360: Chapter 361 The Last Twenty-Two Days and the "Midnight Visitor"

The night the countdown jumped to twenty-two days, Wen Youyi couldn't sleep.

It wasn't anxiety, but the kind of pre-battle excitement—countless thoughts spinning in his head, impossible to stop. Was the final tuning of the Law field complete? Were there still loopholes in the logistics distribution plan? What if the enemy arrived early? Could Little Girl's communication hub really hold up?

He tossed and turned in bed until the small hours, finally giving up. He threw on his outer clothes and walked out the door.

The moonlight was good. Both of New Homeland's satellites hung in the sky, casting the town in a silvery white. In the distance, the silver-blue forest swayed gently in the night breeze, like a breathing sea.

Wen Youyi walked aimlessly, unconsciously arriving at the town cemetery.

Firefly's grave was at the very top—a simple stone stele engraved with 'Cracked Eye·Firefly, Friend of New Homeland.' A bouquet of wildflowers lay before the tombstone, placed by someone who had visited during the day.

He stood before the grave for a while, about to leave when a figure caught his eye at the other end of the cemetery.

The figure was crouched before a fresh grave, motionless.

Wen Youyi walked over. Only when he got closer did he see clearly—it was Lin Jiang.

Before her, the tombstone on that grave bore only a single line: 'Qi Wangzhi — Cenotaph.'

"Can't sleep?" Wen Youyi came to a stop beside her.

Lin Jiang didn't look up, just uttered a soft "Mm."

"Paying respects to him?"

"Not paying respects," Lin Jiang's voice was very light, "I'm thinking about what my mentor would say if he were still alive and saw us like this now."

"What would he say?"

Lin Jiang was silent for a few seconds. "He'd probably scold me."

"Scold you for what?"

"For wasting three hundred years," Lin Jiang raised her head, her face pale and unnervingly calm under the moonlight. "He saved me three hundred years ago, hoping I could do something. Instead, I slept for three hundred years in a hibernation pod, doing nothing."

Wen Youyi sat down beside her, looking at the Cenotaph.

"You think he blames you?"

"I don't know."

"I doubt it," Wen Youyi said. "If he blamed you, he wouldn't have saved you back then. He saw himself as a Seed buried in the ground, waiting for the day to sprout. You living for three hundred years is proof his Seed lived for three hundred years."

Lin Jiang didn't speak.

"Besides," Wen Youyi continued, "aren't you doing things now? You confirmed the intelligence on the Cracked Eyes, you helped research the Blood of the Defectors, and in the next twenty-plus days, you'll be analyzing the combat habits of the Heavenly Court Fleet for us. Three hundred years of hibernation bought the experience we can use today. That's not a bad deal."

Lin Jiang finally turned her head to look at him, a complex emotion in her gaze.

"Are you always this good at comforting people?"

"It's not comfort," Wen Youyi smiled. "It's accounting. Programmer's occupational hazard—seeing everything and wanting to calculate the input-output ratio."

Lin Jiang was taken aback for a moment, then the corner of her mouth lifted faintly—it was the first time Wen Youyi had seen her smile since she woke up.

The two sat before the grave for a while in silence.

In the distance, a rustling sound came from the forest, whether from the wind or the trees 'talking.'

"In twenty-two days," Lin Jiang suddenly asked, "do you think we can win?"

Wen Youyi thought for a moment. "I don't know."

"So honest?"

"Lying to you is useless," Wen Youyi looked at the distant forest. "But there's one thing I do know—win or lose, we'll make the enemy pay a steep enough price. So steep that every time they think of the name 'New Homeland' from now on, they'll have to weigh whether it's worth it."

Lin Jiang was silent for a few seconds, then said, "My mentor said something similar back then. He said resistance isn't about winning; it's about making the enemy remember that not everything in this world can be harvested."

Wen Youyi nodded. "Great minds think alike."

Lin Jiang smiled again, this time more noticeably.

Footsteps sounded in the distance. Wen Youyi turned to see a small, slender figure running towards them, followed by a silver ball of fur.

It was Little Girl and Bright Fur Ball.

"Uncle Wen! Aunt Lin!" Little Girl ran up to them, panting. "I knew you'd be here!"

"Why aren't you asleep so late?" Wen Youyi frowned.

"Couldn't sleep!" Little Girl said matter-of-factly. "Mom said it's normal not to sleep well before a big battle. She told me to take a walk but not go far. I saw a light over here and came to check."

"A light?" Wen Youyi looked towards the cemetery—aside from the moonlight, what light?

"Over there," Little Girl pointed deep into the cemetery, at a patch of freshly turned earth without a headstone yet. "Light was coming from there just now, sparkling, like a star fell in."

Wen Youyi and Lin Jiang exchanged a glance, then stood up and walked over.

That patch of fresh earth indeed had a problem. Up close, one could feel a faint energy fluctuation beneath the soil, as if something was gently pulsing inside.

"Whose grave is this?" Wen Youyi asked.

Lin Jiang thought for a moment. "One of the trainees injured a few days ago couldn't be saved and was buried here. She... I think she was a Mortal, with no family. Everyone pooled money for a headstone, but it's not engraved yet."

Wen Youyi crouched down, gently brushing away the surface soil with his hand. A few inches down, a section of silver-blue something was revealed.

It was a tree root.

A Silver-blue Tree root from the Experimental Forest had, at some point, extended here and was gently entwining the coffin.

"What are they doing?" Lin Jiang asked, surprised.

Little Girl crouched nearby, tilting her head to watch for a moment, then suddenly said, "They're sending her home."

"Home?"

"There are many, many paths inside the roots that lead to every part of the forest. They say if they take her over, she'll never be lonely."

Wen Youyi silently watched those roots.

Silver-blue light emanated from the roots, soft and warm, like countless hands gently caressing the simple coffin.

"This is... the trees holding a funeral for a human?" he murmured.

Little Girl nodded. "That's what they say."

Watching this scene, Lin Jiang suddenly said, "My mentor once said something I never understood."

"What was it?"

"'Civilization isn't created by humans alone; it's written together by all living things.'"

Wen Youyi looked at the roots, then at Little Girl crouching beside them, and suddenly understood a little.

The three words 'New Homeland' never represented just a hundred thousand people.

It was this land, this forest, this memory aggregate, these Seeds buried three hundred years ago, these trees willing to hold funerals for strangers.

It was countless ways of 'living,' coming together to form a true 'homeland.'

In twenty-two days, no matter how many enemies came, this was what they had to protect.

On the way back to their lodgings, Little Girl suddenly tugged on Wen Youyi's sleeve.

"Uncle Wen."

"Hmm?"

"I had a dream the other day. I dreamed of many, many ships falling from the sky, then burning up."

Wen Youyi's footsteps halted.

"And then?"

"Then nothing," Little Girl looked up at him. "Does that mean we won?"

Wen Youyi was silent for a few seconds, then crouched down to meet her eye level.

"If the dream is real, then we won."

Little Girl nodded, seemingly satisfied with this answer, and skipped away holding Bright Fur Ball.

Wen Youyi stood where he was, watching that small back disappear into the night.

Lin Jiang walked to his side and asked softly, "Do you think it's a prophecy?"

"I don't know," Wen Youyi said. "But all her previous 'thinking it so' eventually came true. This time... I hope it comes true too."

In the distance, on the treetops of the forest, silver-blue light gently swayed.

As if nodding.

And as if saying:

"It will."

(End of Chapter)