Chapter 755: Chapter 714: Future Choices
In the pitch-black narrow stairway, Leo tried once more to push the door open, but it had locked shut again, and all he could hear was his father battling someone outside.
He looked at his own hands; he actually didn’t know what his superpower was. Even if his entire body transformed into a star state, his only ability was to float slowly, with nearly zero combat power.
Now, Tesla was holding off their pursuers just to let him climb the stairs to the rooftop, and he couldn’t let his father’s efforts be in vain.
He was barefoot, leaning against the cold wall, advancing step by step upwards.
What would he see up there? A summons from above? And who would it be?
Before him appeared a massive dome, a celestial dome, with twelve constellations outlined by bright lines; he felt as if he were amidst the heavens.
But surrounding him was simply an empty platform, and below his feet was a smooth ground, with no one waiting for him.
As he stood puzzled, the dome above suddenly cracked open, revealing the real night sky above, the true stars.
A winged figure slowly descended from the sky, landing in front of Leo.
Upon closer inspection, it was a human, with a thick bushy beard and long golden hair, dressed in Renaissance attire such as a billowing shirt and very tight pants.
Yet, apart from this attire full of age, he also wore a round glass helmet, and the wings on his body were a set of mechanical wings connected to half-body armor.
With gears, leather, cloth, wood, and some inexplicable tubes combined together, these were the things that allowed the person before him to fly freely.
"Rouse the alarm, awaken the masses. I am Leonardo da Vinci, and the object in my hand is the hope to save the world."
Leo heard him speak and shifted his gaze to the object in Da Vinci’s hand, a small metallic orb, but at this moment, the intricate patterned orb unfolded like a flame, the golden flames dancing.
..................
Meanwhile, as Tesla and Howard battled, and Leonid witnessed Da Vinci, Su Ming and Zheng Xian hid in the shadows of the sky.
The leader of the Holy Shield, the Speaker, the Brotherhood, was currently heading to a hidden place.
It was once a deep well, flowing with infinite life.
It was created by Newton, with great science, silent mathematics, the unvoiced truth, and future mixed alchemy, forming the Fountain of Life.
Once, the walls here constantly spouted this spring water, needing only regular drinking to never die, never age.
But now, it has dried up because the truth was exhausted, without raw materials, the elixir of immortality could not be produced.
Pursuing truth, that truth is as you wish. Without the spring, the Immortal became a joke.
The deep well, once used to hold the elixir of immortality, now became a dungeon, with only a small puddle on the central floor of the well, filled with some orange-red liquid.
Not much, just about the amount of a basin full.
And on the nearby wall, thick iron chains bound an emaciated and ugly man, skeletal, with a scraggly beard, endlessly rambling as if dazed.
In the darkness, Newton walked slowly forward, reaching the lower level of the dry well, stopping from afar to gaze at the person hung on the wall.
"Drink a mouthful, drink powerfully, and live forever..."
It’s uncertain if the person on the wall heard him, or if he could understand, but Newton walked toward a mechanism at the side, pulling down a lever.
With the sound of gears and mechanisms activating, the iron chains clattered down from the wall, and the person previously bound fell to the ground as a result.
In his insatiable thirst, he instinctively crawled toward the small puddle in the center of the cell, while Newton only watched silently.
It was only after the man gulped down several mouthfuls of the elixir and spat out a mouthful of blood due to the fall that Newton continued speaking.
"Now, Nostradamus, speak to me..."
As if a conditioned reflex had been formed, or perhaps Newton’s authority was irresistible, the shriveled prisoner knelt up, raised his hands, covering his eyes with his palms.
In an instant, strange runes lit up on the back of his hands, strings of black tattooed letters began to shine as if electrified, spreading from the back of the hands to the wrists.
The most obvious were the two largest designs on the back of his hands, the right hand featuring the Eye of Horus, the left hand the Holy Beetle, both now glowing brightly.
And it seemed Nostradamus saw something through his hands.
"The sounds of war echo in the sky, the Eternal child will soon appear, the Star child is about to be born, destiny or freedom, all will be revealed."
Newton propped his chin with his fist, quietly contemplating the meaning of the prophecy, but Nostradamus had not finished speaking.
"Change is not soon to come! It is happening! Happening now!"
Yet before Newton could inquire further, he heard a powerful explosion, the very foundation of the dungeon shaking uncontrollably, and he quickly tightened the chains and hurriedly left.
.................
Su Ming and Zheng Xian still hovered in midair, both sitting on a ’flying carpet,’ seemingly idling without a care, their expressions relaxed as they smoked.
"So this is the Immortal City, using the Space Bridge as a turtle shell, how interesting," Zheng Xian exhaled smoke softly.
"Indeed, claiming to be a force protecting Earth, yet hiding in a Pocket Space, it’s quite ironic," Su Ming, sitting cross-legged beside Zheng Xian, replied calmly.
This old guy’s cigarettes didn’t have a brand; the box was just a piece of white paper, probably a special supply of good stuff. I’ll have to think of ways to get more from him in the future.
Zheng Xian looked at the brightly lit city below, his face still wearing that smile. "So, Supreme Mage, what’s your next step?"
