Chapter 3423: Something In Return |
Zen watched as the purplish-black flowers grew, then withered.
Suddenly, he went still, his senses alert. He could feel an invisible force beneath him, penetrating into the soles of his feet.
The force flowed into his body and his eyes widened as he felt a sharp pain in his feet.
He realized that something was spreading throughout his body, spreading from his feet and up his legs.
Startled, he tried to lift his feet and leap upwards, away from the source of the pain.
However, Zen found himself firmly fixed onto the ground. The unknown force was holding fast to his feet.
But he was unfazed. After all, he had not used his full strength yet. He was confident that if he did, he would be able to rise.
He bent his knees, gathered his strength, and forcefully pushed off from the ground. This time he succeeded in soaring upwards. He looked downwards at the spot where he had been standing, and saw a green seedling sprouting in the soil.
He wondered if this seedling had been the cause of the strange sensation of penetration in his feet.
'What is this?' Zen thought.
His eyes narrowed in astonishment when the shape of the seedling finally emerged.
The seedling seemed to have grown according to the structure of the meridians within Zen's body. The branches extended and intertwined until they formed a complete human shape that resembled Zen's own form.
“If I hadn't managed to escape, the seedling would have grown inside me, completely filling my meridians!” Zen muttered, frowning.
“It's possible,” said the Primeval Lord of Heaven, sounding serious. “Look around you at the other trees in this place. They look remarkably familiar, don't they?”
Zen glanced around him. The Primeval Lord of Heaven was right.
Zen had not closely observed the shapes of the trees, but he realized that each one formed an unusual shape, more like a creature than a standard tree.
On his left, for instance, there was a tree whose branches sloped downwards in the shape of four crawling limbs. There was a cluster of leaves that could be recognized as a head. From a distance, it was shaped like a large beast. On his right, meanwhile, there was a tree which seemed to have two legs. It stood several hundred feet tall, towering over the other trees. It was the same size as Pompeo. Perhaps this was a member of the Colossus race?
“Are they the forms of the creatures who have successfully fused with the Myriad Birth and Destruction?” Zen asked.
“Perhaps,” said the Primeval Lord of Heaven thoughtfully.
“It seems that there are many creatures in the Abstruse Energy World who obtained this origin-level bloodline,” Zen commented, looking around him at the surrounding trees. By his count, there were about seventy to eighty different forms of creatures in this forest.
There was a strange sound.
Zen immediately turned in the direction of the noise. It was coming from the seedling. He stared as the rich green foliage faded away to yellow, then darkened into black. In a moment, the black tree had crumbled into ashes that blew away on the wind. There was no trace of it left behind.
“It seems that these plants have to grow inside creatures in order to survive,” Zen mused.
To confirm his conjecture, Zen returned to the ground and stood still until he sensed two pinpricks touching the soles of his feet. Before they could penetrate, he leapt up once more.
The seedling, failing to stab into his body, didn't even grow. It just darkened and returned to the soil.
“What a powerful origin-level bloodline!” Zen said. “It's able to penetrate easily through my Chaotic Source Spirits. But I want to see the last bloodline before I make my decision.”
Zen was determined to witness the power of all the origin-level bloodlines one by one. He would take his time weighing each bloodline and considering the advantages and disadvantages of each, before he made his final decision.
With that, he flew towards the edge of the forest, where the space ended. Similar to the previous spaces, there was a crack in the bronze wall marked by two Sanskrit words. One of these words explained how to obtain the Myriad Birth and Destruction.
Zen's speculation was partly correct. In order to obtain the Myriad Birth and Destruction, he would have to let the seedling take root and sprout inside his body.
However, there was one aspect in which he was mistaken. The various forms of trees in that forest were not creatures that had successfully fused with the bloodline — in fact, they were the losers!
Those who successfully fused with the bloodline had left this space with the seedlings growing in their bodies. This was what 'Birth' meant.
The losers, however, would have to stay here forever, turning into dead trees. This was the other side of the coin: 'Destruction.'
Zen raised his eyebrows, thinking of the heavy price to be paid for failing to fuse successfully with this bloodline.
