bioinnovel Chapter 402 The Land of Return to Nothingness
Chapter 402 The Land of Return to Nothingness
The golden light of Mars flickered slightly as Sun Wukong finished chewing the last bite of the peach.
He tossed the peach pit into the crack in the Ruins of Return. The pit bounced twice at the edge of the crack before rolling into the depths of the Ruins of Return, where it was caught by the pale gold moss that had just grown on the white rock layer of the foundation.
The flowing patterns on the surface of the moss wrapped around the peach pit and then dispersed on their own.
The monkey patted the peach fuzz off his hands, stood up from the top of the stack, and slung his golden cudgel over his shoulder.
"I have to go back to the Ruins. My mother is still in the healing period. After the laws and instincts took over her body, that place became a forbidden zone, but the instincts will automatically subside after her healing period is over."
"If no one is guarding her at that time, the entrance to the Land of Ruins will drift away again, drifting to who knows where. I have to anchor the entrance before she wakes up and use the Chaos Stone Embryo Imprint on the Golden Cudgel to carve a fixed coordinate on the entrance membrane."
"Once anchored, the entrance won't drift anymore. From now on, if anyone in the Primordial World wants to go to the Land of Ruins to see her, they can go anytime."
Nezha slammed his fire-tipped spear on the ground and took out the crystal of flint embers from his bosom.
After the two crystals on Sun Wukong's chest, located at the Tanzhong acupoint, left the crystal, the embers of flint inside regained their faint dark red glow, and their beating rhythm was synchronized with the Eastern Emperor's heart in Xu's chest cavity.
He shoved the crystal into Sun Wukong's hand.
"Take this ember with you. Your mother has been sleeping for countless eons in the Land of Ruins. After the old axe mark on her head was sealed, she needed a continuous and stable temperature of the laws to heal."
"The temperature of the embers of flint is more stable than that of the aftershocks of a great calamity, and when applied to the wall of the wound, it can accelerate the recovery speed of the law secretion system."
"There's no use for me keeping it. There's still the stone embryo core on the other side of the Ruins. The tolerance of the laws of the heart network is already wide enough. We can maintain the balance of laws of the Ruins foundation without the embers."
Sun Wukong took the crystal and glanced down at the dark red flames flowing on its surface.
The flame flickered slightly in his hairy palm, the rhythm of which subtly overlapped with the frequency of the healing membrane on the head of the living creature.
He pressed the crystal onto his chest at the Tanzhong acupoint, and the crystal automatically embedded itself into the law indentation left by the previous two crystals. After it was embedded, the dark gold law patterns on the surface of the Tanzhong acupoint lit up again.
He slammed his golden cudgel on the ground, then turned and walked towards the membrane wall.
"Nezha, thank you. I'll borrow this ember from you for now, and I'll return it to you when my mother's recovery period is over. I'll treat you to peaches then."
"I'll keep the command flag above my mother's head for you. When she wakes up, I'll tell her it's the flag of Nezha, the Third Prince and the General of Chentang Pass. It was planted on the city wall before he returned his bones to his father and never fell down. She'll definitely like to hear this kind of story."
"She likes to hear stories? Your mother slept alone in the ruins for countless eons, and she didn't even care when Pangu split the nest open—would she like to hear the story of Nezha cutting his bones to return to his father?"
Su Fan slung the Pangu Axe over his shoulder and turned to look at Sun Wukong.
"Yes. The last thing my mother said to me was, 'You have to walk your own path.' She's slept countless times and never asks what's happening outside, but she asked me about my path."
"Nezha's path is even wilder than mine. He cut off his bones to return to his father, cut off his flesh to return to his mother, transformed into a lotus, and wreaked havoc in the sea to slay the dragon. My mother would definitely be happy to hear such a story."
After saying this, Sun Wukong stepped on the aftershocks of the calamity and flew over the South Heavenly Gate, his golden armor leaving an arc of light in the air.
A few breaths later, the arc of light disappeared into the depths of the narrow opening in the membrane wall. A very faint tremor of law came from the direction of the Ruins, and the frequency of the tremor was completely synchronized with the pulsation frequency of the flint crystal on Sun Wukong's chest.
Nezha watched the monkey disappear into the direction of the membrane wall, remained silent for a moment, and then slung the Fire-Tipped Spear over his shoulder.
