Fruit of the Same Root
As time went by on Devil Island,
Following Yun Jingheng, Tang Wulin completed the assessment first and chose to stay on the island to wait for his companions.
Yun Jingheng had been busy catching seafood for a while, so Tang Wulin took over for him and let him rest.
So he had some free time.
The days seem to pass quickly when you have free time.
In the mornings, he would sit under the dead tree, watching his companions who were participating in the Nightmare or Abomination Trials "go crazy," and occasionally giving them some dirty tricks.
In the afternoons, he would occasionally walk to the beach, sit on the large, smooth, warm rock that had been washed by the sea, and sit there without thinking about anything, waiting for dusk to spread the entire sea surface into fragments of gold.
Or he could practice the footwork and physical techniques taught to him by the old masters of the Sea God Pavilion.
The Greed Old Demon and the Nightmare Old Demon also took turns coming to find him.
Sometimes, the Nightmare Old Demon would come over carrying a rough porcelain bowl, steam rising from the rim, and sit down on a rock next to him, casually recounting old stories about the island.
Sometimes it's the Greed Old Demon, that man who doesn't talk much but whose words always hit the nail on the head. He finds you in a simpler way: he sits down opposite you, lingers on your face for a moment, and then asks, "When can we open the box Yun Ming gave you?"
Whenever Yun Jingheng is asked this question, he subconsciously touches his waist.
That box was always kept in the Storage Soul Tool.
He also tried turning it on.
The first time was on the second night after he arrived at Devil Island, when he sat alone on the wooden bed in the room.
Take it out of the Storage Soul Tool.
The box is made of wood.
The wood is extremely dark, almost black, and has no paint or wax on its surface, preserving the original grain of the wood.
The textures were very fine, and in the candlelight they looked as if they had been drawn with an extremely fine brush, with the lines spreading outwards from the center of the box, like circles of water ruffled by the wind.
He tried to lift the lid of the box.
But it couldn't be lifted.
He tried pushing from the side, prying from the bottom, and even asked Tang Wulin for help, but he still couldn't open it.
He took it back.
He tried it several more times, each time under different conditions: in the morning light, under the blazing midday sun, in the warm light of dusk, and in the dead of night when the candlelight was almost extinguished. The result was always the same.
The box cannot be opened.
He asked the Nightmare Old Demon.
The Nightmare Old Demon was drinking his never-ending bowl of tea when he heard the question. He took the bowl away from his lips and turned his head to look at him for a few moments.
"That thing,"
He said in a slow, deliberate tone, as if he were chewing something that needed to be savored, "It doesn't recognize brute force, it doesn't recognize time, and it doesn't recognize skill; it only recognizes one thing."
"What?"
The Nightmare Old Demon did not answer.
He picked up the bowl and took another sip, then shifted his gaze to the dark purple mist in the distance, as if looking at something very far away.
"It will activate naturally when it's time for you to activate it." He said this and then didn't continue.
Yun Jingheng didn't ask any further questions.
They're all riddle tellers, can't they all just die?
But today is different.
Today he sat on that large rock, his feet immersed in the seawater. The sun was slightly off to the west, and the golden light shimmering on the sea was thicker and more intense than at noon.
He looked down at the box in his hand, which was slightly warm beneath his fingertips.
His heart suddenly skipped a beat.
As if sensing something, Yun Jingheng slowly moved his thumb to the edge of the wooden box and gently shifted it.
"Despair--"
The box was opened, and inside lay a crystal.
The crystal was irregularly shaped, about the length of his thumb and slightly wider, with many sharp edges.
It seems to be... broken.
It was entirely pink—but that "pink" was unlike any pink he had ever seen before.
It's more like a solidified ball of light, seeping outward from the inside of the crystal, with the color transitioning slowly and almost imperceptibly between deep pink and light pink.
The crystal surface does not have a fixed luster.
When sunlight falls on it, it doesn't create fixed highlights. Instead, it's like a reflection on water being ruffled by the wind. The light and shadow constantly flow, change, and recombine on the crystal surface, presenting a new appearance with every breath.
The moment he first saw the crystal, the instant his gaze met its pink light—
Seven pairs of eyes turned in the same direction almost simultaneously.
They are the Seven Old Devils.
The most recent one is the Nightmare Old Demon.
He stood up from under the dead tree.
He casually placed the bowl of tea, which he could never finish, next to the tree roots. The rim of the bowl was tilted to one side, and the remaining tea overflowed from the edge of the bowl, seeping into the soil.
