Chapter 64 – The Dragon and the Deer!
"Let's begin."
Jiang Zhe was the first to deploy his lightning domain, serpents of electricity writhing around him.
His silver-robed clone followed immediately, unleashing a heavy, oppressive domain of earth. Within it, black currents churned ceaselessly.
Though belonging to different entities and embodying different elements, their domains did not clash, collide, or repel each other. Instead, they fused together in a strange, layered union.
Under Jiang Zhe's deliberate control, a hemispherical area with a radius of 50 meters took shape. Within it, purple intertwined with black, electric serpents danced alongside shadowy currents.
Spatial and temporal laws simultaneously merged into this domain, creating an interplay of ethereal drift and rigid stagnation.
The complexity within this modest half-sphere was enough to make even the proudest geniuses of the Genius War question their very existence.
According to the original timeline, it was precisely such a domain—infused with the spatial laws of earth—that would defeat Luo Feng, who was then at his peak momentum.
Yet Jiang Zhe, with his extraordinary insight, easily integrated both space and time laws into his domain.
His craving for the Beast God's Path was well-founded.
Though certain affinities for laws were temporarily suppressed, their influence was never truly gone—they always lingered beneath the surface.
For example, his exceptionally clear perception of time and space laws, and his knack for fusing laws...
True Gods, Void True Gods, Eternal True Gods, and even Chaos Dominators—these later stages all revolved around the art of law fusion, ultimately seeking to unite ten into one and recreate the chaos laws.
The Beast God's Path was the grand avenue of cultivation, not to be missed.
Once the domain was established, Jiang Zhe focused his spiritual force on the pristine copper furnace lid.
"Up!"
He gave a forceful lift.
Countless tiny metal slivers, each no larger than a sesame seed and thin as cicada wings, rose from the lid into the air.
They fell into the dance of electric serpents and shadowy currents, subjected over and over to alternating attacks by laws of earth-space and lightning-time.
Jiang Zhe was patient. He quietly waited for the change.
Roughly ten breaths later—perhaps sufficiently stimulated by these four types of laws—the intricate patterns on the backs of these slivers began to glow faintly, exuding a subtle, mysterious meaning.
Drawing on his profound comprehension of lightning and time laws, Jiang Zhe began picking out the pieces that resonated with him.
There were 10,081 slivers in total, all of identical shape, enough to assemble eight full images.
But the eight layers on the furnace lid had been scrambled—none were in proper order.
With a thought, Jiang Zhe separated 5,040 slivers to his side. The silver-robed clone was left with 5,041.
However, the clone only frowned, unmoving.
Jiang Zhe, busy categorizing, failed to notice this anomaly right away.
As he delved deeper, he perceived subtle differences in the auras of these 5,040 pieces.
Under the faint pulses of light from the patterns—like the rhythm of a heartbeat—he tuned in to their beat.
Gradually, he discerned distinct emotional impressions emanating from them.
Majesty!
Rage!
Tranquility!
Joy!
Following these four emotional traces, he divided the slivers into four piles, each with precisely 1,260 pieces. This was the correct combination to form four complete images.
Jiang Zhe focused on one pile.
He felt the resonance with the lightning and time laws, along with these varied emotional undercurrents, discerning the laws hidden within the patterns on each sliver.
With his mind's power, he began piecing them together.
At first it was slow, painstaking work.
But as larger sections formed, the pace quickened.
In under ten minutes, he had assembled a metal plate about the size of a palm.
On it was an image.
Intricate lines formed a majestic dragon-like humanoid beast.
It sat cross-legged, clawed hands resting on its knees, its fierce face composed and solemn—like a mythical Buddha.
A serene aura radiated from it.
Its dragon horns, scales, and tail were rendered so vividly one could even make out the runes etched upon them.
Jiang Zhe's heart trembled. He thought of the secret rune diagrams in the general outline of The Beast God's Hand.
Though still blurry, he could faintly sense that this was indeed a dragonman, suspended in the void, reaching out with a pointing finger.
"The Beast God!"
"Just like that giant lizard slain in the Bloodfall World—the Lightning Beast God also had the form of a dragonman?"
"Makes sense. Golden Horned Beasts and lizards are roughly comparable in form—four-legged, horned... while the Destruction Beasts evolved into more ape-like humanoids."
He continued piecing together the puzzles.
With the first complete image as a guide and now aware of the general motif, the rest came together much faster.
In less than twenty minutes, he completed the remaining three pictures.
He arranged all four side by side.
