The leader's fingers holding the sphere were shaking, and the scales stood up piece by piece from the root of the finger to the tip of the finger, like tiles blown over by the wind.
The cracks on the black sphere have spread to the entire surface, and the light coming out of the cracks is getting brighter and brighter. The light that makes the retina instinctively close turns the void above Dharma Platform pale.
Gu Changqing's palm is still empty, clean, with nothing in it.
But the sphere cracked slower.
It didn't stop, it just slowed down.
The leader's hiss turned into a howl, and his hands desperately exerted pressure on the sphere, trying to crush it completely. More than a dozen gray scales on his arms collapsed, revealing the purple-red flesh underneath.
The sphere is still cracking, but the intervals between each new crack are lengthening.
Nezha retreated eight hundred feet away and looked back in the direction of Dharma Platform. From this distance, the light above Dharma Platform looked like an expanding gray-white Taiyang.
The system alarm is still sounding.
"Ding, Forbidden Artifact cracking progress is 73%. If the progress reaches 100%, the irreversible explosion will be completed within 0.5 breaths."
"Ding, the current progress growth rate has been reduced by 62%, and it has been detected that the host is applying Law level suppression."
On Dharma Platform, Gu Changqing took a step forward.
The leader's howl was an octave high, and its body was shrinking back, but its palm and the ball seemed to be welded together and could not be pulled out.
"Let go."
The sound of Gu Changqing was not loud, but the cracks that were spreading on the sphere stopped as if they heard these two words.
The cracking progress is stuck at 73%.
The leader's vertical pupils were full of disbelief. He opened his mouth to its maximum, revealing a mouth full of fine teeth, and his hissing turned into intermittent gasps.
It doesn't believe it.
Another force was applied to its palm, the muscles under the scales stretched to the limit, and the bones creaked.
The cracks on the sphere remain motionless.
"I said, let go."
Gu Changqing's right hand was moved forward three inches, and the palm of his hand was still seven or eight feet away from the sphere.
The leader's fingers were opened one by one.
It's not that there is any force breaking it, it's that its own fingers are losing control, starting from the little finger, one, two, three.
When the fourth one was loosened, the leader let out a cry that was completely different from before. It was neither anger nor fear, but some kind of cry that was pulled from the depths of the race's memory.
The last finger loosened.
The black sphere hung in the air, the leader's palm was empty, all the scales on the ten fingers fell off, and the exposed flesh was trembling.
The cracks on the sphere's surface begin to heal.
Retracting from the last one, they were closed one by one. The light in the gap dimmed little by little. There was no sound in the whole process, and even the buzzing disappeared.
Thirty breaths later, the black sphere returned to its original appearance, smooth, complete, and as black as a bottomless hole.
The sphere floated into Gu Changqing's palm and fell steadily.
The texture is not much bigger than a fingernail, and it feels heavy in the palm of your hand. The weight is not proportional to the size.
Gu Changqing turned the ball over, looked at it twice, and stuffed it into his sleeve.
The system alarm stopped and normal beeps returned.
"Ding, Origin-Level Forbidden Artifact has been seized by the host, and the storage status is stable."
The leader of Thief Race on Dharma Platform is kneeling on the remains of the base of the statue, holding his ten scale-less fingers on the ground, and his whole body is shaking like chaff.
More than thirty other Thief Races had long since fallen down, with a few burying their faces on the ground, making a rustling sound as their scales rubbed against the stone slabs.
Kelān stood on the third floor and had not moved from beginning to end.
Her silver-grey eyes watched Gu Changqing put the sphere into her sleeves, and the rotating miniature Star Map in her pupils began to rotate again, twice as fast as before.
"Origin-Level Forbidden Artifact, you held it down with just one hand."
Her tone when she said this didn't sound like she was sighing, but more like she was confirming some data.
"The quality of the things you stole is not very good." Gu Changqing looked down at the leader Thief Race who was kneeling on the ground.
The leader raised his head. Most of the light in his vertical pupils had disappeared, and his eyes were cloudy like spoiled amber.
It opened its mouth and hissed weakly.
System translation. "You can't stop it, the door will open sooner or later."
"Whether the door can be opened or not is not your responsibility."
