Chapter 39: Clues to the Rite of Affection

The dome of the Temple of Memory shimmered coldly under the beam of the flashlight. The shattered crystal pillars looked like inverted icicles, refracting chaotic patches of light that made the patterns on the murals flicker, as if a swarm of silver snakes were writhing across the walls.

Su Qing knelt before the stone tablet, her fingertips tracing the newly emerged engravings. The golden powder from the camel-blood antibody still clung to her fingernails. The moment she touched the stone, those blurry lines began to glow with a fluorescent light, spreading across the black rock and weaving themselves into a complete pattern.

"Look!" Her voice trembled uncontrollably as she swept the flashlight beam over the mural. "This is the truth about the 'Blood-Bond Sacrifice'!"

Lu Chen leaned in, his heart skipping a beat.

On the mural, the First Sand-Guardian Priest was cradling a blood-soaked woman, kneeling before the Bone Core. Half of a bone flute was embedded in the woman’s chest, identical to the fragment Williams held. Her blood stained the priest’s fur robes, but where it touched the blue glow of the Bone Core, it crystallized into golden dewdrops.

There was no fanatical fervor of sacrifice on the priest’s face, only heart-wrenching agony. He pressed his forehead against hers, his hands forming the Entropy-Reversal Seal. Countless specks of light drifted from their brows like dandelion seeds caught in the wind, slowly merging into the Bone Core.

Then, a bizarre sight unfolded—

The once dim-blue Bone Core suddenly erupted with golden light. The black curse-marks coiled around its surface melted away like snow, revealing the pure crystal within. Ancient characters carved along the edge of the mural were deciphered by Su Qing’s translator: "With love as the guide, hatred turns to dew; the Bone Core is not a vessel, but a casket of memory."

"It’s not a sacrifice," Lu Chen said, his voice dry, the totem blade at his waist vibrating softly. "It’s using memories to soothe the Bone Core."

Su Qing pulled up the Bone Core’s genetic sequence she had analyzed earlier. The pattern of the black curse-marks on the screen overlapped perfectly with the dissolving lines on the mural. "The hatred curse is the root cause of the Bone Core’s instability! And the purest emotional memories—love, kinship, bonds—can neutralize this negative energy!" She pointed to the moment on the mural where the Bone Core turned golden. "Just like antibodies neutralizing toxins, emotional memories are the 'emotional antibodies' of the Bone Core!"

Lu Chen’s fingers unconsciously caressed the jade pendant at his chest. His daughter Xiaolu’s smiling face suddenly flashed before his eyes—her wobbling as she ran into his arms after learning to walk in the oasis last year, calling out "Daddy" in her milky voice; the way she had shoved the last piece of compressed ration into his hand when they were trapped in a sandstorm, saying, "Xiaolu isn't hungry."

The moment these images flashed by, the pendant grew shockingly hot, as if he were holding a red-hot iron.

"Hum—"

The mural on the stone tablet shook violently. The image of the First Priest merged with Lu Chen’s silhouette, and the face of the woman in his arms blurred, revealing the faint outline of Alicia’s mother. A blinding golden light burst from the Bone Core pattern, echoing the pendant at Lu Chen’s chest. The entire temple resonated, and stone dust showered down from the dome.

"Your emotions are activating the mural!" Su Qing cried out, steadying the shaking tablet. "Lu Chen, your bond with the First Priest is deeper than we imagined!"

Lu Chen snapped back to reality. The temperature of the pendant slowly receded, but it left a golden mark on his palm, shaped exactly like the Entropy-Reversal totem. He recalled Williams saying, "The Blood-Bond Sacrifice is the key to the Bone Core's awakening." That old fox had known the truth all along, intentionally misinterpreting it as a sacrifice to use fear and hatred to accelerate the Bone Core’s destabilization.

"If emotions can soothe the Bone Core..." Lu Chen’s gaze fell to the corner of the mural, where three small figures were carved, holding hands around the Bone Core as golden light converged into a river at their feet. "Does that mean if we gather enough positive memories, we can purify it completely?"

