chsdbacks Chapter 396 Origin of Extraterrestrial Gods
Chapter 396 Origin of Extraterrestrial Gods
Su Fan carried the axe out of the street corner.
At the end of the alley, the aftershocks of the cataclysmic event still danced with faint white arcs of electricity on the bluestone slabs.
As he stepped on the electric arcs and vaulted over the ruins of the South Heavenly Gate, the golden light of Mars shone on the city wall.
The core fragment of Mount Sumeru was embedded in the very center of the city brick, with dark golden law patterns flowing steadily.
The fragment of Buddhist law next to it forms a complementary resonance with it, and the resulting ripples of law spread outwards in circles along the golden pattern network of the city wall.
As it spread to the edge of the stack, it was automatically captured by the half-shattered mirror in Yang Jian's hand, forming an extremely fine wave pattern on the mirror surface.
Yang Jian sat cross-legged under the spine and pieced the two broken pieces of the mirror together.
The wave pattern of the law on the mirror surface was slowly increasing, at an extremely slow rate, so slow that it only jumped up by a tiny bit every few dozen breaths.
It is jumping, and each jump is bigger than the last.
Yang Jian turned the shattered mirror towards Su Fan, his voice extremely steady as he spoke.
"The core fragment of Mount Sumeru sensed a signal from the outside of the membrane. The location of the signal source completely overlaps with the extraterrestrial divine beacon previously captured by the mirror, but the frequency of the laws is different."
"The frequency of the extraterrestrial divine beacon is the gray-white band of the law of cause and effect, while the frequency of this signal is a very faint dark purple."
"Its law structure does not belong to the causal law system, nor does it belong to the chaotic law system. If it must be categorized, its law frequency has a very slight overlap with the law runes that the black-robed man used to open the causal cage back then."
"The overlapping bands are extremely narrow, so narrow that only core debris can detect them. The beacon has been activated and is transmitting signals outwards."
"The signal is simple: the law structure of the outer perimeter of the primordial world has undergone a fundamental change. It is recommended to send explorers."
"Investigator. What will the Origin of the Extraterrestrial Gods send?"
Nezha slammed his Fire-Tipped Spear on the ground, walked to Yang Jian's side, and looked down at the strengthening wave of law on the mirror.
Each pulsation of the waveform creates an extremely fine crack along the edge of the mirror. When the crack spreads to the edge of the mirror, Yang Jian presses it down with his finger and pours in a very faint clear light to heal it.
"There is no detailed record of the origin of the extraterrestrial gods on Hongjun's stone tablet, but the man in black robes said at the bottom of the well that the true form of the extraterrestrial gods is still sleeping in a deeper place."
"Their ancestors established an entire civilization based on the laws of cause and effect in the deepest part of the void. This civilization was not structured as a single pantheon. Similar to the ancient gods of the primordial era, each forming its own lineage, the origin of the extraterrestrial gods had at least three branches based on the laws of cause and effect."
"Each branch has a different understanding of the Dao of Cause and Effect. The man in black robes and his comrades belong to one of these branches, the one closest to the primordial world, and are responsible for guarding the seal at the bottom of the well."
"The seal is still intact, but the beacon they left on the outside of the membrane has been activated by the core fragments of Mount Sumeru. The signal that activated the beacon was not a mixture of Buddhist laws and extraterrestrial causal laws, but a complementary resonance between the core fragments and Buddhist debris."
"The frequency of the laws generated by resonance penetrates the membrane wall and hits the beacon. The beacon misinterprets this as the emergence of a completely new law structure within the primordial world, and automatically triggers the detection program."
Yang Jian turned the broken mirror over so that the back of the mirror was facing up.
The remnants of Kunlun's Law engraved on the back of the mirror reorganized themselves upon contact with the resonant frequency of the core fragment, forming a very rudimentary star trail diagram.
The location of the beacon and the direction of its transmitted signal are marked on the star chart.
The signal pointed to a very distant, densely populated area of laws in the deepest part of the void. The density of laws in that area was so high that even the perception of the mirror was rejected.
"What will they send after the probe is triggered?"
Su Fan took the Pangu Axe from his waist, stuck it at his feet, and squatted down opposite Yang Jian.
"Based on the fragments left by the man in black robes at the bottom of the well, the standard procedure for exploring the new law structure of the origin of the extraterrestrial gods is to send out vanguard envoys."
