The glass curtain wall of the observation tower suddenly rippled, and the flowers in the liquid time garden collectively turned north, their petals trembling like compass needles. The calico cat in Lin Yue's arms' fur stood on end. The gear collar emitted a shrill buzzing sound, and tiny gears collapsed one after another, forming a skewed clock pattern on the ground. Lu Li's data suddenly distorted, and the golden code scattered like a school of frightened fish.
"Alert! The Multinarrative Arbitration Tribunal's emergency channel has been hijacked!" Lu Li's voice was filled with an electric hum, and the holographic projection exploded in the air, creating a dazzling snowflake. "The narrative coordinates of all universes have shifted abnormally, as if... someone is forcibly redrawing the star map."
Lin Yue flipped open her notebook. The seventeen-colored gemstones burned like branding irons, and dark, flowing patterns emerged on the blank pages. They weren't words, but countless tangled lines, like a spider web blown apart by a strong wind. Dark red dots of light seeped out from every intersection. In the distance, cracks appeared on the surface of the previously stable nineteenth moon, and the flowing trajectory of the star map became turbulent, as if an invisible hand were scribbling on it.
The calico cat leaped onto the console, its sharp claws swishing across the virtual keyboard. The monitoring data it retrieved instantly froze the air. The narrative firewalls of every universe simultaneously lit up in red alert. Even more bizarrely, the fluctuations in all the abnormal data resonated with Lin Yue's heartbeat. "This isn't a normal attack," the calico cat said, its tail curled around the collapsing gears. "They're exploiting the deep connection between the empathic network and human consciousness."
An emergency meeting convened in the quantum conference room, where representatives from different universes distorted and deformed. A mechanical eye from the steampunk universe belched blue flames: "Our time gears are turning in reverse, and the history of the Industrial Revolution is being devoured!" The data stream representing the cyberverse suddenly split in two, and upon reassembly, strange cracks appeared: "All electronic memories displayed self-deletion instructions, like a formatted hard drive."
Lin Yue gripped the thread of time's origin, but it struggled like a living thing, tangling into a complex knot in her palm. The Dream Weaver's voice pierced through time and space, harsh as metallic friction. "They are the opposite of the 'Narrative Weavers'—the 'Deconstructors.' They hail from a universe where narrative rules are rigidly fixed, and they believe any possibility is a violation of order."
Tracing the anomalous signal, they discovered its source, a void known as the "narrative blind spot." There was no time, no space, only floating fragments of code. When the reconnaissance drone beamed back footage, Lin Yue's breath stopped—deep in the darkness, a massive loom stood, its warp draped with miniature models of various universes, its weft woven from the threads of empaths' consciousness. Twelve figures draped in black veil manipulated the shuttles, their faces blurred. With every raise of their hands, fragments of memory drifted from their fingertips, crumbling to dust.
"They're dismantling the narrative!" Lu Li pointed his mechanical finger at the screen. "Once those microcosms are woven into fabric, they will forever lose their ability to exist independently." Even more terrifying, the loom's power source is the imprisoned leader of the Time Traversers. His body has been transformed into a mechanical device, his eyes burning with a faint blue flame, and he continuously outputs twisted energy.
Lin Yue's team decided to delve into the narrative's blind spots. Before departing, the Dreamweaver appeared, its threads of time dim as rotten wood, its form constantly disintegrating and reforming: "I will infuse your gem with the final power of rules. But remember, the key to resisting deconstruction is not creation, but... inheritance."
The moment she stepped into the blind spot, Lin Yue's consciousness was violently impacted. She saw her life dismantled into countless fragments: late nights crafting empathetic stories, moments fighting alongside her companions, even her first babbling infancy. Every memory was shredded into a thin line. The calico cat's gear collar completely stopped, and Lu Li's data began to show pixelated cracks.
"You think possibility is disorder?" The deconstructor's voice was like countless nails scraping metal. "They are nothing but untrimmed weeds that only destroy the perfect picture of the narrative!" A withered hand stretched out from under the black veil, grasping the thread of Lin Yue's memory. "Look, when these unnecessary branches are cut off..."
At this critical moment, Lin Yue suddenly recalled the treasured moments in her memory archive. She concentrated, sinking her consciousness deep into her memories. Countless stories of empaths emerged like a tide: poets on war-torn planets using empathic networks to spread peace, deep-sea civilizations forged interspecies friendships through storytelling, and the fantastical worlds created by children on Earth. These memories transformed into dazzling arrows of light, shooting towards the Deconstructor.
Seventeen-colored gems burst forth with unprecedented brilliance, merging with the threads of time's origins and the light of the empath's consciousness. Lin Yue raised her hands, and the light enveloped the loom like a vast net. A flash of clarity flashed in the eyes of the Time Tracer leader, and with the last of his strength, he tore the power cord connecting the loom. The massive machine wailed and began to collapse.
Amidst the chaos, Lin Yue rushed towards the imprisoned Time Tracer and wrapped the original thread of time around him. "Your hatred has been exploited, but your memories never lie!" As light poured in, the Time Tracer's mechanical devices peeled away, revealing his true face—a young man with clear eyes. His memories held his sister, who had been reborn thanks to the empathy network.
As the loom completely disintegrates, the deconstructors become scattered code. Narrative blind spots begin to reassemble, and the shattered cosmic model regains vitality. Lin Yue's team returns to Earth with the time traveler, who has regained consciousness. Behind them, newborn stars twinkle in the narrative void.
After the crisis, the multiverse establishes a "narrative resonance network." Each civilization contributes unique narrative rules, weaving together a dynamically balanced defense system. Lin Yue's notebook evolves into a translucent crystal, its seventeen-colored gems projecting a memory barrier of all empaths in times of danger. And in the garden of liquid time, new flowers are growing, their petals swirling with fragments of stories from different universes.
One evening, Lin Yue stood in the watchtower. The calico cat's gear collar glowed with renewed brilliance, its ethereal data forms transforming into a warm halo. In the distance, the nineteenth moon was restored to its former glory, its starry surface ablaze with ever more vibrant colors. A young time-traveler strolled through the garden, clutching his sister's first painting created using the empathic network.
Lin Yue's notebook trembled slightly, and glowing words appeared on the blank page: "When each story becomes the thread that weaves the universe, no matter how powerful the power of deconstruction is, it cannot sever the ties that transcend dimensions." And in a more distant corner, an artificial intelligence that has just awakened consciousness is writing down its first question through the empathy network - will this be the starting point of a new story?
(End of Chapter 64)
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