562: Chapter 497: The Divine Office is Secured, the Foundation of Civilization Has Been Forged

After the third rain of early autumn, the sycamore forest at the foot of the Civilization Academy was turning a brilliant, translucent yellow. When Lin Zhou finished grading the last exam paper, the light outside the window had shifted westward, spreading a slanted band of golden light across the desk in front of him. He put down his pen and stacked the exam papers in order, not rushing to close them, his gaze resting on the handwriting where the ink had yet to dry.

These were the graduation theses submitted by the most recent batch of graduates. The content was diverse; some wrote about how the Legalist principle of "No Exemption from Punishment" could be used to handle civil disputes in settlements on the edge of the New Universe, some wrote about the application of the School of Agriculture's "adapt to local conditions" in the cultivation of spiritual plants, and others combined the School of Military's "Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain" with the Mohist mechanism arts to design a rapidly deployable emergency defense plan. Each paper stirred a slight ripple in his divinity—not a tremor, but a near-harmonious resonance, steady and continuous. The Civilization: Education divine office did not resist these fluctuations in the slightest; it simply accepted them quietly, as steady as a riverbed bearing flowing water.

Lin Zhou closed the exam papers, stood up, and walked to the window. Sycamore leaves were rustling down; some brushed past the window sill, turned a corner at the edge of his vision, and then landed in a puddle of water in the corner of the wall. He watched for a while, then turned and walked toward the corridor outside. As he passed through the side door of the academy's main building, Qin Qing was coming out of the literature room next door, holding a stack of newly compiled textbooks. Seeing him, she stopped under the corridor. "Captain, you've been zoning out more often lately. Is your divinity moving again?"

Lin Zhou did not deny it. "It is still growing."

He walked through the corridor and followed the stone steps into the forest behind the academy. The wind blowing through the valley carried the scent of soil and fallen leaves, no longer the smell of metal and gunpowder smoke from the Iron Wall Fortress. He walked to an old sycamore tree, sat down by the roots, leaned his back against the trunk, and closed his eyes.

His consciousness sank into the Divine Kingdom Core. The water of the river of civilization was much calmer than usual, the flow speed on the surface approaching stillness. He walked along the riverbank for a distance and saw that the rule patterns from the hundred God Kings on the riverbed were slowly undergoing Fusion—not covering each other, but spreading into each other's gaps like tree roots, forming a dense network. The color of the river water gradually transitioned from cyan-gold to a deeper, warm gold; this was a sign that the river of civilization was shifting from "bearing" to "enduring." The closer it got to the downstream, the deeper the water color became. He walked a few steps downstream along the riverbank, and the water surface suddenly brightened for a moment—not from sunlight reflection, but because the entire surface of the river simultaneously shimmered with an extremely thin layer of flowing light.

[Divine Office Status · Consolidation]

- Civilization: Education: Thoroughly stabilized, deeply integrated with the river of civilization

- Civilization: Law: Thoroughly stabilized, deeply integrated with the river of civilization

- Compatibility with Divine Kingdom: 100%

- Impact on Divinity: No active maintenance required, divine office operates automatically, continuously producing civilization points

Lin Zhou stopped in his tracks. He stood on the riverbank, quietly perceiving the changes in the river water. That sense of Fusion was spreading outward from the depths, not just at the level of rules, but reaching the underlying structure of his divinity. He raised his right hand, palm facing the river surface. The mark of Civilization: Education and the mark of Civilization: Law appeared simultaneously, arranged in parallel, and slowly rotated. At this moment, the color of the river water began to deepen, slowly transitioning from warm gold to a more steady luster. The current beneath the river surface began to accelerate, not flowing from upstream to downstream, but surging upward from the depths of the riverbed. An undercurrent took shape in his consciousness; it had no form, no boundaries, just a feeling of "being in the process of formation."

[Civilization · Divine Office Prototype · Condensation Initiated]

- Origin: Civilization: Education + Civilization: Law deeply bound

- Fusion progress: 1% ... 2% ... 3% ... 5% (Paused)

- Current form: Formless, resting quietly in the depths of the river of civilization

- Required conditions: Water level of the river of civilization ≥ 80% (Current 76%)

- Condensation process: Passive process, no active intervention required

Lin Zhou withdrew his hand. The undercurrent of the river water continued, but it did not accelerate, nor did it stagnate; it simply continued to operate at a constant, slow speed. He turned and walked back along the riverbank. The river water surged gently behind him, then returned to calm.

When he walked out of the forest, the sky had already darkened. Su Yueyao was standing on the stone steps at the end of the corridor, the moonlight shimmering with a faint silver light in the twilight. She watched him approach, not asking how long he had stayed in the forest behind the mountain, only speaking when he stepped onto the stone steps: "When divinity advances, it usually doesn't rely on Epiphany, but on accumulation. The sparks are already numerous enough; the rest is just waiting for them to connect into one."

Lin Zhou paused on the stone steps. "Not connecting into one. It is growing roots."

Su Yueyao looked at him for a moment and did not press further. The two walked back to the main building along the corridor; the lanterns under the corridor had just been lit, their halos appearing soft and steady in the twilight. The lights in the distant schoolhouse were still on; a few late-returning students were organizing their notes under the lights. Their shadows were elongated by the lamplight, cast upon the corridor pillars, swaying gently with the movement of turning pages.

He walked through the corridor, not deliberately turning back to look at the lamp. The schoolhouse lights behind him were still shining, like many ordinary nights, existing even without his confirmation. The door at the end of the corridor was open, and the wind blew in from outside, carrying the scent of fallen leaves and soil. He did not stop as he crossed the threshold. The night was creeping up from the other side of the valley, and the distant ridgeline was slowly sinking into deep blue. Those lights would continue to shine for a long time; there was no need for him to specifically watch over them. The wind blew in from the hillside outside the door, carrying the scent of grass seeds and dust. He passed through the porch and walked toward the main building. The door behind him was blown by the wind, closing gently with a low wooden sound. The night had fully descended, and the lights of the academy lit up one after another along the valley, like a formation slowly taking shape.