Invasion - Chapter 140

Chapter 140

The way back was very difficult to find. This world was too chaotic, and Lin Yuan had gone too deep.

Countless twisting doors, layers of worlds nested within each other. Looking back, the path they had taken was already gone.

It was very easy to lose oneself in this vast, kaleidoscope-like mindscape.

Lin Yuan felt that if she were alone, there would have been no way for her to find her way back in a world like this.

But it was different now. She was holding little Xun Hua.

The once mature, steady, and all-knowing Mr. Gardener was now only two years old, weak, small, leaning against her shoulder, relying on her.

This made Lin Yuan suddenly feel omnipotent. She could definitely go back, definitely find a way out in this complex world.

She focused her attention with unprecedented clarity, and the tentacles diligently helped, dodging the monsters that constantly chased them in the darkness, in this bizarre world.

Her feet on the shifting ground as she ran.

This scene reminded Lin Yuan of her childhood, of her mother carrying her, running through the fire.

She hadn't understood before, how her mother could so resolutely run through those terrifying flames.

Now she understood.

Because she was protecting something important, someone important. So, it turned out that when a person had such feelings, they would become stronger, more determined.

Every time they passed through a doorway, the space would shift, and the chaotic hurricane would injure her tentacles.

The monsters behind them, a long line, and several times, their black claws almost caught her long hair.

But Lin Yuan, holding Xun Hua, kept running, without hesitation.

She had been running in this world for a long time.

Little Xun Hua was wrapped in the wriggling tentacles. They were very soft, and the darkness made him feel very safe.

Through the gaps between the tentacles, he could see the constantly moving shadows outside.

Bull-headed monsters, pig-faced butchers holding sharp blades.

This place seemed like a nightmare, a dark world he had been in for a very, very long time.

He just didn’t know who this person holding him was, why their arms were so warm.

He could hear this person's heartbeat, a clear, rhythmic thud.

Amidst this sound, Xun Hua vaguely remembered his broken life.

He had been trampled on and humiliated, he had lost everything he loved, he was tired, he was in pain, he even wanted to just fall asleep like this.

But why was he being held so gently, protected so carefully?

He saw the ferocious monsters, and also the splattering red blood.

Those soft tentacles protecting him, injured, they twitched, and another tentacle came up, covering him again.

Those were injuries, blood shed, to protect him.

So, Xun Hua reached out a finger, pointing forward.

That finger, so small, the fair, thin finger of a child, almost without any strength.

And beneath Lin Yuan's feet, a light, faint green appeared.

It was moss, inconspicuous in the night, faintly covering the dim world, a thin line.

Winding through the twisting doorways, like a path,

Guiding them home.

Lin Yuan ran, following that faint green.

Suddenly, a bright light before her eyes.

The midday sun shone through the green leaves, scattering onto the ground, four groundhogs, a pair of dazed wild ducks, an orange cat arching its back, meowing.

Lin Yuan, her heart still racing, met Xiao Suo’s wide eyes.

She was out.

Lin Yuan smiled, finally escaping from the depths of the chaotic mental world, returning to her real home.

The tentacles dispersed, revealing Xun Hua's young mental body.

The little boy, holding the clay pot, looked up at the sun in the sky, a little dazed.

His dim eyes reflected the light, like a gentle, silver river.

Sunlight and leaves, swaying branches in the courtyard, a small groundhog lifting its head, and a girl with fluffy hair, crying.

Everything seemed to be welcoming him home.

In the flowerpot, a thin sapling sprouted from the soft, moist soil.

Two tender leaves straightened under the sunlight.

The little crab, her eyes filled with tears, finally burst into tears.

She cried loudly, sobbing, large teardrops wetting her round face.

This little thing was always very good at expressing her emotions, wasn’t she?

Someone even more emotionally expressive than herself.

It was good that she had brought Mr. Gardener back, Lin Yuan thought. She really didn’t want to see her courtyard flooded by Xiao Suo’s tears.

Only when the sun set, the sky covered with a thick, colorful afterglow, did Lin Yuan, in her attic, take out the small Truth Box — it was actually buried beneath the pit where Xun Hua’s body had disintegrated, buried deep underground.

After a fierce battle, after that reckless self-destruction, it seemed the enemy had hastily retreated, and hadn’t found the box in the end.

Lin Yuan had seen fragments of that battle in Xun Hua’s memories.

No one knew what that thief, who had sneaked into their home, was.

It hadn't been a mental body that a human would have, it was like a monster, or rather, a strange creature formed from many monsters pieced together.

Those limbs, incompatible, forcefully joined together, the monster ugly and huge, like a mass of thick slime, creeping in from outside the rose-covered courtyard wall.

It wailed painfully, its body covering the sky above the courtyard, countless filthy arms reaching down towards the Golden Tree standing in the courtyard.

The tall, golden trunk swayed, its rustling like music, facing the enemy.

Two powerful mental forces clashed in the small courtyard.

Such strong mental fluctuations reminded Lin Yuan of Her Majesty in the White Tower.

For a moment, Lin Yuan had even found it hard to believe that the queen ruling the human empire could have such a twisted, ugly mental body.

Lin Yuan gently rubbed the Truth Box in her hand.

