"Alandia, what is the connection between wooden machinery and prosthetic technology?"
"All plants in the Wood Machinery State have the same characteristic, which is that they undergo directional mutation in the direction of "utility" as the environment changes. Wood machines have a broader definition of the environment than humans. For them, the environment is not just high temperature or extreme cold, it can also be a burst of wind that makes them make noise, or even other species that coexist with them. "
Alandia pointed across the street. On the facade of the prosthetic store "Dark Green Wooden Pile" was a logo in the style of a comic strip: a little boy gave a thumbs up with his wooden hand, showing a cheerful smile.
"Ugh, is the human body also a kind of "environment" for plants..." Qiluo shuddered, "I feel like a parasitic Paras, so scary!"
"Qiluo, do you want juice?"
Hearing the voice of his friend from afar, Qiluo immediately became energetic: "I want watermelon juice~ What do you want, Alandia?"
"No sugar is added to the fruit tea, thank you."
The girl with twin tails ran away lively and returned two minutes later with two other teammates holding apple juice and an unknown grass-colored drink. They were walking in the hustle and bustle of summer, surrounded by the buzz of people and the chirping of cicadas.
The lower part of Bainiao City is much cooler than the top tree canopy. Pure plant buildings occupy most of the land here. Simple stalls set up by locals can be seen on both sides of the street, selling wood carvings, small tools, knives and other items to tourists. All kinds of weird wooden souvenirs. Four female tourists of different ages and costumes have become the most beautiful scenery on this street, more eye-catching than all the rare and exotic plants. The stall owners must be shouting hard when they pass by, as if if the girls stop for a while in front of the stall, they can bring back the vitality and youth that they can never find again.
Qiluo poked Qin Qianbai's elbow: "I feel like I have arrived at a place where middle-aged and elderly people live. The most common sigh I heard along the way is that youth is great."
"Youth is good." Qin Qianbai said, "Qi Luo, you think we are still girls now, while Shigure Rei is already a woman. This is the heavy weight of losing youth."
"Little girl, what are you talking about? I told you that even 24 years old is a girl!" Rei Shigure was furious.
"A girl who buys green juice..." Qiluo squinted.
The mysterious green drink in Rei Shigure's hands is the famous green juice. The main ingredient is young leaves of barley seedlings or other plants. It is said to have excellent effects in detoxifying, nourishing the skin and maintaining sleep, but the price is extremely bitter.
"Taking good care of yourself is the secret to maintaining youth, do you understand, you amateur idol?" Rei Shigure took a deep sip of green juice, "Besides, do you have the nerve to talk about age in front of the Dawn Knight?"
"You are not allowed to drag Miss Airandia into the water."
Qiluo quietly observed Airandia and found that the silver-haired woman only took a sip of fruit tea and said nothing, as if she was immersed in her own world. "Hey, Airandia?" She tapped the female knight's shoulder. Airandia recovered from that state and blinked.
"I'm sorry, I was thinking about the topic of age." Alandia said, "I will be thirty years old in three years. I met Ce when he was only sixteen. Three years later I met Ce, who was sixteen. I should be called "Auntie".
Thinking about it this way, I have already lost my youth. That summer was the end of my youth. "
Alandia spoke very calmly, without any sentimentality about the passage of time, as if the person who was about to become an aunt was a relative she had only met a few times rather than herself. Qiluo felt a knot in her heart after hearing this. She thought that she would also grow up to be 24 years old, then 27 years old, and then become an old aunt or even an old woman in her thirties or forties... Then she would see young girls on the roadside. What would we think? I said to the girls with a smile, "Mother-in-law, I had a better figure than you all, and was I still a superstar who attracted public attention on the stage?"
Thinking of this, she suddenly understood the eyes of those old businessmen. What they saw in the girl was not the beauty of others, but the beauty they once had.
"Youth doesn't go by so fast..." Qiluo said weakly. She originally wanted to comfort the Dawn Knight, but found that she had become the one who needed comfort. At this time, she heard Qin Qianbai say: "It's okay, Miss Alandia. My grandfather said
Anyone under 100 years old can be considered a girl. As long as your heart is still young, you will not grow old. "
Qiluo suddenly felt as if she had fed the dog with emotion. Yes, this is a world of impermanent magic and super powers. One of the girls around them is a martial arts master who will still look like this hundreds of years later, and the other is an impermanent magician who can control time at will, so they need to worry about their woolly youth! I'm afraid that in a few decades, Qin Qianbai will still be able to hang out among his descendants and ask Gongsun Ce for candy. Thinking of that scene makes me feel so angry!
