The stone walls of the underground pharmacy shone with a cold light under the psychic lamp, like an old bone soaked in medicinal juice for three hundred years. Lin Banxia crouched in front of the bronze medicine furnace, her fingertips pinching a glass needle tube in which the liquid was half silver-white data flow and half thick golden psychic energy, churning out fine light in the dimness.
When the needle was inserted into the collar of the mechanical dog's neck, the rusted, scrap iron mass didn't even make a sound. Three days ago, it was thrown into the scrap heap by the cultivators of the Qingxiao Tower on the grounds that "it is too polluted with spiritual energy and to keep it is blasphemy", but Lin Banxia read the faint signal of "save me" from its nearly melted chip.
"Scrap iron, take a gamble." She whispered, pushing the needle all the way down with her thumb.
The mixture crawled along the mechanical dog's path like a revived silver and gold snake. Lin Banxia looked at the psychic detector left by her father. The fluctuation curve on the screen suddenly jumped from silence into a jagged pattern, making a shrill beeping sound. She suddenly clutched the instrument, but it was too late - the mechanical dog's chest suddenly rose and fell, and the rusty lung-shaped heat sink "clicked" open, spewing out a breath of white gas with a medicinal smell.
The moment the electronic eye lit up, Lin Banxia almost thought it was an illusion. The green light, first dimmed like a candle flame, then grew brighter and brighter, reflecting in her eyes like the ever-burning psychic lamp in her father's laboratory. The mechanical dog tentatively lifted its front PAWS, rusting off the joints, but it really raised its head and looked at her with its wet electronic eyes.
"Pretty alive." She tugged at the corner of her mouth, trying to laugh but not laughing. In the hidden compartment on the third floor of the medicine rack, father's notes were pressing down on half a yellowed photograph of a man holding a similar syringe, laughing with his white teeth showing.
Just then there was a soft hum from outside the pharmacy.
It wasn't a psychic wave, but a rune activation tremor.
Lin Banxia's hand instantly pressed the mechanical dog's head and pushed it into the shadow. She recognized the movement - the Locking Spirit Array of the Qingxiao Pavilion, which is specifically used to solidify spiritual energy, is perfect for dealing with those who "play sorcery".
"Search!" Search carefully!"
As the sound of kicking the door exploded, Lin Banxia had already climbed over to the back of the medicine stove. Amid the loud crash of the door against the stone wall, she heard the voice of Ling Yue, the top enforcers of Qingxiao Pavilion, who led the team to raid the Spirit Machine Clinic in the west of the city last year on the grounds that "repairing the spirit vein with machinery is harmful to heaven."
Bronze cauldrons were overturned and the cauldrons were smashed all over the ground. Lin Banxia moved along the stone wall, his fingertips touching the short knife hidden in the pestle - left by his father, the blade quenched with psychic poison, could temporarily paralytic the spiritual veins of the cultivator.
"Find this!" Someone shouted.
She saw her experimental records hidden in the corner being picked up, and the formulas on the pages were particularly glaring under the torches. Lingyue's boots stopped in front of the record, the cloud-patterned boots that were always polished to a shine, which had crushed Dr. Chengxi's fingers last year.
"The girl who concocted the evil potion must still be there." Ling Yue's voice was laughing, but colder than the cold wind of Rusty Star. "Find the corpse of the mechanical dog and burn it to ashes - if you dare to pollute the spirit with data, you must taste the purification talisman."
The mechanical dog sobbed softly in the shadows, and the green light of its electronic eyes flickered. Lin Banxia held its head down, her nails almost piercing into the metallic fur. She saw the psychic explosive on the top of the medicine rack, a last resort prepared by her father, not to be used unless it was absolutely necessary.
"There's noise here!"
Footsteps are approaching the medicine stove. Lin Banxia took a deep breath and suddenly grabbed the medicine jar beside him and threw it in the opposite direction. With the sound of the pottery shards shattering, she pulled up the mechanical dog and darted into the hidden door at the far end of the pharmacy - it was made from an abandoned starship hatch and was long enough to hold off three breaths.
The moment the door closed, she heard Ling Yue's furious roar and the crackling of runes burning. The mechanical dog struggled in its arms, not out of fear, but trying to pry open the door crack with its rusty PAWS.
