This is a very long story. The era when the Stone Horror Spirit first lived was in the Early Dynasty Era, when it was one of the Spirit Beasts enshrined by a small dynasty.
No, to be precise, it had only just become an object of worship, because what that small dynasty enshrined was exactly the Stone Horror Spirit Clan, and it had been brought here by its clansmen.
The ignorant, bewildered Stone Horror Spirit hadn’t been enshrined for long when it encountered something terrifying here at the Molan Giant Pit.
At that time, this place wasn’t a giant pit yet, but a valley. However, the gigantic meteor that fell from the heavens changed the environment here; with an unreasonable destructive force it slammed down and forcibly carved out the Molan Giant Pit, yet it only left behind a layer of outdated minerals buried deep beneath the earth.
Only now did Feng Yuan realize that the Magic Sealing Stones he had run into earlier were absolutely not native to this place, but brought by that Heaven Falling Meteorite. Of course, what Feng Yuan couldn’t figure out was: the Shen Zhou Continent has no magical civilization at all, so why would things like Magic Sealing Stones fall here?
The vast number of Magic Sealing Stones directly submerged the Stone Horror Spirit. Since these things are top-tier sealing materials, their effects naturally weren’t something a mere Stone Horror Spirit could resist. Thus this pitiful Stone Horror Spirit was unknowingly trapped and killed here by the Magic Sealing Stones, until Feng Yuan and the others arrived.
Yet there was also a major problem in all this: from the Early Dynasty Era to now, far too much time has passed. Don’t even mention the Stone Horror Spirit; even for existences at Sacred Beast Level, aside from the Longevity Species, there aren’t many who can live that long.
Do Magic Sealing Stones also have a time-sealing effect? Feng Yuan was somewhat doubtful. Even though that stuff is a top-tier sealing material, it shouldn’t be that outrageous. Only, aside from this possibility, he couldn’t think of any other.
It can’t be that the Stone Horror Spirit suddenly turned into a Longevity Species, right?
However, as the narration continued, Feng Yuan realized he really had been thinking too simply. A Stone Horror Spirit trapped within Magic Sealing Stones would naturally try to find a way to escape this cage; but facing such a massive quantity of Magic Sealing Stones, never mind that it was only at Good Level back then—even an existence like Agunas would probably need several days to break free.
As for why Feng Yuan had been able to open a path so easily earlier—look at how absurd his strength is, and he was using an item of extremely high Order, so naturally he could ignore the various special abilities of the Magic Sealing Stones.
Unable to escape, the Stone Horror Spirit could only obediently wait for death at first. Yet just as all those negative thoughts surged up, the Stone Horror Spirit discovered that it had changed: its power had inexplicably risen by one Order, and moreover, its Ultimate Move seemed to have transformed.
The spiritual interference of the Psychokinesis Series had originally only been a small-power Ultimate Move, its main use being the attached interruption effect to disrupt an opponent’s attacks. Yet the Stone Horror Spirit’s spiritual interference had become exactly what its name implied: its spiritual power could interfere with reality, and as time passed, the sensing range of its spiritual power actually slowly expanded beyond the Magic Sealing Stones.
However, this expansion was not limitless. At the very least, once the spiritual power’s sensing range extended beyond the Magic Sealing Stones, that expansion gradually slowed and stopped. This was also why the Stone Horror Spirit had not noticed Feng Yuan and the others arriving—its perception simply couldn’t reach very far outside.
Of course, aside from sensing with spiritual power, this mutation also granted the Stone Horror Spirit the ability to create special constructs; the Crystal Creations outside were its masterpieces.
When Crystal Creations approached the Stone Horror Spirit’s spiritual power range, they would transmit their experiences back to the Stone Horror Spirit. Using this, it employed the Crystal Creations as scouts to obtain information about the outside world.
Perhaps because Crystal Creations found it difficult to leave the Molan Giant Pit, most of the information it obtained came from the explorers of the Molan Giant Pit. It was precisely for this reason that the things the Stone Horror Spirit saw were bizarre and outlandish.
Those irregular mine tunnels, and that chaotic city, all appeared because of the peculiar force on the Stone Horror Spirit’s body.
No, only that city was born from the Stone Horror Spirit’s thoughts. As for the stone paths, mine tunnels and the like, the Stone Horror Spirit itself wasn’t very clear; perhaps they were born from those fleeting stray thoughts that even it hadn’t noticed at the time?
After finishing his understanding of the Stone Horror Spirit’s situation, Agunas’ expression was very unpleasant. The Stone Horror Spirit posed no threat—or rather, it had never been some dangerous creature at all.
