Fire of Civilization, Moon Laurel Blossoms

Flagship, Zeroing Laboratory.

Chen Ran's body trembled violently.

The information transmitted back by True Lord Yuding unfolded in his mind like a cold scroll painting.

Guanghan Palace, the Watcher, a withered Moon Laurel Tree.

And that, an almost unsolvable trial.

"Make a tree that has completely died and is defined by the world's Laws as 'non-existent' bloom again?"

Bai Ze looked at the synchronized information, his expression more bitter than eating yellow gentian.

"Isn't this asking the impossible?"

"This isn't even a matter of power levels, it's challenging the fundamental rules of the entire Primordial Era world!"

"Even if the Dao Ancestor came, he would probably only shake his head and sigh."

The atmosphere in the laboratory was extremely oppressive.

Everyone looked at Chen Ran.

They knew that the only hope now rested on this mortal who always created miracles.

But this time, would a miracle still happen?

Chen Ran didn't speak.

His fingers tapped rapidly on the light screen.

The core of the Heavenly Derivation Matrix began to operate at an unprecedented speed.

Countless data streams concerning the Laws of Taiyin Star, the Moon Laurel Tree, and the Watcher converged, decomposed, and reassembled before him.

He was searching.

Searching for a breakthrough point that everyone had overlooked.

Time ticked by, second by second.

Fine beads of sweat broke out on Chen Ran's forehead.

His face grew paler and paler.

This was no longer simple calculation.

He was using his own Spirit to contend with the Laws of a world.

Forcibly searching for a sliver of "life" within that "absolute stillness" of deathly Laws.

"No..."

An hour later, Chen Ran stopped.

For the first time, a look of defeat appeared in his eyes.

"The Heavenly Derivation Matrix's deduction results in failure."

"All simulations point to the same outcome."

"The 'death' of the Moon Laurel Tree is definitional, it's absolute."

"It is impossible to reverse it with any of our existing Laws or energy."

This conclusion plunged everyone into an icy abyss.

It was over.

The last hope had also been extinguished.

"Could it be... there's really no way?"

Xihe's voice came through the magic circle, choked with sobs.

"Wait..."

Just as everyone was sinking into despair.

Chen Ran's gaze suddenly fixed on an inconspicuous corner of the light screen.

It was the most basic data analysis of the Watcher, Chang'e, transmitted by True Lord Yuding.

[Name: Chang'e (Logical Identification Name: Watcher)] [Status: Law Assimilation Body, Non-living, Non-dead] [Core Drive: Mission (Guardian of the Key)] [Emotion Module: Frozen (Residual Value: 0.001%)] [Residual Emotion Analysis: Loneliness, Longing, Regret...]

It was that line, concerning "residual emotions," that made Chen Ran's pupils contract sharply.

He felt like he had grasped something.

"I understand..."

Chen Ran muttered to himself.

"We were all wrong."

"This trial, from the very beginning, wasn't about us using 'strength' to revive that tree."

Everyone looked at him.

"Then what is it?"

"What the Watcher wants to see isn't whether we have the ability to reverse life and death."

Chen Ran looked up, his eyes reignited with brilliance.

"What she wants to see is whether we have the will to create 'hope' in despair!"

He didn't explain further.

He immediately connected his spiritual sense with True Lord Yuding.

"True Lord Yuding, follow my instructions."

Chen Ran's voice echoed directly in True Lord Yuding's mind on the Taiyin Star.

"Abandon all your magical power, abandon all Immortal Way Laws."

"Now, you are not a Golden Immortal of the Heavenly Origin Sect, you are just a mortal."

"Someone who can't find a home in the cold night."

Although True Lord Yuding didn't understand, he chose to trust unconditionally.

He dispersed the immortal light protecting his body, allowing the bone-chilling cold to invade it.

The fragility, pain, and helplessness of a mortal surged into his heart.

"Then what?" he asked.

"Then, start a fire."

Chen Ran's instruction was simple, yet filled with power.

"Use your mortal body to find something that can burn."

"Use the most primitive method, friction to make fire."

"Beneath that dead Moon Laurel Tree, light a fire, a flame belonging to 'humans'."

This instruction stunned True Lord Yuding as well.

Start a fire?

On the Taiyin Star, where even the Laws were frozen?

What did this have to do with making the tree bloom?

But he still did as he was told.

Like a true mortal, he searched through the ruins of Guanghan Palace for broken, burnable wooden beams.

He used two dry twigs, clumsily rubbing them together, again and again.

Without the amplification of magical power, the fire simply wouldn't ignite.

His hands became raw.

Blood dripped onto the dry twigs, instantly freezing into ice.

Failure, failure, and still failure.

The Watcher on the other side simply watched him coldly.

As if watching a ridiculous clown.

Nuwa and Xihe also couldn't understand Chen Ran's intention.

Only Chen Ran, far away on the flagship, was incredibly focused.

Through True Lord Yuding's perspective, he synchronized this scene to the entire United Fleet.

Synchronized to every living being on the Primordial Continent who was in panic and despair.

In the image.

That powerful, high-and-mighty Golden Immortal of the Heavenly Origin Sect was now as pathetic as a beggar.

In the eternal darkness and cold, he struggled fruitlessly, time and again, to light a trivial fire.

This scene was filled with absurdity.

Yet, it possessed an inexplicable power that struck directly at the heart.

"What is he doing?"

An ordinary soldier of the Demon Race couldn't help but ask.

"I don't know."

His companion beside him answered.

"But... I don't feel so cold anymore."

Yes.

Watching the clumsy figure on the screen, watching his efforts for that tiny spark of fire.

A warmth inexplicably rose in everyone's hearts.

It wasn't the warmth of magical power.

It was the first spark of fire belonging to "Civilization."

It was the hope that humanity's ancestors felt when they first lit bonfires in the savage era of eating raw meat and drinking blood, dispelling the darkness and wild beasts.

It was the struggle of weak beings, facing a cruel world, huddling together for warmth, never giving up.

Faint, yet incredibly pure, streams of consciousness rose from every corner of the Primordial Era.

They converged, flowing through the Heavenly Net System, and into True Lord Yuding's body.

They were injected into the two dry branches he was rubbing together.

Finally.

After countless failures.

A small, weak flame flickered.

Then, it suddenly ignited!

The flame wasn't bright.

But it instantly illuminated True Lord Yuding's face, smeared with blood and sweat.

It also illuminated the ancient, withered Moon Laurel Tree behind him.

The Watcher's frozen body trembled violently.

The eternal stillness in her eyes was broken for the first time.

She saw.

In that faint firelight, she saw a man anxiously waiting for her to come home.

She saw a tribe singing and dancing around a bonfire.

She saw a civilization painstakingly passing on hope in the darkness.

These were the memories of "Chang'e" that had long been frozen.

A tear like a drop of ice slid from the corner of her eye.

It fell onto the roots of the dead Moon Laurel Tree.

The next second.

A miracle happened.

The Moon Laurel Tree, which had completely died and was defined by the Laws as "non-existent."

On its ice-sculpture-like branches.

A small, silver osmanthus flower, emitting a soft glow, Quietly bloomed.