Gu Changqing Raise your right hand and spread your fingers.
The same golden light as when dealing with Bai Wuji fell from the palm, covering all the Thief Race on the base of the statue.
There was no sound, no explosion.
More than thirty gray-scaled figures became transparent in the golden light and dissipated layer by layer.
The leader was the last one to disappear. His vertical pupils reflected Gu Changqing's palms hanging down. His mouth was still opening and closing, but his hissing had stopped.
The base is clean.
Nezha flew back from eight hundred feet away and landed next to Dharma Platform, looking at the empty base and sniffing.
"It's so gone again, not even the dregs are left."
"You want to stay?"
"No, I just feel that these things are too rough. After so much effort, more than thirty people just ended up doing this."
Gu Changqing didn't reply to him, and turned his attention to Kelān.
Kelān was still standing in the same place, the hood of his gray cloak fell off without picking it up, and the tired expression on his face became even heavier.
"Why don't you run?"
Kelān looked at him.
"Can I run away?"
"Can't run away."
"Then why should I run?"
Nezha interjected.
"Master, have you done this together?"
Gu Changqing looked at the looming scale lines on Kelān's face, and then looked at the miniature Star Map that was still spinning in her pupils.
"No rush."
He walked up to Kelān, and there were three steps between them.
"You just said you can't close the door once it's opened."
"Yes."
"You don't want the door to open?"
Kelān pursed her lips.
"I don't want the door to open this way."
"What's the best way?"
"I don't know, but it's not like this."
Under Dharma Platform, most of the more than 400 million believers on Clear Firmament Plains have dispersed. The rest are watching from a distance, not daring to get close. The buzzing discussion is like millions of flies flying.
Gu Changqing turned around, with his back to Kelān, and glanced at the chaotic crowd in the distance.
"Nezha, contact Tongtian and ask him to stabilize the Heavenly Net Star Domain situation. Those believers who had their soul marks taken away will all recover within half a Shichen."
"Okay."
Nezha stepped on Wind-Fire Wheels and jumped out. Before leaving, he turned back and glared at Kelān. There were four words written in his eyes: Run and try.
There are only two people left on Dharma Platform.
Gu Changqing still had his back to Kelān, and the voice floated back from the front.
"The scale patterns on your body are different from those Thief Race."
Kelān touched his neck with his fingers, and the scales were slightly raised under his fingertips.
"My mother is Thief Race, but my father is not."
"What is your father?"
Kelān lowered his hand.
"My father is Gatekeeper from the Great Thousand Origin Realm."
The wind on Dharma Platform came back. After the time field was completely lifted, the air that had been suppressed for so long blew fiercely as if to compensate.
Gu Changqing's white clothes turned over twice, and he turned around.
"Gatekeeper's daughter, come and help Thief Race open the door?"
Kelān's silver-gray pupils met his gaze directly.
"My father is dead. He died on the back of that door."
Her voice didn't tremble or choke, it was smooth, as if she was talking about something that had been digested a long time ago.
"Before he died, he asked someone to bring me a message."
"What words?"
Kelān's lips moved and then stopped.
She looked down at the empty space left on Dharma Platform after the Thief Race disappeared, and was silent for a few breaths.
"He said, don't let anyone touch that door."
"But you came anyway."
"Because the thing on the other side of the door is already being pushed out."
Gu Changqing stared at her for five breaths.
Then he took out the black sphere from his sleeve and turned it over in his palm.
"Is this leaking from the other side of the door?"
Kelān nodded.
"Not only this, but those Chip, Formation cores, Spiritual Sense Locking Device, are all fragments leaked from the cracks in the door. Thief Race picked them up and used them as tools."
Gu Changqing took the ball back and patted the non-existent dust on his sleeve.
"How much more powerful is the thing on the other side of the door than this ball?"
Star Map, who was spinning in Kelān's silver-gray pupils, suddenly accelerated and spun three full times before slowing down.
"Mr. Gu, let me tell you this."
She raised her head, and the wind on Dharma Platform blew her hair to one side of her face, revealing a small patch of denser scales behind her ears.
"The ball is over there at the door. It's just a stone that the watchdog has in his mouth."