“The Sentinel Goddess is imprisoned?” Xia Fei blurted out in shock.
“Mhm. The Hawks attempted to persuade the Sentinel Goddess into establishing a new faction in the universe, but the Goddess was hesitant and indecisive, so the Hawks decided to place her under house arrest,” explained Hami.
Xia Fei could not understand this. “The Sentinel Goddess has the highest command privilege. How could she be placed by someone else under house arrest? If she wanted to leave, she could just give the order. Who would be able to stop her?”
Hami shook his head. “Only the Goddess can say why she doesn’t resist.”
Xia Fei thought it over. He had many questions about the ancient robots, and Pod’s hibernation also left him in great pain. Firmly nodding, Xia Fei sternly said, “Fine. I will go with you to see the Sentinel Goddess.”
Hami led Xia Fei to the elevator, taking it to a tunnel beneath the tower. He whispered to Xia Fei, “These two towers serve as a transfer station to the Hidden Realm and are connected to each other. We first must enter the tower of ability and then leave through the warp gate.”
“A warp gate?” Xia Fei asked.
“The warp is a fixed warp installation. It can instantly transport all objects within a fixed range through a wormhole into the Hidden Realm.”
“And what is the Hidden Realm?”
“It is a hidden part of space in the universe, and it can only be entered and exited through certain fixed points. Although it’s a part of the universe, it’s independent from it.”
Xia Fei found this unbelievable. Warp gate? A hidden part of space? This was the first time he was hearing of such things.
“If you’re ready, let’s set out. While following me, you must not be discovered by the robots of the Hawk faction, or else we’ll be in trouble,” Hami sternly said.
Xia Fei sternly nodded. He followed Hami along the underground passage leading to the tower of ability. The fact that the towers were connected underground was probably a secret that Blood Candle’s residents did not know. The towers were extremely large, and the elevator was well-hidden right within the walls!
Several minutes later, Hami said, “Using the elevator to head up is very dangerous. We should take the stairs.”
Past a side door was a narrow stairwell. Hami had a large body, making taking these stairs very difficult, so he was forced to bend down.
Taking a turn, they passed by a see-through door; through which, Xia Fei could see people moving back and forth.
Hiding at the side of the door and watching, he saw several robots in surgical gowns, each holding a child. They operated equipment to implant what seemed like a sort of tiny organism into the brains of the children through their nose cavities.
“The two towers have the same structure. Children are sent from the first floor to the second floor, where they are selected. If their genes are not right, they are taken care of on the spot, a bodily function removed before they are sent back. As for those who meet the standard, they are sent to the third floor for further selection so that they can be given an ability which suits their genes. They are then sent to the fourth floor where the engineer robots help them open up their seventh brain regions, after which they are sent back to the first floor,” Hami squatted next to Xia Fei and whispered.
“I don’t get it. How do engineer robots help humans open their seventh brain regions?”
Hami asked, “Do you know of nano-robots?”
“I do. A type of tiny robot developed by ancient mankind. It’s said to be the size of a germ. They’re considered semi-intelligent and don’t have the ability to think on their own.”
Hami nodded. “We send nano-robots into the human brain. These tiny robots are like architects, using tools to pry open the seventh brain region and release the energy within, allowing a person to possess an ability, but this does a certain degree of damage to the brain, making a human incapable of reaching the peak level.”
It was no wonder Blood Candle warriors could not reach the Legendary rank. It turned out that their brains had germ-size machines working inside them! If they got too far from Blood Candle, these mechanical germs, unable to receive further orders from the Sentinel Goddess, would stop functioning. This was why Constantine thought his people were cursed, unable to leave Blood Candle without losing their abilities.The mechanical germs were also probably the reason for the lower average lifespan of the Blood Candle people.
“It’s one thing to open the seventh brain region using nano-robots, but why cut off the body parts of children?” Xia Fei asked.
Hami sighed. “It’s another idea of the Hawk faction. The severed body parts will be preserved to be later used for life-like robots.”
“You’re talking about robots that look identical to humans!”
“We don’t want to do this, either, but the Hawks are the strongest faction in the world of robots at the moment, and the Sentinel Goddess is unwilling to come out and deal with the situation, so no one can stop them.”
Xia Fei frowned. After nurturing in biological fluid, the body parts of children truly could be merged with robots to produce life-like robots, but why was the leader of the Hawks carrying out this sort of plan? What sort of unspoken objective did they have?
The Hawks must have accumulated an astonishing stockpile of human body parts by now, perhaps already created an army of hundreds of millions of life-like robots. If these robots were placed in the Alliance, a disaster was certain to ensue!
What if there was a life-like robot who looked exactly like Avril? Xia Fei felt a headache coming on, and his eyes turned grim.
“Let’s hurry and leave this place,” Hami lightly pulled on Xia Fei’s arm and urged.
They took the stairs to the thirteenth floor, which contained an exquisite round metal gate.
“This is the warp gate. Please wait a moment.”
Hami went over to the control panel and keyed in a string of numbers, seemingly a set of coordinates.
