As the starship's engines tore through the leaden clouds of the BE universe, the dried lavender flowers on Lin Yue's sleeve suddenly shattered into dust. On the holographic map, seventeen tombstones shone coldly in the torrential rain, each reflecting the same terrified face—their own pupils, eroded by the undercurrent into the rusty lines of gears.

"The time of death is ticking in sync." Xia Zichen pressed his Star-Patterned Sword against the crack in the tombstone, the silver light seeping from the blade quenched by rainwater into black. On the front row of tombstones, the birth and death dates of "Lin Yue" were jumping from September 17, 2022, to May 10, 2025, exactly the same as the present moment in reality. A black cat crouched atop the tombstone, its gear-shaped glasses reflecting a pale golden data stream: "Sweetness value -99%. This universe's timeline... is being devoured in reverse."

Lin Yue bit her fingertip, her newfound ability, a fusion of courage and memory, casting a double image on her retina. She saw herself from Xia Zichen's perspective: kneeling in the ruins, cutting rebar with a wind blade, his mechanical left arm oozing not oil but a dark purple entropy-increasing virus. "What were they saving before they died?" her voice mingled with the sound of rain, and a wound that didn't belong to her emerged on her palm—the mark of the Star-Marked Sword piercing through it.

A black cat suddenly leaped from the tombstone, its tail curled around half a moldy candy wrapper. On the yellowed paper, the word "Courage" was covered in rust, but on the reverse, a countdown written in blood appeared: "When the last lavender withers, the core nursery will sprout thorns that devour time and space." Xia Zichen's star-patterned wristband resonated with the tombstone, and from the crack at its base rolled out a cracked coffee bean—the very one they had left behind three years ago.

"Look here." Lao Zhang's holographic projection suddenly went blurry. He pointed to the charred ruins at the center of the tombstones. "'We' in the BE universe activated the core self-destruct sequence before dying, but the Dark Tide has already contaminated the nursery." Deep within the ruins, countless vine-like Dark Tide veins entwined glowing seeds, each sealed with the memory of an encounter from a certain time and space. Lin Yue's wind rune lit up, but as she touched the vines, she heard countless cries of her own, those voices merging into a single word: "Xia Zi..."

Xia Zichen's Star-Embroidered Sword suddenly stabbed uncontrollably at Lin Yue, his wristband glowing red. In the nick of time, she summoned a wind shield, only to see a murderous intent in his eyes that didn't belong to this time and space—a remnant of consciousness from the Collapsed Universe Fusion. "It's the time of death on the tombstone!" Black Cat smashed the gears of his pocket watch with his claws. "They're using 'present death' to anchor 'past life,' but the undercurrent has tampered with the chain of cause and effect!"

Lin Yue suddenly ripped open her pocket and stuffed the fusion candy into Xia Zichen's mouth. Instantly, their retinas flashed with multicolored light: she saw herself, from his perspective, draw her last breath in a steampunk world, while he saw her exhausting her magic power repairing his mechanical heart in the cyberverse. "Is this... memory empathy?" Xia Zichen's voice trembled. The "Joint Game" marking on the Star-Marked Sword shone silver, forcing the remaining Dark Tide consciousness out of his body.

From deep within the ruins came the roar of turning gears. Seventeen tombstones simultaneously flipped, revealing the space-time paradox formula on their reverse sides. Black Cat's gear-glasses fired a laser, circling the key variables in the formula: "Lavender scent = space-time preservative - entropy-increasing virus catalyst." Lin Yue suddenly remembered the paper boat her own time-travel self had handed her. Trembling, she pulled the last lavender seed from her pocket—a stockpile she'd never been willing to use in reality.

"Xia Zi, water the seeds with Star Mark blood!" She pressed the seeds into the center of the nursery, and wind runes wove a protective barrier around the ground. The moment Xia Zichen's blood touched the seeds, the entire ruins suddenly bathed in a purple glow, and all the Dark Tide vines let out a piercing scream. The time of death on the tombstone began ticking backwards, and the fragrance of lavender suddenly emerged from the rain in the BE universe.

"But what the catalyst means is..." Xia Zichen's words were interrupted by an explosion. Instead of thorns, seventeen crystal lavender plants sprouted from the nursery, each one containing a "first encounter" from a different time and space. Lin Yue's wind lifted one of the flowers, and she saw herself inside the flower, handing coffee beans to the gun-toting Xia Zichen. The wariness in his eyes slowly gave way to surprise.

A black cat suddenly leaped between them, its pocket watch pointing to the ∞ symbol. "Attention tombstones!" Seventeen tombstones shattered simultaneously, revealing a space-time portal beneath them, undergoing reconstruction. Inside, the "they" who had picked up the coffee beans three years prior were holding fragments of the core, their surface reflecting the lavender seeds in Lin Yue's hands in reality. "They are reassembling the core according to the future trajectory, and we..." Xia Zichen gripped his sword hilt tightly, "We are their template."

Footsteps echoed at the edge of the ruins, and three blood-soaked figures emerged from the mist—they were "them" from the BE universe, but the darkness in their eyes had been replaced by a lavender glow. Lin Yue, the leader, handed over half a moldy piece of Courage Candy. New words appeared on the wrapper: "When you taste rust, remember to water the nursery with your tears." Xia Zichen took the candy and discovered a gear embedded within it, a component from Black Cat's pocket watch.

"Time to go." The black cat tucked the crystal lavender into its tail. The roar of the starship's engines echoed through the clouds. Lin Yue took one last look at the healing nursery, noting that the roots of each lavender plant had grown into the shape of a Möbius strip. The moment the starship plunged into the turbulent spacetime, the lavender seeds in her pocket suddenly sprouted. Within the center of the blossoming flower were reflected the coordinates of their next destination: "Steampunk Universe, 13 Gear Alley, BE Countdown 03:00."

Xia Zichen lowered his head to wipe the hilt of his sword and discovered new patterns emerging next to the inscription "Together for the Game"—a pattern of wind runes interwoven with star patterns. In Lin Yue's Wind Pocket, the Fusion Candy glowed faintly, its wrapper now inscribed with the words: "To us in the next time and space—if you don't recognize me when we meet, please smell the lavender in the air. That's my secret signal to transcend light years."

The black cat put the gears back into the pocket watch, and the sweetness value on the dial jumped to +17%: "Meow~ The rain at the next stop will smell like gear oil. Remember to protect the lavender. The 'we' there... have just experienced our first betrayal." As the starship broke through the clouds, seventeen rainbows appeared in the sky of the BE universe. At the end of each rainbow was a suspended crystal lavender, like a beacon of hope that would never go out.

Next chapter preview:

With her memory empathy ability out of control, Lin Yue is forced to repeatedly experience "her own death" from Xia Zichen's perspective, and he must help her build a breakwater in the sea of ​​consciousness.