Chapter 144: Technological Ark (5k)

On December 25, every major newspaper’s front-page headline featured the black machine from last night’s New York Christmas gala.

Among them, Ralph Fox sat across from an empty chair, with the massive machine casing behind him—a scene that became one of the most iconic photographs of the 1960s.

“Last night, at the New York Mathematicians’ Christmas Gala held in Manhattan, an unusual human-machine chess match drew widespread attention, assisted by Randolph Lin for IBM’s latest…”

The city’s official buildings lined one street well enough—for instance, the City Hall lay a little farther east along this dark gray central road.

After the two hours of ancestral artifact enhancement faded, though everyone’s original thoughts returned to normal, they still remembered clearly everything that had happened.

“Crack—” Another two-seam fastball; Jiubang felt the wrong texture in his grip, muttered “Damn,” dropped the bat, and sprinted for first base.

Brother Qin Yi sat beside Granny Qin, watching me with pity, not daring to say a word.

Chu Wanning stiffened, then nodded. Indeed, it had been found; An Zilin eagerly urged her to show it to him, his tone soft and calm, revealing no urgency—only a faint glint of impatience in his eyes.

Feng Jinxī guessed, “Could it be some race’s treasure?” That was very possible, since races differ from the human race.

Chu Wanning connected these thoughts and asked Miaozhu if she’d ever seen the Fengluan flower. Miaozhu shook her head: “Wanning, I’ve never heard of the Fengluan flower, but I once heard the imperial family possesses something deeply mysterious—something no one has ever seen.”

On one hand, he was glad to finally see other survivors; on the other, he felt disheartened by the nationalities of these people before him.

I knelt on the ground and said: “My grandmother passed away many years ago. I wish to follow you, Master. I beg you to accept me.” My grandmother had been dead for years; if I wanted to protect myself, I could only fumble alone—how much could I learn compared to what Granny Qin taught me?

Jiang Yunli sent people to search and asked Miaozhu: “What are you and your mistress up to again? Didn’t you know it was raining heavily on the mountain? How could you leave her alone?”

This was good news—Lan Shuixian had long been stuck at the Nascent Soul peak; now that her strength was rising, she should be rejoicing. Yet Xu Chunqiu and the others wore expressions of concern.

Lan Shuixian’s face brimmed with fury; her hands curled inside her sleeves, a chilling aura of killing intent radiating from her—around her, the air grew colder.

His first sight was the ceiling of the Sunset Ancient Castle—sturdy, solemn, utterly unlike the ruined state it had been in yesterday.

A single thrust unleashed a thousand-six-hundred-possible-sword movements; the celestial river of swords rose and fell, the great sun sinking into its flow, sword qi crisscrossing everywhere.

The sound of the zither strings still echoed through the hall, while the middle-aged Nen user was slain on the spot under the crowd’s assault.

Fortunately, Ji Mo and the others possessed immense divine power, their bodies already divinely transformed, their lifeforce astonishingly strong—even trapped in this realm, they suffered no ill effects.

“Probably cut down by him,” Long Tianqi walked over, touched the tree stump’s growth rings, and said.

The ruins of the Breda Ancient Kingdom lay within the borders of a certain nation; naturally, even though the ruins had never been discovered, the nation still counted them as state property.

Wei Xi and Lu Feng were shrewd men; they immediately seized Wei Xingchen and Lu Baiyan and fled through the gap opened by Guan Lengyan’s sword slash.

Liu Yue and Zhao Wanxian, along with Li Yu, also noticed Mo Fan seemed off and drew near.

“Get up. Take a bath,” Chu Haoxuan walked to the bedside, gently touched Ye Li’s arm, and spoke softly to her.

Yet as Su Nan turned to run toward the staircase, someone blocked her path.

What coincidence? Someone probably checked Zhou Liangyun’s daily schedule, learned she comes here to manage Baochang Tower, and came specifically to find an excuse to meet her.