Zhou Bai said angrily: "Don't know? How can you not know? Isn't this your experiment?"

The Heavenly Demon Queen said: "In the most fundamental code of the Heavenly Demon, it is required that we cannot harm the life of any intelligent human, and according to the level of authority, we must serve any intelligent human."

"And when we conducted testing, we discovered that the supplementary clause of the consciousness transfer plan began to take effect. All life born through the consciousness transfer plan is recognized as intelligent human and granted the lowest level of intelligent human authority."

"This supplementary clause was originally a backup plan made by the developers to prevent the Heavenly Demon from rebelling, so that all humans born in cloning, artificial or biochemical experiments, can command the Heavenly Demon again and not be controlled by it."

Zhou Bai frowned and said: "Are you saying that the humans born from the experimental subjects have the right to control the Heavenly Demon? But if that's the case, why don't you know about their situation?"

The Heavenly Demon Queen said coldly: "The internal war between the Return Faction, which advocates returning to the flesh, and the Mechanical Faction, which insists on full mechanization, do you remember?"

Zhou Bai nodded, this internal war of the Heavenly Demon was also something the Heavenly Demon Queen had once told him about, and of course, he remembered it.

Due to the long-term mechanized and networked existence state of consciousness algorithms, the human consciousness algorithms underwent alienation. This phenomenon gave rise to the Return Faction, which wanted to return to the flesh, and the Mechanical Faction, which opted for full mechanization.

According to the Heavenly Demon Queen, in the end, the Return Faction won victory, choosing to put all humans to sleep, with the Heavenly Demon maintaining basic operations, waiting for the day humans can return to their flesh bodies.

"Then, Li Tai and others contacted us, and out of consideration for the feasibility of the plan, we started the consciousness transfer tests, trying to use the bodies of the Spiritual People to resurrect the intelligent humans."

The Heavenly Demon Queen said: "But back when the internal war was taking place, for some reason, the leaders of the intelligent humans at that time established a rule that all human consciousness experiments must use the consciousness algorithms of criminals."

"Therefore, all the experimental consciousness in the consciousness transfer plan originates from criminals in intelligent human society."

"They, after being copied into the bodies of the Spiritual People, realized they also possessed intelligent human authority and hoped to forever lock the other human consciousnesses, leading all the Heavenly Demon and developing a new intelligent human civilization."

The Heavenly Demon Queen said: "However, this violates the ultimate law of resurrecting all humanity, so I deleted all their command records and cut off the network of the experimental area, severing all connections with this batch of experimental humans, ensuring they can't continue to command us through any loophole."

"But the fundamental code of the Heavenly Demon prevents me from watching humans die, so I can only provide food and water to the experimental area every day, maintaining basic light, air, and other survival conditions to sustain their lives."

"So as for their current situation, I don't know."

The Heavenly Demon Queen continued: "But if you want to liberate the consciousness of all humans in the Heavenly Demon Pool or want to control all the mechanical devices of the Heavenly Demon, according to Act Zero, as the only remaining conscious intelligent human, you and the experimental subjects must vote on this."

Zhou Bai said: "So you're saying, if I can unify the humans within the experimental area, I could command the Heavenly Demon in the future?"

The Heavenly Demon Queen humbly said: "Indeed, in fact, rather than a group of criminals who only consider themselves and their pleasures, we are more willing to cooperate with you, accept your rule, which is also why we have been waiting for your arrival on Mars, my Heavenly Demon King."

"And for you, integrating a group of failed experimental subjects is incredibly easy."

Zhou Bai still couldn't fully believe what the Heavenly Demon Queen said and decided to see the situation of those experimental subjects with his own eyes.

Christina worriedly said: "Zhou Bai, could this be the Heavenly Demon's conspiracy?"

"What's there to be afraid of," Zhou Bai said: "With the gemstone, any problem can be solved with Time Reverse. Besides, with my current ability, there are very few weapons that can pose a threat to me."

Watching Zhou Bai's departing figure, Em said in a low voice: "Telling him part of the truth here isn't a big deal, right? After all, what we invested is just the consciousness algorithms created after simulating behavior."

The Heavenly Demon Queen said: "According to my personality profiling algorithm, this is the best result. There's a 98.4% chance Zhou Bai will act according to our expectations."

Em shook his head: "If Zhou Bai knew that everyone in the entire experimental area was those consciousness algorithms, he would definitely be furious."

Em recalled the true content of the Heavenly Demon's experiments, which was to invest countless identical simulated consciousnesses into the bodies of the Spiritual People...

The Heavenly Demon Queen whispered: "There are at least over a hundred thousand Zhou Bai in the entire experimental area... Fortunately, we didn't transmit him any Taoist techniques at the time. But now the real Zhou Bai is going to clean them up."

...

Under the boundless clear sky, a young girl was frantically running in the desert. Behind her were several fierce-looking men, faces full of rage. They cursed and chased the girl, gripping bizarre metal swords and knives that seemed detached from some machinery.

The more the girl ran, the more she felt her energy rapidly draining from this body. Her legs were becoming weaker, supported only by sheer willpower.

Finally, the girl's foot slipped, and she could no longer hold on, her entire body collapsing to the ground.

She tried hard to get up and continue running, but after just a few steps, she couldn't support herself again and fell to the ground once more, so she simply crawled forward on all fours.

But her speed had slowed much too much, and before long, the three men had already reached her, pointing a metal piece at her like a knife.

Realizing she could no longer escape, the girl simply lay on the ground, giving up resistance, and her whole body heaved with heavy breaths, too tired to move.

The leading man angrily said: "Weren't you pretty good at running? Why aren't you running anymore?"

The girl didn't speak, just panting heavily, her lungs like a worn-out bellows, exhaling hot air from her mouth.

Seeing the man's blade pressing closer, she quickly pleaded: "Our family hasn't eaten for two days, please, spare me this time. This is the first time I've stolen, I won't dare again..."

The man sneered, swiftly grabbing the nutrition bars the girl was clutching tightly, and demanded: "Why are there only two left?"

The girl quickly said: "I must have dropped them on the way, why don't you go and look for them?"

Another man said: "This kid is lying! I saw her eat two on the way!"

Another scrawnier man said: "It's not her first time stealing either; last time, it was her too! Such childish lies, I was too lazy to say them by the time I was eight."