louisehourcade Chapter 411 The Gatekeeper!
Chapter 411 The Gatekeeper!
The golden light of Mars shone on the South Heavenly Gate city wall until the evening of the seventh day, when the heart of the Ruins stopped beating for another beat.
This pause was not due to an anomaly in the laws emanating from the depths of the Guixu foundation, but rather from the outer side of the membrane wall.
Extremely distant and faint signals of law came from a certain direction deep in the void. The frequency of the signal was extremely low and narrow, so narrow that even the core fragments of Mount Sumeru could only detect a very vague boundary of the law.
But the heart's vascular network automatically captured the core frequency of this signal the instant it stopped beating.
The frequency information was extremely brief, consisting of only two words.
"There's someone there."
Su Fan was sitting by the edge of the stack eating a fried dough stick when he heard those two words and put the dough stick down.
He took the shattered mirror out of his waist, and the real-time images of the laws transmitted back from the ruins appeared on the mirror's surface.
In the image, deep within the void outside the membrane wall, a tiny dark purple dot is moving toward the membrane wall at an extremely fast speed.
The light spot was surrounded by an extremely thick cocoon of laws.
The patterns of laws on the surface of the cocoon were extremely familiar, and they were completely identical to the patterns of the law membrane that surrounded Eros when he arrived on the outside of the membrane as the third branch messenger.
But it is thicker and denser, so dense that the internal structure of the cocoon is completely opaque.
"They're not from Eros. The Third Branch withdrew all its dispatched envoys after the agreement took effect, and all the monitoring station wreckage was recovered."
"The frequency of the laws within this cocoon is of the same origin as that of the third branch, but the core frequency of the laws sealed inside the cocoon does not belong to any known faction of the third branch. It belongs to the second branch."
Yang Jian pieced the two shattered mirror pieces together, and real-time analytical data of the core laws inside the cocoon appeared on the mirror surface.
The data is extremely incomplete. The density of the laws in the cocoon is too high. The remnants of the laws in the shattered mirror can only barely penetrate the outermost few layers of the membrane wall and cannot reach the deepest core.
But penetrating these layers of membranes is enough to confirm one thing: what is sealed inside the cocoon is not a detector, not an explorer, but a living symbiotic entity of laws.
The symbiotic's law structure is very similar to Eros', but it has an extremely fine dark purple law imprint in the very center of its law core. The pattern of the imprint is completely in sync with the residual band of the encrypted communication frequency of the second branch quantum collider detector.
"The second branch's envoy. After they split into three factions, the faction that advocated exploration lost its majority in the council, and the exploration motion was put on hold indefinitely. But they bypassed the council and unilaterally sent an envoy."
"This messenger's law cocoon is much thicker than Eros's was. Inside the cocoon, within the core frequency of the law, is sealed an extremely weak encrypted law pulse. The frequency of this pulse has a very slight overlap with the trigger frequency of the automatic awakening program of the second branch detector remnant."
Xu placed his right hand on his chest.
"After the Old Domain's original statement of attitude redefined the status of the Primordial World in the system of extraterrestrial divine laws from an external law structure to a symbiotic law system recognized by the Old Domain, the faction within the second branch that advocated exploration lost its legal basis."
"They are sending envoys here now not to probe the structure of the membrane wall, but to re-establish direct contact with the laws of the primordial world during the seclusion of the old domain."
"The purpose of the contact is not negotiation, but to bypass the old domain authentication and directly obtain a complete sample of the Laws of All Beings from within the Primordial World. They sent an envoy to open a second Law communication channel right under the nose of the Third Branch's ambassador to the Primordial World."
"Once this channel is completed, the second branch will be able to continuously receive data on the fluctuations of laws within the primordial world during the seclusion of the old domain."
Eros stood at the edge of the Ruins foundation, raised his right hand from his side, and opened it with his palm facing up. The three law clauses inside the draft agreement crystal in his palm, which had been personally marked by the origin of the old domain's laws, all lit up.