"Vanguard Envoys are not combat units, but observers of the laws. Their true forms are sealed within a cocoon of laws, the shell of which is formed from the highest density law slurry of the causal path, making it extremely difficult to be destroyed by external forces."
"The cocoon contains the Vanguard Envoy's sensory organs. It is not a physical body, but an extremely complex array of laws-sensing devices. The array can scan all the law frequencies of the target area and transmit the scan results back to the origin via beacons."
"Once the origin receives the scan results, we will decide whether to send someone to make contact or to attack."
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 to Yang Jian's side, squatted down, and placed his right hand on the mirror.
The transparent scorch mark on the index finger cracked slightly when it came into contact with the waveform of the mirror law, and the embers of flint poured out from the crack, propagating in the opposite direction of the waveform towards the signal source.
It was blocked by an extremely dark purple light halfway through its transmission.
That is the outer shell of the beacon's laws.
"The beacon's outer shell has an extremely high density of laws, which even flint embers cannot penetrate. However, the law patterns on the surface of the outer shell are completely of the same origin as the law runes used by the black-robed man when he opened the causal cage."
"The beacon was left by the branch of the causal law of the man in the black robes, not some other branch. The explorers are already on their way, and it shouldn't be long before they reach the outside of the membrane."
"The channel of laws between the beacon and the origin was paved by the extraterrestrial god ancestors using the law of cause and effect, and the flow of laws within the channel is much faster than the normal flow of the void."
"How long is 'not too long'?" Su Fan asked.
"In less than three days, the Pioneer's Law Cocoon moved extremely fast inside the channel, and the cocoon shell could withstand the Law pressure inside the channel. After reaching the outer side of the membrane wall, the cocoon shell would automatically stop and hover at the edge of the membrane wall to begin scanning."
"The scanning process will last for a while. After the scan is complete, it will not actively attack the membrane wall, but will only transmit the scan results back to the origin."
"However, if the scanning process is interfered with by external forces, the cocoon will automatically trigger a defense mechanism. The causal law patterns on the surface of the cocoon will erode the interference source in the opposite direction, turning the law structure inside the interference source into causality."
"Causalization means that the laws within the source of interference are forcibly transformed into a part of the laws of causality, and then absorbed by the cocoon. Once absorbed into the cocoon, the source of interference becomes part of the cocoon and can never be removed."
"What is the scanning area?"
Su Fan looked down at the slowly increasing wave of law on the mirror surface.
Each pulsation of the waveform creates a tiny, faint ripple of dark purple law at the beacon location. When the ripple spreads to the membrane surface, it is automatically absorbed by the dark gold barrier on the outside of the membrane, leaving no indentation on the membrane.
"The cocoon shell is suspended on the outside of the membrane wall, and the scanning range can only cover the law-deposited layer on the surface of the membrane wall and within a certain distance on the outside of the membrane wall."
"But the complementary resonance frequency of this core fragment of Mount Sumeru on the South Heavenly Gate city wall and the fragment of Buddhist law next to it is too strong, so strong that it penetrates the membrane wall."
"The cocoon will scan for this frequency. After scanning, it will mark this frequency as a priority observation target. After marking, the cocoon will actively move towards the South Heavenly Gate, pass through the membrane wall, and enter the inner side of the membrane wall."
"Once inside, it won't attack the city walls; it will simply hover above them and continuously scan the network of laws on the walls. After the scan is complete, it will transmit the data back to its origin."
Xu opened his eyes and removed his right hand from the mirror.
"Then let it sweep. After it finishes sweeping, it will transmit the data back. The people of the Origin Land will see the data and know that the defense line of the Primordial World has been laid out. It's not something they can attack whenever they want. If they're lucky, they won't come."
Nezha slammed his fire-tipped spear to the ground.
"They won't not come. The origin of the extraterrestrial gods hasn't approached the Primordial World for 30,000 years, for only one reason: the Primordial World is surrounded by a barrier of chaotic laws left by Pangu when he created the world."
"That barrier was an unknown law structure to them, and they dared not approach it. Now the barrier has been absorbed by the aggregate and transformed into a membrane wall, and inside the membrane wall there is a new law frequency generated by the mixture of the laws of the path of sentient beings and the laws of Buddhism."
"For them, this is the first time in 30,000 years that they have had the opportunity to observe the changes in the internal laws and structure of the primordial world. Regardless of the scan results, they will send people to make contact."
