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Jiang Lin's figure vanished into the morning light by the wheat field, like a wisp of golden mist scattered by the wind.

There were no spatial fluctuations, no surging blood-red light; he simply left silently, as if he had never existed.

The crowd stood still for a long time, refusing to disperse.

The morning mist flowed slowly through the wheat fields, and dew dripped from the ears of grain, kicking up tiny splashes of water.

In the distance, the lights of the livestock sheds turned on one by one, and cooking smoke rose from the chimneys of the farmhouses. A new day had begun.

The silver-haired woman was the first to turn away.

She didn't say a word, merely walking silently toward the Rust Mine.

Her steps were steady, but her shoulders trembled slightly.

Dr. Villa pushed up his goggles and looked down to flip through the data book in his hand, trying to use those cold numbers to fill the void that had suddenly appeared in his heart.

But his vision blurred, and those familiar characters turned into unrecognizable ink blots.

Joel stood in place, the crystallized scar on his face appearing particularly striking in the morning light.

He remembered how the golden-haired youth looked when he first appeared in the ruins of Rusty Town three months ago.

He was so clean that he didn't seem to belong to this world, yet with a near-cold calmness, he had ground five thousand Aberrants into powder.

“He said his name was Matthew,” Joel murmured, his voice so raspy it was almost inaudible. “But then he said he wasn't Matthew.”

Ed did not cry.

She was the first person to see Jiang Lin arrive on this planet, and she had witnessed him saving this world step by step.

She stood by the wheat field, her amber eyes gazing in the direction where Jiang Lin had vanished, clutching that long-cooled Aggregate core crystal in her hand.

The dark red glow inside the crystal had completely extinguished, turning it into an ordinary, grayish-white stone.

“I know you aren't Matthew,” she said softly. “But who are you?”

No one could answer her.

The wind blew over the wheat fields, the golden waves rising and falling like an ocean.

Sunlight pierced through the thin mist, casting warm shadows upon the earth.

The sky was very blue, as blue as those old photographs from before the Great Cataclysm.

For the first time in three hundred years, Planet Teluofuto had such a blue sky.

Three days later, at the Rust Mine.

The silver-haired woman stood at the edge of the pit, overlooking the open space below that had once been piled high with Aberrant remains.

Now, a massive monument was being built there.

It wasn't ordered by Ember; the people had come of their own accord.

Some salvaged stone from the ruins, some used crude tools to polish the stones smooth, some found the purest crystals, and some set up simple cranes to hoist the giant stones into place.

There was no organization, no commander; everyone simply knew what they had to do.

“The base needs to go a bit more to the left!”

Joel stood at the bottom of the pit, his voice echoing through the vast mine.

His engineering team had worked for three days and nights straight, but no one complained, and no one asked for a rest.

Dr. Villa crouched nearby, holding a set of blueprints.

He had drawn them overnight, every line and stroke executed with extreme care, as if he were completing the most important work of his life.

“Twelve meters high, symbolizing his three months in this world.” He pushed up his goggles, his voice raspy. “The base will be gray granite, the body will be white crystal, and the very top...”

He paused, looking toward the pile of massive crystals being cut.

“The very top will use thousand-year ice crystal from the Eternal Frost Ruins. It can only be found in the depths of the purest ice fields and can only form during the coldest polar night. It will not melt, it will not shatter; it will remain here forever, like the light he left us.”

Ed stood on the periphery of the crowd, cradling the grayish-white Aggregate core in her hands.

She hadn't turned it over to the research institute, nor had she discarded it.

She simply carried it with her every day, as if doing so would bring her a little closer to that golden-haired youth.

The monument was completed on the seventh day.

It was a twelve-meter-high obelisk. The base was made of gray granite from the deepest part of the Rust Mine, the body was polished from the purest white crystal of the Corrupted Plains, and the top was inlaid with thousand-year ice crystal mined from the depths of the Eternal Frost Ruins.

On the front of the monument, four words were carved.

It wasn't “Matthew,” nor was it his real name. Instead, it was a sentence Dr. Villa had written after much deliberation:

“He brought the light.”

On the day of its completion, people from across the entire East Continent came.

The farmers of Rusty Town brought newly harvested Fast-growing Rye, the workers of the Rust Mine brought Simmental beef from the first batch of livestock, the fishermen of the Blood Swamp brought fresh fish caught at dawn, and the engineers of the Rust Iron Wasteland lit up every piece of equipment they had, making the monument shine as bright as day.

