322: Chapter 320 The Awakening of Memories

That fine crystal was placed by him on the platform in front of him, placed side by side with the recording talisman, and the energy pathway between the two maintained a stable connection.

Their surfaces were extremely quiet, with no textures unfolding and no temperature fluctuations, like two channels that had grown familiar with each other's rhythm after long-term communication, no longer needing signals to confirm each other's existence.

Lu Qing had already organized that stack of rubbings and spread them out in order on the ground beside her.

The fractured surfaces of Heluo's scattered structures, the scratches on the inner sides of the arches, the direction of the wall arcs, and the radius of the hollow center were all marked by her with fine lines on the rubbings, forming a gradually complete comparison map.

Her finger moved slowly along a line in the diagram: "If those structures are truly monitoring points arranged with the hollow center as the center, then there should be some verifiable mathematical relationship between their spacing and direction."

Shen Nian's gaze fell upon that comparison map: "Have you found this relationship?"

"Disciple found that the straight-line distance from the ring to the nest is almost completely equal to the straight-line distance from the nest to the stairs."

"This equidistant distribution is unlikely to have formed naturally."

Shen Nian stood up, walked over to Lu Qing, and squatted down to carefully examine the comparison map.

Those paths marked with fine lines extended between the rubbings, passed through the gaps of Heluo's scattered fragments, bypassed the contours of the arches, and finally converged into a single point at the hollow center.

He noticed that in Lu Qing's markings, a section of the path used a different color—a lighter gray line interspersed among those main connecting lines.

"What is this Gray Path?"

"This is a trace Disciple found in a depression to the northeast of Heluo."

"It is very shallow and almost unrecognizable; only at a specific angle can the direction of the ground be seen."

"Disciple preliminarily judges that it may belong to the same type of trace as the depression at the hollow center, only with a poorer state of preservation."

Shen Nian's gaze fell upon the direction of that Gray Path.

It did not lead directly to the hollow center, but instead turned toward another direction midway, as if there were a branch pathway leading to some unrecorded node.

Just as he was about to carefully identify the end of that Gray Path, The Artisan's light suddenly trembled slightly.

The flow frequency of the light filaments became unstable, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, like something that had been pent up for a very long time was slowly being released.

Shen Nian raised his head and looked toward that cluster of light: "Senior? Are you alright?"

The Artisan did not respond immediately.

Its light continuously flowed beside the Core of Tiangong, like a river exposing a riverbed that had been covered for many years during the dry season.

After a moment, The Artisan's voice sounded, deeper and slower than usual: "This seat just remembered some things."

Shen Nian did not urge, but simply waited quietly.

The Artisan's light filaments gradually stabilized, like after that riverbed was cleared again, the water flow found its direction once more: "This seat remembers the situation when that Origin model was placed."

"It is not a complete memory, more like an extremely distant fragment."

"When the Creator placed it into the Land of Origin, this seat did not exist, but one of this seat's previous forms once witnessed its outline."

"At that time, the Land of Origin had not yet solidified into its current state."

"Chaos was still flowing, like a river that had not yet branched."

"The Creator placed a certain object in the center of the riverbed, and then began to arrange structures with it as the center."

The Artisan's light dimmed slightly: "This seat's previous form did not understand what that thing was."

"It merely recorded its outline and then marked it as 'untouchable'."

Shen Nian's hand paused slightly: "Untouchable?"

"It is not just a metaphor."

"Around that object existed a layer of extremely stable boundary, like a barrier that no energy could pass through."

"Its state of existence was entirely different from all surrounding structures, as if it always maintained an impenetrable distance from the outside world."

Shen Nian was silent for a moment: "When that thing was taken away, did the Tiangong Clan record that process?"

The Artisan was silent for a very long time.

The flow of the light filaments became very slow, like browsing through an extremely long archive, or like waiting for a certain memory to emerge.

"This seat cannot find that record."

"In this seat's remaining memories, that thing always existed at the hollow center, and then it suddenly disappeared."

