Dream Ghost

News of Meng Xiaoqing's disappearance spread quickly at the association headquarters. Within an hour, the cafeteria, corridors, and offices were buzzing with discussion—the technician from headquarters, the one with black-rimmed glasses, had entered the teleportation array alone and hadn't returned. Some said she'd gone mad, some said she was controlled by the Dream Weavers, some said she was originally a member of the Dream Weavers. Lin Ye remained silent. He stood in the technical analysis room, facing Meng Xiaoqing's laptop. The screen was still lit, displaying the data she had last collected—Lin Ye's consciousness fluctuation chart, timestampd to this afternoon, fifteen minutes before she entered the teleportation array. The last segment of the chart was magnified, revealing an abnormal peak; the frequency wasn't Lin Ye's, but Qiu Ye's. She had separated Qiu Ye's frequency from Lin Ye's consciousness fluctuations and then pinpointed Qiu Ye's source—the interior of the World Tree. She wasn't going to find Lin Ye; she was going to find Qiu Ye. Qiu Ye was her "source." The primordial rules of three thousand years ago, the consciousness frequency personally inscribed by the first generation of Night Watchers, were more precious than any other data.

Zhou Zhou stood beside her, his fingers hovering over the keyboard, unsure what to type. He had tried everything—remote signals, consciousness resonance, reverse tracking via teleportation arrays. None of them could reach Meng Xiaoqing. She was like a pebble thrown into the deep sea; the ripples on the surface had disappeared, and the pebble continued to sink, its whereabouts unknown.

"Is her consciousness signature still there?" Lin Ye asked.

Zhou Zhou tapped a few keys on the keyboard, bringing up an interface. The screen displayed a string of numbers and letters, next to which was a lit green indicator light.

"She's still there. Her consciousness hasn't dissipated; it's still active. But her location can't be pinpointed. She's inside the World Tree, where the rules are different from the outside world, and the location signal would be distorted."

"Can you assess her condition?"

"Her consciousness was very stable; there was no fear, no pain, no struggle. She wasn't afraid. Or rather, she wasn't aware that she was afraid." Zhou Zhou adjusted his glasses. "She was probably still collecting data. Her laptop has offline storage and can record continuously for seventy-two hours. She fully charged the battery before going in."

Lin Ye stared at the stable consciousness signature on the screen. It didn't seem like someone trapped in an unfamiliar place, but rather like a researcher sitting in a lab, staring at a screen, fingers flying across a keyboard. She didn't know she was in danger because she never felt she was. The data was safe; the data wouldn't harm her. But the World Tree wasn't data; the World Tree would.

Su Wanning walked in from the doorway, holding a cup of coffee, and handed it to Lin Ye. She glanced at the green indicator light on the screen but didn't say anything.

"I'm going in to find her," Lin Ye said.

Su Wanning looked at him, neither saying "no" nor "I'll go with you," but simply handed him the coffee and waited for him to finish it.

"When?" she asked.

"Right now. Her consciousness signature is still there, but the signal strength is weakening. The rules within the World Tree are eroding her consciousness, not attacking, but 'assimil'. Her consciousness frequency is being pulled towards the World Tree's frequency. Once she is completely assimilated, she will never come back. It's not death, it's 'becoming part of the World Tree.' Her consciousness will still be there, but she will no longer be Meng Xiaoqing."

Chen Xuan walked in from the corridor, holding a tablet in his hand. His expression was more serious than usual, and his brows were furrowed tightly.

"The Dream Weavers also detected Meng Xiaoqing's signal. They know someone has entered the World Tree, but they don't know who it is. They might send someone in. Not to find her, but to find the 'entrance.' Meng Xiaoqing entered through the Association's teleportation array, and the coordinates of the teleportation array are fixed. If the Dream Weavers can copy those coordinates, they can bypass all the defenses around the World Tree and enter directly inside."

"They can't copy it," Zhou Zhou said. "The coordinates of the teleportation array are encrypted and change a thousand times per second. Without the decryption key, it can't be copied."

"Fang Yuan has the key. He is the deputy head of the headquarters investigation team and has the authority to access the encryption algorithm of the teleportation array. Although he has been dismissed, his authority may not have been completely revoked."

