Chapter 41 · The Warmth of Sparkling Stars

As the morning mist of Tokyo Bay rolled in through the window, carrying the sweet scent of osmanthus, the Levithan Squad's hovercar halted in front of Asagao's old family home. Ruts in the bluestone path still held fragments of stardust meteorite, scattered there the night before when Little Peach had chased Coalball—the stray cat—to shove a "love token" into its paws.

"Grandma!" Little Peach stood on tiptoe, clutching the courtyard wall, her hair tips dewed. "Asagao said you're making osmanthus sweet wine rice balls!"

The gate creaked open. Su Qinghuan stood there in a blue cloth apron, holding a celadon bowl. The rice balls floated in golden osmanthus honey. Her silver hair fluttered in the morning breeze, and a faint pink scar at the nape of her neck (from a black mist injury she'd suffered three hundred years ago to save Asagao) glowed tenderly in the sunlight.

"Little glutton." She smiled, handing the bowl to Little Peach, then glanced at Lin Ye and the others behind her. "Come in—there's taro soup simmering on the stove, your favorite."

The living room smelled of sweet glutinous rice. Sakura sat by the window with a bowl, watching sunlight filter through the seven-color glazed beads Su Qinghuan had newly hung, casting multicolored spots on the floor. Jiu's murder of crows perched on her shoulder, pecking at the cherry-blossom hairpin in her locks—a "sister style" gift from Asagao yesterday. Su Li leaned on the sofa, flipping through an old photo album, her spatial spirit pattern flowing in her palm to project images of Asagao—from infancy to adulthood—onto the wall.

"This was when you were three." Su Li pointed to a photo where little Asagao was fastening a stardust meteorite bracelet around Coalball's neck (the stray cat back then). "You said you wanted all little animals to have 'stars'."

"Hasn't that come true now?" Asagao spooned a rice ball, blew on it, and held it to her mother's lips. "Mom, taste it. Is it sweet?"

Su Qinghuan took a bite, her eyes suddenly misting. "Sweet… sweeter than the ones I used to make." She looked at the photo on the wall, her voice as light as a sigh. "I used to worry you'd forget me. When you had a fever as a child, you babbled in your sleep, clutching my wrist shouting, 'Mom, don't go.' Later, when you became a spirit pattern envoy, you were too busy to come home more than once a month…"

"Mom—" Asagao placed her hand over her mother's. "How could I forget? The sweater you knitted for me is still at the top of my closet, with cuffs mended three times. The memory shards you stored in my spirit pattern core—I watch them every night before bed." She raised her left hand, the stardust meteorite bracelet on her wrist shimmering. "See? Even Coalball's collar has the 'peace knot' you taught me engraved on it."

A tear fell from Su Qinghuan's eye onto her hand. In that tear, a scene from three hundred years ago floated up: a baby (Asagao) wrapped in her arms, black mist rolling in from the direction of Locking Dragon Abyss outside the window. She'd used the faint light of her spirit pattern core to keep the baby warm, humming an off-key lullaby.

"So you remember it all." She choked out a laugh. "I thought I'd forgotten, but yesterday when I cleaned out the old cabinet, I found the family portrait you drew at age five—the mom in the picture wore a blue cloth dress, you held Coalball, and there was a glowing star above your head."

Lin Ye looked at the Reverse Scale Core in his hand. On its surface, a line of warm golden characters had appeared unknowingly:

"Reunion isn't about returning to the past—it's about making every 'now' a 'then' worth remembering."

In the afternoon, everyone sipped tea under the Spirit Pattern Tree. Su Qinghuan's spirit pattern core had somehow "stood up" from the wheelchair armrest, hovering mid-air, glowing in harmony with Lin Ye's Reverse Scale Core and Su Jiuli's stardust meteorite bracelet. The light patterns of the three cores intertwined, casting a star map on the ground—the exact star trail that appeared when the eighth knot was untied, triggering a global resonance of spirit pattern cores.

