350: The New Generation and "Unexpected Visitors"

When the three-year countdown entered the summer of the second year, the first batch of 'native' new generation of New Homeland began to display traits that left people both amused and exasperated.

The most obvious example was Madam Liu's daughter, Little Girl.

This Little Girl was five years old this year; having been born and raised in New Homeland, she had been mingling between the farmlands, workshops, and schools ever since she could walk.

She had a hobby that gave all the teachers a headache: naming things.

Not just ordinary names, but those... imaginative names with strange suffixes.

For example, she called the improved, particularly robust rainbow potatoes 'Big Fatty,' the glowing silver-blue tree seedlings 'Shiny Little Umbrella,' and she even gave Zhao Iron Pillar's disciple, Little Li, who spent all day practicing with spears and staves, the nickname 'Bouncy Iron Brother.'

This wouldn't have been a big deal, as she was just a child.

The problem was that her way of naming things seemed... to affect the properties of the objects themselves.

That day, Mu Wanqing discovered in the experimental field that the rainbow potatoes in the 'Big Fatty' area were indeed three sizes larger than those elsewhere, and their skins were particularly smooth, as if they had been oiled.

After testing, Senior Brother Zhang confirmed that the energy content of these tubers had increased by 15%, and their growth cycle had been shortened by five days.

'Coincidence, right?' Wang Wu was skeptical.

Then there was the 'Shiny Little Umbrella' forest where Little Girl often went to play.

The silver-blue tree seedlings there glowed twice as brightly as ordinary seedlings, and their leaves would automatically adjust their posture according to the angle of the light, as if they were... dancing?

Elder Tree Demon Mu Xin studied them for several days and concluded: these seedlings had an unusually high efficiency in absorbing light energy and seemed to have developed a form of Elementary 'phototropic consciousness'.

'Bouncy Iron Brother' Little Li was even more outrageous.

Ever since Little Girl gave him that nickname, his movement technique during Cultivation truly became increasingly 'bouncy'; his originally steady Earth-type Cultivation Technique was forced into a light and agile feeling, without losing power, but with a massive surge in flexibility.

Zhao Iron Pillar inspected him for a long time and scratched his head, saying: 'This kid... seems to have accidentally fused Earth Escape and Light Body Technique? Although the Fusion is a mess, it actually works?'

When Wen Youyi heard about these things, his first reaction was: 'Could it be the memory aggregate playing tricks?'

'This unit has monitored,' reported Silver Thorn's silver humanoid (it was now stationed on the ground, acting as a technical consultant and 'memory bridge' liaison), 'The memory aggregate does pay special attention to Little Girl, but no signs of active intervention have been found.'

'A more likely reason is: as the first 'pure new human' born in New Homeland, her consciousness has a natural resonance with this land, the memory field, and even the environment left behind by the Star People.'

'Her 'naming' is essentially an unconscious projection of intent, triggering the 'response mechanisms' hidden in the environment.'

Translated into plain language: Little Girl naturally possesses a weakened version of the 'Law follows the word' talent, and this modified land of New Homeland is particularly 'obedient'.

This discovery left the entire council both excited and troubled.

They were excited because it proved that the environmental modification of New Homeland was indeed nurturing new possibilities; they were troubled because, what if Little Girl felt like it one day and named the whole mountain 'Flying Mountain,' and it actually flew away?

'We need to find a teacher for Little Girl,' Wen Youyi rubbed his forehead, 'to specifically teach her how to... control her talent. Otherwise, something will go wrong sooner or later.'

Choosing a teacher became a difficult problem.

Ordinary Cultivators couldn't teach such strange things, and the old monsters (Blood Fiend Old Demon, Sword Maniac, etc.) had profound cultivation, but their teaching methods... Wen Youyi didn't want Little Girl to learn the 'Blood Sea' or 'Sword Destruction' style of naming.

In the end, Yun Zhi volunteered: 'I'll do it. I was an Observer in the Creation Heavenly Court and learned systematic consciousness control and energy guidance techniques. Plus... I'm also curious about what such a talent will grow into.'

