«You’ve come.»

Just three simple words, yet in an instant, they dispelled all the fear and panic within Feng Yunqiu’s heart.

It wasn’t the aloof judgment of a high and mighty Celestial gazing down upon mortals, but a warm and gentle greeting laced with a slight smile.

«Come here.»

Feng Yunqiu dared not be negligent. She quickly got up, slightly lowered her head, and walked in small, careful steps across the rainbow bridge, entering the pavilion.

The incense burning in the censer inside gave off a fragrance she had never smelled before—it seemed to have a calming, meditative effect. Just one breath of it, and her still wildly beating heart swiftly settled down.

She could feel multiple gazes falling upon her. Feng Yunqiu cautiously lifted her eyelids a little and finally got a good look at the Celestial master Taiyi.

He had a tall and imposing figure, his skin under the moonlight glowing like flawless white jade, and between his brows was a noble, heroic aura that made one want to praise aloud.

A spiritual girl had never seen such a person… or rather, such a Celestial. There was a natural and inherent air about Xuan Yuan   that simply did not belong to this mortal world. That was the temperament shaped by surviving the passage of time across ten thousand years, when everything once familiar had turned to dust. Confronted with a new world that felt both real and illusory, there was a unique sense of «out-of-place» about him—one that belonged solely to him.

Yet in the eyes of the spirit girl, this «out-of-place-ness» was only natural, and was interpreted as: The Celestial master should indeed be lofty and distant, unstained by mortal dust.

Before the spirit girl could open her mouth, Xuan Yuan   had already spoken: «I already know about what happened down the mountain.»

The spirit girl lowered her gaze. Of course he would—how could the Celestial master not know what had happened at the foot of Purple Mountain?

«The disaster of the plague—I will personally pass the solution to you. Aside from that, there is another task I need you to handle.»

«I respectfully await the Celestial master’s decree.»

The spirit girl bowed again.

Xuan Yuan   glanced at Nuwa. A stream of data flashed across her eyes, and she nodded at him slightly.

«You must properly gather the refugees who fled here. According to my will, lead the people of Purple Mountain, form a new city—thus, peace and joy can be attained.»

There were already a few villages at the foot of Purple Mountain, so using them as the foundation to establish a city wouldn’t be difficult.

With a flip of his wrist, a delicate jade bracelet was lifted into the air by an invisible force and floated lightly to the spirit girl’s front.

The spirit girl hurriedly took it, not even thinking to ask what mystical properties the bracelet possessed, and simply bowed once again: «Thank you, Celestial master, for your bestowal.»

«Wear it. It can protect your body. You’ll also no longer need the old divination rituals—you can directly receive my instructions.»

«If your heart harbors doubt, just call out inwardly. Whatever you seek shall be heard by the heavens.»

He really couldn’t afford to have this silly girl kneeling before the Celestial throne, tossing bone dice every time something happened. He didn’t have the spare time to secretly intervene in the divination outcomes each time.

This was…

…He had just given her the ability to pray to the Celestial master at will?

Feng Yunqiu’s heart trembled again—she felt she truly didn’t deserve such kindness.

She had once even doubted whether this Celestial master in front of her had ever really existed!

Her nose tingled slightly. She said nothing, only silently bowed her head. Finally, with great caution and reverence, she slipped the bracelet onto her slender right wrist.

The moment she put it on, the bracelet emitted a faint glow. The originally loose jade band swiftly contracted to snugly fit her wrist, sticking perfectly to her skin.

A subtle sting came from her wrist, then quickly faded.

What she didn’t know was: in that very instant, a hair-thin needle inside the bracelet had pierced into her arm.

From this point on, the bracelet became directly connected to the spirit girl’s nervous system. It allowed her to use her own willpower to directly link into the network Nuwa had begun to construct.

Of course, all the data she could access was strictly restricted.

«Go now. After you descend the mountain, you’ll naturally know what to do.»

«That carriage you came in—it can be used as your transport from now on.»

The spirit girl bowed once more and respectfully departed.

