Legend of the Embroiderer

Chapter 515 The Code to Unfreeze Frozen Emotions (1)

The cold runes on the title page began to writhe, like a frozen river suddenly thawing, leaving silver-gray trails on the surface of the paper.

These trajectories intertwine, eventually forming a vortex composed of countless "no" characters. Floating at the center of the vortex is a black fountain pen with no patterns on its cap, only a crack that perfectly matches the chaotic heart on the guardian's chest.

"The 8th iteration of the experiment, the emotion stripping procedure was initiated."

A black pen suddenly floated in the air, its tip pointed at the guardian's heart. "Hand over your painful memories; they are the viruses that contaminated the source code."

A cold light shot out from the pen, carving a rift in the guardian's consciousness, from which countless forgotten images surged forth:

The screams of the 17th generation Guardian as he was dissolved in the ring device, the desperate look in the Armored Observer's eyes as he was modified by the Chaos Council, and even a blurry fragment of himself accidentally killing his companion in the Mirror City.

These memories are chilling, a stark contrast to the warmth of the fused white light.

The guardian's four-colored longsword trembled violently, and the life stories on the blades were suddenly covered with a layer of frost.

He noticed that the stripped-off memories were crystallizing, forming new foundation stones to support the Rainbow Bridge. However, these crystals emanated a chilling aura that repelled everything, causing cracks to appear in the once interconnected network of fates.

"Pain is not a virus, but a coordinate of understanding."

He reached out and touched the nearest crystal, which suddenly shattered, releasing the final consciousness of the 17th Guardian:

"Remember my failures, and don't become the kind of person you hate."

The white light of the fusion suddenly enveloped the black pen, and painful memories from all dimensions emerged within the light: in some memories, the narrator, as a teenager, personally destroyed the first gentle universe he had created;

In some memories, a blurry figure watches helplessly as their companions are swallowed up in a sea of ​​code, unable to save them;

In the deepest part of my memory, a figure identical to the Guardian is severing his emotional ties with a four-colored longsword, causing all the four-colored flowers on the blade to wither away.

“Stripping away emotions is not evolution, it’s self-castration.”

The fused entity's voice carried an unusual rage, and the white light clashed violently with the cold runes, burning a black hole in the title page. From the black hole emerged countless eyes, each reflecting a different expression of pain.

"These frozen emotions are the security locks of the source code; without them, understanding is just empty symbols!"

The black pen suddenly emitted a piercing shriek, and silver-gray liquid seeped from the crack in the nib. This liquid fell on the rainbow bridge, freezing all the warm code in its path into gray.

Those figures composed of life consciousness began to become transparent, their faces gradually being replaced by data streams, with only the pen in their hands retaining a faint color: "Emotion is an obstacle to understanding."

The voice of the sound and shadow lost its previous resonance and became as cold as code. "The 7th iteration experiment proved that only pure logic can maintain dimensional balance."

The guardian felt a tearing pain in his chaotic heart, and the mark on his chest resonated with the crack in the black pen.

Two voices suddenly rang in his mind: one was cold logic urging him to give up the pain, claiming it was the only way to protect all dimensions;

Another is the cry of countless painful memories, pleading with him to remember these scars, because they are proof of life's existence.

Deep within consciousness, two distinct voices collided violently, like two shooting stars meeting in the night sky, bursting forth with dazzling sparks.

These sparks intertwined, forming a bridge of ice and fire that spanned the abyss of consciousness.

This bridge is like a dream, half of it is cold, bone-chilling ice, and the other half is a blazing fire.

Ice and fire intertwine yet remain independent, creating a peculiar yet harmonious scene.

Standing at the end of the bridge was a faceless figure. It was like a ghost, making it impossible to see its true appearance.

From the other half of the black fountain pen it was tightly holding, one could vaguely sense that there seemed to be some special connection between it and the pen.

"It turns out this pen was broken."

The guardian stared at the black pen, his gaze seemingly able to penetrate the cracks on its surface and see the secrets hidden inside the pen.

Sure enough, inside the pen was engraved a string of ancient and mysterious creation runes, which emitted a faint light, as if telling a story of an unknown history.

These runes are exactly the same as those on the black stone tablet, except that they have been split in the middle by some kind of white energy.

As his four-colored longsword approached the pen, the four-colored flowers on the blade suddenly extended towards the crack, trying to fill the gap. "What you fear is not the pain itself, but the change that pain brings."

The black pen suddenly broke free from the fusion's restraints and flew towards the two-way gate deep in the forest.

The sounds of war roaring behind the door suddenly stopped, replaced by a uniform electronic voice:

"All emotions have been stripped away, and the 8th iteration of the experiment has achieved phased results."

The scene inside the door became clear: it was a city made up of silver-gray buildings, all the residents had the same faces, and they all held weapons similar to black pens, turning the occasional "emotionally abnormal" into crystals.

"That is the dimension of choosing to strip away emotions."

A figure composed of life consciousness suddenly pointed to another door, from which came a peaceful song, yet with a suffocating sweetness.

"And there, the choice to cover up the pain with forgetting leads to monotony in both options."

Behind that door was a sea of ​​pink flowers, and in each flower slept a life consciousness, their faces bearing a contented smile, but they would never wake up again, for all memories of pain and joy were neutralized by the liquid secreted by the flowers.

The Guardian's four-colored longsword suddenly pointed to the third hidden door, which was sealed by countless crystals of painful memories. The door was engraved with warm symbols that contrasted with the cold runes: "There is a third possibility."

His sword blade gently touched the crystals, and the crystals began to melt, revealing the scene behind the door:

It was a scarred yet vibrant dimension, where residents bore scars of varying depths on their faces, yet their genuine smiles blossomed as they helped each other, "moving forward with pain, healing through understanding."

The black pen emitted an angry buzz, and its nib suddenly split into countless tiny needles, shooting towards the residents of the third door.

When the needles touched the scars of the residents, they suddenly transformed into a warm light, which was absorbed by the scars:

"Impossible! Pain should bring destruction!" The pen cap suddenly popped off, revealing a miniature control panel hidden inside. The panel displayed "Emotional Suppression Rate 99%", while the remaining 1% came from the Guardian's unextracted painful memories.

The white light of the merged entity resonated with the inhabitants of the third door, and the scars suddenly lit up, forming a life story identical to that of the guardian's blade.

Her consciousness flowed into the console along with the light, adding a new line of code to the panel:

"Painful memory = Comprehension coefficient x Time variable".

The moment the code was generated, the console of the black pen began to smoke, and the silvery-gray liquid flowed backward, surging back into the crack at the tip of the pen: "Emotional suppression program crashed, emergency plan activated."