Thus, five-year-old Little Girl gained a 'Master Yun,' and every day, in addition to her schoolwork, she had to learn 'meditation,' 'mental restraint,' 'environmental perception,' and other things that sounded very profound.

Little Girl couldn't sit still at first and always wanted to run off to play, but Yun Zhi had a way—she turned the teaching into a game.

For example, to teach 'mental restraint,' she would let Little Girl stare at a water cup and imagine the little fish inside swimming back and forth; once the little fish stopped running around randomly, it counted as a success.

The effect was actually quite good.

Three months later, Little Girl at least wouldn't name things randomly and had learned to first 'feel' whether the object 'wanted to be called that'.

Just when everyone thought this matter had come to an end, an even bigger surprise (or shock) arrived.

That morning, the Yao Race warriors responsible for patrolling the coastline sent an urgent message: a 'weird thing' had drifted in from the sea.

When Wen Youyi brought people to the scene, a crowd had already gathered on the beach.

On the shallow beach, a silver-white, rugby-ball-shaped object was half-buried in the sand; its surface was smooth as a mirror, without any seams or markings, and it was about the size of a small flying vehicle.

'The energy reading is extremely low, almost the same as background noise,' Aila Xinghen - Deputy Captain scanned it with an instrument, 'but the structure is unusually sturdy, and conventional scanning waves cannot penetrate it. The material... is unknown, neither metal nor crystal.'

'Where did it come from?' Wen Youyi asked.

'It fell from the sky,' a hawk-eyed Yao Race warrior pointed to the sky, 'About half an hour ago, I saw a point of light fall from outside the atmosphere, and it landed right here.'

'There was no fire, no explosion; it just smashed into the sea silently and was then pushed ashore by the tide.'

Silver Thorn walked over, its silver body gleaming in the sunlight.

It 'looked' at the object for a few seconds and suddenly said: 'This unit suggests... backing away. This thing is 'breathing'.'

'Breathing?' Zhao Iron Pillar widened his eyes, 'An iron lump can pant?'

Before the words had finished, a thin crack suddenly appeared on the surface of the rugby-ball object.

There was no sound, but everyone felt the air vibrate.

Then, the crack widened, like a metal flower slowly blooming, revealing inside...

A person?

To be accurate, it was a 'humanoid'.

It was about 1.8 meters tall and entirely silver-white, but it was more human-like than Silver Thorn—it had clear facial contours (though no features), limbs, and even joint structures.

The most striking thing was that a fist-sized, slowly rotating blue crystal was embedded in its chest.

The 'humanoid' sat up from the 'bud,' its movements somewhat stiff, like someone who had just woken up.

It 'turned its head' (though it had no eyes) to look at the crowd, and finally, its gaze rested on Wen Youyi.

Then, it spoke.

The voice was a pleasant, slightly electronic, neutral tone, and it was speaking in perfect Universal Language:

'Detected... Civilization Seed holder. Identity verification... Passed. Star People 'Observer' unit - Dormant Type - No. 14, codename 'Morning Star', ordered to wake.'

The whole scene fell into dead silence.

Star People? Another Star People relic? And it's alive?

Wen Youyi gripped the master key and stepped forward: 'The Star People left this Universe hundreds of thousands of years ago. Why... did you only appear now?'

Morning Star's 'face' turned toward the master key in Wen Youyi's hand, and the blue crystal flickered: 'This unit entered dormancy in the year 8742 of the Star People calendar. The preset wake-up condition was: 'When the holder of the Seven Fragments master key establishes a stable, multi-civilization Fusion settlement on an unrecorded habitable planet, and said settlement has observable 'new generation talent phenomena', automatically wake.'

It paused: 'According to records, the wake-up conditions have been met: the master key is complete, the settlement 'New Homeland' meets the criteria, and the new generation individual 'Little Girl's' talent has been marked. Therefore, this unit has awakened to execute subsequent missions.'

Wen Youyi's brain raced.

Did the Star People foresee today hundreds of thousands of years ago? And they specifically left an 'Observer' here waiting?

'What is your mission?' he asked vigilantly.

'Observe, record, evaluate,' Morning Star replied, 'Evaluate the development potential, social structure stability, and ability to respond to external threats of 'New Homeland Civilization', as well as... the evolutionary direction of the 'new generation talent'.'

