larger ones were light-energy tanks.

Unfortunately, who knew how much time had passed? The parts inside had probably long since broken down.

But for Lin Junyu, repairing them would not be difficult.

"What are these things? They feel so strange!"

Ever since entering this place, Lin Feng had been marveling nonstop. He had never seen anything like these on the continent.

The three continued onward, and four enormous steel giants appeared before them.

At that moment, even the well-traveled Lin Junyu was stunned and thrilled.

"Holy shit, Dangerous Wanderer! Where the hell did this bring me?"

The four steel giants were each three stories tall.

They stood motionless, swords in their right hands and shields in their left, with huge tube-like objects mounted on their shoulders.

"Terrifying. The ancient civilization actually had such enormous weapons of war! How did they even operate them?"

Lin Junyu's delight was impossible to hide. No man could resist giant mech toys.

Still, it was a pity. So much time had passed that these big guys could no longer be activated. Repairing them by himself would likely take a tremendous amount of effort; the workload was anything but small.

There were four base doors beneath the feet of each steel giant.

They were labeled respectively: Weapons Storage, Logistics Storage, Rest Room, and Combat Training Room.

There was another door above the giants' heads, labeled Command Control Room.

Lin Junyu took a look. The four doors below were all locked and could not be opened from the outside.

"Let's go. We'll find a way up!"

The base's lifting equipment had already broken down, so they could only climb up the rust-covered iron framework.

After climbing several dozen meters, they finally reached the corridor outside the command room.

When they arrived at the command room's entrance, a laser identical to the one outside the iron gate rapidly scanned the three of them.

"Verification passed. Welcome home, all Sequences!"

The long-sealed door opened. Immediately afterward, the various devices inside the command room activated automatically, and screen after screen lit up with sci-fi glows.

Lin Feng found the lights astonishing. There was no fire, yet they had lit up. Why? What was providing them with light?

The three entered the room and saw someone lying quietly on a bed in the center of the command room, surrounded by strange instruments and tubes.

As they approached for a closer look, they saw that the person lying there had a head full of white hair, with dark golden patterns covering his face and neck.

"I finally found him!"

Seeing the man's features, Lin Junyu finally confirmed that he had found the pinnacle creation of the ancient civilization's mechanized human technology.

"Who is this? Why is he in a place like this? Is he the one we came here to find?"

Lin Feng curiously pinched the arm of the person lying down.

Lin Junyu did not answer him. His fingers kept sliding across the instruments, removing various permissions and data locks.

Once he finished operating them, the tubes inserted into the person's body detached amid bursts of steam, and the entire bed began to rise into an upright position.

"System initializing..."

"Target connection..."

"Checking parameters..."

After a series of notification tones, the person lying on the bed slowly opened his eyes.

The pupils of his two eyes—one gold and one blue—were filled with constantly spinning rings, flashing with all kinds of data.

Looking at the strange-looking man before them, Lin Feng asked curiously.

"You still haven't answered my question. Who is he?"

Lin Junyu stared at the humanoid monster gradually awakening and answered solemnly.

"His name is Zuo Jia Mingwang. He is the guardian of human civilization!"

"Protecting humanity? Then he must be one of the good guys!"

Hearing Lin Junyu's answer, Lin Feng let out a sigh of relief. The instant he had seen Zuo Jia Mingwang open his eyes, he had felt an overwhelming pressure. This man's strength was unfathomable!

"Who are you? Why have you come here?"

Zuo Jia Mingwang, who was gradually regaining consciousness, swept his gaze over the three people present. His eyes continuously analyzed their information and threat levels.

Only two of them posed a high threat to him. The remaining one was no threat at all.

Moreover, during his scan, he discovered that the person entirely cloaked in black gave him an inexplicable sense of closeness and familiarity, as though they were kin from the same bloodline.

As the most advanced machine creation of civilization, he was already capable of producing certain emotional abilities possessed only by humans.

Lin Junyu stepped forward and said, "Let me introduce us. We are descendants of Major General Lin Xiaofeng, the chief of staff of the Southeast Defense Garrison Office. You can examine our genetic bloodline to verify it!"

After saying that, Lin Junyu pulled Lin Feng over to Zuo Jia Mingwang and held out their wrists.

Zuo Jia Mingwang reached out and grasped their wrists, beginning to scan their genetic makeup.

"Your genes do indeed match the No. 1 genetic modification sequence recorded in the database. Major General Lin Xiaofeng is also documented in the history of the Great Destruction of civilization. The verification is correct. You may be trusted!"

After examining their genes, comparing the records, and searching the information database, Zuo Jia Mingwang lifted his alert status.

"Then who is that, and why does it carry the aura of one of my kind?"

Zuo Jia Mingwang pointed at Lin Yun, who was wrapped in a black robe, and asked calmly.

Lin Junyu briefly explained to Zuo Jia Mingwang how he had created Lin Yun.