Only when her faint figure disappeared at the far end of the rainbow bridge did Nuwa start clapping her little hands, her face full of delight: «Not bad, not bad! She’s starting to show three parts of that Celestial quality that Taiyi master used to have!»

«To say something like ‘voice messages transmitted through brain waves via a personal terminal’ in such a grand and majestic way… truly worthy of being Celestial master Taiyi!»

«She wouldn’t have understood it if you said it any other way.» Xuan Yuan   raised an eyebrow, sat down, and looked at Nuwa with a half-smiling gaze. «Besides, wasn’t it you who insisted on using all these mysterious-sounding phrases in the first place, Lady Nuwa?»

Huang Rong probably understood these specialized terms by now. She sighed: «Actually, in Rong’er’s opinion, these wondrous devices—»

«Please call them magical miracle tools!» Nuwa interjected.

The girl in a moon-white ruqun smiled and adjusted accordingly: «Alright then, these magical… pfft… magical miracle tools—in Rong’er’s eyes, they’re no different from the ones Brother Xing described.»

After speaking, she puffed her cheeks slightly: «Brother Xing! Rong’er still hasn’t gotten any of these amazing tools!»

«How could you be missing out? Don’t worry—you’ve got even better ones. I already prepared them for you long ago.»

With a sleight of hand, Xuan Yuan   took out a jade hairpin, and then a pair of finely-crafted earrings.

«Look—these are even prettier than that bracelet. And they don’t require a needle inserted into your body. It’s a more advanced model.»

Huang Rong joyfully accepted them and admired them for a moment before handing them back: «Brother Xing, can you help me put them on?»

Xuan Yuan obliged. He inserted the jade hairpin into her silky black hair, then hung the earrings on her translucent, jade-like earlobes.

Her consciousness instantly connected to a bionic flapping-wing drone, transforming into a bird, soaring through the forests and mountains. With another thought, she linked to a crane spreading its wings amid the mountains of the Eastern Celestial Palace.

The perspective of those birds and cranes was directly transmitted into Huang Rong’s mind—as if her soul had left her body and possessed them.

She played to her heart’s content—becoming a mountain beast one moment, and a fish swimming in the water the next.

After she had her fill, Huang Rong calmed herself and lifted her watery eyes to ask, «Brother Xing, are all the birds and beasts in Purple Mountain mechanical puppets created by Sister Nuwa?»

«Not entirely,» Xuan Yuan   shook his head. «Actually, many of them are real creatures. Nuwa just captured them and implanted microchips inside their bodies.»

«Through this, even living beings can have their behavior controlled—and their senses synchronized.»

Humans in the 21st century had already managed to influence the behavior of lab mice through electrical stimulation, so there was no reason Nuwa couldn’t do even better.

Xuan Yuan   didn’t find it cruel. Though the chip implantation subjected these forest creatures to human control, it also increased their intelligence.

These chips functioned as «external brains.» It was said that in the peak era of the previous civilization, almost all humans had implanted similar—though several magnitudes more advanced—devices, allowing nearly everyone to participate in top-level scientific research.

Xuan Yuan   shuddered.

He suddenly thought of something terrifying—a colossal machine that plugged countless ordinary people, unqualified by talent, into it as biological wetware, connecting everyone’s brains together to create an enormous, world-spanning human-brain computation matrix that provided staggering computing power.

He shook off the disturbing thought, looked at Huang Rong again, and chuckled in disbelief:

«…Nuwa calls this ‘enlightening living beings and awakening sentience.’ She really knows how to play.»

This Cyber Celestial path—Nuwa had truly mastered it.

Xuan Yuan   realized that he seemed to be walking a path that looked traditional on the surface but was filled with flying special effects and fancy nonsense. Meanwhile, Nuwa had fully committed to going all-in on her Cyber Celestial ambitions. Who knew what kind of world the two of them would create together?

Huang Rong grinned and teased, «These methods—how are they any different from real Celestials?»

«Right, Celestial~ Tai~ Yi~ Brother?»