Invasion - Chapter 139

Chapter 139

With a creak,

the heavy metal gate slowly opened, revealing Guo Suo standing behind it.

Little Guo Suo had transformed into a towering giant.

Numerous thick legs spread out from under her skirt.

Those hands that usually made tea and arranged flowers had turned into powerful pincers, their sharp serrated edges gleaming coldly.

From a height of three or four meters, cold eyes, dark red, filled with killing intent and vigilance, looked down.

The tall Guo Suo, her body tense, like a fully armed powder keg, ready to explode at any moment.

Only after Lin Yuan entered and closed the iron gate behind her,

The bang of the closing door made Guo Suo’s body tremble, as if only at this moment did she come back to her senses, dare to believe who this person who entered the house was. She slowly shrunk from her towering height, until her skirt reached the floor, returning to her small, petite appearance.

Xiao Suo looked at Lin Yuan, her lips tightly pursed.

That look, the grievance, fear, and forced restraint, reminded Lin Yuan of how she had looked the first time they met in this house.

Only, now, looking at the trembling Xiao Suo, her heart felt like it was being pierced by a red-hot needle.

“What happened?” Lin Yuan heard her own voice, it sounded calm as always, as if she could handle anything, everything under control, no one knew the intense unease squeezing her heart.

“We had thieves,” Xiao Suo lowered her head, her fingers nervously twisting her apron.

“Mm, thieves?”

Thieves had broken into her house several times before. At first, they had been petty thieves, later, more skilled ones, all of them dealt with easily by Xun Hua, their minds confused.

What kind of thief was it this time?

The lush flowers and plants in the courtyard were visibly wilting.

Having been in for so long, she still hadn't sensed Xun Hua's mental power.

Lin Yuan’s footsteps paused. Xiao Suo before her, her head lowered,

“I don’t know what happened, when those people came in, Mr. Gardener suddenly told me to go back to my room and sleep,” she kept her head lowered, as if she had done something terribly wrong, "I don’t know why, but I suddenly became so obedient, I went back, and I slept very soundly…”

"It's not your fault," Lin Yuan interrupted her. "Xun Hua is a powerful Guide, and you weren’t on guard against him. It would be very easy for him to influence you. It’s his will that made you go back and sleep.”

Xiao Suo suddenly looked up, her large eyes filled with tears, her chest heaving, as if a heavy stone had been lifted from her heart, and she could finally breathe again.

"And then?" Lin Yuan's voice, still calm, even steadier than before.

Xiao Suo became excited, her words rapid, telling Lin Yuan everything that had happened at home these past few days like spilling beans.

There had clearly been thieves in the house that day.

But she didn't know why, she had peacefully fallen asleep.

When she woke up, she had found the groundhogs from the front yard quietly huddled in her small room.

And the pair of wild ducks from the backyard pond, the fluffy snow rabbit from the rabbit hole, the orange cat that would often sneak into the kitchen to steal food… in short, all the small animals that Mr. Gardener liked were now crammed into her small room.

Like they were being protected under the gentle shade of a tree, everyone quietly huddled together, sleeping.

Thieves had come to the house last night?

Xiao Suo sat on the bed in a daze for a while, then noticed the golden necklace placed at her bedside, a heart-shaped pendant, only one person in the whole house had one of those.

She knew this was Mr. Gardener’s most treasured possession, why was it here?

The little crab jumped up, grabbed the necklace, and scurried out, her hands and feet moving, from among the small chickens, ducklings, rats, and rabbits.

She ran faster than ever before, on all eight legs.

The courtyard was a mess, broken branches everywhere, the flowers that Mr. Gardener had painstakingly grown scattered on the ground.

Guo Suo didn’t search for long, she quickly saw a small, golden tree stump in the courtyard.

The most beautiful Golden Tree in their courtyard had been cut at its trunk, only a small stump remaining, standing alone amidst the scattered branches.

Xiao Suo clearly remembered when Mr. Gardener first came, he had no hands or legs, Master had brought him back in a bag.

Master had placed him in the room with the most sunlight, so he could bask in the sun on the balcony every day.

Later, he had planted himself in the courtyard, disguised as an ordinary tree.

