He is the leader of the Tantric sect in Chagdu.

Chapter 76 "The Gift of Sprouting"

Inter-regional trains travel along thin tracks, shuttling through the steel forest.

There weren't many passengers on this trip. Most of the people who could settle in the "Floating City of Mana" were wealthy or held high positions, and they rarely moved unless necessary—so most of the people in the carriage were citizens who originally lived on the ground. For them, the essence of this "downward journey" was going home.

"Civil servants" like Ai Yi are ultimately a minority, and they all travel to Beihe District during this time period in dedicated business class seats, perhaps all with the same purpose.

After all, when multiple people are commissioning something, it's something that needs to be fought for.

There are still about half an hour until we arrive at the station.

Ai put three Origin Bullets into the top of the magazine, replacing the original regular bullets. After confirming that there was nothing else to do, she stopped thinking about Sprout and the mission.

As for the other side of the river, the fox decided to take it one step at a time, so he comfortably closed his eyes to rest.

The other side is business class.

The spacious room was occupied only by a young man and woman, and the atmosphere was so relaxed that it seemed like they were on a picnic.

A boisterous girl with antlers pointing sideways stared at a fox lying not far away, grabbing the clothes of the person next to her and yelling, "Ronan, look, look, look! If you don't do something soon, it's going to fall asleep! Hurry up and go get some information from the think tank!"

"What's the rush?!"

The young man, who appeared to be around twenty years old, sighed, straightened his disheveled suit, and said seriously, "You see, those are our colleagues. As long as we're all in the system, we'll inevitably cross paths sooner or later. There's no rush."

The young man, known as Ronan, also had a pair of antlers on his head, but they stood upright, more like the characteristics of a deer. They were clearly carefully groomed, making him look beautiful and elegant.

He savored the farce for a moment, then frowned and muttered, "Speaking of which, why did you keep urging me to get your contact information? Why don't you do it yourself?"

Mia was taken aback: "Aren't I a girl? — Wouldn't it be strange for women to have contact information?"

How dare you assume a person's gender?

Ronan snorted, glanced discreetly at the fox snoring soundly in business class, and shook his head. "In short, deliberately trying to approach someone just because they're good-looking is beneath you. Besides, the colleagues on this train are most likely our competitors for this assignment—are you planning to surrender before the battle even begins?"

"Ronan, you idiot! Where did all these competitors come from? We're all apprentices, novices who don't even know if they can succeed in the early stages. We should be grateful if we don't crash and burn."

"What a disappointment!"

The antler-wearing girl yawned, lay back in her chair, and chuckled softly with her eyes half-closed. "But you promised that you'd get her contact information after we get back to the Foundation—I really want to bury my face in that tail."

She shook her head under Ronan's disdainful gaze: "It's strange—we actually have such a 'hot' colleague—I hadn't noticed before. Logically speaking, someone like that should be quite famous, right?"

"really."

Ronan couldn't help but glance at it a couple more times, as if he were under some kind of spell or curse, and it took him quite a while to finally look away.

The two, bewitched by the fox, exchanged a glance and exclaimed, "The Foundation is bigger than we imagined!"

The rest of the journey went smoothly.

She managed to doze off for a short while, but a kind passerby woke her up. Ai opened her eyes groggily, thanked the two men and women with antlers in front of her, her eyes still wet with sticky tears, and yawned as she left the train.

Arrived.

Feeling a burning yet harmless gaze from behind, Ai shivered and stood shivering in the cold wind for a while before finally perking up.

The air circulation system in the North River District is much older than that in the suspended city of Mana, resulting in an average temperature that is five or six degrees lower here.

"It's already the end of the fourth quarter—"

It's been four months since I came into this world, and the year is almost over—I wonder if the people of Chaodu have the custom of celebrating the New Year.

Perhaps there is?

With her mind wandering, Ai hailed a taxi. As soon as she got in, she realized that this was probably her first time taking a taxi.

"Chitty Street," he told the driver, then placed his hands on his knees and sat properly with the takeout box next to him.

