The Eternal Sentinel
For eons, Wu Gang had existed in a state of perpetual labor.
E.g. ：I saw my best friend kissing my mom in our kitchen; my entire life was a lie.
- 1、The Eternal Sentinel
- 2、A Cut Unlike Any Other
- 3、The Unveiling Device
- 4、A Message From Afar
- 5、The Tree That Whispered Secrets
- 6、A Coded Challenge
His world was the frigid, desolate surface of the Moon, under the watchful gaze of a distant, shimmering Earth.
His companion was the colossal osmanthus tree, its bark as old as the cosmos itself.
His burden was an ancient axe, its blade forever dulled by the ceaseless cutting, only to be resharpened by the relentless passage of time.
This was his punishment, decreed by the Jade Emperor for an offense long forgotten by mortal men.
A punishment that demanded he fell the mighty tree, knowing it would instantly regenerate, rendering his toil eternally futile.
He was the woodcutter of the Moon, a prisoner of an endless, solitary task within the mystical Moon Palace.
Yet, this night felt different.
A subtle tremor, a whisper in the cosmic silence, seemed to prickle his ancient skin.
The moonlight, usually a cool, steady silver, pulsed with an almost imperceptible irregularity.
Wu Gang, a man whose perception had been sharpened by millennia of solitude, felt it deep within his bones.
Something was about to change.
A Cut Unlike Any Other
He raised his axe, the familiar weight a comfort in his calloused hands.
The sound of the impact echoed briefly in the vacuum, a deep thud against the unyielding wood.
A perfect cut, just as always.
He watched, as he had for countless ages, as the wound began its slow, inevitable healing.
But tonight, the process was accelerated, almost violent in its speed.
The bark knitted itself together with an unnatural energy, a frantic knitting that was far too deliberate.
Then, as the bark fully sealed, a strange anomaly appeared.
From the very heart of the newly healed wood, something glinted.
It was small, metallic, and impossibly smooth, unlike anything natural to the ancient tree.
It wasn’t just the tree regenerating; it was the tree constructing.
The Unveiling Device
Wu Gang stared, not with shock, but with a deep, unsettling recognition.
His weathered features, usually a mask of weary resignation, now held a flicker of intense calculation.
He reached out, his fingers, gnarled and strong, tracing the unfamiliar contours of the metallic object.
It was perfectly embedded, a seamless part of the living wood, yet clearly artificial.
This was no random growth, no magical anomaly.
This was a component, a part of something far grander and more complex than a simple osmanthus tree.
He pressed a specific point on its surface, a subtle depression that only one who knew its true nature would discern.
A soft electronic beep, a sound utterly alien to the ancient tranquility of the Moon Palace, pierced the silence.
The metallic object, no bigger than his thumb, whirred almost imperceptibly.
Then, a tiny screen, no larger than a fingernail, flickered to life.
A Message From Afar
The display was rudimentary, but undeniably clear.
It showed a schematic, a moving image of a vehicle traversing a stark, desolate landscape.
It was unmistakably a Lunar Rover, a marvel of modern engineering, crawling across the very moonscape Wu Gang inhabited.
His gaze flickered from the screen to the distant horizon.
He saw it then, a faint, growing speck against the black expanse, reflecting the distant Earthlight.
It was already there.
