Crystal core
It was still dark when we returned to the stone house.
Mu Shuang squatted outside, sharpening her blade. The whetstone made a steady, grinding sound in the deep blue of the pre-dawn light. Shen Mo helped Shen Qiu to rest inside. Shen Qiu had scraped his shoulder while crossing the narrow passage of the city wall, and Mu Shuang had applied herbal medicine and wrapped it with a strip of cloth. Long Tieshan sat by the stove adding firewood. The firelight illuminated several bloody scratches on the back of his hand, caused by barbed wire. He had already washed them with water, and the bleeding had stopped; the marks were very faint.
Long Tian sat down by the furnace and took out the crystal wrapped in a thick cloth, unfolding it in his palm. After the cloth was removed, the crystal shone with a warm, grayish-white luster in the firelight, much softer than when it was taken out of the equipment room. The sharp edges on its surface were smoothed out by a thin halo of light. He placed the crystal on the table, and everyone's eyes were drawn to it.
Shen Mo came out of the inner room, stood by the table for a while, and leaned closer. "This Shitou, I'm not sure how to define it. It's not a natural mineral; it's formed from the residual matter that peeled off from the Origin of Chaos during the years of operation of the Reverse Fusion Device. Essentially, it's the same kind of thing as the Origin Return Pearl in your bodies."
Long Tian released a sliver of the Origin Return Pearl's aura; a grayish-white wisp of light emerged from his palm and touched the crystal's surface. The moment they made contact, the crystal's surface glowed brighter, and the Origin Return Pearl simultaneously accelerated its rotation, the resonant pulsation creating a faint, visible ripple above the table. Yu Jin, standing beside him, also extended his hand, his Power of Origin resonating with the crystal remotely. A golden-black halo surged from the other side of the crystal, enveloping half of its surface.
"This crystal can be used for two things," Long Tieshan said, turning his gaze away from the crystal. "First, it can serve as your backup energy source—the chaotic remnants sealed inside have been compressed over a long period, making them extremely stable. If you run out of Soul Power, you can draw upon it. Second, it's a product of the long-term operation of the Reverse Fusion Device. Without it, Meng Changyuan won't be able to build a second machine of the same specifications in the short term, effectively cutting off his path to forward replication of the Origin of Chaos."
Long Tian carefully wrapped the crystal again and held it in his palm, his fingertips tracing the smooth, rounded edges beneath the cloth. The Origin Return Pearl in his dantian continued to rotate gently at a slightly higher speed than usual, as if being continuously pulled from the outside by something. He could feel that the Origin Return Pearl's rotation was more stable than ever before when the crystal was in his hand, like a person walking in the dark suddenly finding a wall to hold onto.
Yu Jin sat on the threshold, examining the burn on the back of his hand in the morning light. The burn mark had faded by more than half, leaving only a light red imprint, the edges of which were slowly receding. He turned his palm over and looked at his palm. The aura of the Origin Core flowed more smoothly between the lines of his palm than yesterday, and the outer edge of the Third Ring had clearly taken shape, the halo warm and steady.
Shen Mo sat down at the table, poured himself a bowl of cold tea, and took a sip. "This morning, my people inside the camp sent word to Meng Changyuan —after the power went out in the equipment room, he led a team to investigate. He discovered that after the crystals were taken, he didn't immediately pursue them out of the city, but instead sealed off all the entrances to the three underground floors of the main building and started restocking with a new equipment list. He won't have a Reverse Fusion Device -level machine for a while, but his replication speed is fast; he can rebuild a low-spec version in three months at most."
Three months. Long Tian held the crystal in his palm and calculated the time. Three months was enough for him and Yu Jin to grind the Closed Circuit to a higher level, and also enough for them to advance their respective Soul Ring a little further. If they added the energy support of this crystal, Yu Jin's core would be able to absorb the Fourth Ring faster after it was fully formed, and the tempering of Long Tian's Origin Return Pearl could also be accelerated under the resonance of the crystal.
"We need to do two things within three months." Long Tieshan drew two lines on the table with his finger. "First, train your Closed Circuit to the point where it can withstand prolonged combat. Second, upgrade Yu Jin's Soul Ring to the fourth level, and refine Long Tian's Origin Return Pearl to the next level. Then, when we face Meng Changyuan again, we can at least withstand a few moves under his nine-ring suppression."