"It was as if memory itself had fractured—the previous moment it still existed there, and the next moment it was already gone."

"It was as if its departure had also taken away a segment of memory along with it."

Shen Nian stood up and walked toward the chamber where that dark crystal core was located.

He stood before that dark crystal core, allowing it to re-establish a connection with the fine crystal.

His palm pressed against the surface of the dark crystal core, feeling its slow temperature conduction.

This time he did not urge his power, but quietly perceived.

It was like adjusting his own rhythm to the same frequency as that dark crystal core, letting the boundaries of the two slowly overlap—like gently pressing one's palm against a window glass that had not been touched by anyone for a long time, waiting for the temperature on the other side to transmit through the glass.

After about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, a new stream of information poured into his Sea of Consciousness.

This time's fragment was longer than the last.

He felt that the movement trajectories of those lights were clearer than last time, like the image became slightly clearer when being flipped through.

The light was moving slowly along the edge of the ring, staying for a moment when passing the direction of Heluo, as if deliberately making a detour around it.

Finally, they stopped at the center of the hollow center.

One of the lights stayed at the center for an exceptionally long time.

Unlike the other lights that quickly dispersed into the distance, it rotated slowly at that position, as if making a final confirmation.

Then at that instant, its outline underwent an extremely subtle change—as if taking out something from the inside, and then closing up.

After that light took out that thing, its shape became clearer, as if more solid and more stable.

It had no obvious change, only becoming more complete, as if it had finally retrieved a lost part of itself.

Shen Nian withdrew his hand, stood before the dark crystal core, quietly digesting that piece of information.

The Artisan's light hovered behind him: "What did you see?"

"Disciple saw that light take out something from the hollow center; after taking it away, its outline became more complete."

"As if a part of it had once been placed there, waiting for it to return and take it away after completing a certain matter."

The Artisan did not respond immediately.

"If that thing is the Origin model—before leaving the Land of Origin, the Creator simply retrieved that part stored there to make themselves complete, and then took it into the farther Chaos."

Shen Nian's gaze fell upon that fine crystal: "After that thing was taken away, the hollow center became hollow."

"Its existence was transferred, but its position is still there, like the shape left behind by the taken thing."

He withdrew his hand, re-attached the recording talisman to the surface of the dark crystal core, and waited for the light filaments to retract before confirming whether that data was consistent with all previous records.

After a moment, he removed the recording talisman and checked the results.

All data had finished synchronizing, like a stele inscription that had been repeatedly copied; after being passed through the hands of different people many times, it finally found its echo in the exact same position.

Shen Nian put away the recording talisman and turned back to walk into the core space.

Lu Qing was still in front of that comparison map. She raised her head, her gaze falling upon Shen Nian's face: "Senior, The Artisan Senior's condition... seems a bit different from before."

"Those forgotten memories are recovering."

"It is not newly added information, but rather relearning how to browse through the old scrolls it already possessed."

"Like a channel that has not been used for a long time and only maintains a receiving state by inertia, it has finally heard the voice from the source clearly again."

Shen Nian sat down opposite Lu Qing: "Disciple just saw a more complete scene in the dark crystal core—before leaving, the Creator took away something from the hollow center."

"After that thing was taken away, its outline became more solid, as if retrieving a part of itself that had long been placed elsewhere."

"In other words, that thing is a part belonging to the Creator."

"They left it in the Land of Origin, like leaving a coordinate, waiting to come back and take it one day."

"Leave a coordinate?" Shen Nian repeated the word.

"It is like cutting one's own existence into two halves, taking one half along to keep moving forward, and leaving the other half at the Origin to ensure this path can be traced back."

"As long as the coordinate is still there, they can still return here."

Shen Nian's gaze fell upon the fine crystal before him, and he remained silent for a very long time.

Then he said softly: "That blank space was never abandoned."

"It is simply a coordinate that was placed there for a very long time and finally retrieved."

"And those structures, slow rhythms, and intermittent carvings that still persist to this day have always been waiting for a pair of hands to confirm this fact."

"Not repair, but simply connecting them back together."