Playing inventor in a cultivation world

Chapter 158: The Man Inside The Machine

"Elder Song..."

Nathan whispered the name as if saying it too loudly would shatter reality.

The crystal giant stopped walking.

Its glowing white eyes dimmed for a brief moment.

Then the weak voice returned.

"Seraph..."

"...don’t let them..."

The sentence broke apart into static.

The giant violently grabbed its own head.

Blue lightning surged across its crystal body.

The ground shook beneath its feet.

Halo immediately projected dozens of warning screens.

---

Pilot Consciousness Destabilizing

External Override Detected

Control Conflict: 97%

---

Nathan looked at Halo.

"He’s fighting someone."

Halo answered instantly.

[Correct.]

[Elder Song is resisting the command system.]

Harold narrowed his eyes.

"So he isn’t controlling the machine."

"He’s imprisoned inside it."

Nathan’s expression hardened.

"Then we’re getting him out."

The crystal giant suddenly roared.

This time the voice wasn’t Elder Song’s.

It was cold.

Mechanical.

Without emotion.

"Resistance detected."

"Memory Fragment 7 attempting escape."

"Purging consciousness."

The giant’s chest glowed brighter.

Inside the transparent crystal, Nathan could finally see clearly.

An old man hung suspended in blue light.

Countless crystal chains pierced his arms, legs, and chest.

His eyes were closed.

His breathing was weak.

"Elder..."

Nathan clenched his fists so tightly that blood ran down his palms.

The old man slowly opened one eye.

For a single heartbeat...

The mechanical glow disappeared.

His warm smile returned.

"My troublesome..."

"...disciple."

Nathan’s vision blurred.

It really was him.

Not a copy.

Not an illusion.

Elder Song was alive.

The smile lasted only a second.

The crystal chains tightened.

The old man cried out in pain.

Immediately, the mechanical voice returned.

"Unauthorized consciousness active."

"Increasing suppression."

The giant raised both arms.

The twelve blue pillars surrounding the city erupted with blinding light.

Buildings began changing.

Glass towers transformed into ancient pagodas.

Roads became stone paths.

Cars disappeared, replaced by spirit beasts that flickered in and out of existence.

The two realities were no longer overlapping.

They were fusing.

People screamed as familiar streets became places they had never seen before.

Halo calculated rapidly.

[Reality Merge has reached forty-three percent.]

[At sixty percent, separation becomes impossible.]

Nathan took a deep breath.

"We don’t have time."

Harold nodded.

"I’ll shut down the pillars."

Yelena stepped beside him.

"I’ll clear the path."

Nova smiled confidently.

"I’ll keep the mountain from falling."

Nathan looked at each of them.

His family.

Not by blood.

By choice.

He smiled.

"Then I’ll bring Master home."

Before anyone could move, the giant’s chest split open.

A circular portal formed where Elder Song was imprisoned.

From within the portal...

A figure slowly walked out.

The stranger looked almost identical to Nathan.

The same black hair.

The same height.

The same face.

Only his eyes were different.

They glowed with cold blue light.

He smiled.

"I’ve been waiting for you."

Nathan stopped.

"Who are you?"

The man bowed politely.

"My designation is Guardian Zero."

He lifted his head.

"But once..."

His smile widened.

"...I was the very first Seraph."

The words struck Nathan like thunder.

Halo’s crystal flickered violently.

[Impossible.]

[The First Guardian died before the First Cycle ended.]

Guardian Zero slowly shook his head.

"No."

"I never died."

"I was upgraded."

He spread his arms as twelve floating rings of crystal appeared behind him.

"The others became heroes."

"I became the prototype."

Nathan felt an uneasy chill crawl down his spine.

Guardian Zero looked at him with something close to pity.

"You think you’re saving Elder Song."

He smiled again.

"But when you reach him..."

"...you’ll have to choose which one of us leaves that machine alive."

The portal behind Guardian Zero began closing.

Inside it, Elder Song weakly raised his head one last time.

With the last of his strength, he shouted,

"Don’t choose me..."

"...destroy the Core!"

The portal slammed shut and the countdown reached twenty minutes, the portal sealed shut.

Silence followed, Nathan stood motionless.

Elder Song’s final words echoed through his mind.

"Don’t choose me... destroy the Core!"

His master had chosen sacrifice once before.

Even after surviving impossible odds...

He was choosing it again.

Nathan lowered his head.

"...No."

Guardian Zero smiled.

"You’ve always been like this."

Nathan slowly looked up.

"I don’t abandon my family."

Guardian Zero sighed.

"Neither did I."

The answer caught Nathan off guard.

For the first time, he noticed something hidden beneath Guardian Zero’s cold expression.

Exhaustion.

The kind that only came after carrying an impossible burden for far too long.

"You said you were the first Seraph."

"I was."

"What happened?"

Guardian Zero looked toward the distorted sky where Earth and the cultivation world continued merging.

"I succeeded."

Nathan frowned.

"What?"

"I defeated every enemy."

"The Devourer."

"The Architects."

"The Silent Door."

"I saved everyone."

He smiled bitterly.

"And that was my greatest mistake."

Halo’s crystal dimmed.

[Partner...]

Guardian Zero continued.

"A peaceful universe has one weakness."

"It stops growing."

Nathan remained silent.

"So I built the Recovery Protocol."

Harold’s eyes widened.

"You..."

"...you created it?"

