That night, Shen En didn't sleep. Instead, he huddled under his covers, beginning to study Su Sui's bracelet.
First, this silver bracelet was given to Su Sui by her mother in his previous life.
Her mother said it was passed down from her great-grandmother, who had received it from her great-great-grandmother.
Each generation would engrave characters inside the bracelet, then fill them in when passing it to the next generation.
Her mother also said that their ancestors were not originally from Chengdu, but from Luoxian County, Guanghan Commandery, which is now Guanghan City, Sichuan.
"The bracelet body winds like a bronze star river, with nine divine tree patterns carved on its surface. The branches are gnarled like coiling dragons and snakes, and the nine silver suns at the ends display sunburst patterns through micro-carving."
This was the description passed down by their ancestors.
In 2019, when more sacrificial pits were discovered at Sanxingdui, Su Sui felt that this bracelet was very, very similar to the items found there and even asked if they should turn it over to the state.
Shen En stopped her at the time.
He felt that it had been passed down for 3,000 years, and the silver bracelet had been repaired and mended, inscribed and filled in by various ancestors, long becoming like the Ship of Theseus; apart from the similar patterns, it was no longer the original artifact.
Why turn it in?
Keeping it as a memento for the family was enough, and it could continue to be passed down.
Shen En had always felt that this bracelet was quite good and mysterious, but how could this thing be here now?
He looked left and right, but still couldn't make heads or tails of it.
It seemed to be just an ordinary bracelet.
But a few days ago, when that old man Horn used his detection magic on him, this thing did indeed work.
And he could indeed see the flow of magic through this bracelet.
Could it be... that it needs magic to activate?
The method for sensing magic...
He remembered old man Horn saying it could be felt by meditating...
This was also the method he used when writing the protagonist.
To meditate on the flow of magic within the body.
Shen En tried to meditate for a bit.
Damn it!
How am I supposed to feel this?!
Shen En was just a writer; he didn't know!
Moreover, he had only recently learned that this was the world of the magic codex. There was no magic in the small territory, and commoners didn't even know about magic, only thinking it was a miracle. He hadn't read a single book about magic.
How about, try again?
Shen En sat cross-legged on the bed, closed his eyes, and began to meditate.
Meditate... meditate...
He remembered in the setting, magic was inside the human body, flowing through all blood vessels, concentrated in the abdomen, concentrated in the abdomen...
......
"Feel the flow... feel what?!"
After sitting for several hours, Shen En was tired and quite disheartened, but he didn't give up.
He slept soundly, and the next day, after learning baking with his mother and little Annie, he ran to ask his father about magic.
His father didn't understand the ways of a mage, so he told him to go to the guest room and ask old man Horn, who was temporarily staying there.
Shen En had joked with Horn face-to-face.
If it were an ordinary person, they would certainly be too embarrassed to go to him, and he wouldn't give them a good look either.
But Shen En was a child, so he had to be shameless and ask.
Learning magic is not shameful.
Fortunately, Horn didn't hold a grudge against him for the previous incident. He was bored of meditating with nothing to do, and seeing someone diligent and eager to learn, and also talented, he gave him a few pointers.
After getting the information, Shen En went back to meditate and feel again.
The third day, the fourth day, the fifth, sixth, seventh...
Anyway, every day, besides learning baking, Shen En dedicated the rest of his time to this thing.
He hadn't interacted much with his younger sister these past two days.
Finally, on the second Sunday, he felt it.
The so-called flow of magic.
It spread throughout his body along his blood vessels and meridians.
A warm, gentle feeling, very harmonious.
"It actually worked!"
But in Shen En's perception, the magic in his body was like a single thread.
It must be because he was too young.
He truly regretted not writing more backdoors, which meant he had to proceed step by step.
But having it is better than not having it, right?
Shen En slowly tried to control it, but suddenly remembered his own setting—outputting magic externally required a magic circle or a magic staff as a medium.