The law mark on his left shoulder brightened up a bit under the blessing of the Pure Yang Talisman, and the golden steam seeping from the edge of the mark condensed into extremely fine law patterns in the golden light of Mars.
The pattern on his arm perfectly matched the old scar on his left arm, which had been cut by a fragment of Rahu.
He glanced down at the old scar; the newly grown skin at the edge of the scar shone with a very faint dark gold hue in the golden light.
He slammed the gun on the ground and looked up at Su Fan.
"The Great Sage has returned to the Land of Ruins to be with his mother. After he anchored the entrance to the Land of Ruins, that place is no longer an unknown forbidden zone, but an allied territory of the Primordial World."
"Pangu split the chaos to protect his mother. His mother was the only god in the void. Chaos was a fragment of her nest that emerged from it. The root of all beings' paths is in her nest."
"This whole scheme, orchestrated by Pangu and calculated by Hongjun, was ultimately for her sake. Do you think Pangu knew what he was doing when he unleashed his first axe strike?"
"I know. He said three sentences to the living creatures. The first sentence was, 'The chaos that is pouring out of the fragments of the nest is expanding outward, and after it expands to its limit, it will collapse inward.'"
"If you don't cleave the chaos, the collapse will suck your nest's core in and crush it." The second sentence is, "You continue sleeping, I'll cleave the chaos."
"The third sentence was sealed deep within the axe blade fragment. When the fragment returned to its original position, I only received the first two sentences. The third sentence was slightly interfered with by the frequency of the law of the healing membrane wall of living things, so I didn't hear it clearly."
"But the order of those three sentences illustrates one thing: Pangu splitting chaos was not an instinct, but rather he observed the rate of chaos expansion in an extremely short period of time, calculated the critical point of collapse, and then made a choice."
"He chopped actively, not passively. Before chopping, he confirmed that the creature was still alive. After chopping, he sealed all the fragments of chaos on the outer edge of the primordial world, allowing the laws of chaos to circulate on their own without disturbing her sleep. From beginning to end, every axe strike was within his calculations."
Su Fan took the Pangu Axe off his waist, and the faint chaotic light on the axe blade shone slightly under the golden patterns of the South Heavenly Gate.
"Pangu deliberately split the chaos. Rahu also actively fought against the ancient gods of chaos in order to protect the laws of chaos from being excessively consumed by the ancient gods. Hongjun deliberately scattered Rahu and sealed him in various places in order to prevent the singularity of the laws of chaos from collapsing."
"Buddha deliberately suppressed the Great Sage for five hundred years in order to block the entrance to Guixu. All the things these people did were to suppress something—Pangu suppressed Chaos, Hongjun suppressed Rahu, and Buddha suppressed Guixu."
"The suppression has lasted for 30,000 years. Now the cycle of the Chaos Laws has stabilized, the remains of Rahu have fallen into slumber, the Void has a bottom, and the original source of the old domain laws in the Origin of the Extraterrestrial Gods has been activated, pointing the way to the Land of Void. All the suppression can be lifted."
Xu walked out from the edge of the Guixu Crack, his bare feet stepping on the city bricks, his right hand pressed against the pale gold line on his chest.
"What happens after the suppression is lifted?" Nezha asked.
"The next step is maintenance. The law nodes of the membrane wall need to be inspected regularly, the law density of the Ruins Foundation needs to be continuously monitored, and the signal of the Ruins of Extinction released by the origin of the old domain's laws during its self-repair process needs to be tracked for a long time to see if it will trigger a new law resonance in the deeper part of the void."
"After the detectors at the origin of the second branch were destroyed, their quantum collider department lost at least 30% of its law data reserves, and they will not be sending explorers here for a while."
"But in the long run, once the vortex of the old domain's laws has completely dissipated, the second branch will definitely make a comeback—they will not give up their need for samples of the laws of the primordial beings just because of a failed probe."
"The neutral stance of the third branch may be shaken after the crisis of the Old Domain activation is resolved, because the neutrality of the third branch is based on the premise that the original laws of the Old Domain have not been awakened."
"Now that the Old Domain has taken the initiative to release the signal of the Ruins of the Land, those factions within the Third Branch that advocate the restoration of the Old Domain means the reunification of the extraterrestrial gods will take this opportunity to launch an attack, forcing the representatives of the Third Branch Alliance to abandon neutrality and rejoin the Second Branch's exploration plan."
