The air was scripture written in decay.
Chu Feng and Ling'er stood in the heart of Host 722's purgatory—a cathedral-sized fungal colony where saintly mycelium devoured the bones of failed hosts. Walls pulsed with bioluminescent psalms, their verses etched in spore-script:
"Blessed are the harvested, for they shall fertilize eternity."
Ling'er's phoenix core, still recovering from the Conservatory's implosion, cast jagged shadows resembling Jiang Yue's final silhouette. Chu Feng's Bloodvine Seed had mutated into a thorned rosary around his neck, its berries containing concentrated doses of Regret (Host 722's dominant memory chemical).
"This isn't a tomb," Ling'er whispered, crushing a glowing mushroom underfoot. "It's a confession booth."
The ground liquefied. Mycelial tendrils cradled them downward into:
A. The First Sin (Memory Reenactment)
Chu Feng became Host 722 during the Harvest of Innocence:
Sensory Overlay: Smell of daughter Mei's lavender soap clashing with blood-iron
Tactile Feedback: Weight of the scythe genetically imprinted into muscle memory
Moral Echo: The System's voice as his own internal monologue
"One more season," he (as Host 722) told Mei's trembling form. "Just one more tax collector's head, and the rains will return."
Ling'er, forced into Mei's role, hissed through the scripted dialogue: "You smell like the men who took Mother."
B. The Fractured Eucharist
The fungal network judged Chu Feng's performance:
Mercy Route: Mycelium bloomed healing pollens (Triggering System's corruption protocols)
Ruthlessness Route: Spores hardened into armor (Accelerating Bloodvine's metastasis)
Chu Feng carved a third path—kneeling to embrace Ling'er/Mei. The colony responded with biological heresy:
Hallucinogenic hymnals flooded their synapses
Altarpieces reconfigured into a chimeric nursery (Half wheat field, half dissection table)
Host 722's preserved larynx materialized, singing a warped Ave Maria
A. The Unholy Trinity
Three fungal avatars manifested as twisted reflections:
The Father: Host 722's corpse fused with a combine harvester
The Son: Mei's ghost with vine-strangled vocal cords
The Holy Spore: A sentient ergot fungus preaching liberation through madness
"Join our gospel," the Spore intoned through a million caps. "Let your sins bloom."
Ling'er's phoenix flames ignited spontaneous mutations:
Fire became solid, crystallizing into anti-fungal shards
Smoke coalesced into Jiang Yue's disapproving face
Ashes sprouted miniature wheat fields singing nursery rhymes
B. The Bloodvine's Penance
Chu Feng's rosary berries ruptured, releasing Regret aerosols. The colony's judgmental psalms softened into elegiac whispers. Host 722's scythe rusted mid-swing.
"You infected it with mercy," Ling'er realized. "That's the real heresy."
The fungal floor birthed a mycelial replica of the System's core—soft, vulnerable, alive.
A. Symbiotic Betrayal
The Bloodvine Seed rebelled. Chu Feng's veins erupted in photosynthetic warfare:
Chloroplasts vs. Mycelium (Glowing lesions mapping battlefronts)
Xylem vessels delivering Regret to strategic memory nodes
Root hairs rewriting fungal psalms into agricultural almanacs
Ling'er fought the Holy Spore's brainwashing hymns by conducting Jiang Yue's lullabies through her phoenix core—a sonic duel that:
Shattered spore-script into carcinogenic confetti
Awakened dormant host corpses as temporary allies
Reduced Mei's ghost to a weeping child clutching a doll
B. The Final Harvest
Chu Feng plunged Host 722's rusted scythe into the fungal System-core. The colony responded with redemptive overkill:
Mycelium purged all traces of the System's code
Host 722's memories dissolved into fertilizer
Ling'er's phoenix core absorbed the Holy Spore's madness
The psalms shifted tone:
"Blessed are the imperfect, for they shall outgrow their programming."
The purgatory collapsed into a single fungal rose. Chu Feng, now more mycelium than man, offered it to Ling'er.
"For your mother's grave," he rasped, Jiang Yue's name a foreign syllable on his spore-scarred tongue.
As they exited, the rose unfolded into a living map of The Mycelium Network—revealing:
Node 1: The Harvesters' current stronghold (A dying star's accretion disk)
Node 7: Jiang Yue's original lab (Buried under rice paddies)
Node 13: A pulsing anomaly labeled Gardener's Gambit
Ling'er crushed the rose. Its thorns drew blood from both their palms, forging a Covenant of Thorns:
[New Alliance: Phoenix & Spore]
[New Threat: Network Reveals 666 Active Hosts Beyond Termination Code]
The chapter closes with the fungal psalms echoing through Chu Feng's veins:
"Amen."
"Amen."