327: Chapter 325 The Reality and Illusion of the Southeast's Vacuum Position

Shen Nian stood in front of the Core of Tiangong, took the fine crystal from his embrace, and gently placed it into the groove at the edge of the platform.

The moment the fine crystal touched the metal surface, the fine spiral patterns on its surface lit up slightly, like a lamp reconnected to a wire, returning to a stable, warm luster after a brief flicker.

That three-dimensional outline diagram condensed by the Sixteen-Color Power rotated slowly in front of him, with twelve vertices evenly distributed on the circumference centered on the hollow center.

Six of them were marked with solid lines, while the other six maintained faint dashed outlines, like unfilled spaces waiting to be verified in the long blankness.

Lu Qing stood by his side, holding the volume of Errata of the Land of Origin that she had repeatedly checked many times.

She opened one of the pages and turned the scroll surface marked with detailed calculation data toward Shen Nian: "Disciple has calculated this vacancy in the southeast direction six times."

The error of each time was within one-thousandth.

"Its coordinates should be here."

She reached out and pointed to the dashed marker on the outline diagram closest to the Heluo direction.

Shen Nian's gaze fell on that vacancy.

Its position on the outline diagram was not conspicuous, about fifteen days' journey from the Heluo Arch, and its distance from the hollow center was completely consistent with the other marked points.

If Lu Qing had not deduced the geometric structure of the dodecagon, he would never have noticed that an unrecorded coordinate still existed in that direction.

"Was that area mentioned in the early archives of the Tiangong Clan?" Shen Nian asked.

The Artisan's light threads slowly hung down from above the crystal core, as if leafing through records that had been dusty for countless years.

After a moment, its voice sounded in the core space, deeper than usual: "There did exist an area marked as 'Unverified' in the southeast direction."

The recorder at that time said that the energy flow there was 'abnormally smooth', like a uniformly diluted water current, making it impossible to establish an effective detection connection.

"That area was never mentioned again afterwards."

Shen Nian took the fine crystal out of the groove and put it back into his embrace.

A continuous temperature came from the inside of his lapel, as if the fine crystal was confirming in its own way that he was ready to set off.

"Disciple wants to go take a look."

Lu Qing closed the volume of errata and put it into her storage ring: "Disciple will go with Senior."

"Disciple has organized the expected coordinates and possible landform features of that area at the end of the Gray Path, and can carry out comparative verification upon arriving at the scene."

The Artisan's light slowly unfolded a light golden passage in front of the two.

That passage was narrower and thinner than any previous one, like an elongated silk thread passing through the outer structure of the Heart of Tiangong and pointing to a direction Shen Nian had never set foot in.

The color of Chaos at the end of the passage was different from before—it was a light cyan color diluted to near transparency, like an extremely shallow layer of water covering a more ancient ground.

"This seat can only send you here," The Artisan's voice gently echoed at the entrance of the passage, "Further ahead, the energy of the Heart of Tiangong will no longer be able to reach.

Regarding the state of that area, this seat cannot provide any confirmation."

Shen Nian slightly bowed toward The Artisan's direction, then stepped into the passage.

Lu Qing followed closely behind, her steps steady and light, and the dark knot tied to the scabbard at her waist swayed gently with her steps.

The light golden passage slowly closed behind them.

The light cyan open space slowly unfolded ahead, like the empty front hall seen after pushing open a door.

Shen Nian slowed his pace.

He had been to the grayish-brown gravel area of the Heluo Ruins, the open space at the hollow center that was flat to the point of being unnatural, and the closed wall at the edge of the dark zone.

But this area before him was different from anywhere he had ever been—it was too clean.

It was so clean that it didn't look like it was naturally formed.

The ground was extremely flat, flat like a riverbed that had been repeatedly compacted, with no protrusions, no depressions, no gravel, and even the tiniest cracks were hard to discern.

The color was uniform, extending from under his feet to the end of his vision, with no gradients or undulations, like a huge piece of stone slab paved in Chaos.

Shen Nian squatted down and pressed his palm close to the ground.

