Void Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 218 Houkun City

At that time, when Guo Ling just heard from Xie Wanwan about the "Central Dao Element Node of Houkun City, the core star P1 of the Andromeda Galaxy", he recited it many times before he remembered it.

Now, after staying in Houkun City for a few days, he has already had a preliminary understanding of the central city of this carbon-based core planet.

Guo Ling's reunion and separation with Hou Chang in Kunlun City felt as if he had just had a dramatic dream. Or perhaps it was that the beautiful dream he had often had in Wuming City finally had a memorable ending in Kunlun City.

This ending was undoubtedly bitter, difficult for him to accept. However, when he left that sad place, changed time and space, and came to the extremely prosperous Houkun City before him, he couldn't help but think that the clear, dust-settled suffering was actually less tormenting than the vague, clueless hope.

Aren't bitterness and hatred simple? They are merely fixed emotions, the most we have to overcome is their duration. Even if "this hatred lingers endlessly," it will eventually dissipate in the long river of time. However, false expectations are multifaceted, multi-layered concerns and torment, and they are always uncertain.

Guo Ling still prefers certainty.

The only regret this time was that in order to ensure Hou Chang's safety and prevent her from being discovered by those who were chasing her, he didn't even let her take him to see their son.

In his memory, his son was sent to spend the summer with his parents, but in reality, there was no trace of his parents. Guo Ling didn't spend much time pondering this. Zhong Chenmu had once explained to him the conjugation technology used by Earth's human civilization when it first broadcast through the "Dandelion Project." This technology essentially linked all data from different broadcast directions. Once data from different directions had the opportunity to be reproduced and reborn, they would be compared using the conjugation technology. If certain information from one direction was reproduced, it would be deprioritized in other directions, maximizing the resources and opportunities of friendly civilizations willing to assist in data reproduction. In this way, if information from multiple directions was eventually reproduced, they would maintain maximum complementarity, thus preserving the integrity of humanity across the entire cosmic dimension.

However, this technology is not 100% perfect. He can only guess that the information about his parents was "missing" in this process and did not appear in either Kunlun City or Wuming City.

The thought that his parents might have become a signal lost in the cosmic void made Guo Ling feel a little sad, but not as sad as he had imagined. After all, in reality, he had never seen them. And in his memory, as a middle-aged man with elderly parents and young children, he knew all too well that the vast majority of his attention was given to those below him. This seemed to be the nature of human civilization on Earth.

On the contrary, it was during the period after the "singularity moment", despite having thoughts of suicide and experiencing various dangerous situations, he found himself in reality.

Guo Ling discovered that Houkun City, where he was, seemed to be a civilization populated by embodied beings, similar to Wuming City and Kunlun City. However, the appearance and stature of the people here seemed somewhat... hard to describe.

However, compared to Wuming City and Kunlun City, this place was much more developed. Not only were there smooth, wide, high-grade asphalt roads, but there were also a wide variety of cars, trains, airplanes, and other modes of transportation. The electronics and consumer goods were incredibly diverse, all of which he had only read about in books. Conversely, Kunlun City, forget about having a single car, and Wuming City, at most, had a few buses and cars, no flying objects at all.

When he first arrived in Houkun City, he was primarily concerned with "escaping this heartbreaking place of Kunlun City" and recuperating there. But as the days passed, he began to pay attention to the city's operations. Whether it was Old Man Liu's coalition government operations in Wuming City or his rival Xie Cun's Kunlun Front in Kunlun City, it seemed like they could be developing here...

After all, Guo Ling wasn't a sentimental man. Humph! What were women? They would only slow down my sword-drawing speed!

"..."

He shook his head in self-mockery as he walked down Houkun City's central thoroughfare. This was clearly the city's main thoroughfare, with tall buildings lining both sides, each one magnificent. And in the middle stood a particularly peculiar cluster of buildings, shaped like an ingot. Though not the tallest, it was clear at first glance that it was the core of the entire city, perhaps even the entire planet.

At the end of the road is the bank of a river. From afar, the river water is sparkling, calm and majestic. It is far less imposing than the surging river in Wuming City, and even less so than the roaring White River in Kunlun City.

As he approached the ingot-shaped building complex, Guo Ling suddenly noticed a large crowd gathered near the entrance, completely blocking the main entrance. Upon closer inspection, Guo Ling realized they were all protesters.

They held various banners and flags, chanting slogans, their voices rising and falling, resounding through the sky. Although these slogans varied in form, their meaning was similar: they opposed the Carbon Clan's submission to the Hydrogen and Helium Clan, and their sending of embodied humans as test subjects for their stimulants and sedatives.

Guo Ling observed all this with great interest, but his mind was full of questions: Hou Chang told me at the time that only five people participated in this experiment. Does it need to be carried out on a large scale now?