Ai Yi had never dared to take a taxi before, only daring to choose crowded public transportation, or to walk—and only walk in crowded places, to avoid being knocked unconscious by someone and becoming just another number in the missing persons case.

However, he no longer needed to fear the malice of this place—if this driver showed any greed, death would be his only fate.

However, all of this was Ai Yi's fantasy—out of some strange psychology. Perhaps sensing his rejection, the driver, whose hands had been replaced with inferior mechanical bodies, remained silent the entire way, taking him to his destination in silence, and then driving away in silence.

Ai stood on this familiar street once again. The air purifier, which was in energy-saving mode at night, caused the air blowing out to carry a faint odor.

—It doesn’t seem that scary?

The fox tilted its head.

This nest, to my former self, was terrifying like a monster that devoured everything; the darkness in the streets and alleys was its bottomless maw, waiting to swallow people whole.

He couldn't be bothered to pinch his nose, just like he had become unwilling to conform to the world anymore.

"Wind-making technique"

A compiled secret substance rises from the spine.

The wind direction changed around Aiyi.

He finally took a step, heading in a familiar direction, treading a familiar road.

The road we have traveled will extend to even deeper and more distant places.

Downtown, North River District, Chitti Street.

The Winged Convenience Store.

Seeing the familiar sign in front of her, Ai stopped in her tracks.

Instead of going in immediately, he found a dark corner, curled up, and squatted there quietly, just like he had done more than three months ago.

He felt uneasy—

The fox sometimes seriously considered where Dodo's existence truly stood for him—and, if the roles were reversed, what would their mutual significance be for Dodo?

He recalled the first day of his birth, more bewildered and sorrowful than a newborn baby—a lost soul leaving his familiar surroundings, seeing nothing familiar in sight, so he began to try to learn everything about this world, forcing himself to adapt to life in the nest.

He spent a week running around the company as usual, playing the role of a "low-end office worker." His only entertainment was looking down at the world below from the floor-to-ceiling window in the office every morning, or wandering around the vending machines downstairs.

He once bought twelve cans of coffee of different flavors in half an hour there, and they were all equally awful. He also wanted to go out for a walk, but because of the terrifying rumors about the city at night, he dared not touch the darkness.

After all, a small and beautiful fox like myself could probably be easily taken away by someone with ulterior motives by simply putting me in a pink plastic bag.

During that time, Ai had this nightmare every night—he would cry out in fear and despair until he woke himself up, and then he couldn't fall back asleep. So he would put on strange songs in his headphones, tidy up his tear-stained tail in the middle of the night, and think over and over again, "Maybe it would be better to die."

Perhaps it was with this mindset that he carried out his long-planned grand escape in the early hours of one day. He bypassed the homeless people lying crookedly at the company entrance, and due to dehydration and hunger from working overtime until late at night, he stumbled and almost rolled into the vomit next to him.

Along the unfamiliar overpasses and streets, he ventured deeper into this nest, where he saw shadows swaying in the neon light pillars, their grotesque outlines resembling the very concept of "desire."

The world is a melting pot, melting together the diverse desires of all living beings.

I am the only one without any desires.

—"What's next?"

A faint, gentle light, as if carefully avoiding harming his eyes, appeared and floated in the center of Ai's vision.

—What happens next?—

Ai smiled, picked up her tail from between her legs and tucked it into her arms to prevent it from getting dirty from the ground.

He said softly, "The story begins next."

Two silly birds picked up a fox from the doorway of a convenience store.

"This fox is a cowardly and arrogant fellow—it is so weak that it can't do anything, yet it still empathizes with everyone like a fool, wishing it could understand everyone's joys and sorrows, and swallowing everything that doesn't belong to it."

Ai closed her eyes and muttered to herself, "No one would like a guy like that—who would want to take care of a troublesome guy who cries all day long and lives like he's dead?"

"Only idiots."

"Yes—only the same kind of idiots."

He seemed to choke up, his voice so soft that no one but himself could hear him: "Birds and foxes, fools and fools have gotten together—it seems they've actually become a pretty good combination. They cry and whine because of other people's suffering, it's utterly incomprehensible—this is Nest City, can things called good intentions really bear the fruits they claim?"

