323: Chapter 321 The Creator's Intentions

Shen Nian sat in the core space for an entire night.

The scene seen within the dark crystal core played back slowly in his mind, showing how that beam of light became more complete after something was removed, resembling a person on a long journey who finally found the boot they had lost for a long time.

The vacancy at the center of the hollow circle constantly maintained the exact outline from when it was taken away; its edges were extremely uniform without any excess cracks, resembling a display stand intentionally preserved.

He held that piece of fine crystal in his palm, feeling its continuous and stable temperature.

Lu Qing unfolded a new rubbings parchment opposite him, marking the trajectory of the Gray Path at the edge of Heluo with fine lines on a blank scroll.

She occasionally raised her head, seeing Shen Nian's gaze fall upon the fine crystal, then spoke no more and continued lowering her head to trace, as if knowing that the information slowly converging required a quiet space to settle into their respective places.

When dawn broke, Shen Nian opened his eyes.

He placed the fine crystal on the platform, got up and walked over to the huge comparison map, his gaze moving slowly along the lines marked by Lu Qing.

Rings, nests, stairs, the Heluo Arch, wall arcs, the Gray Path, and the hollow circle—every single mark was gradually closing in on its own coordinates.

He pointed toward the direction where the end of the Gray Path turned: "This Gray Path did not lead to the center of the circle, but turned toward another direction midway. This Disciple feels that an unrecorded node might still exist there."

Lu Qing looked along his gaze: "The edges of this Disciple's rubbings parchment indeed have blurry traces, but this Disciple's recording talisman cannot capture the complete outline.

Its depth is extremely shallow, perhaps shallower than any recorded ruins, resembling how the recorder themselves was not certain whether they had recorded the coordinates correctly."

Shen Nian's gaze fell upon that blurry edge: "This Disciple wishes to go to the northeast direction of Heluo once more."

He did not set off immediately.

He first walked over to the Core of Tiangong, placing the fine crystal and recording talisman beside the core base, letting both maintain continuous contact with the energy flow of the Core of Tiangong.

Then he walked toward the silver-white passage again, passed through the outer structure of the Heart of Tiangong, and stepped into that grayish-brown ruin once more along the silver-white passage.

This time, he did not make a detour, walking directly along the direction of the Gray Path.

That trace was extremely shallow, so shallow that it was almost impossible to discern with the naked eye, and its direction could only be judged through subtle tactile differences.

He would stop every distance he walked, squat down, and press his palm close to the ground to confirm whether it was still extending further.

The Gray Path had not disappeared; it had simply grown increasingly shallow, resembling how the writer gradually lost strength while setting brush to paper.

After walking for about two hours, Shen Nian stopped at a relatively flat piece of ground.

The Gray Path completely vanished beneath his feet, resembling a half-drawn line that was suddenly cut off, leaving behind a clean severed end with no trailing tail and no folds, as if the author decided at some moment not to continue anymore.

He squatted down and probed the Sixteen-Color Power into the ground as extremely fine threads.

When the threads passed through the surface by about three inches, they touched a certain extremely slight difference in density.

It was not a hard surface, but rather resembled a spatial displacement, as if there was an extremely subtle crack on the ground without any visible traces.

He sat down at the edge of that crack, not forcing his way deep inside.

Maintaining a light touch, it was like pressing one's fingers against a closed clam shell, waiting for it to open by itself.

After a very long time, an extremely faint vibration came from the ends of the threads.

The rhythm of that vibration was completely different from all the rhythms he had recorded previously—its structure was simpler, resembling untranslated original text, and the intervals between pauses were also slightly longer.

It was like a certain sound, after traveling a very long distance, leaving behind only those longest and most stable syllables that still retained a clear outline.

He withdrew his power and sat in place for a long time.

Then he took out the recording talisman, gently pressing it onto the surface at the edge of the crack, waiting for the threads of light to complete the final stage along their original path without forcing them to extend, merely letting them stretch slowly along the positions they could naturally reach.

After the threads of light were retracted, the end of the recording talisman captured a very brief signal.

Equally simple, repetitive, and slow, resembling some extremely ancient confirmation gesture that stopped after completing once and did not repeat.

He put away the recording talisman, stood up, and returned along the direction he had come.

When returning to the Heart of Tiangong, Lu Qing was marking a new position point at the end of the Gray Path on the comparison map.

Shen Nian placed that recording talisman on the platform, allowing its data to automatically connect to the comparison map and undergo Fusion with the previous information into a more complete sequence.

A moment later, Lu Qing raised her head, her gaze carrying a hint of cautious judgment: "The distance from the position at the end of the Gray Path to that depression at the edge of the dark zone is completely identical to the distance from the hollow circle to the Heluo Arch."

Shen Nian's gaze fell upon that newly marked position: "It is like a distance measured many times, finally finding a consistent value after repeated confirmations."

He stood there, not rushing to make any judgment.

That extremely brief signal still remained within the recording talisman, resembling a river that had traveled a long road and finally settled, confirming its flow direction one last time before merging into the vast sea.

He began to realize that all the arrangements made by the Creator were extremely meticulous.

Those structures, those marks, and those depressions had all been calibrated.

Every distance and every arc pointed in the same direction—as if someone had translated the exact same sentence into multiple languages, carving them respectively onto stone tablets of different materials scattered in various directions, making them point to the exact same meaning.

The core of that meaning lay precisely at the position of the hollow circle.

It was just that it had already been taken away, leaving behind only an outline accurate down to the smallest fraction.

Those Gray Paths, wall arcs, and arch scratch marks were all repeating the exact same content in their own way: At this position, something once existed.

It was taken away, but the outline it left behind could still be recognized.

Shen Nian sat down beside the crystal core, gently placing the fine crystal in the center of the platform without touching the recording talisman, simply letting it exist there alone, resembling a clock whose hands had been removed; the numbers on the dial were still there, yet they no longer indicated any time.

"This Disciple has figured it out," he said softly, "The Creator left these structures and marks not to keep them here."

"They simply wanted later generations to know that something like this once existed here."

Lu Qing raised her head from the rubbings parchment, looking at him.

Shen Nian continued speaking: "After it was taken away, those surrounding structures lost their original measurement baseline."

"They no longer knew where they should point, and could only cycle in place by inertia until coming to a complete stop."

"The reason for their loss was never a flaw—they simply lost the target they wanted to align with."