The metallic tang of the battlefield lingered in the air, a stubborn ghost that refused to be exorcised by the morning wind. While the villagers of Xi-An Base 4 scrubbed the oil and blood from the highway asphalt, Jia-Hao sat in the deepest corner of his mud-brick hovel, submerged in a silence so thick it felt like water.
[SYSTEM STATUS: LEVEL 4 (ASPIRANT)] [CURRENT STATE: MEDITATION REFINEMENT (ACTIVE)] [BIOLOGICAL REPAIR: 82%... 83%...]
In the dark of his closed eyes, the System wasn't a screen; it was a galaxy. He could see the pillars—Martial, Academic, Cuisine, Music, Administration—standing like cosmic towers, their foundations rooted in his very DNA. But there were shadows between the towers, locked gates that whispered of powers he wasn't yet "civilized" enough to touch.
"The body is a vessel," the System's voice echoed, no longer just a cold AI, but a resonance that sounded like a choir of his ancestors. "But the state is the ocean. To sail the ocean, the vessel must not only be strong; it must be understood."
Jia-Hao opened his eyes. The blue glow had receded, leaving his pupils a deep, piercing black. He felt the phantom ache of the "Internal Resonance" fading, replaced by a terrifying clarity.
He stepped outside. The village had changed. The arrival of Scholar Kong's people had swelled their numbers to nearly five hundred. It was no longer a camp; it was a town. But the people were moving with a strange, aimless energy. They had survived the Wolf, but they did not know what to do with the peace.
"Sovereign," Scholar Kong greeted him. The man was standing near the "Memorial of the First Defense"—a pile of crushed Iron-Wolf bikes that Jia-Hao had ordered to be fused together into a jagged, metallic monument. "The logistics are stabilizing. We have food for three months, and the Mandate Alloy yields are increasing. But the people... they are afraid of the quiet."
"They are waiting for the next blow, Kong," Jia-Hao said, looking at a group of children playing in the shadow of a Steam-Walker. "If we only prepare for war, we turn into the very monsters we are fighting. We need to anchor their spirits."
"You spoke of a school," Kong said, his voice hesitant. "In Sector 8, I taught the Law. I taught obedience. What will you teach them here?"
"I will teach them the Truth of the 2025 Collapse," Jia-Hao said. "And I will teach them how to talk to the machines."
The Foundation Stone
The "Academy of the Soil" was not built of marble or glass. It was constructed from the remains of a massive, pre-Collapse shipping warehouse that had been partially buried in a landslide centuries ago. Under Jia-Hao's guidance, the villagers cleared the silt and reinforced the rusted steel beams with Mandate Alloy.
At the center of the room, Jia-Hao placed the Logic Core he had retrieved from the Sentry-Pup.
[ADMINISTRATION PILLAR: ACADEMY PROTOCOL INITIALIZED.] [NEW SKILL: 'PEDAGOGICAL RESONANCE'.] [Effect: Increases the learning speed of all individuals within a 100-meter radius by 300%.]
Forty children sat on the floor, their eyes wide. Among them were the children of Xi-An, thin and cautious, and the children of Kong's sector, disciplined and pale. Lin-Na stood at the back, her bow slung over her shoulder, her gaze fixed on Jia-Hao with an emotion she couldn't yet name—a mixture of pride and a deep, gnawing fear that he was becoming something less than human.
"Look at this," Jia-Hao said, holding up a handful of dirt.
The children leaned in.
"The High-Bloods tell you the Soil is dead. They tell you that only the Arcology can create life. They lie," Jia-Hao's voice was soft, but the Music Pillar carried it into their very marrow. "The Soil is not dead; it is sleeping. It was poisoned by the greed of the Ancestors who thought they could own the world without loving it."
He touched the Logic Core. A holographic projection shimmered into existence—a map of the Loess Plateau as it looked in the year 2020. It was a sea of green, of flowing rivers, of cities that glowed like jewels.
The children gasped. One little girl reached out to touch a projected tree, her fingers passing through the light.
"This is our heritage," Jia-Hao said. "The 'Great Harmony' is not a dream of the future. It is a memory of the past that we must fight to reclaim. Every gear you turn, every seed you plant, is a prayer for the Earth to wake up."
As he spoke, the Academic Pillar began to scan the children.
[SCANNING POTENTIAL... GENETIC LATENCY DETECTED.] [Subject: 'Xiao-Mei'. Latency: Cuisine Pillar (High).] [Subject: 'Han-Bo'. Latency: Martial Pillar (Medium).]
Jia-Hao felt a surge of hope so violent it made his chest ache. The Mandate wasn't just in him. It was a dormant seed in all of them. The "System" wasn't a gift; it was an awakening.
The First Lesson of Steel
"Scholar Kong," Jia-Hao called out. "Bring the first set of 'Logic Puzzles'."
Kong stepped forward, carrying a tray of broken mechanical components—valves, pistons, and circuit boards scavenged from the wasteland.
