Chapter 384: At the Bottom of the Demon-Suppressing Tower |
The circular dais studded with countless immortal talismans slipped beneath the Demon-Suppressing Tower’s main containment zone and continued dropping toward the cavern at the base of the spire, a shaft so deep it gave the illusion of reaching the planet’s core.
Around the dais, currents of light flickered now and then deep within the rough, primordial stone walls, and bright, staccato arcs leapt between jagged stalagmites. The farther they descended, the more numerous those currents and arcs became, until they gathered in the depths into unbroken “rivers.”
Those rivers, cast like molten light, flowed out of the rock and crisscrossed in midair, their glow waxing and waning, swelling and shrinking, pulsing like blood vessels, rising and falling like breath.
Yu Sheng stared in wonder at the spectacular, dreamlike sight.
The rivers of light flowed and throbbed in utter silence, yet he felt as if he could hear them conveying some “sound” to him as he watched, as he fixed his gaze on the lights winking in and out within his view: it was as if he heard a muffled thump, thump, like a heartbeat.
Low, slow, gentle, the heart buried deep within the planet beat on. That tender sound seemed to whisper to Yu Sheng, murmuring to him: “It is living quite healthily.”
Yu Sheng suddenly broke the silence, muttering as if to himself: “It is living quite healthily.”
Perched on his shoulder, Irene heard him and blinked in confusion as the little doll asked: “Huh? What is living quite healthily?”
“This planet,” Yu Sheng said with a smile. For some reason he felt a quiet, buoyant happiness well up inside, like the feeling he had when he first returned to Nightfall Valley after the Purification and saw that sprout breaking through the soil. He simply sat cross-legged at the edge of the dais, grinning as he watched those vigorous rivers of light weave through the cavern, and he said: “This is wonderful.”
“I don’t,” Foxy answered without thinking, “but Benefactor is right.”
With that she crouched beside Yu Sheng and, together with him, gazed at those flowing “rivers of light,” eyes narrowed in contentment as she said: “This is wonderful.”
Luna stood just behind Yu Sheng, quiet as always. The leylines’ faint radiance washed over her flawless metallic shell with a hypnotic sheen. In the refraction of that dim light, no one knew what she was thinking.
Immortal Yuan Ling stood to the side stroking his beard, seemingly observing the cavern as a whole, yet the corner of his eye never left Yu Sheng. He said nothing.
The Dao is something to be realized. The more you ask about it, the shallower that “Dao” becomes.
The old man kept his Heavenly Eye open as he watched Yu Sheng contemplate the Dao; only when his head began to swim from the strain did he finally withdraw his gaze. Almost at the same moment, he heard Yu Sheng break the silence and ask: “Do all planets have leylines?”
“Not all,” Immortal Yuan Ling answered after a start. He quickly continued: “Most planets that are still active do have leylines. Some leylines are strong and manifest; visible currents of energy flow through the mantle and crust like underground rivers. The most famous phenomenon of this type is Loka’s Touch on Terra, and second is the ‘rivers of light’ beneath the Grand Void Spiritual Axis. Some leylines are hard to see with the naked eye and require formations or spiritual devices to observe.
“There are also planets without leylines, typically worlds whose Deep Layer activity has ceased entirely and whose surfaces no longer host the evolution of life. Outsiders often call these ‘death planets,’ ‘dead worlds,’ or ‘cold stars.’ We call them ‘barren stars’ instead.
“But there are exceptions. Some planets, long classified as barren, show no leylines by any measure, yet remain internally active, even lush on the surface, with mountains, rivers, and thriving vitality. Such worlds often spawn uncanny phenomena, so some privately call them ‘corpse stars,’ deeming them inauspicious. But aside from a measure of eeriness, that ‘inauspiciousness’ has little basis.”
Listening to these incredible “facts,” Yu Sheng shook his head after a long moment and said with quiet amazement: “I had never heard any of this before.”
“That’s normal,” Zheng Zhi chimed in cheerfully. “Back where we’re from, most people don’t really understand ‘planets,’ since the ‘starry sky’ above Boundary City at night is essentially just the shadow formed when the real universe is projected onto the Borderland’s spatial shell.”
Hearing Zheng Zhi’s explanation, Yu Sheng didn’t elaborate further. He simply smiled and shook his head, then rose to his feet.
They had arrived.
The dais reached the cavern floor, an immense expanse illuminated by the surrounding leylines like an underground grotto. There stood many colossal, man-made stone pillars. Ancient and arcane sigils were carved into them, and copper rings and crystals were inlaid upon them. They exuded a solemn, majestic aura, clearly part of the Demon-Suppressing Tower’s foundations.
Between those awe-inspiring “suppressing pillars” stretched countless chains.
