Chapter 3227: Flashing Stars

Ye Chen heard the words, and without caring about his splitting headache, he lifted his head and looked toward the direction where the aurora appeared.

I saw that the aurora, which had originally been like waves hanging vertically between heaven and earth, suddenly seemed to be acted upon by some force, and began to twist gradually toward the same direction like a vortex; the originally continuous aurora seemed to have been shattered into molecules, and countless points of light began to slowly rotate in the air.

Ye Chen looked on in amazement, and Lin Wan'er beside him blurted out: "This... this aurora suddenly looks as if it were transformed from countless fireflies..."

Ye Chen said in strong agreement: "Miss Lin's description is very apt; this originally vast expanse of aurora now truly looks like countless fireflies transformed, and now those 'fireflies' have begun to scatter and rotate around a center—I really cannot understand why this would happen..."

Lin Wan'er said with a solemn expression: "Like fireflies, yet not fireflies; this aurora is like ocean waves—although waves are composed of countless water droplets, water droplets absolutely cannot defy the physical laws of waves; this seems a bit off..."

As they were speaking, Lin Wan'er suddenly pointed at the rotating green vortex in the sky and exclaimed: "Young Master, look quickly! The aurora seems about to change form!"

Looking again at the vortex, it was no longer rotating vertically between heaven and earth.

The vortex seemed to have come alive, as it began to continuously tilt toward the horizontal plane until it was completely parallel to the sea level.

Ye Chen and Lin Wan'er watched the vortex spinning below them, and were so astonished they could not speak.

Ye Chen could not help but pull Lin Wan'er along, and the two of them, on the hilltop, sprinted all the way toward the spinning vortex.

Although Lin Wan'er was panting, she dared not delay in the slightest, and followed Ye Chen's pace with all her strength.

After a moment, the two arrived beneath the vortex, looked up, and saw the vortex composed of green light points silently rotating overhead; Ye Chen had never seen such a magnificent sight, and could not help but say: "This... looks just like the Milky Way..."

"Yes..." Lin Wan'er beside him, holding Ye Chen's hand, looked up and exclaimed in awe: "Countless points of light silently rotating in the air—this feeling is truly like when I viewed the Milky Way on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, vast and magnificent..."

Having said that, she asked Ye Chen: "Young Master, what exactly is causing this? I feel this certainly will not be a natural phenomenon; there must be some power influencing the aurora!"

Ye Chen blurted out: "I just felt as if something had rushed out of my mind—I don't know if it was an illusion."

Saying this, he hurried to take out the ring Lin Wan'er had given him, and found the ring was still there, not disappeared.

Moreover, at this moment the ring showed no movement whatsoever; it felt as if this aurora had nothing to do with it.

Seeing Ye Chen take out the ring, Lin Wan'er hurriedly asked him: "Young Master, do you feel any change in the ring? Or any fluctuation?"

"No..." Ye Chen said: "It is now lifeless and still, with no movement at all, not like it is related to it."

Lin Wan'er urgently asked: "Then do you still have any other treasures on your person?"

"Treasures?" Ye Chen said with an embarrassed smile: "I do have a Startling Thunder Command, made from the thunder-struck wood of the mother of common tea years ago, but it seems it also has no movement."

Lin Wan'er asked again: "Besides that, is there nothing else?"

"Nothing..." Ye Chen said: "True magical implements are extremely precious; the ones I have obtained so far that are truly meaningful are only two: one is the ring you gave me, and the other is the medicine cauldron that the headmaster of the Tai Zhen Dao lost to me."

Lin Wan'er asked: "Young Master, do you have the medicine cauldron on your person?"

Ye Chen said with a bitter smile: "That thing is about the size of my head, and it's not convenient to carry around; moreover, I fear that if villains saw it they might develop evil intentions, so I have left it in Jin Ling."

Lin Wan'er nodded and said: "Not the ring, not the medicine cauldron... then what exactly is influencing the aurora?"

Ye Chen asked her: "Could it be some magnetic effect?"