The touch was cool and smooth.

There was no texture, no graininess, and no rough surface that could be grasped by his fingers.

But beneath the extremely deep surface, he could perceive an extremely uniform density distribution—not hard rock, nor loose soil, but more like a carefully formulated mixture where the composition of every inch was completely identical.

"This is not naturally formed." He stood up.

Lu Qing also squatted down beside him, gently sliding her fingertips across the ground.

She looked carefully at her fingertips and then shook her head: "The mark Disciple just scratched did not leave any debris.

This ground looks like it has been polished, except that the layer of polishing was so long ago that no trace of grinding can be seen on the surface anymore."

The two continued to walk forward.

The ground always maintained the same flat state, without any protrusions or depressions, like a tabletop that had been checked countless times, and even the smallest flaws had been carefully filled.

As Shen Nian walked, he probed the Sixteen-Color Power into the subsurface with extremely thin threads.

Those threads slowly traveled through the dry and dense strata, like countless probes groping in the dark.

After walking for about the time of an incense stick, an extremely slight difference in touch came from the ends of the threads.

It was not a hard interface, nor a hollow echo, but more like an extremely thin density-changing layer, as if a horizontally extending boundary was buried in the strata, about three inches from the surface.

Shen Nian adjusted his direction and walked toward the location of that density change.

Lu Qing did not ask much, just silently followed.

Walking a little further distance, he noticed that the color of the ground began to change.

The originally uniform light cyan gradually deepened, transitioning into a deeper blue-gray, like the final layer of ink slowly diffusing in clear water.

The boundary of that color change was extremely neat.

There was no jagged unevenness, no gradient area, as if someone had slid an extremely long ruler along the ground, and both sides maintained completely different states thereafter.

Shen Nian stopped in front of that dividing line.

He squatted down and carefully observed the edge of that boundary.

The transition between blue-gray and light cyan was extremely crisp, like two materials precisely spliced together.

The direction of the boundary was not a straight line, but an extremely gentle arc with extremely uniform curvature, like a part of a semicircle drawn with a compass.

"This is an artificial boundary." Lu Qing also squatted down, "Its precision is very close to the direction of those scratches on the inside of the Heluo Arch."

Shen Nian took out the recording talisman from his embrace and gently pressed it onto the dividing line.

The light threads slowly spread along the boundary, as if measuring a carefully aligned sideline.

After a moment, the recording talisman withdrew its light threads, and the data brought back showed that the curvature of that arc was indeed consistent with the connection angle between adjacent vertices on the dodecagon.

"We might already be standing at the edge of that vacancy."

Shen Nian walked forward along that arc.

When his footsteps fell on the ground, he could feel an extremely uniform rebound, as if the land under his feet was breathing slightly, and every step received the same gentle response.

He walked not fast, as if repeatedly confirming with his footsteps whether the boundary under the ground completely matched the curvature brought back by the recording talisman.

Lu Qing followed behind him, comparing the locations passed along the way with the data on the scroll while walking. After confirming several nodes, she nodded lightly: "The curvature of the arc is completely consistent with Disciple's deduction."

Shen Nian continued to walk along the arc.

When he walked most of the circle, his pace slowed down slightly.

The ground ahead began to show an extremely slight downward trend, not a steep drop, but a slow, uniform arc, as if the earth itself was bending slightly beneath his feet.

Walking dozens of steps further, he stopped.

In front of him was a huge shallow pit, about three zhang lower than the ground, shaped in an extremely symmetrical arc, like a giant bowl turned upside down on the ground, and then slowly lifted up in the long years, leaving only the outline of the bowl's bottom, quietly waiting for a pair of hands to confirm its existence.

The pit walls were extremely smooth, with no attachments, no scratches, and no markings.

Like a stone surface that had been repeatedly washed and polished countless times, it gradually formed its current appearance in the long dryness.

Lu Qing walked to the edge of the pit and pressed a recording talisman onto the inner side of the pit wall.