"Mr. Qin An is right." The Dawn Knight smiled, did not continue the topic, and asked instead: "What do you think of the situation in the Wooden Weapon State?"
"There's nothing suspicious at all..." Qiluo said disappointedly.
After learning from the experience of the Xuanci State, everyone who arrived in the new place unanimously agreed to focus their investigation on people's ideas, so they took Qiluo to Xiacheng District, a complex population, hoping to rely on the ability of information life forms Quickly collect and summarize information. But the most noteworthy thing about the Woodcraft State recently is that President Klein gave a speech a few days ago, and the core purpose was to canvass votes for his vice president.
The president's speeches do not have the ability to quickly influence people's hearts, but the "war spirit" of people in this state towards nature is simply strong. Almost every household in the local area is equipped with machetes, flamethrowers and other gadgets, emphasizing that everyone is responsible for the nationwide fight against wood. Gongsun Ce’s argument of demoralizing the war spirit is completely inconsistent with this situation.
"We have completely conquered these trees and grass and made them into tables, lamps and prosthetics. We are no longer afraid of these woods, we use them!"
The aunt who sells fruit on the roadside was quite proud when she talked about this topic. Qin Qianbai returned to the team after completing the opinion poll and concluded: "There is no abnormal weather, no big changes in concepts, no unemployment waves and other hot news. The local government and Dada Lyon behind it The family also regularly conducts deforestation activities to combat the rapid growth of the sea of trees. On the surface, this place looks perfectly fine."
"I just said that Caldesia should not be allowed to choose the destination. Who came up with this bad idea?" Shigure Rei said, "We are really going to go on a purely tourist trip in the next few days, just in time to relax before the war. "
Shigure Rei was trying to push for Arlandia's arrangement, but the Dawn Knight looked at it but was not worried at all.
"Since the investigation has no clue yet, let's consult local insiders."
"Gongsun Ce over at Dadarion has gone away. Are you going to find someone from the church?"
"Yes. I consulted Mr. Jago Drusus before setting off, and he gave me a list of members of the Wooden Arms State Church."
Qiluo saw the church spire peeking out from among the leaves, and then realized that Alandia was leading them towards the church. This church is an old wooden building. It is sandwiched between two residential buildings, like a small decoration that fills the empty space. A priest in his early fifties was sitting at the door of the church, explaining biblical stories to the children nearby. There was a thin little boy wiping his tears and crying.
"Father Gray, the big Paul in the class bullied me again! My toys were taken away by him, and the teacher didn't care about him..."
"Don't be anxious, children, listen to what the saint said." Father Gray turned over the scriptures and read to the children eloquently: "The saint said, if someone hits you on the left cheek, you must hit it hard. The right side of his cheek."
The little boy was stunned: "Huh?"
"Do you understand?" the priest said kindly.
"...I understand! I'm going to fight him back!"
"Good boy, go and practice boxing hard with the priests. Only when you are strong will you be able to avoid being bullied."
The children who listened to the story screamed and ran to the back of the church to work hard with a young priest. Father Gray closed the holy book and smiled at the girls: "I am Father Gray of this small church. What do you do for a living?"
·
Father Gray had a disease in his left leg and had to use a crutch when walking. Alandia, aware of this, declined his hospitality. They entered the church and sat on the bench where the believers prayed. Father Gray touched the cross around his neck and thought hard.
"Forgive me for being helpless, ladies. I really didn't think of any changes worth mentioning in this state. The head of the Dadarion family is in charge of the Wooden Weapon State.
There will never be anything dangerous unless Dr. Booli wants to destroy his own foundation. "
"You mean that the head of the family has deep control over the totem?" Qin Qianbai asked.
"After all, that is the foundation of their existence. If Onoville Slok himself is in charge of the Magnetic State, there is no possibility of the magnetic turbulence becoming more serious." Father Gray said, "Maybe you should go to the real world. Check it out in the State of Blade Rain or the State of Blade Rain, even I have heard of the changes there... I'm sorry, please wait a moment."
Halfway through, there was a loud knock on the door outside the church. Qin Qianbai went over in advance to help him open the door. A young man with an unhappy face stood at the door of the chapel, clutching his left arm like a middle-aged boy.
"Father, you must help me." The young man said sadly.
"Why are you here again, little Jason?" Father Gray frowned, "I just helped you repair it last week."
