bioinnovel Chapter 379 Chaotic Stone Embryo
Chapter 379 Chaotic Stone Embryo
Su Fan took three steps toward the stone corridor, then paused.
The twelfth Chaos Stone embryo in his arms suddenly moved.
It wasn't a reversal; rather, an extremely fine chaotic law pattern on the surface of the stone body cracked open on its own, and a faint golden light shone through the depths of the crack.
Golden light pierced through the cloth and clothing, striking the white rock base at the edge of the water essence, projecting a minimalist rune onto the ground.
The rune has only three strokes and its structure is extremely primitive, completely sharing the same origin as the primitive casting pattern on the golden cudgel in Sun Wukong's ear.
Su Fan looked down at the rune and reached out to take the stone embryo out of his pocket.
The cracks on the surface of the stone are still expanding, from one crack to three, and from three to nine. The nine cracks are evenly distributed along the natural cleavage plane of the stone, and golden light is surging out from inside the cracks at the same time, making the whole stone into a golden ball of light the size of a fist.
Nezha had already reached the entrance of the stone corridor when he saw the golden light shining behind him and turned back.
He planted the fire-tipped spear into the ground and looked down at the glowing stone embryo in Su Fan's palm.
The nine cracks on the surface of the stone stopped spreading simultaneously when the golden light reached its brightest point. The outer stone shell at the edge of the cracks began to peel off automatically, and the peeled-off fragments fell into Su Fan's palm. The surface of the fragments still had extremely fine engravings of the chaotic law patterns.
The peeling process was very short-lived; once the outer stone shell completely fell off, the inner stone core was exposed.
It was an extremely pure chaotic crystal core, only the size of a thumb. Twelve complete chaotic law patterns flowed across the surface of the crystal core, each pattern corresponding to the original imprint of a chaotic stone embryo.
Eleven of the patterns had faded and lost their luster, leaving only the last one still flowing autonomously, its rhythm perfectly synchronized with Su Fan's channel for transmitting the will of the Dao of All Beings.
"The core of the twelfth stone embryo. The outer shell is a seal formed by the laurel root that Pangu's eyelashes transformed into, which had been wrapped around it for countless years. Once the seal was broken, the core was revealed."
Nezha bent down and stared at the only law pattern still flowing on the surface of the crystal core.
The pattern is extremely complex, spiraling from the top of the crystal core to the bottom, branching out into a very fine branch with each loop, and each branch end is inlaid with a tiny crystal of law.
The crystals varied in color, but the largest one was a very pale dark gold, exactly the same color as the mark of the Path of All Beings on Nezha's left shoulder.
Xu walked over from the edge of the Water Essence Pool, his bare feet stepping on the white rock foundation. With each step, his whole heart in his chest beat, the heartbeat synchronized with the pulsation of the Guanghan Crystal at the bottom of the Water Essence Pool.
It crouched in front of Su Fan, and with its right index finger, it gently touched the dark golden crystal on the surface of the crystal core.
The moment his fingertips touched the crystal, the law mark on Nezha's left shoulder suddenly shone brightly, its brightness reaching its peak simultaneously with the pulse network of the three heart fragments on the surface of the core in Xu's chest cavity.
Xu withdrew his finger and looked up at Su Fan.
"This crystal core contains the primordial law imprints of twelve chaotic stone embryos. Eleven of them shattered, their imprints dimmed. The last one is alive, its imprint flowing autonomously, its law frequency completely identical to the transmission channel of your Path of All Beings."
"This core can sense all the fragments of the Chaos Stone Embryos scattered throughout the Chaos. The Great Sage is the largest of the twelfth stone embryo, and this is the smallest. The core of the smallest one can sense the location of the largest one."
Su Fan stood up, holding the crystal core, and raised the stone core to eye level.
The law pattern on the surface of the crystal core accelerated its rotation after sensing the will of the Dao of All Beings from the human-shaped scar on his palm. The eleven law crystals at the end of the pattern lit up for a moment at the same time. After the flash, one of the dark purple crystals lit up on its own, with a very stable brightness and no longer flickering.
