Chen Wuya shook his hand, and red liquid dripped from his palm onto the ground with a faint sizzle. The instant the traces touched the ice, they sank slightly, as though something had sucked them in.
[Warning lifted. Switching to analysis mode: The liquid contains ancient life pheromones. Contact by the host has activated residual memories.]
He stared at his fingers. What he had just seen was no illusion. That woman had been sealing something, and the blood she shed was the same as what lay within this pillar.
"How are you?" Bai Zhi stepped closer, her sword still drawn as her gaze swept the surroundings.
"I'm fine." Chen Wuya shook his head. "But whatever's inside... it's alive."
Mo Feng had already opened the mechanism compass. Its needle spun wildly before finally pointing toward the depths of the passage. "The energy is flowing underground. It's not a mechanical circuit—it's more like... a circulatory system. Like blood vessels."
The three exchanged glances. The path they had come through was already sealed by snow, while the collapsed passage ahead slowly returned to its original state, the crack closing like a breath.
"Move." Chen Wuya stepped forward.
The farther in they went, the wider the passage became. Shapes began to emerge along the ice walls on either side. The shadow of a colossal beast clung to the wall—two horns on its head, four hooves treading clouds, shaped like a qilin, yet transparent all over like an ice sculpture. A few steps farther on, another creature surfaced on the opposite side: wolf head, serpent body, with ghostly blue light glimmering in its eye sockets.
"Don't touch the walls," Bai Zhi said softly. "Those shadows are moving."
A layer of grayish-white powder covered the ground, crunching faintly underfoot. Mo Feng crouched and grabbed