Chen Wuya's hand was still pressed to the ice, his palm retaining the chill left by the crystal core's shattering. That line of tiny words kept resurfacing in his mind—"The Heavenly Machine Scroll is not a book, but the source of Misaligned Force." He did not move. His breathing was soft, as though afraid of disturbing something.
Bai Zhi stood at his side, her fingers resting on his shoulder. She said nothing, only sensing his body temperature suddenly drop before slowly rising again.
Mo Feng leaned against a reef, panting. "Do you believe it?" he asked.
"It's not about whether I believe it." Chen Wuya finally spoke. "It's been waiting for me all along."
After saying that, he sat cross-legged and pressed his palm back onto the crack in the ice. This time, he did not circulate his true energy. Instead, he let the Misaligned Force flow slowly backward through his body, bypassing the main meridians and burrowing into those broken, threadlike channels. Every step felt as if his ribs were being scraped by a blunt weapon, but he did not stop.
The system fell silent for several breaths.
Then his sea of consciousness shook.
[Abnormal circulation route detected. Judged to be a fatal error... Initiating completion protocol—reverse analysis in progress...]
Golden light seeped from his fingertips into the ice, but rather than spreading outward, it drew together into a single line and extended downward along the cracks in the seabed rock.
Bai Zhi stared into his eyes. Suddenly, a faint golden gleam surfaced in his pupils, like flames kindling in their depths.
"He's seeing it," she murmured.
Mo Feng braced himself and dragged himself one step forward, his gaze locked tightly on Chen Wuya's face.
In the abyssal depths of the sea, dark currents surged. Beneath a