He didn't have a staff, and as a writer, he certainly wouldn't know how to create a magic circle.
He could only go and ask old man Horn again.
.......
Shen En went to ask him almost every other day, disturbing his meditation and making it impossible for him to concentrate.
And Shen En was still a child, not understanding what a suitable time was, so Horn truly couldn't argue with him.
Eventually, he was so annoyed by the constant questions that he casually gave Shen En a few magic books.
These were basic theories he had personally written on the spot using magic.
Things like "Elemental Affinity," "Spell Construction," "Magic Threshold," and so on...
Shen En's impression of the old man improved quite a bit.
He devoured these things with insatiable hunger.
Unfortunately, there were no spells, only basic instruction.
And this stuff was as difficult as advanced calculus.
He frowned as he flipped through them. To avoid making the old man suspicious and focusing on the bracelet, he pieced together information and forced himself to interpret it for a month, finally understanding how to set up a pure magic output array.
He also calculated the magic output limit of the array based on his age, to prevent the array from directly draining him and making him faint for ten days to half a month.
Finally, after two months of research, Shen En succeeded.
"Done!"
Shen En looked at the masterpiece of the array on the attic floor with great satisfaction.
He felt that he was indeed a genius.
The array was rhomboid in shape.
He was at one end, as the source of output.
The bracelet was placed at the other end, as the magic reception point.
The rhomboid lines, and the very center of the array, were densely covered with the magical script of this world.
......
After placing the bracelet, Shen En sat on the "source point," placing his hands on the output runes on either side.
He closed his eyes and slowly guided the magic within his body towards his hands.
As soon as his palms touched the runes, he felt countless ants crawling out of his fingertips and into his blood vessels.
The attic floor suddenly emitted a humming sound, like a purple mood.
This meant he hadn't made a mistake.
Shen En continued to persevere.
Soon, the magic flowed from his palms into the array.
The characters and runes above began to glow, began to shine.
The silver bracelet in front, with the injection of magic, slowly brightened, turned red, and ascended into the air.
A chilling shiver suddenly ran up his spine to the back of his neck.
Shen En gritted his teeth, continuing to slowly inject that thread-like wisp of magic from his body into the array—
The magic slowly climbed upward like lava, filling the patterns above, making the entire structure increasingly bright.
Until the bracelet suddenly burst forth with dazzling light, illuminating the entire attic as if it were daytime.
"What?!"
Shen En instinctively opened his eyes, but the moment his eyelids parted, he felt his soul being abruptly pulled into the void by some force.
Chaos, weightlessness, boundless darkness.
The next instant—
Tens of millions of stars exploded before his eyes. He floated in the vast universe, with stars scattered like shattered diamonds on a velvet-like night sky, and nebulae swirling with colorful iridescence!
In the distance, a dying star collapsed into a black hole, greedily devouring the surrounding light, then erupting in a dazzling, extreme burst of brilliance at the edge of the event horizon.
"......!"
Shen En's breathing stopped.
He didn't understand what this was.
Or where he was.
The end of the universe?
He was still a little scared, an instinctive fear arising from his body's inability to comprehend the current situation.
Looking out, he saw no end, an absolute abyss.
Suddenly, all the starlight extinguished simultaneously.
In the absolute darkness, a pair of golden-red vertical pupils lay horizontally, each blood vessel flowing with a lava-like luster.
Dragon!
A giant dragon, long enough to coil around a star, lay coiled in the center of the void. Its scales were solidified stardust, and its dragon Horns wound like galactic spiral arms.
At the mere moment their gazes met, Shen En felt his mind erupt in an unbearable disarray, and he immediately vomited.
After he finally managed to adapt to this dizzying sensation, he quickly realized.
That dragon... was dead.
The so-called meeting of gazes was merely the blind, open eyes of this giant dragon.
Shen En raised his head, his gaze fixed on the dead dragon lying horizontally in the void in the distance. The more he stared at its eyes, at its massive, star-like silver-white body... the more Shen En connected it to one thing—the Dragon God, Erebus Omgar.