"During his stay at the Southern Heavenly Gate, Eros received at least three encrypted query pulses from the origin of the Third Branch, all asking the same question: Has the Old Domain awakened? He has not yet replied."
Yang Jian stood up from under his spine, put the two broken mirror pieces together in his palm, and three dark purple waveforms of the real-time law fluctuations of the origin of the third branch appeared on the mirror surface. Each waveform had a different frequency and corresponded to the three different factions within the third branch.
He turned the shattered mirror toward Su Fan.
"How should Eros respond?" Su Fan turned to look at Eros.
Eros stood at the edge of the non-core area of the city wall, and the semi-transparent dark purple law membrane around him trembled very slightly when Yang Jian spoke.
He raised his right hand from his side, palm facing up, and the crystal of law reappeared in his palm.
This time, all three laws and clauses within the crystal lit up, and the three clauses rotated on their own inside the crystal at an extremely fast pace.
"I have not yet replied. The three factions within the Third Branch have completely different attitudes toward the awakening of the Old Realm."
"One faction advocates taking the opportunity to reunify the three branches and rebuild the extraterrestrial divine empire with the original laws of the old domain as the core; the other faction advocates maintaining the status quo and continuing to implement the contact assessment plan of the three branches' joint agreement."
"The third faction advocates completely abandoning the exploration of the primordial world, withdrawing all dispatched envoys and probes, and designating the entire void outside the membrane wall as the permanent territory of the primordial world."
"The three factions have equal voting rights, and my vote will determine the final outcome. I am waiting for the right moment."
"When?" Su Fan asked.
"After releasing the signal from the Land of Ruins, the origin of the Old Domain's laws has entered a new round of self-repair. The repair cycle will likely take some more time."
"Once the repairs are complete, the origin of the Old Domain's laws will release a second law signal. This signal will not contain the coordinates of the Ruins of Desolation, but will be a formal statement of the Old Domain's laws regarding the laws governing all living beings in the Primordial World."
"When this statement of attitude is sent back to the origin of the third branch, it will help me persuade the wavering faction."
Eros clasped his hands together, and the crystal disappeared into the core.
"How many factions will the Old Domain's stance statement convince?" Nezha asked.
"At least we can convince the third faction—those who advocate completely abandoning exploration. The third faction accounts for nearly half of the third branch, and with my vote, the result will be a majority."
"After more than half of them have passed, the third branch will unilaterally withdraw all its dispatched envoys, shut down all monitoring stations outside the membrane wall, and designate the void outside the membrane wall as the permanent territory of the Primordial Wilderness."
"Even if the second branch restarts its exploration program, it will not receive support from the third branch's legal channels. Without the third branch's channels, the time required for the second branch's detectors and explorers to travel from the origin to the outer side of the membrane will increase by at least several times."
"With the extended time window, Nantianmen has ample time for early warning and interception. More importantly, if the original stance of the Old Domain Laws is publicly released, a split will also occur within the second branch."
"Because the Old Realm is the common origin of the gods from beyond the realm, the original laws of the Old Realm have natural authority over the three branches within the law system."
"It declares to the outside world that it will not interfere with the primordial world, so those factions within the second branch that advocate exploration will lose their legal basis. Without a legal basis, the exploration plan jointly agreed upon by the three branches will automatically become invalid."
Eros's voice was extremely flat and steady, but every word was pronounced very clearly.
Su Fan slung the Pangu Axe over his shoulder.
The golden light of Mars shone on the city bricks, and everyone on the city wall listened to him speak.
Qingfeng leaned against the crenellation, his broken sword resting on his hand; the human warrior held the Demon Emperor Spear across his lap; and Gongsun Bao stood at the city gate, gripping his axe.
Nezha squatted on the edge of the battlement, carrying his fire-tipped spear; Xu stood barefoot on the edge of the Guixu crack; Yang Jian sat cross-legged under the ridge; and Yuanshi Tianzun sat cross-legged on the ridge, his whisk resting on his knees.
"The repair cycle for the original laws of the old domain will still take some time. During this time, we need to do three things. First, the heart network of the Ruins and the heartbeat frequency of the larva deep within the foundation of the Ruins need to be readjusted."