Whether brought back from the deep sea or just dug up from deep underground,

This palm-sized wooden box seemed to maintain its appearance, old, broken, as if about to fall apart at any moment.

On the decaying wood, mysterious patterns lit up, faintly glowing under the darkening sky.

Lin Yuan took out the necklace she had obtained in the City of Mantis, embedding the green gem into the groove on the box.

It sounded like the click of a key.

Something had been opened.

An emerald green light spread across the surface of the wooden box, finally reaching the top of the lid.

From the Maria cruise ship, to the Golden Tree Contaminated Zone, to the Land of No Eyes, then to the City of Mantis, each gem obtained lighting up one side of the small wooden box.

Finally, the slowly flowing, brilliant light reached the top of the lid, filling the only remaining groove. Above the box, an illusory White Tower appeared.

A virtual image of the White Tower emerged above the Truth Box.

Slowly rotating in the faint light beam.

Who could know that its white body, worshipped and praised for hundreds of years, prayed to by countless people, wasn’t actually a gift from God. But the bones of demons, the embodiment of malice.

This was the truth of the world, bone-chilling.

The White Tower, humanity’s cage.

It was the last place to be explored, Lin Yuan had vaguely known this for a long time, it wasn’t a huge surprise.

Only, the moment she reached out, her fingers touching the glowing wooden box,

The decaying, old wooden box suddenly began to change under her fingertips.

The map-like, mysterious patterns on the box flowed, and the decaying wood changed its appearance before Lin Yuan's eyes.

The wooden box, which had seemed loose and about to fall apart, was now coated in a cold, white glaze. It became dense, smooth, spotless.

Not quite like gold, yet warm to the touch, like a living being.

Not like any material in this world, not even like something humans could make.

The phantom image of the White Tower, floating above the box, abruptly shrunk.

And Lin Yuan’s entire mental power, at that moment, was pulled by a strong force, along with that light, into a strange space.

When she opened her eyes, she saw the starry sky, the universe, countless streams of mental power slowly converging in the vast sea of stars.

It was like an incredibly large tree.

Amidst the countless stars, mental powers, giant or tiny, like small streams, flowing towards the tree, intertwining, converging, merging.

No crown or canopy above, its roots unseen below, the giant tree covering the sky and the earth, connecting the starry sea, it was eternity, it was history, and it was also the future.

It was the mental universe, a universe formed from everyone’s mental power.

Lin Yuan didn’t know when she had heard such a term before.

But since she was very young, since she first became a Guide, it seemed, the words “World Tree” and “mental universe” had been etched into her subconscious.

There was a place, beyond time and space, where the mental power of all beings from countless planets converged.

It was a vast universe, a boundless giant tree.

Even the most powerful of beings were as insignificant as ants before it, their souls baptized under its vast will.

Most beings couldn't withstand the endless river’s erosion. A single glance and their souls would be scattered, they would die.

No one knew where it could be seen, where it could be found.

Someone had once said, it was the ultimate dream of the most powerful mental entities.

It was a connection to the World Tree, which held all knowledge, all domains. One could discover all the secrets of the world there, learn about the past and the future.

One could even know where this world came from, glimpse where it would eventually end up.

Lin Yuan didn’t expect the Truth Box to bring her mental body to such a place. Fortunately, it was now, having gone through trials, her mental body now stable and strong, that she could stay there, if just for a brief moment.

She only took a quick look at that vast and wondrous space, when she opened her eyes, returning to her body, she was covered in cold sweat, her heart pounding.

Lin Yuan’s finger left the box.

The jade-like Truth Box still lay before her, the green gem having fallen onto the sheets.

Small, its four walls faintly glowing, the groove on top empty.

Who could know that, just a moment ago, it had brought its owner to the most magnificent mental universe in this world?

The sky outside the window was already dark. It had only been a brief glance.

Yet, in that fleeting moment, like a baptism under the endless starlight, Lin Yuan had seen humanity’s past, in the vast river, and also, a little of the future.

The future.

She had only caught a glimpse, but it was a glimpse nonetheless.

Of things that would happen in the future.

Lin Yuan looked up, towards the window.

The afterglow in the sky outside the window was gone, only the deep darkness of night, like a black curtain, slowly falling.

That terrifying White Tower, bone-white, silently stood in the hazy night, its color frightening.

Lin Yuan stared at the Tower, the White Tower also seemed to be staring at her.

Was that truly the future?

Humanity’s future?

---

In a damp, dark alley, a young girl huddled in the corner, a sketchbook clutched tightly in her arms.

Not far away, the sound of hurried footsteps, gradually fading, it was the distinctive sound of sentinels’ sturdy military boots, those people had left, they hadn’t found her, the girl breathed a sigh of relief, her thin back leaning against the cold stone wall as she slowly sat down.

She had been running for a long time, tired and thirsty. Curled up in the cold, dark corner, she opened the sketchbook in her arms, it was her friend's relic.

The worlds touched by mental power, every page beautifully drawn, only the one who drew them, no longer in this world, the girl, under the dim streetlight, turned the pages with her dirty fingers, she reached the last page, her small fingers gently tracing the vibrant colors.

"The future?" the little girl, sitting in the corner, whispered, her head lowered, "Xiao Chun, is this the future you saw?"

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