It was the giant dragon he had created, the Dragon God that was besieged and killed by Emperor Iron Dome a thousand years ago.
How could this thing die here?
And what was its connection to Su Sui's bracelet?
Shen En then looked below the Dragon God.
Below...
It looked like a planet.
A blue planet.
The silver bracelet vibrated in the void, and Shen En's consciousness seemed to be pulled by invisible threads, his gaze piercing through the gaps of the Dragon God's remains and falling towards the azure planet.
As his vision zoomed in, his pupils contracted—
That didn't seem to be the Earth he knew.
Instead, it was the world of the magic codex.
Broken continental plates floated on the sea, with crystal cluster-like magic veins growing beneath each landmass.
Crimson magma rivers surged through the gaps between the plates, and countless runes condensed in the rising mist... The entire world was exposed before his eyes at this moment.
The Empire of the Central Plains, the Kingdom in the East, the Federation in the West, the frigid lands of the North...
What did this thing represent?
Everything in the world?
This reminded Shen En of the ability the Dragon God possessed—"Cosmic Reconstruction."
Based on this ability, the Dragon God could deconstruct and transform all things.
Just as Shen En was racking his brain, he suddenly noticed a peculiar mist flickering on the planet.
He wanted to peer into it, only to see an extremely emaciated old man suddenly widen his eyes at him.
How should this expression be described?
Surprise? Excitement? Disbelief?!
In any case, it was as if the most fervent religious believer had personally witnessed God.
Shen En met his gaze for a second, and the old man seemed so excited that he wanted to say something to himself, even reaching out his withered hand towards him, but at this moment, his head suddenly spun, and his entire mind was stripped from this part of the universe.
His vision returned to the attic in his home.
"Puhaha...!"
The moment he returned, he immediately vomited.
His heart accelerated, his breathing became more rapid, his entire body began to redden and cramp, and his head felt dizzy as if a muffled thunderclap had exploded.
He rested for about an hour.
Shen En finally recovered.
He gasped, still feeling lingering fear from the sensation just now.
He lowered his head and looked at the bracelet, which was now back in his hand.
He finally understood why he had suddenly returned.
Not enough magic...
He had almost drained all of his magic just now.
Could it be that this Dragon God brought him to this world?
Shen En didn't know whether to laugh or cry, feeling that his idea was absurd for a moment.
Something he wrote brought him into the world of the book.
What kind of development was this?
Was he going to be taken as a wife by the Dragon God?
This world was indeed his creation, but it was more complete than what he had written.
This world automatically filled in things he had never set.
So what exactly was the origin of his bracelet?
And who was that old man he saw just now?
"......"
Shen En racked his brain but couldn't find an answer.
There were too many questions.
After wasting a few hours, Shen En felt there was no need to continue thinking.
The most important goal at hand was still to learn magic, accumulate strength, and prepare for 14 years later.
This bracelet seemed to only absorb magic and grant magic vision.
Other than that... it didn't seem to have any other functions.
It was a bit of a shame, to finally have a treasure related to the Dragon God.
He just felt a bit thirsty now and wanted to drink water.
Just as Shen En was about to get up and go downstairs, his hand pressed on the floor, and the wooden board surprisingly rippled strangely.
He recoiled as if shocked by electricity, but saw the wood fibers rapidly decomposing from the point of his fingertip contact—not burning, not corroding, but the purest "transformation."
The wooden board collapsed into a transparent liquid under the moonlight, flowing gently through the floor cracks, even emitting the fresh scent of spring water.
"This...?"
Shen En's eyes widened, looking at his right hand in disbelief.
Could this be... the Dragon God's skill?!
......
At the same time, in the unclaimed land at the border between the Empire and the Kingdom.
Abyssal Vein.
This was a relic left from the Third Era, nearly eight thousand years ago.
