372: Chapter 373 Three Years Later and the "Uninvited Guest"

Three years later, New Homeland had taken on a new look.

The small town was no longer a small town; it had become a real city. Streets crisscrossed, houses were orderly, and schools, hospitals, workshops, and markets were all available. Most prominent was the tall tower in the center of the city—the "Memorial Tower" built from recycled metal Materials after the war. At the top of the tower, a ball of silver-blue flame burned year-round; it was a small portion of the memory aggregate left in the Mortal world, burning day and night.

Three thousand seven hundred and twenty-one names were carved on the tower.

Every name was a story.

The farmland had expanded fivefold. rainbow potato varieties had been improved to the twelfth generation, and the yield per mu was three times the original. star rice grew taller than a person, its heavy ears of grain bending the stalks. Those silver-blue trees—which could no longer be called a "forest" but a "sea of trees"—covered the entire eastern plain, stretching as far as the eye could see.

Little Girl was nine years old now.

She no longer ran around holding the Bright Fur Ball every day—though the Bright Fur Ball still followed her, it had upgraded from a "pet" to a "partner." Silver Thorn said that the Bright Fur Ball had evolved Elementary consciousness and could think and communicate independently, though it still couldn't speak very well.

"Bright Fur Ball, why don't you try saying something?" Little Girl squatted down, looking at the small silver beast crouching at her feet.

Bright Fur Ball blinked its eyes and opened its mouth: "Meow."

"...That's a cat's meow."

"Meow meow."

"..."

Silver Thorn translated from the side: "It's saying 'Hello'."

Little Girl was silent for three seconds and decided to give up on the plan to make Bright Fur Ball learn human speech.

Zhao Iron Pillar's blacksmith shop had been open for three years, and business was incredibly good. He didn't just repair weapons; he also designed and manufactured new gadgets—for example, a "Flying-Flying Hammer" that could automatically track targets, a "Rapid-Fire Cylinder" that could release three Rumble-7 Models simultaneously, and a pair of oversized scissors said to be "able to cut through iron like mud, but no one dares to try them."

"What are these scissors for?" a customer asked.

"Shearing wool," Zhao Iron Pillar said solemnly. "Our New Homeland has raised so many sheep; we've got to have a good pair of scissors."

The customer looked at the scissors, which were taller than a person, silently put them down, and turned to leave.

Little Li had become Zhao Iron Pillar's official apprentice and had even married a wife—a Mortal elder sister who had escaped from the Ranch World with Madam Liu. The two of them opened a small restaurant next to the blacksmith shop, specializing in roasted rainbow potatoes and star rice balls, and business was even better than the blacksmith shop's.

"Master, why don't you put those scissors away?" Little Li advised. "It's quite scary sitting at the door."

"I won't!" Zhao Iron Pillar glared. "That's my shop's treasure!"

Senior Brother Zhang's technology center had moved to a new building on the east side of the city. The echo telescope was placed on the roof, operating twenty-four hours a day, monitoring every flicker of fluctuation in the heavenly dao law layer.

For three years, the Heavenly Court had not come again.

It wasn't that they didn't want to come, but that they couldn't.

The intelligence that Cracked Eye sent out at the last moment had caused massive waves within the Heavenly Court. The "hesitation" of three hundred and seventy-four mid-to-high-level members made the System suspicious of everyone. A large-scale purge lasted for two whole years; it was said that tens of thousands were executed, and even more were forcibly "formatted."

"They are currently too busy with their own affairs," Senior Brother Zhang said at a council meeting. "For at least five years, they won't have the spare energy to deal with us."

"What about after five years?" someone asked.

"We'll talk about things five years from now when five years have passed."

Lin Jiang now lived in a small hut on the west side of the city, very close to the cemetery.

Every morning she would go to the cemetery, offer a bouquet of flowers to her mentor's cenotaph, and then stand on the hillside to watch the sunrise for a while.

Over the past three years, the expression on her face had softened a lot. Although she still didn't speak much, at least she would smile.

Once Little Girl asked her: "Auntie Lin, why do you always go to the cemetery?"

Lin Jiang thought for a moment and said, "Because my Master is there."

"Is he dead?"

"Dead."

"Then why do you still go?"

"Because when the living go, the dead will not be forgotten."

Little Girl nodded as if she partially understood. From then on, she would occasionally follow Lin Jiang to the cemetery to offer flowers to those nameless graves.

