Chapter 248 - 104 [The Secret of the Stone] (7000 words)
In other words, commonly known as the five elements: gold, wood, water, fire, and earth.
But the Primordial Qi within this black stone seemed to have obliterated its attributes. It was the purest form of Primordial Qi—as if someone had extracted the Primordial Qi from the universe, treated it specially, and finally infused it into this black stone.
Moreover, the fact that it could contain so much Primordial Qi made the texture of this black stone very thought-provoking.
Among all the things Chen Yan had encountered, only one material could contain such a large amount of Primordial Qi: that ring.
Thinking of this, Chen Yan took out the ring from his pocket... Just as he held the ring in his hand and before he could put it down, his expression suddenly changed!
A dense surge of Primordial Qi suddenly erupted from the black stone on the ground and rushed out of the stone!
Then, as if attracted by some kind of force, it surged towards the ring in Chen Yan’s hand!
The ring seemed to suddenly possess some sort of peculiar attraction, drawing out the Primordial Qi from the black stone and continuously absorbing it into the ring!
Chen Yan was initially startled but quickly calmed down. After a brief assessment, he made no move to stop it—in fact, he didn’t even know how to stop it.
Instead, he gently placed the ring on the ground and took two steps back, observing it intently.
As more and more Primordial Qi was extracted from the black stone, Chen Yan was astonished to see that the black stone actually began to fade in color!
It changed from deep black to light black, and then gradually turned grayish black...
Minutes later, the black stone’s color became lighter and lighter, until it was almost a faint grayish-white, looking somewhat semi-transparent!
Finally, when the last trace of Primordial Qi was extracted from the stone and absorbed by the ring...
The originally ink-black stone turned into a semi-transparent white state!
Chen Yan cautiously approached and injected a trace of Primordial Qi into it.
The stone’s color changed as if a drop of ink had been added to a glass of milk. But quickly, a trace of Primordial Qi emerged from it, flowing into the air and being absorbed by the ring again.
What the...?
Chen Yan was bewildered. He carefully pondered for a moment, then picked up the ring and examined it closely.
The ring was still a bright green color, showing no change at all.
He even tried to inject a trace of Primordial Qi into the ring, which, as usual, absorbed it completely like a bottomless pit.
He wondered what function of the ring had been activated to absorb all the Primordial Qi from the stone.
(Thank goodness it only absorbed the stone’s Primordial Qi and not mine... Otherwise, I’d have been completely drained!)
Chen Yan’s heart raced.
The stone was still very hard, cold to the touch.
But upon closer inspection, especially after carefully examining its contours and feeling its surface with his hand for a while...
Chen Yan made a guess:
This stone didn’t naturally form into its current shape.
Judging from the fracture, it seemed to be a fragment knocked off from some larger object!
Could it be a fragment of a shattered magical treasure? Chen Yan furrowed his brows, pondering.
But once all the Primordial Qi was absorbed, the stone seemed to lose all vitality, becoming a true lifeless object.
As he stared at the stone, something suddenly caught his eye—the stone seemed to have some faint markings on it.
Chen Yan picked up the now semi-transparent white stone and looked at it from a certain angle.
What he couldn’t see when the stone was pure black was now visible—the reflection of light revealed the presence of several peculiar lines on the stone. After careful examination, although he couldn’t identify the pattern, he could determine that it was some kind of rune!
However, it was a partial and incomplete rune!
This rune wasn’t any rune from the Talisman Art Chen Yan had studied.
It looked somewhat like an incomplete treble clef, but also a bit like the character for "tortoise" in script.
The stone’s surface was smooth and even, and this partial character was not carved on the surface but somehow etched inside the stone!
What couldn’t be seen when the stone was pure black was now exposed when it took on a white semi-transparent appearance.
Chen Yan packed both the stone and the ring. Then, he picked up paper and a brush from the table in the room and began to draw the talisman.
Although this half-rune was incomplete and unfamiliar to Chen Yan, he picked some known symbols from his studies that had somewhat similar shapes and contours. He wrote them down one by one and compared them.
He attempted to complete the half-rune by choosing characters with similar shapes and drawing their contours.
Immersed in the process of "completing the character," Chen Yan didn’t notice how much time had passed. Only when the sky outside his window darkened and the room grew dim did he put down his brush.
After hours of attempts, he more or less found about ten ways to possibly complete the rune using the outline-based method, narrowing it down to eight.
These eight runes were fixed according to the feeling and outline.
Most likely, all eight were wrong.
But since Chen Yan had nothing else to do, he thought he might as well give it a try.
He took out eight sheets of talisman paper and used the Fox Tail Brush dipped in cinnabar to write the characters on each sheet.
The first character, no reaction after injecting Primordial Qi.
The second character, no reaction.
The third...
The fourth...
By the seventh character, Chen Yan had already given up hope—he knew very well that trying to complete an unknown character by luck was simply a matter of chance.
He finished writing the seventh character, picked up the talisman paper, and injected Primordial Qi before casually shaking it!
Suddenly, Chen Yan, who was sitting on the chair by the desk, disappeared with a swoosh!
The Fox Tail Brush he held rolled a few times on the table and fell to the floor...
The room was now empty and silent without a single trace of anyone!
At the entrance of the room, a mirror was embedded in the wall.
Suddenly, a half-figure of Chen Yan emerged from the mirror world.
He was still in the mirror world, his face full of shock!
In the mirror, Chen Yan opened his mouth, seemingly mouthing two words:
What the...!!
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