The abyss walls were as steep as knives, rumored to be carved by a god's great axe, and now, scattered above, hung bronze sarcophagi, each wrapped in thick iron chains, their surfaces covered with twisted runes, with occasional black mist seeping from the cracks, flowing down the chains, and finally merging into the endless darkness at the bottom of the abyss.
And at the very bottom of these things, in the black mist-shrouded area, there was an inverted church.
In the center of the church, ten shattered angel statues were half-buried in the rocky ground, their broken wings and severed limbs intertwined, with a Red-robed Cardinal seated in the very middle, all other seats empty, appearing extremely eerie and solemn.
"Akamatoth... Nergos..."
Three thousand black-robed followers touched their foreheads to the ground, chanting dream-like incantations from beneath their tattered hoods. Their exposed backs were covered with wriggling runes, and each time the chanting intensified, those tadpole-shaped characters would emerge from their pores, gathering into black streams in the air, gradually winding their way into the magic crystal at the center of the altar.
Upon closer inspection, within that magic crystal, there was a huge Dragon Egg.
The floating black crystal suddenly erupted with dazzling blood-red light.
"The Dragon God's aura!" A priest suddenly looked up, joy flashing in his cloudy eyes.
Not only him, but the black-robed followers became even more restless.
From the high altar, the Red-robed Cardinal, seated on the main angel statue, slowly raised his hand.
"Quiet."
A hoarse voice echoed through the dome.
"Are you sure?" Another priest asked, frowning.
"One hundred percent certain!" The old priest rasped, "This aura... it's pure, something no ordinary relic could possess!"
"Check the map, confirm the location," the Red-robed Cardinal instructed.
"Roughly found it."
"Speak."
"It's in the lower reaches of the Empire's eastern border, about half a year's journey from us."
"That close? Is there any threat?"
Another priest said, "Recently, the Empire's Church and the Arcane Tower have begun to track our movements, making it difficult for ordinary followers to remain hidden. Seven days ago, an Apostle squad belonging to Putridus lost contact in a nearby location, so it's likely someone has their eyes on that relic."
"Hmm."
The Red-robed Cardinal in the middle fell silent, and the surrounding priests entered into discussion.
"It seems the plan needs to be moved up."
"We can contact the Fourth Prince of the Empire in advance."
"We still need time! We can't emerge now! The rash action seven days ago already alerted them!"
"It would be most appropriate to gradually enter Imperial territory three years from now."
"There's no need to rush too much, it's just a Corpse Demon, and those guys in the Magic Council won't figure anything out. We've already obtained the Dragon Egg, what we need now is time, opportunity, and more of the Dragon God's relics."
"Tess." The Red-robed Cardinal, who had been silent, suddenly called out.
"......"
There was silence in the void, no one answered.
"Tess." The Red-robed Cardinal called out again.
After a long time, a figure slowly emerged from the shadows. A white-haired girl with long ears rubbed her sleepy eyes, appearing with a hint of laziness.
"Ha~~ I was still sleeping, why did you call me again?"
She yawned, her voice soft but with a hint of wildness, and despite her sleepy expression, an innate bewitching aura was hard to conceal.
The white-haired girl wore a form-fitting black dress, her bare feet lightly stepping, as she casually walked up the stairs flowing with cursed blood.
The black dress swayed slightly with her steps, and behind her, three thousand prostrate followers held their breath, not daring to look up directly, yet unable to resist the invisible aura.
The girl stood on the high platform, stretching lazily, her posture languid and elegant, like a spiritual cat just waking up...
She slowly opened her eyes, revealing a pair of blood-red, reptilian vertical pupils.
Her entire demeanor suddenly changed.
Cold, profound, with the predatory pressure of a beast...
The girl's terrifying gaze swept over the three thousand newly initiated followers and the empty spaces on the nine broken angel statues.
Finally, her gaze settled on the violently trembling Dragon Egg.
......
(PS: Tess's character design image)
