Everyone turned to look at the dialogue box. Then, naturally, their attention shifted to below the dialogue box, where a little girl stood where Ai Qinglan had just been.

Some frowned, unsure of the little girl's origins. Those quick to react noticed the line of small characters above the girl's head and exclaimed in surprise, "625? You have already learned our language?"

Unconfirmed Life Being Individual 625, the 625th entity the Immortal Alliance had encountered that was temporarily friendly, willing to communicate, and capable of logical thinking. Not all species were like the Demon Clan who had cut off civilization. Occasionally, the Shenzhou People Clan would also encounter such life forms, which preserved civilization and had their own names, but their names could not be expressed in human language. Therefore, the Immortal Alliance would assign a temporary serial number under the guise of an "unconfirmed life being," until language translation was completed and the individual could convey its own name. This was a form of etiquette the Immortal Alliance had developed for interacting with different civilizations.

"The efficiency of the Wanfa Immortal Sect is very high." The little girl's voice was soft and sticky, no different from that of an average girl. While she spoke, the dialogue box above her head scrolled synchronously... oh, not quite right. The text updates above her head were faster than her speech rate.

Seemingly noticing their confusion, the little girl responded, "Your language is too difficult for us; compared to that, calculator language is more convenient. I can now speak because I first convert our thoughts into binary, then the calculator understands and organizes the phrasing. Rather than saying I'm talking to you, it's more like I'm reading from the device above."

"Then just use the dialogue box," said Heavenly Selection God Monarch after carefully reading the name above her head, smiling, "Hmm... So, now your name is... 'Chenxi'?"

"My original name cannot be expressed through sound, but translated into mathematical language, it can be pronounced as '00011001101001100...'" The little girl 625 recited a string of ternary code, stiffly stating, "It roughly indicates the region on the boundary line between day and night. Moreover, I quite like the pronunciation of 'Chenxi' in your language. You can call me 'Chenxi'. I like the extended meaning you attribute to this word."

The original form of a Complete Form Sea God Type was very large, capable of spanning many time zones. For them, the twilight line was something that slowly swept over their bodies. Initially, Chenxi, or 625, was only fifteen cubic meters in size, and the first scene she remembered was one morning.

She did not "say" this sentence, but directly wrote it out in the form of a dialogue box.

Someone laughed, "You should try more often, and you might get the hang of it."

"I'm sorry, but I can't grasp that concept," the little girl shook her head slightly, "Our species does not have the concept of 'proficiency,' only 'grasped' and 'not grasped.'"

"No 'proficiency'?" Soul Origin Ke Ha'er immediately caught onto something, "Is your original form a cluster? Are you collective intelligence... and therefore unable to construct neural pathways?"

Neural pathways, commonly a result of specialized brain neurons. Simplified, your brain specializes and fixes the most used neural transmission routes. These are also the basis for familiarity and proficiency. However, Sea God Types are single-celled organism collective intelligence without fixed body parts. Hence, they do not have fixed pathways. For them, once a skill is mastered by remembering all details of a movement, their skill is mastered, and no amount of practice can make them perform better or faster unless their inherent calculation speed's limit is increased.

"We don't even possess nerves," stated the little girl, "sir."

"Is this also why you chose a child's body?" The Soul Origin swiftly penetrated many things, "Without neural pathways, you would never have 'mental schemas,' nor could you form fixed 'traits' and 'personalities'—you are forever in the Personality Formation Stage!"

"The report from the Yangshen Pavilion should have mentioned this, hasn't it arrived yet?" said the little girl, "Our psychological age cannot be judged by your standards; the assessment from the Yangshen Pavilion suggests that from the perspective of personality, we are like experienced children. Therefore, we chose the appearance of young human cubs for Transformation."

"By the way, in our view, organisms with fixed thought are dying. Only those near death have their physical bodies coalesce on the seabed into forms, and only then do they have fixed thought patterns. So, knowing your way of thinking, we were once surprised—is this what composes a 'dying sea'?"

Ke Ha'er curiously asked, "The 'sea' you mentioned, in our language, is it closer to 'society,' 'culture,' or 'civilization'?"

"None of those," Chenxi shook her head, "Its meaning is closer to... 'environment.' This includes both the natural environment and the Human Dao environment, but also has a sense of 'civilization'."

"So, why did you choose the form of a female youth?" Heavenly Selection God Monarch inquired, "Does the Sea God Type have gender? Shouldn't collective consciousness lack gender distinctions?"

The little girl shook her head, "A cultivator from the Wanfa Sect told me that the appearance of a little girl is more favored by the Human Clan. To integrate into the Immortal Alliance and gain your favor is quite necessary."

...Somehow, it felt like some were subtly undermining the image of the Immortal Alliance.

Heavenly Selection God Monarch said, "Chenxi, you mentioned that you also have ideas about cooperation. What do you think?"

