chsdbacks Chapter 397, Branch 3
Chapter 397, Branch 3
The moment the infographic unfolded above the city wall, everyone on the Nantianmen city wall fell silent.
This diagram is extremely complex, with layers upon layers of laws and patterns, each layer being an independent branch of the law of cause and effect.
The outermost layer is the beacon frequency of the law of the black-robed man's branch, the middle layer is the coordinate of the law channel of the second branch, and the innermost layer is an extremely thin but extremely bright dark purple light.
That was the signal from the Law Cocoon sent by the third branch to dispatch explorers.
The frequencies of the three branches of the law converge at the very center of the information diagram, forming a tiny vortex of law at the point of convergence. Inside the vortex is a line of text engraved with causal law runes.
The text was extremely brief, consisting of only one sentence.
"Priority observation target: The core carrier of the Law of All Beings. It is recommended to send an envoy to make contact and assess the situation."
"An envoy. Not an investigator, but an envoy. They don't intend to fight directly; they want to send someone to negotiate first."
Nezha slammed his fire-tipped spear on the ground and turned his head to look at the line of text about the law on the infographic.
The text slowly rotated inside the vortex, and with each rotation, the dark purple light at the edges of the text brightened a little more.
"Talking isn't necessarily a good thing. The explorers are here to observe, and after they've finished observing, they'll go back and report. Only after that will a decision be made on whether to attack or not."
"The envoy has come to make contact, and this contact means they have already made a preliminary assessment. They have determined that the defenses of the Primordial World warrant their formal dispatch of an envoy."
"This judgment itself illustrates one thing: the origin place attaches great importance to the changes in the internal laws and structure of the primordial world. They attach so much importance to it that they skipped the detection phase and went directly to the contact phase."
"If the talks go well after the initial contact, a non-aggression pact might be signed. If they don't go well, what will come after the envoy is a regular army."
"It's not the gatekeeper-like scale of the black-robed branch; it's a full-scale causal law army mobilized by all three branches."
Yang Jian pieced the broken mirrors together, and three different law waveforms, each with a different frequency, appeared on the mirror surface.
The branch with the black-robed man had the darkest but most stable waveform, indicating that the seal was still in place and their gatekeeper duties had not yet been lifted.
The waveform of the second branch is accelerating and strengthening, and the direction of strengthening is pointing towards a law-based channel on the outer side of the membrane wall that has not yet been explored.
The waveform of the third branch has already started from its origin and is moving at high speed inside the channel. The speed is so fast that the waveforms on the mirror surface are almost connected into a straight line.
"When will the messenger arrive?" Su Fan asked, looking at the wave pattern that formed a straight line on the mirror.
"Less than five days. But the passage through which the messenger came was not the same as the passage through which the Cocoon Shell came. The Cocoon Shell used the old passage of the branch of the Black Robe Man, while the messenger used the passage newly paved by the third branch itself."
"The new channel's laws flow faster than the old channel's. The cocoon takes three days, but the messenger can fly from the origin to the outside of the membrane in less than two days."
"The exit of the passage is not located in the area scanned in the cocoon shell before, but near another weak point on the outer side of the membrane wall. We did not reinforce that weak point before."
"The weak point of the law structure is being continuously eroded by the law pressure at the exit of the channel. The erosion speed is extremely slow, but if it is not reinforced in advance, the law impact generated when the messenger passes through the membrane wall will directly break through that weak point."
"After the breach, a permanent gap will appear in the membrane wall. Although the gap is not large, it is enough to allow the fragments of the void laws on the outside of the membrane wall to flow in."
Xu placed his right hand on the pale gold line on his chest, closed his eyes to sense it for a moment, and then opened them.
"What will happen to the debris that flows in?" Nezha asked.
"It will not cause direct damage to the primordial world, but the fragments contain extremely ancient remnants of laws from the depths of the void. When those remnants come into contact with fragments of chaotic laws on the inner side of the membrane, they will generate extremely weak law conflicts. These conflicts will cause the chaotic law cycle to fluctuate within a very small range near the gap."
