Heishi shook his head very slowly, signaling for Feiluo to stop talking. Taking a look at the guards standing to the sides, Feiluo understood what Heishi was getting at.
Heishi pressed his hand against the gem. The doors let out a loud rumble before they slowly began to open.
Feiluo stared.
All of the clone troops seemed to sense something in that instant, and they grew alert, pulling out their weapons as they stood to either side.
As the doors opened, a brilliant, eye-catching ray of light shot out. Floating in midair behind the doors was a humongous astrolabe, glowing with a gentle light.
“What is this place?” Feiluo mumbled.
“The Primeval Heart, the laboratory of the Creator.” Heishi’s voice echoed within the large hall. “There’s no danger here. You can come in.”
The guards walked into the great hall. Heishi and Feiluo craned their necks up to look: The depiction of the Astrolabe’s mainland in the center looked like a huge model of an islet floating in the air.
“Why is this laboratory so big?” Feiluo asked.
“Because of the Creator’s physique,” Heishi said. “His kind were giants who came from the Void.”
Feiluo glanced at Heishi, his gaze filled with both suspicion and shock. He then turned to his subordinates and commanded, “Please, for Heishi’s sake, keep this a secret.”
The guards nodded and took their positions to stand watch within the great hall.
Heishi climbed the gargantuan staircase onto the tall platform, where he found a huge control stone. In here, all of the fixtures were ten times larger than what humans usually used. Feiluo followed Heishi.
“How do you know about this place?” Feiluo asked.
“Father told me,” Heishi answered. When this sentence caused Feiluo to grow guarded, he added, “Calm down. It didn’t seem to like me very much.”
Feiluo furrowed his brow but didn’t speak; there were too many unknowns about Heishi. This man had been mysterious and circumspect since he’d appeared. Most of the time, he never spoke a word. Even A-Ka couldn’t see through him.
Heishi observed the control sphere before he placed a hand on it. The model of the Astrolabe mainland instantly lit up, and light rays crisscrossed over it, projecting silhouettes of living beings.
“The Creator fashioned the Astrolabe fifty thousand years ago,” Heishi explained to Feiluo. “Within the laboratory he left behind are the models of the life-forms that he once invented.”
Countless kinds of living creatures, from cellular organisms to insects to mammals, appeared one by one in that glow. Feiluo quietly watched; what was happening before his eyes far exceeded all of what he understood of the world.
“The living creatures on the Astrolabe,” Feiluo said, “as I recall it, were nurtured by nature.”
“Within the limits of your knowledge, that is correct,” Heishi said. “In reality, that’s not the case. Records from humans of ancient times show that humans created clones…but see here.”
Heishi lifted his head, flicking an eyebrow up, and within the stereographically projected hologram appeared a diagram of a human cell.
“Heavens,” Feiluo mumbled. “This is…”
“The first clone body. It’s one of the techniques that the Creator tested out—using cloning to incubate even more life. However, for reasons unknown, he gave up on this method. And then there’s this…”
Within the hologram appeared countless sets of matrices. Feiluo knit his brow. “What are these?”
Heishi gave Feiluo a look. Feiluo thought of something, and his entire body began to tremble. “These are the mechanical life-forms’…”
“Right. Their soul matrices. If they were coded according to this method, then the mechanical life-forms would be able to have their own souls.”
Feiluo instantly turned around, grabbing Heishi’s shirt as he stared at him. “How do you know all this? Tell me!”
Heishi pushed Feiluo aside. “Don’t get excited. There’s more to come.”
The images appeared in quick succession as Heishi controlled the light sphere. “I got these from Father’s database, and they differ from what you all know. After the Creator made humans, he sealed this laboratory away. Three thousand years ago, several human explorers discovered it, stealing away the soul matrix technique and the method of creating clones.
“After that, the clone civilization flourished. As for how the cold robots also gained the ability to think and have emotions, one of the explorers in the group ignored the warnings of his peers and programmed soul matrices into them. After that came…”
Feiluo’s voice shook as he whispered, “The revolution of the machines.”
“Your world changed from that point onward,” Heishi said. “But one of the explorers, a member of the ‘Thunderbolt’ squad who became known as one of the new gods, discovered an emergency mechanism the Creator left behind. Now, what I want to find is that emergency mechanism.”
“Will it let the Rebel Alliance be victorious in the end? If so, then we’ll use all of our resources to help you in this effort.”
“But Father has taken away a key piece of information. I don’t know how it found this place within your kind’s territory.” Heishi paused, then asked, “Who do you think is most likely to be colluding with Father?”
Feiluo shook his head. “I don’t know. We have too much information, and it’s all poorly organized. Only a few of the higher-ups in the army know of this place. There are no more than seven, including myself.”
“Then it must be one of the seven. Has anyone else come here recently?”
Feiluo glanced at his subordinates, and one of them responded, “General Macksie came here before. At that time, the guards who were in this place were two different brothers.”
Feiluo’s forehead furrowed. “Heishi, let’s set aside the issue of who stole the information for now. How will it help you if we can find the information that was stolen?”
Heishi shook his head. “This is the destiny I was born for, and it’s of vital importance. There’s a section of code that can completely stop Father’s operations.”
“But Father’s central processing unit is connected to the Nucleus of the entire Astrolabe,” Feiluo said with a frown.
“Correct.” Heishi nodded. “To restart Father means that the entirety of the Astrolabe will be rebooted.”