Wen Youyi, on the other hand, had become quite idle these past three years.

He didn't need to worry about every detail of the post-war reconstruction—the council's operation was already on track, each department fulfilled its duties, meeting to discuss matters when necessary and working on their own when not. As the "Chairman," he had instead become the most idle person.

Being idle had its benefits. He began to write a book.

The book was titled "From Ranch to Home," recording the events that had happened over the years. Starting from the spirit net of the Ranch World, to the escape, the Star Devourers, the Return to Ruins, the New Homeland, and finally that great war. Every important person had their own place in the book.

Zhao Iron Pillar was very dissatisfied after reading the first draft: "How come I only have three pages written about me? I've been following you since the very beginning!"

"There's too much about you; three pages aren't enough to finish it," Wen Youyi said without looking up. "There's more later."

"How much more is there later?"

"About... thirty pages?"

Zhao Iron Pillar was satisfied and left with his hands behind his back.

One morning this spring, the echo telescope captured an abnormal signal.

It wasn't the Heavenly Court, but something else.

Senior Brother Zhang stared at the screen for a long time before calling Wen Youyi over.

"Look at this."

On the screen, a blurry spot of light was moving slowly. Its energy signature was neither the dark gold of the Heavenly Court nor the silver-white of the Star People, but a kind of... multicolored light that Wen Youyi had never seen before.

"What is this?"

"I don't know," Senior Brother Zhang shook his head, "but it's moving toward the New Homeland. Its speed is very slow; it's estimated to take a month to arrive."

"Should we intercept it?"

Senior Brother Zhang was silent for a few seconds and said, "I think... there's no need. It has no ill intent."

"How do you know?"

"Because in its signal, there's a repeating pattern," Senior Brother Zhang called up that segment of the pattern. "Look, doesn't it look like this?"

He pointed to a painting hanging on the wall—it was painted by Little Girl three years ago, depicting her and Bright Fur Ball standing at the edge of the forest, with sunlight spilling over them and silver-blue light everywhere.

Wen Youyi was stunned.

The signal pattern emitted by that light spot was almost identical to Little Girl's painting.

A month later, that light spot arrived at the outskirts of the New Homeland.

It was a ship.

A ship slightly larger than the Hidden Dragon, with a peculiar shape like an elongated water drop. Its entire body flowed with seven-colored light, the colors constantly shifting and pulsing rhythmically like breathing.

There were no weapons on the ship.

At least, no energy signatures of any weapons could be detected.

"It's requesting to land." Aila stared at the communication interface. "The language... we don't understand it, but the pattern in the signal is very clear—it's that painting of Little Girl's."

Wen Youyi was silent for a few seconds and then said, "Let it land. In that open space to the east. Everyone on alert, but no one is allowed to attack first."

The seven-colored ship slowly descended.

The hatch opened, and a person walked out—or rather, a thing that looked like a person.

She looked like a woman in her thirties, wearing a simple white robe, with long hair draped over her shoulders and a gentle smile on her face. Most striking were her eyes—not human black or blue, but a flowing, constantly changing multicolored light, like miniature nebulae.

She walked up to Wen Youyi and began to speak.

Her voice was very soft, but every word was as clear as if it were ringing directly in the mind:

"Hello, Wen Youyi. My name is 'Cai.' I come from..." She paused, seemingly searching for the right words, "from the place you humans call 'Beyond the Return to Ruins'."

Everyone was stunned.

Beyond the Return to Ruins?

"What kind of place is that?" Wen Youyi asked warily.

Cai smiled and didn't answer directly. She turned her head and looked at Little Girl in the crowd.

Little Girl was holding Bright Fur Ball, curiously sizing up this stranger.

In Cai's eyes, that flowing multicolored light suddenly became much softer.

"That child," she said, "three years ago, her consciousness crossed three thousand light-years and awakened some sleeping things."

"Those things," she paused, "are my clansmen."

The whole place went silent.

Little Girl blinked, looking completely bewildered.

Cai continued to look at Little Girl, her eyes carrying an emotion that Wen Youyi couldn't quite read—like gratitude, or perhaps... nostalgia?

"The purpose of my coming is very simple," she said, "to say thank you."

"And," she paused, "an invitation."

"An invitation to what?"

Cai turned to Wen Youyi, those multicolored eyes seeming as if they could see through everything:

"To invite you to go and see the world 'Beyond the Return to Ruins'."

(End of Chapter)