Chapter 207: Writing Heaven and Earth

The atmosphere within the Five Dragons Tiangong was somewhat eerie.

Zheng Fa stood on the left with Zhang Shijie.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Pang Shushu stood on the right.

Among the four of them sat a bronze coffin, and beside the bronze coffin stood Lin Lin Bu Fan, his face extremely uneasy.

A mass of cyan-gold flames burned at the bottom of the bronze coffin.

This flame was Yuan Shijie's innate spiritual fire; she sat cross-legged on the ground at this moment, attempting to melt the remnants left by the old man of the bronze coffin.

"Although this bronze coffin is a Nascent Soul artifact, the old man of the bronze coffin is dead, and the treasure has no master," Zhang Shijie said. "Yuan Shimei's innate spiritual fire is also extraordinary; according to our initial thoughts, it should be sufficient to melt this bronze coffin."

Zheng Fa nodded.

An ownerless treasure, if it has not yet developed spiritual intelligence, is like a lamb awaiting slaughter, far weaker than others.

But in the eyes of the four, dense silver talisman patterns gradually floated up on the bronze coffin within the flames.

With the appearance of these patterns, the bronze coffin shook slightly, and hundreds of black, withered hands extended from inside the coffin, reaching for the spiritual fire.

Accompanying these hands was a bone-piercing, chilling cold aura.

The temperature in the hall plummeted; the flames of the cyan-gold spiritual fire at the coffin's base no longer flickered, appearing as if frozen.

Yuan Shijie opened her eyes, shook her head toward Zheng Fa and the others, Shen Shi Yi that she was powerless.

"This... is the secret of the Great Zizaimo Mo Sect you spoke of?" Pang Shushu asked. "What can this prove?"

After all, unlike Zhang Shijie and Zheng Fa, he did not communicate closely with them and was not familiar with Zheng Fa's many explorations.

"You know about the matter of the talisman seals, Shushu," Zhang Shijie glanced at Lin Lin Bu Fan. "The blood on his body, besides being able to create talisman seals, also contains some special talisman patterns. According to the Three-Child Talisman Theory, one category of child talismans within it is actually identical to the talisman patterns appearing on this bronze coffin."

Zheng Fa glanced at the bronze coffin, then glanced at Lin Lin Bu Fan.

He had just confirmed that the talisman patterns on the bronze coffin, if categorized by topology, fell into two types, which were exactly the two types of child talismans appearing in Lin Lin Bu Fan's blood.

"Then what does that prove?" Pang Shushu still did not understand; he glanced at Lin Lin Bu Fan and said, "Does it prove that if you put him over the fire, he won't die?"

"..."

Cold sweat immediately poured down Lin Lin Bu Fan's face.

He looked at the coffin beside him, seeming to feel that this thing was prepared for him...

Come to think of it, Pang Shushu was very good at drawing inferences from one instance and possessed a great experimental spirit.

Zheng Fa shook his head, suddenly extended his hand, and a beam of positive and negative Five-Colored Divine Light swept toward the bronze coffin.

The bronze coffin trembled lightly twice, as if resisting, but after being touched twice by the Five-Colored Divine Light, it became reluctant yet welcoming, shyly accepting the caress of the Five-Colored Divine Light.

But Zheng Fa seemed somewhat insatiable today; one sweep of divine light apparently could not satisfy him, so he ruthlessly brushed the bronze coffin three times.

If not for the considerable consumption of the Five-Colored Divine Light, and his spiritual power and divine soul both being empty within his body, he probably would not have stopped.

"Junior Brother?"

"This bronze coffin seems to still have a master."

After the three times, Zheng Fa carefully savored the sensation from just now and suddenly summarized.

"Has a master?" Pang Shushu stared blankly. "The old man of the bronze coffin isn't dead?"

"His spirit and form should both be annihilated," Zhang Shijie affirmed.

"When I used the Five-Colored Divine Light, I felt someone competing with me for control of this artifact; this sensation seems to originate from..." Zheng Fa looked upward, as if able to see the sky outside through the roof of the Five Dragons Tiangong; his gaze carried a hint of confusion as he said, "The sky."

"The sky..."

Everyone looked up, their expressions varying.

"Junior Brother, your meaning is..." Zhang Shijie understood Zheng Fa's hypothesis. "This person is the Great Zizaimo Mo Ancestor?"

"Mm," Zheng Fa said softly. "I now feel that these two child talismans refer to the Great Zizaimo Mo Ancestor."

This hypothesis actually existed long ago.

At that time, when discovering these two identical child talismans within Lin Lin Bu Fan's body, he had two directions in his mind.

One was that these two child talismans pointed to Lin Lin Bu Fan.

The other was that these two child talismans pointed to the Great Zizaimo Mo Ancestor.

Now that these two child talismans have appeared on this bronze coffin, the first option is eliminated by itself.

This is also why Zheng Fa never dared to study these two child talismans in the modern era: if he really conjured up the Great Zizaimo Mo Ancestor, there would be quite a spectacle.

Zheng Fa's actions just now were merely verification.

The expressions of Zhang Shijie and Zheng Fa were both somewhat grim.

The others, however, were somewhat confused.

"What riddle are you two playing at?" Yuan Shijie, her head full of confusion, asked in pursuit.

"It is not a riddle; this thought is simply too shocking. When the Three-Child Talisman Theory was first proposed, we had a hypothesis: one category of child talismans corresponds to all things in the world... for example, one child talisman corresponds to a water droplet, one child talisman corresponds to a stone..."

