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Sow the Cause
- He Sheng
There's too many... we can't handle them all...
- He Sheng
We might not even manage to save the nearby fields.
- Zuo Le
The situation is dire, we should prioritize saving the people...
- He Sheng
Am I imagining things...? They don't seem as fearsome as before...
- He Sheng
What's that sound?
- Zuo Le
This plate is separating from the core city...
- Zuo Le
As I thought... the vitality of these monsters is bound to Dahuang's energy core. So once we break that connection, they'll grow weaker.
- Zuo Le
Hold on! Has everyone managed to evacuate here?
- He Sheng
We notified the entire city, but is everyone here?
- Lead Farmer A
Everyone from Residential Sections 1 to 4 is here.
- Lead Farmer B
Sections 9 through 12, all present!
- Lead Farmer C
Everyone from 6 to 8 is here, but we haven't heard back from the group dispatched to Section 5.
- He Sheng
What?!
- Lead Farmer C
They were on their way from the city center when they encountered a patch of farmland under attack. Things were going badly, and that's when we lost contact.
- He Sheng
The energy core has broken down, and our communications systems went with it...
- He Sheng
I'll go look for them!
- Zuo Le
Wait!
- Zuo Le
You're always chide me for acting tough, but now you're dashing ahead of us? We don't even know how many monsters are swarming the place, and you plan on charging forward alone?
- He Sheng
That's my experimental plot, I know it better than anyone else!
- He Sheng
The residents there usually help me with the farmwork. I even lied to them, saying my research was going well lately...
- Zuo Le
It's fine if you want to go, just take me along. I run fast too. I can help.
- He Sheng
You're not from here. You've got nothing to do with the people here, and you're even a year younger than I am—
- Zuo Le
'...He Sheng was promoted to an Intermediate Nongye Tianshi in the year 1101 at the age of seventeen.'
- He Sheng
You—
- Zuo Le
When I was looking through the intel on Dahuang, I checked the Tianshi Bureaus' roster, and found you're a year younger than me.
- Zuo Le
So no need to act tough at such a critical juncture, boy.
- He Sheng
Shao lai zhe tao, do you normally speak like this back home?!
- Zuo Le
I NEVER speak like this, xin qiu!
- Zuo Le
Enough talk, let's go already!
Was the legend a lie?
The blurry rice paddies stretch to the horizon. This is a patch of living, fertile land.
The wind plays ever so, the wave of rice as song.
A nascent consciousness is born here, and a voice speaks to her.
- Chaotic Consciousness
You're back.
- Chaotic Consciousness
You seem exhausted. Are you alright?
- Shu
So... you're already awake.
- Chaotic Consciousness
Where am I? Have I always been here?
- Chaotic Consciousness
Why do I... have memories from long ago?
- Chaotic Consciousness
I saw so much...
War, death, plague, famine...
The disaster from above the roof washes over the land, leaving only devastation behind, followed by endless war and upheaval.
Civilizations perish, life fills with dread.
Why am I trapped in here?
Just who am I?
- Chaotic Consciousness
I feel so... frightened.
- Chaotic Consciousness
The outside... is frightening.
- Chaotic Consciousness
Pain.
- Chaotic Consciousness
I can hear the cries of many.
How can I put a stop to all this suffering?
I remember now, someone gave me a name...
Sui.
- Sinister Voice
I am you.
The weeds overgrow, drowning the entire land.
The longest dark of night condenses into this single moment.
- Shu
...
- Shu
No, you're just a shadow... my shadow.
- Shu
But it isn't your suffering, it belongs to the people living on this land.
- Sinister Voice
No—
- Shu
You fear because you haven't really lived yet, you don't know how this great land truly is.
- Shu
This world isn't frightening at all.
But you've never seen crops being harvested, or people cheerfully laughing.
You've never seen countless creatures vying to survive, enduring hardship, and continuing to thrive.
You should take a closer look, if you get the chance.
I am no longer an arrogant and lonesome Feranmut, nor am I a soul adrift all on my own.