They crisscrossed, drooping from the tops of the giant columns and linking to the bases, a web of iron whose mesh formed cells that carried a specific order and Dao. At the primary focal point among them, thick chains bound a massive body.
It was a “stone sphere.”
Yu Sheng could only describe it that way, because it looked like an enormous stone ball. Its surface was extraordinarily rough, pitted like a planet battered by meteor strikes. In truth, it was like a miniature “world,” the size of a house, swathed in layer upon layer of iron chains. Runes crammed the gaps between links, a grotesque sight tinged with a faint chill of horror.
More disturbing still, as Yu Sheng and the others stepped down from the dais, the stone sphere slowly rose. Fine cracks raced across its surface, weaving into a monstrous face in the blink of an eye.
Two black, hollow eyes. A mouth bristling with jagged teeth, as if smiling.
“What a mess, Yuan Ling,” the stone sphere rumbled, its mouth opening and closing and shedding pale grit as it spoke, “and you still find time to visit me now?”
“Of course,” Immortal Yuan Ling replied, expressionless, looking at the stone sphere at the heart of the great suppressing array. “All the more at times like this do I mistrust what lies ‘below.’ But from the looks of it, you are better behaved than the others.”
“Naturally. I have always been well-behaved, because I am smarter than they are,” the stone sphere rasped with a laugh. “When the top layer split open, Chao Hu was the first to bolt, dragging a few fools from the level above with it. They all thought the fall of this tower meant the time had come to plunge Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain into chaos. Only I know that if this tower ever truly falls, it can only be the day you people of Thousand Peak open wide and slaughter. This tower is merely the little bit of chance and face you leave to the ‘human foe.’”
“‘Human foe’… it has been a long time since I heard that term,” Immortal Yuan Ling said, smoothing his beard, a trace of nostalgia in his tone.
“I hear you now split ‘human foe’ into all sorts of categories and dream up a mess of fancy names,” the stone sphere rambled on as if making small talk with Immortal Yuan Ling. “Demons, ferocious beasts, evil spirits, Entities, and all kinds of ‘heretical paths,’ a hodgepodge. It was better before: one phrase summed it up, ‘the enemy of man, kill without question.’ Tsk. You were purer then.”
Ignoring the snide lilt in its voice, Immortal Yuan Ling turned to explain for the curious Yu Sheng and the others: “This demonic creature is called the Dread Omen Wandering Star. It is an uncanny existence from the sea of stars. It can cross the void by harnessing subspace, and after disguising itself as a meteor and crashing down, it gnaws on leylines for sustenance. In its day, it cost many living beings dearly.
“Three thousand years ago it fell upon the Grand Void Spiritual Axis. Many grand cultivators joined forces to subdue it and suppressed it underground.
“In the end, karma found it. It devoured countless leylines, yet the leylines of this Grand Void Spiritual Axis are poisonous to it.”
Yu Sheng listened in astonishment, deepening his sense of just how many eerie things this world could harbor. The stone sphere slowly rotated its massive body, that ghastly face turning toward Yu Sheng and his companions as it bared its mouth in a grin and said: “A pleasure, a pleasure. Yuan Ling, aren’t you going to introduce them? You don’t usually bring outsiders here.”
“It has nothing to do with you. They are guests of our Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain,” Immortal Yuan Ling said stiffly. “I brought them to inspect the tower. You just behave.”
“Fine, inspect away. This place is frightfully boring anyway,” the stone sphere said, swaying as the chains around it clanked. “By the way, Yuan Ling, did Chao Hu really die? It never came back after it shot out.”
“Dead,” Immortal Yuan Ling said evenly. “A Class A containment subject and a ferocious beast confined on this level. Going out is a capital crime. Kill on sight.”
“Tsk, I told you it had no brains,” the stone sphere said with a note of mockery and glee. “At least that’s one noisy lout gone. A pity, though. With it dead, Eight Gates Star will likely run into trouble. I remember that is one of your Thousand Peak colonies. Or does it belong to the Yaolan Sect… need my help? I have some experience tuning planetary conditions. My fee is modest, just the tiniest ‘bite’…”
Immortal Yuan Ling regarded the Dread Omen Wandering Star and asked: “What do you think?”
The stone sphere slowly sank back to the ground and wound the surrounding chains around itself a few extra turns: “… No means no. No need to glare like that.”
Meanwhile, Yu Sheng ignored the stone sphere and accompanied Zheng Zhi to one of the giant pillars.
“The rift runs down from here,” Zheng Zhi said, bracing a hand on the pillar. Though the ground looked flat and solid, his posture was as if he might tumble into a gaping hole at any moment. “It pierced straight through this floor.”
Yu Sheng was taken aback: “… It goes even farther down?!”
“Yes, farther down,” Zheng Zhi answered after a hesitant beat, his expression taut with nerves. “It is practically stabbing all the way to the core!”
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