"How far away is the messenger of the second branch from the outer side of the membrane?"
Su Fan pulled the Pangu Axe from the side of the stool leg and carried it on his shoulder.
"We're not far from the membrane wall. The cocoon is moving extremely fast, much faster than Eros's original messenger passage. At the current speed, we'll reach the edge of the membrane wall soon."
"The endpoint of the cocoon's movement trajectory is not at any known weak point of the law on the surface of the membrane, but at a very inconspicuous law node in the northeast corner of the membrane."
"That node is an extremely fine gap where the laws meet at the interface between the membrane wall and the lingering echoes of the old domain's laws. The law structure inside the gap is extremely stable, so stable that it has never been impacted by any external force."
"But deep within the crevice, there remains an extremely faint aftershock of the pre-pulse of the Old Domain's laws. This aftershock was left in the crevice when the Old Domain released the signal of the Land of Ruins, and it has never dissipated in the past 30,000 years. The cocoon of the second branch is flying towards that aftershock."
Yang Jian marked the movement trajectory of the cocoon shell on the broken mirror surface.
"They're not here to open a second communication channel. The target of the cocoon isn't the membrane surface, but the aftershock of that pre-pulse of the Old Domain Law."
"The aftershocks contain the extremely brief frequency of the laws that the old domain used when it released the signal from the Land of Ruins. This frequency contains the initial law coordinates of the entrance to the Land of Ruins."
"Although these are only preliminary coordinates, not precise coordinates, the precise coordinates will be locked after two-way calibration between the Eros monitoring station and the Flint Beacon Rune in the Ruins of the End."
"But the initial coordinates are enough for the second branch to know the general direction of the Land of Ruins. They want to take advantage of the window of opportunity when the Old Domain is closed and there are no Old Domain laws binding the Primordial World and the Origin of the Outer Gods, to bypass the membrane and go directly to the Land of Ruins."
Xu transmitted the core frequency changes of the laws within the cocoon, sensed by the heart's pulse network, to everyone in sync.
"Why go to the Land of Ruins? The Great Sage's mother was counting the law patterns on her scales inside the core of the nest, and then she went back to sleep. The old axe mark on her head had healed so well that it was no longer visible."
"The Land of Ruins is currently empty except for the flint beacon rune that the Great Sage planted next to Nezha's command flag. The second branch went to such great lengths to send an envoy to bypass the membrane wall and go to the Land of Ruins, surely not to steal Nezha's command flag."
Nezha slammed his fire-tipped spear to the ground.
"It wasn't stealing the command flag. It was stealing a sample of the original liquid of the Nest Shell Law. Before the second branch's quantum collider detector was knocked down, its last encrypted message recorded the law frequency of the original sealing membrane deep within the Ruins foundation."
"At that time, the dozen or so communication pulses of the mutated beings leaked out along the cracks in the seal. The leaked signals were automatically captured by the detector debris. After being captured, the debris transmitted the data back to the origin of the second branch before entering a state of dormancy."
"The data contains the frequency of the Nest Shell Law of the Sealed Membrane Wall and the very basic structure of the communication pulses of the mutants. After obtaining this data, the second branch deciphered one thing: the root of the Nest Shell Law is not in the Ruins, but in the Ruins of Extinction."
"The frequency of the law membrane at the entrance to the Land of Ruins is completely the same as that of the sealing membrane, indicating that the sealing membrane is just a branch application of the Nest Shell Law, and the true origin of the Nest Shell Law is deep within the Land of Ruins."
"They want to bypass the membrane wall and go directly to the Ruins, to extract a sample of the original liquid from the source of the Nest Shell Law."
Yang Jian separated the broken mirror and shone one half towards the northeast corner of the membrane wall.
Su Fan hoisted the Pangu Axe onto his shoulder and walked towards the narrow opening in the membrane wall.
Nezha followed behind carrying his Fire-Tipped Spear, while Sun Wukong tumbled down from the top of the battlements and carried his Golden Cudgel at the very back.
