The return to consciousness was not a gentle awakening, but a jarring collision with a reality too harsh for his depleted spirit. Li Tian lay sprawled on the unforgiving cobblestones of the village square, each jagged edge a painful testament to his recent ordeal.
The metallic tang of expended spiritual energy, mingled with the acrid scent of ozone from vaporized null-bolts and the fine, gritty dust of shattered stone, filled his nostrils – the grim perfume of his first true battle. Above, a dying ember against the deepening bruises of twilight, the phantom tree still blazed over his distant farm, an impossible monument of light and raw will. Its ethereal pulse thrummed through the very air, a silent resonance that seemed to echo the unsettling, dry-leaf rustle of Ksss-ksss-ksss… that he vaguely recalled, a sound that felt like it had scraped its way up from the planet's oldest bones.
A collective gasp, sharp and sudden, rippled through the stunned villagers. Then, a wave of hushed, fearful whispers, their words indistinct but their tone a mixture of profound awe and primal terror. They were no longer tracking the contemptuous retreat of the Iron Covenant's airship, the Mandate, as its cold, thorned-gear sigil dissolved into the industrial haze belching from New Shanghai. Their gazes, wide and reflecting the phantom tree's unearthly glow, were pinned on him – or rather, on the figure who now effortlessly, shockingly, hauled him from the ground.
Grandmother.
The name felt inadequate, a relic of a past that had crumbled in the last hour. The frail, stooped woman he knew was gone, replaced by this pillar of quiet intensity. Her spine, once bowed by age and hardship, was now ramrod straight, imbued with an unfamiliar, steely resilience. The cloudy films of cataracts had vanished from her eyes, revealing irises as clear, sharp, and unnervingly perceptive as a hawk's. The years themselves seemed to have been scoured away, not leaving youth, but a timeless, formidable strength. Her grip on his arm was like a vise of weathered oak. "They see it, Tian," she had rasped, her voice low yet carrying an undeniable authority that silenced the square. Her gaze flicked from the impossible tree to him, her newly piercing eyes reflecting its fiery light. "The Reckoning has begun."
The journey back to the farmhouse was a torturous passage through a landscape of pain and shimmering exhaustion. Each step was a fresh agony, his internal spiritual pathways feeling frayed and scorched.
The vibrant, data-rich world Prometheus's interface had once painted for him was now a dull, muted canvas, sounds indistinct, colors leached of their intensity. He leaned heavily on his grandmother, her unexpected solidity a strange comfort. He was dimly aware of another, softer presence on his other side – Xiaoli, the baker's daughter, her usually cheerful face etched with a mixture of fear and a fierce, protective concern. Her small, calloused hand, smelling faintly of yeast and woodsmoke, offered a surprisingly steady counterpoint to his grandmother's unyielding support. "Easy, Li Tian," she murmured, her voice barely a breath. "You're… you're safe now." He could only manage a weak nod, the effort monumental.
He remembered, in fractured images, collapsing onto the thin mattress of his narrow bed. The breathing book, an artifact of bark and tarnished metal, lay on his worn wooden desk. As he fell into the room, he thought he saw its strange, woven cover pulse once, a faint, sympathetic light mirroring the distant, fading embers of the colossal phantom tree.
Then, only an abyss – a heavy, consuming darkness, devoid of dreams, born of a spiritual void so profound it felt like a piece of his soul had been extinguished.
Hours later, a hesitant spark in the oppressive blackness. A single, fragile line of amber text attempting to coalesce at the edge of his dormant consciousness.
[SYSTEM… RE-REINITIALIZING...] [Attempting Core Integrity Scan… FAILURE. Prometheus OS Kernel… Damaged. Significant Data Corruption Detected. Spiritual Energy Signature: CRITICAL. Prometheus Voice Modulation… Unstable.]
The System's voice, when it finally managed to manifest, was a fractured whisper, laced with digital static and echoes, almost unrecognizable. Gone was the crisp, analytical tone, the burgeoning hints of personality. This was the sound of a machine fighting for its own survival.
[H-Host… Status Report… Requested?]
Li Tian groaned, a sound that seemed to emanate from a body made of lead and broken glass. Consciousness was a slow, painful ascent from an impossibly deep well. "Prometheus…?"
[Affirm-mative… Reporting… Spiritual Energy Levels: 3 / 127 (Estimated Potential Capacity - Recalibrating). WARNING: Severe Qi Exhaustion. Minor Internal Pathway Scorch Detected. Auto-Repair Protocol… Sluggish. ETA… Unclear.] [Debuff Active: Ember Root Protocol Overload. Skill Lockout Duration: 71 hours, 57 minutes, 12 seconds remaining. Recommendation: Avoid all strenuous spiritual activity. Cultivate… rest.]
