Chapter 13 : The Secret of the Lake

The lake slowly calmed down as if everything had never happened.

Leo and Luna stood silently at the bottom of Crescent Lake, their breathing rapid and their heartbeats still hadn't calmed down from the battle they had just fought. The fragments of the faceless idol sank to the bottom of the lake, turning into silent wreckage, and the energy heart that originally belonged to the idol had long since been absorbed by the Void Ring, and the bottom of the lake returned to a dead silence.

"We ... succeeded?" Luna murmured in a low voice, her hand gently stroking over the corner of her forehead, her mechanical eyes still analyzing the changes around her.

Leo didn't answer immediately as he looked at his palm, the Void Ring still emitting a faint glow. He could feel an unfamiliar energy flowing through his body, a mysterious power drawn from the idol. However, he had no time to think about more as the lake began to become unusually clear, as if everything was returning to normal.

"Let's go up and take a look." Leo took a deep breath and adjusted his breathing before slowly floating up to the surface with Luna.

The moment the two stepped from the lake onto land, their eyes instantly froze.

The originally tranquil village was currently enveloped by a bizarre aura. The villagers gathered by the lake in twos and threes, their figures still familiar, but - their faces were no longer young.

All of the villagers had become abnormally aged.

Wrinkles crawled all over their faces, the once robust farmers were now hunched over, their hands covered with calluses and veins. The figures of children no longer existed; it was as if they had grown up overnight and become dying old men. And those already aged elders were even more thin and bony at this moment, as if they would turn into dust at any time.

For a while, both Leo and Luna were unable to accept the sight in front of them.

"What's ... going on here?" Luna's eyes widened as her mechanical eyes quickly scanned the villagers' vital features, only to realize that their aging was not natural, but some kind of sudden change.

Leo's fists clenched slightly, his gaze heavy. They destroyed the faceless idol at the bottom of the lake, and at that moment, the Moon Dew Flower completely withered. Then, is the change ... of these villagers related to the moon dew flower?

The villagers walked slowly, and instead of anger in their eyes, they carried a complex emotion of both relief and regret.

"Moon God ah ... This day has finally arrived." The village chief's voice echoed in the silent air, his face was already covered with wrinkles, but his eyes still had a wise light in them.

Leo and Luna looked at each other, then lowered their heads and said sincerely, "I'm sorry we didn't solve the problem of the wilting Moon Dew Flower."

Their voices were filled with self-blame, after all, their goal was to help the villagers, but now they had caused irreparable consequences.

However, the village chief smiled, a smile that didn't have the slightest hint of reproach, but instead was filled with relief. He slowly shook his head, his voice hoarse but gentle, "No, you guys don't need to apologize. In fact, you guys just brought everything back to the way it was."

Leo frowned slightly, looking at the village chief in puzzlement.

The village chief looked at the lake, his eyes deep, as if he had fallen into long ago memories, "Do you guys know how we can live here for decades and our looks remain unchanged?"

Luna blinked, her mechanical eyes quickly captured the residual energy in the villagers' bodies, her pupils contracted slightly, "Could ... it be related to the Moon Dew Flower?"

The village chief nodded slowly and continued, "Then let's start with our past. As a matter of fact, we are not native Moon Dew Lake villagers, but 'Primordial Purifiers' from the Emerald City."

"Primordial Purifiers?" Leo and Luna asked in unison.

"Yes." The village chief's voice was low and distant, "As you already know, the Emerald City's giant tree once conducted a vast 'Purification Experiment' in an attempt to purify human souls from the filth of the world."

Leo recalled the secret of the Emerald City, the giant tree's roots originally grew moon dew flowers, but after the giant tree was replaced with a mechanical heart, the moon dew flowers withered completely. And the villagers in front of him were actually directly connected to that history?

The village elder sighed and continued, ''Back then, the Emerald City's experiment was not an overnight success. The initial purification system wasn't perfect, and many of the experimental subjects collapsed because they weren't adapted to the purification energy, turning into soulless walking corpses. And we - we are those very few who successfully underwent purification."

The villagers nodded in silence, their eyes showing complex emotions.

The village chief's gaze looked into the distance, and his voice slowly said, "Later, we successful purifiers realized that the system was not perfect. Even though we obtained 'pure' souls, those failed experimental subjects were left to languish in the city. Thus, we decided to leave the Emerald City and a more perfect purification system to them, while we, the successful ones, chose to leave and find a new home."

Hearing this, Leo's heart rippled. He hadn't expected that these villagers would have such a heavy past.

"When we left the Emerald City, we took with us the roots of a giant tree." The village chief pointed towards the lake with a deep gaze, "We hope to recreate the purification system in our new land, so that our souls will remain pure."

Luna nodded thoughtfully, "So, you cast the root system of that giant tree into Lake Luna and found the seeds of the Moon Dew Flower here?"

The village chief smiled, "Exactly. Since that day, the Moon Dew Flower in the lake began to grow, and our appearance stopped changing from then on."

Hearing this, Leo finally understood - it turned out that the villagers hadn't aged for decades, not because of the Moon God's blessing, but because the power of the Moon Dew Flower was sustaining their state of life. And when they destroyed the faceless idol at the bottom of the lake and caused the Moon Dew Flower to wither, the villagers' time resumed its flow and returned to nature.

The village chief sighed softly, and the wrinkles on his face seemed to deepen a bit more, "For decades, we have thought that it was the gift of the Moon God that allowed us to enjoy this unchanging serenity. But now it seems that it was just the aftermath of another purification system after all."