Compared to kindness, what "Gray" presents to him is perhaps more in line with the form of desire—that kind of hysterical, cold and crazy desire that turns everything into parts and consumables.

When things got out of control, it was the existence of "Gray" that gave him a foothold to replace "Aiyi" and also gave him his first desire that didn't belong to him—a grand desire to overthrow the Nest City and surpass all living beings.

"I've said before that foxes are weak creatures who survive by licking the desires of others, and Little White—you also told me that 'Ai' cannot be replaced by anyone, or it will also be a death."

"I've witnessed the 'gray,' and it's time for me to understand 'myself' anew."

Ai said.

And who was it that witnessed the original—the complete "Aiyi"?

My witness—

—And that is my fulcrum, just as a supple vine needs a wooden support above it to climb the branches and grow further until it is lush and bears fruit.

—The original seed.

"I don't want to experience death again," Ai said.

"So what are you waiting for?"

The fox had been crouching in this dark corner for several minutes when the door told him, "Do you want to wait for someone to take you out of here into the light again, like they did back then? You know it's you who should take the initiative now."

"I see----"

Ai nodded silently.

He sighed softly, twitched his ears, and mustered his strongest resolve yet. The next moment, quite abruptly, he heard a strange rustling sound.

"wait----"

Ai suddenly raised her head.

Those pale blue eyes trembled violently, as if they had witnessed some incomprehensible scene.

He saw a shadow standing in front of him, much taller than the fox.

Perhaps she had just woken up, as she was still wearing her pajamas, with a pair of crutches supporting her beside her.

Her dark red pupils were dull and soft. She put down her cane and instead braced herself against the wall beside her. Her body swayed slightly, and the wings on her back spread slightly, as if trying to gain a little bit of strength to stand up straight.

The seemingly healthy legs provide not a single bit of strength, which is why these movements look so difficult.

The fox stood there, stunned. His heart was pounding wildly, and a burning heat rose from his chest to his entire body. As his senses gradually faded, it felt as if something was impacting the seed's surface, that last "membrane."

"Aiyi".

She was reaching out to him, her eyes filled with reproach and doubt, as well as a deep, hidden joy, like a young animal that had been separated from its pack for a long time, suddenly receiving a huge surprise, like a life that had been wandering for a long time returning to its family.

The silly bird smiled.

Welcome back————

My heartbeat has completely stopped.

"It's time."

Unrecognized emotions rise from the boiling red liquid, surging and leaping: like visible stars, an intangible yet tangible vessel.

Goodwill is the bait, while budding potential is the answer.

Emerging from all directions, and then resounding outwards, striving to break through that outer shell, is the great horn call from behind, a symphony played countless times at the same moment, a colossal waterfall cascading from the ends of the stars and the universe, sublime enough to leap out of the world, a tyrant surpassing the soul, waves from irreversible ripples singing in his ears, as if to sing until the very end of all time:

—God's offspring:

—To them as they weave their shuttles: "Gallop on, great days!"

—The time is almost here, march towards great glory—O chosen one of the gods, let your radiance flow: You—

—Look, the swaying world bears the weight of the sky, look at the earth and the sea and the vast sky, look at how all things sing for the years to come.

—I hope that the end of my life can be extended, —so that I may have enough energy to recount your deeds.

That is "Pastoral Songs Sung to All Creatures".

Ai saw the swamp, but without the insight to participate, it was as if her soul was being dissolved back into its original crimson state.

He saw the first scene: "A girl with golden-red feathers, speaking in a confident voice as bright as the rising sun, told him: 'Birds, after all, are destined to soar in the sky.'"

—I already understand.

This dome, once its protective duty is fulfilled, will collapse, just like the tower that once made us unforgivable to each other. All the blockades beneath this dome, all the injustices within the nest that restrict our possibilities, will burn in my eyes—

This is a revolution.