"The residual shockwaves from the Great Sage's detonation of the vortex in the old domain are still spreading very slowly inside the foundation of the Ruins. Although the spread will not damage the foundation, it will interfere with the larvae's sensitivity to changes in the density of the membrane wall law."
"After calibration, the larvae can once again accurately monitor any law fluctuations on the outside of the membrane wall. Second, the healing marks from the breaches made during the previous breakthrough in the three law defense layers surrounding the origin of the second branch have not completely disappeared."
"Those healed marks contain fragments of the will of the Path of All Beings from Pangu's Axe. If these fragments are not retrieved, they will be absorbed by the remnants of the second branch's detectors. After absorption, they can reverse-analyze some frequencies of the Laws of the Path of All Beings."
"Although we can't analyze the complete structure of the laws, we can get a sense of the bottom line of our laws. After taking it back, the second branch will no longer be able to obtain any samples of the laws of the Dao of All Beings."
"Third, after the Great Sage anchored the entrance in the Land of Ruins, the Land of Ruins is no longer an unknown forbidden zone. But we still need to set up a law beacon near the entrance, with the beacon's frequency synchronized with the core fragment of Mount Sumeru on the South Heavenly Gate wall."
"The beacon's function is not defense, but communication—the Great Sage is guarding his mother alone in the Ruins of Desolation. If anything happens to him, he can send a message directly to the Southern Heavenly Gate through the beacon."
"I will collect the fragments of the will of all beings within the wounds of the fragments. The frequency of the will of all beings on the Pangu Axe is the same as the law imprint on my left shoulder. After collecting them, I will infuse them into the golden pattern network of the city wall, which will strengthen the law nodes around the core fragment of Mount Sumeru."
"The calibration of the Ruins and the placement of the beacon are proceeding simultaneously—calibration requires the resonance frequency of the stone core, and the beacon requires the residual heat of the crystallized flint to inscribe a fixed law rune on the membrane wall at the entrance to the Ruins."
"The Great Sage took away the crystallized embers of the flint, but the last wisp of flint remains in the scorch mark on Xu's fingertip, enough to carve a rune."
Nezha slung his fire-tipped spear over his shoulder.
Xu removed his right hand from his chest and looked down at the transparent scorch mark on his index finger.
The embers of flint emerging from the scorch were extremely faint, so faint that they were almost invisible in the golden light of Mars, but they were pulsating, their rhythm synchronized with the heartbeat of the larva deep within the foundation of the Ruins.
"The last wisp of flint is enough to carve a rune. After it's carved, the scorch mark will completely heal. Once healed, a very faint, transparent law pattern will remain on your fingertip, and inside the pattern is sealed the complete law memory of the flint flame law."
"If you need to reignite the flint flame in the future, you can activate it once by using the resonance frequency of the stone core's core on the law pattern."
"But this last ember is the first flame from the flint tree deep within the foundation of the Ruins. The beacon runes carved with it will be forever engraved on the membrane wall at the entrance to the Ruins, and will not be extinguished by any shockwaves of the laws."
"The spark of the flint. The first spark that Suirenshi made by drilling wood, you used it to cool the temperature of the divine fire, you used it to seal the head of Rahu, and now you use it to carve beacon runes."
"This flame burned for thirty thousand years, reaching the end of the world. It was worth it."
Su Fan tucked the Pangu Axe into his waistband.
He turned and walked to the center of the city wall, picked up the draft agreement crystal next to the core fragment of Mount Sumeru, and placed it in Eros's hand.
All three laws within the crystal were lit up, and the three laws rotated on their own inside the crystal. The rhythm of the rotation had a very slight overlap with the frequency of the laws that the old domain originally repaired itself.
"The draft agreement remains in effect. You will decide when to hold the vote within the third branch. Once the old domain's statement on its position is sent back, the voting process will begin immediately."
"After the vote is passed, the monitoring station of the third branch will be closed, the envoy will be withdrawn, and the void outside the membrane wall will be designated as the permanent territory of the Primordial World. At that time, the law monitoring station on the South Heavenly Gate City Wall will be closed simultaneously, and both sides will remove the monitoring mechanism at the same time."
