Chapter 1163
Hammer and Anvil
Chapter 1163 Hammer and Anvil — (Additional content included, please refresh the page)
When that bubble of worlds completely enveloped Xia Xiu, he felt as if he were being pushed, drawn away, and had his consciousness and perception reset by a warm and hidden torrent of energy. When he opened his eyes again, his vision was filled with an unfamiliar blue and gold.
Beneath my feet lies fine, warm sand, and ahead stretches an endless coastline. The seawater gleams with a deep blue and turquoise hue under the sunlight, and the waves gently surge on the beach, carrying a thin layer of white foam that meanders along the shore.
beach?
Xia Xiu frowned, his right hand lightly tapping the still-unstable World Bubble on his chest, his gaze slowly sweeping across the beach before him, which seemed real yet unfamiliar:
"here it is……"
His voice was low and calm, yet carried a clear question.
The sand made a slight rubbing sound underfoot. This texture was neither as soft as the beach in the ordinary world, nor as ethereal as the sand in a dream. It had real weight, yet at every point of contact, it carried an indescribable, subtle electric sensation.
His great spirituality scanned the area briefly and quickly concluded that the beach was composed of some kind of unknown metallic particles.
The coastline stretches northward, where a greyish-brown cliff rises in the distance. Composed of silicate rock, its edges are rugged from years of erosion by tides and wind, yet this roughness creates a discordant yet harmonious contrast with the beach. Below the cliff, caves cast deep shadows in the sunlight, seemingly leading to another unknown level.
Xia Xiu looked down at the sand beneath his feet, where tiny, gleaming metallic particles shimmered with a cold light in the sunlight. Whenever the tide receded, these charged particles would react slightly with the salt in the air, emitting a faint static glow, as if silently hinting that some power beyond the laws of nature lurked on this coastline.
Xia Xiu slowly raised his gaze and looked at the seemingly calm sea.
Waves crashed against the shore, occasionally scooping up oddly shaped rocks or debris. These debris did not seem to be naturally formed: some had intricate structures that defied logic, some had hidden patterns embedded in metal pieces, and some even bore traces of carving.
Xia Xiu withdrew his gaze, took a soft breath, and slowly turned his eyes to the cliff cave where a faint light was gradually accumulating.
The cave, nestled between the sea breeze and the sound of the tide, appears deep and solemn, like a folded opening where countless hidden fragments of the world once anchored.
He could sense it—that was the location of the component of the Son of God, Calonmaseld.
Stepping onto the sand covered with magnetic particles, Xia Xiu slowly walked out.
With each step he took, the sand sank slightly before bouncing back steadily. Each vibration seemed to echo the world bubble and domain power within him, which were not yet fully integrated. He could feel the remnants of the shattered god's soul resonating silently with his own domain power in this space. This beach was like a folded side of the world, belonging both to the boundless reality and to the possible fissures beyond the defined hierarchy.
Soon, he arrived inside the cave.
The cave entrance is deeper and darker than the surrounding cliffs. As the light penetrates, it carries a dappled rhythm, reflecting on the damp rock walls like countless fragments of memory washed away by the tide.
Xia Xiu moved forward steadily, his vision gradually adjusting to the darkness.
Not long after he ventured deeper into the cave, his gaze fell upon a string of characters on the rock wall—characters that emitted a faint glow, seemingly vibrating quietly along with the air and rock dust within the cave.
It was a very ancient text, which appeared both mysterious and had a religious allegorical quality.
He walked slowly closer, his gaze sweeping over the words:
"The boy and his people looked out to the sea and saw God himself raining down fire upon them."
God said to the boy, 'This is my workshop, where I will create countless miracles.'
Lightning is my hammer, the earth is my anvil, and the sand is my ingot.
'Come, boy, into my workshop.' So the boy stepped forward, leaving his people behind.
The boy's people were deeply saddened, believing he had died. They had not heard God like the boy.
On the anvil of God, the boy stretched out his arms and prayed to the heavens.
'God! I am here! Show me your miracles!'
God did it.
He smashed the hammer into the boy, tearing him to pieces.
He is now broken, just like God.
But the boy did not die.
He became the first son of God, and was forever marked.
The mark is not visible to the eye.
It resides in my heart.
The mark is God's blueprint.
But this was only part of the true blueprint, though he knew that one day it would strike flesh and blood.
The boy cried out to his people, ‘Come, witness the miracle of God! Let Him strike you on the anvil, and you will be forged anew.’
Then his people also saw the power of God.
Xia Xiu slowly raised his eyes, his gaze falling on the words of the allegory. Unconsciously, he began to deconstruct and reconstruct those seemingly absurd yet symbolic words.
