Chapter 120: The Only Gift Left by a Hundred Years of Time

When Fe Lu Shan woke up again, she was already lying on a soft mattress.

What met her eyes were neatly painted white walls, simple wooden furniture, and a girl with green hair.

Ke Lai, who was writing, seemed to sense her gaze, lifted his head, and just then made eye contact with the still dazed Fe Lu Shan.

Ke Lai blinked, immediately dropped his pen and paper, hurriedly ran out, shouting while running: "Luo De, she's awake!!!"

Luo De soon came in after hearing the news, still holding a bowl of plain congee.

"Senior, you've awakened."

Saying this, Luo De handed over the bowl of congee.

Fe Lu Shan had fainted from hunger.

In this condition, it's better to eat some liquid food first to avoid hurting the stomach.

"This, this, cough cough, where, where is this? It doesn't seem like, a ruin? Or am I again in an illusionary mechanism?"

Taking the bowl of congee, Fe Lu Shan was still in a dazed state; plus she hadn't spoken to anyone in a hundred years, when she spoke again her voice was still the same, uttering words with great effort, as if she had forgotten how to speak.

"This is A Ru Cun."

"At that time, senior, you fainted in the desert; I happened to be passing by after finishing my errands, so I brought you here."

Luo De recounted how he had found Fe Lu Shan.

Actually, there wasn't much to say.

It was just that I saw the light of the Vision, went to check the situation, and happened to discover Fe Lu Shan collapsed on the ground, then I casually brought her to A Ru Cun.

"A Ru Cun?"

"We're not in the ruins anymore?"

"Could I really have escaped?"

"Vision? You just said, Vision?"

Fe Lu Shan's speech was still not very fluent.

After muttering for a while, she recalled that Luo De had mentioned the Vision, and lowered her head to look.

That wind-element Vision belonging to her was lying quietly beside the pillow.

"Was it the gods casting their gaze upon me?"

"Heh—"

Rubbing the Vision in her hand, Fe Lu Shan's face showed both memory and emotion; then she seemed to recall something, furrowed her brows and asked: "You call me senior? Do you know me?"

She carefully sized up Ke Lai for a moment, her brows furrowing deeper: "I don't recall where I've seen you before; uh, are you a student of the Plain Theory School? Why are you dressed so strangely? Who is your teacher? Ka Li Mu? Or Ai Er Ha Mai?"

Luo De is currently wearing the attire of the Plain Theory School.

That set of Life Theory School clothing had gotten too much blood on it in the Tanite tribe, couldn't be washed out, so I simply discarded it, planning to get a new set when I return to the Academy.

Over the past century, Sumeru has changed a lot.

Only the emblems of the various colleges of the Academy have remained unchanged.

It seems likely that she had some acquaintance with Fe Lu Shan.

Luo De searched with the Void Terminal and found that they were indeed two scholars from the Plain Theory School a hundred years ago.

"Senior, those two you mentioned are already scholars from a hundred years ago."

As Luo De's words fell, Fe Lu Shan's face suddenly changed color.

Seeing her lips tremble, her eyes full of disbelief, after a long while she managed to ask hoarsely: "A hundred years ago?"

"Fe Lu Shan, outstanding scholar of the Academy, lifetime achievement award winner of the Sumeru Riddle Society, and one of the founders of the Classic Mechanism Technique Department."

"Senior, this is the text on the current cover of the Marvelous Theory School's teaching materials."

After saying that, Luo De pointed again to the dress hanging nearby.

This is the dress she was wearing when I found her—a simple, elegant flower-bud dress with various colored speckles on the hem; different from the now tightly wrapped Academy attire, this set of scholar clothing that was once popular in the Academy a hundred years ago features many hollowed-out designs, said to symbolize purity unperturbed by external things, though nowadays hardly anyone wears this old Academy attire.

Having finished recounting the history of the Academy's attire.

Luo De spread his hands and said: "Although I don't know what's going on, your name can indeed be found in the Void; according to the record, you went missing during a scholarly expedition a hundred years ago, and the note beneath your name still says missing."

"A hundred years ago, a scholarly expedition."

"A hundred years ago, a scholarly expedition."

Fe Lu Shan repeatedly murmured these words in a low voice, the bewilderment in her eyes growing stronger.

There is no time in the ruins.

In the ruins that trapped her, her body remained frozen at the moment of capture—she felt no hunger, no fatigue, yet could not dispel her mental exhaustion.

At first, she still had the energy to try to crack the mechanisms.

But when paper and pen were exhausted, she still couldn't decipher a single line of cipher, and even after exhausting all her learning she couldn't solve a mechanism, Fe Lu Shan first felt how paltry her proud knowledge was.

Even the accumulated lifetimes of generations of scholars amounted to nothing before the ancient civilization.

Fortunately.

Merely after a brief bout of self-doubt, Fe Lu Shan regained her spirit, using broken stones to continue complex deduction calculations on the floor tiles.

Recalling those unbearable past events.

Fe Lu Shan's still muddled consciousness finally regained some clarity.

She remembered that on every reachable surface of those ruins, she had carved obscure deduction symbols; she didn't know when her memory began to blur and her mind to wander, until at last she found the correct answer, successfully solved the mechanism, and escaped from the ruins that had held her for who knows how many months.

"Light"

Fe Lu Shan whispered a single word.

"Senior, what did you say?"

"Light? Why would you mention that? Luo De couldn't help but ask doubtfully."

"Nothing."

Felu Shan sighed, muttering to herself: "Have I already been there for a hundred years?"