The three passed through the narrow opening in the membrane wall and entered the void.
The dark red flame formed from the embers of flint on Sun Wukong's chest was extremely bright in the void, and its frequency slightly overlapped with the core law frequency inside the dark purple cocoon shell that was rapidly approaching from afar.
"I'm going to the Land of Ruins. The origin of the Nest Shell Law is my mother's scales. The second branch wants to scrape samples from my mother's scales, and I'll shield her."
"Su Fan and Nezha intercept the cocoon, preventing it from getting close to the membrane. Xu and Eros remain in Guixu, and the heart network continuously monitors the changes in the core frequency of the laws inside the cocoon. If the cocoon shows any signs of splitting..."
"The second branch's cocoon may have more than one layer. The outer layer is the messenger, and the inner layer may contain the probe's wreckage. The messenger makes contact in the open, and the probe's wreckage is automatically ejected after the messenger's cocoon breaks. Taking advantage of the fact that the attention of the Primordial World is drawn to the messenger, the wreckage flies directly towards the Land of Ruins."
After Sun Wukong finished speaking, he carried his golden cudgel and somersaulted towards the direction of the Void End. His golden armor drew an arc of light in the void, which disappeared a few breaths later at the entrance of the Void End.
Su Fan and Nezha stepped on the Kunlun mother rock fragments floating in the void and flew towards the law docking gap in the northeast corner of the membrane wall.
The dark purple light of the cocoon was extremely bright in the far distance ahead, and the law patterns flowing on the surface of the cocoon left an extremely long law trail in the void. At the end of the trail, extremely weak encrypted law pulses were still being released.
The frequency of the pulse is exactly the same as the trigger frequency of the automatic wake-up program for the second branch detector debris.
Xu was right; the cocoon has more than one layer.
The outer layer is the messenger, and the inner layer seals the probe debris.
The second branch seals the messenger and the detector in the same cocoon. The messenger leads the way, while the detector waits behind for the cocoon to break open and automatically ejects.
"The cocoon is very close to the membrane wall. If it flies any further, it will crash into that gap where the laws connect. We can't let it crash in."
"The residual pre-pulse of the old domain law deep in the crevice will be activated by the encrypted law pulse inside the cocoon. After activation, the residual pulse will directly inject the initial coordinates of the Ruins into the core of the cocoon."
"Once it's poured in, even if the messenger is intercepted, the coordinates are already engraved in the core of the law of the probe wreckage. The wreckage can be ejected at any time, and after ejection, it will fly directly towards the Land of Ruins."
Nezha slammed his Fire-Tipped Spear into the void, and a circle of extremely bright flames exploded from the tip of the spear, a manifestation of the Fire Law.
Su Fan put the Pangu Axe down from his shoulder and held it with both hands.
The will of all living beings was poured into the axe blade, and the extremely faint chaotic primordial light on the blade cleaved open a bright crack of law in the void.
The fissure extends from the tip of the axe blade to the front of the cocoon, forming a straight vacuum of laws in the void.
The vacuum belt cuts off the encryption law pulse released from the surface of the cocoon in the middle. After the pulse is cut off, it can no longer be transmitted towards the membrane wall, but the speed of the cocoon itself does not decrease. It is still flying towards the gap.
"Cutting off the pulse is useless; the cocoon doesn't navigate by pulses. It navigates by the resonance of the old domain's law pre-pulse aftershock deep within the gap. If the aftershock is erased from the gap, the cocoon will lose its navigation signal, and its speed will naturally decrease."
Yang Jian's voice came from the broken mirror.
Su Fan took the broken mirror out of his waist and shone it into the crack.
The mirror surface revealed a real-time image of the extremely faint aftershock of the old domain's pre-pulse deep within the crevice. The aftershock flowed extremely slowly inside the crevice, with a very steady rhythm. However, a small area at the edge of the aftershock had already been activated by the cocoon's encrypted law pulse.
The aftershocks of activation are extending towards the cocoon, slowly but continuously.