The light threads extended downward along the inner wall at a uniform and stable speed, stopping near the bottom of the pit.

She waited for a moment, then withdrew the recording talisman to check the data brought back by the ends of the light threads.

"The energy density at the bottom of the pit is completely consistent with the record at the hollow center."

Shen Nian slowly walked a circle along the edge of the pit.

The rebound under his feet was still uniform, as if this ground was also responding to his touch in its own way.

When he finished the last short section, he stopped and stood near the boundary where he had started.

A dodecagon, twelve vertices.

He silently counted the positions he had already confirmed in his mind—the ring, the nest, the stairs, the Heluo Arch, the wall arc, the end of the Gray Path, plus this shallow pit, a total of seven places.

There were still five vacancies that had not yet been confirmed, but their coordinates had already been deduced, distributed throughout the Land of Origin.

Every vacancy corresponded to a precise coordinate, and every coordinate was situated on the edge of this annular outline.

Like a string of carefully arranged beads threaded together by the same line.

He squatted down, took the fine crystal from his embrace, and placed it on a slightly depressed spot at the edge of the pit wall.

The moment the crystal touched the wall, the spiral patterns on its surface lit up slightly, and then returned to their original warm luster, like a repeatedly measured distance that finally found a matching scale.

Shen Zhao's Origin imprint jumped slightly in the qinglian sword, as if also confirming that this newly discovered arc always maintained the same inclination angle with that long path.

Shen Nian took back the crystal and stood up.

"This vacancy is in the same geometric System as the previous relics," he looked at Lu Qing, "Although the forms are different—the ring is open, the nest is twisted, the stairs are extended, and this is a downward arc-shaped space—its position, curvature, and energy density all maintain a consistent corresponding relationship with the hollow center."

Lu Qing unfolded the volume of errata once again, and next to the line marking the southeast vacancy, she drew a short horizontal line with a fine pen to indicate that the on-site confirmation had been completed.

Then she raised her head, her gaze falling on the outline diagram: "There are still five vacancies left unverified."

Shen Nian looked at those coordinate points on the outline diagram that still maintained a dashed state.

They were evenly distributed on the circumference, with equal spacing and consistent angles, like the scales left behind after the same ruler was used repeatedly.

The seven confirmed relics plus the five unconfirmed vacancies together formed a complete annular outline.

Each place was pointing in its own way to the same center—the hollow center that had been taken away, leaving only a precise outline.

He remembered the flatness of the recessed edge at the hollow center, the way the light in the dark crystal core became more complete after something was taken away, and what The Artisan had said— "They stopped, not because they ran out of strength, but because the direction they wanted to go disappeared."

Those structures wanted to point in a certain direction.

They wanted to align with a certain benchmark.

But when that benchmark was taken away, they lost the reference for calibration and could only slowly circulate in place until they completely ceased.

And now, he was reconnecting these stopped structures.

"Disciple wants to return to the Heart of Tiangong first," Shen Nian put the fine crystal into his embrace, "to add this discovery into the outline diagram, and then arrange the verification route for the next vacancy."

Lu Qing put away the rubbing and stood up.

The two slowly returned along the direction they came.

Shen Nian walked in front, his pace neither fast nor slow, and that arc still maintained the inertia of extension in his heart.

He felt that the temperature of the crystal inside his lapel was adjusting as his distance from the hollow center changed, as if it had gotten used to this rhythm of coming and going, and was recording the position of this path in its own way.

When the light golden passage slowly unfolded before them, he glanced back at the light cyan space behind him.

The edge of the pit maintained its precise arc outline in the gradually darkening light, and the blue-gray dividing line was still clearly drawn on the ground, as if this distance that had been measured countless times was finally confirmed with the last stroke.

Shen Nian stepped into the passage, with Lu Qing following closely behind.

The silvery-white light slowly closed behind them, like a tape measure being rolled back up.

The light threads of the Core of Tiangong hung down beside the platform of the core space, like a cable pulled halfway and then gently released back to its original place.

When Shen Nian walked past that strand of light, it swayed slightly.