"The first lesson of the Academy is not to fight," Jia-Hao told the children. "It is to Listen. Every machine has a song. If you understand the song, the machine will never betray you."
He picked up a shattered hydraulic actuator. Through the Academic Pillar, he projected the internal mechanics onto the wall.
"Xiao-Mei, come here," Jia-Hao said.
A small girl with pigtails, her face smudged with soot, walked forward. She was the daughter of the woman whose infant had been silenced by the "Sovereign's Porridge" in Chapter 2.
"Touch the metal," Jia-Hao whispered. "Don't look at the rust. Feel the vibration of the energy inside."
Xiao-Mei placed her small, trembling hand on the actuator.
[SKILL SHARED: SENSORY REFINEMENT.]
For a second, the girl's eyes widened. She didn't see a piece of junk. She felt the "ghost" of the pressure that used to move the piston. She felt the microscopic cracks in the seal.
"It's... it's thirsty," she whispered.
"Yes," Jia-Hao smiled, a genuine, warm smile that made the villagers' hearts swell. "It needs the oil of the Mandate. Give it life."
With Jia-Hao's guidance, the girl poured a drop of the refined lubricant they had synthesized in the forge. She moved a small lever. With a hiss of air and a rhythmic click, the actuator moved.
The room erupted in cheers. It was a small thing—a piece of scrap moving—but to these children, it was the first time they had ever controlled the "Magic of the Gods."
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: FIRST 'AWAKENING' RECORDED.] [Subject 'Xiao-Mei' has unlocked Level 1 Scientific Refinement.] [FACTION STABILITY: 34% -> 52%.]
The Shadow in the Light
But the "Slow Burn" of progress always attracts the wind of destruction.
As the sun set, casting long, bloody shadows over the Academy, a messenger arrived from the northern perimeter. He was riding a mutated horse, the animal's breath coming in ragged, frozen gasps.
"Sovereign!" the messenger fell from his mount. "The Iron-Wolf King... he hasn't moved his main army. He has done something worse."
Jia-Hao stepped out of the Academy, his face hardening. "Speak."
"He has made a pact with the Ghul-Tribes of the Salt-Flats. They are moving toward our water source. They aren't coming to fight us, Jia-Hao. They are coming to poison the 'Spring of the Ancestors'."
The village went silent. The Spring was the only source of non-irradiated water for fifty miles. If it was lost, Xi-An Base 4 would die in a week, regardless of how much Mandate Alloy they had.
"The Ghul-Tribes..." Scholar Kong whispered, his face turning the color of ash. "They are the 'Unbound'. They are humans who have stayed in the radiation for too long. They don't want the Blue Fire. They want the end of all things."
Jia-Hao looked at his people. He saw the terror in their eyes. He had just given them hope, and now the world was trying to snatch it back.
[SYSTEM ALERT: CRITICAL THREAT TO FACTION SURVIVAL.] [NEW QUEST: THE PURIFICATION JOURNEY.] [Objective: Intercept the Ghul-Tribes at the Spring. Protect the Water.] [Warning: Martial Refinement alone will not suffice. The Ghuls are immune to pain.]
"Da-Wei! Kong!" Jia-Hao's voice cut through the panic. "Prepare the Steam-Walkers. We leave in one hour."
"Jia-Hao, you can't go," Lin-Na stepped forward, her eyes bright with unshed tears. "You just spent your life-force on the forge and the Academy. Your System readouts... your 'Internal Resonance' is still in the red zone. If you fight again now, your heart will stop."
Jia-Hao looked at her. He reached out and touched her cheek, his fingers surprisingly cold.
"If the water dies, Lin-Na, our hearts stop anyway," he said. "The Mandate is not a shield I wear. It is a fire I am consumed by. I would rather burn out in a night than flicker for a thousand years in the mud."
He turned to the children of the Academy, who were watching from the doorway.
"Xiao-Mei," he called out.
The little girl stepped forward, clutching the actuator she had fixed.
"Keep the machine moving," Jia-Hao told her. "Do not let the song stop. As long as the Academy hears the song, I will find my way home."
The March into the Salt
The trek to the Spring was a descent into a different kind of hell. The Loess Plateau gave way to the Salt-Flats—a white, blinding expanse of alkaline dust where nothing grew, and the wind sounded like a thousand dying flutes.
Jia-Hao rode atop the lead Steam-Walker, his body wrapped in a heavy cloak. Every breath felt like inhaling ground glass. The System was flickering in the corner of his vision, the power bars pulsing a warning yellow.
[BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY: 62% (STABLE BUT VULNERABLE)] [ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICITY: 400% ABOVE THRESHOLD.]
"They are there," Kong pointed.
In the distance, the "Spring of the Ancestors"—a small, limestone basin where water bubbled up from deep beneath the tectonic plates—was surrounded by shadows.
These were not men. They were the Ghuls. They moved with a jerky, unnatural rhythm, their skin a translucent, sickly grey, their eyes glowing with a pale green bioluminescence. They carried jars of "Black-Silt"—a concentrated radioactive sludge that could kill a river for a generation.