"The fluctuations won't disrupt the cycle, but they will be monitored in real time by the origin. They will take the fluctuations as evidence of instability in the primordial defense line, directly cancel the contact phase, and switch to a full-scale attack."
Xu removed his right hand from his chest and walked to the brick in the very center of the city wall that contained the core fragment of Mount Sumeru. He used the transparent scorch mark on his index finger to draw an extremely fine law reinforcement line on the surface of the brick.
The trajectory starts from the core fragment, extends along the golden pattern network of the city wall towards the membrane wall, and the location of the messenger passage exit is marked on the extended path.
Su Fan took the Pangu Axe off his waist and stuck it at his feet.
The thin golden line in his left palm activated itself the moment it touched the reinforced trajectory. The will of all beings surged from the line, flowing along the trajectory into the golden patterned network of the city wall, and then from the network to the weak point on the surface of the membrane.
The internal structure of laws within the weak point begins to strengthen itself after receiving the will of all living beings. The strengthening speed is extremely slow but extremely stable.
He withdrew his left hand and looked up at the three intersecting frequency laws on the infographic.
"Reinforcing the weak points will take time, but the messenger will arrive soon. We will reinforce while preparing for contact."
"During the contact, we need to know three things: First, does the branch that sent the envoy know about the black-robed man's branch?"
"Secondly, when will the second branch of the law collider arrive?"
"Third, what is the envoy's attitude towards the changes in the internal laws and structure of the primordial world? Is he here to test us, to negotiate, or to issue an ultimatum?"
"I don't know which branch the black-robed man belongs to. It's clearly marked on the infographic. After the beacon was activated, the beacon signal only reached the second and third branches."
"The comrades of the Black Robe are still asleep in the place of origin; the beacon signal bypassed them."
"The second branch of the law collider has already set off, around the same time as the cocoon, but it is taking a different route. The flow of laws within that route is slower, and it is expected to arrive at least several days later than the messenger."
"As for the envoy's attitude, we'll have to ask him in person when he arrives. The perception array only seals the scanning data, not the envoy's personal will data."
Xu removed his right hand from the city brick, walked to the front of the information map, and gently traced the edge of the messenger's law cocoon signal with his finger.
A very thin crack appeared at the edge of the signal, and a faint wisp of dark purple law energy flowed out from inside the crack. The energy condensed on its own above the city wall into a very blurry humanoid outline.
Its outline is extremely faint, so faint that you can hardly see its facial features; you can only tell that it is extremely tall and has long limbs.
The silhouette hovered above the city wall for a moment before disappearing on its own.
"This is the law projection of the messenger's true form. The form of the extraterrestrial gods in the third branch is completely different from that of the black-robed man. They are not pure aggregates of laws, but symbiotic entities of laws with physical bodies."
"The physical body and the law of causality coexist, with the physical body serving as the container and the law as the core. This symbiotic structure makes their defenses stronger than those of the black-robed man, and also makes them more difficult to be affected by the backlash of causality."
"If contact fails and we enter combat mode, we will have to use the Pangu Axe to split open his physical shell in order to touch the core of the laws inside."
Xu withdrew his finger and pressed the information diagram down. All the law patterns on the diagram converged into the perception array, and the dark purple light spot on the array surface returned to stability.
Sun Wukong squatted on the top of the wall, his golden cudgel resting on his knees.
He looked at the frequency of each law branch on the infographic, took out a peach from his pocket, took a bite, chewed it twice, and swallowed it.
"The first group are the gatekeepers, the second are the detectors, and the third are the messengers. The division of labor is quite clear over at the origin. But I still remember what the man in black robes said at the bottom of the well."
"He said that the extraterrestrial gods never knew what negotiation was; their instinct was to devour foreign laws. The third branch's visit this time is most likely not for real negotiations, but to observe the core structure of our laws governing all living beings up close."