Lin Wan'er shook her head: "Not likely; the formation principle of the aurora would make it impossible for it to assume such a form..."

As they were speaking, Lin Wan'er suddenly exclaimed again: "Young Master, look quickly! The aurora has changed again!"

Ye Chen fixed his gaze and saw that the original Milky Way-like vortex of light spots suddenly began to split like a cake into four parts, with the light points in each region starting to converge toward the center of that region; as the convergence speed increased and density grew, there suddenly appeared in the air a shape like two letters Z crossed.

Lin Wan'er's expression was one of utter shock, and she murmured: "Young Master, the aurora... how did it become a swastika?"

Ye Chen was saying how familiar this image looked, when he realized it was the swastika—"卍"—used by many religions.

At this moment, the shape of the swastika had been completely formed, and thereafter it slowly rotated in the sky above their heads.

Lin Wan'er stared blankly; having been a devout Buddhist since childhood, she now saw the aurora suddenly present such a marvel, and her sincere faith drove her to immediately kneel on the ground, palms together, and silently recite in her heart: "I, Lin Wan'er of the Lin family, born in southern Yunnan in the second year of the Nan Ming Long Wu reign, have all my life believed in Buddha and devoted myself to goodness; may the Buddha bless Young Master to avenge his great grudge and achieve great undertakings..."

Just as Lin Wan'er was praying in her heart for Ye Chen to be blessed by the Buddha, Ye Chen looked up at the slowly rotating swastika in the sky and suddenly said: "This pattern, viewed from below, is the religious swastika, which carries a good meaning; but if viewed from above, would it not become the logo of Nazi Germany? The two symbols are exact mirror images, and since this thing keeps rotating, one cannot tell whether it is slanted or upright; if someone were to see it from an airplane in the sky, they might even think heaven is letting the Nazis rise again..."

Lin Wan'er had just finished praying for Ye Chen in her heart and was about to rise when she suddenly heard this; her whole body lost balance and she nearly fell over, but Ye Chen quickly reached out to support her, and she whispered softly: "Young Master, from now on you must never joke about the Buddha."

Ye Chen looked aggrieved and said: "I am not joking about the Buddha; I merely pointed out that the swastika, when viewed straight on and when viewed in reverse, really does have two different meanings..."

Lin Wan'er said helplessly: "We are already near the Arctic Circle, so it is highly unlikely any airplane would fly over; therefore this sight is naturally meant for people on the ground, in other words, it is meant for us to see."

Ye Chen asked her: "You mean, this sight is someone intentionally wanting us to see?"

Lin Wan'er said: "Whether it is intentional or not, I do not know, but I believe this is certainly related to Young Master."

Although Ye Chen also felt this phenomenon should have some connection to himself, he could not for the moment sort out any clue.

Just as he was puzzled, the rotating swastika in the sky spun faster and faster, and many scattered light points were even flung outward by the high-speed rotation; the entire swastika became like a spinning firework, continuously spraying bright and dazzling light and shadow outward until it burned itself out.

Immediately afterward, those light points flung into the sky began to flash alternately at different frequencies, and for a moment it seemed as if the countless stars flashing on a summer mountain peak were appearing, dreamlike and illusory.

And as the flashing frequencies of those light points varied, Ye Chen suddenly noticed that accompanying a certain flash, the light points that lit up simultaneously in the air happened to form an image—this image resembled a large hand making an unfathomable gesture in the air.

Then, as the flashing light points continued, the previous gesture disappeared; a few seconds later, another new gesture appeared.

Ye Chen asked Lin Wan'er: "Miss Lin, did you see those gestures?"

Lin Wan'er shook her head and asked him doubtfully: "Young Master, what gestures are you talking about?"

Ye Chen pointed to the third gesture appearing in the sky and said: "Just this one—look, those stars flashing at the same time, do they not resemble a kind of gesture? I say this may sound abstract, but if you use the mindset of observing constellations to look at these stars, you will see that they indeed form a pattern!"