Others wouldn't notice, couldn’t see that beautiful color.

But Xiao Suo knew, in their courtyard, there was a beautiful Golden Tree.

At first, it had been bare, listless, then, day by day, slowly, golden branches had extended, golden leaves had sprouted.

Slowly, slowly, it had taken a long time for him to take root here.

Just like her, becoming a part of this family.

Xiao Suo loved it most when the wind blew through the courtyard. The golden leaves would gently collide, like a song, leading all the trees in the courtyard in a chorus.

Every time that happened, whether she was busy in the kitchen, or making tea in the dining room, she would sway her head, humming along to Mr. Gardener’s melody.

All the trees, all the animals, everyone in this house, would hum along.

Miss, in the attic, just like her, would sit by the window, listening to the song from the courtyard.

Such a happy life.

No matter what humans called it, for Xiao Suo, this was her home, and miss and Mr. Gardener were her family.

But she had only slept for a while, and that beautiful Mr. Gardener was gone.

The glittering treasure in the courtyard had been cruelly cut down, carried away by those hateful thieves, stolen.

How could she have fallen asleep? Why hadn’t she come out and torn those fellows to pieces!

If she had been awake, she would have bitten off a few chunks of their flesh, even if it cost her her life!

So much hatred, so much regret.

It was all her fault.

Xiao Suo reached out, wanting to touch the golden tree stump, which was all that was left.

"I just lightly touched it, very lightly, and it turned to ash, the ash was so light, it flew everywhere, I couldn’t even catch it,” Xiao Suo's voice choked with sobs as she took Lin Yuan to the place where Xun Hua had disappeared, pointing, “The ground there is scorched, only a black pit remaining, nothing inside."

Xiao Suo, tears welling up in her eyes, bit her lip, her eyes blood red.

Lin Yuan, silent, stared at the empty hole.

The giant tentacles emerged from all directions, clinging to the scorched ground, carefully searching, several days had passed, yet the traces of the intense mental fluctuations from that time still faintly lingered, it was clear that a fierce, life-or-death battle had taken place here that night.

Xun Hua, alone, standing there, shielding them, protecting this courtyard, this home.

He had lost in the end, his body cut down, turned to ash.

Just like back then.

The soil was scorched black, the ashes scattered, nothing left.

Lin Yuan stared at the empty hole.

The tentacles carefully searched the underground, their heads lowered, not a word, meticulously sifting through every inch of the soil.

Even if it was just a small piece of gold, a small branch, a little root.

For Lin Yuan, finding even a small part of him, there would still be hope.

That was her gardener, her friend, her teacher, her family.

She would do everything she could to bring him back.

A small, newborn groundhog poked its small head out from the hole, looked around blankly, then disappeared again, a confused look in its eyes.

Seeing the little groundhog and the silent Lin Yuan busy searching, Guo Suo suddenly came to her senses.

Countless legs extended from under her skirt, and she quickly climbed up the outer wall of the house, carefully carrying down a flowerpot.

"This, miss, are you looking for this?” She panted, showing the flowerpot in her arms to Lin Yuan, the clay pot filled with dark soil, from which a thin sapling sprouted, a very small, thin sprout, with two tender leaves at its tip, looking weak and listless, but those leaves, not the usual green, but with golden veins.

"This, where did it come from?” Lin Yuan hugged the flowerpot, her eyes lit up.

"It’s, it's from that heart, Mr. Gardener’s golden necklace, he left it behind," Xiao Suo gestured, “It was these little groundhogs, burrowing around in the pit, who reminded me. I thought Mr. Gardener was a tree, and this was something he always wore, maybe it could be planted.”

"So I took some soil from there and buried the heart inside. I didn’t expect it to actually sprout," Xiao Suo spoke carefully, afraid of saying something wrong, afraid that even her voice, if too loud, would blow away this precious little sprout that had finally emerged, "I watered it every day, and let it bask in the sun, I can't believe that the heart actually sprouted, I don't know if I did it right…”

Xiao Suo saw that miss, who had been calm since entering, her shoulders suddenly slumped.

Miss's tentacles came out, tightly wrapping around the flowerpot, and some even came up, gently rubbing her hair.