“The Hidden Realm is very large. I will take you directly to the metal city where the Sentinel Goddess resides. The air quality is rather decent, enough for humans to breathe, though the gravity is a little strong.”
After several seconds, the coordinates were input, and the warp gate began glowing. Hami nervously pulled Xia Fei and had him stand in the gate.
*Whoosh~*
As if he was falling into a valley, Xia Fei felt the floor give way beneath his feet, and his body floated into the dazzling warp tunnel. Xia Fei had always traveled through wormholes in a ship. This was the first time he was doing so with just his physical body!
Moreover, warships traveled straight through the wormholes they opened, but he now was going straight down!
Comets streaked past him as if he were in a dream.
Suddenly, Hami nervously gestured at Xia Fei. It was impossible for sound to travel in a wormhole, so Xia Fei could not tell what Hami was saying, but he could tell from his expression that something had gone wrong.
They did not spend a very long time in the wormhole. About five minutes later, they reached the end.
*Pa!*
His body was standing on a metal platform, and around it was a stupefying sight!
A massive city!
A massive city entirely made of metal stood at the base of a mountain, and above him was a sky of eternal night. Those stars were so close that he felt like he could reach out and grab them. Machines and buildings of shocking sizes could be seen wherever he looked.
“This is too incredible! Not just the entire city, even the planet itself is made of metal!” Phantom gasped in astonishment. “The robots built an entire planet made of metal!”
Xia Fei finally understood why ancient mankind called the robots true metal professionals. They did not need rest, did not feel fatigue, and possessed the finest craftsmanship, so there was nothing to criticize about their level of technology. To use this planet of metal as an example, humans would probably take several thousands of years and would still not be able to complete it.
However, before Xia Fei had time to express his wonder, Hami grabbed his hand and sternly said, “When I input the coordinates earlier, I forgot that you’re a human. The self-defense system of the planet will very easily discover you, and the Hawks aren’t very friendly to humans.”
“Take me to where the Sentinel Goddess is; I will follow behind you,” Xia Fei said.
“How will you follow me?” Hami asked in confusion, but before he could finish, Xia Fei’s body vanished into the darkness.
“I can be anywhere around you. Compared to being with you, it’ll probably be safer for me to go alone.” Xia Fei suddenly reappeared beside Hami.
Hami had an extremely strange expression. No matter how advanced his electronic eyes were, he was unable to keep up with Xia Fei’s speed.
“Understood. You mustn’t get lost. There are many robots of the same model as I am in Metal City,” warned Hami.
He hastily began making his way down the mountain, and Xia Fei followed, concealing himself in the darkest corners.
“You’re really trusting him?” Phantom worriedly asked.
“Not too much.”
“Then why are you following him?”
“Curiosity.”
Phantom was speechless. Xia Fei was curious to a hopeless level. His curiosity had led him straight into the base of the robots. This was simply insane!
This mountain was on the outskirts of Metal City. To be more precise, it was more like a metal platform. There was more than one warp gate, and many robots were going in and out of them, traveling to or arriving from different parts of the planet.
Xia Fei was envious over the warp gate technology. If he could install this technology throughout Terminus, he could make living easier for civilians and make troop deployments faster. It would be much better than traveling around with spaceships.
However, as he was passing through the warp tunnel, Xia Fei felt a powerful tearing force being exerted on him. Robots naturally did not care since they had metal bodies, and Xia Fei, a high-ranking ability user, also did not care, but this was very dangerous to ordinary civilians. Moreover, Xia Fei did not know the effective distance of a warp gate.
Their journey was rather smooth. More and more robots appeared around them. They all seemed to be part of a very rigorously organized society, everyone diligently doing their assigned job with no slacking off. The vast majority of robots moved with incredible speed, appearing like highly efficient work groups.
Breath Control served as an excellent protection for Xia Fei, and Crafty Approach allowed him to traverse even the most complicated terrain. In this vast Metal City, a human would feel extremely small. It was clear that, while the robots had destroyed human civilization, there was no way to obliterate their highly efficient and superb construction abilities.
Hami quickly moved forward while nervously looking around.
Suddenly, a light shuttle descended from the sky, and two large combat robots barred Hami’s path.
“No. 15785254, Lady Sinar would like you to explain why you suddenly left the tower of technology and returned to Metal City without any report. Moreover, the surveillance systems indicated that you did not do so alone.” The two robots mechanically spoke.
Hami had a complicated expression. If he were a human, he would probably be sweating buckets by now.
“Shut him off and then send him to Lady Sinar’s office!” coldly ordered one of the combat robots.
“No! I still have something very important to do!” said Hami fearfully.
These two combat robots, which were in charge of public safety, were unmoved. They seized Hami, one robot to a side, and in their hands, Hami was like a little chicken, incapable of breaking free.
“Don’t shut me off! I really have something important to do!” Hami begged.
The two combat robots opened Hami’s back. They were about to shut him down when a figure emerged from the side of the road, two blades flashing in their hands!