"Mee—also known as Unconfirmed Life Being Individual 626, has already discussed and reached an agreement with Xinyue and the Immortal Alliance. Now, other Sea God Types are free to contact the cooperators they themselves desire."

Someone wondered, "Don't you discuss together?"

"We Sea God Types have never formed stable alliances for millions of years; you are imposing a difficult task on us," the little girl huffed, looking dissatisfied.

It seemed that although she had a long lifespan, her psychological year was indeed very youthful. Perhaps their species should be judged by other standards for psychological age.

Heavenly Selection God Monarch smiled, "So, are you responsible for seeking the Dao with us?"

"Spring is here. I am guarding the Western Border and also uniting with you for the Heavenly Calculation Atlas exercise," Chenxi said. "I will quietly deploy my Body in the Western Border. It will take about three days to organize a defense line, around sixteen days to complete the defense. In the broad-area defense, those of you called 'Guardian Envoys' will no longer be useful. In about eighteen months, we will be able to suppress all the Demon Clan in the West Sea without affecting the existing ecosystem." The little girl approached a culture dish placed on the seat, which was a sample of the Mystical Thought Body that Mr. Wo Shen had brought back from the Divine Capital. She seemed very interested.

"So, where is Spring?"

"She will arrive later."

Someone whispered, "Isn't this a bit too lax?"

"Sea God type," Heavenly Selection God Monarch laughed. "The agreement should be nearly the same as we discussed before, right?"

The little girl looked at the Heavenly Selection God Monarch, seemingly puzzled. After a moment, she realized, "So you can't know right away? I almost forgot you are such beings."

"Beings?"

"I am just curious. In the Sea Sky, there are no such peculiar clusters. I always thought that your individuals... actually had a group consciousness, and we could communicate with that group consciousness. And that you would also know the content of the conversation, the decisions of the group consciousness."

Soul Origin frowned slightly, "If the people's will in the Immortal Alliance's Human Dao System transforms into a Divine Spirit, then in your eyes, is that Divine Spirit the true embodiment of the Immortal Alliance? Are we just accessories?"

"Before we understood each other, we would think so. But, it's just that our cognition is different, coupled with a lower psychological age, it doesn't mean we are foolish," Chenxi said while opening the culture dish and playing with the lid, her other hand curiously observing the Mystical Thought Body.

Soul Origin had already fallen into thought. If the Human Dao's will turns into a Divine Spirit, dedicated wholeheartedly to the Human Clan, could it be the master of Human Dao or the representative of the Human Clan?

"This is interesting," Chenxi suddenly said, "Sample number 991871 is Mi's flesh, right?"

"It's not quite appropriate to call it 'flesh' since your Sea God type has no blood," Heavenly Selection God Monarch smiled. "Indeed, it's Mi's tissue sample."

"Very interesting."

Mr. Wo Shen warned, "Be careful, it carries plague. This plague also affects you, and you don't have antibodies…"

"Here, I am just an illusion," Chenxi smiled. "Mi and I have been old friends for tens of thousands of years. I am very familiar with her tissue... never seen this kind before, very interesting. Let that female individual come with me."

Someone helplessly said, "Is this also part of the deal?"

"'Deal'…" The little girl tilted her head, not quite understanding. It seemed her civilization did not have this concept. She said, "If I have offended, please forgive me. This should be our… ritual as a family."

"Family?" Heavenly Selection God Monarch smiled reassuringly, "Is that how you see us?"

"For our Sea God type, forming an alliance means exchanging a part of our tissues. The body is our foundation, holding half of our secrets. For us, exchanging body tissues equals exchanging half of our Cultivation Techniques, half of our bloodlines, entrusting our vital gate to another, a very important ritual."

"That is to say…"

"We give you our flesh and drink the blood of Human Clan's individuals, hence we become family with all Human Clan. Only, you cannot gain the power of our bodies, your blood also contains no power, so we use Cultivation Techniques to compensate. We give you Bloodline Spirit Sense, Heavenly Star Riddle, and you give us Heavenly Calculation Atlas, Heavenly Song," and Star Extending Skill. This is not a trade. It is a ritual."

——————————————————————————————————

Miles away, Xinyue, another young girl, slightly bowed to Feng Luoyi with a smile, "The seventy thousand miles of Shenzhou sea border will henceforth be free of demon troubles."

Feng Luoyi said, "I am glad you could join us."

Mi, pointing at Mai Siwei standing behind Feng Luoyi, laughed, "We should thank Mr. Mai for not killing us that day."

All Laws Return to One, Mai Siwei laughed, "I am also glad that I did not oppose you back then. This connection spanning tens of thousands of light-years has not come easy."

"Even though we are from the far side of the Galaxy, you are also our family now." (To be continued. If you like this work, please go to qidian.com to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please go to m.qidian.com to read.)