"It could be exploratory, or it could be comprehensive. It depends on how strong the laws are shown in the scan results. The law waveforms on the mirror will show the position of the cocoon in real time."
"After the cocoon reaches the outer side of the membrane wall, the waveform will jump to a peak. The peak lasts for a period of time, which is the scanning window. Once the scanning window is over, the cocoon will pass through the membrane wall and enter the inner side of the membrane wall."
Yang Jian broke the shattered mirror in half and handed one half to Su Fan.
"What can we do within the scanning window?"
Su Fan took the broken mirror, tucked it into his waistband, and stood up.
"Nothing can be done. The cocoon's defense mechanism is extremely sensitive; any external interference will trigger a causal backlash."
"But after the scanning window ends, at the instant the cocoon passes through the membrane wall and enters the inner side of the membrane wall, the causal law patterns on the surface of the cocoon will experience a very brief law misalignment due to passing through the membrane wall."
"The misalignment lasts for an extremely short time, less than the time it takes to breathe. During that short time, the cocoon's defense mechanisms are temporarily disabled."
"If we can seize that window and use the will of all living beings on the Pangu Axe to wrap the cocoon shell, preventing it from causally influencing anything around it, we can peel the Vanguard Envoy's body perception array out of the cocoon shell before its defense mechanism recovers."
"Once separated, we can read the law scanning data inside the perception array. We can then know in advance the next move of the Origin Explorers."
"However, stripping the sensory array requires two conditions to be met simultaneously. First, the will of all living beings on the Pangu Axe must be completely in sync with the frequency of the causal laws inside the cocoon. Only when they are in sync can the defense mechanism of the cocoon be neutralized."
"Second, during the peeling process, someone must use the aftershocks of the kalpa to suppress the causal law patterns on the surface of the cocoon, so as not to reactivate the patterns during the peeling process."
"The aftershocks of the Great Calamity are a product of the collision between the laws of the outer realms and the primordial Heavenly Dao. Its law frequency and the law of cause and effect have an extremely subtle overlap, which can temporarily suppress the patterns on the surface of the cocoon. The Great Sage is not here. He has returned to Flower Fruit Mountain and has not yet come back."
Xu walked up to Su Fan.
"The Great Sage left behind a wisp of aftermath of a great calamity on Flower Fruit Mountain. Those few monkey hairs were stuck to the stone table by peach juice and are still glowing. I glanced at them when I left, and the frequency of the laws governing the aftermath was very stable."
"The Great Sage was not idle on Flower Fruit Mountain. While eating peaches, he spread the aftershocks of the Great Calamity outwards, and the coverage area has already reached the East Sea."
"If we need him to come back, we can send a law pulse through the shattered mirror, and his monkey hair will automatically activate, converting the aftershock into a communication signal."
Nezha took out the crystal of the flint and steel that Xu had given him earlier from his bosom.
The embers of flint inside the crystal twitched slightly, the rhythm of which was perfectly synchronized with the frequency of the aftershocks of Sun Wukong's calamity.
"Then send a message. The cocoon will arrive in less than three days; tell the Great Sage to return ahead of schedule."
Su Fan took the broken mirror out of his waist, pointed it towards Flower Fruit Mountain, and a very faint golden law pulse shot out from the mirror, piercing through the golden light of Mars above the South Heavenly Gate and flying towards Flower Fruit Mountain.
Inside the Water Curtain Cave of Flower and Fruit Mountain, Sun Wukong was dozing off on a stone chair.
The golden cudgel leaned against the stone wall, the aftershocks of the great calamity on its body had subsided to only a faint white halo.
There were seven or eight half-eaten peaches on the stone table, with the pits scattered all over the ground.
Several little monkeys squatted on his knees peeling peaches, the peeled peach flesh piled on his old battle robe.
The monkey slept soundly, snoring loudly. Each time it snored, the peach-shaped flesh on its chest would tremble.
The little monkeys covered their mouths and giggled.
When Su Fan's law pulse pierced through the waterfall mist in the Water Curtain Cave, Sun Wukong did not open his eyes.
He simply raised his right hand from the stone chair armrest, extending one finger, the tip still stained with peach juice.
The pulse of law landed on his fingertips, exploding into a tiny golden ripple.
The message within the ripple spread along the aftershocks of the great calamity deep within his mind to his limbs. When it reached his left shoulder, the place where he had previously left a connection with the monkey hair felt slightly hot.