I have lived a real life here, together with the infinite variety life on this continent.
A drop of dew drips down, injecting life that spans across time into the land.
- Shu
Sleep.
Twilight red sets on the stalks,
these earthly strivings kissed by dew,
millennia reap me now a single tender shoot.
- Panicked Farmer
Over here! Help!
- Panicked Farmer
AHHHH! Stay away!
- Panicked Farmer
...Wha!
- Strange Fabric
(Hiss)
- Trembling Farmer
Are... Are we saved?
- He Sheng
Uncle Wang! Why are you still here? Are you alright?
- Trembling Farmer
Xiaohe! I knew you'd come back!
- Trembling Farmer
Jian gui le, these beasts just appeared out of nowhere and started chewing up all the crops here. .
- Trembling Farmer
But don't worry! We protected the plot well, and didn't let a single beast pass us—
- He Sheng
Uncle Wang!
- Zuo Le
It's alright... he's only fainted from shock.
The whole field is sinking inch by inch, and huge fissures can be seen across the fields in the distance.
- He Sheng
The communication equipment's not working at all. The Tumu Tianshis don't know there's still people here, and they've already begun disconnecting the plate.
- He Sheng
Let's hurry and move before it's too late!
- Frightened Farmer
What a deep ravine...
- Frightened Farmer
Have we been... left behind?
- Zuo Le
...Pardon me!
The young Candleholder carries the farmer on his own, and leaps into the air, crossing the gap in just a few steps.
- He Sheng
You... you're amazing!
Zuo Le goes back and forth between the two separated plates, transporting one-by-one those left behind to safety on the other side.
But the space between the plates continues to expand at a speed visible to the naked eye, and his steps gradually grow heavier.
Until the last trip, when a gust of wind blows him back up as he almost loses his footing.
- He Sheng
Careful now...
- Zuo Le
Many thanks...
- Zuo Le
Everyone's safe now, so hold onto me and I'll bring you over too!
- Eerie Fabric
(Hiss)
- Zuo Le
There's more of them?!
- He Sheng
Don't get distracted...
- Zuo Le
You're using your Arts too much.
- He Sheng
No need to worry about me... the students of the Tianshi Bureaus aren't as weak as you think.
The duo work together to repel a few monsters, but as they dispatch the beasts the vertical disparity of both plates escalates before their eyes.
The distance of about fifteen meters seems a unsurmountable chasm to the two.
- Zuo Le
Damn it!
- He Sheng
Are we... stuck here...?
- Zuo Le
This plate is about to fall, so we'd best prepare for impact... Find somewhere with soft soil to hide it, and we might...
- He Sheng
I never noticed till now that Dahuang's plates were built so high...
- He Sheng
Zuo Le... How many people did we save?
- Zuo Le
Don't worry, I did a headcount earlier and everyone who was here has already made it over.
- Zuo Le
Cheer up, we just have to find a way to make it back alive, and this rescue mission will be a complete success.
- He Sheng
The legends always say as long as everyone stands together, we'll make it through any crisis, no matter how dire it gets...
- He Sheng
Everyone's been taking care of me all these years... I've never managed to pay them back, but today...
He Sheng struggles to finish his words, and Zuo Le realizes a bright red stain is seeping through from the other's white shirt.
- Zuo Le
You're hurt?! When did you—I'll stop the bleeding!
- He Sheng
Zuo Le, let me give you something.
- Zuo Le
Right now?!
- He Sheng
This is my Tianshi apparatus with important data inside. You have to keep it safe, no matter what happens.
- Zuo Le
Alright... I'll take it.
He Sheng ties an Originium device tightly onto Zuo Le's hand. He hits the switch, and the little thing rapidly unfolds into a kite.
- Zuo Le
What are you doing?!
- He Sheng
I was hard on you before, but I've realized... you have a good heart.
- He Sheng
So I can't, leave you here...