[System Status: Prometheus OS Integrity at estimated 21%. Personality Matrix… Fragmented. Recalibrating… This Unit… is compromised but… operational.]
A new line of text flickered, urgent and stark:
[CRITICAL OBSERVATION: Phantom Tree event has generated a large-scale Spiritual Resonance Beacon. Multiple unidentified external spiritual probes detected. Low intensity… for now. Hostile intent… probable.]
"Grandmother?" His own voice was a dry croak.
She was there, a stern silhouette against the grey wash of pre-dawn light painting the small window. The phantom tree was no longer a public spectacle of fire; now, only his spirit-attuned senses could perceive its faint, shimmering outline, a colossal ghost of silver and gold against the lightening sky. "You're awake," she stated. It wasn't a question. Her voice, though, held a new resonance, a depth that seemed to draw from the very earth.
"The Reckoning…" Li Tian forced out, the words scraping his throat. "The Iron Covenant… Xu Jin said…" "The Iron Covenant is but the hound, Tian," she cut him off, turning from the window.
Her newly revealed youth was not the prettiness of a girl, but the polished, timeless beauty of a jade artifact, hard and resilient.
"A savage dog straining on a leash held by… others. The true Reckoning… it is the reawakening of ancient laws, the consequence of a theft that crippled a star system." Her gaze was distant, seeing things beyond the small farmhouse.
"Our ancestral planet, Terra, a jewel ten times the size of the forgotten Earth, was once vibrant with spiritual energy. One cultivator, in his grief and arrogance, sought to unravel the tapestry of life and death to save his mortal love. He didn't just absorb energy; he created a void, a wound in the spiritual firmament."
"The First Cultivator," Li Tian breathed, the title surfacing from some forgotten recess of his mind, perhaps a seed planted by the Codex.
"The one buried beneath our farm." "His official title is lost to the Iron Covenant's purges. But yes, he is the epicenter," she affirmed, her expression grim. "The blue veins you saw pulsing in the soil? That is his dying essence, his unquenchable will, seeping into this land over countless centuries, slowly, painfully transforming it into a Grade One Spiritual Node.
Your awakening, your raw, untamed power, your desperate defense of the village… you've acted like a bellows on a dying ember. The phantom tree? It was his residual power, his ancient domain, channeled and amplified through your spirit, a monumental declaration to the heavens that this land is no longer dormant."
"And the sound?" Li Tian's skin crawled at the memory. "That scraping… Ksss-ksss-ksss…?" A flicker of something akin to fear, quickly suppressed, crossed Grandmother's ageless face.
"That… is his awareness stirring. His hunger. Perhaps the grinding of the ancient seals that bind his corrupted spirit. The System warned you: 'The corpse beneath is the reason cultivation died.' It died because he sought to hoard life, to defy the natural cycle. Now, a fragment of his consciousness, drawn by the potent life force you've unleashed, begins to stir. He is both a source of immense power and an unimaginable threat."
"My parents,"
Li Tian's voice cracked. The thought of them was a constant, dull ache. "The tree they saw…"
"They stood where you stand now," she said, her voice softening almost imperceptibly. "Your father, he was… a visionary. He saw the potential, the unique confluence of energies here. He dreamt of a new path, a way to weave the spiritual arts with the burgeoning age of steam and calculating engines – a true Neo-Cultivator.
He believed this fusion could heal the rift, could offer humanity a future that honored both spirit and ingenuity. He learned of the First Cultivator, of the imbalance, and he sought to gently guide the awakening, to prevent a catastrophe." She paused, her gaze turning inwards.
"The Iron Covenant, with their dogmatic adherence to industrialized, controlled spiritual power, saw his theories as heresy. They don't want innovation, Tian. They demand absolute control."
"And you, Grandmother?" Li Tian gestured feebly. "Your strength… your eyes…" She looked down at her hands, now smooth and unblemished.
"This farm… it is a living entity. For generations, our family has served as its custodians. As the First Cultivator's influence seeps outwards, as the spiritual node intensifies, it… rejuvenates. Your explosive release of power, your deep connection to the Ember Root, it accelerated a process already underway within me. A mending." She touched her temple. "With this vitality comes clarity. Memories. Not just my own, but echoes from my grandmother, and hers before. Whispers of the old ways, of the coming Reckoning. It is a heavy burden, this knowing."