"This is…" Su Li's fingertip gently traced the light map. "The star chart of Locking Dragon Abyss from three hundred years ago."

"More than that." The phantom of the Rampaging Guardian appeared behind the tree. His spirit pattern core no longer thrashed wildly; instead, it glowed the same warm gold as the star map. "This is the 'Reunion Formation'—only when enough 'knots of love' are tied can the sealed…"

"Moon 葵's spirit pattern core be awakened."

A clear voice came from the treetop. Everyone looked up to see Moon kui's phantom standing on the branches. Her spirit pattern core was no longer a translucent remnant but glowed with the same warm light as the Reverse Scale Core, even her hair tips dusted with three-hundred-year-old osmanthus petals.

"You've finally done it." Her gaze swept over Su Qinghuan, Asagao, then landed on Lin Ye and Su Jiuli. "When I sealed the corruption with the Reverse Scale Core all those years ago, I feared love would be a weakness. But now I understand"—her fingertip brushed over Su Qinghuan and Asagao's clasped hands—"love is the strongest chain. It can mend broken time, recall faded memories, and turn every 'I' into 'we'."

As twilight deepened, a seven-color flower suddenly bloomed among the Spirit Pattern Tree's branches. A double-pigtailed girl sat on the petals, waving a stardust meteorite at Coalball: "Coalball, look! It's a glowing star!"

"Is that…" Little Peach's eyes widened. "Me from three hundred years later?"

The girl turned, the teardrop mole at the corner of her eye mirroring Moon kui's. She held up the stardust meteorite, light patterns flowing in her palm to form the characters "reunion". "I'm Little Peach from the future. By then, the corruption will have vanished completely because every spirit pattern envoy has learned—"

"To tie knots with love." Lin Ye finished her sentence.

The girl smiled, unfastening the stardust meteorite bracelet from her wrist and tossing it over. When the bracelet landed in Lin Ye's palm, he felt something gently seep into his heart—the warmth of Moon kui from three hundred years ago, the sweet scent of Su Qinghuan's rice balls, and the earnestness with which Little Peach had fastened Coalball's collar.

"The ninth knot shall be called 'Reunion'." Moon kui's phantom floated down from the branches, overlapping with the future Little Peach. "It requires no grand ceremony, only…"

"To remember those who love you, and let them remember you." Asagao finished for her.

Late at night, Lin Ye sat alone at the top of the Spirit Pattern Tree. The warm light of the Reverse Scale Core illuminated the smile on his face, and the starlight within its core shone brighter than ever—it was the light kindled together by Moon kui from three hundred years ago, modern Su Qinghuan, future Little Peach, and every "knot of love" he'd remembered.

"Captain!" Little Peach's voice came from below. She held Coalball and waved up at him. "Mom said we're staying the night, and tomorrow she'll take us to the old bookstore in the historic district—she says there's a three-hundred-year-old Spirit Pattern Annals there with the complete record of the 'Reunion Formation'!"

Lin Ye flipped down from the branch, landing beside her. Coalball meowed and scampered up to his shoulder, rubbing its head against his ear—identical to the way the stray cat had nuzzled the injured general in Moon kui's arms three hundred years ago.

"Let's go." He ruffled Little Peach's hair. "Tomorrow, we'll turn more 'nows' into 'thens' worth remembering."

Moonlight spilled over the Spirit Pattern Tree's branches, stretching their shadows long. Laughter from Sakura and Jiu drifted over, Su Li was showing Su Qinghuan a projection of the future Spirit Pattern Tree on her tablet, and the Rampaging Guardian's phantom leaned against the tree, humming the lullaby from three hundred years ago.

And in a place they couldn't see, within a pitch-black vortex, the last wisp of corruptive black mist was dissipating. It didn't struggle; instead, it transformed into a tiny stardust, gently falling into the starlight of the Reverse Scale Core.