"After we finish the observation and return, we'll hand the data over to the second branch, which will use a quantum collider to dismantle our legal structure at its core. Then the first branch will step in and devour the remaining fragments of the laws."
"The Great Sage is right. The envoy's visit is a pretext; the real purpose is close-up scanning. But we can also use this contact to learn about the coordination mechanism of their three branches' joint operations in advance."
"The core of law within the envoy's body is of the same origin as the one in the black robe, but it is more advanced and complex. If we can access his core of law, the heart network of the Void can reverse-analyze the communication frequencies of law between the three branches."
"Once we analyze it, we can predict their combined offensive rhythm in advance."
Yang Jian broke the shattered mirror in two, handing one half to Su Fan and keeping the other half for himself.
In less than two days, everyone on the South Heaven Gate city wall prepared to make contact with the messenger.
Su Fan used the Pangu Axe to reinforce the weak point on the surface of the membrane wall with three layers of the will of all living beings membrane wall. The law structure of each layer of the membrane wall was precisely matched with the law pressure of the messenger channel exit.
Sun Wukong widened the frequency of the aftershocks of the Great Calamity from an extremely narrow suppressive band to one that could cover the entire frequency band of the symbiotic structure of causal laws within the messenger's body. The widening process was extremely slow, and for every slight widening, the fusion ratio of the fused embers and the aftershocks of the Great Calamity had to be repeatedly calibrated at the Tanzhong acupoint.
Xu squatted at the edge of the Guixu crack, adjusting the heartbeat frequency of the larva deep in the foundation to match the signal of the messenger's law cocoon. After matching the frequency, he could predict the precise time when the messenger would pass through the membrane wall.
Nezha, carrying the Fire-Tipped Spear, stood guard at the breach in the city wall. The brightness of the law mark on his left shoulder was extremely stable under the blessing of the Pure Yang Talisman.
Qingfeng led the soldiers who remained behind to push the perception sensitivity of all the law nodes on the city wall to the limit, and every line of the golden pattern network on the city wall shone brightly in the golden light of Mars.
Yang Jian used the shattered mirror to monitor the changes in the pressure of the law at the exit of the passage in real time. Yuanshi Tianzun sat cross-legged with his back straight, his whisk lying across his knees. One hundred and eight transparent runes slowly flowed on the whisk's threads. His Dao Heart penetrated the extremely dark void outside the membrane wall and locked onto the exact location of the messenger's passage exit.
By the morning of the third day, the waveform of the third branch of the law on the broken mirror in Yang Jian's hand jumped to its peak.
The messenger has arrived.
Directly in front of the weak point on the outer side of the membrane wall, which had been reinforced with three layers, the passage exit opened up in the void with an extremely narrow opening.
The dark purple light emanating from inside the opening was extremely bright, so bright that it penetrated the membrane and struck the city wall.
After the opening split open, an extremely tall and slender human figure walked out of it.
The humanoid figure was extremely tall, two heads taller than the man in black robes.
His body was wrapped in an extremely thin layer of dark purple law membrane. His physical body could be seen inside the membrane. The surface of his body was covered with extremely complex causal law patterns. The patterns spread from the core of his chest to his limbs, and each pattern was flowing on its own.
His face was extremely young, with regular features, but his eyes had no pupils, only two extremely bright dark purple orbs of light.
The ball of light slowly rotated inside the eye socket, its rotation perfectly synchronized with the thin golden line on Su Fan's left palm.
The messenger stopped directly in front of the membrane.
He lowered his head and looked through the membrane at the position of everyone on the South Heaven Gate city wall.
His gaze swept from Sun Wukong to Nezha, from Nezha to Xu, from Xu to Yang Jian, and finally settled on Su Fan, on the thin golden line on Su Fan's left palm.
He spoke, and his voice pierced through the membrane and the void, exploding above the South Heavenly Gate, extremely calm and steady.
"My name is Eros, messenger of the third branch of the Law of Cause and Effect. I have come to contact the core carrier of the Dao Laws of all living beings in the primordial world, by order of the joint council of the three branches of the Origin Land."
