319: Chapter 317 Origin Rhythm

After forming, the annular outline on the crystal's surface did not immediately dissipate.

Those fine lines maintained a stable form in the dim light, resembling a river channel slowly injected with water, with a constant water level and uniform flow velocity, neither expanding nor retreating anymore.

Shen Nian did not withdraw his hand.

His fingertips hovered about an inch above the crystal, feeling the extremely faint vibrations generated as those lines moved.

That kind of vibration was not like energy flow; it felt more like the rhythm of a structure itself, like the lingering echo left when the pointer of some extremely ancient clock paused briefly after completing a full circle.

Lu Qing also maintained her squatting posture, her gaze not leaving that pattern.

"The direction of those lines... is not only consistent with the scratches on the inside of the archway, but also overlaps with the arcs recorded in the previous three ruins."

Shen Nian did not respond immediately.

He let his fingertips linger for a while longer, as if confirming whether the frequency of those vibrations was truly stable at the same beat.

"From the time Disciple first touched this crystal until now, its changes have always occurred only when approaching the center of the circle."

"The closer to the center of the circle, the more obvious the change."

"At the edge of the hollow center, its texture will actively unfold, forming a pattern as if it has finally reached a place where it can unfold itself again."

"Or like something carried for a long time has finally found a place where it can be fully unfolded."

Lu Qing withdrew her gaze.

"If it unfolds the same pattern every time at the edge of the center, then it might itself be recording the structural information of that position, like someone who sealed a map and only lets the map reveal itself when reaching the corresponding position."

Shen Nian withdrew his hand, took out a recording talisman from his bosom, and gently placed it next to the crystal.

After the light threads of the recording talisman touched the surface of the crystal, they began to slowly extend along the direction of those lines, as if scanning a door opened once again.

When the light threads completed the final circle, the end of the recording talisman captured an extremely faint rhythm, which had the same base frequency as the echo Shen Nian had previously perceived at the hollow center.

The two vibrations achieved an extremely brief synchronization on the recording talisman, and then each resumed its own rhythm, like two rivers running parallel for a short section at their confluence before continuing to flow in their respective directions.

Shen Nian picked up the recording talisman and carefully examined the data captured at the end.

The frequency of that rhythm was more stable than any time before, like the crack of a fragment fitted with another fragment at the same angle.

After lasting for a period of time, it naturally merged into a longer sequence, as if it had always belonged to the same draft.

Shen Nian raised his head and looked in the direction of the silver-white channel in the distant Chaos.

"Disciple wants to take this crystal and recording talisman back to the side of the Core of Tiangong to compare the data of the two vibrations together."

"If they indeed belong to the same sequence, perhaps Disciple can find the missing part in that sequence."

Lu Qing stood up and handed the recording talisman back to Shen Nian.

"Disciple's rubbings will still take some time to be fully sorted out. Disciple will complete this comparison in the Heart of Tiangong, so Senior can check the preliminary corresponding results when Senior returns."

Shen Nian took the recording talisman and nodded.

"You've worked hard."

He gently picked up the fine crystal from the edge of the depression.

The texture on the surface of the crystal gradually dimmed after leaving the ground, and those annular lines were like slowly falling curtains, withdrawing into the interior of the crystal one piece after another.

Ultimately, it restored its original warm and smooth surface, as if those maps had never been opened.

Holding the crystal, Shen Nian stood at the edge of the hollow center for a moment.

He took another look at the center of the depression, then turned around and walked along the direction he came.

Lu Qing followed behind him, and the two crossed the outer periphery of the Heluo Ruins, returning to the silver-white channel.

The return journey was much faster than the trip here.

When Shen Nian stepped into the core space of the Heart of Tiangong once again, the light of The Artisan was already suspended beside the crystal core waiting for him.

Shen Nian walked to the crystal core, placed the fine crystal next to the recording talisman, and unfolded the data of the two vibrations side by side.

The light threads of The Artisan approached those data: "That rhythm... is very close to the operational characteristics of the early creations of the Tiangong Clan. Before those structures stopped evolving, a similar frequency once existed in their energy circuits."

Shen Nian's gaze tightened slightly.

"Senior, why would such a frequency exist in the energy circuits of your early creations?"

The light of The Artisan was silent for a moment.

"That is the mark left by the Creator."

"In every early creation of the Tiangong Clan, a fixed base rhythm is contained, as if the Creator embedded the shadow of the same law at the bottom layer of all structures."

"At that time, we thought that was a unified benchmark set by the Creator to make all structures compatible with each other."

"But after they stopped, is there still a record of that benchmark frequency?"

The Artisan was silent for another moment.

"Some records are still there. But those records are extremely fragmented, like the System only deleting most of it when executing the deletion command, retaining a small amount of residue. If one deliberately looks for it, nearly complete content can be pieced together."

Shen Nian's gaze fell on the rhythm at the end of the recording talisman and the pattern unfolded by the crystal.

"If these two vibrations belong to the same sequence, then Disciple has already found two segments among them. If other paragraphs can still be found, perhaps the entire sequence can be pieced together completely."

He did not rush to continue deeper, but sat cross-legged beside the crystal core, placing the recording talisman and fine crystal in front of him, closing his eyes to adjust his breathing for a while.

Then he opened his eyes again, placing the fine crystal back at the interface of the recording talisman, feeling their energy slowly converge on the contact surface.

The energy flow between the crystal and the recording talisman was extremely smooth, as if a stable pathway had already formed between the two. The sound continuously corrected its own errors during transmission over and over again, getting closer and closer to what it looked like when it was first recorded.

He thought of the abruptly stopped melody on that flight of stairs, the broken branches in the nest, the dim crystal core on the inside of the ring, and the intermittent scratches on the inside of those archways.

He realized that before those ruins stopped, they might have all once carried segments of the same sequence.

It was like placing a monument every certain distance on the same road, engraved with different sentences of the same article.

And those sentences were slowly unfolding their respective outlines in front of him, using two vibrations, a piece of crystal, and a short segment of data from the recording talisman.

That fine crystal transmitted a continuous temperature through the clothing, not like a signal, but more like confirming that the path they had just walked through was indeed remembered.