Chapter 383
Chapter 384: Demon Suppression Tower Bottom
The Floating Round Dais, covered in countless shining immortal sigils, drifted past the main Containment Zone of the Demon Suppression Tower and kept sinking toward the cave at the base of the high tower. The cavern ran so deep it felt like it might go straight to the planet’s core.
Around the Floating Round Dais, faint streams of light flashed now and then from within the rough, ancient rock walls. Bright, short arcs of electricity jumped between jagged stalagmites. The lower they went, the more light and arcs appeared, until they formed unbroken “rivers” flowing beneath the earth.
Those rivers, cast like liquid light, poured out of the stone and crisscrossed through midair. Their glow swelled and dimmed, like pulsing veins, like steady breaths.
Yu Sheng stared in wonder at the grand, dreamlike sight. [He felt as if the planet itself were breathing.]
The light rivers flowed and throbbed in silence, yet he kept feeling they were sending him a “sound.” He watched them, watched the light flicker in his view, and it was as if he heard a steady thump, thump, like a heartbeat.
Deep, slow, gentle, the heart at the world’s center beat on. That gentle heartbeat seemed to whisper to Yu Sheng: “It is very healthy.”
Yu Sheng suddenly broke the silence, almost talking to himself as he muttered: “It’s living well.”
Irene, sitting on his shoulder, heard him and blinked, the little Doll a bit lost as she asked: “Huh? What’s living well?”
Yu Sheng smiled and, for some reason, felt quietly happy. A soft, bright rush spread up from his heart. It felt like the day he first returned to Night Valley after it was purified and saw a little sprout push through the soil. He sat cross-legged on the edge of the Floating Round Dais and watched the lively light streams dart through the cavern as he said with a grin: “This planet. It’s wonderful.”
Zheng Zhi watched from the side, baffled, and couldn’t help whispering to Foxy: “Do you know what Brother Yu is talking about?”
Foxy didn’t even think before answering: “No, but Benefactor is right.”
Then she crouched beside Yu Sheng and watched the flowing Light Rivers with him, smiling with her eyes narrowed as she said: “It’s wonderful.”
Luna stood quietly a little behind Yu Sheng as usual. The faint glow of the Earth Veins reflected off her smooth metal shell with a hypnotic sheen. In those refracted glimmers, no one knew what she was thinking.
Immortal Yuan Ling stroked his beard nearby. He looked like he was studying the cavern, but the corner of his eye never left Yu Sheng. He said nothing. The Way has to be realized; the more you ask, the shallower the Way becomes.
The old man kept his Heavenly Eye open and watched Yu Sheng, pondering the Dao, until his head swam and he had to close it. Almost at the same moment, he heard Yu Sheng break the quiet as Yu Sheng asked: “Do all planets have Earth Veins?”
Immortal Yuan Ling paused, then answered quickly: “Not all. Most active planets do have Earth Veins. Some are strong and obvious, with visible flows of power running like underground rivers through the mantle and crust. The most famous Earth Vein sign is Loka’s Touch on Planet Terra, and after that, these Light Rivers beneath the Grand Void Spiritual Axis. Some Earth Veins are hard to spot and require arrays or spirit tools to observe.
“And there are planets without Earth Veins, usually worlds where deep activity has stopped and there’s no more evolution of life on the surface. Outsiders call them ‘death worlds,’ ‘dead stars,’ or ‘cold stars.’ We call them desolate stars.
“But there are exceptions. Some that were already labeled desolate show no Earth Veins at all by any method, yet their insides are still active and their surfaces are thriving with mountains, rivers, and life. Such worlds tend to sprout strange things, so some people privately call them corpse stars, seeing them as unlucky. Besides a touch of weirdness, though, that ‘bad luck’ has no real proof.”
Yu Sheng listened with surprise to these facts that felt incredible to him. After a long moment, he shook his head and sighed: “I’ve never heard any of this.”
“That’s normal,” said Zheng Zhi with a grin. “Most folks on our side don’t understand ‘planets.’ The starry sky over Boundary City at night is really just the shadow cast on the Borderland’s outer shell when the real universe projects onto it.”
Hearing Zheng Zhi, Yu Sheng didn’t explain much. He just smiled and shook his head, then stood up.
They had arrived.
The Floating Round Dais reached the bottom of the cavern. A wide space opened up like a massive underground hall, lit by the glow of Earth Veins. Huge man-made stone pillars stood tall from the cave floor. Their surfaces were covered with ancient, profound sigils and inlaid with bronze rings and crystals. They gave off a solemn, overwhelming aura. They were clearly part of the foundation of the Demon Suppression Tower.
Between those grand Demon-Suppressing Pillars stretched countless Runic Chains.
