Hao Ren poked his head out and looked through the car window. He found that the off-road vehicle was driving across a seemingly unremarkable stretch of wasteland. The road outside was rough and uneven, and even the vehicle's excellent suspension jolted badly over it. Aside from the desolation, though, he couldn't see anything different from before.
However, Heiserana signaled that they had arrived. She had Duncan drive up onto a stretch of high ground ahead, then told everyone to get out.
"This place doesn't look special at all." Hao Ren muttered as he looked around. It was a bare little rise, with broken stones scattered across the wilderness. Traces of unmelted ice and snow could still be seen between the cracks in the rocks. The cold winds of the Arctic Circle blew across this place day and night, nearly erasing all traces of life. Only a few tenacious, low-growing plants survived in the cracks between the wind-sheltered rocks.
Heiserana merely looked up at the sky and said one word: "Wait."
The sunlight was slowly slanting downward. As the sun drew closer to the horizon, two enormous shadows gradually stretched out from behind them. Hao Ren turned his head and glanced over, discovering that the shadows came from two huge rocks atop a small hill nearby. Their slanted shadows in the setting sun formed a shape resembling a tuning fork, and the gap between them looked like a straight road of light pointing toward the river ahead.
"Another manuscript we found recorded the rules for entering the 'secret realm,'" Cassandra explained from the side. "There are seven days every month when the secret realm can be entered. During those days, the setting sun shines on the Twin Stones beside the riverbank, and the light and shadows extending outward point toward the