He stood up and didn't move, just stood at the edge of the shadow of the dead tree, his gaze passing through the courtyard, through the gaps between the low houses, through the row of dead iron trees, and landing in the direction of Yun Jingheng.
"Is that really the case..."
The Greed Old Demon emerged from the shadows of the side of the low house and stood at the gap in the courtyard wall.
He was rather thin and usually liked to stand against the wall with his arms crossed in front of his chest.
With her hands hanging at her sides, her fingertips slightly curled, her gaze was fixed on the pink crystal in Yun Jingheng's palm, and something deep within her pupils seemed to be slowly turning.
"This godless age has finally ushered in a supreme being."
The Greed Old Demon walked towards Yun Jingheng.
He walked slowly, emerging from the gap in the courtyard wall, and walked around the pile of chopped firewood to the east of the withered tree, his footsteps leaving a trail of shallow footprints on the sandy ground.
He walked to the edge of the reef and sat down next to Yun Jingheng.
They sat at a comfortable distance, about two feet apart, just enough so that their eyes would fall in the same direction on the pink crystal held in Yun Jingheng's palm.
The Greed Old Demon sat down without saying a word.
He first looked down at his fingers, which were crossed on his knees, then shifted his gaze to the sea, before finally turning his head to look at the crystal in Yun Jingheng's palm.
His gaze lingered for a long time on the flowing light and shadow on the crystal surface, while something as heavy as ink slowly shifted beneath his eyes.
Then he spoke.
"A hundred years have passed since this crystal left here and arrived at Shrek."
He said in a lower voice than usual, "I didn't expect that after the Sea God Pavilion discussed it, they would actually give it to you."
Yun Jingheng turned his head to look at him.
The sunlight streamed in from the side, casting a thin, warm glow on the Greed Old Demon's gaunt face, making the shadows below his cheekbones appear much lighter than usual.
His brow bone was high, and his eyebrows were very light. At this moment, those two light eyebrows slightly converged towards the center of his brow, as if he were trying to discern something he was not quite sure about.
"What is this?" Yun Jingheng asked.
The Greed Old Demon shifted his gaze from the crystal and turned to look at Yun Jingheng's face.
He stared at it for about two breaths, then shook his head.
The head shake was very small, hardly a complete movement; it was more like his jaw tilted to one side and then came back.
"I don't know either."
He paused after saying that, as if waiting for Yun Jingheng to respond.
Yun Jingheng didn't respond; he continued to stare at the Greed Old Demon, waiting for him to finish speaking.
The Greed Old Demon turned his gaze back to the sea, to the undulating surface of water shimmering with golden light from the sun.
"We found it on the island," he said, speaking more slowly than before, as if he were pulling something long buried from the bottom of a box, still covered in dust.
"About a hundred years ago, we were unexpectedly found in a cave deep on the island, embedded in a crevice in the rock wall, with no markings, no writing, and nothing to explain its origin."
He paused, looking down at his fingers clasped together on his knees.
"We didn't know what it was back then. But we could sense something inside it, two completely different forces intertwined within it, devouring and nourishing each other."
"The structure of that power is very similar to the energy structure of Devil Island itself, like two fruits growing from the same tree."
"So we retrieved it and Shrek team to take it away, hoping to do some research to figure out what it is, where it came from, and why it appeared deep within Devil Island."
He turned his gaze away from the sea and back to the crystal in Yun Jingheng's palm.
Pink light leaked through his fingers, casting a soft, warm pink halo on the rocky surface.
"But unfortunately," said the Greed Old Demon, his voice still carrying a faint warmth, but beneath it rose a very shallow, almost imperceptible astringency.
"Shrek has studied it for a hundred years. They've sealed it away, tested it, tried to stimulate it in every way possible, analyzed it, but they've found nothing. It's like a stubborn stone; no matter how you try to knock on it, it doesn't give any response."
Yun Jingheng looked down at the crystal in his palm. Pink light pulsed slowly beneath his fingertips, in sync with his heartbeat and his breath.
"But..." The Greed Old Demon paused for a moment.
It seems like it chose you.
A thunderbolt seemed to explode in Yun Jingheng's mind.
Two distinct forces intertwine within it, mutually devouring and nourishing each other?
The structure of the forces is very similar to the energy structure of Devil Island itself, like two fruits growing from the same tree?!
Destruction or Life?
Could this thing be...?!
Creation--?!