But the existence that had granted the Stone Horror Spirit such terrifying power was an enormous threat, because that power was far too strong and uncontrollable.
Every stray thought in the heart would trigger changes; in Agunas’ eyes, this was an unmistakable unstable factor. At the very least, it needed to confirm that this power would not throw the current Main World into greater chaos.
As for whether this thing should be regulated, Agunas did not hastily make a judgment.
Although many things looked like unstable factors to it, as a Divine Beast it still possessed the fairness it ought to. Whether it liked something or not, as long as those things did not severely undermine the order of the Main World, it would not truly move to regulate them, no matter how displeasing it found them.
For the moment, that power does indeed pose a great threat to world order—or rather, anything capable of making wishes come true, or similar phenomena, is nothing good in Agunas’ eyes.
It’s not that it can’t bear to see others blessed; it’s simply that it has no faith in the human heart. In fact, even Agunas itself cannot guarantee that it would not misuse such miraculous power.
"Just as expected... for it, the concept of time has already grown blurry, but..."
Gently patting the Stone Horror Spirit’s rocky body, Feng Yuan let out a sigh and said. Xiao Ji at his side did not show any displeasure because of this; it gazed at the Stone Horror Spirit with pity.
Perhaps it was precisely because it knew what it cared about that it felt compassion for the Stone Horror Spirit. Clearly this was supposed to be a lighthearted outing, yet it had turned into a complete farewell to everything from the past.
Being trapped in this lightless place was not what Xiao Ji feared most. What truly terrified it was that after escaping, all the things it had once been familiar with, all the familiar faces, that one person it cared about most, who was most important to it... would already be gone...
The more it thought this way, the more frightened Xiao Ji became. It couldn’t help but lean closer to Feng Yuan, and it called out softly, with great caution.
Feeling something lightly bump against him, Feng Yuan turned his head in puzzlement; seeing that it was Xiao Ji, he chuckled and gently patted its wings.
"I think it’s not dangerous at all. Although we don’t know where that strange power comes from, judging by the current situation, it should be harmless."
Seeing Agunas about to speak yet holding back, Feng Yuan shook his head and said,
"Don’t forget, it’s already been trapped here for an extremely long time."
Trapped in this place, the Stone Horror Spirit had already lost all sense of the flow of time; its understanding of time was probably still stuck in that original era. Yet in reality, it had been enduring loneliness here for several thousand years.
Such a lengthy span of time had not only wrought irreversible changes upon the Stone Horror Spirit, it also served as proof that the power likely did not have any major problems—at least, in this place it was harmless.
Otherwise something would have happened long ago. With so much time having passed, if there were real danger, Feng Yuan did not believe they could have just kept being lucky.
Flicking its tail, Agunas looked at Feng Yuan and said,
"What are you planning to do? Since you’re talking like this, you must have something in mind?"
"Mm, I do have an idea, but I’ll need your help."
Looking at the Stone Horror Spirit’s completely bewildered face, Feng Yuan sighed. The other party might not have realized what changes had occurred in the outside world—or no, perhaps it did know, but was... simply avoiding the matter in its heart.
"You want to..."
Agunas already guessed what Feng Yuan wanted to do. Veronia, after a long silence, said,
"Is that really good? Although this might be what we consider the best solution... but... do you truly believe it knows nothing at all?"
"I..."
Feng Yuan fell silent. Perhaps at the very beginning it truly hadn’t realized anything and had still been hoping for its kin to come rescue it. But with the information it had gathered through the Crystal Creations, could it really be said to know nothing?
"To create a time loop and let everything return to its original state in another way might not be a problem, but..."
Staring at that Stone Horror Spirit, Agunas flicked its tail and said,
"You’ve overlooked one thing: does it really have such a long lifespan?"
This place is both the prison that confines the Stone Horror Spirit and the secret behind its longevity. Agunas suspected that this longevity was limited to this location, a suspicion born from its understanding of the world’s rules.
Longevity without any price?
How could that be possible!
Feng Yuan’s one-sided wishful thinking would likely be shattered the moment it stepped out of the range of the Magic Sealing Stones. Perhaps the aging that had been held back would arrive all at once...
"I..."
Looking at Xiao Ji and then at the Stone Horror Spirit, which was gazing at Feng Yuan with a blank expression, it took quite a while before the Stone Horror Spirit reacted, and then it cried out excitedly at Feng Yuan. Veronia, surprised, glanced at the Stone Horror Spirit and translated for Feng Yuan,
"It says that even if it’s only for a short while, it still wants to see its companions once more..."

Comments

Loading...