"Once the agreement officially takes effect, you will no longer be a resident observer—you will become the first Law Ambassador of the Third Branch stationed in the Primordial World."
"You can choose your own place to stay. You can go to the South Heavenly Gate, the Ruins of Return, or Flower Fruit Mountain. The Great Sage says that the peaches on Flower Fruit Mountain are tastier than the peaches of immortality."
Eros took the crystal, looked down at the three law clauses inside, remained silent for a moment, and then pressed the crystal into the very center of his chest core.
The semi-transparent dark purple law membrane surrounding his body thinned slightly after he finished speaking, changing from semi-transparent to almost completely transparent.
This is the Law Symbiotic Entity actively lowering its defense layer to the minimum, representing an extremely high level of trust within the behavioral system of the extraterrestrial gods.
"If the agreement takes effect, I am willing to remain in the Ruins. Once the entrance to the Ruins is anchored, the heart network of the Ruins will become the central node connecting the three law systems of the Primordial World, the Old Domain, and the Ruins."
"The Ruins of Return are the deepest foundation of the laws of the primordial world, and also the closest location to the signals of the laws of the Old Domain. My presence in the Ruins of Return allows me to simultaneously assist in monitoring the progress of the restoration of the laws of the Old Domain and the law fluctuations at the entrance to the Ruins of Return."
"Another layer of pale golden moss can grow on the white rock layer of the Guixu foundation. You can choose where you live."
Xu pressed his right hand back to his chest, and his heart's pulse network automatically adjusted its beating rhythm after receiving the change in Eros's core frequency.
After the rhythm was adjusted, the pulse of law transmitted back from the larva deep in the foundation of Guixu through the roots of the flintwood was completely synchronized with the flow frequency of the transparent membrane around Eros.
Nezha slung the Fire-Tipped Spear over his shoulder, and the Wind-Fire Wheels were rekindled. With the dual blessing of the Pure Yang Talisman and the Stone Core, the flames exploded into two extremely bright tongues of fire.
He carried his gun to the front of the narrow opening in the membrane wall and glanced back at Su Fan.
"I'll collect the fragments and the traces of healing. After that, the second branch will be completely unable to obtain samples of the Laws of All Beings." "Go to the Ruins of Extinction to carve a beacon. Eros will stay at the Southern Heavenly Gate to oversee the restoration progress of the Old Domain. You stay here and wait for us to return."
"Go. After you've collected the fragments, check if there's any new activity at the healing marks on the three defensive layers surrounding the second branch's origin. If there is, don't act, use the shattered mirror to send a message back."
Nezha, carrying his spear, squeezed sideways into the narrow opening of the membrane wall, the flames from his Wind Fire Wheels leaving two extremely long trails of fire in the void.
A few breaths later, the flame tail disappeared in the direction of the old domain.
Xu took the stone core out of his bosom and held it in the palm of his left hand. He walked barefoot on the city bricks to the front of the narrow opening in the membrane wall.
He glanced back at Su Fan, then aligned the transparent scorch mark on his right index finger with the narrow opening of the membrane. From within the scorch mark emerged the last wisp of extremely faint flint embers, which condensed into an extremely fine law rune in the void.
The runes pierced through the membrane and flew towards the end of the world.
"The beacon rune has been sent out. It will automatically anchor on the membrane wall at the entrance to the Ruins of Desolation, and once anchored, the entrance coordinates will be fixed."
"The Great Sage could sense the frequency of the runes' laws within the Void Realm, and he knew we had left a beacon at the entrance. This wisp of embers was brought out by me from the Void Realm, and now it has burned its way to the Void Realm."
"The flint and fire of the Ruins, the only god in the void, and the fragment of Pangu's first axe blade—these three things were gathered together in the Land of Ruins."
After Xu finished speaking, he withdrew his finger.
The transparent scorch mark on the fingertip completely healed after the last wisp of embers emerged. After healing, a very faint transparent law pattern remained on the fingertip, with the complete law memory of the flint flame law sealed inside the pattern.
Su Fan stood in the very center of the city wall, with the Pangu Axe stuck at his feet.
The golden light of Mars shone on the newly grown pale gold patterns on the city bricks, on the slowly rotating halo of law from the core fragments of Mount Sumeru and the debris of Buddhist laws, and on the three-colored law ripples where the crystallized draft of the agreement and the remnants of the perception array were stuck together.