The chains crisscrossed, dropping from the pillar tops and linking to their bases. The iron locks formed a web, and the spaces between them made grids that seemed to hold fixed laws and Dao patterns. At the main focus in the center, thick Runic Chains tightly bound a massive body. It was a “stone sphere.”
Yu Sheng could only call it that, because it looked like a huge stone ball. Its surface was rough and pitted, like the cratered face of a world struck by meteorites. In fact, it looked like a small planet. The “planet,” about the size of a house, was wrapped in layer after layer of iron chains packed with talismans, making it grotesque and quietly frightening.
Even scarier, when Yu Sheng’s group stepped off the Floating Round Dais, the stone sphere slowly floated up. Thin cracks raced across its surface, wandering until, in a blink, they formed a strange face.
Two empty, black hollows for eyes, and a mouth bristling with jagged teeth that looked like a smile.
The stone sphere rumbled as it spoke, its mouth opening and closing and shaking loose powdery gray dust as it said: “What a mess, Yuan Ling. And at a time like this you still have the leisure to visit me?”
Immortal Yuan Ling looked at the stone ball in the center of the Great Demon-Subduing Formation and said without expression: “I have to come. The more it is like this, the less I trust what lies ‘below.’ From the look of it, you’re actually being more honest than the others.”
The stone sphere gave a hoarse laugh as it said: “Of course. I’m always honest, because I’m smarter. When the top cracked, Chao Hu was the first to rush out, dragging a few idiots from the upper layer with it. They all thought once the Demon Suppression Tower fell, Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain would plunge into chaos. Only I knew that if the Tower ever truly fell, it would be the day you people of Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain started a grand slaughter. This tower is just the bit of chance and dignity you leave for the enemy of humankind.”
Immortal Yuan Ling stroked his beard and said with some feeling: “ ‘Enemy of humankind’… it’s been a long time since I heard that term.”
The stone sphere kept rambling like it was making small talk as it said: “I hear you split ‘the enemy of humankind’ into lots of types nowadays, with fancy names: demons, vicious beasts, evil spirits, entities, and all sorts of ‘heretical paths.’ It’s a mess. It was better before. One line said it all: ‘The enemy of man, kill on sight.’ Tsk, you were much purer then.”
Immortal Yuan Ling ignored the sarcasm. He turned to the curious Yu Sheng and the others to explain: “This demonic creature is called Dire Omen, Youth Form. It is a strange existence from the Sea of Stars. It rides subspace to cross the void, disguises itself as a meteor, and after landing feeds by gnawing on Earth Veins. Back then it harmed many lives.
“Three thousand years ago it fell onto the Grand Void Spiritual Axis. Many great experts subdued it together and suppressed it here underground.
“And it deserves this retribution. It has gnawed countless Earth Veins. Only the Earth Veins of the Grand Void Spiritual Axis are poisonous to it.”
Yu Sheng listened, wide-eyed. [Just how many twisted things does this world hide?] The stone sphere slowly turned its bulk, that eerie face tilting toward Yu Sheng’s group as it curled its mouth and said: “A pleasure to meet you all. Yuan Ling, no introduction? You don’t usually bring outsiders here.”
Immortal Yuan Ling kept a stern face as he said: “It has nothing to do with you. They are guests of Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain. I brought them to inspect the Demon Suppression Tower. You just behave.”
“Fine, inspect away. This place is boring anyway,” said the stone sphere, swaying so the Runic Chains clattered. It asked, “By the way, Yuan Ling, did Chao Hu really die? It never returned after it rushed out.”
“Dead,” Immortal Yuan Ling said coolly. “A Class-A containment inmate and a Vicious Beast confined on this level. Stepping out is a capital crime. Kill on sight.”
“Tsk, I told you it had no brains,” the stone sphere said, its tone mocking and pleased. “At least one less noisy fool. What a pity. With it dead, Eight Gate Star will run into trouble. I remember that’s your colony world? Or Remote Mist Sect’s… want my help? I know a thing or two about tuning planetary states. My fee is small, just one tiny ‘bite’…”
Immortal Yuan Ling stared at the “Dire Omen, Youth Form” and said: “What do you think I would say?”
The stone sphere lowered itself and wound the Runic Chains tighter around its body as it muttered: “… No is no. No need to glare.”
Meanwhile, Yu Sheng ignored the sphere. He went with Zheng Zhi to stand beside one of the giant pillars.
Zheng Zhi braced a hand on the pillar. Even though the floor there looked solid and flat, he moved like he was afraid of falling into a deep hole as he said: “The Rift goes down from here. It pierced straight through the floor.”
Yu Sheng was shocked as he blurted: “… It keeps going down?!”
Zheng Zhi hesitated, face tense, and said: “Yes, still going down. It’s like it is stabbing all the way into the core.”