Leo was silent for a moment and slowly asked, "Do you ... regret it?"

The village chief froze slightly, then smiled, that smile calm and relieved, "No, we don't regret it. Life should have followed the laws of nature, and the flow of time is the true life."

The villagers nodded their heads as well, and even though their bodies had aged, their eyes were relaxed like never before.

Leo's fingers clenched into fists as he watched all of this, his heart filled with self-blame. He didn't think that his unintentional behavior had caused these villagers to lose their "eternal time". He looked down at his hand, the faint energy fluctuation still remained on the void ring, that was the residual afterglow of the energy heart.

Luna's mechanical eyes flickered with a shimmering light, her brow furrowed deeply as she murmured, "It's all because of us ... that we've caused all of this."

Her voice was tinged with pain and guilt, they had come here to help the villagers, but they ended up personally breaking the peaceful life they had lived for decades.

Just then, the village chief slowly came forward, his figure was much more stooped, but those eyes still shone with a wise light. He looked at the two of them and smiled, his tone calm, ''Children, there is no need to blame yourself. We've had too much time, and now, it's time to let everything return to nature."

Leo raised his head, his eyes still carrying uneasiness, "But if it wasn't us ..."

The village chief waved his hand, interrupting him, a faint smile on his face, "Do you think that you are the ones who made us grow old? No, it would have been our destiny."

The villagers nodded their heads, without a trace of resentment on their faces, instead, they carried a relieved calmness. They looked at each other as if they had finally recovered a long-lost sense of reality.

"For decades, we have been living outside of time, trapped in a static world." The Mayor's gaze was cast to the lake, his tone distant, "While this unchanging serenity is beautiful, it has also made us forget what true life is."

He turned to Leo and slowly reached out his hand, handing an emerald green shard into Leo's palm.

"This emerald shard, belongs to you."

Leo froze slightly as he looked down at the emerald shard in his palm, a smooth and translucent crystal that gave off a faint glow under the moonlight. He raised his head and looked at the village chief suspiciously.

The village chief smiled and gently patted Leo's shoulder, "Your back resembles and resembles that hero who created the giant tree."

"The ... hero who created the giant tree?" Luna's eyes flashed with surprise.

The village chief nodded slowly, "Yes, he left behind this emerald fragment, perhaps waiting for someone to come and take it. And right now, I think that someone is you."

Leo's brows furrowed slightly as he gripped the emerald shard tightly, a strange feeling rising in his heart. His memories were still confused and unclear, but vaguely, he felt that this emerald shard, as if it had some kind of connection with himself.

Luna looked at Leo, she knew that his past was still a mystery, and this emerald shard might be able to bring them closer to the truth.

However, despite the clue, Luna's mood was not lightened. Her gaze swept over the villagers, looking at their aged figures, and the guilt inside her made it hard to let go.

"But ... we really ruined everything." Luna's voice trembled slightly, "If it wasn't for us, they could have continued to live ..."

The village elder sighed softly and reached out, gently stroking the top of Luna's hair, "Children, you have your own journey to make, it is time to go."

He looked out over the lake, the moonlight spilling over the wilted moon dew flowers, his tone soft and firm, "We thank you for coming, so that we can finally understand that the meaning of life is not in eternity, but in the flow that it was meant to be."

"So go."

The villagers smiled and nodded, there was no resentment in their eyes, only relief and gratitude.

Leo and Luna stood in the center of the village with heavy hearts, unwilling to take a step for a long time. However, the villagers continued to send them off as they did when they first arrived, only this time, there was a hint of vicissitude and sadness in their singing.

The song echoed in the night, it was an ancient melody, melodious and far-reaching.

Leo and Luna finally took their steps, walking step by step towards the exit of the village. However, the moment they stepped out of the village, a breeze blew by, filling the air with a light dust.

Leo and Luna jerked back -

The village disappeared.

All the buildings, the villagers, were turned into ashes in the sky in an instant, drifting away with the wind. They disappeared so quietly, as if they had never existed, only that piece of drifting dust, slowly falling with the night wind.

However, just as the dust fell on the lakeshore, those withered moon dew flowers, miraculously grew back.

One, two ... I don't know when, the entire lakeside was once again covered by moon dew flowers, blooming with a white and pure light. However, this time, the Moon Dew Flowers no longer emitted mysterious energy, they were just the most ordinary flowers, swaying quietly under the moonlight.

As the wind blew by the lake, the songs of the villagers seemed to echo in the sea of flowers, as if they had never truly left.

Tears came to Luna's eyes, and she bit her lips tightly, her voice choking, "Is it because of us that they disappeared?"

Her shoulders trembled slightly as tears slid down her cheeks and dripped onto the moon dew flowers.

Leo was silent for a moment, he looked at the sea of flowers in front of him, his eyes were deep, and he said in a low voice, "Maybe ... what guides everything is fate."

The night breeze blew again, brushing away the tears on Luna's face, the breeze seemed to carry a warm comfort, gently caressing their cheeks.

The wind whispered as if telling them - go forward, don't look back.

Leo and Luna took a deep look at the sea of flowers by the lake, then turned around and continued on their journey towards the distance.

Their silhouettes gradually disappeared into the night, while on the shores of the Luna Lake, the Moon Dew Flowers gently swayed in the wind, quietly witnessing all of this.