"Forget it, this junk thing that deserves to be slapped by thunder dares to claim to be a brand-name product!" Jason angrily smashed his arm against the wall, "It started to grow again! I bet I bought a fake this time It’s a fake product. Once the repair is completed, I will definitely file a lawsuit against that unscrupulous shop!”
"I warned you not to use wooden mechanical prosthetics for cheap. It is an emergency measure in special times." Father Gray said with a serious face, "Come in and let me take a look at the situation."
Jason came in frustrated and put his left arm on the small square table. The bright silver arm was trembling restlessly at this moment, as energetic as a young man eager to express himself. Father Gray covered the middle part of the prosthetic body with his holy scripture, and a cross-shaped protrusion suddenly appeared on the surface of the silver fist. In the blink of an eye, a small cross "grew" out of the prosthetic body, and Jason's face turned half pale.
"It's absorbing my nutrients!" the young man wailed.
"It came just in time. If it had been delayed for another day, you would have been hospitalized. Now go into the back room and lie down while I give it a final treatment."
The priest's procedure only took about ten minutes. The young man moved his arm that had returned to normal and walked away gratefully.
"Generally speaking, all wooden machines will be shaped by the manufacturer before sale to prevent them from suddenly mutating and growing wildly during use." The priest came back and explained, "But occasionally such accidents still happen, so we all recommend Use more expensive but safe regular prosthetics.”
"I didn't expect you to be a prosthetic doctor." Qin Qianbai said.
"This profession here is called plant doctor."
"Then why don't you install a prosthesis for your leg?" Qiluo asked curiously, "You don't seem to be opposed to this technology."
Father Gray patted his thigh and smiled complicatedly.
"This is the practice of botanical doctors. To use the common saying of the empire, it is called "The doctor does not heal himself." We are the ones most familiar with wooden prosthetics, and we know countless ways to make plants safe, controllable, and become our own hands and feet. That is why we cannot apply it to ourselves. "
"why?"
"Because this is a kind of arrogance." Father Gray said seriously, "This sea of trees has existed for two thousand years, and our lives are only a drop in the ocean compared to it. We have not even understood the mechanism of the existence of these trees. We are so insignificant. Why do humans think they can control nature? The technology and experience of plant doctors are, in the final analysis, nothing more than human "cleverness" rather than the rules of the world. Once arrogant doctors use these techniques on themselves, their self-control will gradually weaken, and their greed will increase exponentially.
They will crave more, strength, youth, vitality, and even eternal life... They think those little cleverness can help them, so they invade the restricted area. Those greedy doctors will always be swallowed up by trees and become another ancient tree in the endless sea of trees. Such fanatics have existed in all ages, so our ancestors established a rule: never start this thing, your self-control is not as strong as you think. "
Father Gray's narration caused everyone to think deeply. He saw the expressions of the girls and smiled apologetically: "I said too much. Please forgive me, people like to preach when they get older... Where did we just talk?"
[In view of the general environment,
The Knight of Dawn said there was nothing more to know, so Father Gray sent them out of the chapel. After leaving the house, Rei Shigure said with a sideways glance, "What should we check next? The average sleep time of citizens in this city or the recent accident rate of wooden prosthetics?"
"We are investigating the recent accident rate of wooden prosthetics."
"I'm just kidding, are you really checking this?"
"Any suspicious clues are worthy of investigation. Miss Qiluo's assistance has greatly improved efficiency. We don't have to worry about wasting time in collecting intelligence."
Qiluo hammered her waist: "Ugh, I feel like a supercomputer..."
"You are more trustworthy than any computer."
At this time, the Dawn Knight's mobile phone rang, and she answered the call: "Ce, what's the situation?... Make a reasonable judgment, but remember not to leave the national border of Usters. ...Yes, this is very important."
She picked up the phone and said in the curious eyes of the girls, "Ce plans to pick up the support staff in person."
·
Gongsun Ce was flying in the sky at a height of 20,000 meters above the ground. White clouds were spread out under his feet like thick cotton wool, and the blue sky above his head was like layers of pure colored cloth. This altitude has exceeded the limit of ordinary civil aviation aircraft. Oxygen is thin at high altitudes. He couldn't help but feel lucky that he had purchased some "air seeds" special to Baitiao City in advance to avoid the tragic ending of Nirvana reincarnation due to lack of oxygen at high altitudes. ——Qin Qianbai was afraid that he could laugh at him for the rest of his life.