The direction corresponding to the dark purple crystal is not the Zixiao Palace in the void layer above Guixu, but a very deep location below the remains of Buzhou Mountain deep within Guixu.
"The purple light doesn't refer to the Purple Cloud Palace. The Great Sage is in the Purple Cloud Palace, but the core senses something else. What lies below the ruins of Buzhou Mountain?"
Nezha stared at the direction the dark purple crystal was pointing and pulled the Fire-Tipped Spear from the ground.
The grayish-white powder of the law still clung to the tip of the gun, and he gripped the barrel tightly, his voice low.
Xu stood up and followed the direction indicated by the dark purple crystal to the edge of the water essence pool.
It pressed its right hand onto an extremely thick ancient law pattern deep within the Buzhou Mountain rock mass. The scorch marks on its fingertips seeped in, and the residual warmth of the flint flame probed deeper into the rock mass along the pattern.
After probing for about a hundred breaths, Xu withdrew his finger, a layer of extremely fine gray-black law powder clinging to his fingertip.
The color of the powder is exactly the same as the crystals at the fracture points on the surface of Buzhou Mountain rock that were burned through by the evaporation of Gonggong's water essence, but the particles are finer, so fine that individual particle structures are almost invisible.
"Beneath the ruins of Buzhou Mountain lies an even older layer of rock. It is not the rock mass of Buzhou Mountain itself, but the first layer of solidified laws from the chaos before Pangu's spine transformed into a mountain. That layer of sediment contains fragments of the twelve Chaos Stone Embryos that shattered."
"What the core senses is not the Great Sage, but those fragments. One of the fragments still bears the remnants of the stone shell that the Great Sage shook off when he emerged from the stone embryo. The fragment bears the imprint of his original laws, which are of the same origin as the autonomously flowing pattern on the core. The core has mistaken the fragment for the Great Sage himself."
Su Fan carefully wrapped the stone core again and stuffed it into his bosom, then slung the Pangu Axe over his shoulder.
Zixiao Palace is located in the void layer above Guixu, while the remains of Buzhou Mountain are located in the foundation layer below Guixu. Below Buzhou Mountain, there is an even more ancient layer of chaotic laws.
The spatial interlocking relationship of the three layers is as follows: the upper layer is Zixiao Palace, the middle layer is Guixu, and the lower layer is the Chaotic Deposition Layer.
The chaotic sedimentary layer contains fragments of eleven stone embryos and stone shell fragments shaken off when the Great Sage emerged from the stone embryos. These fragments can mislead the sensing direction of the stone embryo's core.
But just as that dark purple crystal lit up, one of the other ten dim law crystals on the core also flashed briefly. The direction of the silver-white crystal was the direction of the Purple Cloud Palace.
The Great Sage was still in the Purple Cloud Palace, but the signal sensed by the core was extremely weak, so weak that it was almost completely drowned out by the debris signal of the chaotic sediment layer.
"The Great Sage's signal is very weak. Time flows much faster in the Purple Cloud Palace than outside. Only a few days have passed outside after he went in, but several years may have passed inside."
"The weak signal doesn't mean something's wrong. It means there's a frequency misalignment between the time laws within Zixiao Palace and the transmission channels of the Dao of All Beings. The longer he stays inside, the greater the delay in the signal's transmission from Zixiao Palace to the Primordial World."
Su Fan put the Pangu Axe down from his shoulder, the blade touching the ground, and turned to look at Nezha and Xu.
"The chaotic sedimentary layer contains fragments of the stone embryo and the original law imprints of the Great Sage. If the unawakened physical bodies of Rahu deep within the chaos sense these imprints, they will follow the imprints to find the sedimentary layer and seep upwards from the bottom of the Ruins."
