Rainwater streamed down the Buddha statue's compassionate face, pooling into silver-blue puddles on the bluestone floor. When her star-sand-dusted fingertips brushed the Buddha's ear, the entire icon suddenly manifested vein-like bronze patterns—these were unmistakably energy conduits found only on the surface of the Chaos Bell Tower.
"Do not touch the ancient relic, noble lady." The abbot's agarwood prayer beads brushed her wrist, the third bead flashing with the cold light unique to nanotechnology. In Nian'an's quantum vision, that string of prayer beads was reconfiguring into a miniature escapement mechanism of the Chaos Bell Tower.
The rain curtain was abruptly distorted by some force, forming countless suspended mirrors. Each fragmented shard reflected scenes from different times and spaces: a Grey-robed Watcher in the Eternal Night City carving a bronze mask; a black lotus blooming in the snow on the Cliff of First Cry. In the nearest shard, the Holy Mother of Silver Lotus's compound eyes were staring at her through the fabric of time.
Chapter 69