Gongsun Ce landed at the foot of Mount Abinos with a bit of sadness. This mountain had turned into a complete crystal due to the Liuli disaster at the beginning of the year. That chaotic day seemed like a lifetime ago now.
He waited quietly for a while. Ten minutes later, an insect-egg-like landing capsule fell from the sky and made an ugly big crater in the grassland at the foot of the mountain. The doctor walked out carrying her small suitcase, her face dark and gloomy.
Gongsun Ce's mouth twitched: "...are you so dedicated that you use this opportunity to test the new landing module?"
"Dr. Cecil is in a bad mood," Maho said coldly, "I work for a fool."
Such intense emotional expressions were rare for a normal doctor. Gongsun Ce speculated that his sister Maho might not be in a good mood recently. He wisely chose to avoid unpleasant topics first, and said in a haha manner: "Don't argue with that crazy woman Cecil! I'll send you to Baitiao City first, that..."
He looked around at the empty grassland and said awkwardly: "Shall I give you a white matter massage?"
The doctor stared at him with dead eyes.
"...How about I carry it with telekinesis?"
The doctor put the small suitcase into his hand, stood on tiptoes and leaned on his back, and ordered: "Take off."
"I am a younger brother, not a coolie!"
Gongsun Ce carried the suitcase with telekinesis, wrapped his hands around his sister's legs, and flew at an even faster speed than before. He stared straight ahead, trying his best to ignore the sensations behind him. The doctor's clothes were cool as usual.
"Maho-san, I feel like I'm eating you tofu." He couldn't help but say.
"You have eaten it many times. My pajamas are just a thin layer of cloth." The doctor said with an indifferent attitude, "Besides, I have seen your vagina countless times. In my eyes, you are the same as an adult male human body." The specimens are not much different."
"Human specimens can also be manipulated!" Gongsun Ce bluffed.
"Then massage my shoulders. My muscles are sore after working all day."
Gongsun Ce used telekinesis to massage her gently for a while, and the woman behind him let out a comfortable sigh. She scratched Gongsun Ce's neck: "Thank you. Is it necessary to come and pick me up?"
"It's necessary. There are so many powerful people in this damn place like Hezhong. I don't worry about you coming by plane alone." Gongsun Ce said, "And I just took the opportunity to test my current normal speed."
"The result was not good?"
"Not ideal." Gongsun Ce sighed. He increased the distance and flew into the clouds to avoid disturbing ordinary people on the ground. In the eyes of ordinary people, he was like an earthly god in a storybook, but he knew that he was
How much is lacking.
"I found that I still needed oxygen and water. Without the protection of telekinesis, the low temperature and low pressure of the high-altitude environment would kill me. It took me more than thirty minutes to rush from the Wooden Machinery State to the vicinity of the Albinos Mountains , but this time is too long on the battlefield, long enough for Master Chi to swallow us all up and then leave leisurely."
"It is common sense that perfect creatures that are immortal and immortal do not exist." The doctor knocked on his head, "Even the Qin family in the imperial capital is not truly immortal."
"I know that thinking about perfection is overkill...it's just that it turns out that I'm still not as awesome as I thought!" Gongsun Ce sighed, "You see, I'm in a superposition of complacency and decadence every day, and I'm often not as good as I thought. You feel like you're getting carried away, and then you feel ashamed of yourself when you're awake."
"It's better than before," Maho said. "Before, you felt ashamed of yourself every day."
"No way, I had the courage to tease you before."
Maho's reply was merciless: "When you were a child, you were cowardly and had low self-esteem. If you didn't have the courage to say that you liked me, you would become a clown to have sex with me. One day I really promise you, but you will be in a hurry and don't know what to do."
Gongsun Ce coughed vigorously, and a woman snickered from behind him.
"If you're in a bad mood, please don't poke me for fun..."
"I'm going to poke you in the ass." Maho poked the back of his head, "Childish, good-for-nothing, a loser, a pervert with no ambition, who used hypnosis on my sister."
"Shut up! Can you keep your iceberg beauty persona? You're going to turn into that weird little girl character now!"
"Just do this cold-faced girl in front of colleagues and patients." Maho lay comfortably on the young man's solid back, feeling a rare sense of peace of mind.
Gongsun Ce always said that he was still far from good, but in Maho's eyes he was always the most trustworthy man.
"What do you need me to do this time?"
"Do nothing." Gongsun Ce smiled evilly, "I went over to see what experiments the doctor was doing, and then no matter what she asked for, she said you can't do it. You can use your abilities to do basic detection, but don't use you The ability to change any living thing. Remember to put on your coldest face and let her see the arrogance of our white coat in the sky."