Of course, he thought, there might also be a price to pay for the failure of fusing with the first two bloodlines. It was just that Zen hadn't discovered what they were.
The second Sanskrit word recorded the information of the final bloodline, which was called the Infinite Time and Space.
Zen passed through the crack. He gazed around him at the space and saw a long line formed by numerous cubes. Each of these cubes was a separate space, arranged neatly in a row. They were of varying sizes. Each cube revolved along the line according to a certain rule.
Zen did not try to approach the cubes.
From the name and the structure of this area, Zen could tell that the Infinite Time and Space had a certain connection with the power of space, and perhaps it also had a certain connection with the power of time. He quickly grasped that if he got trapped in one of those strange spaces, it would be extremely difficult to get out.
Zen fell into deep thought. He now had an understanding of the four origin-level bloodlines, yet he couldn't decide which was better suited to his needs. They were all origin-level bloodlines so none of them would be a bad choice, but which one was the best?
“Primeval Lord of Heaven...” he pleaded.
“Zen, you must make this decision by yourself,” said the Primeval Lord of Heaven calmly. “I can't give you any advice.”
This step that Zen had taken was a new domain, one entirely unfamiliar to the Primeval Lord of Heaven. Because he had not encountered this before, he had no advice to give Zen.
Zen stared at the rows of cubes rotating in front of him, feeling deeply ambivalent.
As he hesitated, a movement caught his eye. A shadow had flashed within one of the cubes. It was a pale face with thin scales on it, and there were three sharp horns on the top of its head, but the front horn was broken.
The face was framed by a crown of disheveled hair. It screwed up its features, seeming to be exerting all its strength to send a series of sounds towards Zen. It sounded like a strange song.
'Is this the language of the Abstruse Energy World?' he thought. He kept his eyes on the face and commanded, “The Heavenly Obsession Civilization, please decipher that for me.”
“It is being deciphered,” said a woman's voice from the Civilization Artifact.
Just as the core of Heavenly Obsession Civilization was activated to decipher the words, the cube containing the face mixed with the other cubes, gradually moving away. It was some distance from Zen when the Heavenly Obsession Civilization finally finished deciphering the song.
“You are here to obtain a bloodline, aren't you? Do you want a stronger bloodline?”
Zen was astonished.
Weren't the origin-level bloodlines the strongest?
Was there a stronger bloodline out there?
His interest piqued, Zen leapt up into the air, moving so quickly that he looked like a blur.
He went in the direction of the cube with the face, but no matter how he scanned the long row of cubes, he could no longer find it. The face had vanished.
Zen was agitated. But as he returned to his spot, he reminded himself that there was only a finite number of cubes within this space, and all the cubes were lined up in a certain order. As long as Zen waited on the same spot, it would appear before him sooner or later.
Patiently, he stood there, considering the idea of an even stronger bloodline. After a long while, the cube with the pale face finally appeared again. It sang the same song to Zen.
“Do you want to get a stronger bloodline? One stronger than the four origin-level bloodlines?”
“Yes, I do,”
Zen called out in a determined tone. He moved forward to stay with the cube, not wanting to lose track of it again.
However, he remembered that the face could not understand his language.
“Primeval Lord of Heaven, I need your help...”
When he was in Stage Thirty, Zen had communicated with Pompeo by interpreting his words into the language of the Abstruse Energy World. Back then, the energy souls of the Snake Goddess, Fuxi, and other human heroes had helped him convey his words by chorusing to Pompeo.
Later, the Primeval Lord of Heaven had specially trained a group to deal with this sort of situation, but they had never come in handy. Until now. It was finally time for them to demonstrate their worth.
With the group's chorus, Zen conveyed his reply to the face. “I want the strongest of all bloodlines.”
“I'll tell you what you want to know, but I will need something in return...”
The pale face spoke in a hoarse, weak voice.
“What is it?” Zen asked. He was prepared to do almost anything the face demanded.
“You must kill me, please!”
Zen was taken aback by this unexpected reply. His eyes narrowed as he gazed closely upon the face, noting the look of desperation etched on its features. He was stunned, understanding at last that he was speaking to a being that was imprisoned within the cube.
Comments 1