What she remembers most vividly is the blinding sunlight when she walked out of the ruins—so intense she couldn't open her eyes. After long dwelling in the dim ruins, upon suddenly escaping, her eyes could not bear the sudden brightness; she then closed her eyes and, following the wind's guidance, staggered forward aimlessly across the boundless wilderness.

Thinking about it, she considered herself fortunate.

The desert teemed with monsters and hazardous places, yet in her condition she encountered no danger at all; even if she fainted, help arrived just in time from Luo De.

While she was still pondering, Luo De pointed at the porridge bowl and said.

"Senior, please have something to eat first; otherwise it will get cold in a moment. If you still have any questions, I'll be outside, waiting for you to finish before I explain further."

Having said that, he rose and left, giving her all the time and space she needed.

Soon.

From outside the door came the faint voices of Luo De and Dixiya conversing.

"That senior is really someone from a hundred years ago."

"Yeah, when I first found out using the Void, I didn't believe it either; it took a long time of checking before I confirmed it."

"How did she manage to stay so young after a hundred years?"

"Hey, why is it that you girls always focus on this?"

"You talk too much; I just wanted to ask, is that not allowed?"

"Shh, once the senior comes out, you mustn't spout nonsense—remember? Especially this matter, don't mention it."

"I know—no need for you to tell me, I already know."

Although Luo De and Dixiya had already lowered their voices as much as possible.

But Felu Shan now possesses the Vision of the wind element; compared to before, she has greater affinity for wind elemental energy, and borrowing the breeze blowing in through the window, Luo De and Dixiya's voices are clear to her ears.

"Indeed, a hundred years have already passed."

Recalling Luo De's words to her, Felu Shan gave a bitter laugh and said: "A legendary figure? Sigh——"

After sighing, she gulped down the bowl of white porridge in her hands.

It was very soft and sticky.

It looked like it had been simmered for a long time, with some sugar added; probably made from dates and coconut, the sweetness not too strong, adding a hint of flavor to this bland white porridge.

"The taste is different now."

After finishing the porridge, her empty stomach finally felt settled, no longer that gnawing hunger.

Felu Shan put on her shoes, took off the hospital gown, and changed back into her own flower-bud dress, which had been washed clean.

There was a mirror in the room, and the hair ornaments and hair ties she had previously worn were neatly arranged there.

Following her habit, she tied her loose hair into two side ponytails, then turned her body, looked at herself in the mirror front and back, confirmed she was presentable, and then pushed open the door and walked out.

The sunlight was still as glaring, making one want to raise a hand to shield their eyes.

Luo De, who was speaking with Dixiya, turned his head and saw her come out, then greeted: "Senior, are you all right?"

"Hmm."

Felu Shan nodded, then immediately turned her head to look around.

A Ru Cun.

The village in the desert had already existed in her time.

When she had gone to the desert for academic research back then, she had passed through here and even rested in the village for a day.

Scattered memories gradually surfaced in her mind.

Back then, A Ru Cun was dilapidated; unable to resist wind and sand, most of the houses were ramshackle, the soil was barren, and most people couldn't eat their fill.

What Felu Shan remembers most deeply.

was those wearing thin clothing, barefoot, gazing far off at their own children.

Though they clearly craved the food in their hands, not a single person reached out; they merely stood there sucking their fingers, staring, oblivious even as saliva dripped.

Those children are probably long gone now as well.

Thinking of this, Felu Shan's mood sank a little.

Soon.

She adjusted her mood, and her gaze was once again drawn to A Ru Cun, which was being built up with great vigor.

Luo De's home is still that same house, a short distance from the village.

Thanks to the higher ground, from here one can overlook the entire A Ru Cun.

The village entrance was under road construction; although Felu Shan is a scholar of the Rational School, she possesses extraordinarily rich knowledge of the Mystical School—in fact, many core concepts in the Mystical School's current curriculum were derived by her back then, especially regarding runes, to the point that even the present Mystical School sages may not match her expertise.

With her perspective,

The spacious road currently under construction, wide enough for a dozen pack animals to walk abreast, is being built to an exceptionally high standard, far surpassing the road‑building standards she helped formulate for Sumeru Cheng back then.

However.

Why build such a good road in the desert?

With that doubt, Felu Shan once again turned her gaze to the main body of the village.

Those ramshackle houses from back then are nowhere to be seen now.

In their place are not only a new road of equally high standard, but also various brick‑and‑tile houses with extremely strong wind‑and‑sand resistance, plus many novel structures Felu Shan has never seen before.

"What is that?"

"Is it a hospital? Or a school? What are these square little buildings for? Why do men and women have to use different entrances? Are those green buckets specially for trash? And what is that strange building? Farmland? Can such land in A Ru Cun produce such lush crops?"

Felu Shan once again fell into confusion.

Although she had mentally prepared herself, upon truly seeing how vastly A Ru Cun had changed, she inevitably felt again as if she might still be dreaming.

"Senior, a hundred years is enough time for many things to change."

Knowing what Felu Shan was thinking, Luo De, who had personal experience of it, comforted her from the side.

Not to mention a hundred years.

If technology develops sufficiently, ten years is enough for rapid, dramatic change.

Upon hearing this.

Fan Lusha lowered their head and glanced at their unchanged body, then gave a light laugh and said: "Yes, indeed, many things have changed."

She raised her head, looking at Luo De, and said: "I like this title of senior; from now on, please call me that."

Senior.

This is the only gift that a hundred years of time has left for oneself—how could one not like it?

(End of chapter)