72: Chapter 72 The ancient tree sprouts new leaves, and the torchbearer says: You two fight.

The beam of light dissipated.

Lin Xiaoman's canvas shoes landed on the stone tiles, her knees buckled slightly, and she almost lost her footing.

She lowered her head, hands gripping the hem of her hoodie, knuckles white.

Before her eyes, the face of Senior Lu Yan at the final moment he merged into the mechanism network was still flashing.

It wasn't pain, but relief.

"Finally, no longer lonely."

It was exactly the same as the moment the screen lit up when she was six.

Three steps away, Henry's leather shoes stepped onto the stone stairs.

The sound was very light, as if afraid of waking something up.

He stood there, his gold-rimmed glasses reflecting the light of the ancient tree, but his gaze was cast far away.

Not in the base, not on the altar.

It was under the ruins of the tin shed in the War Zone, in the final frame of Seraphina kneeling into a pool of blood.

His sixty-two-year-old hand reached into his shirt pocket, his fingertips brushing the corner of a photograph—just a touch.

No one in the base spoke.

The breathing of the ancient tree filled all the silence, expanding and contracting, in the same rhythm as the golden light flowing between the gaps of the stone tiles.

Lin Xiaoman wiped her face with her sleeve.

After wiping, she found her left sleeve was wet, so she switched to the right sleeve, but that got wet too.

"...How embarrassing."

She muttered, her voice nasal, like someone on the third day of a cold.

Henry glanced at her.

Lin Xiaoman immediately put up a defense, "Don't look at me! I'm not crying! The air here is too dry, my eyes are allergic!"

Henry said nothing.

He pulled a neatly folded handkerchief from his chest pocket—white, ironed, with a tiny "H" embroidered on the corner.

He handed it over.

Lin Xiaoman froze for two seconds.

She took it, covered her entire face, and sniffled three times into the handkerchief.

"...Thanks."

The voice came from beneath the handkerchief, still trembling.

Su Chen walked down the stone steps from beside the ancient tree.

His pace was unhurried, the hem of his trench coat sweeping across the stone surface.

He stood directly in front of the altar and scanned the surroundings.

His gaze swept from Lin Xiaoman's face covered by the handkerchief to the fingertips Henry used to clutch his glasses, finally landing on the totem of spark on Liu Yuyan's armor chest.

Liu Yuyan was already in position half a step behind him to the right.

The holy runes of her silver-white holy armor flowed slowly in the golden light, and the Sword of Judgment stood vertically before her.

Four people.

"The ancient tree has accepted you."

Su Chen spoke.

"Now, complete the final step."

He paused for a beat.

"Under the witness of the ancient tree—take the oath."

Lin Xiaoman took the handkerchief off her face.

Folded it, and stuffed it into her pocket.

She looked up.

Her eyes were still red, but her gaze had focused.

Henry put his glasses back on, his back straight.

His first shirt button had come undone at some point, and he fastened it again.

The three of them lined up before Su Chen.

Liu Yuyan was in the center, Lin Xiaoman on the left, and Henry on the right.

Su Chen spoke.

"We who hold the fire, ask not of the return path."

Three voices followed simultaneously.

The ancient tree responded, and the golden light surged violently.

Every leaf on the branches lit up at once, the energy flow in the veins suddenly accelerated, and liquid gold surged through the gullies of the tree bark.

Golden light poured down from the canopy, bathing the four of them.

"Guard the order of the world, protect the survival of civilization."

The golden lines between the stone tile gaps began to spread, passing the foundation of the broken pillars, and climbing up the shafts.

The golden characters of the oath lit up line by line.

"All evil spirits must be purged, all rifts must be sealed."

Lin Xiaoman's voice was trembling; every word squeezed from her throat carried undigested tears.

But she didn't mispronounce a single word.

Henry's voice was deep, enunciating every word.

It wasn't trembling—it was restraint.

Each syllable falling down could not be wrong.

"Kindling is here, all things return to order."

Liu Yuyan's voice was different from the first time she took the oath.

Back then, she was alone.

Now, standing to her left was a 1.52-meter tall loli hacker, and to her right, a 62-year-old Nobel Prize winner.

The second part.

"Born in the darkness, standing in the light."

"Harbor no selfishness, crave no fleeting fame."

"Using the body as a shield, using fire as a blade."

"Kindling never extinguishes, order lasts forever."

The air changed.

From all directions of the altar, from the cracks in the broken pillars, from deep within every golden line spreading from the ancient tree's roots to the edge of the space, voices welled up.

One, two, ten, a hundred.

Male, female, old, young.

With Eastern rhymes, with Western vibrato, with unrecognizable ancient language systems.

All the voices intertwined with the voices of the four people into a torrent.

Goosebumps erupted on Lin Xiaoman's back.

Those voices passed through her skin, bones, and blood vessels, resonating with the Kindling that had just awakened in her chest.

Henry's hand pulled out of his pocket.

His right fist pressed against his chest, the same posture Seraphina had before she fell in the illusion.

He didn't realize he was repeating this action, but his body remembered.

The final eight words.

Su Chen stepped back half a step.

He didn't speak.

Lin Xiaoman, Henry, Liu Yuyan.

Three voices fell simultaneously—

"Civilization does not extinguish—Kindling burns forever!"

The golden light of the ancient tree reached its limit.

