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Chapter 29
Spring passed and autumn came. Fifty-seven years had passed since Tomomu Kanzaki's death.
Mrs. Durand passed away peacefully of old age.
Black Swan, using the name Clarisse as her daughter, saw her mother off. After that, she left her home planet and began traveling across the galaxy, collecting memories.
She would occasionally return to the bamboo house for short stays to rest.
Only on the anniversary of his death did she return without fail, year after year.
...
Two hundred and three years after Tomomu Kanzaki's death.
The mechanical doll he had left behind began to malfunction as its components aged.
For many years, the doll had continued performing the same specific tasks.
At certain seasons it tended the plum grove, harvested blossoms, brewed wine, and sent the jars to Ruan Mei.
It regularly cleaned Ruan Mei's house and reinforced the bamboo house with special materials.
The path leading to Ruan Mei's home remained clear on both sides, the vegetation never allowed to grow thick.
Yu Qingtu watched all of this. She not only refrained from stopping it, but when she saw the doll beginning to break down, she even considered repairing it herself.
Yet when she realized the doll was maintaining and replacing its own parts automatically, her feelings grew complicated.
She felt it was unfair to Tomomu Kanzaki, but she also knew she could not interfere — in fact, she had to allow it to continue.
The reason was simple, and in plain terms it could be described as: Everything Tomomu Kanzaki had done was unknowingly stacking buffs.
—Buffs that is powerful enough to pierce the heart of anyone who's indifferent and make it crumble.
...
Two hundred and seventy-six years after Tomomu Kanzaki's death.
Many great events shook the universe.
In recent years, repeated clashes had broken out between plundering Abundance factions and the Xianzhou fleets. The flames of war grew fiercer with each passing day.
Many forces across the galaxy speculated that a universe-shaking bloodbath between the two sides was only a matter of time.
Some even feared another Xianzhou might fall.
Most people did not favor the Xianzhou fleets. This rising power was simply too young.
Although the level of Abundance blessing they had received was high, they were originally ordinary humans. Their combat strength left much to be desired.
Without the ability to protect the miracles granted by the Abundance, they were nothing more than tempting prey in the eyes of other powerful Abundance factions.
Different Abundance groups — mainly the Wingmakers and the Step-Losers — consistently held the advantage against the Xianzhou Alliance.
The turning point came with the ascension of the Hunt Aeon.
After the Hunt Aeon "Lan" descended upon the Xianzhou multiple times, the Abundance factions finally realized that launching a direct assault on the main Xianzhou ships could cost them dearly.
Not long afterward, the fox-people — who had also suffered under Abundance predation — and the Vidyadhara, whose homeland was no longer habitable, joined the Xianzhou fleets. The three groups formally formed an alliance.
The Hunt Aeon began to become the undisputed main faith of the Xianzhou Alliance, surpassing even the Preservation.
Lan opened the power of the Path to the entire Xianzhou Alliance. Seven powerful Emanators were born and were honored as the Seven Heavenly Generals of the Imperial Bow.
From then on, the Alliance possessed the strength to stand against the Abundance factions head-on and no longer suffered mostly defeats.
However, even with this powerful new force, the Xianzhou Alliance still could not overwhelm the Abundance factions.
Their foundation was still shallow. They needed time to grow.
The main fighting force, the Cloud Knights, had originally been ordinary people who received the Abundance's gift of longevity, or fox-people.
Compared to Abundance factions that already possessed special abilities, their combat strength was noticeably inferior.
The Vidyadhara, who were reborn through molting, had strong physiques and outstanding combat power, but they could not reproduce. Every one of them was an irreplaceable resource.
Unless it was a life-or-death situation, the Alliance would never send large numbers of Vidyadhara to the front lines.
In Star Calendar 4274, the Xianzhou Cangcheng wiped out a large Abundance army and achieved victory in that bloody battle.
The current General of Xianzhou Cangcheng suffered permanent spiritual trauma and was unfit for further combat, so he stepped down.
Two years later, the retired general married a Cloud Knight from the Luofu Xianzhou who had come to provide reinforcements.
It was said that this knight's name was Tomomu Kanzaki. After the war ended, he settled on Xianzhou Cangcheng.
He had led a small elite team of fewer than a hundred men and held the entrance to a refuge cavern during the fighting, saving over a billion ordinary civilians from disaster.
His deeds spread throughout the Xianzhou Alliance. The union between the retired general and the heroic knight became a celebrated tale passed down through the ages.
...
Four hundred and eighty-eight years after Tomomu Kanzaki's death.
In a remote corner of the universe, on a planet with no civilization.
A planet-shaking earthquake erupted across the world.
When the disaster finally subsided, the rapidly evolved ecosystem that had formed due to external forces was completely destroyed.
The only place that seemed untouched by the catastrophe was the manor and underground laboratory where Ruan Mei lived.
The laboratory doors, sealed for many years, slowly opened.
A woman with flowing black hair and an elegant bearing stepped out.
The total destruction of the planet's ecosystem did not stir the slightest emotion in Ruan Mei.
Her research, which had continued for many years, had once again hit a bottleneck — longer than any previous one.
To break through to the next stage, something was still missing…
To cross that final step, she had not left the laboratory for over thirty years, yet she still had not succeeded.
Returning to the manor, Ruan Mei saw dozens of jars of plum blossom brew piled at the designated spot. The doll had not yet had time to move them to the underground laboratory.
This was this year's batch. Each jar was enough for her to drink for more than a month.
This was also the only special connection Tomomu Kanzaki maintained with her every year, a sign that the bond between teacher and student had not been completely severed.
Ruan Mei subconsciously calculated the time. It had been exactly…
"Six hundred years since he completed his apprenticeship."
She had not realized how much time had slipped by unnoticed.
Her research showed no progress. Perhaps it was time to go see him…
Having made up her mind, Ruan Mei was about to contact Tomomu Kanzaki when she remembered that the earthquake had destroyed the interstellar signal relay station outside.
This planet had only been able to communicate with the outside world through that one-way relay station. Now even that was gone.
Never mind.
A large fissure opened in the ground. A spaceship rose from within.
As Ruan Mei steered the ship into space, she suddenly remembered something else…
After several hundred years, she had no idea where Tomomu Kanzaki was.
She turned the ship back to the manor, searched for the delivery address on the plum blossom brew, and finally obtained the exact destination.
The name of that planet sounded familiar… she seemed to have visited it at some point in the past.
Only after entering the planet's orbit and seeing its appearance did Ruan Mei's memory — which had grown disconnected from the times due to her long immersion in research — finally recall some things.
A very long time ago, after her parents died in an accident, she had used special methods to relocate their shattered home to this very planet…
She had only lived here for a short while before departing to search the galaxy for suitable research specimens.
Tomomu Kanzaki's homeworld had been the first specimen.
After picking him up, she had brought him back and lived here with him for a few years.
Once his illness was cured, they left together for the next specimen planet — the uninhabited world — and several hundred years had passed in the blink of an eye.
Over time, she had simply forgotten about it.
Why had Tomomu Kanzaki… returned here?
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Bonus chapters
200 Stones - 1 chapter
400 Stones - 2 chapter
600 Stones - 3 chapters
And so on
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