[ANALYZING THREAT: THE UNBOUND.] [ACADEMIC REFINEMENT: Biological Abominations. No central nervous system. No fear.] [STRATEGY: Use 'Cuisine Refinement' (Alchemical Purge) to neutralize the Black-Silt.]
"They are already pouring it!" Da-Wei roared, revving his Steam-Walker's engine. "We have to charge!"
"No!" Jia-Hao shouted. "If you charge, you'll break the limestone! If the basin cracks, the water is lost forever!"
He stood up on the shoulder of the walker. The wind whipped his hair, his eyes flashing blue.
"I have to go down there," Jia-Hao said.
"Alone?" Kong asked. "Sovereign, there are fifty of them! They will tear you apart before you can strike!"
"I am not going there to strike," Jia-Hao said, reaching into his pouch and pulling out a small vial of the "Sovereign's Bitter Honey."
He stepped off the walker, his feet sinking into the treacherous white salt.
As he approached the spring, the Ghuls turned. They didn't growl; they let out a high-pitched, harmonic clicking sound. Their leader, a creature that had once been a man but now had rib-bones protruding through its chest, stepped forward.
"The... Blue... Child..." the Ghul hissed, the words sounding like dry leaves skittering on stone. "The King... promised... us... the... Silence."
"The Silence is a lie, Ghul," Jia-Hao said, his voice resonating with the Music Pillar. "The Earth still has a heartbeat. Can't you feel it beneath your feet?"
The Ghuls clicked in unison, a terrifying, dissonant sound. They began to close in, their long, jagged claws glistening with salt.
Jia-Hao didn't draw a weapon. He knelt by the edge of the water. He could see the "Black-Silt" already swirling in the crystal-clear pool, a dark, oily ink that was spreading like a cancer.
[CUISINE REFINEMENT: LEVEL 5 (SOVEREIGN'S FEAST) ACTIVE.] [SKILL TRIGGERED: 'THE GREAT NEUTRALIZATION'.]
"This is the second test of the Mandate," Jia-Hao whispered. "To feed the world, I must first keep its throat clean."
He poured the Bitter Honey into the spring.
For a second, nothing happened. Then, the water began to boil. A brilliant, emerald light erupted from the basin, clashing with the black oil. The steam that rose was sweet—the scent of rain on a summer afternoon, a smell that shouldn't exist in the Salt-Flats.
The Ghuls screamed. The purity of the water was like acid to their corrupted flesh. They fell back, clutching their faces, their bioluminescent eyes dimming.
But the strain on Jia-Hao was catastrophic.
[WARNING! SYSTEM OVERLOAD!] [LIFE-FORCE CONVERSION: 10%... 20%... 30%...] [HOST VITALITY: CRITICAL.]
Jia-Hao's vision went white. He felt his heart stutter and stop. He fell forward, his face inches from the now-pure water.
In that moment of death, he saw the face of the girl, Xiao-Mei. He saw the children in the Academy. He heard the "Song of the Machine."
"The Mandate is not a burden," a voice whispered in the white void. "It is the Earth's way of breathing through you. Do not fight the water. Become the water."
Jia-Hao's heart gave a violent, electric thud.
[EVOLUTION DETECTED.] [LEVEL 4 -> LEVEL 5 (ASCENDANT).] [NEW PILLAR UNLOCKED: ECOLOGY (HARMONY REFINEMENT).]
He stood up. He didn't look tired anymore. He looked... ancient. His skin was glowing with a soft, white light that pushed back the darkness of the Salt-Flats.
The Ghuls froze. Their leader looked at Jia-Hao and, for the first time in a century, the creature felt something that wasn't hunger. It felt Awe.
"The... Mother... returns..." the Ghul hissed, before crumbling into a pile of grey ash.
The remaining Ghuls fled into the wastes, their clicking sounds fading into the wind.
Jia-Hao stood by the Spring of the Ancestors. The water was clearer than it had ever been. He reached down, took a handful, and drank. It tasted of life.
Kong and Da-Wei ran toward him, their Steam-Walkers hissing in the cold air. They stopped ten paces away, sensing the change in him.
"Jia-Hao?" Da-Wei asked, his voice trembling. "Are you... are you still our boy?"
Jia-Hao turned. His eyes were no longer blue; they were the color of a clear, deep forest.
"I am the Soil, Da-Wei," Jia-Hao said, his voice sounding like the wind through the trees. "And the Soil has decided to fight back."
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: REGIONAL STABILITY 72%.] [THE ARCOLOGY OVERSEER HAS ACTIVATED 'PROTOCOL RED'.] [THE JUDICATORS ARE DESCENDING.]
Jia-Hao looked at the sky. He saw the white streaks of the High-Bloods' drop-ships cutting through the clouds.
"The Academy is open," Jia-Hao whispered. "But the first lesson will be written in the blood of gods."