"From a technical standpoint, it is indeed the same kind as you. However, due to the limited knowledge and resources I possess, it still has many flaws. Those will require time to remedy!"

The techniques and materials Lin Junyu had used to create Lin Yun could not compare to those used to create Zuo Jia Mingwang during the peak of ancient humanity. Naturally, the difference was enormous.

For example, Zuo Jia Mingwang could communicate with humans with ease, while Lin Yun would need a long period of learning and practice to achieve the same result.

"Mm. I detected numerous flaws and incomplete components within it, but in this era, it is impossible to produce materials capable of remedying those defects."

Afterward, Lin Junyu asked Zuo Jia Mingwang several questions.

What exactly had happened during the final days of ancient civilization?

What was the truth behind civilization's destruction?

And why was it here?

It did not know much about the earlier questions, but it understood that ancient human civilization had perished in internal conflict.

At the time, human civilization had been consumed by obsession, feverishly conducting all manner of genetic research—not only on humans, but on countless animals as well.

Many extremist genetic research organizations even emerged. Some went so far as to conduct experiments combining human genes with the genes of various animals.

At first, the research did not go smoothly. Human genes and animal genes were completely incompatible and rejected one another.

But after a vast number of sample experiments, some mad genetic researchers successfully created beastmen.

Yet these beastmen possessed severe innate genetic defects. They were manic, violent, bloodthirsty, and ultimately failed experimental subjects.

However, those crazed researchers had already seen the dawn of genetic fusion. So they began abducting people in large numbers for experimentation, creating countless failed beastman test subjects.

By the time the Civilization Federation learned of everything, it was already too late. Vast numbers of beastmen had been created, and they attacked all humans.

To confront the crisis, the Civilization Federation also began researching human genetics, selecting batches of people with exceptional genes to participate in the research.

Among them, the first successful genetic sequence developed by the Civilization Federation was the No. 1 genetic sequence—Berserk. Those who awakened this genetic sequence were the Lin clan.

With the Lin clan as a successful example, more and more powerful genetic sequences were invented and developed. The emergence of those who possessed these powerful genetic sequences swiftly changed the course of the war.

But the Civilization Federation never expected that this shield meant to defend civilization would eventually become the sword that destroyed it.

More and more people awakened genetic sequences, and in an instant, they replaced the former Civilization Federation.

They became civilization's upper echelon, seized control of the entire human civilization, and became the rulers of civilization.

They called themselves the God Race, gradually separating themselves from the lower classes and enslaving the entire civilization!

But the majority of civilization consisted of ordinary people who had not awakened genetic sequences. Oppressed by those self-proclaimed members of the God Race, more and more people from the lower classes began conducting all kinds of frenzied genetic research in order to resist.

They desperately needed a powerful force to help them oppose such rule. They resurrected the genes of ancient giant beasts and created biohumans.

The extremist genetic research organizations that had once been suppressed by the Civilization Federation rose madly at that moment like savage beasts, drawing upon the strength of these ordinary people!

They created even more powerful genetically synthesized humans and genetically synthesized monsters, creatures unafraid of any weapon wielded by the divine civilization ruled by the God Race.

The scales of war began to tip. Some within the God Race also came to believe that their actions had already betrayed the original purpose for which the Civilization Federation had transformed them. Their God Race had already strayed from human civilization.

These people began helping the humans of the lower classes resist. At the end of civilization's war, the defeated divine civilization resolutely detonated nuclear weapons, intending to drag the entire civilization down with them.

After the nuclear war, many of civilization's continents were sunk beneath the sea. In the end, only one continent survived.

Afterward, civilization was rebuilt on that continent, while everything left behind by the war between civilization and the gods remained.

Some humans who had willingly fused their genes with those of various animals in order to resist oppression, seek power, and protect the people of the lower classes felt that their appearances no longer qualified them to be called human.

So, one by one, they voluntarily separated from the human race and established new races of their own.

"That is everything I know. As for why I am here, it seems my original mission was to guard Kunlun, the Divine Mountain!"

"Later, your ancestor Lin Xiaofeng came and ordered me to remain in the Ancient Strange Mountain Range. Every thousand years, I was to awaken and enter the mountains to eliminate a group of white monsters with strange appearances and terrifying strength! I was to prevent them from crossing the Ancient Strange Mountain Range and entering human territory!"

"Furthermore, he told me to protect the humans of this continent. Whenever the human race faced a crisis, I was required to intervene!"

"However, this base's energy supply is nearly exhausted. Even if you had not awakened me, I would have awakened automatically in three years."

Three years later? Wouldn't that be the year 553?

Zuo Jia Mingwang had explained many things. Lin Junyu listened thoughtfully, while Lin Feng wore a completely bewildered expression, as though he were listening to some mythological tale. The destruction of civilization, genes, and all that—he understood none of it.

Still, he understood two things. First, his family had been incredibly formidable since ancient times. Second, their physique had been passed down since the era of ancient civilization.