Chapter 111: Echoes of the Origin

The welcome ceremony in Qiming City was so simple it bordered on solemn. There were no ribbons, no speeches, only two rows of soldiers in black uniforms standing quietly on either side of the landing pad, their right fists pressed to the left chest—this was the military salute Chen Mo himself established when the Voyager fleet was formed, meaning "heart toward home, hand gripping a sharp blade".

Su Yu was the first to step down the gangway. The March wind still carried a chill, stirring her tied‑up long hair. She looked up; the city had expanded a ring since she left, the glass façades of the new residential district reflecting the morning light, and in the distance the base of a track elevator under construction could be seen. Everything thrived, yet everything was so unfamiliar it tightened a knot in her chest.

Kaiwen followed behind her, shouldering a bulging data pack; his eyes behind the glasses flicked quickly over the surrounding buildings, and he muttered, "The ecological dome in Sector Three is finished… the energy hub has two additional distribution towers… they've refined the city defense matrix algorithm…".

He was using familiar technical details to combat the emptiness inside.

Zhang Yang and Wang Hu were the last to come down. Zhang Yang didn't shout as he usually did; he silently scanned the crowd, his gaze lingering a moment on a few familiar officers' faces before giving a slight nod. Wang Hu kept his eyes fixed on the direction of the central plaza—where a statue honoring the heroes of the Dawn Operation had been planned, and now it seemed another name would have to be added.

"Commander Su Yu," a gentle, aged voice called out.

Hui Jin stepped forward from the crowd. The elder of the Pure Fire Cult looked even more gaunt than three years ago, but his eyes remained clear. He wore no ceremonial robe, only a simple gray uniform, and held an ordinary wooden staff in his hand.

"Elder Hui Jin," Su Yu nodded slightly. She noticed the few young people behind Hui Jin—devout members who had remained after the Lars incident—and their expressions were complex, a mix of grief and a strange… anticipation?

"Welcome home." Hui Jin's gaze swept over each returning expedition member, lingering a moment on the spot where Chen Mo was absent; his voice carried a barely perceptible tremor, "We… all know. The whole city knows."

"How did you know?" Han Qing stepped forward, brow furrowed. According to the plan, the information should have been released in stages.

"Chen Mo himself said it." Hui Jin's words left everyone stunned.

In the top‑floor conference room of the Administrative Center, a holographic projection was playing a video.

On the screen, Chen Mo wore simple civilian clothes, seated in the underground control room of Pure Land—the very room where they first uncovered the Luo Ya ruins. In the background, a busy Kaiwen and Su Yu adjusting equipment could be seen; it was clearly a clandestine recording taken on a night before the Voyager's launch.

"If you're watching this video," Chen Mo on the screen smiled at the camera, his smile carrying their familiar composure and an unprecedented, almost gentle calm, "that means two things: first, the Voyager project succeeded; you at least brought back critical information. Second, I wasn't able to return with you."

The conference room fell into dead silence. Zhang Yang's fists clenched until his knuckles turned white.

"Don't make that face." Chen Mo in the video, as if he could see the future, said in a breezy tone that was infuriating, "I chose this path, and I'm at peace with it. And strictly speaking, this isn't a 'farewell', at most it's… a contingency."

He leaned forward, hands clasped on the table: "Listen, there are three things you need to know."

"First, about the Door of the End. The information left by the Stardust Civilization is incomplete, but by combining the Luo Ya database with the resonance of the Starlight Crystal, I infer that the thing is not naturally formed. It resembles a… activated 'device', a converter that turns 'order' into 'absolute chaos'. And the 'keyholes' that activate it are scattered across the universe—each civilization that is completely devoured, when its 'existence trace' is erased, generates an energy ripple that forms a hole on the Door."

Kaiwen sat up sharply: "So the Zero‑Mark…?"