"By then, the foundation of Guixu will be breached from the lower level. The Great Sage is in Zixiao Palace, so we don't need to go there for now. We must explore the Chaos Sedimentation Layer first, at least until the Great Sage returns, to seal the remaining primordial law imprints on the stone fragments and prevent Rahu's physical body from following the aura to find its way here."
"Then we'll split into two groups. I'll go back to the South Heavenly Gate to wait for Yang Jian and the others, and also report the coordinates of the Chaos Sedimentation Layer to Laozi. You and Xu will go directly to the deeper part of Buzhou Mountain."
Nezha slung the Fire-Tipped Spear over his shoulder, and the Wind-Fire Wheels were rekindled. With the blessing of the Pure Yang Talisman, the flames of the Fire-Separating Law were even stronger than usual.
He glanced down at the law mark on his left shoulder. The mark glowed slightly in the warm current of the Pure Yang Talisman, pulsating in sync with the pale gold line on Xu's chest.
"The mark on your left shoulder is synchronized with the heart network of the Ruins, and your Path of All Beings mark can also sense the law fluctuations of the stone embryo fragment. Keep an eye on this for me after you go down to the sedimentary layer."
Su Fan took out the stone core from his pocket, scraped off a tiny grain of law powder from the dark gold crystal on the surface of the core with his fingertip, and pressed it onto the center of the mark on Nezha's left shoulder.
The moment the powder touched the mark, the entire mark on Nezha's left shoulder lit up, its brightness synchronizing with the peak value of the nuclear pulse network in Xu's chest cavity.
Nezha looked down at the glowing mark on his left shoulder, clenched his left fist, his grip strength was normal, and the channel for transmitting the will of all living beings ran from the Tanzhong acupoint in his chest all the way to the fingertips of his left hand.
"Alright. The mark is lit up, and I can sense the law fluctuations of that stone embryo. No matter how deep you are, as long as there are abnormal fluctuations, I can send a message directly to Laozi from the South Heavenly Gate."
Nezha slung the gun over his shoulder, turned and walked toward the exit of the stone corridor, his Wind Fire Wheels leaving two very shallow fire marks on the narrow stone wall.
Su Fan and Xu walked along the wall of the Water Essence Pool to the deepest part of the cave.
At the bottom of Buzhou Mountain, there is a fissure burned through by the evaporation of Gonggong's water essence. The fissure is extremely narrow, allowing only one person to pass sideways. The inner wall of the fissure is covered with ice crystals that have been re-condensed after the evaporation of the innate water essence.
A faint, deep blue halo shimmered on the surface of the ice crystals, and the light shone on Su Fan's face, turning the strip of cloth wrapped around his left hand into a blue-gold hue.
Xu raised his right hand and pressed the scorch mark on his index finger against the edge of the crack. The residual heat of the flint flame melted a thin layer of ice on the surface of the crack, revealing an extremely ancient gray-black rock layer beneath the ice.
The rock surface is covered with primitive patterns left by the first batch of laws deposited at the beginning of chaos. The patterns are rougher and more primitive than the ancient law patterns on the Buzhou Mountain rock. Each pattern has only a very simple geometric shape, with straight lines and arcs intersecting, without the complex interlocking structure of the primordial laws of heaven.
"This is the sedimentary layer of the laws of chaos. When Pangu split the world and shattered chaos, the first batch of solidified fragments of the laws of chaos were pressed into the bottom of the Ruins by the shockwave of the Pangu Axe, forming this layer of sedimentary rock. All the fragments of the twelve Chaos Stone Embryos that shattered are sealed in this layer of sedimentary rock."
Xu squeezed into the crevice, stepping barefoot onto the first natural stone step of the sedimentary rock layer.
The stone steps were extremely cold, colder than the basalt on the surface of the Taiyin Star Moon Sea. So cold that the newly formed skin on the soles of its feet would condense into a very thin layer of frost the moment it touched the stone.
The frost shell breaks apart on its own, re-condenses, breaks apart again, and the cycle repeats.