That was the crystallized resonant of the flint in Nezha's hand.
The monkey opened one eye, yawned, pushed the peach flesh from its chest onto the stone table, and sat up.
"In less than three days, the Origin of the Extraterrestrial Gods sent a cocoon to probe the membrane. In the less than one breath it took for the cocoon to pass through the membrane, I needed to use the residual energy of countless eons to suppress the causal law patterns on the surface of the cocoon. Alright, I understand."
He picked up the golden cudgel from the stone wall, hoisted it onto his shoulder, somersaulted out of the Water Curtain Cave, and flew towards the South Heavenly Gate, riding on the aftershocks of the calamity.
They flew halfway and then turned back, picking up the two biggest and reddest peaches from the stone steps at the entrance of the Water Curtain Cave, stuffing them into their bosom, before setting off again.
A moment later, the golden armor streaked through the air in an arc and landed on the ramparts of the South Heavenly Gate.
Sun Wukong slammed his golden cudgel against the city bricks, then took out the two peaches from his pocket, tossing one to Su Fan and the other to Nezha.
Then he pulled out a few glowing monkey hairs from the sleeve of his old battle robe and stuffed them into Nezha's hand.
"I'll borrow your flint crystal. The frequency of the aftershocks of the great calamity and the causal law patterns on the surface of the cocoon only have extremely subtle overlapping bands. It can be suppressed, but not stabilized."
"The embers of the ruins can neutralize the extreme cold attribute of the law of cause and effect, widening the overlapping wavebands slightly. Widening them slightly is enough."
Nezha took the monkey hair and handed the crystallized embers of flint to Sun Wukong.
The monkey pressed the crystal onto his chest at the Tanzhong acupoint. The embers of the flint inside the crystal and the aftershocks of the calamity deep within his mind briefly clashed inside the Tanzhong acupoint before merging on their own. After merging, the frequency of the laws of the aftershocks of the calamity increased slightly.
He glanced down at the faint dark golden light on the surface of the Tanzhong acupoint on his chest, grinned, and walked over to Su Fan's side, carrying the golden cudgel.
"The cocoon will arrive in less than three days. In these three days, let's practice the coordination of peeling off the sensory array. The peeling process takes less than a breath, so we can't afford to make any mistakes."
"Once the cocoon's defense mechanism recovers after the error, it will causally convert the stripping tools, namely Pangu's Axe and the aftershocks of the Great Calamity, into part of the cocoon. After causation, my staff and your axe will both become part of the cocoon."
Su Fan took the Pangu Axe off his waist and stuck it at his feet.
For three days, everyone on the South Heaven Gate city wall was preparing to strip away the sensor array.
Xu used the embers of flint to draw an extremely complex law simulation trajectory in the very center of the city wall. The trajectory simulated various law misalignments that might occur when the cocoon passed through the membrane wall.
Su Fan and Sun Wukong practiced their coordination repeatedly along the trajectory.
The angle at which Pangu's axe cleaved in, the depth of the will of all living beings poured in, the range of the suppression of the patterns by the aftershocks of the eon, and the force control of peeling away the perception array.
Each item is precise down to the time it takes to breathe.
Nezha, carrying his Fire-Tipped Spear, stood guard at the breach in the city wall as a reserve force. Yang Jian used the Broken Mirror to monitor the speed at which the beacon signal outside the membrane wall was increasing in real time. Xu squatted on the edge of the Guixu crack, staring at the heartbeat frequency of the larva deep in the foundation.
There is a very subtle correlation between the larva's heart rate and the frequency of the natural fluctuations that may occur when the cocoon passes through the membrane wall, which can help predict the exact time when the cocoon will pass through the membrane wall.
Qingfeng led the soldiers who remained behind to adjust the perception sensitivity of all the law nodes on the city wall to the highest level, and every line of the golden pattern network on the city wall shone brightly in the golden light of Mars.
By the morning of the third day, the waveform of the laws on the surface of the shattered mirror in Yang Jian's hand had reached its peak.
The beacon signal was so bright that even the mirror-like reflections could barely hold it up.
The cocoon has arrived.
In the vast emptiness beyond the membrane wall, a tiny dark purple dot of light is moving toward the membrane wall at an extremely fast speed.
The light spot was surrounded by an extremely thick cocoon of laws, and the causal law patterns flowing on the surface of the cocoon were so dense that the naked eye could only see a blurry dark purple halo.