Su Qing’s translator suddenly emitted a "beep." A hidden text popped up on the screen—the First Priest’s notes: "The Bone Core holds the resentment of three lifetimes, requiring the love of three lifetimes to resolve. The first life resolves resentment with love; the second life continues the bond with kinship; the final life unites all in collective will..."

"Three lifetimes of love?" Lu Chen frowned. "The First Priest was the first life. Could it be..."

"Could it be that you are the second life, responsible for the 'kinship' link?" Su Qing’s eyes lit up as she pointed to the shortest of the three figures on the mural. "This child’s hair accessory is identical to the silver bird hairpin your daughter Xiaolu wears!"

Lu Chen’s breath hitched. He instinctively pulled out the photo he kept close—a picture of him and Xiaolu before they departed. His daughter was wearing the silver bird hairpin Alicia had given her, smiling to reveal her two little fangs. At the crease on the edge of the photo, a touch of gold had appeared, identical to the mark on the jade pendant.

"Williams didn't capture Xiaolu to threaten me." He suddenly realized, his back drenched in cold sweat. "He wants to complete the final link of the 'Three Lifetimes of Love'! He’s using kinship memories to complete his fake Blood-Bond Sacrifice!"

Before he could finish, heavy footsteps echoed at the temple entrance, accompanied by the hydraulic hiss of mechanical limbs.

"It seems you have found something interesting." Williams’s voice pierced the air like an ice pick. His mechanical eye glowed red in the darkness, followed by four Sand-Crystal Puppets—the very tribespeople of the X Tribe who had been captured. "Too bad, the truth always belongs to the victors."

The puppets had black curse-marks on their foreheads, their eyes hollow as they walked toward Lu Chen, their bone spears glowing with a ghostly blue light. Su Qing quickly reached for her antibody injector, but was blocked by Williams’s sand-crystal net—a web woven from the vertebrae of sand-beasts, with black curse-marks flowing through its mesh. The antibody serum hissed into white smoke the moment it touched the web.

"Don't waste your efforts." Williams toyed with the half-fragment of the bone flute, the dried blood on it glowing with an eerie luster. "The memories of these puppets have been drained; only obedience to the Bone Core remains. Just like..." He suddenly pointed to the woman on the mural, "...the First Priest's lover, who believed until her death that she was sacrificing herself willingly."

Lu Chen’s totem blade flashed, its golden light cleaving the spear of a puppet. "What did you do to her?"

"I did what had to be done." Williams’s laugh was cruel. "Her memories held the key to purifying the Bone Core, and I simply helped her 'forget.' Just as I will help Xiaolu forget you as her father, making her believe she was born to be the 'kinship sacrifice' for the Bone Core."

"Try touching her and see what happens!" Lu Chen’s pupils contracted in rage. The sand-scars on his body suddenly flared, weaving with the golden light of the pendant to form an Entropy-Reversal Array, forcing the puppets to retreat.

Williams’s mechanical arm shifted, popping out three alloy tubes aimed at the Bone Core pattern on the mural. "Guess what I’ve placed here?" He pressed a button on his wristband, and a buzzing electrical sound echoed from the depths of the temple. "It’s 'Lethe Mist,' which can evaporate memories instantly. Once I press this switch, everything you’ve just discovered will be wiped blank."

Su Qing lunged at the stone tablet, using her body to shield the carvings. "You can’t let him destroy the clues! This is the only way to save Xiaolu—to save everyone!"

A puppet’s bone spear lunged toward her back. Lu Chen flew to shield her; as his totem blade collided with the spear, the resulting burst of golden light branded an Entropy-Reversal sign onto the puppet's chest. The puppet froze, and a flicker of struggle crossed its hollow eyes—the original consciousness of the tribesman was resisting the curse!

"Emotional memories haven't been fully drained!" Lu Chen shouted, seizing the opportunity. "Su Qing, use the energy of the Temple of Memory to stimulate them!"

