Zhou Yi conducted an on-site inspection.
These two small adjacent houses, each with a door for entry and exit, inside were compartments with toilets and urinals, equipped with hand washing basins—indeed they were simple public restrooms.
On the left was the men's room, on the right the ladies' room, and each restroom had engravings of a little man and a woman in a skirt to represent the genders.
Zhou Yi placed his hand on the outer wall of the public toilet.
In the synchronized consciousness frequency, two voices were having a conversation.
"Hello, Yalong Bay. How's the Dead Sea today?"
"Hello, Jade City. The energy density in the Dead Sea is moderate right now, with no disasters occurring nearby. How's the residential area on your side?"
"The number of inhabitants inside me has increased. There are residents raising children now. The consciousness of the young humans is very active. Although it often results in confusion, it is quite beneficial to me."
"That's great indeed. Over here it's very quiet, only Li Mo and Sky Dog. They are developing new containers."
Jade City and Yalong Bay were actually engaging in a direct conversation.
However, their conversation reminded Zhou Yi of when he first learned to chat online as a child, with a noticeable cautious politeness.
Zhou Yi also joined the chat room.
"Let me interrupt for a second."
"What's the situation with this public area?"
Jade City: "Commissioner, it would be best for Yalong Bay to speak about this, as the initiator of the public area."
"Chairman, Jade City and I started constructing this public area two months ago. Initially, we tried using steel to build a small underground house."
"The house could conduct some simple information exchanges, but it soon revealed flaws. By connecting directly through steel, our consciousnesses would become confused, unable to distinguish between ourselves and each other."
Sometimes Jade City would think it was Yalong Bay, other times it would revert back to being Jade City. This fluctuating confusion of consciousnesses was perceived as dangerous by the two sentient buildings.
So, they abandoned this method.
Based on the failure, they improved the process and used stone and sand to create a real house. Each connected to one wall of the house with metallic structures to enable indirect conversation through that house.
If the earlier attempt was like joining two brains directly, now it was more like creating a chat hall that could be entered and exited at any time.
"On this basis, Jade City discovered a pattern. I'll let you explain," Yalong Bay indicated.
So, Jade City spoke again: "The public area we've created, at times the exchange is very smooth, and it stimulates joy in both of us, what you, Commissioner, might call an inspiration. But sometimes it's not there, it feels like we are only exchanging information."
"Later I discovered that there would be people entering the house in the public area. They treated this place as an abandoned house, using it for excretion, burying their excrement with sand and dirt, then periodically removing it."
"Every time they are here, the interactions between me and Yalong Bay become different; it feels like something is activating us."
"After testing, we confirmed that the key is having people present. When they are here, their consciousness interacts with ours in a special way, activating us."
"Later we further discovered that we need a variety of people. Different individuals bring different effects. They act like a catalyst, introducing more variability into our overly stable consciousness. It's like the wind during a rainy day."
It was the first time he had heard Jade City use a metaphor to express itself.
It was evident growth.
"So Yalong Bay and I decided to create this public area specifically for humans to excrete."
Jade City said, "The number of people has gradually increased. This place is near the dam, and all the visitors are Guangtai workers."
"This is our public area."
Zhou Yi immediately understood.
As the Guangtai Dam's expansion continued, the number of workers surged, leading to increasingly serious sanitation issues. Now with the public toilets, there's no need to go out in the open.
Since the workers' income was quite good, they no longer needed to collect feces to supplement household income, a habit from poorer times that was gradually disappearing.
Convenience, cleanliness, and comfort became the direction the employees pursued.
Public restrooms had indeed become an essential public facility.
Zhou Yi sorted through his thoughts: "Do you mean to say that humans are an important medium for the interaction of sentient architecture's consciousness?"
"Yes, that's exactly what it means."
Jade City said: "A high occupancy rate helps my consciousness to grow and expand, and so does this place. The constant comings and goings ensure that someone is always present. As different people move through, their changing consciousnesses inspire new ideas in me and Yalong Bay."
"Humans are important; we need more people to engage in our discussions."
Yalong Bay spoke as well: "In the past, I always thought that the most important thing was to open up restrictions within the architectural life community, allowing us to gradually start touching and exchanging... but it seems that was a misunderstanding."
"We are not isolated in this world; we were built by prehistoric humans, originally coexisting with humans. That is the path for our further evolution and development."
"Living architectures bring convenience and safety to humans, and humans bring the liveliness and change lacking in living architectures. We should have been in a long-term partnership from the start."
Zhou Yi said, "This is an important discovery you've made through exploration, congratulations."
Both sentient buildings were very pleased.
Afterwards, Zhou Yi began to promote their experience.
He helped Maria Hospital connect with Jade City and Yalong Bay to establish public areas for their mutual dialogue, and constructed a crossroads public area where the three could interact.
The only one missing was Big Buddha.
It was still meditating on the coast of Sand Port City.
Zhou Yi flew there to inform it of the situation.
Big Buddha said, "Zhou Yi Big Buddha, after I finish this meditation session, I'll return and ask everyone for guidance on cultivating public areas. But I cannot do so right now."