Zhou Zhou's expression changed. He furiously typed on the keyboard, and the data on the screen flipped through page after page.

"Fang Yuan accessed the teleportation array's encryption algorithm three hours ago. He even used his privileges."

Lin Ye put down his coffee cup and walked towards the teleportation array.

Su Wanning followed behind, Chen Xuan followed behind Su Wanning, and Zhou Zhou sat down at the control panel, his fingers rapidly typing on the keyboard, pre-starting the teleportation array's warm-up program. One by one, the emergency lights in the corridor flickered on, their orange glow appearing faint in the grayish-white sky, like candles about to go out. Lin Ye entered the teleportation array, while Su Wanning stood at the edge of the rune array, not going in.

"Wait for me here," Lin Ye said.

"Where is your silk thread?"

Su Wanning reached out and wrapped a silver thread around Lin Ye's wrist, parallel to the gray patterns on Qiu Ye's wrist. The thread was so thin it was almost imperceptible, yet its presence was strong, like an invisible rope binding the two of them together.

"This thread can extend three thousand kilometers. The space inside the World Tree is not physical space, so distance is not a problem. As long as your consciousness remains, the thread will not break." Su Wanning took a step back, standing outside the rune array. "Go in, I'll be here. Whatever you see, I can see too. Whatever you hear, I can hear too."

Lin Ye looked down at the silver thread on his wrist. It was next to the gray veins of the autumn leaves, one bright and one dark. One connected to Su Wanning, and the other to the Night Watchman from three thousand years ago.

"Start it," he said.

The rune array glowed blue. The light engulfed everything.

A feeling of falling. Darkness. The sound of wind. Then—landing. Lin Ye opened his eyes. He was standing in a silvery-white space, not inside the World Tree, but on its "bark." The surface of the trunk. Silvery-white woody fibers stretched out beneath his feet, like a flattened snowfield. In the distance stood a gigantic tree, its trunk so thick he couldn't see its sides, its crown so high he couldn't see its top. The World Tree. He stood on its trunk, not beside it, but "above" it. The trunk was the ground, the bark was the earth. The silvery-white fibers rippled slightly in the wind, like breathing.

Lin Ye's senses extended to their fullest extent. He was searching for Meng Xiaoqing's consciousness signature code—the string of numbers and letters he had seen on Zhou Zhou's screen. The code appeared in his senses, like a flickering lamp in the darkness, located... directly ahead, about two kilometers away. He walked in that direction. The silvery-white fibers beneath his feet were soft, like stepping on thick snow, but leaving no footprints. The fibers would return to their original state after his feet left, like water.

After walking for about ten minutes, he saw the first thing that didn't belong to the World Tree: a laptop. Its silver-white casing lay on fibers, screen down. Lin Ye crouched down and flipped the laptop over. The screen was shattered, but the indicator light was still flashing. Green, flickering like a heartbeat. Meng Xiaoqing's laptop. She had been here.

Lin Ye picked up the computer and extended her senses to scan the internal storage chip. The data was still there. The last piece of data she collected was—the rule structure of Qiu Ye. She separated the rule structure of Qiu Ye from Lin Ye's consciousness fluctuations, then locked onto the source of Qiu Ye, and followed the source into the World Tree. She found it. The source of Qiu Ye was not inside the World Tree, but on the "skin" of the World Tree. Beneath the silvery-white fibers, something was glowing. Lin Ye squatted down and parted the fibers with her hands.

A fragment. Not a sealed fragment, but a "memory fragment." Left behind by the first Night's Watch. The fragment is about the size of a coin, transparent, like a shard of glass. Sealed within is an image—the moment the autumn leaves were peeled away. The first Night's Watch stood beneath the World Tree, holding a ball of light in his hands. The light struggled, trying to return to his body, but he wouldn't let it. He detached the light from his consciousness and pressed it into the trunk of the World Tree. The light slowly sank into the trunk, from the surface to the interior, from the interior to the depths. The first Night's Watch watched it sink, for a long time. Then he turned and left. Without looking back.

