The silver heart beat in sync with the four people's breathing, each tremor peeling away the mirrored fragments on the staircase. The seed in Lin Yue's palm suddenly broke through the soil, its tip bearing the unsolved puzzle from Chapter 3. Unfolding, it revealed the "Cocoon Code" written in star patterns. The fragment on Xia Zichen's chest resonated with the rhythm of his heart, projecting a three-dimensional star map of the center of the embryo bank onto the code paper. The coordinates marked by chains glowed red one by one.
"Look at the direction of these chains." Ah Fu pointed the oracle sword at the chain representing Lao Zhang in the star map. It unexpectedly passed through the "origin of possibility" and extended beyond the universe. "Our mirror man is not a replica, but an 'observation point' used by the Administration to anchor reality." The handwriting of the first generation guardian suddenly appeared on the sword: When the observer becomes the observed, all stories are just puzzles from different perspectives.
Lao Zhang's black cat leaped onto his heart, its paw pressing against the "uncertain" segment of the DNA chain. The entire chain suddenly twisted like a living thing, reorganizing the word "possible" into "permitted." A staircase of mirror fragments began to descend, revealing a bronze door hidden beneath. Engraved on the door was the same closed eye as Xia Zichen's emblem, though starlight shone through the slits.
"The time merchant in Chapter 28 said, 'Keys rust in the most dangerous places.'" Xia Zichen inserted the fragment into his eye, and the star pattern instantly spread across the entire door frame. Instead of the expected stream of data, the laughter of the mechanical elves they had rescued in Chapter 12 poured out. Those eyes, covered in code, now glowed softly, their gears spelling out a path of light that read "Welcome Home."
Behind the door was a boundless, pure white space, shrouded in suspended masses of thousands of transparent, egg-shaped containers, each containing a universe's "critical moment of choice." Lin Yue's beam swept across the nearest container, revealing her younger self standing before the portal, hesitating whether to reach out—another possible scenario in Chapter 1: she had chosen to retreat to the streamside rather than pass through the door.
"The Administration doesn't create order, it hoards possibilities." Old Zhang flipped open his notebook and automatically wrote on the latest page: Every imprisoned 'path not taken' is evidence of their fear of losing control. A black cat suddenly leaped into the container and touched the young Lin Yue, who hadn't crossed over. The two merged like water droplets, and spiderweb-like patterns appeared on the surface of the container.
Ah Fu's sword suddenly pointed at a violently vibrating container. Inside was Xia Zichen, dressed in the robes of the Administration, thrusting the Scythe of Entropy into his chest. "That's the future we saw in the mirror's reflection." Lin Yue pressed the container, and the double helix and the emblem on the corner of his robe illuminated simultaneously. "He's trying to break the recursion through self-destruction."
The silver heart suddenly emitted a sharp chime, and all the containers began to shrink towards the center. Xia Zichen discovered that the emblem on his palm was absorbing the red light. The chains that originally belonged to the mirror man actually grew in reverse along his arm, connecting the ends to the "other self" in each container.
"They want to refine us into new anchors." He swung his sword to cut the chains on his arms, but the Star Pattern Sword turned into liquid the moment it touched the chains, flowing through the wound into the heart. "But what the heart needs is not chains, but..."
"It's the reason for my heartbeat." Lin Yue pressed the seed against the surface of her heart, and the tender sprout instantly grew into a towering tree, its roots penetrating all containers, transforming the "unfinished" fragments into nutrients. Imprisoned possibilities emerged like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, weaving a rainbow-colored galaxy in the pure white space, each point of light a whisper of "I could have."
When the last container shattered, the bronze door collapsed, revealing the core of the Authority's consciousness—a sphere composed of countless closed eyes, each reflecting a different expression from four individuals. Floating in the center of the sphere was the complete diary of the First Guardian. Its cover read: When the first observer learned to blink, the universe gained the freedom to blink.
"Do you think you have broken the order?" The sphere split into four mirror images, corresponding to the four people's deepest fears. "It's just to let all possibilities drown in the chaos." Lin Yue's mirror image raised the Molotov cocktail, but found that the flame turned into a dandelion the moment it touched the galaxy.
Xia Zichen suddenly grabbed the mirror man's wrist, and the star pattern and the emblem burst out with strong light at the point of contact: "Order is not the gaze of the eyeballs, but the opening and closing of the eyelids." As he spoke, all closed eyes opened at the same time, and then slowly closed again - this was the first time that the universe learned the rhythm of "blinking".
The silver heart swelled into a sun in the blink of an eye, melting pure white space into a transparent cosmic membrane. Ah Fu saw the chain patterns on the oracle sword transform into vines. Lao Zhang's coin hovered outside the membrane, inscribed with "Begin" and "Continue" on each side. Lin Yue's seed had grown into a seedling of the World Tree, its roots absorbing the fragments of the Authority's core. The dewdrops on its leaves reflected thousands of new universes, growing freely.
"It's time to change the name of this place." Xia Zichen looked at the nebula being born outside the membrane, and the emblem on his palm completely transformed into a star pattern. "This is no longer an embryo bank, it's..."
"It's a nursery of possibilities." Lin Yue caught a falling leaf, the veins of which carried the code of an undefined story. "Every choice will take root here, but these roots are no longer chains; they are the feet that allow the universe to stand firm."
A black cat suddenly leaped onto the top of the seedling and used its claws to pluck the wind chimes made of heart fragments. The chimes were no longer mechanical, but the sound of waves behind the portal in Chapter 1. Amidst this sound, the four saw their respective universe selves simultaneously laying down their weapons. Some were repairing the World Tree, while others were winding up the mechanical elves. In the most distant galaxy, young Lin Yue was releasing the Glowing Guardian into a stream, letting it drift away into the unknown.
The Authority's consciousness eventually transformed into a speck of dust, landing on a young seedling's bud. The final fragment of code within the dust slowly unfolded, unexpectedly transforming into a question mark—the first time it had learned to ask a question.
Xia Zichen plunged the Star-Embroidered Sword into the nursery ground. Vines sprouted from the hilt, entwining the crumpled "Breaking the Cocoon Code" paper. The paper unfolded into a signpost, with arrows pointing in three directions: "The Chosen Path," "The Unchosen Path," and "The Path to Be Chosen." Old Zhang hung his pocket watch on the signpost, and new words appeared on the inside of the watch cover: Time is not a linear railroad track, but a forest where it's okay to get lost.
Ah Fu stroked the new lines on the hilt and found that the remaining pages of the first guardian's diary were complete: When order learns to breathe, rules become dandelions in the wind, some fall into the palm of your hand, some float into the deep space, but each one carries the courage to make the world grow.
Lin Yue gazed beyond the nursery, where countless points of light were converging into new constellations. She knew that from now on, the "possibilities" of each universe would no longer be imprisoned—like seeds, they would be blown by the wind to different times and spaces, and in suitable soil, grow into their own world trees.
And their story has just begun - in this nursery that allows all possibilities to sprout, in this universe that has finally learned to blink.
(End of Chapter 34)
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