Chapter 253: Insight

Wang Zhitao felt like a Qi‑filled rubber ball that someone kicked toward the sky, floated for a while, finally drifted down slowly, and then all his Qi was completely spent.

He was in that state now: hungry, his whole body clamoring with hunger.

"Brother, have you figured anything out yet?" Wang Zhitao said weakly, slumped onto a piece of black crystal; the thing felt warm and smooth, even auto‑adjusted its temperature, and lying on it was more comfortable than the world's most prized soft‑jade bed.

No matter how comfortable, it can't stave off hunger.

He looked at Wang Zhize, who was cross‑legged not far away, who had been like a stone statue since earlier, motionless, eyes fixed on the Black Jade Slip in his hand, as if trying to see through it.

"Don't rush me, it's almost ready." Wang Zhize said without raising his head, his voice a bit ethereal, as if coming from far away.

"What's 'almost ready'? Is it that we can finally eat, or finally go out?" Wang Zhitao rolled over, burying his face in the crystal, "Tell me, now that grandpa has become this sky and this earth, if he just thinks about it, could he conjure a roasted suckling pig for us? The kind sprinkled with cumin."

It was just a hungry frenzy, rambling wildly.

Wang Zhize, however, seemed stirred by the word "transform", his body trembling imperceptibly.

He finally lifted his head, his complexion a bit pale, but his eyes shone terrifyingly, as if billions of stars within were being born, dying, and recombining.

"Zhitao."

"Hmm?" Wang Zhitao replied lazily.

"I think… I understand what grandpa wants to do."

Wang Zhize's voice was soft, yet carried a strange power that made Wang Zhitao sit up instantly.

"Grandpa didn't just leave a fortress," Wang Zhize spread his hands; the Black Jade Slip hovered silently above his palm, countless invisible strands of law flowing in from all directions and out again, linking to Wang Zhize's spirit.

"What does that mean?" Wang Zhitao leaned in, curiously examining the slip.

"Look here." Wang Zhize pointed at a newly sprouted, faintly glowing blade of grass nearby, "Why does its leaf have natural patterns?"

Wang Zhitao stared for a while, "Pretty?"

Wang Zhize choked on his words, almost losing his breath. Explaining profound theory to this brother was a trial for his own spirit.

He had to rephrase, "The Shadow Guard's attacks carry deadly things like Termination, Withering, Isolation, right?"

"Exactly, they're poisonous!" Wang Zhitao said with deep experience.

"So how did we handle it before?"

"You command, I ingest, then spit out the clean part for you and grandpa to use." Wang Zhitao replied matter‑of‑factly.

"Right, we would separate the edible part from the poisonous food and discard the toxin." Wang Zhize's eyes grew more fervent, "But grandpa is different!"

He sprang to his feet, pointing at the whole space, his voice involuntarily rising, "Grandpa didn't discard them! He tamed those 'toxins', those Termination and Withering!"

Wang Zhitao's mouth opened slowly, a bit unable to keep up with his brother's line of thought.

"Tame?"

"Yes! Tame!" Wang Zhize paced like a madman who'd found a priceless treasure, "He turned the law representing Termination into the metabolism rule of this land. Aging matter is 'Terminated' and becomes new nutrients. He also inverted the law of Withering into the rule of plant growth; see that grass—it went from sprout to full growth in a single breath. That's Withering used in reverse—ultra‑fast life evolution!"

"He's not building a house, Zhitao, he's creating an ecological cycle for a 'world'! A world that can grow and evolve on its own!"

Wang Zhize halted, his eyes blazing as he looked at his brother, "And those Shadow Guard are the first batch of 'nutrients' for this newborn world. Their power, their law insights, even their resentments, grandpa turned into bricks, timber, and cement, embedding them into the foundation of this world."

Wang Zhitao was completely dumbfounded.

He stared blankly at the swaying starlight plants around him, at the solid, vibrant ground beneath his feet, and then at the sleeping, heart‑like pulsating black‑gold light in the center of the space.

So… is that it?

Grandpa's sacrifice wasn't an end, but a rebirth achieved through a way they couldn't imagine, a greater greatness.

"I… I can't…" Wang Zhitao managed to choke out two words after a while, "That… grandpa is just too awesome."

"More than just awesome." Wang Zhize sat down again, gently stroking the slip in his hand as if caressing a relative's cheek, "This is a divine method. Grandpa, with a mortal body, forced open the realm of the gods."

His divine thought, following the slip, once again immersed into the vast ocean formed by countless law runes.

Before, when he looked at those runes, he only felt they were chaotic, violent, and mutually conflicting.

But now, after grandpa's "sorting" and "taming", Wang Zhize's view changed; everything before his eyes transformed.

Those violent runes seemed rearranged by an invisible giant hand; though they still retained their destructive property, they were shackled and guided toward creation.

Order and chaos here achieved an unfathomable balance.

In Wang Zhize's mind, countless great doors burst open with a roar.

His talent for "analysis" and "guidance" at that moment seemed infused with the strongest catalyst, beginning a frantic metamorphosis.

"So… it can also be like this…"

He muttered to himself, unconsciously extending a finger and lightly tapping a floating rock before him.

His divine thought, mimicking a one‑in‑ten‑thousand technique learned from the slip, carefully probed the rock's interior and found the law that constituted its "solidity."

Then, he tried to wrap a strand of the "twist" power he had sensed from grandpa around it.

"Crack."

A soft sound.

That incredibly hard obsidian, under Wang Zhitao's astonished gaze, began to slowly, silently writhe and deform like dough.

First it turned into a crooked teapot, then into a turtle with its four legs pointing to the sky, and finally, with a "pop", it became a puddle of soft, flowing black liquid, hovering in the air.

"Brother… you…" Wang Zhitao pointed at the puddle, his tongue almost tied.

Wang Zhize ignored him.

He stared blankly at his own finger, feeling the unprecedented enlightenment surging from deep within his spirit.

Just now, he was no longer a spectator; he had become a participant.

He successfully turned a minuscule screw for grandpa's boundless World Transformation Project.

Though tiny, its significance was extraordinary.

A gentle intent came from the Core of the space, bearing approval and gratitude, lightly wrapping his spirit like the warm, dry hand of his grandfather patting his back in childhood.

Wang Zhize's eyes reddened instantly.

He knew what he had to do.

Zhitao.

Ah?

"From today onward, you are responsible for eating." Wang Zhize's voice returned to calm, but with undeniable firmness, "Swallow all the energy that could cause trouble, and refine it cleanly."

"And I," he raised the jade tablet in his hand, where the tablet touched his palm a brilliant light flared, "am responsible for helping Grandfather make this home even more perfect."