Roots of Resilience
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### **I. The Weight of Absence**
Li Na stood in the backyard of her childhood home in rural China, her fingers brushing the leaves of a willow tree Chen Zhen had planted years ago. The kids practiced tai chi nearby, their movements stiff but determined. She watched them mimic her father's slow arcs, their faces etched with a focus far beyond their years.
*"They're trying to be strong for him,"* her mother whispered, joining her under the tree. *"But they cry at night. Xiaojun keeps asking when Baba will come home."*
Li Na's throat tightened. She pressed a hand to the willow's trunk, its bark humming faintly with verdant energy. *"I don't know if I'm doing the right thing. Letting them cultivate… it's like sending them into a war they didn't choose."*
Her mother's gaze hardened. *"War chose *us*. You think those agents won't return? That the shadows outside Tokyo just… vanished?"*
A leaf detached, spiraling into Li Na's palm. It glowed faintly—her ancestral technique reacting to her turmoil. *"I just wish Chen were here."*
*"He is,"* her father said, emerging with a tray of tea. *"In every punch they throw, every seed you grow."*
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### **II. The Green Inferno**
That night, Li Na dreamt of roots.
They coiled through her veins, piercing soil and stone until they found Chen Zhen—his glaive raised against a sky of devoured stars. The Eclipse Queen's laughter echoed as thorns speared his legs, pinning him mid-strike.
*"You can't save him,"* the Queen hissed, her voice the creak of dying timber. *"But I'll let you watch."*
Li Na woke screaming, vines erupting from her palms to strangle the bedroom walls. Xiaojun and Meiling burst in, their tiny hands glowing with unstable qi as they tried to calm her.
*"Mama's plants are scared!"* Meiling cried, her tears watering the thrashing vines.
Li Na wrestled control, the greenery retreating. She pulled them close, her heartbeat syncing with the house's creaks—the old wood responding to her fear.
*"We need to be stronger,"* Xiaojun muttered into her shoulder. *"For Baba."*
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### **III. The Temple's Gambit**
Gorampa stood before the Alliance Council, their stone faces lit by flickering braziers.
*"The Eclipse Queen's drones breached Shanghai last night,"* he growled, projecting holograms of skyscrapers veined with black rot. *"Your silence won't protect your temples—it *invites* slaughter."*
Bassui, the silver-robed elder, smirked. *"And your 'solution'? Hand our disciples to a *housewife* who talks to trees?"*
Murmurs rippled. Gorampa's fist clenched. *"Li Na Chen is no housewife. She's the first Verdant Sovereign in eight centuries. Her line birthed the *original* seals."*
A gasp. Ancient texts glowed as Gorampa summoned records—a mural of Li Na's ancestor, Lin Yǔ, weaving forests into a barrier against the Void.
*"The Queen fears her,"* Gorampa pressed. *"That's why she sabotaged Flight 237. Not to kill Chen Zhen—to isolate Li Na before she awakened."*
The council erupted. Bassui stood. *"Prove it."*
Gorampa smiled grimly. *"Gladly."*
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### **IV. The Harvest**
In the backyard, Li Na knelt, palms buried in soil. The kids sat cross-legged beside her, their qi intertwining with hers as she communed with the earth.
*"Feel the roots,"* she whispered. *"They're not just in the ground—they're in the air, in *us*."*
Xiaojun frowned. *"But how do we fight with plants?"*
Meiling giggled as a dandelion sprouted from her palm. *"We'll grow thorns! Big ones!"*
Li Na's laughter died as the soil *shivered*. A tendril of Void energy shot up, seizing Meiling's ankle.
*"MAMA—!"*
Li Na slammed her fists down. The earth erupted, a maelstrom of roots shredding the tendril. The garden collapsed into a crater, her children shielded beneath her trembling body.
*"They're here,"* she breathed.
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### **V. The Agent's Price**
Agent Matthews crouched in a Beijing alley, her tactical suit smeared with eclipse-tainted blood. The drone's carcass sizzled beside her, its core emitting a familiar sigil—the same symbol on Chen Zhen's glaive.
*"Daniels was right,"* she radioed. *"They're targeting the Chens. Send backup to—"*
A shadow loomed. The drone *reassembled*, void-light stitching its wounds. Matthews emptied her clip, but the bullets dissolved mid-air.
*"Pathetic,"* it rasped in the Queen's voice. *"Tell the Sovereign… her husband's next."*
Matthews' scream echoed as the drone struck—
—then froze, impaled by a jade-tipped root.
Li Na stepped from the alley wall, her eyes emerald fire. *"You don't touch my family."*
The drone disintegrated. Matthews stared. *"You… you're just a—"*
*"A mother,"* Li Na said, collapsing. *"Now run."*
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### **VI. The Broken Pact**
Gorampa found Li Na at the willow, its leaves now edged in Void-black.
*"The Alliance denied you,"* she said flatly.
*"They'll change their tune when the Queen devours their pride."* He hesitated. *"But there's another way. Your ancestor's tomb—it holds a weapon. A seed."*
Li Na's hand flew to her pendant—Chen's photo now marred by cracks. *"I can't leave the kids."*
*"They'll come. The Verdant Sovereign's trials require… blood heirs."*
Meiling peered from the doorway, a vine coiled around her wrist like a bracelet. *"We're ready, Mama."*
Xiaojun hefted a wooden sword. *"For Baba."*
Li Na's roots swallowed the horizon. *"Then we grow."*
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