Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 629 The Voice of the "Divine Craftsman" - Drafts of Ancient Runes

He slowly raised his hand and gently placed it on the iron gate.

Strangely enough, the iron gate was tightly closed with a light-blocking crack, but even with his current visual abilities, he couldn't see what was behind that crack.

At the same time, his sensory tentacles slowly seeped into the iron door like water. As his perception deepened, the mystery of the door gradually opened in his senses, like a Pandora's box...

His senses seemed to have entered a labyrinth of no bounds, where countless extraordinary materials linked by secret runes collided and combined to form layers of magnificent barriers...

Just by sensing that one enters, one feels as if one is about to lose oneself in the endless mountains, while in reality, this portal is merely an old iron gate.

Cracking open this iron gate on a layer is exponentially more difficult than pushing it open in the real-world layer.

"Just a door... and that's it?" Lin Yi couldn't help but sigh.

“Don’t be misled by what this door is trying to show you,” Tian Bufan said. “These runes and structures can have countless combinations, but only one combination corresponds to the form of this door. You can indeed ‘comprehend’ the traces left by the ‘Divine Craftsman’ when it was forged by sensing the portal, but that’s not what we need to delve into this time.”

"Sensing the existence of the portal, discerning the path through it, opening the door at the layer level, and then entering."

Lin Yi was slightly surprised: "Open the door at the layer level?"

He pondered it for a while, and then vaguely understood something. He reorganized his sensory tentacles, no longer exploring indefinitely, but instead began to search for how the portal unfolded on the layers.

As he continued to perceive it, suddenly, a clear sound appeared in his consciousness—

"bite……"

"bite……"

This sounds like someone swinging a hammer and hitting metal.

"Ding! Ding!!"

The sound grew clearer and clearer...

In Lin Yi's mind, the image of that refined yet somewhat thin figure appeared—the figure of the "Divine Craftsman"!

At the same time, he seemed to feel waves of scorching heat rushing towards him, like heat waves surging from the furnace in front of the "divine craftsman".

"Forging... isn't actually a very advanced skill..."

"What you see now is just the skill after you've mastered it... Of course, you only need to remember what I look like now, because every detail of how I'm hammering will be a blurry phantom that future generations will spend their entire lives trying to glimpse..."

"The core of forging lies in the overall control..."

"The process is important, but every action needs to be directed towards the desired result in order to be effective..."

"Ding! Ding! Ding..."

The "master craftsman" spoke as he hammered the red-hot iron block beside him.

The voice came through intermittently, and it was unclear who he was talking to. It seemed like he was talking to someone who used to be by his side, or perhaps... he was talking to Lin Yi now.

Lin Yi heard the "divine craftsman's" words very clearly, but because they were intermittent, he couldn't hear them completely.

"...There are many things we didn't have time to teach you... Learn as much as you can..."

"Ding! Ding! Ding..."

"I have a feeling... that we don't have much time left..."

The "master craftsman" forged his skills while speaking his mind freely.

"Astrological observations of the celestial phenomena suggest they are on their return journey... They'll probably be back soon..."

"Ding! Ding! Ding..."

"But the last time we had a big disagreement with the authorities... I don't know if we can find a compromise solution this time..."

"I hope they don't fight..."

"Especially that 'Butcher' guy... his temper is too explosive... if a fight really breaks out, it won't be good for anyone, and it might even give 'He' an opportunity to take advantage of the situation..."

"Ouch...this is a real headache..."

"Forget it... let's see what Difa says. After all, she's the boss, she makes the decisions! If she gives the order for me to fight, I'll definitely steal all of Amon's treasures and fight them to the death..."

He muttered to himself, but received no reply whatsoever.

"Ding! Ding! Ding..."

The figure of the "master craftsman" gradually distorted in the firelight and temperature of the furnace, and then gradually became blurred with increasingly faint tapping sounds.

Then, Lin Yi returned to his perception of the iron gate.