"It's a scale," Chen Mo nodded. "It records how many civilizations have already been converted. By inserting the Starlight Crystal, we're inserting an error command into that conversion process—a piece of 'abnormal data' originating from the Stardust Civilization itself, the victim. It will temporarily disrupt its conversion logic, like throwing sand into gears."

"How long can it disrupt?" Su Yu's off‑screen voice came from the video—her casual question that night of the filming.

Chen Mo turned his head toward her off‑camera, his gaze unusually gentle: "I don't know. It could be years, it could be centuries. But it's enough for you to do the next thing."

He turned back to the camera: "Second thing: there isn't just one 'key'. The Starlight Crystal is a relic of the Stardust Civilization, but other civilizations have also left behind 'abnormal data'—the sparks of civilization that, before total annihilation, somehow imprinted their existence. Find them, collect them, and the next time you insert them into the Door, the effect could be stronger, perhaps even… reverse the conversion process."

Han Qing inhaled deeply: "He's setting the mission. Even after…."

"Third thing," Chen Mo's expression grew serious, "if I truly don't return, your first stop shouldn't be Qiming City. Go to Pure Land first. Go to the original control room, locate the seventh‑level encrypted sector of the Luo Ya main database—the password is Su Yu's birthday plus the date we discovered the 'Order Barrier'."

Su Yu's breath caught.

"I left something there," Chen Mo said, "consider it… personal belongings. Also, Elder Hui Jin knows something about the parts of Pure Fire doctrine that were once thought mythic. Go talk to him."

The video ended there. The final frame froze on the moment Chen Mo turned his head to Su Yu's profile, sunlight—or rather artificial light—falling on his side face, making him appear as if he were glowing.

The conference room remained silent for a long while.

"When did he record this?" Kaiwen finally spoke, his voice hoarse.

"Three days before departure," Hui Jin replied. "He came to me, saying 'I need a backup.' I thought it was just a normal data backup…" The elder shook his head, "He gave me the copy, saying if the Voyager returned without his signal, it should be broadcast publicly before you land."

Su Yu stood and walked to the window. Outside, Qiming City's streets bustled with people, children ran in the park, and vendors shouted the sale of newly cultivated fruit. The city was alive, the civilization alive—exactly what Chen Mo had traded his life for.

"So he didn't want us to mourn for too long," Su Yu whispered, the corners of her mouth lifting in a tiny arc, tearful yet strong, "He even calculated the mourning time. That bastard."

Three days later, a small team left Qiming City, boarding a high‑speed transport craft bound for the Pure Land ruins on the far side of the continent.

The cabin was quiet. Besides Su Yu, Kaiwen, Zhang Yang, Wang Hu, Han Qing and Hui Jin, there were two unexpected personnel—Makusi, the one‑armed veteran of the "Iron Anvil" camp who now serves as a tactical advisor to Qiming City's defense corps; and a young girl named Aili, a rising star in Kaiwen's team, adept at cracking ancient encryption systems.

"I still don't get it," Zhang Yang finally broke the silence mid‑flight, "why did the chief hide the thing here? Isn't Qiming City's security better?"

Makusi adjusted the sensitivity of his prosthetic with his remaining hand and said, "Some things, when placed in the most glorious spot, are more easily overlooked. But at the starting point… you'll always remember to come back and look."

The veteran's words silenced the cabin again. Indeed, the starting point. Pure Land meant more than a geographic coordinate to all of them.

The transport craft touched down on a flat plain outside the valley. Years had passed with little change— the entrance remained concealed, the surrounding defenses stayed in maintenance, but there was a hint of life: a small vegetable plot, a few makeshift houses, apparently staffed by caretakers.

"It's people from the Iron Anvil," Makusi said, confirming upon seeing the style of laundry hanging before the houses, "I stationed a squad of veterans here permanently, as a… remembrance, also a guard."

The stationed veteran recognized Makusi and Su Yu, asked nothing, and silently opened the passage to the underground.

