Lu Duo smiled gently, a glimmer filled with vitality rising from her palm. "All things have spirits, and belief is a form of life force. I will help guide and purify this power, allowing it to grow healthily."

Leng Ningxue looked at her companions who had reached a consensus, a faint ripple of something akin to relief flickering in her icy blue eyes. She nodded slightly. "Since the decision has been made, we need a meticulous plan."

"How to construct symbols, guide faith, establish defenses, and respond to retaliation... every step must be calculated."

Bai Cheng nodded and turned her gaze beyond the barrier once more, as if looking through the stone walls toward the vast and peril-filled realms.

The choice had been made.

To accept faith, provide protection, and go to war completely with the Enforcement Officer system and the Sovereign-level experts who might exist behind it, while simultaneously remaining wary of the schemes of the Constellation Leader in the shadows.

This path was destined to be filled with thorns, blood, and fire, but it was also the only way to break the deadlock and challenge the truth and the final enemy.

The desert wind, carrying heat and dust, blew through the canyon.

The brief rest was about to end, and a storm of even greater scale and unprecedented intensity was brewing.

The train still needed repairs, and injuries had yet to heal, but the direction of the road ahead was already clear.

—To fight for freedom, for the truth, and for the beliefs entrusted to them.

Soon, the people of the Desert Kingdom, carrying gratitude from their narrow escape and a near-pious expectation, began their project.

They did not choose magnificent precious metals, nor did they pursue a grand scale that reached the clouds; instead, they followed the wishes of Bai Cheng and the others.

Simple and symbolic, it was connected to the lifeblood of this land.

Under Lu Duo's guidance, they selected three naturally formed, massive ocher-yellow sandstone rocks beside an oasis where trickles of water had begun to seep out once more.

The stone was gathered from deep within the dunes that had been purified and no longer steamed with waves of despairing heat, carrying the gentle warmth of the earth's accumulation.

The sculptors of the statues were the few remaining old stonemasons in the kingdom; their skills had once been used to decorate the royal courts of the past.

Now, their hands, covered in calluses and cracks, trembled with focus as they gave the rocks new life.

The first statue was modeled after Bai Cheng, though it was not entirely realistic.

She was dressed in simple traveler's clothing, her posture upright, looking slightly up at the sky to the northeast—the direction they had come from and the direction of their future journey.

Her hands held no weapons; one was slightly raised with the palm facing upward, as if supporting an invisible hope, while the other hung naturally at her side, with faint space ripples carved into her fingertips, appearing and disappearing.

Her expression was serene and determined, and her long silver-white hair was depicted with flowing lines that seemed as if they might actually flutter in the night wind.

On the base of the statue, a line was engraved in the ancient script of the Sand Kingdom: "Traveler Watching Over the Road of Freedom."

The second and third statues stood side by side behind and to the side of Bai Cheng's statue, in a posture of guarding and accompanying her.

One was the moment a Blue Bird spread its wings to fly, with thunderous light condensed at the tips of its wings—not violent, but sharp and bright, piercing through the gloom.

The other was a collective symbol of everyone's power: winding vines supporting ice crystals and glimmering light, with the cold sharpness of blades and a ceaseless life force flowing between them.

On their bases were carved: "Thunder Tearing through the Long Night" and "Resilience Guarding Life."

The statues were not massive, about the height of two people, but the lines were full of power and spirit, appearing solemn and warm under the starlight and moonlight of the desert.

On the day of completion, there was no grand celebration; only the people gathered spontaneously by the oasis, silently offering the first batch of new sprouts painstakingly cultivated in the desert, clean spring water, and the most sincere gratitude in their hearts.

They were told that there was no need for daily kneeling; they only needed to hold beliefs of freedom, courage, mutual aid, and hope in their hearts, and to connect those beliefs with their gratitude for the practitioners.

Night arrived as scheduled, deep and pure.

The daytime heat had completely dissipated, leaving only the sand with the sun's residual warmth, intertwined with the coolness of the night wind.

The starry river spanned the firmament, exceptionally brilliant above the cloudless desert, like an inverted sea of silver sand.

In the dead of this silent night, as midnight turned, an indescribable change quietly occurred.

It began with those three sandstone statues.

Under the clear light of the stars and moon, they did not glow themselves, but the textures on their surfaces seemed to become exceptionally clear, as if they were breathing, creating a subtle resonance with the surrounding desert, oasis, and night sky.

The parched and despairing atmosphere that had lingered in the air from the past had long since been dispersed by Lu Duo's life power and the people's newborn hope.

At this moment, it was replaced by an extremely faint yet incredibly resilient "flow."

This "flow" was formless and invisible to the naked eye; only life forms extremely sensitive to energy or in a specific state of mind could vaguely sense it.

It rose quietly from all over the Desert Kingdom—from the quiet dreams of the people who could finally sleep peacefully, ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) from the lingering notes of ancient songs mothers hummed to soothe their children, which were no longer filled with sorrow.

It came from the depths of the eyes of young people as they wiped their tools and looked forward to rebuilding their homes tomorrow, and from the end of the thoughts of elders as they gazed at the starry sky and silently recited prayers.

Strand by strand, pure and warm, it was not fanatical worship, but deep gratitude, earnest expectation, trust in courage and protectors, and a rekindled longing for the concepts of freedom, peace, and the future themselves.

These tiny streams of intent, like the rare life-bearing mists of a desert night, drifted and were eventually drawn by an invisible pull toward the three statues by the oasis.

The statues seemed to become the center of a gentle vortex, absorbing and gathering these scattered powers of faith.

On the Blue Bird statue, there was a faint, imperceptible crackle of static; on the statue representing the collective, there seemed to be the fragrance of plants and the coolness of ice crystals flowing.

And on the statue of Bai Cheng, around that palm facing upward, the space seemed to produce the most subtle and stable ripples, as if it were truly holding some invisible object.

At this moment, in the meditation area at the core of the temporary camp, guarded by layers of vines and simple barriers, Bai Cheng was closing her eyes to regulate her breathing, sorting through the Power of Space that had not yet fully settled after the fierce battle with the Four Zodiacs.

Suddenly, her long eyelashes fluttered slightly.

An unprecedented sensation surged into her heart. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

It was not through the five senses, but acted directly upon the depths of her consciousness, like a warm raindrop gently falling onto the calm surface of a mental lake, rippling outward in circles.

She felt it.

She felt those warm and resilient trickling streams gathering from the direction of the statues.

They did not flow directly into her body; instead, they first established a mysterious connection with the statue modeled after her, as if that statue had become an anchor for transfer and resonance.