Since the Xuanwei Realm essentially had no molecules or atoms, Zheng Fa could only explain it to them in words they could understand.

The others listened and slowly nodded.

"But now... if these two talisman patterns correspond to the Great Zizaimo Mo Ancestor," Zheng Fa's tone was heavy. "Then the question arises: what about the other child talismans of the same kind? Do they all correspond to different Mo Ancestors, or rather, Great Beings?"

"In other words, are the talisman patterns we comprehend created by those Great Beings?"

"Then... what difference is there between us and the people of the Great Zizaimo Mo Sect?"

"Where are those Great Beings?" "And furthermore, if the Great Zizaimo Mo Ancestor has already created child talismans belonging to himself... what level of strength must his cultivation be?"

Zheng Fa's questions were so simple, yet they plunged everyone present into a silence like death.

"Your meaning is..." Even Zhu Yuanzhang's face became somewhat stiff. "These talisman patterns, even the rules of our heaven and earth, are... man-made?"

"I am not certain, but I cannot rule out this possibility," Zheng Fa said very cautiously.

"..." Indeed, it is very similar," Pang Shushu suddenly spoke. "After we achieve the Nascent Soul realm, we all actually have a feeling: in the sky, something is guiding us, attracting us, even—shaping us."

At these words, Yuan Sect Master and Shijie Zhang both nodded.

Zheng Fa had also heard Shijie Zhang describe this sensation before.

"We have always felt this sensation was enlightenment of the Dao..." Pang Shushu said slowly, "But what if the thing attracting us is a person?"

At these words, the atmosphere in the hall grew a third colder.

"Shushu, are you saying... someone is watching us from the sky?"

Shijie Yuan stammered out.

A chill even ran down Zheng Fa's back.

"No, there is another possibility. The talisman diagram was created by a person, but whether that person still exists is another matter." Shijie Zhang suddenly said, "Zheng Shidi, I have pondered your experiences in the Heavenly Stele Realm since then, especially the so-called loss of position by Immortals and Gods."

Zheng Fa was stunned.

Previously, he had not thought of the Heavenly Stele Realm and the Xuanwei Realm together; only now, reminded by Shijie Zhang, did he realize—

The two might not be unrelated.

"Whether Immortal or God," Shijie Zhang voiced her conjecture, "if they are the creators of this second category of talismans, then they... may no longer be here, at least unable to affect our world."

Zheng Fa nodded slowly.

The few exchanged glances, their faces slightly comforted, though Shijie Zhang's words were merely a conjecture.

But a dead great power is better than a great power watching you.

As they walked out of the main hall, Zheng Fa could not help but look up at the sky once more.

The sky was a clear blue, the sunlight bright and gentle.

Zheng Fa turned his head and saw that Shijie Zhang and the others were also gazing at the sky; he knew that deep down, they were all asking the same question:

"Above the dome, who wrote the heavens and earth?"

Modern times.

"Are you saying the second category of talismans does not refer to the matter itself, but rather... a certain Immortal or God?"

In the nursing home, listening to Zheng Fa's words, Bai Lao's eyes widened, as if he could not believe it.

"It is possible." Zheng Fa nodded and said, "We have always been unable to find the pattern of the other two categories of talismans; it may be because they do not refer to a certain substance, but rather to a certain existence."

"Wait, let me sort this out." Bai Lao frowned and said, "Spiritual Qi can control matter, right?"

"Yes."

"Now you tell me that one category of talismans is not natural, but rather because someone, no, some existence created certain rules."

"Correct."

"Then..." Bai Lao shrank his neck, "What are we? Bacteria in a petri dish?"

Zheng Fa shook his head and said, "I thought so at first, but later... I actually had another idea."

The points that kept Zheng Fa from despair were actually two:

First, it was the Great Self-Reliant Demon Ancestor.

If the rumors were not distorted, then the Great Self-Reliant Demon Ancestor should be a person from the Xuanwei Realm; his ability to create his own talismans now indirectly proves one thing:

Cultivators do not cultivate according to someone else's rules, but with the improvement of their cultivation realm, they can create their own rules.

These two are completely different.

A lab mouse could never suddenly transform into the person conducting the experiment.

At least for now, the path of cultivation does not exclude you from becoming a rule-maker.

Second, it is the current situation in the Heavenly Stele Realm.

Just as Shijie Zhang said, if the so-called Immortals and Gods are rule-makers, then does the Heaven Court covered in dust and the Immortals and Gods losing their positions that he heard of in the God-Sealing Hall mean that they are also in trouble now?

At the very least, they are unable to affect the Heavenly Stele Realm.

The Xuanwei Realm currently appears to be of a higher "level" than the Heavenly Stele Realm, seemingly even harder to affect, and even lacks the title of God.

If it is the modern era, it is even more special; without Zheng Fa, there would not even be Spiritual Qi in the modern era.

"What idea?"

"I am thinking, if we view the world like Tang Lingwu does as a computer, then these talismans seem—more like programs written by humans?" Zheng Fa summarized the current situation, "Those programs still exist now, but whether the person who wrote the software still exists is hard to say."

"Even how to use these programs, or if they are useful, requires us to explore."

As Zheng Fa said these words, he felt somewhat strange in his heart—this thing really is a trademark.

The others present nodded upon hearing this.

Saying it this way made them feel a bit better.

"So," Bai Lao said blankly, "I, a cultivator, suddenly became a programmer?"

"Not just that." Tang Lingwu's expression even turned ugly, "A programmer facing a mountain of legacy code left by predecessors, with no comments to find."

"..."

(End of this chapter)