"You’re amazing, Xiao Suo," Lin Yuan said, "You’ve done a great job."

She let out a long sigh of relief, reached out, put an arm around Xiao Suo, hugging her, then patted her small back.

This was the first time miss had hugged her like this.

So, miss was also scared and sad, not as calm as she seemed.

She, she also needed to be hugged.

And she had even said that she had done a great job.

Guo Suo hugged Lin Yuan back, retracting the sharp edges of her legs, imitating Lin Yuan, clumsily patting Lin Yuan's back with her hands and feet.

"But miss, will this really grow into Mr. Gardener?" Xiao Suo asked hesitantly.

Although the leaves were golden, and miss seemed very happy, she couldn’t feel Mr. Gardener's familiar mental fluctuations at all.

The small, soft sapling stood in the black soil, listless, the only leaves it had sprouted wilting slightly.

It looked incredibly fragile, as if it would fall over at the slightest breeze, not a single rustle of leaves.

The tree was Xun Hua's main body, now that his main body was so weak, his mental body, who knew where it was lost?

"I'll try my best, bring him back."

Lin Yuan rolled up her sleeves, put down her luggage, and sat down on the ground in the courtyard.

Sunlight shone diagonally through the leaves, scattering on the ground, those scattered golden rays, like flickering gold dust, on Lin Yuan’s dusty body.

The tentacles held the small flowerpot as Lin Yuan sat cross-legged, closing her eyes.

Xun Hua's mindscape was vast and boundless.

Infinitely wide, infinitely deep, filled with the world’s wonders.

By now, Lin Yuan had been to many mindscapes.

Some sentinels’ mindscapes were incredibly small, a single room, a hillside, a simple, conventional world, seen at a glance.

Some had boundless, dreamlike mindscapes.

In a small mindscape, it was easy to find anything, whether memories, emotions, or those mental bodies hiding from injury.

Within a small space, everything could be easily found.

But in those vast and boundless mindscapes, if they didn’t have the owner’s guidance, it would become incredibly difficult.

For example, Ni Ji's mindscape was an ocean.

If they weren’t very familiar with the terrain, for an outsider, wanting to find a pearl of memory, or the big fish hidden in the deep sea, in the vast ocean, it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack, an incredibly difficult task.

Xun Hua's mindscape wasn't just vast, but also with countless large and small worlds, layered and nested.

Chaotic, disordered, space distorted, damaging hurricanes everywhere. Doors, large and small, twisted, one after another, layered and nested.

One more step, a wrong step, and perhaps she would be dragged into that chaotic world of thoughts, never to escape.

Let alone finding Xun Hua’s lost mental body in such a chaotic world.

Lin Yuan took a step forward. A sharp, blade-like wind instantly cut the tentacles.

Xun Hua’s memories contained both images from when he was human and scenes from after he became a Deviant.

Darkness and mud, blood and tears, songs and moonlight.

A kaleidoscope-like world spun before her eyes, making her dizzy.

The sky and the earth seemed to be upside down. Layers of doors opened before her, and behind each, a bottomless abyss.

Calm down, Lin Yuan thought, calm down.

In that long tunnel in the City of Mantis, after going through the mindscapes of so many people, think, how did she come out in the end?

In the courtyard, Lin Yuan sat under the shade of a tree, her eyes closed, her brow furrowed.

The thick leaves above swayed, the song of the trees seemed to echo, the rustling gradually becoming one.

The rabbits perked up their ears, and the groundhogs poked their small heads out.

"Miss, you can do it, I'll keep watch over you and Mr. Gardener," Xiao Suo whispered.

It seemed like everyone was waiting, waiting for Lin Yuan to bring Mr. Gardener back.

Lin Yuan thought back to the past. She had countless times sat here, under the golden tree’s shade.

In the branches, her teacher, wearing a mask, had taught her many things.

"Everyone's mindscape holds their darkest memories, and also their happiest moments.”

“If someone’s mental body is lost, can’t be found, that’s where you should look.”

Xun Hua, lazily sitting in the treetop, had said that to her.

“When a person is lost, they either linger in their most painful memories or stay in the place that brings them the most happiness and peace.”

Lin Yuan, lost in the mindscape, stopped.