Dense ripples appeared on the surface of the firmament, and the golden characters on the broken pillars shone to a blinding degree.

Golden phantoms emerged from the light.

Just like when Liu Yuyan took the oath—silver knights, Taoist priests holding talisman swords, warriors holding long spears, barefoot priests holding staffs.

Dozens, hundreds, surrounding the ancient tree and the altar, filling the entire square.

But this time, there were two more figures.

They walked out from the group of phantoms, clearer than all the other phantoms.

Silver hair tied behind his head, cyan-grey long robe, sleeves rolled up to the elbows.

The runes on the iron ruler at his waist were still flowing.

Senior Lu Yan.

White hair falling to her shoulders, deep blue long dress floating in the ethereal light.

The golden halo at her fingertips flickered on and off, in sync with her heartbeat.

Seraphina.

Senior Lu Yan looked at Lin Xiaoman.

The corners of his mouth curved, a very shallow arc, but exactly the same as the smile before he dissipated in the illusion.

Lin Xiaoman bit her lower lip.

Her face, which had just been wiped dry, was wet again; without a sound, tears fell onto the stone tiles, mixing with the golden light.

Seraphina looked at Henry.

No regrets, no instructions.

Just looking at him, her gaze so gentle it made the sixty-two-year-old man clench his fists.

Henry did not bend over, did not lower his head.

He pressed his right fist to his chest, performing a salute to Seraphina's phantom that he had never performed for anyone in his life.

His back was straight.

His eyes were dry.

But the hand clenched at his side had white knuckles.

The two phantoms spoke simultaneously, along with all the predecessors.

"Civilization does not extinguish—Kindling burns forever!"

At the moment the sound waves stacked to the peak, the outlines of those distant ruined palaces became clear in the light for an instant; the stands of the Training Grounds, the eaves of the library, the pillars of the armory seemed to come alive, then sank back down.

The phantoms dissipated.

Turning into golden light spots all over the sky, merging into the branches of the ancient tree.

"Click."

"Click."

Two extremely faint sounds.

At the tips of the ancient tree's branches, two new leaves sprouted.

The golden tender leaves emerged from the cracks, adjacent to the ones that grew when Liu Yuyan took the oath.

The golden veins on the leaves flowed, swaying gently in the windless space.

The wind came.

The rustling sound was faint and warm.

The golden light slowly receded. The space returned to its daily warm, gentle lighting.

Su Chen leaned against the broken pillar.

The eyes behind the mask were not looking at anyone; they were looking at the two new leaves that had grown on the ancient tree.

The system panel jumped quietly in the corner of his vision.

"Authenticity + 600. Current Authenticity: 3400 / 10000."

Three thousand four hundred.

The words he fabricated in his notebook had now grown into breathing leaves, hanging on the ancient tree he had designed himself.

The three people knelt below, carving the slogans he wrote into their bones, word by word.

Lin Xiaoman squatted on the ground, blowing her nose one last time with Henry's handkerchief.

She looked up at the handkerchief, hesitated for a moment, then folded it and stuffed it into her pocket.

"I'll wash it and return it."

Henry nodded, quietly taking off his glasses and putting them back on, performing the fourth meaningless wipe of the day.

Liu Yuyan stood to the side, a very shallow arc at the corner of her mouth.

She remembered how she looked kneeling on the stone steps after taking the oath for the first time.

"The ceremony is over."

Su Chen's tone switched back to that steady, emotionless calm.

The eyes behind the mask scanned the three people, without a trace of the solemnity from the ceremony just now.

"But you are not soldiers yet."

Lin Xiaoman looked up, one of her twin tails crooked, the tip of her nose still red.

"Whatever you say, President."

Henry put his glasses on properly, his face returning to the rigor of a scholar.

The first button of his shirt was refastened, his voice steady.

"What do you need us to do?"

Su Chen raised his hand, pointing to the newly completed Training Grounds on the right side of the altar.

The golden crystals of the twelve boundary posts shone quietly in the light, the circular stone tile ground polished even smoother than the altar.

"Go there."

He paused for a beat.

"The two of you fight each other."

Lin Xiaoman's expression froze.

She slowly turned her head to look at Henry.

Henry also turned his head to look at her.

The 1.52-meter tall loli hacker and the 62-year-old Nobel Prize winner in Medicine met eyes in the air.

Lin Xiaoman: "...President, I just awakened, I haven't figured out the extraordinary energy in my body yet—"

Su Chen was expressionless.

"Fight."

Henry pushed up his glasses.

"Given my age and her physique, it seems not very—"

"Fight."

Lin Xiaoman subconsciously shrank half a step behind Liu Yuyan, revealing only half her head.

Liu Yuyan did not shield her.

She stepped to the side, exposing her entirely to Su Chen's line of sight.

The arc at the corner of her mouth grew slightly.

Lin Xiaoman: "Sister Yuyan!"

Liu Yuyan looked down at her, her gaze gentle and firm.

"Go."

Henry's gaze turned twice between the Training Grounds and Su Chen.

To be honest, he really didn't know how to fight.

But not knowing how to fight and not daring to fight were two different things.

Henry unbuttoned his shirt cuffs and rolled his sleeves up to his elbows.

His movements were unhurried, exactly the same as his preparation process before stepping onto the operating table.

"Then we fight."