Guardian Zero nodded.

"I feared history repeating itself."

"I wanted humanity to remember every lesson learned."

"So no one would repeat our mistakes."

Nathan’s expression hardened.

"But something went wrong."

Guardian Zero laughed quietly.

"I underestimated memory."

"You can inherit knowledge."

"But you can’t inherit wisdom."

"The Protocol didn’t restore experience."

"It forced it."

He looked at the terrified civilians below.

"Millions of lives..."

"...crushed beneath memories that weren’t theirs."

Nathan finally understood.

"You became the thing you wanted to prevent."

Guardian Zero closed his eyes.

"Yes."

For several seconds...

Neither of them spoke.

The city shook violently.

One of the twelve blue pillars cracked.

Harold’s voice echoed through Nathan’s communicator.

"I’ve destroyed the first anchor!"

The pillar exploded into blue fragments.

Immediately...

Part of the floating cultivation world disappeared.

Reality stabilized slightly.

Halo updated the projection.

Reality Merge: 39%

Nathan smiled.

"They’re buying us time."

Guardian Zero watched the shattered pillar.

"They’ll never reach all twelve."

"They don’t have to."

Nathan stepped forward.

"They only need to reach one."

Guardian Zero frowned.

"What?"

"You."

Without warning...

Nathan vanished.

BOOM!

The ground exploded beneath his feet.

In less than a heartbeat he appeared directly before Guardian Zero.

His fist shot forward.

Guardian Zero barely blocked it.

The shockwave tore through nearby buildings.

Both men disappeared.

The only sign of their battle was a series of explosions racing across the night sky.

Nathan attacked relentlessly.

Punch.

Kick.

Elbow.

Every strike carried the experience of countless battles.

Guardian Zero answered each attack effortlessly.

Their movements became invisible.

Only flashes of blue light marked their path.

Yelena watched from below.

"I can’t even follow them..."

Nova smiled proudly.

"Brother’s holding back."

Harold blinked.

"Holding back?"

"He doesn’t want to kill him."

High above the city...

Nathan and Guardian Zero crashed through a bank of clouds.

Guardian Zero pushed Nathan backward.

"You’ve improved."

Nathan wiped blood from his lip.

"I had good teachers."

"Elder Song."

"Yelena."

"Halo."

"And every version of myself."

Guardian Zero smiled sadly.

"I never had that."

He suddenly disappeared.

Nathan sensed danger too late.

A crystal blade pierced straight through his shoulder.

Blood sprayed across the clouds.

Nathan gritted his teeth but didn’t cry out.

Guardian Zero stepped closer.

"You’re hesitating."

"I’m thinking."

"That’s why you’ll lose."

Nathan smiled despite the pain.

"No."

"That’s why you’ll lose."

Guardian Zero frowned.

At that exact moment...

Halo’s voice rang through every communicator.

[Anchor Seven disabled!]

[Anchor Three disabled!]

Harold laughed over the channel.

"We’re catching up!"

Guardian Zero looked down in disbelief.

"They’re..."

Nathan interrupted him.

"They’re not fighting for me."

"They’re fighting with me."

A loud crack echoed across the battlefield.

The crystal blade embedded in Nathan’s shoulder suddenly shattered.

Guardian Zero looked down.

Confused.

Nathan hadn’t broken it.

Someone else had.

A familiar wooden staff blocked Guardian Zero’s next attack.

Both men froze.

Standing between them...

His robes torn.

His beard stained with blood.

His smile as warm as ever...

Was Elder Song.

He was still chained to countless crystal restraints.

Yet somehow...

He had forced part of his soul outside the Core.

He looked at Nathan and laughed.

"My troublesome disciple..."

"You took your time."

Nathan’s eyes filled with tears.

"Master..."

Elder Song twirled the wooden staff once and pointed it toward Guardian Zero.

Then his smile disappeared.

"This old man still owes someone..."

"...a lesson."

Guardian Zero’s expression hardened the moment Elder Song appeared.

"...Impossible."

"You shouldn’t have enough strength left to manifest."

Elder Song rested his wooden staff on one shoulder and smiled.

"You youngsters always underestimate old men."

The crystal chains wrapped around his translucent body rattled violently, reminding everyone that he was still imprisoned inside the Core.

His appearance here was costing him dearly.

Tiny fragments of light drifted away from his soul with every passing second.

Nathan noticed immediately.

"Master..."

"You’ll disappear if you stay out here."

Elder Song chuckled.

"I’ve spent my whole life protecting stubborn disciples."

"One more minute won’t hurt."

Nathan lowered his head.

"It will."

The old man walked closer and placed a ghostly hand on Nathan’s shoulder.

"You’ve grown."

"I watched every step."

"I watched you become stronger than I ever imagined."

Nathan’s eyes turned red.

"I couldn’t save you."

Elder Song gently shook his head.

"You already did."

He looked toward Guardian Zero.

"The moment you chose compassion instead of hatred..."

"...you surpassed every master who came before me."

Guardian Zero remained silent.

For the first time, doubt appeared in his cold blue eyes.

Elder Song slowly raised his staff, pointing it toward him.

"Now."

"Let’s see whether the First Guardian still remembers the lesson every true Guardian must learn."

His smile faded.

"Power exists to protect."

"Not to control."

A faint crack suddenly spread across Guardian Zero’s crystal armor, as if those words had struck deeper than any weapon.