Su Qing immediately adjusted the energy frequency of the mural, amplifying it through the translator. The crystal pillar fragments in the temple suddenly resonated, emitting a melodious humming sound, like thousands of people whispering in a chant. Fragments of memory from the captured tribespeople spilled out from within the puppets, forming familiar scenes in the air—campfires in the oasis, children’s laughter, tribespeople passing water skins to one another.

"Home... my home..." A puppet suddenly dropped his bone spear, clutching his head and roaring in agony as the black curse-mark on his forehead began to fade.

Williams’s face turned livid. "Kill them!"

The alloy tubes on his mechanical arm sprayed black mist. Wherever it touched, the memory fragments dissipated like burning paper butterflies. Lu Chen pulled Su Qing back, but as he turned, he saw the First Priest on the mural suddenly turn his head, his gaze piercing through a thousand years of time to meet his.

His lips moved, silently forming three words.

Lu Chen understood.

He said: "Find the silver bird."

At the same time, Williams’s bone flute let out a shrill, piercing whistle. The puppets that had just awakened were once again controlled by the curse, charging forward with renewed madness. The Lethe Mist had already reached the stone tablet; the carvings on the mural were fading at a visible rate, and the golden light was growing dimmer.

"Retreat!" Lu Chen decided instantly, dragging Su Qing toward the ventilation shaft. "As long as we survive, we can find clues about the silver bird!"

The two scrambled into the narrow passage. Behind them came the sound of Williams’s maniacal laughter: "You can’t escape! The silver bird necklace is already around Xiaolu’s neck. Once the Blood-Bond Sacrifice begins, she will feed your memories to the Bone Core with her own hands!"

The wind in the passage carried grit into his throat. Lu Chen’s pendant was still hot, but this time it wasn't a burning pain; it felt as if a heart were beating inside it. He gripped his totem blade, three images flashing through his mind simultaneously—the golden Bone Core on the mural, Xiaolu’s smiling face with the silver bird hairpin, and the necklace in the coffin of Alicia’s mother.

The silver bird... the necklace... Xiaolu...

There must be a key linking the three lifetimes of love between these three things.

A faint light appeared at the end of the shaft. Just as Lu Chen was about to rush out, Su Qing pulled him back. She pointed to the sand grains at the mouth of the passage—the sand was arranging itself automatically, forming a miniature silver bird totem. The bird’s beak pointed toward the northwest, in the direction of the Crescent Moon Spring altar.

"It’s the antibodies!" Su Qing looked at the golden powder in her fingernails. "The camel-blood antibodies combined with memory energy can sense the location of the silver bird!"

The sound of Sand-Crystal Puppets smashing through the ventilation shaft echoed from behind, and Williams’s roar drew closer. Looking at the silver bird totem formed by the sand, Lu Chen suddenly understood the First Priest’s intent.

The Blood-Bond Sacrifice was never about the sacrifice of one person; it was the resonance of everyone’s memories.

He looked back at the temple in the darkness. The golden light there had been extinguished; the clues on the mural had surely been swallowed by the Lethe Mist. But he knew the true clues were not on the stone, but in everyone’s hearts—in his fatherly love for Xiaolu, in Alicia’s longing for her mother, and in that flicker of unextinguished warmth within all those whose memories Williams had stolen.

"See you at the Crescent Moon Spring." Lu Chen nodded at Su Qing, his totem blade cleaving the grate at the exit. "It’s time to let some people know that memories aren't meant to be drained—they are meant to be remembered."

As the sunlight pierced the darkness, he saw a flock of silver birds streaking across the horizon. The light reflected off their wings formed a golden path pointing straight to the Crescent Moon Spring. The pendant in his pocket began to tremble lightly, as if responding to a distant call.

He did not know if a trap from Williams awaited him or the hope of purifying the Bone Core. But he was certain that as long as he held onto the emotional memories in his heart, even if he walked to the ends of the earth, he would be able to find the way home.

On the sand outside the ventilation shaft, the silver bird totem suddenly turned into a stream of light and merged into the wind. Behind the distant sand dunes, the faint sound of camel bells drifted over, as if a caravan were approaching. In the rhythm of the bells, there was a frequency identical to the resonance of the Temple of Memory.