To erase the aftershocks from the cracks, one cannot simply chop them open with Pangu's axe.
A hard chop will shatter the internal laws and structures of the gap. After the gap is shattered, it will widen, and the cocoon shell can crash directly into it without needing guidance.
The only way to suppress the activated area back into a dormant state is to use the fusion of the aftershocks of the Great Calamity and the lingering influence of the laws of the old domain.
Sun Wukong was in the desolate land, where the aftershocks of the great calamity had ceased.
Nezha slammed the Fire-Tipped Spear against the edge of the crevice. The flame of the Fire Law on the tip of the spear changed from extremely bright to extremely dark, almost extinguished, but a tiny wisp of silvery-white electric arc remained in the very center of the flame's core.
That wisp of electric arc was a tiny fragment of the aftershock that splashed onto the law mark on Nezha's left shoulder when Sun Wukong detonated the law vortex in the old domain and the devouring pulse was transmitted in reverse.
The fragment had been embedded deep within the mark and had never been activated. Now, Nezha forced it out of the mark and poured it into the tip of his spear.
The flame of the Law of Separation on the tip of the spear exploded again the instant it received the fragments of the aftershocks of the Great Calamity. The flame after the explosion was no longer pure red, but an extremely bright Law flame intertwined with red and white.
The flame struck the surface of the pre-pulse aftershock of the old domain law being activated inside the crevice. The aftershock stopped extending the instant it came into contact with the aftershock of the calamity, and after the extension stopped, the activated area began to slowly shrink.
The shrinkage is slow, but continuous.
The cocoon's movement speed noticeably decreased after the aftershocks were suppressed, from extremely fast to extremely slow, until it finally hovered motionless very close to the front of the gap.
It lost its navigation signal, but the cocoon's own defensive mechanisms were still functioning.
The extremely thick law membrane on the surface of the cocoon shell reinforced itself in the void, and after reinforcement, the law density of the membrane doubled.
The outer messenger is still alive, while the inner probe wreckage is waiting for the cocoon to break open.
"The cocoon has stopped, but the messenger is still alive, and the probe debris hasn't been ejected. It's waiting for us to get close to the cocoon so that the messenger can come out and make contact. During the contact, the probe debris will be ejected when we're not paying attention. We need to remove the probe debris sealed inside the cocoon before the messenger comes out."
Nezha pulled the spear tip out from the edge of the gap.
"You can't break the cocoon shell by brute force with the Pangu Axe. The cocoon shell's structure and laws are of the same origin as Eros's messenger cocoon shell; brute force will trigger a causal backlash."
"But there is a weak point in the laws on the surface of the cocoon. The weak point is located on the thickest line of causal law in the very center of the cocoon. When the sensory array inside Eros' cocoon was peeled off, the Pangu Axe cleaved into that line. The structure of the cocoon has not changed, and the weak point is still there."
Su Fan switched the Pangu Axe to his backhand, with the blade facing upwards, aiming it at the thickest causal law pattern in the center of the cocoon.
"The weak point is still there, but the density of the laws governing the cocoon has doubled, so the depth of penetration needs to be greater than last time."
"Going deeper means that the amount of will of all beings must be doubled. After doubling, the chaotic original light on the axe blade will resonate with the frequency of the causal laws inside the cocoon for a very short time. The resonance will wake up the detector debris sealed inside the cocoon in advance. After being awakened, the debris will be ejected before the cocoon breaks."
The sound of ruins came from the shattered mirror.
"Is there a time window between being jolted awake and being ejected?" Su Fan asked.
"Yes. After the wreckage is awakened, it will automatically execute the awakening process. The first step of the awakening process is to calibrate the core frequency of the law, which takes a very short time."
"The wreckage cannot be moved during that period. Seize this window of opportunity and use the aftershocks of the kalpa to blast it out of its cocoon before the wreckage is fully calibrated."
"After it's blown out, wrap it with the will of all living beings, erasing the encrypted law pulse frequency inside the wreckage. Once erased, the wreckage is useless. After that, no matter how the cocoon breaks or how the messenger makes contact, there will be no way to recover it."
