Falling.
Endlessly falling.
The dark blue halo engulfed them, pulling them through the thick darkness. Time lost its scale here, and space no longer had boundaries. Only the dizziness brought by weightlessness and the excruciating pain caused by the violent collision of the two forces in his body reminded Li Hua that he was still alive.
He hugged Mei's cold body tightly. Her breath was as weak as a gossamer, and the interval between each heartbeat was so long that it was suffocating. The ink poison in his right arm was boiling under the stimulation of the dark blue light, stinging and burning the bones. The golden lines and the ink-colored poisonous lines were entangled like living things, twisting under the skin. The fragment mark on the palm of his hand pulsated violently, emitting a silent scream - both desire and resistance.
I don't know how long it took, and there was a shock under my feet.
Boom!
Gravity suddenly returned, and Li Hua staggered to the ground, and his internal organs seemed to be dislocated under the impact. He groaned, knelt on one knee, and almost dropped the plum in his arms. He resisted the dizziness and looked up.
The scene in front of him made him hold his breath.
This was not the underground cave he imagined, but a magnificent and mysterious bronze space beyond imagination!
The dome was as high as the night sky. It was not rock or stone, but was composed of countless thick and twisted bronze roots with a dark metallic luster. Each root was winding like a blue dragon, covered with thick dark green copper rust, like some kind of static blood of ancient existence, entangled into a net covering the sky and the sun, and went straight into the abyss at the end of the sight. The dark blue light did not come from the light source, but from the inside of the root itself, like a cold spark flowing through it, illuminating the entire space - deep blue, silent, and strange.
The "ground" under his feet was not solid, but a huge platform formed by the intertwined roots. Its surface was covered with ancient veins and lines, which seemed to be naturally grown structures rather than sculptures, and also emitted a faint light. The air was filled with the smell of metal rust, and there was also a heavy, oppressive, and eternal pressure - as if they were not standing inside an object, but entering the heart of a giant beast that had been sleeping for billions of years.
Is this the real core that seals the Nuo God?
"Cough... cough..."
Mei coughed faintly in her arms. She opened her eyes with difficulty, and a scattered gaze swept around, and finally fixed on Li Hua's right hand covered with ink poison and light, with a trace of complexity in her eyes.
And Li Hua had no time to care about her expression.
All his senses were shocked by the structure in the center of the platform!
In the middle of the platform, several of the thickest bronze roots arched up like a coiled dragon, entangled and circling, and finally formed a "tree seat" as majestic as a mountain. And at the top of it, it was not a statue of a god, nor a divine weapon, but -
a skeleton.
A huge and frightening ancient skeleton kneeling on the bronze roots!
It was half-kneeling, tightly entangled, penetrated, and nailed to the top of the tree by the roots. Its bones were not white, but dark and heavy like obsidian, covered with cracks and incompleteness caused by years of erosion and war. It lowered its head, and its empty eye sockets stared at the platform quietly - that look was silent but overwhelming, as if it had looked down on the world with the posture of a god, and now it was still angry even though it was dead!
And in the center of the chest of this huge skeleton, a fist-sized, irregular blue crystal was slowly floating.
The crystal was not a physical entity, and seemed to be composed of pure energy. The nebula inside was flowing and beating like breathing. It had the same origin as the fragment in Li Hua's hand, but it had a vast breath that was countless times more surging!
This was the real core of the fragment of the zodiac seal!
At this moment -
Buzz -!
The mark on Li Hua's palm suddenly pulsated violently, and the blue light surged, as if being summoned!
An irresistible attraction suddenly hit him, and his body was pulled tightly and flew towards the core!
"Uh!" He growled, holding his right wrist tightly, trying to resist. He clearly felt that if he was sucked into the core, not only would the fragments be swallowed, but his entire body would be torn into nothingness by the vast energy!
At the same time, the ink poison in his body was ignited by the energy summons, and it ran wild and surging, trying to take the opportunity to counterattack consciousness!
"... No... Can't get close..."
Mei's voice was intermittent, but with unconcealable fear, "That is... the battle body of the first generation Nuo God... The core... will swallow..."
Before she finished speaking, the change happened again!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
More than a dozen blurry figures like water waves suddenly emerged from the shadows of the roots and the darkness at the edge of the platform!
Their outlines were blurred, and their geometric patterns were constantly distorted, like a projection of distorted signals, emitting an extremely cold, alien, inhuman aura——
Puppets of the Shadow Cult!
Mo Li's minions actually chased here! And their number far exceeded that outside the Nuo Temple!
They did not attack immediately, but quietly surrounded Li Hua and Mei, blocking all retreat routes. Their "eyes" fell on Li Hua's right hand——the aura of the fragments made them greedy and restless!
Li Hua's heart sank to the bottom of the valley.
There was the Devouring Core in front, the Soul-Chasing Puppet behind, and his companion in his arms was on the verge of death. He was already in a dead end.
He gently placed Mei on the bronze ground behind him and protected her with his body.
His left hand touched his waist, empty——the sword had long been lost.
Now, his only weapon was the cursed right hand and the two terrifying forces in his body that were about to get out of control.
"Don't move." He whispered in a hoarse and steady voice.
He slowly stood up, facing the enemies that were emerging like shadows, and slowly raised his right hand, with his five fingers open and his palm facing forward.
The dark blue starlight and the black poisonous line collided and entangled fiercely in his palm, like the center of a storm.
Suddenly, a figure rushed over!
The geometric light spot puppet rushed forward like lightning, and a light and shadow hand pierced Li Hua's chest directly, so fast that even the air did not have time to vibrate!
Li Hua's pupils shrank suddenly, and he could not dodge at all under the serious injury!
Boom--! !
"Get out of the way--!"
A beast-like roar resounded!
Li Hua no longer guided it, but released his power with the instinct of life and death!
A dark blue and black chaotic torrent gushed out from his palm, like a river of destruction, sweeping out!
The puppet that rushed over was swallowed by the energy in an instant, and its body was like ice and snow meeting a blazing flame, twisting, disintegrating, and disintegrating-one blow, it was reduced to ashes!
But Li Hua himself was also torn apart, with cracks all over his right arm, and black blood mixed with blue light gushing out. He managed to hold on, but he was almost fainted!
The remaining puppets hesitated for a moment, and then pounced on him more violently!
Li Hua held on to his body, and barely released a torrent, forcing the front back, but not caring about what was behind him!
Two figures flew towards Mei!
——At this moment!
"Zheng——!"
A clear sound of the piano came out, as if it split the sky!
The sound of the piano did not come from one place, but vibrated from the entire bronze space, as if it was gushing out from the depths of the roots!
The sound was clear and ethereal, containing the power of the law, and instantly brought the entire battlefield to a standstill!
The puppet that pounced on Mei shook violently, and the light spots on his body were like ripples on the water, and there were actually... cracks on the edge of the shape!
Not only that, all the puppets fell into a brief period of confusion and fear!
Li Hua was shocked and looked back——
On a bronze root that stretched out diagonally in the distance, a woman in green stood quietly.
She was dressed in quaint clothes, with a thin gauze covering her face. She was holding a jade zither, and her fingertips gently stroked the strings of the zither, and the music was still there.
She stood quietly in the wind, like a secluded orchid in a valley, or the moon reflected in clear water. Her eyes were deep, and her gaze fell on Li Hua's right hand——
That gaze was fearless, doubtless, and indifferent, but just deep and calm, like an ancient existence that understood the origin of fate.