Xu glanced down at the ground beneath his feet and continued walking down.
Su Fan squeezed through the crevice, the Pangu Axe tucked into his waistband.
The density of laws within the sedimentary rock layers is even higher than that of the void in Buzhou Mountain, so high that even the transmission channels of the will of all living beings begin to show delays.
The network signal of will transmitted from the 'human' shaped scar on the left palm would only jump once every few breaths, and each jump was accompanied by an extremely subtle friction sound of the laws.
He removed his left hand from the axe handle, placed his palm down on the outside of his thigh, and used the will of all beings to condense an extremely thin golden membrane on the surface of his skin. The membrane spread down his leg and wrapped around the soles of his feet.
When the membrane wall comes into contact with the gray-black rock layer on the surface of the sedimentary rock, it emits a very slight hissing sound, which is the cancellation of the law between the law of all living beings and the law of chaotic sedimentation at an extremely low frequency.
The two descended thousands of steps along the natural stone steps, the color of the sedimentary rock layers gradually changing from grayish-black to a very dark crimson.
Embedded within the crimson rock layer are countless extremely fine fragments of laws, each only the size of a fingernail. The surface of each fragment ripples with a dark light that is exactly the same as the eleven dim law patterns on the surface of the stone core.
The fragments were slowly wriggling inside the rock strata; they were still alive because the primordial law activity carried by the fragments of chaotic law had not yet been completely exhausted.
"All eleven fragments of the Chaos Stone Embryo are here. Each fragment retains the original protective will from when the stone embryo shattered. The protective will is extremely weak, but it has not completely dissipated."
"The fragments of stone shell that were shaken off when the Great Sage sprang out from the largest stone embryo are also in this layer. Its law imprint is stronger than these fragments, so strong that it can even mislead the core of the stone embryo."
Xu stopped in front of the crimson rock layer, pressed his right hand on the rock wall, and sensed through the scorch marks on his fingertips the extremely complex network of resonance between countless fragments of laws inside the rock layer.
The resonance frequency is extremely low, so low that it cannot be heard by the human ear, but the Eastern Emperor's heart in the Xu's chest cavity can receive it completely.
With its eyes closed, it translated the sensed laws into law coordinates within its heart's network of pulses, then opened its eyes and pointed to an extremely dark crack deep within the crimson rock layer.
"The stone fragments are deep within that crack. Its imprint of laws is at least three orders of magnitude stronger than the surrounding stone fragments, causing them to resonate synchronously."
"The resonance frequency has already been transmitted into the primordial water essence above. The remaining six parts of Rahu's body, sealed deep within the chaos, will eventually find this place by following this resonance frequency."
Su Fan walked up to the crack, which was pitch black inside.
He took the Pangu Axe off his waist, and the azure light and golden patterns on the axe blade lit up at the same time. The light shone into the crack and illuminated a fist-sized gray-black stone piece deep inside the crack.
The surface of the stone slab was covered with extremely rough chaotic law patterns. The arrangement of the patterns was exactly the same as the original casting patterns on Sun Wukong's golden cudgel, but the patterns were deeper and wilder, and had not been processed by any acquired law system.
That was when Sun Wukong sprang out of the Chaos Stone Embryo. The outer shell of the stone embryo was cracked by his body, and the largest piece of the shell fell into this layer of sedimentary rock. The fragment of the shell still bears the most original law imprint of him as the Chaos Stone Embryo.
Su Fan placed the Pangu Axe at the edge of the crack and reached into the crack with his bare hand to grasp the stone shell.
The stone shell was extremely heavy, so heavy that the muscles in his right arm instantly tensed up, and the will of the Dao of All Beings automatically poured into his right arm to strengthen his grip.
He took the stone shell out of the crack and placed it on the reddish rock layer at his feet.
As soon as the stone shell was placed firmly, the eleven surrounding stone fragments simultaneously stopped wriggling. The dim light of all the fragments instantly subsided, and then simultaneously exploded with extremely dazzling afterglow of the laws.
