Deathly silence is the only theme of this city at this moment.

The bird froze in the instant of flapping its wings, its feathers solidifying into a perfect sculpture.

The water jet from the fountain was frozen in mid-air by an invisible force, with thousands of water droplets suspended like shattered diamonds, refracting an eerie twilight.

The wind vanished, along with sound, smell, and all signs of movement, brutally removed from this dimension.

Everything came to a standstill, except for the scalding heat emanating from the scar on Lin Yi's palm, cut by the rusty wheat ear, which burned his nerves like a branding iron.

But he didn't move, he even deliberately slowed his breathing, his deep eyes fixed on the gray mist that was slowly dissipating in front of him.

He keenly sensed that this was not a restraint imposed by some external force.

It was more like a supreme being had pressed the pause button, and the whole world held its breath, waiting for a signal, a response from him.

This is a "question" from a higher dimension.

Lin Yi slowly raised his left hand, his fingertips deftly reaching into the empty photo frame, and steadily removed the rusty wheat ears that were floating inside.

The ancient copper bell and the withered wheat ears radiated a faint warmth in his palm, like a beating heart.

He brought it to his lips and said clearly and solemnly in a voice only he could hear, "I heard you."

The moment the words left his mouth, the lock of time snapped open!

"call--"

The imprisoned gale swept past like a wild horse, making Lin Yi's clothes flutter loudly.

The bird in mid-air let out a startled cry and hurriedly flapped its wings to fly away.

The fountain's water jet crashed down with a roar, splashing water everywhere.

In an instant, the world switched from absolute silence to a noisy rebirth.

At that very moment, the rusty wheat ear in Lin Yi's palm trembled slightly, emitting an extremely clear "ding".

The sound was as faint as a mosquito's buzz, yet it precisely pierced through all the noise and reached his eardrums.

Almost at the same time, the long-silent, intermittent whisper of the earth veins in his mind rang out clearly for the first time, like a resounding bell.

Ivan's voice was no longer broken, but carried an irresistible solemnity and reverence:

"...It...has...set off."

Lin Yi's pupils suddenly contracted!

Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately closed his eyes, his consciousness instantly sinking into the "wall language" network that permeated the entire city.

The underground neural network formed by countless plant roots is trembling with unprecedented activity.

He quickly retrieved the vibration records of all nodes after the fog dissipated, and an astonishing discovery shook him to his core.

The resonant frequency of the root network has undergone a fundamental shift!

In the past, they simply passively received and responded to the emotional fluctuations left by humans in the environment.

Now, they seem to have come to life, actively sending a highly regular pulse signal toward some unknown coordinate.

The waveform of that signal was a perfect fusion of the rhythm of a heartbeat and Morse code!

"So that's how it is..." Lin Yi suddenly opened his eyes, and that 'ding' sound just now was the first echo it received!

There's no time to lose.

Lin Yi's figure moved like a ghost through the bustling streets and alleys, heading straight for the old site of the burning post station, which had long since turned into ruins.

This is the source of the gray fog, and the beginning of everything.

Upon arriving at his destination, he immediately took out the rusty wheat ears.

The small copper bell seemed to come alive, tilting slightly in his palm and pointing towards a patch of scorched earth in the center of the ruins.

This is it!

Lin Yi took a deep breath and carefully took out twelve ancient pottery shards from his bag.

On each pottery shard, a blood-red character for "listen" is engraved in ancient script.

This is part of his legacy as a "Night Listener," a medium for communicating with the earth.

Using the center point indicated by the rusty bell and wheat ear as the center, he arranged the twelve pottery shards with the character "listen" into a perfect circular array, following a certain mysterious rhythm.

His movements were slow, and the landing point of each step, the angle and depth at which each pottery shard was embedded in the ground, were all so precise that it was as if he were simulating the ancient night watchman's rhythm.

When the last pottery shard clicked and fit perfectly into the ground, the entire circular array seemed to be activated instantly!

"Thump...thump...thump...thump—"

A clear and distinct tremor responded from beneath the earth.

Three short and one long, dull yet powerful.

Lin Yi's body stiffened abruptly. This rhythm... was a secret bell signal used by children during wartime for emergency assembly!

This represents the highest level of warning and call to action!

He did not panic, but instead sat cross-legged in the center of the formation and slowly closed his eyes.

As he focused all his attention on the ground beneath his feet, an indescribable image suddenly unfolded in his mind—

It was a boundless, gray-white wasteland, where the sky and earth were one color, without sun, moon, or stars, without wind, frost, rain, or snow, only eternal silence.

On that wasteland stood countless indistinct humanoid silhouettes formed of gray mist.

They held hands, forming huge circles, as if performing some ancient ritual.