"I am not fighting, but observing. If the observation results meet the expectations of the Alliance, the Origin Land will sign a non-aggression pact with the Primordial World. If the observation results do not meet the expectations, what happens next is beyond my control."
Su Fan took the Pangu Axe off his waist, gripped it with both hands, and the will of all living beings surged from the golden threads in his palms, flowing along the axe handle into the axe blade, from which an extremely bright golden light shot out.
The light penetrated the membrane wall and struck the weak point on the membrane surface that had been reinforced with three layers.
The weak point split open, creating a narrow opening just wide enough for one person to pass through. He pointed the axe blade towards the opening.
"Come in."
Eros passed through the narrow opening in the membrane wall and stepped onto the bricks of the South Heavenly Gate.
He was extremely tall; when he stood in the very center of the city wall, the top of his head almost reached the afterglow of the law below the ridge.
The dark purple law membrane surrounding his body trembled slightly when it came into contact with the newly grown pale gold patterns on the city bricks.
The vibration frequency was extremely low, so low that only the Eastern Emperor's heart inside Xu's chest cavity could detect it.
Inside the membrane, the causal law patterns on the surface of his body began to slowly adjust their flow rhythm under the influence of the will of all living beings, changing from extremely fast to being completely synchronized with the golden line on Su Fan's left palm.
"Your law frequency matches perfectly with the frequency previously captured by the beacon."
"The priority target for observation, the core carrier of the laws governing all living beings, is indeed you."
Eros looked down at Su Fan, the two dark purple orbs of law light in his eye sockets slightly contracting as he spoke.
His voice pierced through the law-based membrane on the city wall, exploding simultaneously deep within the minds of everyone present.
This is not a universal language of the primordial world, but a multi-frequency law communication inherent in the law of cause and effect, which can be received simultaneously by all individuals with the ability to perceive the law.
Sun Wukong squatted on the edge of the battlement, his golden cudgel resting on his knees. When he heard the sound, his monkey ears twitched.
He threw the peach pit into the crack in the Ruins of Return and stood up.
"Your communication frequency is exactly the same as the black-robed man's. Back when the black-robed man opened the Causal Cage outside the South Heavenly Gate, he also used this frequency to speak to us. What is your relationship with him?"
Sun Wukong slammed his golden cudgel against the city bricks.
"The man in black robes is the gatekeeper of the first branch. I am the messenger of the third branch, of the same origin but different branch."
"The Origin Realm is aware that you defeated the man in black robes. Defeating the gatekeeper is not enough to make the Origin Realm give up on contact."
"The law structure of the outer perimeter of the primordial world has undergone fundamental changes, and the place of origin needs to know whether this change will pose a threat to the extraterritorial law system. My mission is to assess the extent of this threat."
Eros raised his right hand from his side, palm facing up.
A tiny, dark purple crystal of law floated in his palm, its interior sealed with an extremely complex rune of causal law.
The rune structure is completely of the same origin as the law vortex sealed inside the perception array in Su Fan's arms, but it is more complete and more advanced.
He handed the crystal towards Su Fan.
"This is a draft of a non-aggression pact agreement jointly prepared by the three parties from the place of origin."
"The core terms of the agreement are three: First, the laws of the primordial beings shall not spread outward to the void outside the membrane."
"Secondly, the laws of causality from outside the territory must not penetrate into the foundation of the Ruins."
"Thirdly, both sides set up a law monitoring station inside and outside the membrane wall to monitor the fluctuations of each other's laws in real time."
"If you agree to these three terms, the agreement will take effect immediately. If you do not agree, I will report back to the place of origin, and the three parties will decide on the next course of action."
Su Fan did not accept the crystal.
He planted the Pangu Axe at his feet, and the thin golden line in his left palm aligned with the law runes flowing on the surface of the crystal.
The will of all beings surged from the fine thread, making a very brief contact with the surface of the crystal. After the contact, he withdrew his left hand and looked up at Eros.
