The Intertwining of Destruction and Life
The next morning, Yun Jingheng was awakened by birdsong.
The call came from outside the cave. It wasn't the sound of any bird he was familiar with before. It was longer than a sparrow's but shorter than an oriole's, with the last syllable rising slightly before falling back down.
When he opened his eyes, fine silver water droplets were condensing on the moss at the cave entrance, which was wet with night dew. Sunlight cut in from the angle of the cave entrance, making the water droplets look like shards of glass scattered on the ground.
He sat up and shook the outer robe covering him. The robe, damp from the night before, was cool to the touch but no longer wet.
He put on his outer robe and walked to the cave entrance.
The fog at sea had not yet dissipated; the layer close to the water's surface was grayish-white, gradually thinning upwards until it became almost transparent at the top of the reef.
Sunlight streamed in from behind the eastern mountain ridge, tinting the edges of the mist with a very pale orange hue.
He stood at the cave entrance for a while, without any specific purpose, simply letting his gaze wander within his field of vision.
The island was larger than he had seen it from the rocks the day before.
It got dark too quickly last night, and the Greed Old Demon took Tang Wulin back to the cave first. He sat alone by the sea until the Star Dou filled the sky.
The slope where the cave is located faces the sea to the north. The slope is not steep, but the surface is covered with a thick layer of humus. It is soft and resilient when you step on it, and your feet sink slightly and bounce back.
The soil surface was covered with dense, low bushes with small, thick leaves, as if they had grown in this way on purpose to protect themselves from the sea breeze.
Occasionally, a few grayish-white rocks peek out from among the bushes, their surfaces covered in lichen, the gray-green patches resembling a faded old map in the morning light.
Yun Jingheng walked westward along the slope.
He hadn't decided where to go, but his feet chose a direction on their own.
After walking west for a while, the slope began to flatten out, the shrubs gradually thinned out, and a wide meadow came into view.
The grass wasn't tall, just past my ankles, and the tips of the leaves still had undried night dew clinging to them. When my trousers swept over it, they left a dark, damp trail.
At the end of the meadow was a low cliff.
The cliff face is not high, about three zhang (approximately 10 meters), but the cross-section is very new, with sharp edges, unlike old rocks that have been weathered.
There was no lichen or moss on the rock face; the grayish-white rock surface was bare, reflecting a dazzling white light when the sun shone on it.
Scattered at the base of the cliff are pebbles of varying sizes, some with their edges rounded by the tide, while others still retain the sharp edges from when they broke.
Yun Jingheng stood in front of the cliff for a while.
He raised his hand and touched the largest piece of rock in the pile. When his fingertips touched the rock surface, he felt a dry, astringent sensation, completely different from the slippery rocks at the cave entrance that were constantly soaked by sea fog.
He turned the rock over, and the exposed cross-section on the back was also brand new. The light gray rock core shimmered with fine reflections in the sunlight, like sand mixed with mica.
He continued south along the bottom edge of the cliff.
The cliff face turns at this point, changing its original east-west direction to southwest. There is a noticeable crack at the bend, extending from the top of the cliff to the bottom. At its widest point, it is wide enough for a person to squeeze through sideways.
The air seeping out of the crack was cool, but not the coolness of a sea breeze; it was the kind of stagnant coolness that comes from being trapped by rocks for a long time, carrying a dry, dusty smell.
He couldn't squeeze in.
He stood at the entrance of the crack for two breaths, feeling that the air deep inside the crack seemed heavier and more condensed than outside, like an old well that had been sealed for many years.
But he had no reason to go in for the time being, so he turned around and continued walking along the bottom edge of the cliff.
After walking for about fifteen minutes, the height of the cliff began to gradually decrease, from three zhang to two zhang, from two zhang to one zhang, and finally it simply became a row of raised stone ridges.
At the end of the rocky ridge is a small depression. The depression is low-lying and surrounded by raised earthen slopes, which block most of the sea breeze, making the air much quieter than elsewhere.
He stood at the edge of the depression and looked down.
Then he paused for a moment.
In the center of the depression was a very small pond, its surface so still that there wasn't even a ripple, reflecting the eastern sky and a few wisps of thin clouds overhead.
A ring of short reeds grew along the edge of the pond, greener and fuller than those elsewhere, their leaves a deep, almost dark green, gleaming with an oily sheen in the morning light.
Yun Jingheng was astonished, "How can normal plants grow in this godforsaken place???"
However, the area around the pond was not teeming with life.
The surface of the depression was cracked; the dark brown soil had been exposed to the sun and developed crisscrossing cracks, the widest of which could fit a finger.
The soil layer was also uneven in color; some areas were a normal dark brown, while others had a dull gray-black hue, as if it had been burned.
That grayish-black area encircled the Outer Circle of the pond, forming an irregular ring. The outer edge of the ring was barren, while the inner edge was covered with an unusually lush green reed. Beyond the reeds, the surface of the pond was as calm as a mirror.
Yun Jingheng squatted down.
He squatted at the edge of the depression, his fingers pressing against the grayish-black soil.
My fingertips recoiled as soon as they touched the surface of the soil; it was hot.
The temperature wasn't high, but it was definitely a bit warmer than the surrounding ground.
He then reached his hand towards the circle of reeds.
He pinched a reed leaf between his thumb and forefinger. The leaf was thicker than he had expected. With a little pressure, a little clear sap seeped from the surface of the leaf and landed on his fingertip; it was cool.
My left hand is hot, my right hand is cold.
Yun Jingheng remained in that squatting position for a while.
His left hand pressed against the gray-black soil, while his right hand pinched the broken end of a reed leaf. Two completely different sensations rose simultaneously from his palms, converging near his shoulder along the meridians of his arm. At the point of convergence, it felt as if a string that had been taut for a long time had suddenly been plucked.
He recalled the words of the Lunar Primordial Sovereign.
[Find a quiet place here to absorb the duality of Destruction and life that pervades heaven and earth.]
He raised his head, his gaze moving from the cracked, grayish-black soil to the circle of emerald green reeds, and then from the reeds to the calm, almost frozen surface of the water in the center of the pond.
The pond was small, only three or four zhang in circumference, but in the center of this depression, it resembled an eye, with water as its pupil, reeds as its iris, and the sclera as the parched, grayish-black soil.
A place where Destruction and life flourish simultaneously.
As these words surfaced from the depths of his consciousness, he felt the Creator God's Core Fragment that had been stored in the box in his pocket tremble slightly.
Yun Jingheng stood up.
He didn't rush into the depression.
He straightened up again at the edge of the depression, his feet shoulder-width apart, his hands hanging at his sides, his gaze fixed on the motionless reflection on the water.
His reflection in the water was not very clear; the reflection of the sky on the water's surface was too bright, blurring his outline into a dark silhouette.
"This is it."