"Behave yourself." "Later I'll show you the real starry sky, not the rust-banded star veiled by fog," said Lin Banxia in a low voice, but gently touched its ears with his fingertips.
Outside the dark door came the sharp sound of a flying sword piercing through a plank. She was running through the tunnel with a mechanical dog in her arms, and her father's notes were pressed around her waist like hot irons. In the faint light at the end of the tunnel, she seemed to see again the man in the photo, holding up a syringe and saying to her, "Banxia, psychic and data are one family, who says they can't live under the same roof?"
Then let the old diehards of the Clearsky Pavilion look at this eave, she insisted on building it.
The musty smell of the tunnel mixed with the sweet smell of psychic crystals, like the potions that my father had ruined. Lin Banxia's boots stepped into the puddles, splashing water and wetting her trouser legs, while the mechanical dog in her arms suddenly became agitated, its electronic eyes staring fixedly into the darkness ahead.
"What's wrong?" She lowered her voice and clenched the short knife at her waist.
"Whoops" electric currents generated by mechanical dog throat, nasal tip rubbing on her wrist, there also are stained with the mixture of't wipe. Lin Banxia suddenly realized - not danger, it smelled the scent of its own kind?
No.
The faint light at the end of the tunnel was suddenly overshadowed by shadows, not the natural darkness, but something blocking the light. Lin Banxia came to a sudden stop, and the mechanical dog in her arms arched its back like hair, and the rusty tailvertebrae snapped straight.
"Who's there?" She asked, as the short knife was drawn, blue mist rose from the blade of the psychic poison.
In the shadows came rapid panting, along with the shrill sound of metal rubbing. Lin Banxia narrowed her eyes and saw the dark shadow struggling. Her right leg was unnaturally twisted, and under her trouser leg, there was a half piece of cold glowing metal - a mechanical prosthetic limb, similar to Feng Hao's, but older, with yellowish strips of cloth wrapped around the joints.
"Don't do it!" "I'm not from the Clearsky Pavilion!" The shadow shouted hoarse, with a wailing tone.
Lin Banxia did not move, and the cold light of the short knife remained on the other's throat. The water in the tunnel reflected their shadows, like a distorted ink painting. She saw a torn cloth bag in his arms, with half of the energy tube exposed at the opening, the kind that scavengers often use.
"Iron Eagle Guard is chasing you?" She suddenly asked.
The other person froze, then nodded vigorously: "They say I am... "Psychic Fusion."
The mechanical dog suddenly darted out of Lin Banxia's arms, circling around the man's mechanical prosthetic limb, and the green light of the electronic eye swept over the scratches on the metal surface as if recognizing something. Looking at this scene, Lin Banxia suddenly recalled what her father had said in his notes: "The resonance of psychic power and data is more honest than any language."
"Come with me." She retracted her short knife and turned towards the branch of the tunnel. "There's an exit here that leads to the waste treatment plant."
The man was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly followed, and the mechanical prosthetic limb made a shrill noise on the ground. "I'm Aji," he whispered. "Thank you, miss."
Lin Banxia did not turn back, but pointed to the mechanical dog following behind: "It's called scrap iron."
Aji's laughter was even more unpleasant than his crying: "My arm is almost scrap metal. It was just swept by the electromagnetic net of the Iron Eagle Guard and now I can't move." "
Lin Banxia paused for a moment, fished out a small porcelain bottle from the medicine bag and threw it to Aji: "It falls on the joint and lasts for half an hour." It was an emergency medicine she had concocted using the recipe left by her father, a mixture of psychic energy and nanorobots, specifically for repairing psychic blockages in mechanical prosthetics.
Aji exclaimed as she poured the medicine: "This is... Psychic Data Compatibility agent? Are you Mr. Linmer's daughter?"
Lin Banxia's back tightened instantly. Father's name was taboo in Rust-Belt Star, especially in the mouths of scavengers. She turned sharply and the short knife pressed against Aji's throat again: "How do you know my father?"
Aji's face turned pale with fright, and the joints of the mechanical prosthesis clicked: "My father is your father's assistant! Last year when the Iron Eagle Guards ransacked the house, he... He didn't run out." He pulled out of his bosom a charred metal plate with the word "Lin" engraved on it. "He fought to get it and said it was for you, and you'll understand."
His fingertips trembled as he took the metal plate, and the burn marks on the edges were still warm. She recalled that rainy night last year when her father had pushed her into the tunnel with a similar tag in his hand.