"But blowing up the wreckage requires the aftershocks of a great calamity. The Great Sage was in the Land of Ruins, and the fragment of the aftershocks on the tip of Nezha's spear had already been exhausted when suppressing the aftershocks."
The Ruins synchronously transmit the changes in the internal laws and structures of the cocoon, sensed by the heart's pulsation network, into the Shattered Mirror.
"The fragments of the aftermath of the Great Calamity have been exhausted, but the law imprint on Nezha's left shoulder remains. Just before the Great Sage went to the Land of Ruins, there was a very brief resonance between the crystal of embers of flint on his chest and Nezha's law imprint."
"The resonance deep within Nezha's mark leaves behind an extremely subtle trace of the aftershock frequency of the eon. It has no actual aftershock energy, but the frequency remains. Infuse this frequency into the Pangu Axe, allowing the will of all beings on the Pangu Axe to temporarily simulate the law fluctuations of the aftershock of the eon."
"The simulated fluctuations cannot destroy the wreckage. They lack actual energy and cannot cause any damage, but they can deceive the wreckage's law-sensing system."
"The revival process of the wreckage will automatically pause calibration after detecting the aftershocks of the cataclysm, because its preset program is to stop calibration when it encounters the aftershocks of the cataclysm and wait for the cocoon defense mechanism to eliminate the threat first."
"After the calibration is paused, the debris cannot be ejected, thus extending the time window. With the window extended, there's no need to detonate it; we can directly use the will of all beings to peel the debris out of the cocoon."
The countdown for the awakening program of the cocoon's internal debris, sensed by the heart's pulsation network, was simultaneously transmitted to Su Fan.
Su Fan raised the Pangu Axe above his head. The thin golden line on his left palm split open the moment he gripped the axe with both hands. Golden blood flowed down the handle to the blade, where it congealed into a very thin blood film.
The will of all beings within the blood membrane and the extremely faint aftershock frequency of the calamity deep within the law imprint on Nezha's left shoulder merged briefly on the axe blade. After the fusion, a faint silver-white law halo appeared around the edge of the chaotic original light on the axe blade.
The halo was extremely faint and weak, so faint that it was almost invisible in the void, but the remnant sensing system inside the cocoon detected it.
The resurrection process of the wreckage automatically paused the calibration of the core frequency of the laws the moment it detected the aftershocks of the calamity.
The time window has been extended.
Su Fan aimed the axe blade at the thickest causal law pattern in the center of the cocoon, poured in the will of all living beings, and let it seep into the cocoon along the pattern.
When the probe penetrated to the location of the inner detector debris, the debris was still in a calibration pause state and remained motionless.
He used the will of all living beings to wrap the remains and peel them out from inside the cocoon.
The wreckage was only the size of a fist, in a perfectly regular sphere, and its surface was covered with extremely fine causal patterns. In the very center of the patterns was a bright dark purple dot.
The light spot contained all the encrypted instructions for the second branch's operation, including the initial coordinates of the Ruins and the sampling procedure for the Nest Shell Law's original liquid.
Su Fan aimed the blade of the Pangu Axe at the dark purple light spot, and the will of all living beings shot out from the tip of the axe blade and struck the surface of the light spot.
The light spot suddenly accelerated and pulsated the moment it came into contact with the will of all living beings. After accelerating to its limit, it began to vibrate violently. The vibration lasted for a moment and then it exploded on its own.
After the explosion, fragments of laws within the light spot scattered throughout the void. Each fragment was enveloped by the golden light from the blade of Pangu's Axe, and the encrypted instructions within the fragments were forcibly erased by the will of the Dao of All Beings.
After being wiped away, the fragments became ordinary gray-white law remnants. The remnants slowly drifted away in the void, not towards the Ruins, but towards the Old Domain.
During the seclusion of the Old Domain, no law power can be released to the outside world, but the automatic defense mechanism of the Old Domain's law origin is still in operation.