Lin Ye held the fragment in his palm. The transparent fragment slowly warmed in his hand, from cool to lukewarm, from lukewarm to hot. The scene replayed repeatedly in his consciousness—autumn leaves sinking, the first generation turning around. Sinking, turning around. Sinking, turning around. Three thousand years have passed, and the autumn leaves are still sinking, the first generation is still turning around. The two are forever separated by a distance.

Lin Ye put the fragments in his pocket and stood up. His extended senses detected Meng Xiaoqing's consciousness signature—closer, about a kilometer away. He quickened his pace, almost running. Silvery-white fibers splashed under his feet like snow. He covered the kilometer in five minutes. He stopped in front of a "pit." The pit wasn't large, about two meters in diameter and half a meter deep. A person sat at the bottom of the pit. Meng Xiaoqing. She sat cross-legged at the bottom of the pit, a laptop on her lap, her fingers hovering above the keyboard. Her glasses were askew, her hair was disheveled, and her face was covered in dust. But her expression was calm, like someone waiting in an office for a program to finish compiling.

"Meng Xiaoqing." Lin Ye squatted down by the pit.

She looked up at him. Behind her glasses, her eyes shone brightly, not with fear or surprise, but with a calm that said, "You've finally come."

"You've come," she said.

"What are you doing?"

"We're collecting data. The structure of the World Tree's surface is very interesting. It changes a thousand times per second, the same frequency as the teleportation array's coordinates. It's not a coincidence, it's from the same source. The teleportation array's encryption algorithm is extracted from the World Tree's structure. When the first generation of Night's Watch built the teleportation array, they used the World Tree's rules."

Lin Ye reached out his hand.

"Come up."

Meng Xiaoqing looked at his outstretched hand but didn't shake it. She closed her laptop, hugged it to her chest, and climbed out of the pit herself. Her movements were clumsy, using both hands and feet, like a rabbit crawling out of a hole. Lin Ye watched her but didn't help. He knew she didn't like being helped. She preferred to do things herself.

"Have you found the source of the autumn leaves?" she asked.

"Found it."

"What is it?"

"A fragment. A fragment of memory left behind by the first generation of Night's Watch."

Meng Xiaoqing's eyes lit up, not with greed, but with the light of "data".

"Can I take a look?"

Lin Ye took the transparent fragment from his pocket and handed it to her. Meng Xiaoqing took the fragment, held it up to her eyes, and looked at the sky through it. The sky was silvery white, without sun or clouds, only endless fibers undulating in the wind. The scene sealed inside the fragment played before her eyes—autumn leaves falling, the first generation turning around. She watched it once, then again, and again.

"When the first Night's Watchman peeled away the autumn leaves, he cried," she said. "His tears fell on the fragments. Look here." She held the fragment up to Lin Ye, pointing to a small patch of shadow on the edge. The shadow was faint, almost invisible, but it was there. It wasn't a crack; it was a "tear stain." Three thousand years had passed; the tears had long since dried, but the mark remained on the fragment.

Lin Ye stared at the shadow for a long time.

"Let's go. Let's go back."

Meng Xiaoqing returned the broken pieces to him and hugged the laptop tightly. Her fingers tapped lightly on the laptop casing, like playing a silent piano piece.

"Aren't you curious why I came in?" she asked.

"Not curious."

Why?

"Because you're only interested in the data. Wherever the data is, that's where you are. No reason is needed."

Meng Xiaoqing looked at him, and the corner of her mouth twitched slightly. It wasn't a smile, but an expression that said, "You understand me."

The two retraced their steps. Lin Ye's perception extended, locking onto the coordinates of the teleportation array, traversing the silvery-white fibers. Meng Xiaoqing followed behind him, her steps light, like a cat stepping on snow. When they were about halfway there, Lin Ye's perception detected an anomaly. It wasn't Meng Xiaoqing, not Qiu Ye, not the World Tree. It was someone else. A very strong consciousness frequency, at least mid-stage Dream Domain Dominator. Located directly ahead, five hundred meters away, rapidly approaching.

Lin Ye stopped and pulled Meng Xiaoqing behind him.

"There's someone there."

"Who?"

"I don't know. But they're not one of ours."