The afterglow burst forth from within the fragments, condensing into a rudimentary projection of laws above the crimson rock layer, containing only three images.
The first scene: Before the chaos was divided, twelve chaotic stone embryos floated in the very center of the chaos. Each stone embryo contained an extremely primordial guardian will. The twelve guardian wills were independent of each other but resonated with each other. The resonance frequency formed the first law structure in the chaos.
The second scene: Pangu wields his axe to split the heavens and earth, shattering eleven stone embryos as he cuts through the chaos.
The fragments of the eleven stone embryos were swept into the depths of chaos by the shockwave. The largest stone embryo was deliberately left behind by Pangu, who gently pushed it to the edge of chaos with the back of his axe. It was the last protective will that Pangu left for the primordial world.
The smallest stone embryo was entangled by the laurel tree root that was transformed from Pangu's eyelashes and sealed deep underground at the North Pole of the Moon Star.
The fragments of the eleven stone embryos were scattered throughout the chaos. Most of them were absorbed by the chaotic law sedimentary layer of the Guixu foundation, while a very small portion was devoured by the Luohou law pool deep within the chaos.
The third scene: Sun Wukong jumps out of the stone embryo, the outer shell of the stone embryo shatters into countless pieces, the largest piece falls into the bottom of the Ruins of Return, and the remaining fragments are scattered all over the prehistoric world.
One of the pieces was picked up by Laozi and melted into the Eight Trigrams Furnace to become the second material of the Golden Cudgel. The chaotic law patterns on the cudgel originated from this stone fragment.
After the projection dissipated, the afterglow of the laws emanating from the eleven stone fragments on the crimson rock layer dimmed completely.
After dimming, the fragments stopped wriggling and quietly embedded themselves inside the rock strata. The gray light flowing on the surface turned into a very pale gold, which was a sign that the original protective will remaining inside the fragments had been reactivated after coming into contact with Su Fan's will of the Dao of All Beings.
Xu withdrew his right hand from the rock wall and turned to look at the stone shell at Su Fan's feet.
After the projection dissipated, the chaotic law patterns on the surface of the stone shell began to flow autonomously, and the rhythm of the flow was synchronized with the pulse of the mark of the Dao of All Beings on Nezha's left shoulder.
It crouched down and touched the thickest law pattern on the stone shell with the scorch mark on its finger. The embers of flint inside the scorch mark and the primordial guardian will inside the pattern lit up simultaneously after a brief contact.
"The primordial law imprint on this stone shell is too strong. It cannot be sealed. The only option is to remove it from the sedimentary layer and place it in a place where Rahu's physical body cannot sense it."
"In the primordial world, there are only two things that can isolate the senses of the laws of chaos: the Guanghan Crystal Mother Crystal from the main root of the Taiyin Star Laurel Tree, and the Creation Jade Tablet barrier personally set up by Hongjun of Zixiao Palace."
"The nine sub-crystals of the Guanghan Crystal have been implanted into the Wedge of Creation, while the mother crystal is still deep within the roots of the laurel tree. The Creation Jade Tablet barrier is in the hands of the Great Sage. After he enters the Zixiao Palace, the barrier left by Hongjun will automatically activate."
"Then take the stone shell to the Great Sage. Go directly to the Purple Cloud Palace. The entrance to the Chaos Sedimentation Layer is at the bottom of the Ruins of Return, and the entrance to the Purple Cloud Palace is at the top of the Ruins of Return."
"We've traveled halfway up this path, going from the sedimentary layer through the remains of Buzhou Mountain, the original water essence, the foundation of Guixu, and the remains of Wuxing Mountain, into the void interlayer."
Su Fan picked up the stone shell from the ground and wrapped it three times with the strip of cloth wrapped around his left palm.
When the golden blood remaining on the cloth strip came into contact with the chaotic law patterns on the surface of the stone shell, it exploded into a tiny ring of law steam. After the steam dissipated, the cloth strip and the stone shell stuck together firmly.