The scene just now unfolded incredibly smoothly, without any abruptness, like someone walking down an old alleyway suddenly being moved by the scenery, and a memory from the past quietly resurfaces...

"Overall control, and always moving towards the goal..."

"Could it be that... this door doesn't absolutely 'exist' at the layer level, but rather is a concept of a door attribute...?"

Because it's a concept, trying to open the door is like being trapped in a maze.
Lin Yi seemed to be deep in thought, and then changed his approach.

Since the door is there, why does he have to open it?
Just find that gap at the layer level!
A crack in the door wide enough for him to pass through!

After changing his approach, he quickly discovered a clue: between the secret patterns, there were some kind of serrated marks on a certain layer level.

He then gently moved the teeth, and the power of the secret runes immediately spread from the layers, slowly revealing a hole that was neither too big nor too small, just big enough for one person to pass through.

"Found it, let's go!" In the corridor, in front of the iron gate, Lin Yi suddenly opened his eyes, and then rode his flying body to crash into the iron gate.

Strangely enough, when he took that step, the space and the layers didn't change, but his body seemed to be stuck in another plane dimension, flattened into a shape like a piece of paper or a noodle, and then passed through the crack in the door...

Lin Yi's transformation generated a strange, extraordinary power fluctuation, which instantly caught the attention of a certain fanatical leader. He immediately rushed into the corridor with lightning speed and sensed the last trace of Lin Yi's aura before he disappeared in front of the iron gate...

As Lin Yi left, the canvas's ability to overwrite space gradually ceased to function, while the fanatical leader was utterly horrified, as if he had seen a ghost: "A 'layered cloak'...?! This extraordinary technique, which is only mentioned in snippets in ancient texts... how could it possibly exist in the world?!" "My God... my God! This is impossible, this absolutely cannot be!!"

Its body swayed and it almost fell. Having been exposed to two extraordinary methods beyond its comprehension in a short period of time, the intense impact of this fact caused a barely perceptible crack to appear in its long-held pursuits and beliefs...

It stared blankly at the spot where Lin Yi had disappeared. Beneath the tattered, dark green cloak, a complex and struggling expression flickered across its withered face. Soon, will-o'-the-wisps began to flicker in its golden-green eyes...

Gradually, the will-o'-the-wisp dimmed.

But in the final moments before the will-o'-the-wisp was about to go out, it suddenly burst forth with brilliant and frenzied colors, as if a reversal of fortune had occurred.

It began to pant heavily, exuding an aura of madness and fanaticism that didn't belong to the level of fanatics—much like Zhao Lingxiao back then.

Several fanatical leaders followed closely behind and arrived at its side. These fanatical leaders were all those who had come in earlier to track Lin Yi but had failed. Seeing that the fanatical leader's aura had changed drastically, they all began to inquire.

No matter what they asked, the fanatical leader simply kept his eyes fixed on the void, filled with fervor and worship, as if he had glimpsed a god.

"I saw……"

"I saw... the afterglow of the sun..."

The leaders of the fanatical followers exchanged bewildered glances: "The sun has already set! This afterglow vanished long ago in the unknown ancient times. Are you out of your mind?!"

The fanatical leader remained dazed, muttering strange syllables that even the other fanatical leaders couldn't understand, as if he were piously praising something.

At this moment, the other fanatical leaders finally felt fear and apprehension.

"Has he really figured something out?"

"how could I know?"

"Leave a few people to keep an eye on him, and inform the rest of the others if anything seems amiss! It's not that we're afraid he'll leave first, but we're afraid he'll go astray!"

"Alright, the rest of you, keep grinding away at those stupid art students! It's been a long time since we've gotten any new members after the last time we lost one, so let's try our best this time."

The fanatical leaders in the corridor immediately dispersed.

Soon, only the fanatical leader, muttering to himself, remained in the corridor.

As they listened to its murmurs, some fanatical leaders felt a strange itch in their hearts, like a gentle breeze rippling across a long-silent lake...