Right, Xun Hua had taught her this.

The darkest memories, or the happiest places, go to these two places to search for his mental body.

Lin Yuan had once saved a sentinel whose mindscape was on the verge of collapse.

It was one of a pair of twins, the older brother.

She had also searched for a long time in his mental world then, and it was by the pond where the two of them had fished as children, on the shore of the lake where fireflies danced, that she had found the sentinel, about to lose himself.

That was the most peaceful and beautiful place in that sentinel's childhood memories.

Lin Yuan walked through those floating, twisting doors.

In Xun Hua’s world, there were many dark memories.

Painful memories materialized into grotesque and terrifying poultry, carrying sharp blades, swarming out from the thick darkness, chasing Lin Yuan, the intruder.

Lin Yuan ran in the upside-down world, the terrifying monsters, a long queue, following closely.

She passed through one dark doorway after another, yet still didn’t see Xun Hua’s familiar figure.

She saw Xun Hua's youthful, energetic face in the military camp.

The young guide and his comrades, heroic, fighting on the battlefield.

At that time, there was no White Tower, and no holy bricks, those in the rear diligently developed and produced stronger weapons, while the warriors on the front lines fought desperately with the enemy.

No time for banquets and songs, the Guides’ faces, like the Sentinels’, stained with blood.

The human population was much larger than now, with fortresses, bases, and underground towns everywhere.

So that's what the world was like four hundred years ago.

Lin Yuan, as she ran, saw those scenes from that time, one after another, but where was Xun Hua?

Lin Yuan ran through the military camps and the battlefields.

She even passed through that filthy Rose Camp.

Xun Hua's memory fragments were everywhere, but his mental body wasn’t here.

Lin Yuan saw a damp alley, saw Windsor, almost assaulted by her neighbor.

Xun Hua appeared in the alley, driving the villain away, this memory, different from reality, the moon-like, pure Guide didn't leave. Smiling, he reached out to Windsor.

Windsor looked up, a smile appearing on her face, the two holding hands.

Lin Yuan’s heart leaping with joy, ran towards them.

But as she approached, the two illusory figures dissipated like bubbles.

The dark alley, empty, no one there.

No one could stay in a made-up memory.

Not this place either.

Lin Yuan stopped, panting. The giant shadow of a bull-headed monster covered the alley, the monsters behind her seemed to have caught up again.

【Should we go back now?】

【If we go any deeper, even we won’t be able to remember the way back.】

【We’ll be completely lost here.】

【Then we’ll never be able to return.】

【But…I’m so reluctant.】

【That’s Gardener Teacher.】

【Xiao Suo will cry.】

【I’ll cry too, I haven’t cried before.】

【I’ll cry too, I’m so reluctant.】

【We should go back, we tried our best, we can’t find him.】

【We’ll be trapped, I don’t want to die.】

Lin Yuan wiped the sweat from her forehead.

She was a mental body, mental bodies shouldn't sweat, yet she felt like she had been running for a long time, that she must be covered in sweat, her whole body tired, she wiped the nonexistent sweat from her forehead, ignoring the chaotic thoughts in her mind, once again stepping through a new door, moving towards a deeper place.

【We'll die, let’s go back.】

【I'm reluctant, keep going.】

…

Xun Hua’s time as a human had only been a short twenty or thirty years, but his time as a Deviant had been several hundred.

Where would he be? Where would his mental body hide?

Lin Yuan searched, she didn’t know whether he lingered in his darkest memories, or in his most peaceful and joyful moments.

Lin Yuan, as she ran again, saw doors, one after another, her eyes sweeping past the worlds within those doors, mostly dark and gloomy, with occasional brightness.

Lin Yuan’s footsteps suddenly stopped.

There was a door, a world, she had been avoiding, she hadn’t thought that Xun Hua would choose to stay there.

After all, it had only been such a short one or two years, she hadn’t thought it would mean anything in his long life.

Lin Yuan stopped and, in the spinning, intersecting mindscape, her gaze on that door, tentatively walked towards it, and stepped through.

Inside the door was a scene she was incredibly familiar with.

That familiar courtyard.

It was home.