The youth exerts the last vestiges of his strength, and a gust of wind rises. Zuo Le flies into the air carried by the kite before he can even react.
The plate below shrinks bit by bit, along with He Sheng's silhouette. But Zuo Le can make out the shapes of a few remaining monsters on the field rushing towards the shrinking figure.
- Eerie Fabric
(Menacing howl)
- He Sheng
I don't know where you came from...
- He Sheng
But I'm not scared...
- He Sheng
Huh...?
- Passing Stockbeast
Oink—?
- ???
You awake? Hey, wake up!
- ???
Wei, you hear that?
- ???
Seems like he's still breathing. Make way.
- He Sheng
I...
- He Sheng
Mianmian?
- Docile Stockbeast
(Concerned nudging)
- He Sheng
Stop... licking me... I don't have any treats on me...
He Sheng opens his eyes to find himself lying in a field, surrounded by a plethora of worried faces.
He seems to have returned to a day he does not remember, the first day he came to this land.
- He Sheng
Is... everyone alright?
- He Sheng
I...
- Zuo Le
Everyone was about to look for you when Mianmian suddenly showed up with you in tow.
- Zuo Le
But, why did you—
- Zuo Le
...Thank you for saving me.
- He Sheng
...
- He Sheng
The monsters... did we beat them?
- Zuo Le
Yes...
The dark clouds scatter, the bloody afterglow fades. Another sunset sprinkles a golden twilight all over the fields.
- He Sheng
Is... is it over?
- Zuo Le
It's over...
- He Sheng
We won, right?
- He Sheng
What Shennong did then, we've managed it too...
- Zuo Le
Indeed...
- Zuo Le
Someone's managed to get the energy core under control, we did it...
- Zuo Le
Looking back at it all, isn't this the birth of a new legend?
- Zuo Le
Now that things have died down, we should head back...
- He Sheng
Wait! If my eyes don't deceive me...
- He Sheng
That's... Plate A-5... the Wanqing experimental plot!
In an overgrown field nearby stands a single rice stalk.
- He Sheng
Zuo Le! Help me out!
- Zuo Le
Why do you want to go back? It's still dangerous!
- Zuo Le
What is it?
- He Sheng
It worked! We did it!
- He Sheng
Wanqing, the Ten Thousand Qing of Fertile Fields... all's not lost! There's still hope for us!
The youth happily carries the rice plant, with a slight lunacy to his laughter.
- Zuo Le
What exactly...?
- Zuo Le
You'll probably just say 'You wouldn't understand, even if I told you.', right...?
- Zuo Le
I'll just take you at your word...
- Ji
For these creatures to grow, they must endure a calamity. Those that survive will break out of their cocoons; those that do not will have their lives quietly snuffed out in the darkness.
- Ji
No living being can escape the cycle of destruction and rebirth.
- Zuo Le
What exactly is he planning...?
- Zuo Le
The Feranmut's Heart...?
- Ji
We meet again.
- Ji
Your presence here must mean you've figured out my plans, Lord Zuo?
- Zuo Le
What are you doing?
- Ji
Weaving, as you can see.
- Zuo Le
Weaving what?
- Ji
Something for sale once it's completed, of course.
- Zuo Le
For sale to whom?
- Ji
It's standard practice to keep customer information confidential.
- Zuo Le
What's that... on the cloth?
- Ji
Scenes from across the country... or perhaps to phrase it in your words, the 'splendor' of Yan?
- Ji
I spent many years traveling across Yan, visiting every city, and Dahuang is my final stop. Only today do I consider this bolt of cloth complete.
- Ji
One should use dyes of an appropriate quality for a design this beautiful. Is there any material better than Yan's splendor to dye this weave? My Hundred Scenic Portraits of Great Yan?
Countless bolts of silk and satin seem to descend from the heavens, every bolt a city, a piece of history, a facet of worldly plight.
The nation's splendor? No... It should be the hearts of the people.
Just look at how brilliant the brocade is. All the colors of their souls I've seen.
How could I dislike this mortal realm?