"The draft agreement does not specify when the second branch of the quantum collider will be removed."
"The probe is already on its way, taking a different route, slower than the cocoon but faster than the messenger. According to the current flow rate, it should be almost at the outer edge of the membrane."
"The third branch sent envoys to negotiate, while the second branch simultaneously sent probes to approach the membrane wall. The joint statement from the three branches is 'contact assessment,' but in reality, negotiations and military probes are proceeding simultaneously."
"If negotiations fail, the probes will be converted into offensive weapons, and the first branch gatekeepers will be dispatched from the origin, with all three branches launching a joint general offensive."
The two dark purple orbs in Eros's eye sockets stopped spinning.
His hand remained in the gesture of offering the crystal, but the runes of law on the surface of the crystal in his palm stopped flowing.
This reaction was extremely brief; after a short while, the sphere of light began to rotate again, and the runes began to flow once more.
He retrieved the crystal into his palm, closed his five fingers, and the crystal disappeared into the core of the law within his palm.
His voice remained extremely calm and steady when he spoke.
"The second branch of the quantum collider detector is indeed on its way. However, its mission is not to attack, but to monitor changes in the void law environment outside the membrane wall."
"When you reinforced the weak points of the membrane wall, the residual will of all beings spread to the outside of the membrane wall. The monitoring station at the origin captured this residual will and mistakenly judged it as the overflow of the law."
"The detector's true mission is to determine whether this spillover was intentional. If it is determined to be unintentional, the detector will automatically return to its origin. If it is determined to be intentional, the detector will initiate the law-collision procedure."
"What is the Law Collision Program?" Su Fan asked.
"The quantum beam of causality continuously bombards the nodes of the laws of sentient beings on the outside of the membrane wall."
"The shockwave generated by the impact will trigger extremely subtle law resonances inside the membrane wall, with the resonance frequency matching that of the primordial Heavenly Dao Laws."
"If the impact continues for a long enough, the resonance will strip some of the nodes of the laws of all living beings inside the membrane from the cycle of laws."
"The nodes will become inactive after being peeled off, and the membrane defense strength in the area where the inactive nodes are located will decrease. The second branch calls this process 'law softening'."
"To put it simply, it's about using quantum beams to thin the membrane. Once it's thin, your first gatekeeper can easily break in."
Nezha slammed his fire-tipped spear into the ground, the butt of the spear wedging three inches into the city brick.
The law mark on his left shoulder brightened a bit under the blessing of the Pure Yang Talisman, and the golden steam seeping from the edge of the mark briefly touched the dark purple law membrane surrounding Eros.
The moment it touched the membrane, a tiny burst of sparks of law erupted on the surface of the membrane. After the sparks dissipated, the membrane remained intact.
"The third branch's position differs from that of the second branch. We prefer to resolve the issue of the boundaries of the law through negotiation rather than military means. However, the decision-making mechanism of the three branches' joint council is majority rule."
"The first branch gatekeepers are inclined to military retaliation because the black-robed man was defeated, the second branch detector department is inclined to soften the defenses first and then negotiate, but the third branch advocates contact first."
"The three branches voted to send envoys to make initial contact, while simultaneously dispatching probes as a backup. This is the best outcome the third branch could secure for the Primordial World."
Eros removed his hand from the center of his chest core and turned to Sufan.
The two dark purple orbs in his eye sockets contracted slightly, then expanded again. As they expanded, the internal laws and patterns underwent a very subtle change, turning from the original dark purple to a very pale purplish-gold.
This color is exactly the same as the light that flows across the three heart fragments on the surface of the core of the Eastern Emperor's heart when it beats in the chest cavity of the Ruins.
"The third branch is not the mainstream of the origin of the extraterrestrial gods. Our ancestors and the black-robed ancestors came from the same source, drawing power of the law of cause and effect from the seal of the Lord at the bottom of the well."