[Cross-referencing Host's lineage with recovered ancestral data fragments from local network: High probability of inherited spiritual sensitivity and latent 'Node Attunement' genetic markers. Grandmother's cellular regeneration is consistent with sustained exposure to a potent, evolving spiritual energy field. Symbiotic linkage with the Node and the Host is… a distinct possibility.]
Prometheus's voice was a little stronger now, the static lessening.
"The war beneath our feet," Li Tian whispered, the phrase now carrying a chilling, tangible weight. "It is not just a metaphor, child," Grandmother said, her eyes locking onto his. "It is a battle for the very soul of this world's spiritual energy. The Iron Covenant seeks to shackle it, to turn it into a sterile resource. Others, drawn by the beacon of your power, will have their own agendas – some subtle, some monstrous. And beneath us all, the First Cultivator stirs, his intentions an enigma wrapped in millennia of silence and corrupted power."
Her gaze swept towards New Shanghai, a distant smear of smog and faint, arrogant lights. "They will be back, Tian. Xu Jin's retreat was a tactical withdrawal, not a surrender. They will return with overwhelming force, with technologies designed to dissect and neutralize spirits like yours...like mine."she said looking at her young feminine body.
Despair, cold and suffocating, threatened to engulf him. He was one boy, barely understanding the power that had surged through him. "What can I do?" "You prepare," Grandmother's voice was like flint striking steel. "You are a Neo-Cultivator. Your destiny is not to follow the forgotten paths of old, nor to solely embrace the cold logic of machines. It is to forge something new. The System you carry, this Prometheus… however alien it may seem, however suspicious you are of its motives, it is a tool. A formidable one. Learn its depths. And this farm…" a sweep of her hand encompassed their small, suddenly sacred domain, "…this is your crucible, your fortress. The spiritual crops you cultivate will not just be food; they will be elixirs, potent sources of refined Qi. The earth itself is your ally."
Li Tian forced himself to sit upright, his battered body screaming in protest. He looked at his hands – ordinary, calloused farmer's hands, yet they had channeled the earth's fury. The memory of the Ember Root protocol, the sensation of roots tearing through stone, was still vivid, terrifying, and exhilarating. "The book," he said, his gaze drawn to the breathing artifact on his desk. The Primordial Codex. Grandmother nodded, a flicker of profound gravity in her eyes. "Indeed. The Codex of the First Neo-Cultivators, perhaps. It has chosen you. It contains the forbidden knowledge, the blueprints of creation that marry spirit and gear, flesh and steam – the very fusion the Iron Covenant has spent generations attempting to obliterate from history."
[The Primordial Codex… energy signature is harmonizing with Host's spiritual matrix… and with this Unit's compromised core programming. Fascinating. Its data streams are… ancient, complex. They depict concepts of spiritual engineering that defy conventional cultivation theory. This knowledge… it could reshape everything.]
Prometheus sounded almost… awed.
A fragile ember of determination sparked within Li Tian, pushing back against the crushing weight of responsibility. The future was a terrifying, unknown expanse, populated by monolithic enemies and shadowed by ancient horrors. But this patch of land, this legacy of defiance, was his. The frightened faces of the villagers, their dawning hope in his impossible power – he wouldn't betray that.
He thought, briefly, of Luo Xue, her own mysterious awakening, the strange, scorched book she had pressed into his hands. Was she safe? Was her plight connected to this escalating chaos? Her face, intelligent and worried, became another reason to fight.
He met his grandmother's unwavering gaze. "They will come for you now," she had warned him in the square, the words a chilling echo of a past tragedy. "Let them," Li Tian said, his voice raspy but resolute, echoing the strength he now saw in her. "This farm will be a fortress. And I… I will be its guardian."
As if in answer, the ghostly silhouette of the phantom tree outside shimmered, its light momentarily intensifying, casting fleeting, dancing shadows into the dim room. And from deep within the earth, beneath the very foundations of their ancient farmhouse, a sound, clearer this time, more deliberate.
Ksss… ksssk…
A faint tremor accompanied it, a subtle vibration that traveled up through the floorboards, through Li Tian's very bones. It was not just shifting stone. It was the sound of something immense, something impossibly ancient, turning in its ageless sleep.
The Reckoning was not just beginning. It was beneath his feet, stirring with a hunger that had waited for millennia. And Li Tian, the nascent Neo-Cultivator, the farmer of a spirit-haunted land, knew with chilling certainty that his quiet life was not just over; it had been consumed, and from its ashes, something new, something formidable, was starting to grow.