Monster Paradise

After they left the meeting room, the two walked a distance along the promenade before Lin Huang finally asked, “Can you tell me what this is about now?”

“Emperor’s Heart wants to see you.”

Jiang Shan stopped and activated screen barriers before he turned and confronted Lin Huang.

“Emperor’s Heart?” Lin Huang was not expecting this answer and was a little surprised. “It’s sentient?”

He raised this question because, apart from Goldfinger, he had not seen any god relic or god rule relic with sentience. Even a god sequence relic like Thousand Face only had a weak consciousness and did not have the ability to think independently.

“It has always been sentient.” Jiang Shan nodded and gave an affirmative answer, but these words seemed to have a deeper meaning to it.

Lin Huang fell into silence as he contemplated the messages from Jiang Shan’s words.

1. Emperor’s Heart was not a product of the new era—it may have come from a certain ruin or wasteland.

2. From the very moment it was discovered, Emperor’s Heart had been sentient.

3. Emperor’s Heart had the ability to communicate with humans, and it should have reached a certain cooperative relationship with the Union Government.

After he summed up the few pieces of information, the first thought that popped into Lin Huang’s mind was—Artificial Intelligence.

Before Lin Huang traveled over, Artificial Intelligence was also one of the developing areas of science and technology. Many giant technology companies had established specialized departments and developed many derivative products such as drones, sweeping robots, smart translators, et cetera.

However, the development of artificial intelligence on earth was still in its infancy stage, and it was still far from advanced artificial intelligence.

However, Lin Huang vaguely felt that Emperor’s Heart might be an advanced piece of artificial intelligence.

Otherwise, it was impossible for it to build the Emperor’s Heart network throughout the entire gravel world on its own. After all, this world had no programmers.

In an instant, Lin Huang had a whirlpool of thoughts in his mind, but the last thing he said out loud was one short sentence.

“Why does it want to see me?”

“I don’t know.”

Jiang Shan was telling the truth—he did not know why Emperor’s Heart suddenly wanted to see Lin Huang. When he received the news from Emperor’s Heart, he was no less surprised than Lin Huang.

Lin Huang could also tell that he did not lie. He nodded slightly and did not press Jiang Shan any further.

After he deactivated the screen barrier, Jiang Shan summoned a dimensional portal, and Lin Huang followed him into it.

Lin Huang was not wary of Jiang Shan potentially plotting against him. With his current ability, there was really nothing that could threaten him in this gravel world, whether it was people, monsters, battlefields, battle formations, or weapons.

However, he was still on guard against Emperor’s Heart.

If it was Artificial Intelligence, it may possess weapons beyond this gravel world. If it was a Goldfinger, it likely had mastered a terrifying unknown power.

As he pondered the matter, the dimensional portal opened.

Lin Huang collected his thoughts, followed Jiang Shan, and stepped out of the portal.

The underground cave in front of him was not unfamiliar to Lin Huang.

Two years ago, Guan Zhong brought him here when he unlocked his Emperor’s Heart ring.

The giant sphere was still suspended in the void. The entire structure looked like it was constructed from the roots of countless trees, layered on top of each other, but there were round holes on the surface. It looked a bit like a huge honeycomb.

As Lin Huang considered his next move, a deep voice of a middle-aged man resounded.

“Jiang Shan, I want to be alone with Lin Huang for a while.”

The sound was transmitted from the inside of the sphere.

Jiang Shan nodded slightly in the direction of the sphere, then turned and addressed Lin Huang, “Then I shall leave first.”

As he spoke, he turned around, pushed open the dimensional portal again, and stepped into it. Soon, the dimensional portal was closed and gradually faded away.

When he saw Jiang Shan leave, Lin Huang raised his vigilance slightly and looked at the sphere in the void with scorching eyes.

At this moment, the suspended sphere suddenly squirmed, and the structure that looked like plant roots moved like living tentacles and quickly condensed into the shape of a human head. Its face had a full set of facial features. Its hair was thick, and it had a bushy beard and a sideburn.

When he saw that, Lin Huang was visibly taken aback, but soon recovered his composure.

“Hello, Lin Huang. I’m Emperor’s Heart.”

The bearded head was the first to offer a greeting.

“Hello,” Lin Huang responded quickly.

“No need to be nervous, I have no ill intentions.” The bearded head seemed to notice Lin Huang’s heightened guard. “Although it is the first official meeting between you and me today, I actually knew about you ages ago and have been observing you silently.”

After he heard this, Lin Huang still did not lower his guard. “When you say ages ago, how early do you mean?”

“The first day that you traveled over.” Emperor’s Heart had a faint smile on his face, he seemed to expect that Lin Huang would not guess his answer.

When he heard the answer, Lin Huang’s expression stiffened slightly. He never expected that he had entered the sight of Emperor’s Heart so early on.

“The day was June 6th five years ago, the exact time was 8:08 in the morning.” Emperor’s Heart even offered a more precise time.

Lin Huang’s heart jumped when he heard it. Of course, he clearly remembered the specific time he had traveled over, and it was exactly the time Emperor’s Heart stated.

“The reason I know it so clearly is because the Emperor’s Heart ring you wore was abnormal for a moment on that day. Your life fluctuation disappeared for an instant. Although it returned to normal in the next instant, I still caught it. I knew that the moment Lin Huang’s parasite body died, you traveled here.”

“You know about the existence of travelers… so you are a Goldfinger?!” Lin Huang realized the identity of Emperor’s Heart at this moment.

“That’s right,” Emperor’s Heart readily admitted.

“Who is your host?” Lin Huang pressed.

“My host died a long time ago.” Emperor’s Heart’s answer did not surprise Lin Huang.

“I’m asking about the current host. Without a host, how can you function as a Goldfinger?”

“If you only perform part of the function, you don’t need to have a host. A temporary host is fine,” Emperor’s Heart explained. “Do you remember the Stairway Tree? That is my current host.”

“Stairway Tree?!” Lin Huang certainly knew about the Stairway Tree in the genius organization, it was the largest tree he had ever seen in his life. “But isn’t that just a virtual thing on the Internet?”

“Why can’t virtual things act as a host?” Emperor’s Heart retorted. “The essence of consciousness is information. The network can store information, so why can’t it store consciousness?”

“Okay.” Lin Huang conceded that Emperor’s Heart had a point. It had the ability to digitalize their own consciousness, so it was not impossible to hide the ontology in the network.

“I think we should go straight to the topic. What do you want with me?” Lin Huang changed the subject.

“Mainly two things. One is about Myriad Tribe Palace, the other is related to my host.”