The interlocking law between the newly filled broken bricks and the old bricks at the breach in the city wall has reached a complete closed loop under the continuous infusion of the will of all living beings.
The pale gold patterns on the entire city wall run from top to bottom, from the ridge to the foundation, from the crenellations to the city gate, with the gold patterns on each brick forming a complete net.
Standing on the nodes of the network were 10,050 remnants of soldiers. After the will of the Dao of All Beings was infused into their weapon fragments, new blades of law grew on them. The light flowing on the blades was exactly the same as the chaotic original color on the blade of Pangu's axe.
Yang Jian pieced the two shattered mirrors together, and the mirrors simultaneously monitored four law signals: Nezha's real-time progress in retrieving the fragments of the will of all living beings outside the origin of the second branch.
The anchoring status of the flint beacon rune on the membrane wall at the entrance to the Ruins of the End, the law data of the Ruins recalibrating the larval heartbeat frequency deep within the Ruins of the Return Foundation, and the flow rhythm of the three law clauses within the crystal of the draft agreement on Eros's chest.
All four signals are stable.
The Primordial Celestial Venerable took the whisk from his lap and drew a very simple law seal in the air. The seal flew out of the Southern Heavenly Gate and unfolded on its own directly below the golden light of Mars, forming a very faint light shield that enveloped the entire city wall.
He placed the whisk on his lap, closed his eyes, and let his Daoist heart sink into the depths of the star trails.
Su Fan pulled the Pangu Axe out of the city bricks, tucked it into his waistband, and walked to the edge of the crenellation.
The golden light of Mars shone brightly behind him, and in the direction of that narrow street in the mortal world, the steam from the fried dough stick stall's steamer was rising in the morning light.
He glanced back at everyone on the city wall, then stepped onto the golden law membrane and flew towards the mortal realm.
The fried dough stick stall is still open.
The battle is over.
Pangu's game has come to an end, Hongjun's chess game is over, the Great Sage has found his mother, and the root of all beings' path lies in the nest shell of the Ruins.
The South Heavenly Gate no longer needs to be guarded, but the gold patterns on the city wall remain, and the fragments of weapons from 10,050 men still glow.
The remnants of the second branch still float in the void outside the membrane wall. The repair of the original law of the old domain is not yet complete, and the flint beacon at the entrance to the Land of Ruins has just been anchored.
Eros stayed in Guixu, Nezha collected the fragments, Xu calibrated the foundation, and the Great Sage guarded his mother.
The golden light of Mars was extremely stable, the heartbeat frequency of the larva deep within the foundation of the Ruins was extremely stable, and the law patterns of the dark golden barrier on the outer side of the membrane were extremely stable.
Everything is still running, but the purpose of running is no longer defense, but maintenance.
From guarding to maintaining, 30,000 years, from Pangu's first axe to Su Fan's last axe.
He hoisted the Pangu Axe onto his shoulder and walked toward the fried dough stick stall.
At the end of the alley, the aftershocks of the calamity were still dancing with extremely faint white arcs of electricity on the bluestone slabs. The frequency of these arcs was perfectly synchronized with the flint beacon rune that the Great Sage had carved at the entrance to the Ruins of the Land of Ruins.
He stepped on the electric arc and landed on the low stool in front of the fried dough stick stall.
Old Zhang, the stall owner, was frying dough sticks. The oil in the pot was bubbling, and the dough sticks were expanding in the oil, with a thin, extremely crispy crust forming around the edges.
Old Zhang looked up and saw Su Fan. His long chopsticks stopped in mid-air, and he grinned.
"They're back again? Are they done fighting this time?"
Old Zhang took the freshly fried dough sticks out and placed them on oil paper to drain the oil.
"It's over."
Su Fan took the Pangu Axe off his waist and leaned it against the stool leg.
The three thin golden lines on the axe handle were extremely faint in the white steam from the youtiao stall's steamer, but they were still faintly glowing.
He took his phone out of his pocket, opened the live streaming app, pointed the camera at the oil pan at the fried dough stick stall, and leaned it against the vinegar bottle.
The barrage of comments flooded in almost instantly.
Su Fan looked at the comments without saying anything, reached out and picked up a freshly fried dough stick, took a bite, chewed it twice and swallowed it.