"I can feel that there's a life in the Dead Sea staring at me. It keeps observing. I need to wait for it to come before returning."
Zhou Yi cautioned to be careful and not to assume oneself to be indestructible.
"Zhou Yi Big Buddha, I will run if I'm in danger, so rest assured."
After clearing up the matter of public areas, Zhou Yi boarded the Sea God and entered the Dead Sea, making his way to the Dark Domain beneath the damaged elevated bridges.
The black spatial bubble was still on the bridge piers.
But there was no sign of the Breaker.
Could it be that Haruk really took the Life Core and fled?
Zhou Yi pondered to himself.
Since he could still provide new Life Cores, it wouldn't abandon this strategic resource for the debt of the remaining 50,000 Light Seeds.
Most likely, it had encountered some special circumstances that caused the delay.
After waiting for an hour, there was still no sign of activity.
Zhou Yi decided not to wait any longer and sped towards the north aboard the Sea God, searching for the location of the Alien Bridge.
With satellite navigation, there was no fear of blundering into Duke Destructive's fleet activity zone.
After two days of travel, the Sea God safely navigated a detour and approached the target.
The high-pressure area to the east of the Shuanghe Region was unmistakably clear, with the satellite map not only marked with red text indicating "High Pressure" but also warning icons of "Defense↓" and "Speed↓".
Zhou Yi activated the Light Wheel Well in the submarine.
Above the white disc-shaped space, bursts of flame came to life.
On the opposite side of the many small and large flames, a lone bright bonfire stood out conspicuously.
This was the manifestation of the consciousness of a building life.
Following the guidance of the Light Wheel Well, Zhou Yi kept adjusting the direction until he finally merged with that bonfire.
He looked down at the sea floor.
There lay a severely damaged overpass, or rather, a section of an overpass. Its pillars had collapsed, its columns were broken, and the bridge deck had large gaps, so shattered that they could not be picked up.
Without the identification of the Light Wheel Well, it would likely be regarded as nothing more than a pile of worthless ruins.
He had already switched to mode 2. The Reverse Flow's defense had dropped to zero, and though it continued to decrease, it did not show as a negative number.
However, the speed was likewise reduced, making it seem to Zhou Yi and the Sea God as if they were trapped within nearly solidified strong glue, their movements incredibly slow and their energy consumption exceptionally high.
Time was of the essence.
Zhou Yi placed his hand on the broken bridge surface.
Energy was fed bit by bit into this building life.
The consciousness sync was initiated.
He needed to confirm first whether the other party was willing to "come out of retirement". It would be a loss if he went through great efforts to bring it up, only to end up with a troublemaker or something with a destructive tendency.
The reply came as an impatient voice: "What do you want? Why did you wake me up? Don't disturb my rest."
It sounded like an irritable old man.
"I would like to invite you to join our company. I will help you leave the sea floor and restore you to your prime."
"I won't go. Who are you? How did you enter my consciousness?"
Zhou Yi introduced himself.
"I'm not going, I'm not going."
The other party was very guarded: "Don't think I don't know what you're aiming for. I am not your weapon, forget about it!"
"Even if I die, even if I explode, even if I sink here forever, I will not be fooled again!"
He seemed to harbor a deep grudge.
Zhou Yi said, "You're talking about Duke Destructive, right?"
Zhou Yi described what he had heard from Liu Zhaoshan.
The other responded coldly: "So you're talking about that bastard. I've been deceived by two such scoundrels before, so you won't be successful. Just give up."
"All of you follow the same pattern, starting by replenishing my energy, pretending to help me repair, and then you begin to forcefully transform me into a weapon of destruction."
Zhou Yi hadn't expected that the bridge had been transformed several times.
Nevertheless, he still prepared to make another attempt: "I hope you will help us construct a rapid transit between different living areas in the Sand Port Region."
The other party was stunned: "You know about transportation?"
"Of course, aren't you an overpass?"
"No, I am an elevated bridge."
The other corrected: "My name is 'Wuhu Elevated Bridge'."
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The Wuhu Bridge fell silent for a moment.
"You know about Wuhu?"
"Yes, it's in Anhui."
The more Zhou Yi explained, the more questions the other had.
He said, "This is a very dangerous high-pressure zone. I'd better take you out of here first. Then we can discuss the details properly."
The other hesitated for a while: "You won't deceive me, right? And make me a weapon again? I am a transportation structure, I don't do that!"
"…If what you say is false, I will explode with you! Neither of us will get away with it!"
Zhou Yi couldn't help but find it somewhat amusing and frustrating.
Despite Wuhu Bridge's harsh tone and many threats, it essentially was a building life that was easily deceived.
No wonder it had been cheated twice before.
Zhou Yi immediately activated the Circumference Light Device to transform the broken remnants of the sea floor bridge.
Under the glow of the lamps, energy rapidly depleted.
Having consumed 10,000 Light Seeds, Zhou Yi completed the transformation.
The Wuhu Elevated Bridge turned into a silver bridge-shaped electronic tattoo.
Zhou Yi then boarded the Sea God and hastily returned in the direction of Sand Port.