……

May 11, X023, 22:33, Art Building Corridor, behind the iron gate.

There was no sign of any disturbance in the space, but Lin Yi (Mao Feiyang), whose appearance was completely different from the environment behind the iron gate, crawled out in a noodle-like shape, and then returned to a normal human form after completely crawling through the crack in the door.

"Alright... all done, Maozi, I'm handing control of the body back to you." Lin Yi said softly, then exited the "driving" mode, while Mao Feiyang smoothly "got on" and stretched his body to loosen up his muscles.

"You know what...you really don't know," Mao Feiyang clicked his tongue, "how did you come up with the idea of ​​stretching yourself into a noodle?"

Lin Yi curled his lip: "Isn't it just a kind of expressiveness on a layer?"

Mao Feiyang chuckled and said, "Old Lin's progress is indeed rapid. It seems our success rate is very high this time."

Tian Bufan said, "Let's hurry up and set off. At this time, Kuai Kuai should be heading to the dormitory manager's office as well."

"There's plenty of time. Even the dorm supervisor can only come here after midnight," Mao Feiyang said, but his expression was anything but relaxed.

Lin Yi quickly glanced at his watch.

22: 34.

Kuai Hongji's side has indeed begun to take action.

Lin Yi stopped thinking about it and glanced at the scene behind the iron gate.

Two canyon-like passageways formed by pitted rock walls rise abruptly, their surfaces covered with wind-eroded patterns, and at their narrowest point, they are less than three meters wide.

In the middle of the passage, a sloping stone staircase winds upwards like a snake's spine, its body embedded between the cliffs, forming a depressing "skyline" landscape.

Several candlesticks hung from rock nails on both sides of the stone steps, their dim light swaying violently in the sea breeze that swept through the room, casting distorted, serpentine shadows onto the pitted and uneven textures on the walls.

At the end of the stone steps, a misty white light seeped down from the top, like the mist of a waterfall, vaguely outlining a realm of stargazing, as if passing through this light and mist would lead to a suspended realm—yes, behind that misty gate was indeed the observatory.

Previously, when Lin Yi used his ideology to penetrate this place with the help of the energy waves from the quantum giant clock "Sanctuary", he overlooked or subconsciously failed to observe many details. Therefore, as Mao Feiyang stepped onto the stone steps, Lin Yi also focused his attention on the surrounding stone walls.

There were countless secret symbols on the stone wall. At first glance, Lin Yi thought that the "first apostle" had carved an article here, but after looking at it for a while, he gradually realized that it was not what he thought.

The cryptic symbols on the stone wall are of varying sizes and levels, not like uniform carvings, but more like random engravings. In terms of regularity, the cryptic symbols on the inner wall of the bell tower are more like a real article.

He then asked, "Do you know what these cryptic symbols are?"

"Part of it is a draft, and part of it is the final version." Before Mao Feiyang could say anything, Tian Bufan's voice rang out.

"Drafting on a rock? Isn't that a huge waste?" Lin Yi was very puzzled.

Drafting is for convenience; after all, you're a sculptor, aren't you?
Tian Bufan said, "It's not the kind of draft you think it is. The observatory in front is where the first group of 'Apostles' wandered the sea of ​​stars and observed the constellations. Although the study of esoteric patterns and astrology were created by 'astrologers' after they found patterns and discovered esoteric patterns in the stars, it doesn't mean that she did it all by herself."

"The symbols you see on the stone wall are the star trails traced by the 'astrologers' and other apostles. Some trails are valid, and some are invalid... The observation of the stars, like the constellations and celestial bodies you know now, cannot be formed by simply grouping a few random stars together."

"Therefore, the drafts on the stone wall are a kind of visual exploration process."

"There are successes, failures, and those still on their way..."

What you see is not a jumble of symbols, but the path they came from.

Tian Bufan's voice resounded in Lin Yi's heart like a great bell, making him feel a jolt.

"The way we came..." He squinted, lost in thought.

(End of this chapter)