"Dr. Baioli has any grudge against you?" Maho asked confused.
"There are so many capable people in the Sky City, why did she only name you? Put aside that, isn't it faster, better and more stable to make a deal with Shigure-kun? The old lady's calculation in her mind It’s quite a lot, I want to see what kind of medicine she sells in her gourd.”
·
At the same moment, Bird City.
Baioli Dadalion scolded her family members for embarrassing themselves, poured herself a glass of iced orange juice, and returned to her office.
The taste of iced orange juice was sour and sweet, but it was no longer to her liking. She no longer likes to drink cold drinks after the age of 50 and hates sweets, but she still stubbornly and resolutely retains the living habits of her youth. The juniors often talk privately, saying that the head of the family has gone crazy for doing experiments, and really thinks that he has rejuvenated and is no longer an old man. She doesn't care.
Baioli opened the door, and the lights automatically turned on. A man wearing a black fedora sat on the sofa welcoming the guests, pouring himself an ice-cold liquor. Baioli's body stiffened for a moment, she held her breath unconsciously, and her legs felt as heavy as lead.
"Do you mind if I give you a bottle of wine?" The man smiled, "Wine is a good thing. It can make your rusty body vibrate and inject vitality into your old life. That unparalleled sense of vitality is like youth. The fire is burning."
Baioli sighed and sat down at the table: "I don't like drinking. Champion, if you don't stay in your own casino, what are you doing here?"
"Gaius is worried that you are in danger." The champion raised his glass, "Well, actually he is also worried that you are doing private things without telling everyone. It is not a good thing to ruin the public for private purposes."
"What about you?" Baioli asked, "What do you think?"
"me……"
The champion's slender legs bounced and he jumped up from the sofa. He stood in the middle of the room, covering his hat with his hands, like a singer about to dance. man's skin
The shoes slid beautifully on the wooden floor, and he appeared behind Baioli like a shadow, picking up the glass of iced orange juice.
He suddenly talked about an unrelated topic: "Have you ever seen the rangers who fell on the front lines of the battlefield? Have you ever seen the mountaineers dragging their weak bodies up the mountains? Or those who cross thousands of mountains and rivers to pursue their enemies? the Avengers?"
"I haven't seen it. What do you want to say?" The doctor frowned. She rarely had contact with those rough and rough men.
"You should get in touch with people like that more, I like them very much! They are well-deserved strong men. Their strength does not come from strength, but from persistence. Persistence is to life what alcohol is to the human body, the kind of power that is rooted in the heart Obsession will ignite fire in their eyes and give them endless motivation to achieve their goals."
The crown prince walked to the sofa and threw up the bottle. No more, no less, exactly 1 ounce of vodka fell into the glass. He opened the wine cabinet with his toes, and a bottle of liqueur jumped out. The cork brought another stream of wine into the glass, and was bounced by the tension of the liquid. The champion juggled the two glasses in his hands, and the wine mixed with juice jumped back and forth in them, creating an orange bridge in the room without a drop of it spilling.
"It's a pity that their fire went out after their goal was achieved. They burned out, and the source of their strength disappeared. So they became old, decadent, and destitute. After they achieved themselves, they became weak and disappeared from everyone.
But there is another kind of people in this world who will not become weak. They pursue something they can never get, which is the end of talent and common sense, and the apocalypse that transcends limits. They clearly know that they will never be able to get what they want in their lifetime, but they still can't help but want to reach out to the other side of the sky, so the flame in their eyes will never go out. That kind of fire is the hottest and the most beautiful. That is the real power. Even death cannot take away their obsession! "
The champion stopped his movements and placed the brand new cup in front of Dr. Booli. One-sixth of Galliano, one-sixth of vodka, and two-thirds of ice orange juice, he used two glasses to make a cocktail, "Harvey on the Wall."
The champion knelt down and looked straight at the short doctor. His face was covered with a dark mask, but the doctor could feel his fiery gaze.
"You have eternal fire in your eyes. I appreciate people like you." The champion gave a thumbs up, "So go ahead and do it boldly. I will protect you if something happens."
Baioli pushed the cocktail aside in disgust: "Thanks, but I don't drink."
The champion laughed loudly and lifted up half of his mask, revealing his livid chin. He drank the cocktail in one gulp, walked towards the door, and bumped against the wall of the office.
"Oh damn!" the man yelled, "I'm too drunk!"
He walked out the door and disappeared into the dim corridor.