He murmured softly to himself, as if conversing with himself, yet also confronting the hidden rules remaining in the space:
"Lightning is my hammer, the earth is my anvil, and the sand is my ingot..."
"Is this the scene of the Shattered God forging the Son of God? On the beach?"
He brought the allegory into reality, relating it to the almost brutally real beach before him. Here, the sand, the cliffs, the tides, the caves—everything seemed extraordinary under the shadow of that mysterious text.
He continued his analysis:
"Lightning is the hammer—symbolizing divine judgment and the reconstruction of power. The earth is the anvil—symbolizing the forging of the essence of reality. Sand is the ingot—symbolizing the ingot-like state of information and existence."
In his mind, this sentence seemed to map out countless layers of logical coordinates:
Lightning strike → Reality anvil reaction → Sand ingot nucleus → Consciousness shatters and is reconstructed.
Then he read the deeper imagery more closely:
"...The boy took a step forward, leaving his people behind. His people were filled with grief, thinking the boy was going to die. They had not heard God."
The word "boy" corresponds to his current situation and also to the world bubble that has just merged into his flesh and blood.
"So... am I the only one here who can hear the voice of God?" Xia Xiu murmured to himself, then he had already made up his mind.
He slowly raised his hand, and the [Broken Flame] within his palm began to condense. Fragmented 0 and 1 blocks surged like digital ghostly flames on the back of his hand and in his palm.
As his will rose, the data flame gradually spread into an energy field independent of the world.
He said softly:
"In other words... I must contain this bubble of worlds according to the allegory, so that the hammer of the Shattered God will fall and smash me down..."
Before he could finish speaking, the shattered spark flickered in his palm.
In that instant, the entire world was struck by an invisible ripple, like a matrix interface of a program being rewritten, with countless complex patterns and node textures rapidly spreading, unfolding, overlapping, and merging in the air.
That coverage is not a change in physical entities, but rather like digital encoding at the level of reality being forced to unfold at this moment.
Amidst the shifting light and shadow, his vision was pulled forward by a certain rhythm.
Then he saw it.
He saw the image that Mu had shown him before—a projection of the Child of God's components.
The mechanical creation stood silently at the edge where illusion and reality met, like a skeleton warrior wielding a long steel hammer.
As his gaze settled on the mechanical Iron Man, a deep red light suddenly appeared on the construct—the light bursting forth from his chest cavity like an uncontrolled electrical current from his heart.
The next moment, this mechanical creation shattered before Xia Xiu's eyes!
As the components shattered, various mechanical parts, carrying residual energy, flew outwards, rushing towards Xia Xiu's location like countless broken chains yearning for belonging.
The parts traced countless invisible light trails in space, then attached themselves one by one to his [Shattered Flame]. They rapidly merged and fused with the azure data flames, creating a new tapestry of mechanical texture and energy fluctuations on his body. Just then, a deafening explosion came from the depths of the cave. The steel hammer left behind by the skeleton warrior was pried off the ground and detached from the cracked edge of the cave.
Accompanied by countless flashes of lightning, it spun rapidly and shot into the air.
The cliff face appeared to have been split open, with rubble, sand, and moisture pouring down all at once.
Xia Xiu's figure was thrown up in the collapsing light and shadow and turbulent air, and then fell heavily back to the beach that was once his feet.
This is my workshop, where I create countless miracles.
This beach is the factory.
The sand beneath Xia Xiu's feet instantly solidified, firmly fixing his feet in place. The sand rose from the ground as if it were alive, binding him tightly and forming a solid ingot centered on him together with the mechanical parts on his body that were not yet fully integrated.
The mechanical fragments turned into sand, and together with the micro-metal particles mixed in with the reef, they solidified into ingot-like binding structures around his limbs and torso.
But he was not imprisoned; he was simply captured by a deeper order.
—The land is my anvil.
—Sand is my ingot.
So... the next step is to hone your skills.
He looked up at the sky, and the sky suddenly became brighter, with clouds churning and streaking out paths of lightning.
A long steel hammer, formed from lightning, solidified high in the sky, hovering silently like a blade of divine will, awaiting its fall.
Towards Xia Xiu.
At this moment, anyone, any other being, would instinctively break free from the shackles beneath their feet and unleash their great spirituality to overcome all of this.
But Xia Xiu did not choose to run away.
He recalled the words in the fable about the cave.
He recalled that ancient and cruel imperative expression.
So, just as the long steel hammer formed from lightning was about to fall, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath of air mixed with moisture and static electricity.
Then, he opened his arms and raised his entire body toward the sky.
The world bubble inside the chest cavity, which was not yet fully fused, and the shattered blue flames instantly started a new resonance.
He seemed to sense a call from an ancient rule.