The silvery-white fibers ahead began to bulge, as if something was arching beneath. The fibers split open, and a person emerged from the crack. It wasn't Fang Yuan, Qin Lan, or any of the Dream Weavers Lin Ye had ever seen. It was an old man, over seventy years old, with white hair and a white beard, wearing a long white robe. His face was thin, with prominent cheekbones, deep-set eyes, and thin lips. His eyes were light blue, with small pupils, like two frozen ice beads. A core member of the Dream Weavers. Lin Ye had never seen him before, but he sensed his consciousness frequency—very similar to the gray-green consciousness within the World Tree. He wasn't human; he was a "consciousness entity." Like Qiu Ye, a consciousness entity that had been stripped away. But not by the first generation of Night Watchers; he had stripped himself away. He had transformed himself into a consciousness entity, abandoning his physical body, and living within the World Tree. He had lived for three thousand years.

"Lin Ye," the old man spoke, his voice soft, like the wind blowing through a distant valley, "I've been waiting for you for a long time."

"Who are you?"

"I was a student of the first Night's Watch. He taught me how to detach consciousness, how to create rules, and how to build the seal on the World Tree. He taught me everything, except 'how to open the door.' He didn't tell me where the door was. He only told you because you are his descendant."

Lin Ye looked at him.

"The door is in the rings of a tree. I know. It will open in seven days. I know that too."

The old man's lips curled up slightly.

"You know too much. But do you know how to get in? The rings of time are in the 'future.' The future isn't about time, it's about 'position.' You need to find that position to be standing at the door when it opens. If you can't find it, you won't be able to get in even if the door opens."

Lin Ye remained silent for a few seconds.

"You know the location."

"I know. But I won't tell you."

"Then what are you doing here?"

The old man looked at him, something flickering in his light blue eyes.

"I've come to see you. To see what his descendants look like. I'll leave after I've seen them."

He turned and walked into the crevice. Silvery-white fibers closed behind him, like ripples disappearing on water. He was gone. Lin Ye stood still, his senses extending to chase the frequency of his consciousness, but he couldn't catch up. The frequency was decaying, disappearing, like a star falling into a black hole.

Meng Xiaoqing peeked out from behind Lin Ye.

"who is he?"

"A student of the first generation of the Night's Watch. He has lived for three thousand years. He has no body, only consciousness."

Why did he come to see you?

"Because he wanted to know what kind of person the first Night's Watch left the door to."

"What does he think of you?"

Lin Ye didn't answer. He turned and continued walking towards the teleportation array. Meng Xiaoqing followed behind him, clutching her laptop tightly. Silvery-white fibers splashed at their feet like snow. The two walked for a long time, so long that Meng Xiaoqing's legs began to tremble, so long that the laptop's indicator light changed from green to red—the battery was low.

The teleportation array glowed blue ahead, like a lamp lit on a snowfield. Lin Ye quickened his pace, with Meng Xiaoqing following behind, stumbling along.

The blue light engulfed everything.

Lin Ye opened his eyes. He stood in the center of the teleportation array, while Su Wanning stood at the edge of the rune array, the silver thread on her wrist still there. She looked at him, her eyes shining. Not with tears, but with the light of "you're back."

Meng Xiaoqing emerged from the teleportation array, carrying a laptop. Her hair was disheveled, her face was covered in dust, and her glasses were askew. She walked up to Zhou Zhou and placed the laptop on the control panel.

"Charge my phone. The data transfer isn't finished yet."

Zhou Zhou looked at her, his mouth opened slightly, then closed again. He picked up the charging cable and plugged it into the computer port. The indicator light changed from red to green, and the screen lit up.

Lin Ye stepped out of the teleportation array, with Su Wanning following behind him. The two walked through the corridor and into the training room. The lights were a dim blue, the kind of color divers see when they descend to a depth of fifty meters. Lin Ye sat down in the center of the training room, and Su Wanning sat down beside him.

"Do you know where that old man was referring to?" Su Wanning asked.

"I don't know. But Akiha knows."

Lin Ye looked down at the gray lines on his wrist. Autumn Leaf was still asleep, its color a little lighter than yesterday. But he could sense it—it was dreaming. In its dream, there was a door, a door within the rings of a tree, and those rings were in the future. The future wasn't time, but "location." The location was in Autumn Leaf's memory. When it woke up, it would tell him.

Six days left in the countdown. Five days to go.