Chapter 381: At the Bottom of the Demon-Suppressing Tower

The circular platform, shimmering with countless immortal talismans, passed beyond the main containment area of the Gao Ta and continued descending toward the cavern at the tower's base; the cavern was extremely deep, even giving the illusion of reaching the planet's core.

Around the platform, within the depths of the rough, primitive stone walls, streams of light flashed from time to time; bright and brief arcs of electricity leaped between jagged, protruding stone stalagmites; the deeper they went, the more numerous these light streams and arcs became, until they formed continuous, unbroken "rivers" beneath the ground.

Those rivers, cast from light, flowed out from the rocks, crisscrossing and rushing through the half-air; their brilliance flickered, expanded, and contracted, pulsing like veins, rising and falling like breath.

Yu Sheng watched this spectacular and dreamlike scenery with great wonder.

The flow and pulse of the rivers of light were utterly silent, yet he always felt he could hear those "rivers" conveying some kind of "voice" to him—he gazed at them, at the light flickering within his field of vision, as if hearing the sound of thump, thump... like a heartbeat.

Low, slow, gentle, the heart of the planet deep within beat; this tender heartbeat seemed to whisper to Yu Sheng, softly telling him—

"It lives very healthily."

Yu Sheng suddenly broke the silence, muttering a sentence as if talking to himself.

Irene, sitting on his shoulder, heard this mutter; the little doll was somewhat bewildered: "Huh? What thing lives very healthily?"

"This planet," Yu Sheng smiled, feeling inexplicably happy; a faint sense of euphoria spread from the depths of his heart, somewhat like the feeling he had when he first returned to the "Night Veil Valley" after purification and saw that small grass breaking through the soil; he simply sat cross-legged on the edge of the platform, cheerfully watching those vibrant light streams dart and leap through the rock cavern, "It's truly wonderful."

Zheng Zhi, watching from the side, found it utterly baffling and couldn't help but whisper to Hu Li: "Do you know what Brother Yu is talking about?"

"I don't know," Hu Li replied without thinking, "but the Benefactor is right."

Saying this, she crouched down beside Yu Sheng and looked at the flowing "rivers of light" together, happily squinting her eyes: "It's truly wonderful."

Luna stood slightly behind and to the side of Yu Sheng, remaining quietly as usual; the faint glow of the earth veins reflected on her smooth metal shell, radiating a hallucinatory luster; within the refraction of the faint light, no one knew what she was thinking at that moment.

Yuan Ling Zhen Ren stroked his beard on the side, seemingly observing the environment within the rock cavern, yet his peripheral vision remained fixed on Yu Sheng, but he said nothing.

The Great Dao must be realized through enlightenment; the more one asks, the shallower the "Dao" becomes.

The old man watched Yu Sheng with his "Heavenly Eye" open, contemplating the Great Dao there; only after a while, when his head truly spun and he could no longer endure it, did he withdraw his gaze; and almost at the same time, he heard Yu Sheng break the silence: "Do all planets have 'earth veins'?"

"Not all of them," Yuan Ling Zhen Ren was momentarily stunned and quickly spoke up, "Most planets that are still active do have earth veins; some earth veins are powerful and outwardly visible, with energy flows like underground rivers flowing ceaselessly from the mantle to the crust; the most famous earth vein phenomenon among this category is the 'Touch of Loka' on the Terra planet, followed by these 'rivers of light' beneath the Grand Void Spiritual Nucleus; some earth veins are difficult to see with the naked eye and must be observed with the aid of arrays or spiritual artifacts."

"And there are also some planets without earth veins; these are usually planets where deep-layer activity has completely ceased and no life evolution occurs on the surface; outsiders often call them 'Dead Planets', 'Silent Planets', or 'Cold Stars', while we call them 'Desolate Stars'..."

"But there are exceptions; some that were long ago classified as 'Desolate Stars', clearly having no earth veins and no means to detect any earth vein flow, yet their interiors remain active, and even their surfaces are lush and flourishing, with mountains and rivers full of vitality; on such planets, strange things often appear easily, so some privately call these planets 'Corpse Stars', generally considering them inauspicious... but in fact, aside from a few strangenesses, this 'inauspiciousness' has no real basis."

Yu Sheng listened with some wonder to this "knowledge" that was incredibly unbelievable to him; after quite a while, he sighed and shook his head: "I have never heard of these things before."

"That's very normal," Zheng Zhi, who was speaking from the side, said cheerfully, "Most people over there don't really understand 'planets'; after all, the 'starry sky' in the night of the Boundary City is essentially just a shadow formed when the real universe projects onto the 'spatial shell' of the Boundary Land."

Hearing Zheng Zhi's words, Yu Sheng did not explain much either; he simply smiled, shook his head, and then stood up.

They had arrived.

The circular platform reached the bottom of the rock cavern; this was an extremely vast area; the environment, resembling an underground cave, was illuminated by the surrounding earth vein light flows; numerous extremely thick and magnificent artificial Shi Zhu stood in the cavern bottom; those Shi Zhu were carved with profound and ancient talismanic seals and inlaid with things like copper rings and crystals, emitting an extremely solemn and majestic aura, obviously part of the foundation stones of the Gao Ta.

And between these magnificent "Gao Ta Shi Zhu" were countless chains.

