Chapter 823 — Three Stages
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 4
Gao Yang looked into those bright eyes and slowly smiled. "Where there's a will, there's a way. A path will always exist."
"I hope it's found soon," Amber pouted, muttering under her breath. "Good for people, good for gods..."
Verodai heard Amber's words, yet as a Defier she offered no rebuttal or warning. She merely listened quietly, her gaze calm and still, as though sunk in thought.
Gao Yang, meanwhile, narrowed his eyes slightly, his thoughts surging and falling within.
The development of mortals... in a sense had gestated the poison that pollutes the gods and sown the hidden peril of humanity's own extinction—and yet development itself was the only resistance mortals could offer when facing this cold, hard world.
These cold rules were truly unkind, but neither humans nor gods had any choice.
...
Magical Technology Research Institute, Druid Research Center.
Byron, his hair streaked with gray, stood in an unobtrusive open space, nervously watching the technicians nearby bustle around the platform, adjusting equipment. He strove to appear composed, and so stood ramrod straight where he was—yet those who knew him well could discern, precisely from that composed stance, the deep nervousness within this Imperial general—
The normal Byron rarely stood at attention like this.
Pea sat quietly in a chair beside Byron, glanced up at her adoptive father with some helplessness, then lowered her head and picked up the writing board she never let out of her sight. She scribbled a line of text on it with a flourish, then poked Byron's elbow with her pen and handed the board over:
"Dad, relax. You're going to affect everyone."
Byron glanced down at the writing board and pulled out a somewhat stiff smile. "I... I am quite relaxed..."
Seeing this, Pea sighed helplessly and turned her gaze toward the great mass of machinery and technicians not far away.
Pi Yun stood amid a crowd of assistants and researchers, an expression of rare seriousness on his deeply wrinkled face.
The crystal resonance device buried beneath the experimental platform emitted a pleasant hum; above the projection crystals set into the front of the platform, a complex and distinct three-dimensional image took shape. His gaze swept across the spine-like view, confirming every detail, attending to every change.
"There should be no problem now. The response matches the last test; the artificial nerve cord is in good condition, and the signal transmission is clear," one assistant said. "Next we'll see whether the new cranial base contacts perform as expected..."
"At last, the moment of acceptance..." Pi Yun murmured with a soft sigh, then carefully—as though cradling a treasure—lifted the oddly shaped silver-white device resting at the center of the platform.
It was a "serpentine device" less than half a meter long, composed of segment after segment of silver-white metal joints, its whole form resembling a flattened spine. One end bore a triangular structure that seemed able to fit against the nape of the neck; the other extended several "tendril"-like terminals. The entire device looked precise and uncanny.
This was none other than the improved "Neural Thorn."
Holding the triangular structure of the Neural Thorn in one hand and supporting its terminal node from below with the other, Pi Yun came over to stand before Byron and Wandou.
"Is it ready to use?" Byron asked at once.
"It was ready to use from the start," Pi Yun said, rolling his eyes. "We just went over it one more time for safety's sake."
That explanation did little to put Byron at ease; he could not help frowning and confirming once more, "If something should go wrong..."