The silver-haired woman stood at the front of the crowd, her silver combat suit reflecting a cold luster under the lights.

She looked up at the words on the monument, her lips trembling slightly.

“He brought the light,” she repeated softly. “And then he left.”

Leah's wheelchair slid silently to her side, her long silver-white hair fluttering gently in the night breeze. Her eyes, hidden behind bandages, “looked” toward the monument.

“No, he hasn't left.”

Her voice was as soft as wind chimes, yet it reached everyone's ears clearly.

“The world he saved is still here.

“Those Blood Demons, those farmlands, those livestock sheds, that sky that turned blue again...

“As long as we are here, as long as this planet remains, his light will never go out.”

The crowd was silent, and then, someone was the first to kneel, followed by a second, a third...

Like wheat in the wind, people knelt one after another before the pristine obelisk.

This was the purest, most sincere gratitude.

The gratitude of a civilization that had crawled out of the ruins toward a youth from the stars.

Ed stood at the edge of the crowd and did not kneel.

She simply stood there, her amber eyes reflecting the words on the monument, clutching the grayish-white stone in her hand.

“Do you see?” she said softly. “They built a monument for you.”

The stone did not respond.

But she knew that in the depths of the starry sky, in a place she could never reach, someone would hear.

In the first month after the obelisk was completed, a strange change began to appear on its surface.

It wasn't weathering, nor was it erosion, but something more subtle and indescribable.

Dr. Villa was the first to discover it.

That morning, he had come as usual to check the condition of the stone, only to find to his surprise that a faint golden light was flickering deep within the grooves of the carved words.

It wasn't a reflection of sunlight, nor was it the glow of lamps, but a halo emanating from inside the stone, brightening and dimming like a breath.

He reached out, and the moment his fingertips touched the inscription, a warm energy, like a living thing, surged from the monument and flowed into his body through his fingers.

The energy was faint, yet it carried an indescribable purity and warmth.

It flowed through Dr. Villa's meridians, circulated once through his body, and then slowly dissipated.

But as it dissipated, Dr. Villa discovered that the pollution residue that had accumulated in his body for decades had actually been purified by a tiny bit.

Though it was only a tiny bit, he could feel it clearly.

“This is...”

He murmured, his eyes behind his goggles widening.

The news spread quickly.

More and more people came to the monument to touch the words and feel the warm energy surging from the stone.

The farmers of Rusty Town said that after touching the inscription, their crops grew better.

The workers of the Rust Mine said the light from the inscription made their wounds heal faster.

The fishermen of the Blood Swamp said that after praying before the monument, they caught more fish.

Whether it was truly effective or a psychological effect, more and more people came to the youth's statue to pray for blessings.

At the same time, more and more statues of him were erected.

...

Leah came before Jiang Lin's statue and explained to the silver-haired woman who had accompanied her:

“This is the power of faith.

“After he left, the people of this world began to believe in him.

“They believe he will return, they believe he can protect them, and they believe the light he brought will never be extinguished.

“This belief, this conviction, has converged into power.”

She “looked” toward the monument, a faint smile gracing her pale lips.

“He probably doesn't even know it himself, but he has become a god here.”

The silver-haired woman stood behind her, her silver combat suit reflecting a soft luster in the morning light.

“Will he know?”

“He will,” Leah said softly. “Because that power will likely flow toward him through some method we cannot understand.”

...

Meanwhile, in the depths of the starry sky.

The Shadow of Blood floated within the mangled body of the evil god Mozos, its golden eyes—identical to Jiang Lin's—staring quietly into the distance.

Its devouring had lasted for a long time; the evil god's main body had been mostly consumed, leaving only a core that was still slowly throbbing.

However, the energy contained within that core was too immense—so immense that even the Shadow of Blood needed time to digest it.

But it was in no hurry.

It had plenty of time.

Suddenly, it felt a faint power surging from the direction of Planet Teluofuto.

The power was weak, like a candle in the wind, yet it carried an indescribable purity and warmth.

The Shadow of Blood paid it no mind.

It simply continued to devour and wait.

...

Saintas Kingdom, Northern Ice Field, Shuangyu Feng.

The aurora flowed across the sky, enveloping the entire icy peak in a dreamlike blue-purple glow.