Stepping again into Pure Land's underground tunnel, the familiar scent washed over them—the faint glow of Luo Ya runes flowing on the walls, the low hum of the air‑circulation system, and that distinctive smell mixing ancient metal with an energy field.

Su Yu led, her fingers unconsciously tracing the wall. She recalled the first time she entered here, Chen Mo had also walked ahead, his silhouette in the dim light seeming especially reliable. Back then they were only a dozen‑plus people, a few guns, yet felt they owned the whole world.

The control‑room door slid open silently.

Everything remained as it had when they left: the central console, the holographic projector, and the most important main control stone tablet engraved with Luo Ya runes. Only a layer of dust had accumulated.

Kaiwen lunged toward the console, Aili right behind him. The two began rapid input, entering the password Chen Mo had left.

"Seventh‑level encrypted sector… found!" Kaiwen's voice rang with excitement, "Decrypting… will take a few minutes."

During the wait, others wandered the control room at leisure. Zhang Yang walked to the passage he and Wang Hu had once guarded, feeling an old bullet scar on the wall—the mark left from the first defense against the Ark's assault. Wang Hu stood where Chen Mo usually stood, staring at the holographic star map, silent as a statue.

Han Qing inspected the backup power system, while Hui Jin stood in the corner where Pure Fire Cultists had once performed their rites, eyes closed in meditation.

Su Yu approached the main control stone tablet. She recalled Chen Mo having stood there for three days and three nights, trying to communicate with the lingering consciousness of the Luo Ya civilization. She had been beside him, handing water, reminding him to eat, occasionally speaking to break the silence.

"It's unlocked!" Kaiwen shouted suddenly.

The holographic projection lit up, but instead of the expected files or data, a simple three‑dimensional coordinate system appeared, with a flashing point at its center.

"This is…" Han Qing leaned in, "the underground schematic of Pure Land? No, the depth…"

The coordinate system showed the point directly beneath their current location, a vertical depth of… eight hundred meters.

"There's another layer underground?" Zhang Yang's eyes widened, "We've been here so long and never noticed!"

"It's not Luo Ya's structure," Hui Jin opened his eyes, walking slowly, "It's something older. It existed before we built Pure Land, before the Luo Ya civilization left its traces…"

The elder's words seemed to drop the temperature in the control room by a few degrees.

"The oldest texts of the Pure Fire Cult mention," Hui Jin's voice rang clear in the silence, "that at the world's birth, a group of 'Sowers' set foot on this land. They left behind fire, then departed, saying that when the time was right, the 'fire' would guide later ones to the 'Primordial Origin.'"

He looked at Su Yu: "Before departure, Chen Mo asked me about this record. He said… he suspects the site of Pure Land wasn't chosen by chance. The Luo Ya civilization built a forward base here because there was already some kind of… 'anchor point'."

The coordinate map began to shift, a path extending from the point, threading through complex geology, ultimately pointing toward the continental shelf's edge, descending into the deep sea.

At the end of the path, a word was marked.

A word that made everyone's pupils shrink.

【Stardust Cradle】

The hologram flickered, and finally a line of text in Chen Mo's handwriting style appeared:

"Looks like you found it. Sorry I kept this hidden for so long——some paths must be walked personally before you understand why you need to turn back. I left a 'map' down below. Wishing you…… happy exploration."

The image disappeared.

In the control room, only the faint glow of Luo Ya runes and everyone's heavy breathing remained.

Su Yu looked at the now-dim holographic projector, suddenly smiled; this smile held no tears, only a sudden enlightened clarity.

"He's been paving the way all along." she whispered softly, "From the very beginning."

Kaiwen pushed up his glasses, his eyes reigniting the fire of a scientist facing the unknown: "So we now…… dig a hole?"

"No." Su Yu turned and walked toward the exit, "We're going to get the 'map' Chen Mo left behind. Then……"

She glanced back at the control room, toward the Luo Ya runes on the wall that had witnessed countless life-and-death moments, toward the place where everything began.

"Then we'll continue his unfinished expedition."