Chapter 379: She

She walked step by step, slowly passing through the hall, casting a disdainful glance at the ancient religious art surrounding her. She soon discovered the residual energy traces; the remaining energy radiation evoked a sensation she was very familiar with. Years ago, she possessed better measuring capabilities; now, she was like a tiger with degraded vision and a poor sense of smell—too many of her abilities had been stripped away.

She laughed coldly; the enemies of the past had long since departed from this world, and fortunately, she still existed and could continue on her path.

She was not lacking anything compared to the woman from years ago. Just as humans undergo metabolism every day—and many would say that change is the only constant—what is the difference between passive change and active self-modification? Humans can shape brand-new personalities after major disasters, and they can also use surgery to change their appearance. Everyone's future branches out after constant choices; different choices and different encounters always create different forms of the same individual. Even her original body had modified itself, removing the sentimentality that hindered female success.

In their era, how common a thing this was! She couldn't help but sigh; they could change their appearance, change their state of existence, and even modify their souls. Only the foolish and regressive species of Mages, and the primitive, barbaric race of humans, would whine about such things.

However, she still discerned the caution in Luo Qi's original body. In her era, they would replicate thousands of themselves, retaining their humanity, keeping only their hierarchical obedience. Under absolute obedience, possessing the various characteristics of humanity could bring greater initiative and serve themselves better. Luo Qi had not ventured too far on the path of independent exploration; he did not maintain humanity for his copies, and they merely imitated Luo Qi's cognitive traits like shadows.

After encountering Luo Qi's Yajian Yajian Yajian Fuzhiti, she immediately searched Luo Qi's memories carefully. She could not be blamed for being too hasty before; it was truly because Luo Qi's thinking was too chaotic—a mess of tangled knots connected by intuition. His thinking was full of loopholes, often relying on vague guesses and the spirit of a gambler. This was too far from the orderliness they pursued, making it especially difficult to retrieve information from memories like Luo Qi's, which was why she hadn't managed to finish reading these details.

Furthermore, there was another reason that obscured this matter: Luo Qi must have maintained a great sense of equanimity while doing these things. He replicated himself, yet while doing such significant things, he was often still chatting with friends, eating snacks, or watching movies, or even thinking about how to outdo Guan Xinyue in an argument next time, or how to leave Ma Jiang speechless more elegantly. There were also vast, heavy clouds of sorrow lingering over most of his thinking—the sorrow of fearing the loss of friends shrouded his mental world. Such a vast and forward-looking project should have been accompanied by excitement, shining brightly in his memories, yet Luo Qi hadn't even marked clear nodes for them in his memories.

Now that she carefully interpreted Luo Qi's memories, she discovered that one reason Luo Qi did not grant his Yajian Yajian Yajian Fuzhiti too much humanity was that he was considering humanitarianism; he believed he did not have the right to create an intelligent being. He prudently pondered the scenario of a soul with humanity and independent thinking ability living only in a container to work according to his instructions, and he believed this was an anti-human act, a boundary he absolutely should not touch.

She really wanted to roll her eyes in a very human way.

She closed her eyes for a moment and searched her own memory bank; she remembered that this kind of energy radiation meant they had connected a Sandbox here.

That thing didn't count for much in their era, but now the source of energy must be nearly exhausted, and the authority to open the Sandbox must belong to only a few people in this era.

She thought of the friend Luo Qi cherished so dearly. As an individual born randomly and not created by a god, that man named Du Zhengyi was quite rare, like a naturally formed jewel that always gives one many surprises. In the past, as a Creator, she could meticulously design the abilities, talents, and flaws of Mages, manufacturing Mage warriors or even companions according to her own preferences and needs. But if so, what surprises could there be?

During the endless time she was imprisoned, she let herself sleep for most of it, but at the very beginning, she tried many ways to pass the time. She created countless virtual lives, but not one of those fake lives satisfied her. Now she liked Du Zhengyi a little; thinking of this, she began to curse again why Luo Qi was a male.

She leaned over to carefully measure the energy of this Sandbox and estimated its scale, unable to help but smile—Du Zhengyi could really make her happy. For this era, he was truly a miracle.

She stood up nonchalantly, stretched her waist, and silently recited the Secret Language, while cursing Luo Qi for the nth time; this body belonging to a man was far stiffer than the body she was used to. She had once loved a flexible body so much.

The Sandbox opened its gates before her, and she stepped into the frozen land ravaged by wind and snow with disgust.

Behind her, the palace filled with a religious atmosphere vanished. Before her, Du Zhengyi stood alone in the wind and snow.

He was tall and slender, his appearance possessing the best of average advantages; he was like a fine seed obtained from a human hybridization experiment. His demeanor was also very steady, his face forever calm; outsiders might not be able to tell if he had truly identified Luo Qi's identity. But she only needed to glance at him to know the result; now, that secret warmth reserved for a close friend was completely gone from him. He had become cold again, like a walking corpse.

She revealed a faint smile, "If we really fight, you would be letting Luo Qi down a bit."

Du Zhengyi looked at her calmly, with neither interest in questioning nor being provoked.

"Luo Qi gave up this body himself," she said. "He made a deal with me, a deal for your life. Heh, who told you I could do better than Luo Qi?"