Jiang Wen's consciousness had never been so clear. He gazed at the starry expanse of the Void Sea, feeling his soul gradually dissipating.
"I am free," an intangible voice echoed, laced with a hint of joy. "Thank you."
… …
"Wow, wow, wow!! Amazing! A child from the lower district has successfully earned himself three months of survival! Let's look forward to his next performance!" The surroundings were noisy, with countless people shouting like madmen, the sounds of 'Three Six Five' filling his ears.
He lay on the ground, as if falling into a boundless deep sea, submerged by endless water. He couldn't hear the sounds, nor could he clearly see the faint light in his eyes. His body seemed to be lifted up, his heels scraping against the ground, sending waves of pain through him.
"Clang!" The iron door slammed shut, and the cacophony of the marketplace vanished, replaced by silence.
The diminutive automaton was casually tossed into the iron cage by the guard, left to roll on the ground and collide with the cyan stone wall. The room, barely ten meters across, contained only a dirty cotton mattress and a skylight that offered the only source of illumination. A four-winged insect flew down from the bed, darting through the light and landing on the automaton's fractured forehead, searching for cracks near the scar, eager for a feast.
This was a small automaton with a serene face, its gentle, human-like features undiminished even by the grime and bloodstains. His eyes were tightly closed, his long eyelashes resembling paintbrushes, making one anticipate his innocent appearance when he opened them.
His eyelids twitched slightly, perhaps disturbed by the four-winged insect. He slowly raised his hand, smoothing his disheveled long hair, his mud-caked fingers brushing against the crack on his head, causing him to frown.
A pair of eyes as lonely as the night lit up, an existence that even light would avoid. Such deep eyes, like black holes that eternally exist in the universe, devouring all existence.
"Is this Tuo Quan's memory?" He struggled to sit up, looking up at the skylight where several beams of light shone through. His once indifferent eyes turned clear, his pupils reflecting the sunlight outside the window. "It seems his childhood wasn't easy, just a mechanical slave."
Jiang Wen never imagined that automatons could possess memories, but the scene before him clearly told him that automatons, like humans, possessed souls. Doesn't this mean that the soul core of an automaton is the very location of their soul?
He examined the child's body. The fragile joints had been broken by some hard object, and black liquid had seeped into the bronze-forged limbs, making them feel numb to the touch. There was a finger-length scar near the crown of his head; if it were even three inches closer, he would probably have to be recycled and recast.
The black cloth clothes on his body seemed to be quite old. They were covered in indescribable things that were black and sticky. The fact that he was still wearing clothes that had begun to rot showed that these beasts really didn't treat automaton children like automatons.
He couldn't find anything useful in the childhood memories of Tuo Quan. The chaotic memories only contained fighting and killing. Endless fighting, just to survive. As for why he was caught and brought in here, even he himself didn't know. He only knew that his name was Tuo Quan. Why was he called Tuo Quan? The child's memory didn't contain that either.
His memory seemed to stop four years ago when he was captured by a group of automatons in black and locked up in this prison. There were countless other children who came in with him, more than he could count on both hands and feet. This prison used to be very lively, but now he was the only one left.
"Three Six Five, your food." The iron bars of the cell door opened, and the guard entered. He had a standard bronze face, his eyebrows drawn together, looking at Jiang Wen lying on the ground with disgust, casually tossing a few pieces of spirit crystal fragments on the ground, grumbling about why he hadn't died yet.
Jiang Wen looked at his almost rusted hands. They should have been the bronze-colored palms of someone his age, but they were covered with dull copper rust. These weren't the hands of a child, but the hands of an automaton who had worked for many years. If this continued, this child would be ruined sooner or later.
"What a pain."
The prison had a peculiar stench, probably the smell of rotten things left for too long.
→
Jiang Wen watched as the body pressed the spirit crystal against its chest, dragging its damaged body to a corner of the cell. In his current fragile state, not to mention escaping, he estimated that even the guard at the door could easily inflict serious injuries on him.
Thinking of this, Jiang Wen closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into the child's divine sea. This sea of divine consciousness, which was originally brilliantly interwoven, was now fragmented. Countless memories had collapsed, and the immeasurable sea of divine consciousness had been completely drained, plunging the entire space into darkness, leaving only speckled starlight floating within, lamenting its desolation. The child's soul was now tattered, and even his Celestial and Terrestrial Souls were gone. Only the Central Human Soul remained, like a candle in the wind, ready to be extinguished at any moment.
Jiang Wen sighed, raising his head and looking at the cobweb-filled prison. The Celestial and Terrestrial Souls were gone, the divine sea was withered, the divine soul was destroyed, and the remaining essential Human Soul was about to be extinguished.
"How vicious," Jiang Wen murmured. One must know that a person has three souls and seven spirits: Celestial, Terrestrial, and Human. The Celestial Soul governs essence, the Terrestrial Soul governs energy, and the Human Soul governs spirit. Cultivators cultivate essence, energy, and spirit. Essence is the foundation, like the roots of a tree; energy is the sunlight and dew that nourish the tree's growth; and spirit is the inherent nature of the entire tree's growth, determining how far the tree can grow. Without roots and rain, even if it can grow to a height of ten thousand feet, it is just a pipe dream. Now, Tuo Quan's Celestial and Terrestrial Souls are gone, probably taken away by someone.
Could it be that automatons are living people who lack the Celestial and Terrestrial Souls? Jiang Wen speculated.
"Let's see what happens next that will turn Tuo Quan into a puppet of the Taifu."
The child reached out and gathered his fallen hair, tying it into a ponytail with dry grass. His hair had grown to his waist, and prolonged neglect had made the texture extremely poor, like withered straw, feeling nothing like the softness a child should have.
"Three Six Five, your food is here." Jiang Wen raised his head, staring sharply at the black-haired guard. What he brought was a hearty meal for an automaton. Besides a spirit crystal of decent quality, there was also 'wine' that overflowed with fragrance. Jiang Wen looked at the meal, knowing that this was probably a last meal. This meal was a farewell meal, a meal that everyone who was about to enter a battle to the death would eat.
He saw the body raise its head on its own, meeting the black-haired guard's interested gaze and indifferently asking, "Why?"
The black-haired guard probably didn't expect the child to speak. He stared at his dark eyes for a long time, suddenly sighing. Those black eyes gave him a familiar, clear feeling, like the stream in his hometown when he was a child, and his mother's smooth long hair. Later, he didn't think about it anymore, just leaning against the wrist-thick iron bars, looking outside, "A noble has bought your life-or-death battle tomorrow. Eat well, do you need anything else?"
A noble, a life-or-death battle, so that's how it is. Jiang Wen didn't waste any more words. He heard a hint of pity in the black-haired guard's tone, stood up, swaying, and walked to his side, grasping the iron bars with both hands.
"Are you really going to give that dog thing water?"
"Just feel a little sorry for him."
"Tsk, you're really kind-hearted, treating even a low-class mongrel like that."
"Hey."
"Oh ho, you're even defending him. He's the only automaton in this place, I really don't know how this dog's life is so big. If he dies sooner, we can leave sooner. Don't you want to go home and see your mother?"
The black-haired guard brought the water over, placing it inside the cell, looking at the child lying on the straw heap with a sigh, turning his head away silently, locking the iron door.
He was just a guard, he couldn't do anything, he couldn't do anything.
"Just blame yourself for not being born in the upper district," he said softly, the silent prison filled with only his voice.
Jiang Wen closed his eyes, feeling the body's anger, its teeth grinding and creaking.
