Going home means I can eat braised pork knuckle, so going home is the right thing to do, and activating the altar is the right thing to do.
This is the logic of Boss Coal: simple and direct.
Whether activating the altar results in Gaia Consciousness descending and granting everyone on Earth Mental Power, or in some unpredictable calamity, it's all irrelevant—at least, it's irrelevant compared to braised pork knuckle.
Sometimes, simple logic is the correct logic.
Qingmu was originally a lazy person, and lazy people's logic is simple. But at this moment, his mind was extremely complicated, and he was thinking about many, many things, losing more brain cells than he had in the past few years combined.
Memories of that garden flashed before his eyes again. Besides the mulberry and willow trees, the most important thing was the lake in the garden and the layout of the entire garden.
He left the altar and climbed the highest mountain nearby. He found a spot with a wide view, where he could see the lake shimmering with silver light in the distance.
He looked around and confirmed that the terrain here was almost exactly the same as the layout of the garden in his memory. That garden was built according to this layout, with the lake's location corresponding to the lake in the garden, and the altar's location corresponding to the giant mulberry tree.
He returned to the altar and stood beside it, looking down at the interior. The seemingly random stones finally revealed a pattern in his eyes; it was a miniature landscape, with each stone corresponding to a mountain. Of course, this wasn't a sand table and wouldn't replicate the entire terrain, otherwise it would have been obvious long ago. These stones likely corresponded to key points, like the Tapu in the South Pacific.
When the Altar of Wind was activated, a mirror image of the entire South Pacific appeared inside the altar, suggesting that the two locations were likely synchronized. Petru's ship was also seen at the time, indicating that there was a corresponding passage between the altar and Earth after its activation, connecting not only the spirit world but also possibly a wormhole.
This aligns with Ramla's interconnected nature; the so-called seal on the altar likely sealed off that passage. But if that's the case, why was there fog in the South Pacific initially? And why was their first stop upon entering Ramla not the corresponding Huracan Tribe, but the location of the Sangqi Tribe?
Could it be because the Holy Land of Wind is located in the Pacific Ocean, and its instability is caused by water currents and submarine volcanic activity? That's possible; other Holy Land are either on land or on glaciers, making them relatively more stable.
However, in the flashbacks, besides the Mulberry Garden and later Liuying Lane, there were some scenes that he couldn't identify, including the ocean and islands. He vaguely felt that he had been to the South Pacific and even visited Ramla.
If a passage is established, we'll probably have to wait for the fog to roll in before we can go back, right?
However, Ramla is an Ant Nest; passing through the dense fog, you might enter any unsealed passage, but you'll need spiritual guidance to find the corresponding place.
He glanced at the Soul of Wood in his hand. This thing could sense corresponding Mental Power Field and accurately find passages in the mist. He believed that Situ and Petru had already returned to the Altar of Stone and Altar of Fire by now.
What could guide him to Earth, to the Mulberry Garden in Wuzhong?
He unconsciously took out the willow twig, feeling the warm green flowing from it.
Qingmu breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, "It's all up to you now!"
The Crow, who had been observing him silently, finally couldn't help but ask, "Hey, what did you say? Rely on whom? What are you thinking?"
Qingmu said, "We'll go activate the altar now, and then we can go home when the fog rolls in."
The Crow hopped excitedly above his head. "Caw! We can go home now! We can eat braised pork knuckle!"
Qingmu didn't rush to insert the Soul of Wood into the connection point of the two triangles. Instead, he walked to one side of the altar, where there was an open space without any piled stones.
This corresponds to the location of the lake.
He muttered to himself, walked around the dry "lake" to confirm its location, lay down on the ground to search carefully, and sure enough, he found an inconspicuous little pit there.
He carefully inserted the willow branch he was holding into the hole. The tender buds on the branch appeared even greener.
Bi Shenghua squatted down and carefully examined the willow seedling.
It is short, but not at all fragile; it doesn't look like it was newly sprouted from the soil, but rather like it was planted by someone.
But this garden is newly built, and because she rejected the previous landscaping plans, there haven't been any workers for the past few days. Who would come to plant a willow cutting here? Especially in this very spot!
She gently nudged the soil to make sure the willow seedling had taken root before slowly standing up, a smile involuntarily appearing on her lips.
After that, Bi Shenghua would come here every day to check if the willow seedlings had grown any bigger.
However, now there is an even bigger problem – what is supposed to be Mulberry Garden already has two willow trees.
After thinking about it for a few days, she decided to leave the two willow trees alone and plant mulberry trees in all the other places where trees needed to be planted, in order to match the name of the Mulberry Garden.
However, before she could put her idea into practice, fate granted it to her.
That day, she had just finished looking at the willow seedlings and watered them. She was delighted to find that they seemed to have grown taller, and the buds that were originally in bud had sprouted green leaves.
She had just stood up when her vision blurred for a moment, and suddenly she saw that the garden was full of greenery, with tender seedlings sprouting from the ground, connecting and covering the entire Mulberry Garden.
Qingmu walked back to the center of the altar, squatted down, and stroked the stone carvings on the ground again. When he focused his Mental Power on them, the symbol faintly glowed with a blue light, as if something was flowing within it.
He inserted the Soul of Wood into the apex of the two connected triangles, where there was a hole just big enough for the Soul of Wood to stand upright.
A profound silence fell over the world. Both Qingmu and the Crow felt their thoughts freeze for a moment, as if time had stopped.
Immediately afterwards, all the stones on the ground floated up and formed special shapes in the air. Sunlight shone through their gaps, casting countless spots of light on the ground.
Qingmu had seen these three-dimensional characters before, so he wasn't surprised.
His attention was entirely focused on the Soul of Wood. He felt it was alive, like a tree, growing strong and healthy.
The tree grew taller and taller, with branches stretching out from it and green leaves blooming like flowers. Its magnificent canopy filled the sky, and plump fruits dotted among it, like a sky full of stars.
As the main stem grows, its root system is also continuously deepening downwards, deeper and deeper, until it reaches the very bottom...
Then, Qingmu saw the tree roots taking root in a land that was both familiar and unfamiliar. There were pavilions scattered about, and winding corridors; there was also a clear lake; there was fresh soil, but only some weeds, no trees.
Countless roots took hold in the void and sprouted from the new soil, with tender green leaves unfurling from the delicate buds.
Bi Shenghua stared blankly at the garden full of new greenery.
A breeze blew by, ruffling the surface of the lake in spring.