The pointed roof of the attic peeked out from the thick trees, birds chirped among the flowers, there was a windowsill full of roses, the sounds of bubbling water coming from the kitchen.

Fruits hung heavy on the branches in the backyard, roses climbed over the walls, blooming intensely.

A small groundhog poked its head out of a tree hole, and butterflies danced among the leaves.

Everything, exactly the same as the outside world.

This was Lin Yuan's home, that small courtyard filled with flowers.

The only difference, it was nighttime here.

The moon, hidden and revealed among the clouds. A cool breeze brushed against her face.

Lin Yuan slowly walked along the long stone path, those ferocious monsters blocked outside the courtyard, unable to enter.

Lin Yuan saw the Golden Tree hidden in the courtyard, the Golden Tree, just like before, shimmering in the moonlight.

A young boy squatted under the tree, playing with a small groundhog.

The boy, his back to her, was having fun with the little groundhog, his expression focused, a smile on his face, and that signature silver hair.

He was very young, only two or three years old, but Lin Yuan wouldn’t mistake that face.

It was Xun Hua, Xun Hua's mental body.

So Xun Hua had been here all along.

This moonlit courtyard, the place he most wanted to be in his four-hundred-year memory. The final resting place he had chosen for himself.

His mental body had become very young, even smaller than the juvenile lion Lin Yuan had seen in Rachel's mindscape.

If Lin Yuan hadn’t come, if she hadn’t come so quickly, the two or three-year-old boy might very well have become even smaller, regressed into an infant, and eventually disappeared, completely dissipating.

Under the Golden Tree, the little boy playing with the groundhog saw a drop of water.

That drop landed on the back of his hand, crystal clear, it looked like a human tear.

He looked up and saw a Kraken with countless tentacles standing before him.

The powerful Kraken, its golden eyes staring at him.

Although not human, there was something about her that felt very familiar.

"Why are you crying? Are you sad about something?" Little Xun Hua asked, looking up.

It was strange. He had always thought that mental bodies of Deviants like them didn't cry.

He knew that he wasn’t human. And this tentacled thing probably wasn’t either, was she?

Why was she crying?

Crying was a complex human emotion, something impossible to learn.

The Kraken reached out to him. "I’m here to take you home.”

"I can’t go back," little Xun Hua shook his head. "I’m very weak, there are many terrifying monsters outside, powerful hurricanes that could easily tear me apart."

"I'll just stay here, I like this place, there’s wind here, and the trees will sing with me," the small boy said, a little dazed.

His consciousness slightly muddled, he only remembered this place seemingly being his favorite.

The little boy, his silver eyes looking at Lin Yuan, said, "I vaguely remember, this could also be considered my home, so I’ll just stay here."

"I’ll take you back to your real home,” the Kraken extended its countless hands towards him. “I'll protect you, and you won’t be hurt at all on the way home.”

The boy hesitated.

Those wriggling tentacles looked very scary.

And she was very powerful.

But he didn’t know why, seeing her, he felt a sense of closeness, a reassuring being.

"If you don’t go back, the little crab will cry very hard, you know, her tears will flood your entire balcony."

Who was the little crab? The boy couldn’t remember. Only an inexplicable unease rising in his heart.

"And your little rats, other than you, no one knows how to feed them, when I came in, I saw a squirrel stealing the food you stored.”

The little boy gasped, a panic in his heart, what was going on?

"The flowers in the courtyard all withered after you left, and the trees have become listless, no one in our family can take care of them as well as you do.”

“And also me, without Teacher, I don’t even know how to be in love.”

"Our home can’t live without you, Xun Hua."

"Come on, let's go home."

One after another, the tentacles patiently lifted their appendages, all waiting for his answer.

They looked very cute, very familiar, like a family's hands.

Little Xun Hua finally couldn't resist, he took two small steps forward.

He was instantly, carefully, wrapped up by the tentacles, like a treasured possession, held in their embrace.

That’s right, I remember there’s a treasure at home, little Xun Hua hazily thought as he was being held, I risked my life to hide that thing.

Why didn't she ask me where I hid that treasure box right away?

It’s as if, for her, the most precious thing in the family wasn't that Truth Box, but me, like a broken tree root.

Maybe she really is my family.

She’s going to take me home.

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