The moment Lin Yi "saw" them, all the blurry figures seemed to sense it and, in perfect unison, slowly turned around, turning their featureless faces toward him.

A chill emanating from the depths of his soul instantly rose up, but Lin Yi did not back down.

He knew that fear was useless at this moment; what he needed was an answer.

He opened his eyes and took out a simple-looking portable oil lamp from his bag; the lamp was empty.

He then took out a black crystal the size of a pigeon egg. The surface of the crystal was as smooth as a mirror, but the inside seemed to imprison a bottomless darkness.

He carefully embedded the black crystal into the groove of the oil lamp's housing, and then gently ran his fingertip across the wick.

"puff!"

A cluster of eerie blue flames suddenly ignited out of nowhere!

The flame had no temperature, yet it was exceptionally bright, casting an eerie blue light on the surrounding ground.

What's even more peculiar is that the rhythm of the flames was perfectly synchronized with the "three short and one long" pulses underground, as if it were a manifestation of the earth's heartbeat on earth.

Lin Yi gazed at the eerie blue flame, and in an almost whispered voice, addressed the ground beneath his feet, and also the desolate wasteland in his mind, he asked:

Where are you going?

As soon as the question was raised, the cluster of dark blue flames suddenly surged, casting a clear shadow onto the open space in front.

The shadow was none other than a mysterious stone house formed by the interplay of countless tree shadows!

Two lanterns hang under the eaves.

Lin Yi was very familiar with this scene, but unlike before, the two lanterns that used to be "one on and one off" were now shining brightly at the same time!

Ivan's leyline whispers, silent for a moment, resonated once more within him with the appearance of this shadow, each word like a heavy foundation stone, striking deep into his soul:

"...No...it's not...going...it's...returning."

Lin Yi felt as if struck by lightning, as if enlightened!

He understood instantly!

The memory is not trying to escape to some unknown dimension; on the contrary, it is using itself as a beacon to summon the remnants and fragments of memory belonging to this city scattered in the countless cracks of the river of time... to return!

This is not an escape, but a grand gathering that transcends time and space!

Having grasped this point, Lin Yi felt an unprecedented surge of pride and a sense of mission.

He cannot intervene by force, much less summon them with brute force, as that would only disturb these fragile returning souls.

All he could do, and the only thing he had to do, was to light their way home.

A bold yet gentle plan quickly took shape in his mind—"Project Returning the Light".

Do not actively summon or forcibly guide.

Only at each point deeply intertwined with the city's memory, do we light an oil-free lamp, offering a ray of light for lost souls to return home in absolute silence.

He took immediate action.

For the next seven days and seven nights, Lin Yi's figure appeared in seven corners of the city—the foundation of the demolished old theater, the moat bed that had been dry for half a century, the nameless cemetery that buried countless heroes... He walked through every site that carried a heavy history, and in the most central location, he set up a lantern array one by one.

Each time he lit a pale blue, oil-free lamp, he would bury a ceramic shard beneath it, on which were inscribed only four characters:

"You may stop here."

The seventh night, midnight.

Lin Yi stood in the very center of the city, in the middle of a busy intersection, in a small flower bed.

This is the seventh and final node.

The moment he lit the last oil-free lamp—

A sudden change has occurred!

Buzz—

The entire city, all the plants included in the "wall language" network, whether towering trees or roadside hedges, trembled violently at that moment!

Countless leaves flipped over at an incredible angle, revealing their backs that had never been shown to anyone before.

The veins on the back of the leaf were not green, but a dazzling silver-white!

Thousands upon thousands of silvery-white veins, scattered throughout the city, lit up at the same time, connecting with each other, outlining a magnificent underground star map covering the entire city in Lin Yi's perception!

Lin Yi looked up in shock. In the pitch-black night sky, the thick clouds seemed to have been cleaved open by an invisible divine sword, leaving a straight crack.

The bright moonlight broke free from its restraints and transformed into a thick pillar of light, descending precisely from the sky and completely enveloping the small flower bed where he was standing!

Bathed in the holy moonlight, Ivan's whisper, for the last and clearest time, rolled from the depths of the earth's core, resounding throughout his entire consciousness:

“Node 94… Begin guiding the return journey.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the moonlight disappeared, and silence returned to the world.

But Lin Yi knew that this was just the beginning.

He stood in the center of the flower bed, quietly feeling the unprecedented, powerful energy emanating from beneath his feet.

This force is being guided, gathered, and activated.

Suddenly, a very subtle, almost imperceptible tremor came from the soil beneath his feet.

Immediately afterwards, a deep and long groan came from the depths of the earth, as if a colossal creature that had been sleeping for thousands of years had slowly turned over in the darkness.