"However, during the process of absorbing knowledge, the ancestors of the third branch discovered an extremely faint resonance between the law of cause and effect and the law of life. This resonance was regarded as 'law pollution' by the first branch, and the third branch was therefore marginalized."
"The reason we advocate contact rather than attack is not out of goodwill, but because the residual life law sealed within the laws of your beings shares an 80% common origin with the core law of the third branch."
"If a full-scale war breaks out, the core of the third branch's laws will be the first to be damaged by the impact of the will of all living beings. We are unwilling to pay this price for the revenge of the first branch."
Su Fan placed his hand on the handle of the Pangu Axe and remained silent for a moment.
The will of all beings surged from the golden thread in his palm, flowing down the axe handle and into the axe blade, condensing into a very faint golden light at the tip of the blade.
He pulled the axe out of the city bricks, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and turned to walk towards the center of the city wall.
After taking a few steps, he stopped and looked back at Eros.
"We can discuss the draft agreement. But there are three prerequisites. First, the second branch of the quantum collider must be moved a certain distance away from the outside of the membrane wall."
"Second, the seal on the gatekeeper of the first branch must remain unchanged and must not be lifted prematurely in any way. Third, the communication channel between the third branch and the Primordial World must be open in both directions, not just one-way monitoring."
"You can monitor the fluctuations of our laws, and we will monitor yours as well. Take these three premises back to the place of origin and let the three councils vote again."
"The detector is not allowed to approach the membrane wall before the voting results are announced. If the detector hits the membrane wall during this period, the agreement will be void."
The two purple-gold orbs in Eros's eye sockets stopped spinning simultaneously after Su Fan finished speaking.
He raised his right hand back from his side, palm facing up, and the crystal of law reappeared in his palm.
This time, the law runes on the crystal surface did not stop flowing, but instead split open on their own during the flow, breaking from a complete rune into three independent but interlocking law clauses.
The content of the terms is completely consistent with the three premises that Su Fan just mentioned, even the wording is exactly the same.
He handed the crystal towards Su Fan.
"Your three premises have been included in the draft agreement. I will take this draft back to its place of origin and submit it to the three joint councils for a new vote."
"During the voting period, the second branch detector will remain a certain distance away from the outer edge of the membrane wall, neither approaching nor activating. However, the voting takes time, and the flow of time in the primordial world differs from that in the outer realms."
"Based on the primordial timeline, the voting results will take several days. During this period, I will remain at the South Heavenly Gate as a resident observer for the third branch. This is a provisional clause of the draft agreement; do you all agree?"
Su Fan took the crystal and looked down at the three independent yet interlocking law clauses inside.
The terms and conditions have an extremely stable legal structure, with no hidden legal traps.
He placed the crystal next to the core fragment of Mount Sumeru, allowing the Buddhist laws within the core fragment and the laws of cause and effect within the crystal to briefly come into contact on the surface of the city bricks.
After contact, the two laws merged on the city bricks into a tiny law node, with the frequency of internal circulation being extremely stable.
He turned to look at Eros.
"Alright. You may remain at the South Heavenly Gate, but you are not permitted to scan the core area of the City Wall Law Network during your stay. The boundaries of the core area will be defined by the Ruins."
"You are free to move around in non-core areas, but you must report before each scan. After reporting, Yang Jian will monitor the scanning process with the broken mirror, and the scan data must be transmitted to Nantianmen simultaneously. If you agree, you can stay; if you disagree, go back and wait for the vote."
"Agreed. My mission is to make contact and assess, not to steal data. During my stay, I will abide by the rules you have set."
Eros withdrew his right hand, and the dark purple law membrane surrounding his body thinned slightly as he finished speaking, changing from extremely thick to semi-transparent.
Inside the translucent membrane, one could see the causal laws on the surface of his body still flowing on their own, but the pace of the flow had changed from extremely fast to extremely slow.
This is how the Law Symbiotics proactively reduce the thickness of their defense layer, demonstrating their sincerity within the behavioral system of the extraterrestrial gods.