When the debris drifted to the edge of the old domain, it was captured by the automatic defense mechanism. The defense mechanism left a very faint imprint of the old domain's laws on the surface of the debris. Under the guidance of the imprint, the debris flew into the depths of the old domain's law membrane and was completely decomposed and transformed by the law repair system inside the membrane.
The last trump card of the second branch was reclaimed by the old domain.
After the internal remains of the cocoon were removed, the outer messenger began to slowly withdraw from the cocoon.
The messenger's form was very similar to Eros, tall and slender, with a thick layer of dark purple law membrane covering his body, but the two dark purple law orbs in his eye sockets pulsated much more rapidly than Eros had at that time.
He stood in the void, looking down at the Pangu Axe in Su Fan's hand, whose blade still retained a faint silver-white aura of law. He spoke, his voice penetrating the void, extremely calm and steady.
"My name is Erebus, an envoy dispatched by the Second Branch. I have come to make contact with the core carrier of the Dao Laws of all living beings in the Primordial World, on the orders of the Second Branch Alliance. I am not here to fight, but only to observe."
"The faction within the second branch that advocated exploration lost power after the Old Domain closed itself off. This dispatch of an envoy is my personal decision. I am not here to explore; I am here to surrender."
Eros stood at the edge of the Ruins foundation, and the transparent law membrane surrounding him trembled slightly when it received Erebus's voice.
He raised his right hand from his side, palm facing up, and the three laws and clauses inside the crystal of the draft agreement in his palm all lit up.
His voice was extremely calm and steady when he spoke.
"Erebus is the leader of the third faction within the second branch. The third faction has a very small share within the second branch and has never been able to obtain any seats in the council."
"However, the third faction's propositions are completely opposite to those of the second branch's mainstream. They advocate completely abandoning the external expansion of the law of cause and effect, bringing all the extraterrestrial divine law systems inward, and signing a permanent non-aggression pact with the Primordial World."
"This doctrine is considered heretical within the Second Branch, and Erebus himself has long been marginalized by the Second Branch Council. His coming here in a personal capacity suggests that his intention to surrender is genuine."
Erebus turned to look at Eros, remained silent for a long time, and then spoke his second sentence.
"After the third branch signed a non-aggression agreement with the Primordial World, the attitude statement of the Old Domain's Law Origin was included in the Joint Council as the first Law Symbiosis Certification."
"On the day the certification took effect, the faction within the Second Branch Council that advocated exploration lost its majority of seats. After losing their seats, they did not abandon the exploration plan, but instead went underground."
"The core of the underground exploration plan is to extract original liquid samples directly from the source of the laws of the Nest Shell in the Ruins of the Old Domain during the period of seclusion in the Old Domain, taking advantage of the window of opportunity when there are no Old Domain laws binding the Primordial World and the Origin of the Gods in the Outer Domain."
"My arrival here is ostensibly to carry out the first step of the underground exploration plan. By sending an envoy to contact the Primordial World, I have actually unilaterally severed all law-based communication channels with the Second Branch regarding the underground exploration plan before I even set off."
"The probe wreckage sealed inside my cocoon shell wasn't for ejection; it was for offering my allegiance to the Primordial World."
"My original plan was to detonate the cocoon shell after reaching the outer edge of the membrane, allowing the probe debris to disintegrate on its own in the face of the primordial chaos. After disintegration, all the encrypted commands inside the debris fragments would be exposed."
"The Primordial Era could reverse engineer the fragments to extract all the details of the second branch of the underground exploration plan. But you dismantled the wreckage before I detonated it, and then the wreckage was recycled by the Old Domain. Your pledge of loyalty is gone."
Nezha, carrying his Fire-Tipped Spear, leaned against the edge of the cocoon's remains, looked down at Erebus, remained silent for a long time, and then spoke: "The pledge of allegiance is gone. What do you have to prove that you came to surrender and not to probe?"
"I cannot prove it. After the detector debris inside the cocoon was dismantled and recovered, the encrypted instructions for the second branch of the underground exploration project were also erased."