'The evaluation results will determine whether to open access to the 'Star People Final Legacy'.'

'Final Legacy?' Senior Brother Zhang's eyes lit up, 'More than the knowledge base of the Return to Ruins?'

"Different," Morning Star said, "The Return to Ruins is a 'Civilization Seed Repository', preserving the knowledge and technology that the Star People possessed before they left. As for the 'Final Legacy', it is the 'deduction results' of the Star People regarding the Laws of the Universe, the essence of life, and the future of civilization during their ascension process. Simply put, the former is the 'past', and the latter is the 'possible future'."

These words made everyone's breathing quicken.

Deduce the future? Isn't that just precognition?

If one could know what might happen in the future...

"But the evaluation requires time," Morning Star added. "This unit will integrate into the New Homeland society and observe as an ordinary member. Please do not treat it specially, otherwise, it may affect the objectivity of the evaluation results."

It stood up from the "flower bud", its silver-white body shimmering in the sunlight.

Then, it did something that made everyone's jaws nearly drop—

Its body began to "soften" and deform, the silver-white material on the surface flowing like liquid. A few seconds later, it transformed into a young man who looked to be in his early twenties, with a delicate appearance and wearing ordinary coarse cloth clothes.

Even his skin tone was adjusted to a normal human yellowish-white, only his eyes remained that deep, profound blue, and if one looked closely, tiny points of light could be seen circulating deep within the pupils.

"From now on," Morning Star said in a completely natural tone, "I am 'Chenxing', a Loose Cultivator wandering from afar, possessing a rudimentary understanding of Formation and medical arts, and I request to settle in the New Homeland. May I ask... who should I register with?"

Wen Youyi and the others looked at each other in dismay.

This acting, isn't it a bit too professional?

In the following days, the residents of the New Homeland had a new topic of conversation after tea and meals: that young man named Chenxing.

He was indeed very "ordinary".

When registering at the Contribution Hall, the specialties he filled in were "Basic Formation Layout" and "Herb Identification", both rated as "Entry-Level".

He was assigned to the Construction Department to help out, working diligently but without standing out, just like any other newly joined young Cultivator.

He lived in the collective dormitory, ate communal meals, went to audit classes at the school during his spare time, and even played chess with others—although his chess skills were terrible, losing nine and a half games out of ten.

But Wen Youyi knew that the observation by this "Chenxing" was ubiquitous.

When Little Girl attended Yun Zhi's class, Chenxing would be "reading" under a tree not far away; when Senior Brother Zhang's team tested new weapons, Chenxing would "just happen" to pass by and stop to watch for a moment; even when the council argued (though they argued less now), Chenxing would quietly sit in the back row as an "auditing citizen".

He never expressed his opinion, just watched, occasionally recording something—using what looked like a very ordinary piece of wood and a charcoal pencil.

"He is evaluating us," Wen Youyi said to the core team, "But what is the evaluation standard? Is the 'Final Legacy' of the Star People really worth us striving for?"

"It's definitely worth it!" Senior Brother Zhang said excitedly, "The deduction results of the Star People before their ascension! That might contain key information for resisting the Creation Heavenly Court!"

"But what if the evaluation fails?" Wang Wu worried, "Will it bring trouble instead?"

No one knew.

A month later, Chenxing took the initiative to find Wen Youyi.

It was in the town's newly built library (which had reproduced many books from the memory aggregate), where Chenxing was flipping through a book on basic agriculture in a corner.

"Council Speaker Wen," he closed the book, his blue eyes looking calmly at Wen Youyi, "After preliminary observation, this unit—no, I personally—have a few questions I would like to ask."

"Please speak." Wen Youyi sat down opposite him.

"The first question: You established a contribution point System, the original intention was to allocate resources fairly. But I observed that 'point-farming' behaviors have appeared during the System's operation—for example, some people repeatedly complete low-value tasks to accumulate points, and some use loopholes in the rules to obtain extra rewards. How do you intend to handle this?"

Wen Youyi thought for a moment: "Any System has loopholes. Our approach is to regularly revise the rules, fill the loopholes, and simultaneously strengthen the precision of the evaluation of 'contribution value'. But more importantly, we encourage mutual supervision—reporting violations can itself earn points."