"Steal the Holy Shield, to complete a set of weapons for you?" Su Ming said with a calm expression.
"Cough, cough, no, that would really spark a World War," Zheng Xian chuckled but couldn’t help coughing twice, perhaps choking on saliva. "It would be best to keep the agreements from thousands of years ago as they are. My concepts are different from theirs. Even if the Holy Shield ended up with me, it would just be a piece of scrap metal."
"Oh? Do tell."
"Whether it’s the Holy Spear or Holy Lance, they’re actually weapons of the Celestial Gods Group. Although their Energy Levels are high, to make them usable by humans, their total Energy is quite limited, and they have many restrictions. In the wrong hands, they’re just ordinary iron tools. Mind you, not even as good as steel."
Zheng Xian, speaking generously, handed the Holy Spear to Su Ming. But once Zheng Xian let go, the spear instantly became dim in Su Ming’s hand and was so light it was as if he were holding a sorghum stick.
It wasn’t good for use as a weapon or even as a broom.
Su Ming handed the weapon back to Zheng Xian, and the Holy Spear lit up again instantly, like a powered bulb when it returned to Zheng’s hand.
"Phew, this thing is quite picky," Su Ming said as he drew out the Godslayer, immediately replicating the Holy Spear, only his was more magnificent and dazzling.
Zheng Xian placed the long spear across his lap, taking a drag on his cigarette. "That’s right, just like how you can’t use the Holy Spear, I can’t use the Holy Shield. According to my teacher, Zhang Heng, it’s because of one’s inner beliefs."
"Is that so? Tell me about it?"
Zheng Xian didn’t hesitate to elaborate: "I don’t know what the Holy Shield believes in, but we talk about ’the grand path being fifty, the marvels of the universe being forty-nine, with one path of escape for humanity, and that man triumphs over nature.’"
"So it means pursuing a slim hope in the face of crisis?" Su Ming understood immediately.
"The theology of the Celestial Gods Group is almost entirely composed of 1s and 0s, with the spear representing 1 and the shield shaped like 0, a significant difference." Zheng Xian puffed on his cigarette and squatted like a village head by the field. "As an outsider, not molded by our world, you’re neither a 1 nor a 0, so..."
"So the treasure has no fate with me."
"Haha, exactly."
"Alright, I’m not here for the Shield anyway; the Holy Shield Brotherhood has lots of good stuff. Old Zheng, how about we split fifty-fifty?"
Zheng Xian’s expression was peculiar, as even his smile seemed to stiffen. A blond, blue-eyed foreigner speaking brother to him and suggesting a fifty-fifty split was awkward indeed.
Yet he nodded slightly. "True, we can’t have come for nothing. Whatever treasures we find, we’ll split equally, but we can’t go overboard. Going too far would mean endless conflict with the Holy Shield."
"Heh, their current troubles are enough to keep them preoccupied. We’ll covertly gain some benefits first, then make a grand appearance to help them, balancing everything out, right?"
"Well calculated."
The two clapped hands, sealing the deal, and Su Ming began to explain his plan.
He basically had a grasp of the plot now. The Immortal City still existed, with Howard and the others involved, plus Leo, whom Dotti saw.
He understood what time it was and had a plan for how to eliminate the crisis and gain benefits in this timeline.
Including Zheng Xian was to boost their prowess, as Director Zheng himself understood, yet he wouldn’t work for free.
"Come, Old Zheng, while we still have time, let me tell you about the Holy Shield’s plan," said Su Ming, tossing his cigarette butt off the Flying Carpet, spinning a red arc as it fell.
"Oh? You know about this too?" Zheng Xian discarded his cigarette butt as well.
"I am the Supreme Mage," Su Ming replied with a smile.
"Sigh, seeing your robust physique, Brother, I’m always prone to forget this fact," Zheng Xian said, patting his forehead with a wry smile. "Since you used the Eye of Agamotto, I’d like to hear their plan too."
Su Ming didn’t correct his perception because what he saw wasn’t through the Time Gem, and it couldn’t be explained.
"The Celestial Divine Species is about to finish hatching, and upon reaching Earth, it will destroy everything. So, the Holy Shield Brotherhood plans to use the Human Machine to counter it."
"Tsk, Time Machine is Time Machine. Calling it Human Machine," Zheng Xian scoffed. He knew what it was, disdaining the impractical names and mystical pretense.
"In fact, that’s exactly it. Their plan is rather crude, intending to inspect three possibilities through the Human Machine to choose the best outcome, while simultaneously creating three different distinct timelines."
From the Holy Shield’s perspective, the future had only three possibilities—getting better, getting worse, staying the same.
"Developing from independent timelines... it’s somewhat like Conqueror Kang’s methods," Zheng Xian rubbed his chin.
"Precisely speaking, Conqueror Kang learned from the Human Machine, but that’s another story," Su Ming waved his hand, deflecting the topic.
"So you arrived, able to replace the Human Machine using the Eye of Agamotto," Director Zheng understood, nodding slowly with a look of appreciation.
Su Ming promptly climbed the ladder, "I inspected all possible futures; they don’t need to play with timelines any longer. I’ll directly show them a clear path..."