When the cocoon flew a certain distance to the outside of the membrane wall, it suddenly stopped, hovering in the void, and began to scan the law structure on the surface of the membrane wall.
The scan continued for a period of time, and the waveform on the mirror remained stable at its peak.
After the scan was completed, the cocoon shell began to move towards the membrane wall.
Its movement speed was extremely slow, so slow that every inch it moved left a deep imprint of law in the void.
The indentation left extremely fine dents on the dark gold barrier on the outside of the membrane wall. The dents were automatically repaired by the law patterns inside the barrier, and the repair speed was faster than the movement speed of the cocoon.
"The cocoon is passing through the membrane wall. As it passes through the membrane wall, the causal patterns on the surface of the cocoon will become displaced. The displacement window has less than the time it takes to breathe. Prepare."
Xu stood up from the edge of the Guixu Crack, his right hand pressed against his chest.
A very narrow opening appeared on the surface of the membrane, and the cocoon shell squeezed in through the opening.
The moment it squeezed in, the patterns of cause and effect on the surface of the cocoon stopped flowing under the impact of the laws of the path of all living beings inside the membrane.
The rule misalignment window has opened.
Su Fan made his move at the same instant.
Pangu pulled the axe from his feet, 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 and into the axe blade. The axe blade cleaved the thickest line of cause and effect in the very center of the cocoon.
The axe blade did not cleave through the cocoon shell; it merely pushed it aside along the surface of the cocoon shell.
As it was pushed open, the will of all beings flowed into the cocoon along the patterns, enveloping the vanguard that was sealed inside the cocoon, which was the body's perception array.
At the same instant, Sun Wukong slammed his golden cudgel against the surface of the cocoon.
The aftershocks of the great calamity on the staff and the crystallized flint on the Tanzhong acupoint exploded simultaneously. White arcs of electricity, wrapped in extremely faint dark red flames, spread in all directions along the surface of the cocoon, precisely covering all the causal law patterns on the surface of the cocoon that were still slowly recovering and circulating.
The patterns stopped recovering under the dual suppression of the aftershocks of the cataclysm and the embers of the flint, and the cocoon's defensive mechanism was temporarily disabled.
Taking advantage of this moment, Su Fan flicked the Pangu Axe upwards.
The will of all beings on the axe blade enveloped the vanguard's physical perception array and was peeled away from the cocoon.
The sensory array is only the size of a fist, in a perfectly regular sphere, with extremely fine causal law patterns covering its surface, and a bright dark purple dot sealed in the very center of the patterns.
The light spot contains all the data from this scan.
Less than a breath after the peeling was completed, the causal patterns on the surface of the cocoon resumed their flow.
The defense mechanism was reactivated, the cocoon shell automatically healed, and after healing, it continued to float towards the sky above the South Heavenly Gate city wall.
Its scanning task is not yet complete. Although the Pioneer's body perception array has been stripped away, the cocoon's own automatic scanning function is still in operation.
It will continue to scan the law network structure on the city wall and transmit the scan results back to the origin via beacons.
The core of the scanned data, the frequency of the priority observation target sealed inside the sensing array, is now in Su Fan's hands.
Sun Wukong retrieved his golden cudgel, and the aftershocks of the great calamity danced on the cudgel for a moment before extinguishing themselves.
He took the crystallized embers from the Tanzhong acupoint and returned it to Nezha, then took out a peach from his pocket and took a bite.
"We've got the sensing array. The scanning data sealed inside will allow us to anticipate the next move of the Origin Explorers. The cocoon will continue scanning the city walls from above; it will fly back on its own after it's finished."
"Without the sensing array, the data it scans back only contains the basic laws and structures of the membrane surface, without the detailed frequencies of the priority observation targets."
"After seeing the data, the people of the Origin Land will know that the outer defense line of the Primordial World has been laid, but they will not know the specific laws and structures inside the defense line. They will hesitate. During this period of hesitation, we can prepare in advance."
Su Fan stood up, holding the perception array, and placed it next to the core fragment of Mount Sumeru, allowing the Buddhist laws inside the core fragment and the causal laws inside the array to briefly come into contact on the surface of the city bricks.
Upon contact, the dark purple light spot sealed inside the array automatically activated, projecting an extremely complex diagram of laws and information above the city wall.
The infographic details the Vanguard's entire plan for this scanning mission, including the Explorers' next steps.