Those chains crisscrossed, hanging down from the tops of the massive pillars and connecting to the bases of various Shi Zhu; the iron locks formed a net, creating compartments within them that seemed to contain specific laws and "Dao methods"; and at the most primary "focus" point among them, thick chains tightly bound a massive body.

It was a "stone sphere."

Yu Sheng could only describe it that way—because it looked exactly like a giant stone sphere; the surface of the stone sphere was exceptionally rough, pitted and uneven like the surface of a planet struck by meteorites, or simply put... it was basically a small-scale "planet"; this "planet" was house-sized, its surface wrapped in layer upon layer of iron chains, with various talismanic seals stuffed between the chains, looking grotesque and carrying a faint sense of horror.

Even more horrifying was that when Yu Sheng and his party stepped down from the platform, this stone sphere slowly floated up; numerous fine cracks rapidly appeared on its surface; those cracks wandered, and in the blink of an eye formed a grotesque face.

Two hollow, empty black eyes, and a mouth full of rugged, sharp teeth, as if smiling.

"Headache and exhaustion, Yuan Ling," that stone sphere emitted a rumbling sound, its mouth opening and closing, dropping much gray stone powder, "At a time like this, you still have the leisure to come see me?"

"Naturally I must come; the more critical the time, the less at ease I am about this 'below'," Yuan Ling Zhen Ren looked expressionlessly at the stone sphere in the center of the Gao Ta formation, "But now it seems you are more honest than them."

"Of course, I have always been honest, because I am smarter than them," the stone sphere laughed hoarsely, "When the top cracked, 'Chao Gu' was the first to rush out, taking a few fools from the layer above with it—they all thought the collapse of the Gao Ta meant the time for chaos at Qianfeng Lingshan had arrived; only I knew that if the Gao Ta were ever to truly collapse, it would only mean the day for Qianfeng Lingshan to begin slaughtering had arrived... this tower is merely a little opportunity and dignity you left for the 'Human Enemies'."

"'Human Enemies'... it has been a long time since I heard that term." Yuan Ling Zhen Ren stroked his beard, his tone filled with emotion.

"It is said you now classify 'Human Enemies' into many types, bestowing upon them a host of flowery names—demons, fierce beasts, evil spirits, entities, oh, and various 'evil demons and heterodox paths,' a chaotic mess," the stone sphere chattered on, as if discussing daily life with Yuan Ling Zhen Ren, "Things were better back then; one sentence summed it all up: 'Enemy of Man, Kill Without Question'; tsk, you were far purer in those days."

Yuan Ling Zhen Ren ignored the sarcasm in the stone sphere's tone and turned to introduce it to Yu Sheng and the others, who were full of curiosity: "This demon creature is named 'Omen Wandering Star'; it was originally a strange existence among the star seas, capable of crossing the void using the power of the sub-space; after disguising itself as a meteorite and crashing to the ground, it would devour earth veins for food; back then, it caused harm to many living beings."

"Three thousand years ago, it fell upon the Grand Void Spiritual Nucleus, was subdued by many great powers working together, and was thus suppressed beneath the ground."

"One could say it deserved this retribution; it devoured countless earth veins, yet only the earth veins of this Grand Void Spiritual Nucleus were poisonous to it."

Yu Sheng listened with a surprised expression, gaining a deeper understanding of how many evil and strange things this world could contain; meanwhile, the stone sphere slowly rotated its massive body, its horrifying face turning toward Yu Sheng and his party, curling its lips: "Nice to meet you, nice to meet you—Yuan Ling, won't you introduce them? You don't usually bring outsiders here."

"It has nothing to do with you; these are all guests of my Qianfeng Lingshan," Yuan Ling Zhen Ren said sternly, "I came here to bring them to inspect the situation of the Gao Ta—just stay put and be honest."

"Fine, inspect away; anyway, this place is terribly boring," the stone sphere shook, the chains wrapped around it clattering, "By the way, Yuan Ling, is Chao Gu really dead? It rushed out and never came back."

"Dead," Yuan Ling Zhen Ren said indifferently, "A Class-A containment entity, and a fierce beast imprisoned on this layer; going out is a capital offense; naturally, it is to be killed without question."

"Tsk, I told you it had no brain," the stone sphere's tone brimmed with mockery and delight, "Finally, one noisy fool is gone. Pity, though; with its death, the Eight Gates Star is likely to encounter some trouble; if I recall correctly, isn't that your Qianfeng Lingshan's colony planet? Or was it from the Yaolan Sect... Do you need my help? I have some experience in adjusting planetary states; I don't ask for much, just a slight 'bite'..."

Yuan Ling Zhen Ren gazed silently at this "Omen Wandering Star": "What do you say?"

The stone sphere slowly descended to the ground, wrapping the surrounding chains around itself a couple more times: "... If not, then not; why look so fierce?"

At the same time, Yu Sheng no longer paid attention to the stone sphere and accompanied Zheng Zhi to the side of one of the massive Shi Zhu.

"The rift goes down from here," Zheng Zhi leaned against the Shi Zhu beside him; although what lay before him was merely solid, flat ground, his movements seemed as if he feared falling into some great hole, "It penetrates straight through the ground here."

Upon hearing this, Yu Sheng was shocked: "... Still going down?!"

"Yes, still going down," Zheng Zhi hesitated for a moment, his expression appearing exceptionally tense, "It's as if it intends to pierce all the way into the planet's core!"

(End of Chapter)