"After the erasure, the Primordial World cannot reverse-analyze the details of the plan, and I cannot provide any physical evidence. But there is one thing I can tell you: the core driving force behind the Second Branch Underground Exploration Plan is not any faction within the Second Branch, but the gatekeeper of the First Branch."
"The first branch gatekeepers should have continued to slumber after the vortex of the old domain's laws dissipated, but they were reactivated by the automatic awakening program of the second branch detector debris."
"After activation, they deciphered an extremely ancient law command from the remaining fragments of law in the old domain's law vortex. This command was sealed in the law core that the gatekeeper of the old domain's law origin seal was personally carved. The content was the last task to be performed by the first branch gatekeeper before the old domain withdrew."
"The mission consists of only four words: Recover the nest shells. The frequency of this command's laws is completely identical to the law membrane at the entrance to the Void Realm. Once the first branch gatekeeper awakens and executes this command, the Void Realm will be forcibly opened from the outside."
Erebus's voice was extremely calm and steady.
"When did the gatekeeper of the first branch wake up?" Su Fan put the Pangu Axe down from his shoulder and touched the ground with the axe blade.
"Three days ago. After they awoke, they did not immediately carry out the orders because the remaining fragments of the laws after the old domain's law vortex dissipated continued to spread in the void, temporarily suppressing the law core within the gatekeeper's body into a dormant state."
"The suppression period won't last long; it will end soon. After the suppression ends, they will head directly towards the Land of Ruins. When I set off from the origin of the second branch, the gatekeeper had already begun to recover from the aftermath of his slumber."
Erebus raised his hand from his side, palm facing up, and a faint image of the law appeared in his palm.
In the distant void of the image, the law cocoon of the first branch gatekeeper is slowly peeling away from the edge of the old domain, and the frequency of the law core inside the cocoon is accelerating.
The heart's pulsation paused for a moment the instant it captured this image.
After a moment, his heart resumed beating. He placed his right hand on his chest and translated the changes in the core frequency of the Gatekeeper Law sensed by his heart's pulsation network into specific information. When he spoke, his voice was extremely calm and steady.
"The core frequency of the gatekeeper's law has a very slight overlap with the law frequency of the original law liquid inside the nest shell of the backup law node deep in the foundation of the Ruins."
"The overlapping bands are extremely narrow, but enough for them to accurately lock onto the direction of the Void in the void. When Pangu sealed the original liquid of the Nest Shell Law into the backup Law Node, he carved an extremely fine Law Rune on the inner wall of the node as a sealing mark."
"The frequency of the law of this mark is completely the same as that of the law membrane at the entrance to the Land of Ruins, and it is also completely in sync with the frequency of the law instructions for the first branch gatekeeper to carry out his task."
"The mark itself has no location function, but the core of the laws within the gatekeeper's body can sense the resonance of the mark's laws in the void. Once the resonance is locked, the exact location of the entrance to the Land of Ruins is revealed."
"Their method of recycling the nest shell is to forcibly strip away the original law of the nest shell from its core. It's the scales of the Great Sage's mother. After the stripping, the original law structure inside the scales will collapse, and the resulting law shockwave will shatter the entire Ruins of Nothingness."
"Great Sage, can you hold out alone in this desolate place?" Nezha slammed his Fire-Tipped Spear into the ground.
"We can't hold on. There are a huge number of gatekeepers, and the core of the laws within their bodies was personally carved by the origin of the laws of the old domain, and it is of the same origin as the laws of the nest shell. Laws of the same origin cancel each other out, and the core of the laws of the nest shell within the Great Sage has no advantage in front of them."
"The aftershocks of the Great Calamity can shatter a few gatekeepers, but there are too many of them to destroy them all. We need someone to provide support from the Ruins of Return to the Land of Ruins at the same time. Before the gatekeepers reach the entrance to the Land of Ruins, we need to use the Law of Different Frequency to create a law barrier around the entrance to cut off the gatekeepers' law resonance."