The first image conveyed tranquility: a dragonman seated cross-legged.
The second, majesty: the dragonman standing tall.
The third, fury: the dragonman launching an attack.
The fourth, joy: the dragonman dancing exuberantly.
Examining them, Jiang Zhe frowned.
"Something's missing—each image has a blank spot at the dragonman's chest."
Sure enough.
Each gap measured exactly 3 mm by 2 mm—the size of one metal sliver. Only by filling them would the patterns be complete.
"1,260 pieces... 5,040 pieces... 10,081 pieces… forming eight images, which leaves exactly one piece extra. Over on your side—"
Jiang Zhe looked up, meeting the eyes of his silver-robed clone.
Floating in front of the clone was still an unorganized cluster of metal slivers. It was painfully obvious.
He was just about to ask, "How's it going on your end?"
But then he realized—
"Bro... you're slacking off, huh?"
Truthfully, he didn't even need the clone to explain. As soon as their eyes met, he understood.
"Attribute mismatch?"
"You can only sense resonance with space laws, nothing else?"
Jiang Zhe, who had been working in a frenzy, now felt as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped on him.
"Is it metal? Or wood?"
The silver-robed clone had four law affinities and had even developed a domain, with the earth domain being the most profound.
But among the spatial lineages, it was precisely metal and wood that he lacked.
This time, he had simply run into his blind spot.
Not only did he need these two specific domains, he also required sufficiently deep law comprehension to sort the remaining 5,040 pieces and reconstruct the emotional puzzles.
"Sigh... go start delving into these two domains first."
"Once we figure out the attribute, then we can tackle the law comprehension problem."
So the clone went off to a corner of the hall to meditate on metal and wood laws.
Meanwhile, Jiang Zhe sat by the workbench to study the lightning law tablets.
Three days later, they finally confirmed it: the attribute was wood, and the remaining four images likely depicted the wood beast god.
To complete the puzzle, he would now need to master the wood laws.
Even just the "lock" outside the copper furnace had already required such an elaborate process. Jiang Zhe couldn't help growing curious about the treasures sealed within the white crystal core.
He contacted "Qiwuzhai" on Qiu Long Star, asking them to find powerful biological tissues with strong wood law affinity, ideally possessing innate secret techniques.
His ideal target was naturally a starry sky behemoth aligned with wood.
But Jiang Zhe understood this was a rare stroke of luck. Though he could afford it, starry sky behemoths were so scarce that even some undying deities never saw one in their lifetimes.
Like his teacher, Hu Yanbo.
Half a month later, Jiang Zhe traveled to Bailan Star to receive a specimen far beyond his expectations.
On the way back, he handed it to the silver-robed clone to analyze using Life Dominator, then reconstruct it into a complete living form.
Seeing the creature lying on the wasteland, Jiang Zhe fell silent.
It had stout limbs, more like a crouching bear than a frog, and looked rather clumsy.
Its blue-green skin was dotted with sparse warts, and it stretched nearly 300 meters long. On its back sat an enormous flower bud shaped like a crown, on the verge of blooming.
This was a special lifeform—a child of wood laws—called the Crowned Bud Green Toad.
No information had been provided about its genetic level, but the clone measured it: 36 times baseline, along with a fairly modest innate secret technique.
Adopting the Crowned Bud Green Toad form, drawing on its affinity with wood laws, the clone threw himself into comprehending the wood source laws.
Three months later.
June 2051.
Their wood law comprehension reached the threshold, and the remaining four images were completed.
"So the wood beast god... is a deer?"
Jiang Zhe murmured softly, slotting the final leftover metal piece into the chest of the lightning beast god seated in meditation.
As the runes completed, a faint pressure spread outward.
The dragonman on the metal plate now looked vivid and lifelike, yet Jiang Zhe was dissatisfied, frowning slightly.
He inwardly grumbled:
"This image... even without having seen it myself, I'd bet it can't compare to that great beast god statue in the Rasao World!"
"No, it doesn't even match the censored rune diagram in the general outline. It lacks that special aura."
"Oh well... this was just the lock outside the furnace. How could I expect it to be some peerless divine manual?"
Jiang Zhe shook his head with a laugh.
With a thought, he placed the eight completed images back onto the furnace lid.
A faint, ghostly light swept across, activating the intricate runes on the furnace. Rust flaked off, falling to the ground, leaving the furnace pristine once more.
Clack!
The mechanism engaged, and the lid sprang open.
(End of the chapter.)