Long Tian put the crystal back into his clothes and placed it against the Origin Return Pearl. The moment the Shitou touched his chest, the rotation speed of the Origin Return Pearl suddenly stabilized, like a boat finally finding a safe harbor to anchor in a river with changing currents. He felt that the connection between his five Soul Ring and the Origin Return Pearl also tightened at the same time, and the nascent patterns on the inner wall of the Fifth Ring were more evenly tempered under the new rotation speed of the Origin Return Pearl.
From that day on, life in the stone house entered a new rhythm. During the Long Tian polished the patterns of the five rings in the open space in front of the house, gradually integrating the Return to Origin path marked on the silk into daily operations, making each bend of the Closed Circuit as natural as breathing. Yu Jin practiced the activation of the source by the stream, and after completely stabilizing the Third Ring, he began to try using the crystal as an external anchor point to support continuous output for a longer period of time. Mu Shuang went down the mountain every three days to bring back news and supplies from the city. Shen Qiu's injuries gradually healed, and he was able to sit on the threshold to watch over the resonance state of the crystal, judging whether the progress of the two's harmony was ideal based on the brightness of the crystal's halo.
Two weeks later, the Third Ring of the Yu Jin had completely solidified. The gaps between the rings above and below were filled with the Power of Origin, forming a continuous circuit. When activated, all three rings glowed simultaneously, with gold and black intermingling with gray and white. He tried activating it at full power by the stream. A small golden-black dragon shot out from his palm, skimming the water's surface for several feet, leaving a trail of mist on the water's surface that was steamed by heat and then frozen by cold. The water ripples slowly separated and then closed on both sides of the mist trail.
Long Tian tested the Closed Circuit on the open ground, running it continuously for an hour. When he finished, several new fine arcs appeared at the ends of the golden ice cracks on the surface of the Origin Return Pearl, like a painting with a few strokes added. The connection between the five Soul Ring and the Origin Return Pearl was tighter than two weeks ago. The time for the five rings to resonate together during each operation was doubled, and the fullness and flow speed of Soul Power were both a step up from before.
The crystal was always kept close to his body. Sometimes, after nightfall, Long Tian would take it out and hold it in his palm. The resonance between the Origin Return Pearl and the crystal continued with subtle pulsations in the silence, like two bells struck by the same hand, the echoes overlapping, weaving an invisible net in the air. Yu Jin would occasionally sit over and probe the other side of the crystal with his Power of Origin. The three sources attracted each other in the same small space, like three beads strung together by the same rope, each swaying in its own way but never escaping the rope's circle.
One evening at Yu Jin, after finishing his training, Yu Jin sat by the stream, dipping his feet in the cool water. Gazing at the shattered reflection of the sunset on the surface, he suddenly spoke, "Long Tian, what do you think Meng Changyuan will do next time we meet?"
Long Tian sat down beside him and dipped his feet into the water. The cool water made them both pull their feet back briefly before letting them adjust. He gazed at the opposite mountain wall, its surface bathed in the golden-red light of the setting sun, and pondered, "He probably won't attack directly. With the Reverse Fusion Device destroyed, he's missing our core sample. He'll find a way around it—starting with those close to us, or those we're protecting, forcing us to make the first move."
Yu Jin lifted his feet out of the water, shook off the droplets, and put on his shoes. He didn't seem to care that his trouser legs were wet when he stood up. He gazed at the deepening mountain shadows in the twilight, the golden-black Yu Jin in his eyes shining brightly in the dim light, like a small cluster of flames still burning, not extinguished by the evening breeze. "He won't succeed."
Long Tian stood up, wrung out his feet, put on his shoes, and the two walked side by side back to the stone house from the stream. The firelight had already lit up, shining through the crack in the door and drawing a warm strip on the open ground. Shen Mo was squatting by the door, changing the fuse of the signal flare, while Shen Qiu leaned against the doorframe, resting with his eyes closed. The intermittent sounds of Mu Shuang sharpening a short blade by the side of the house drifted over. These trivial, continuous sounds, in the twilight, were like thin threads enclosing the stone house, turning it into a nest enveloped in light. The wind blew outside the nest, and the people inside went about their tasks.
Long Tian walked to the furnace, sat down, and took out the crystal, holding it in his palm. The Origin Return Pearl automatically accelerated its operation, establishing resonance with the crystal. Yu Jin sat down opposite him and also extended a hand to place on the edge of the crystal. Power of Origin was simultaneously injected, and the three of them emitted a continuous and even pulsation in the furnace firelight. Warmth seeped from his palm into the meridian circulation circuit, traveling along the Return to Origin path marked on the silk, winding its way through the depths of his body, and then winding its way back.