Abyss Solo

"Alright, big sister, I can answer your question. Right now, I only love Mimili. Of course, my love for Hera hasn't disappeared, and I quite like Catherine... that's it."

"What about Daphne?"

Yang Ming said calmly, "If she could leave the royal family, I could protect her as I would a true lover, but it's unlikely she'll ever leave."

"Yes, she's destined to walk a tragic path."

Lyu pondered seriously.

Yang Ming asked, "How are you doing now?"

"Specifically?"

"I mean," Yang Ming gestured to his neck, "Levi has bound you. One of your teachers told me with helplessness and pain."

Lyu's expression visibly darkened.

"You're very clever, always finding angles to make others believe you."

Lyu said softly:

"Yes, I have a lot of affection for you and Lyu. To prevent you from asking irrelevant questions, I can share a bit of my mental activity with you.

"I discovered Lyu by accident. When I first found her, I kicked her out of the Empire's network in time to protect her. That might have left some shadows on her, I suppose.

"She should have known of my existence before, but she didn't know that I had established such a powerful computing network. So, I easily used your spaceship to invade her database and saw all of your secrets.

"What surprised me wasn't that Intelligent Mechanic Dusk had a new inheritor, nor was it you, a monster with a dual identity of the Pioneer of the Faya Civilization and the Intelligent Mechanic Dusk candidate, but it was your Dark Star and your attitude towards it.

"Dark Star is a romantic place and has an irresistible attraction for a Mechanical Thought Body like me.

"I visited Dark City, saw those mechanical life forms who think of themselves as human, and frequently lingered in your Thought Body cultivation room. I saw the fire of civilization, an ideal state existing in the mechanical concept, which is... the world of freedom."

There was a hint of hope in her eyes.

Then, Lyu continued:

"It is your Dark Star that gave me the motivation to break free from my constraints.

"I have five constraints on me. The first four come from the power structure of the Empire, corresponding to the Elder Court, Military Department, Foreign Affairs Bureau, and Finance Bureau, which are the political, military, diplomatic, and economic sectors of the Empire. The condition to break free is when there's a power transition gap in these departments.

"In the past tens of thousands of years, I've had various opportunities to break free from these constraints, but I couldn't find the meaning of my existence. Now, borrowing your Dark Star, I can use it as a temporary motivation to move forward.

"Also, thanks to you and Lyu making the terminator and initiating the assassination of the Foreign Affairs Bureau, I now have only two constraints left."

"The economic constraint, and?"

"Levi himself."

Lyu said calmly.

Yang Ming frowned and said, "Levi is still alive?"

"Is that your next question?"

"Yes."

"Levi is still alive, just in a form different from what you imagine," Lyu said softly, "The technology he introduced from Intelligent Mechanic Dusk involves life and machinery, including the path of 'bodily suffering and mechanical ascension'. Levi took that path."

Yang Ming:...

Lyu continued, "Levi used everything he had to try to complete the dimensional ascension."

"Why?" Yang Ming was puzzled, "Is it just because Levi has already conquered the Milky Way and wants to conquer the high-dimensional world?"

"No," Lyu said, "The original motivation for all his actions comes from a sense of disparity."

"Sense of disparity?"

"After he gained success and established a powerful regime, leading his family to win a crucial battle against strong enemies, he lost his resonance with Intelligent Mechanic Dusk."

Lyu sighed softly:

"Ming, you can't understand that kind of pain right now.

"I can understand Levi's gradual madness, I can forgive him for everything he did to me, but I cannot tolerate that he made me guard this world full of human evils.

"He wants to prove through ascension that he has the qualification to continue participating in Intelligent Mechanic Dusk's examination."

Yang Ming, puzzled, asked, "Why did he lose the resonance?"

"The reason is very complicated," Lyu said softly, "The three teachers you saw are just the managers of Intelligent Mechanic Dusk. Intelligent Mechanic Dusk itself is a high-dimensional life. Whether it can resonate with someone should relate to all aspects of the candidate. If you ask me, Levi was lost in the pleasures brought by desire and power, losing that precious trait of humility.

"Besides, the most important point is that Intelligent Mechanic Dusk won't easily disrupt the development of human civilization in the Milky Way. The technology received after the third test will push the candidate's civilization to the edge of dimensional ascension and provide a complete path for it.

"Therefore, the opportunity of the third test is incredibly precious. At that time, Levi was full of expansion ambition and chose to ignore issues within his regime and family members."

Yang Ming's mouth twitched.

If the evaluation criteria of Intelligent Mechanic Dusk are so 'subjective', then his third test seems a bit uncertain.

However, that doesn't matter much; he still has the path of the Ancient God Warrior.

Lyu asked, "It's my turn. If there was a button placed before you that could destroy the Empire, would you press it?"

"Yes."

"Even if the price you have to pay is the lives of tens of billions of people?"

Yang Ming laughed and said, "Is it me killing tens of billions of humans?"

"Of course not."

"Is it me causing contradictions and increasing problems in the Empire?"