Chenxing nodded and made a note on the piece of wood.

"The second question: Regarding the talent of the new generation individual, Little Girl, you chose to guide rather than suppress it. Why?"

"Because suppression cannot solve problems," Wen Youyi said frankly, "Talent is like water; it is better to guide than to block. We teach her control so that she can use it better, not to eliminate it. The New Homeland needs new possibilities, and her talent might be one of those possibilities."

Another note was made.

"The third question: If the Creation Heavenly Court's army presses on the border in three years, knowing you cannot win, will you fight to the death, or preserve your strength and retreat?"

This question was very sharp. Wen Youyi was silent for a longer time.

"It depends," he finally said, "If sacrifice can buy time for more people to retreat, some of us will choose to stay and fight to the death. But if it is meaningless, we will choose to preserve the seeds, waiting for the future. We resist, not for heroic martyrdom, but to let civilization continue."

Chenxing looked at Wen Youyi, light circulating in his blue eyes. After a long while, he said softly: "A very rational answer. But sometimes, civilization needs more than just rationality."

He did not explain the meaning of this sentence and got up to leave the library.

Wen Youyi sat where he was, lost in thought.

What exactly is this Star People Observer looking for?

Late at night a few days later, the answer was revealed in an unexpected way.

Wen Youyi was woken up by an emergency communication: Little Girl was missing.

Not only Little Girl, but Chenxing was also missing.

Surveillance showed that the two had entered the "Experimental Forest" on the west side of the town one after the other—that was the environmental weapon testing area, which would release hallucinogenic spores at night, making it extremely dangerous.

Wen Youyi immediately took people and rushed over. In the depths of the forest, they saw a shocking scene:

Little Girl was standing in a clearing, her body emitting a soft silver light.

Those silver lights flowed as if they had life, and wherever they passed, trees, flowers, and even the moss on the ground were gently "responding"—leaves swayed, flowers opened and closed, and the moss shimmered with a faint light.

And Chenxing was standing not far away, having recovered his original silver-white form, the blue crystal on his chest flashing frantically, clearly recording something.

"Chenxing! What did you do to Little Girl?!" Wen Youyi asked sharply.

Chenxing "turned his head", his voice calm: "I did nothing. It is she herself... who is 'calling' this forest. I am recording, this is... an unprecedented phenomenon."

Little Girl seemed to hear the voice and turned around slowly.

Her eyes were no longer the clarity of a child, but a deep, silver-white that seemed to be able to see through all things.

"Uncle Wen," she said in an ethereal voice, "This forest... is crying. It says it doesn't want to be a weapon; it wants to... be a friend."

As the voice fell, the entire experimental forest suddenly "came alive".

All the trees swayed simultaneously, releasing not hallucinogenic spores, but a warm, soothing dust of light.

Those vines originally used for attack gently drooped down, brushing across the ground.

Wen Youyi was stunned. This is... the collective "Awakening" of environmental weapons?

Chenxing's blue crystal stopped flashing.

It (he) walked in front of Wen Youyi, and for the first time, its voice carried a noticeable emotional fluctuation:

"Evaluation complete. New Homeland civilization... passed."

"You did not choose pure power, did not choose absolute rationality, but sought balance in chaos, preserved gentleness in confrontation, and saw life in weapons."

It paused, its silver-white body beginning to glow:

"Access permission to the Star People's Final Legacy... is now granted. The coordinates have been sent to the master key. But please remember—"

In the light, Chenxing's figure began to dissipate, and the final words drifted away in the night wind:

"The legacy is not the answer, but more questions. May you... find your own path."

The light dissipated, leaving only a blue crystal on the ground, slowly rotating.

Wen Youyi picked up the crystal, and in his mind, the star map of the master key automatically unfolded, marking a distant coordinate hidden in the cracks of dimensions.

He looked at Little Girl, looked at this forest that had suddenly become "gentle", and looked at the companions behind him.

A new journey was about to begin again.

But this time, they were no longer fugitives being hunted.

But—inheritors of the legacy, and explorers of the future.

(End of chapter)