"Boom!"
The tunnel suddenly trembled violently, and the rubble fell overhead. Aji's mechanical prosthetics suddenly burst out with a bluish-purple light, just like Feng Hao's psychic power at the mecha cemetery that day.
"Lock the Spirit array! They're chasing here!" Aji let out a scream. "It's the Clearsky Pavilion, they're teaming up with the Iron Eagle Guards!"
Lin Banxia looked at the bluish-purple light and suddenly understood why the mechanical dog had been so agitated - it smelled not of the same kind, but of the same kind of psychic energy. She stuffed the metal plate into her bosom, pulled Aji and ran towards the branch: "Quick! The exit is the third fork on the left!"
The mechanical dog darted ahead, and the green light of the electronic eye drew straight trails in the darkness. Lin Banxia heard the crackling sound of runes burning behind her, and Ling Yue's angry shout: "Can you run away? The Lock Spirit Array has sealed off all exits!"
Stones hit her shoulder, but Lin Banxia ran faster and faster. She knew better than anyone that the Lock Spirit Array was blocking the exit of "pure spiritual energy" or "pure mechanical", but she was carrying compatibents in her arms, beside her were spiritual and mechanical fusions, and at her feet followed a mechanical dog that had come back to life - these things that the Clearsky Pavilion regarded as "blasphemy" were precisely the keys to breaking the array.
"Aji, pour your psychic power into the mechanical arm!" "Scrap iron, bite his arm!" she suddenly shouted, pulling out the last tube of the mixture from her medicine bag.
Aji was stunned for half a second, then gritted his teeth. Bluish-purple psychic energy gushed out from his mechanical arm, with a scorching heat. The mechanical dog leapt up, its sharp teeth piercing through the strip of cloth on his arm, but it did not bite with its mouth, it licked the mass of psychic energy with its tongue, and the green light of the electronic eye interwove with the psychic energy in a spiral.
"Right now!" Lin Banxia splashed the mixture on the side of the stone wall.
The silver-white data stream and the golden psychic burst on the stone wall, not an explosion, but a infiltration. The rocks covered with Lockspirit Array runes suddenly became transparent, revealing the starry sky behind them - not the rust mist of rusty stars, but the real, starry night sky.
"Impossible!" " Ling Yue's voice was filled with terror.
Lin Banxia pulled Aji through the gap in the stone wall, and the light trail left by the mixture became a barrier behind him, blocking the pursuing runes on the other side. She heard the mechanical dog barking behind her and turned to see it banging its body against the stone wall, using its last bit of strength to buy time.
"Scrap!" She shouted.
The mechanical dog looked back at her, and the green light in the electronic eyes flashed as if saying goodbye. Then it rushed towards the chasing flying sword, and in the shrill metallic clanging, it turned into a brilliant spark.
Lin Banxia's nails pinched into her palm, and the smell of blood spread across her tongue. She pulled Aji into the wasteland, and the tunnel behind her collapsed in the collision of the Lock Spirit array and the mixture, raising a cloud of dust.
"Where to run?" "Aji panted," the mechanical arm's psychic power was already as weak as a candle.
Lin Banxia looked up at the starry sky, the position of the seventh star of the Big Dipper, father had said there was an abandoned mine tunnel. She pointed in that direction, her voice as cold as ice: "Go to the mine tunnel, where there is a fault in the spirit vein of the previous age, and the runes of the Locking spirit array will fail there."
Aji's mechanical arm suddenly pointed behind him: "They're coming out!"
Lin Banxia turned and saw torches meandering across the wasteland like a long dragon, and the figure at the front was Ling Yue. He held a yellow talisman in his hand, and the talisman paper fluttered in the night wind, giving off a suffocating spiritual pressure.
"Blasphemy against the psychic, heaven and earth will not tolerate it!" Ling Yue's voice came from afar, with the arrogance of judgment.
Lin Banxia suddenly laughed, took out his father's notes from his bosom and waved them in the direction of the torch: "Old stubborn, open your dog's eyes wide! This is not blasphemy, it's a way out!"
She grabbed Aji and rushed into the darkness without looking back. The wind of the wasteland rolled up her hair, carrying the last smell of medicine left by the mechanical dog, and the hairy note from her father's notebook:
"Taboos are nothing but truths that are not yet understood."