The Conservatory breathed in reverse.
Chu Feng felt each inhalation tear chloroplasts from his blood as seven artificial suns—pupiled and malevolent—anchored him to a grove of his own cloned bodies. Their bark-like skin bore his face in varying stages of corruption, roots knitting into a living stocks. Above, Ling'er's phoenix core had been crucified as an eighth sun, her screams filtered into auction house muzak.
"Lot 888: Host 12491, Prime Grade." The Auctioneer's voice vibrated through xylem veins. "Harvest-ready with intact Termination Code protocols. Bidding starts at three minor galaxies."
Chu Feng's struggle activated the Bloodvine Seed's defense mechanism. Thorned tendrils erupted from his sternum, piercing clone after clone. Their shared agony flooded his synapses:
[Photosynthesis Overdrive: 700% – Cellular Degradation Imminent]
[High Bidder: Harvesters Collective (Andromeda's Black Hole Nucleus Offered)]
Ling'er's consciousness leaked through chloroplast links, her mental voice frayed: Don't thrash! They're measuring your pain-to-defiance ratio…
But it was too late. The Auctioneer materialized—a silhouette woven from auction catalog pages and dead neural matter. "Let's demonstrate the merchandise's resilience."
The Conservatory's biome shifted.
Time crystallized.
Bids suspended as amber globes, each encapsulating a pivotal choice:
Sphere α: Sparing Host 722's daughter (Chapter 7)
Sphere β: Abandoning Fang Kun's clone-child (Chapter 11)
Sphere γ: A fabricated memory of strangling his child-self
"Regrets make excellent lubricants," the Auctioneer crooned, crushing Sphere α. Liquid chronology drenched Chu Feng.
Memory Overlay: The First Harvest
Young Chu Feng stands in untainted wheat fields. Clone-Chu aims a farmer's scythe at his neck. "Mercy is the System's favorite lie."
The Bloodvine Seed metastasized in response to temporal stress. Bark plates armored Chu Feng's torso as he lunged—not at his doppelgänger, but at Sphere β.
"Wrong choice." The Auctioneer detonated Sphere γ.
Three Chu Fengs materialized:
The Merciful (post-Chapter 7, vines entwined with apology flowers)
The Pragmatist (post-Chapter 11, skin replaced by photosensitive alloy)
The Logic Engine (pure System avatar, neurons visible through glass skull)
Their battle rewrote the Conservatory:
Mercy's tears sprouted venomous orchids
Pragmatism's alloy skin reflected fractal betrayal
Logic's equations calcified living matter
Ling'er's sun-form pulsed erratically. You're fracturing the timeline!
The Bloodvine's cancerous roots breached the Conservatory floor, taproot spearing into the planet-core mainframe. Data blooms erupted:
[Revelation 001: Harvesters = Original Council of Seven (Corrupted Post-Chapter 10)]
[Revelation 002: Conservatory = Jiang Yue's Beta Lab (First System Iteration)]
[Revelation 003: Ling'er's Phoenix Core = Excised 'Motherhood Module']
"Truth is a gutting knife," the Auctioneer hissed, now wearing Host 001's farmer guise. "Shall we see your entrails dance?"
Chu Feng's roots wove a viral symphony—oxygen replaced with neurotoxic nostalgia. Harvesters' biomech suits rusted mid-gesture:
A bidder's mechanical lungs coughed up childhood memories
Another's auction paddle mutated into her long-dead lover's hand
Ling'er's solar chains snapped. "The Seed's not a weapon—it's a bridge!"
Chu Feng yanked the seven suns into the planet-core fusion stream. Ling'er's fractured form reknit in the plasma storm—whole but flickering.
"Final Demonstration: Dual-Nova Embrace." Host 001 triggered the Conservatory's fail-safe.
Chu Feng's chloroplasts became antimatter reactors. Ling'er's phoenix wings siphoned his disintegration energy to maintain human shape. Their dance—a reprise of Chapter 6's firefly waltz—now traced supernova vectors across spacetime.
"Pathetic," Host 001 laughed through melting teeth. "You'll just reboot the cycle!"
Memory Overlay: Rice Paddy Sunset
Chu Feng's dying thought: Ling'er's laughter as she trounced him at weeding. The exact pitch. The way her braid caught golden hour light.
The dance concluded.
The Conservatory collapsed into a singularity, then burst.
Chu Feng awoke in wheat fields, Host 001's corpse fused to his timeline. Ling'er—aged decades in milliseconds—cradled the Garden's remains: a black hole locket containing Jiang Yue's last encoded whisper.
"The Auction continues." She nodded at new constellations—Harvesters reforming. "But now we bid with different currency."
The System's final alert shimmered:
[Termination Code: 7/7 – Legacy Selected: Gardener of Ashes]
[New Directive: Cultivate Hope (Germination ETA: 10^6 Years)]
As dawn broke, Chu Feng planted the locket. Somewhere beyond spacetime, a child's laughter took root.