eurekapd Chapter 1088 features a bottomless pool called Guixu Pool.
Chapter 1088 features a bottomless pool called Guixu Pool.
In the deep sea.
A pair of eerie purple eyes slowly opened, filled with icy killing intent, gazing at this devastated land, seemingly brewing an even greater conspiracy.
Su Xiaoya and her two companions had just entered the secret realm when they encountered a fragment of time, and naturally they were eager to fight it out.
However, before the three of them could make a move, they were greeted by the night of the full moon.
The three stared blankly at the full moon hanging high in the night sky, inwardly cursing – this weather changes so fast!
Midday on the moon.
child time.
On the ground, a bottomless pool called "Guixu Pool" suddenly appears, like an eye of the earth, deep and mysterious.
The water in the pool moves on its own even without wind; the ripples do not spread outwards, but rather spiral downwards towards the center like a whirlpool.
In a short while, the pool water became transparent, like a mirror, clearly reflecting the sky.
At first glance, the bottom of the pool is not silt, but an inverted, glittering starry sky, as dazzling as a gemstone.
Immediately afterwards, the starry sky began to spin like a top, spinning faster and faster, until it finally transformed into a pillar of light that shot straight into the sky.
When the beam of light touched the enormous, blood-red full moon in the sky, the incredible "grafting" was completed—the moonlight was no longer a cold light, but a viscous, honey-like liquid entity flowing with tiny runes, cascading down the beam of light and pouring into the pool like a waterfall.
The pool water surged as if boiling, but there was no heat at all. Instead, it exuded the chilling cold of ancient ice, like millennia-old iron, icy and bone-chilling.
A staircase entirely constructed of solidified moonlight rises slowly from the bottom of the pool, each step exquisite and translucent, as clear as crystal.
Inside, shadows of various shapes are frozen in time—there are winged flying snakes, human figures with bowed heads, and even the silhouette of an entire miniature palace. They are like sleeping spirits, waiting to be awakened.
The sensation beneath your feet isn't tangible; it's more like stepping on the strings of time, each step stirring up a silent tremor, as melodious as heavenly music.
The surrounding scenery distorts and rewinds, as if time is flowing backward:
On the stone wall beside me, the moss, like a shy maiden, slowly retracted its spores;
The rock strata, like a sharp sword, have regained their former sharpness;
Further away, a "Dragon Blood Ancient Fir" that had been dead for three thousand years was growing in reverse, rapidly returning from charred remains to lush greenery, with unrecorded flower buds even forming on its branches, like a sleeping beauty gradually awakening.
……
At the end of the stairs stood a mysterious doorway, quietly unnoticed.
That door, neither gold nor wood, was made of a material that resembled warm, lustrous jade, or fresh, vibrant skin, its surface undulating with a slow pulse, as if it possessed the rhythm of life.
The door knocker is made of two intertwined dragons, their eyes hollow like the deep night sky, inspiring awe.
As Su Xiaoya approached, silver "tears" simultaneously flowed from the four empty eye sockets—liquid moonlight, flowing like the Milky Way.
Tears dripped onto the door panel, meandering in strange patterns, eventually piecing together an ancient prophecy with ever-changing characters: "Only those who have seen all impermanence can see the true constancy; only those who are immersed in time can transcend time."
Su Xiaoya's eyes flickered slightly, and a realization flashed through her mind.
Only those who have experienced all impermanence can see the true constancy.
Only by experiencing and thoroughly understanding the impermanence of life and the world—the constant changes, the rise and fall, the separation of life and death—can one perceive the true constancy that transcends change—the constant law, essence, and original heart.
Those who are immersed in time, or those who traverse time.
Only those who have long been immersed in the flow of time and life, and who have a sufficient understanding and capacity to bear the changes in people and themselves, are able to "cross over" time—not to stop time, but to stabilize their mind and body in the flow of time, to transcend the manipulation of gains and losses and joys and sorrows, and to calmly traverse the ups and downs of life—to cross over, to cross over peacefully, and to reconcile with themselves.
Taking a deep breath, Su Xiaoya reached out and pushed the door open. Just as her fingertips touched the door, it slid open silently, as if an ancient secret was being gently unveiled.
Inside the gate, there was neither a palace nor a cave, but a breathtakingly quiet "Garden of Nothingness," like the heart of the universe, serene and mysterious.
There is no distinction between up, down, left, or right here; only a clear spring floats in the center. The spring water reflects not the moon at this moment, but the crescent moon, the new moon, and even countless overlapping and intertwined phases of the moon, like a magnificent and colorful painting, breathtakingly beautiful.
At the edge of the spring, grows a crystal-clear tree, its branches and leaves like solidified halos of light, resembling dazzling stars. Only three fruits grow on the tree:
A flame enveloping everything, like a burning passion;
A nebula with a rotating interior, as if the mysteries of the universe flow within it;
In the final moments, a miniature city-state comes into view, bustling with activity and people coming and going, lifelike, like a miniature version of the world.
The most bizarre thing is the courtyard's "walls," which are made up of countless floating mirror fragments, like a giant mirror reflecting countless versions of oneself.
Each piece reflects Su Xiaoya in different moments of time:
Some scenes depict a future that has not yet occurred, where she is engaged in fierce battles with hideous monsters, as if enacting a thrilling adventure;
Some fragments are from the past, where she was held up by a pair of scaly hands while still an infant, hands that seemed to be messengers of fate.
More than anything, she faced completely unfamiliar life scenarios, like branches of a trillion possibilities, a vibrant jigsaw puzzle waiting for her to piece together...
Su Xiaoya stepped lightly towards the clear spring, the water's surface like a mirror, clearly reflecting her curious face.
She gazed at the water, and time seemed to stand still.
In just three breaths, that face began to undergo a strange transformation—first it gradually aged, then it reverted to youthful innocence, and finally it solidified into a completely unfamiliar, handsome man with a crescent moon mark between his brows, smiling slightly at her as if telling her some secret.
A voice, neither male nor female, echoed softly in my mind: "What you chose—the fruit, the spring water, or one of the myriad things reflected in the mirror?"
Su Xiaoya did not answer immediately.
She looked around at this bizarre place that defied common sense, and understood that the real secret realm was not just a place of hidden treasure, but a crack revealed by the laws of the universe, a vast and silent question about "choice" and "existence" itself, like a mysterious riddle waiting for her to unravel.
Liquid moonlight slowly rose from the steps behind her, like a reversed Milky Way, radiating a mesmerizing glow.
Three hours passed silently, like an invisible torrent.
Every second, the laws here are altering the gravity of reality, like the breath of the universe, gently blowing by.
She knew that when the moonlight faded, the secret realm would fold up again, like a sleeping giant sinking into the abyss of time, awaiting the arrival of the next hundred-year blood moon.
Her answer will determine her fate: whether she becomes a new shadow, sealed in the staircase, and forever asleep; or whether she takes away a "seed" that could disturb all the heavens and the world, and shines with her own light.