On the ice terrace in front of the ice crystal pavilion, Little Black was curled into a ball, its black fur reflecting a faint blue luster under the aurora.

It had just woken up from a long sleep, its amber cat eyes looking around in a daze.

“That kid... hasn't he come back yet?”

It yawned and lazily licked its paw.

Ever since Jiang Lin left, it had stayed on Shuangyu Feng, freeloading off that fellow named Loren.

Loren, apparently having nothing better to do, had even started teaching Little Black swordsmanship.

It had to admit, that guy's swordsmanship was indeed impressive, and he was quite good at teaching a cat.

After three months, though it still maintained its lazy demeanor, its strength had quietly broken through to the 1st-rank and was moving toward the 2nd-rank.

“Awake?”

A voice as cold as an ice spring came from behind.

Little Black turned its head to see Loren standing at the entrance of the ice crystal pavilion.

He was still clad in ice-blue robes, his hair cascading like a waterfall and his purple eyes calm. His androgynous, peerless beauty looked like a statue carved from ice and snow under the aurora.

“Meow, meow, meow. (That kid hasn't come back yet? It's been three months; he wouldn't have died out there, would he?)”

Little Black asked.

Clearly, Loren had developed a way to communicate with the evil god Little Black during this time.

Loren did not answer; he simply looked up at the night sky.

The aurora flowed in his purple eyes, and starlight flickered in his gaze.

He could feel a familiar aura approaching from the depths of the starry sky.

“He's back.”

His voice was very light, yet it made Little Black's ears perk up instantly.

“Meow? (What?)”

Before the words could even settle, the space above Shuangyu Feng suddenly distorted.

It wasn't the gentle spatial fluctuation of a teleportation array, but a cruder, more direct tearing.

A golden rift appeared out of thin air within the aurora, and piercing light burst from its edges, making the entire night sky as bright as day.

A second later, a figure stepped out from the rift.

Golden hair and golden eyes, a flawless face, and a body surrounded by faint golden holy light and deep blue ice soul power.

His aura was more than ten times stronger than it had been three months ago. The power of the 3rd-rank peak surged within him, warping the surrounding air into ripples.

Jiang Lin had returned.

He stood in the air, looking down at Shuangyu Feng, at the ice crystal pavilion, and at the cold figure standing before it.

“Master,”

he said softly, then slowly descended.

Loren stood in place, his purple eyes fixed on the youth descending from the sky.

In three months, his disciple had changed.

It wasn't just that he had grown stronger; his entire being had undergone a metamorphosis.

Those golden eyes were deeper, like two bottomless springs reflecting the aurora and the stars.

The aura surrounding him was no longer just pure holy light and ice soul power; it had gained something heavier and more ancient, as if it had been tempered by countless years.

“Good.” Loren nodded slightly, his voice still cold, but a very faint trace of satisfaction flickered deep in his purple eyes. “You've broken through to the 3rd-rank peak.”

“Yes.” Jiang Lin landed on the ice terrace and knelt on one knee. “Disciple greets Master.”

“Get up.” Loren turned and walked toward the ice crystal pavilion. “Tell me, what was on that planet?”

Jiang Lin stood up and followed his master.

Little Black leaped from the ice terrace and landed steadily on his shoulder, its amber eyes curiously sizing him up.

“You've changed quite a bit, kid,” Little Black sent mentally. “This scent... it's not like a human's anymore.”

Jiang Lin ignored it and simply followed Loren into the pavilion.

On the first floor of the ice crystal pavilion, the fire in the fireplace was burning brightly, making the interior as warm as spring.

Loren sat down at the stone table and gestured for Jiang Lin to sit as well.

An ice crystal teapot floated up automatically, pouring steaming tea for both of them.

“Speak.”

Jiang Lin picked up the teacup and took a sip.

The warm liquid went down his throat, turning into a warm current that flowed through his body, dispelling the lingering chill from the starry sky.

“That planet is called Teluofuto.”

He set down the teacup and began his account:

“Three hundred years ago, an evil god named ‘Life-Devouring Black Goat · Mozos’ descended, binding itself to the world core and siphoning the planet's energy.

“Civilization collapsed as a result, and humanity retreated underground, struggling to survive amidst pollution and Aberrants.”

He paused, then continued:

“I spent three months helping them sever the connection between the evil god and the world core.”

...