He stuffed the stone shell into his bosom, placing it together with the stone core and the remaining jade rabbit pendant of Chang'e, then shouldered the Pangu Axe and walked up the stone steps.
The two climbed thousands of steps up the natural stone steps, passed through the crack that had been burned through by the evaporation of Gonggong's water essence, and returned to the void of the water essence primordial fluid.
The jade rabbit pendant above the pool was still slowly rotating, while the nine layers of transparent runes of the Wedge of Creation at the center of Rahu's head at the bottom of the pool were steadily flowing.
Without lingering, the two passed through the stone corridor, the crevices, and the white rock plain, entering the ascending passage of the Guixu Rift.
The golden light of Mars shone down from the top of the crack, and the core and shell of the stone embryo in Su Fan's arms vibrated slightly in the golden light. The stone shell sensed the direction of Zixiao Palace, and the core of the stone embryo sensed the original law imprint of the Great Sage.
When they returned to the ruins of Nantianmen, there were two more people on the city wall.
Gongsun Bao carried the human warrior on his back and sat by the crenellation. The human warrior had no legs, and his empty trouser legs hung outside the city bricks. The demon emperor spear in his hand rested on his knees. The three demon emperor heads pierced by the spear tip had completely turned into gray-white law crystals, and the surface of the crystals flowed with a very faint golden light after being exorcised.
Gongsun Bao's axe lay at his feet. The nick on the axe blade, caused by the remnant soul of Di Jun, was still there, but the surface of the axe had an additional layer of extremely faint silver-white law patterns. These were ancient law imprints left on his axe by the residual waves of the seal when Di Jun's original body was resealed at the bottom of the Bone Mountain in Beiju Luzhou.
Yang Jian leaned against a pillar of the city tower. The charred vertical mark on his forehead had completely healed, leaving behind a very thin, pale golden vertical line.
The replica of the Kunlun Mirror broke in two; one half was still hanging at his waist, while the other half was held in his hand.
He heard footsteps, opened his eyes, and stared at Su Fan with his eye sockets devoid of pupils.
"The matter of Beiju Luzhou is cleared up. Di Jun's torso has been nailed back to Bone Mountain by the Demon Emperor's Spear, all three Demon Emperor heads have been released from suffering, and the remains of the myriad demons at the bottom of Bone Mountain have returned to their places and spontaneously condensed into a new layer of law seal. Di Jun will not awaken again for three thousand years."
Yang Jian handed the half of the Kunlun Mirror in his hand to Su Fan.
"A profound fluctuation of law was reflected in the mirror, seeping upwards from the bottom of the Ruins. The frequency of this fluctuation is exactly the same as the core of the stone embryo in your arms."
"What's sealed inside the chaotic sedimentary layer isn't just the fragments of the stone embryo, but something even more ancient, which was pressed into the deepest part of the sedimentary layer by the shockwave of Pangu's Heaven-Opening Axe. Even Rahu didn't know that thing existed."
"What is this?" Su Fan took half of the Kunlun Mirror.
"The base of Buzhou Mountain. It is not a mountain formed from Pangu's spine, but the first law-based mountain that solidified on its own in the chaos before Buzhou Mountain was formed. When Pangu's spine formed Buzhou Mountain, he pressed this chaotic law-based mountain at the very bottom of his spine."
"Gonggong only broke Pangu's spine; the root of the mountain remained intact, sleeping deep within the sedimentary layer. When you went down into the sedimentary layer to retrieve the stone shell, the primordial law imprint on the shell activated an extremely ancient response within the root of the mountain. The root of the mountain has awakened."
Su Fan looked down at the half of the Kunlun Mirror in his hand.
Beneath the ruins of Buzhou Mountain reflected in the mirror, at the deepest part of the layer of chaotic laws, an extremely large outline of laws is slowly changing its spatial orientation, heading directly towards the South Heavenly Gate.