He saw the second act: "The gray rose in the radiance—he had transformed his body into a glass vessel: and the radiance flowed within it, thus welcoming the second dawn."

—I have embarked on this path.

The color gray will become the background color of this world. We will remember each other because we are the same. I will roam the world like a ruthless king, manipulating people's hearts, just to satisfy my ambition and pleasure.

"This is control."

He saw the third act: "In the roar of the red dragon, a whole world, full of the future, experienced its end in his eyes, and fell apart in the annihilation of the apocalypse—that was history that had been anchored."

—I can't wait.

An entire old world has dissolved into the pool's liquid. In those bygone eras, how many paths and possibilities await my "exploration"? Just to satisfy my desire for exploration and curiosity, I will go there—to that red pool where everything we once experienced is buried.

"This is exploration."

"Transformation—Mastery—Exploration"

My three desires have been sown.

That's all for now.

Ai swallowed all the nutrients in one gulp.

The next moment, countless points of light rose from the infinite pool, first fireflies, then a radiant glow flowing forth—

So it became pitch black, and the places filled with light became nothingness.

It was as if nothing had ever been created.

Until a slender branch pushes open the outer shell, stretching out to reveal its long-curled posture, and then grows in the embrace of red liquid.

—This is a tree built of light.

The radiance rejoiced at the budding of its own followers, and from it flowed something—knowledge that was too strange and too difficult to understand. There was no mystery in it, not even red liquid or red pools. Even the radiance said, "This is the earliest memory."

"Something flowed out of the radiance, the greatest and only thing, a liquid that poured down from the first dwelling, flowing like blood. In the beginning, there was no throne on the ground, only what looked like a house that had been inhabited. Only the light knew that the liquid flowed downwards, so that place later became a pit, and then a large pool."

—From "The Beginning, This Time Truly the Beginning, Memories of Radiance Before Even the Sun Was Born"

Everything needs to make way for the spread of radiance.

Ai, his pupils reflected the azure surface of the abyss, like solar prominences rising from a calm sea—

Within this space, the endless flow of light became the sole source of light in the darkness. An inexhaustible mist enveloped the space, and the tendrils of light, gentle and without purpose, softly soothed everything within sight.

There was only one person at that moment—

The colors in those eyes, beyond their incomprehensible divinity, were filled with a contradiction of coldness and heat.

The budding branches of the "tree" spread towards the world.

"Dodo————"

Dodo was being watched—her heartbeat and breath stopped at this sacred moment, until a gentle murmur rang out.

"I was born to be above and surpass all things, like the light between man and knowledge. If my gaze departs, all the mediums of illumination will become a mirage, cease to exist and vanish into thin air—that is how it is, that is how it is."

"My instinct is to capture the sorrow and joy of the world and all living beings, and then paint them all on my canvas."

"The stage is built for me, the world stands for me, and the birds sing because of me. This is not arrogance—it is the law that this world must follow, just like the illumination of light. Whether life hates me or not, I am the sublime existence here—the underlying color cast into all eyes."

Ai smiled and stood up.

"I am born to be above all things, so I must also understand all things. Those things that I empathize with and acknowledge become a possibility. All I have to do is understand."

My foundation for ascent.

A meaning is engraved on the first branch of the "tree":

The first foundation: "Understanding"

The upward climb lacks a dynamic force concentrated in perception, and there is no increase that can be understood through conventional thinking.

His body seemed unchanged, but Ai Yi found the world unusually clear. A veil of mist that had been shrouding a certain side was being dispelled, followed by an inexplicable clarity.

The inner limbs, which are not part of the physical body, grow out and, like the tiny roots of a tree, extend the roots of the soul into the depths of the red pool, sensing the flow of the red liquid like a pulsating heartbeat.

Through those subtle, almost imperceptible "resonances," he sensed the flow of the secret essence and could even breathe with it.

"I have completed the seedling's rooting."

A screen of light appeared before him: "You have mastered the Ritual of Sprouting."

The next moment, the fox pounced into the bird's arms.

"Sister Dudu—" This was a sob in her voice.

It resembles the cry of a newborn child.