Xu walked from the edge of the Guixu Crack, his bare feet stepping on the city bricks, with each step his Eastern Emperor's heart in his chest beat.
He walked up to Eros, his pale golden pupils reflecting the two purple-gold orbs of light in Eros's eye sockets.
He drew an extremely thin boundary of laws in the air directly in front of Eros's core with his finger. Inside the boundary was the core area of the city wall law network, and outside the boundary was the non-core area.
After finishing the drawing, he withdrew his finger and looked up at Eros.
"The boundaries have been drawn. The core area includes the area around the core fragment of Mount Sumeru, the entrance and exit of the Ruins of Return, and the section of the city wall with the densest nodes of the laws of all living beings on the inner side of the membrane."
"You are free to move around in the areas outside of this. You must inform us in advance before scanning. After you inform us, Yang Jian will use the shattered mirror to receive the scan data synchronously."
"If you cross the boundary, the will of all living beings within the boundary will automatically trigger the defense mechanism, at which time your core of law will suffer a backlash."
"I already know."
Eros lowered his head and looked at the pale gold line on the chest of the Ruins.
The light emanating from the Eastern Emperor's Mother Liquid flowing within the fine thread was extremely similar in frequency to the two purple-gold orbs of light in his eye sockets.
He remained silent for a moment, then spoke a sentence that only Xu could hear, his voice so soft that even the thin golden line in Su Fan's left palm did not detect any fluctuations in the laws.
He was speaking the ancient language of the third branch of ancestors, which has an extremely archaic grammatical structure, but Xu could understand it.
Xu did not answer, but simply placed his hand on the pale gold line on his chest. The beating frequency of his heart pulse changed very slightly after receiving those words.
After the change, he turned around and walked towards Su Fan.
"The draft agreement is temporarily stable. I will continue to monitor the changes in the core frequency of his laws during Eros's stay."
"There is an extremely weak real-time communication channel between his core and the origin of the third branch, and the frequency of this channel has been detected by the heart's pulsation network."
"If there are any unusual instructions from the origin, Nantianmen will know in advance."
Xu walked up to Su Fan, his voice so low that only Su Fan could hear it.
"What did he just say to you?" Su Fan asked.
"He said that the third branch was marginalized in its place of origin not because of the contamination of the laws, but because when the ancestors of the third branch were absorbing the power of the laws of cause and effect, they sensed a very faint trace of the remnant of the laws of life from the depths of the seal of the Lord at the bottom of the well."
"That lingering echo comes from a trace of life left behind by Donghuang Taiyi in the Heavenly Dao Mother Liquid before his fall. The third branch has been secretly preserving this lingering echo, waiting for the day when the Donghuang Bell will be rung again."
"He sensed the aura of the Eastern Emperor's Mother Essence on me just now and asked if I had already struck the Eastern Emperor Bell."
"How will you answer?"
"I didn't answer. But the core frequency of his laws had already given him the answer."
Xu removed his hand from his chest.
Su Fan didn't say anything, but slung the Pangu Axe over his shoulder and walked to the center of the city wall.
The core fragment of Mount Sumeru and the adjacent fragment of Buddhist law are still resonating stably. The crystallized draft of the agreement is attached to them, and the three laws are slowly rotating on the city bricks.
Eros stood at the edge of the non-core area of the city wall, the semi-transparent dark purple law membrane around him extremely faint under the golden light of Mars.
Nezha leaned against a pillar on the city wall, carrying his Fire-Tipped Spear, the Law Mark on his left shoulder glowing steadily.
Yang Jian aimed the shattered mirror at Eros, and the mirror surface simultaneously displayed every fluctuation of the law membrane surrounding Eros.
Sun Wukong squatted on the edge of the battlements, his golden cudgel resting on his knees. He took out the last peach from his robes, rubbed it on his old battle robe, and took a bite.
The monkey watched Eros's retreating figure, chewed the peach twice and swallowed it, muttering something in a voice only it could hear.
"The third branch consists of old acquaintances of Donghuang Taiyi. This battle is unlikely to break out."