His voice echoed slowly in my heart:
"Come... Mace, I will be here to inherit your miracles!"
He was not afraid.
He chose to pray to heaven without reservation, just like the boy in the fable.
Then--
The world crumbled in an instant.
Lightning struck hard.
The steel hammer slammed down on him.
He's starting to break down, Xia Xiu is GG... just kidding.
The shattered world around him crumbled, and the rift between space and reality collapsed and dissolved from all directions like a broken mirror. Yet, amidst this disintegration, Xia Xiu sensed that he was ascending to a higher dimension.
This feeling was similar to his earlier advancement to [Selfless One]. In that sense of shattering and rebirth, Xia Xiu saw it: a form capable of swallowing one's vision appeared on the level where the boundless void and the physical world intersected.
Its appearance is composed of movement and light, and its body is outlined by a precise mechanical structure and flowing energy lines, resembling an interweaving of undefinable graphics and the laws of reality.
It stretched out its hand.
The enormous arm, composed of metal and light energy, hovered in the void, its fingertips emitting a faint afterglow in silence, as if beckoning.
Swept up by the surge of shattering and dimensional ascension, Xia Xiu responded instinctively. He slowly raised his hand—at this moment, he felt neither fear nor hesitation, but simply reached out to the other in accordance with that invisible rhythm and pulse.
The moment he reached out his hand, three white jade crowns appeared behind him, overlapping and intersecting, encircling his head. They seemed gentle, yet exuded an indescribable aura from within.
The three crowns were not static; they slowly rotated and shimmered, automatically mapping into another form amidst the reconstruction of light and broken rules.
Then, as if reprogrammed by some law, they slowly transformed into the same mechanical crown structure as the Son of God.
In that instant, Xia Xiu's consciousness truly connected with the existence of the Son of God on a certain hidden level.
The moment his fingers touched the mechanical fingertips of the Son of God, the space seemed to vibrate silently.
A tremendous roar erupted at the junction of dimension and physicality. This sound was not a simple impact, but a resonant echo after some hidden law was triggered.
Then, he felt his body reassemble from its shattered state. The state of being divided, decomposed, and judged as possible fragments was instantly pulled back, fixed, and recombined by a deeper force.
And then the steel hammer that had shattered him and pushed the rules to their limits suddenly appeared in his hand.
It was heavy, but no longer carried the intent of absolute destruction; rather, it was like a key whose rules had been reset and was held in his hand.
"...This time, I will no longer be something to be shattered."
Before he could finish speaking...
The triple mechanical crown slowly lit up a deep yet firm light above Xia Xiu's head. The light was not a blazing brilliance, but rather an ancient and irreversible rhythm that expanded outwards invisibly. It extended outwards along Xia Xiu's bloodline, and was like the resonant frequency of countless data and energy oscillating simultaneously between the realm of reality and the realm of concepts.
Just as those light veins flowed along the air around him, gradually eroding the surrounding sand and remaining rubble, a furious, deep roar, as if from the edge of death and nothingness, suddenly rang out.
"roar------!!!"
The sound was enormous, deep, and resonant with echoes of breaking and trembling, like the most primal roar emanating from the depths of some ancient being within the reshaped heart and lungs of the universe.
It shook the air and shattered the conventional spatial hierarchy along this coastline.
That dragon's roar was not an ordinary howl, but rather carried a kind of mechanical, logical, and irreconcilable broken frequency. It was mixed with a low-pitched string reverberation similar to gears impacting chains, metal pulses, energy restarts, and the fusion of the will of a mechanical deity.
At that moment, Xia Xiu suddenly realized that the sound was not a simple entity—it was the roar of a void dragon.
The sand beneath his feet trembled slightly at the roar, like countless tiny particles activated by resonance being stirred by an invisible vibration.
Suddenly, a wide rift was torn open in the light waves in the air, and the texture of light and shadow began to entangle, flip, and twist into a high-dimensional wave pattern.
He turned around.
My gaze passed over the still-stationary steel hammer, which still carried residual energy, and over the boundless coastline beyond the cave.
At the edge of the distant void, a colossal figure slowly took shape, and he saw the face of the Void Dragon.
Its body is composed of countless mechanical plates and energy hubs, lacking real flesh and blood, yet possessing a near-living network of pulses. Its massive wings resemble broken mechanical frames, with light and shadow constantly shifting within them, like countless gears simultaneously restarting, rotating, stopping, and reconnecting.
Its head possesses both a high-dimensional geometric structure that seems to be alive and a rough, heavy mechanical texture that has been recast countless times but is never complete.
This is the first meeting between Ommesae and the Void Dragon.
[Blasphemer—!]
Upon their first meeting, the Void Dragon couldn't help but breathe on Om Messiah.