Chapter 239 — The Older One Grows, the More Absurd
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
The Blind Elder rose to his feet, his Heart-Sage Pupil clear as a mirror, and gazed all around. "We are inside the god's die. Lord Huo and the Lame Elder are on another face, and sometimes they are thrown together onto ours; the Deaf Elder too is knocked into this small plane from time to time. It means this space prohibition has run too long, and its mathematical reckoning has begun to drift."
He calculated in his head, deducing over and over, then suddenly his brows rose. "That god who laid down this space prohibition, when reckoning the decimals, only computed to the instant beyond the decimal point — he never counted the smallest number! Run this prohibition a while longer and it will collapse of itself!"
The space prohibition shifted into a volcano: divine fire like dragons, lightning and thunder. Granny Zhu fought against it with all her strength, and Fan Xuanshu's voice came from her mouth: "Then how long must this prohibition run before it collapses of itself?"
The Blind Elder reckoned a while and said, "In twenty-four thousand years."
"Shut your mouth, Blind Elder!" bellowed the Butcher, who itched to split him in two with a single stroke.
Just then a voice came from outside: "Boy, your elders are trapped in there. Six of them."
Inside the space prohibition everyone started and looked out, but saw nothing at all.
The Blind Elder, frantic with worry, cried sternly, "Shen'er, do not come in! You cannot withstand the power of the divine prohibition at all!"
Shen Mu's voice came from outside: "Demon King, is there a way for you to break the spell and get them out?"
"This kind of space prohibition uses the esoteric art of the space matrix. It folds one hundred and nine spaces and divides them into one hundred and eight spatial cross-sections. It looks like only one hundred and eight, but in truth there are one hundred and nine."
The voice came from outside: "But the god who laid down this space matrix esoteric art, to save himself trouble, did not compute to the infinite decimals, and left a few flaws behind. When the art has run twenty-four thousand years it will dissolve on its own. Still, if we can find the one hundred and ninth space, breaking it will not be hard. Wait a moment — let me reckon..."
Inside the space prohibition, Granny Zhu, the Butcher and the rest looked at one another. "This man at Shen'er's side is remarkable. He saw through the mystery of the prohibition at a glance — far more reliable than the Blind Elder."
After a moment the voice came again: "Do you have some treasure you have no use for? Something sturdy. I will throw it in, throw it into the one hundred and ninth space. With this sturdy thing added to the one hundred and ninth space, when it turns it will be like an extra gear jammed among the gears — it locks fast of itself, and the formation undoes itself."
Shen Mu's voice came: "I picked this up in Loulan's Golden Palace. Will it serve?"
"Eh, this treasure is not bad at all. To pick up such a thing at random — what luck. No wonder I can never reckon you out. Your luck defies heaven; it is not that I am incompetent."
...
Even as they spoke, Granny Zhu and the others saw a pearl fly past in front of them. The pearl grew larger and larger; within it were mountains and waters, like a whole world entire, ranges towering, waterfalls flowing on and on.
The pearl streaked across the sky before them, and now it had become a colossal thing, a round heaven holding mountains and rivers within it, and then it vanished beyond the sky.
"Be careful, all of you. Breaking this prohibition will be a bit violent," the voice outside went on.
The words had scarcely fallen when a violent tremor came surging up from the depths of space; layer upon layer of space collapsed, earth, water, wind and fire raging in madness, sweeping away all things, and the power of the divine bans in those layers broke down, terrible energies gushing out on every side!