"After the severance, they could no longer sense the resonance of the laws of the sealing marks inside the node, and the positioning became ineffective. After the ineffectiveness, they could not find the entrance to the Land of Ruins, and the retrieval command automatically paused."
"But we've already used up all the laws of different frequencies, and it will take time to fuse another one; there's no time to do so."
Xu removed his right hand from his chest.
"No need to re-integrate. The memory of the Law of Another Frequency is sealed in the ten transparent law patterns on Eros's fingertips. Extracting the memory template from the patterns makes the integration much faster than starting from scratch."
"Last time he said the price was that these ten patterns would never disappear; they were the first physical imprints left by the Law of Different Frequency in the Primordial Law System. These ten imprints are still there now."
Eros raised his hands from his sides, his fingers spread wide, the ten transparent law patterns on his fingertips extremely faint in the golden light of Mars.
Erebus looked at the ten lines on Eros's fingertips, remained silent for a moment, and then spoke:
"It takes time for the barrier to be erected by the laws of different frequencies, and it will take even longer for the barrier to cover the entire entrance to the Land of Ruins."
"The gatekeepers are already on their way. It won't take them long to fly from the edge of the old domain to the entrance of the Ruins of Desolation, but it will take much longer for the Law of Different Frequency to extract memories and unfold completely."
"If the barrier isn't fully laid by the time the gatekeeper arrives, and the gatekeeper breaks through the unfinished barrier, even the Great Sage won't be able to withstand it. Something needs to be placed outside the entrance to the Ruins of Desolation to hold the gatekeeper back before the barrier is fully laid."
"The only things that can hold them back are either the Nest Shell Law, which shares the same origin as their laws, or a completely different frequency law. The Nest Shell Law is neutralized in front of them, and the different frequency law hasn't even finished laying its foundation yet. There is no third thing that can hold them back."
Su Fan hoisted the Pangu Axe onto his shoulder and looked down at the faint, primordial chaotic light on the axe blade.
After a moment, he raised his head and said a sentence.
"Use the Pangu Axe. The will of all living beings and the power of creation on the Pangu Axe are intertwined, and the frequency of its laws is different from both the Nest Shell Law and the Different Frequency Law."
"The core of the gatekeeper's law is out of sync with these two laws. When Pangu's axe strikes, they cannot use law resonance to offset it, nor can they use law resistance to withstand it."
"Pangu's axe cannot shatter them, but it can confuse them. After they are confused, they need time to recalibrate the core frequency of the law, and the calibration time is enough for the inter-frequency barrier to be fully deployed."
"The Great Sage is guarding his mother inside the Ruins, while I'm chopping down the gatekeepers outside the entrance. Eros has erected a barrier, and Erebus, since you've come to surrender, since you have no other pledge of allegiance, you'll have to use yourself as your pledge."
"You can communicate with Eros at the same frequency and help him calibrate the frequency accuracy of the laws at the edge of the barrier during the barrier-laying process. The higher the calibration accuracy, the faster the barrier will spread."
After Su Fan finished speaking, he carried the axe and flew towards the end of the ruins.
Inside the entrance to the Ruins of the Land of Nothingness, Sun Wukong rested his golden cudgel on his knees, his monkey eyes reflecting the gatekeeper's cocoon shell rapidly approaching from a great distance.
Su Fan landed outside the entrance, slammed the Pangu Axe into the void, blade facing outwards, aimed at the direction from which the gatekeeper's cocoon shell had flown, raised his left hand, and pressed it onto the blueprint of the wooden axe given to him by A Dou.
The golden light of Mars shone on the faint, chaotic light on the axe blade, and the law cocoon of the first branch gatekeeper was already very close in the distance.
He pulled the Pangu Axe from the void, gripped it with both hands, and poured the will of all living beings into the axe blade, making the chaotic primordial light on the blade extremely bright in the void.
The dark purple law membrane of the gatekeeper's cocoon tore open the extremely dark void of the Ruins of Desolation in the far distance ahead.