Enchanted Skies

Chapter 5 Mona Lisa's Umbilical Cord

Blood-red mycelium seeped from Tang Dynasty plaster in Mogao Cave 220. Su Wan knelt before “Illustrated Sutra of Bhaisajyaguru”, her scalpel tip glinting with eerie blue light from lapis lazuli irradiated by gamma rays. Lin Shen's quantum spectrometer revealed these “Qimin Yaoshu”-cultured fungi shared identical DNA topology with “A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains” silk fibers.

"47 BPM," Lin gripped her bio-electrode covered wrist. "Slower than “Ode to the Goddess of the Luo”'s prosody." His fingers smeared with Northern Wei mural pigments traced her carotid, nanosensors showing her mitochondria secreting carbon-14 isotopes akin to “Admonitions Scroll” inksticks.

The cave quaked as Western Xia donor portraits pixelated. Xuanji's alert merged with Tower Bridge's collapse: "Global art-gene contamination 89%. “A Thousand Li” reset will overwrite human aesthetic cortex in 23 minutes." Su's birthmark oozed cobalt pus containing 2600 BC Mesopotamian cylinder seal holograms.

Lin tore open his anti-rad suit, revealing heart tissue matching “Mona Lisa”'s linen canvas. "Jiang encoded art antibodies in your genes." He pressed fungus culture into her birthmark, mycelium instantly forming “Treatise on Architectural Methods” joints. "First accept being Gu Kaizhi's biological vessel."

Su's hairpin pierced “Mount Wutai” mural, its body projecting alien beacon icosahedrons. As it absorbed quantum spores, she saw 387 AD Dunhuang night—Gu Kaizhi engraving “Nymph” cloud patterns into a pregnant belly with meteorite needles. The woman's fingerprints matched hers.

"49th iteration successful." Jiang's hologram declared from quantum Mausoleum. "Miss Su, you inherited Nuwa's genetic code for molding humans with “Travelers Among Mountains and Streams”." The Nine-Story Pagoda quantized as Su's scalpel auto-carved her ulna with Liangzhu cong patterns.

Lin coughed blood clots resembling “Early Spring” crab-claw strokes, his spine shards absorbing Dunhuang's gravitational waves. Su mended his retina with mycelium, finding “Exploitation” movable-type rearranging into Maya Tzolk'in calendar.

"Activate “A Thousand Li” with your blood!" He pushed Su toward quantizing Library Cave. Her scalpel sliced palm—blood drops collapsing “Bhaisajyaguru” into Klein bottle biocomputer. She decrypted British Museum's sacred tree vibrations—Samsung mask-encrypted civilization format commands.

As Su's blood merged with Wang Ximeng's azurite, all “Mona Lisa” replicas grew third eyes. Lin glimpsed Earth's atmosphere projecting “Han Xizai's Banquet”, Statue of Liberty morphing into Gu's cloud deity.

"Reset initiated." Xuanji vibrated with bronze inscription frequencies. Su's DNA helix unfurled into “Qingming Scroll”, base pairs matching Bianjing shop banners. Lin plugged neural interface into her cervical spine. In quantum flux, they witnessed humanity's primal art impulse—Peking Man's ochre mingling with alien quantum jets in Homo sapiens' frontal lobe.

Mogao Caves fully quantized—Su's qipao became flying apsara ribbons, Lin's pocket watch devouring Shakespeare folios. In resetting glare, Su murmured in Liangzhu divine lexicon: "Aesthetics are humanity's ultimate prison..."