The clatter of chains still rang out, and those utterly black eyes stared straight upward.
Chen Wuya's heart tightened, and he instinctively took half a step back. The instant his heel touched a piece of rubble, the ground jolted violently. The rock walls on either side of the fissure began to shift out of alignment, grinding together with a muffled crush. The once-clear outline of the passage rapidly blurred as stones seemed to be kneaded by an invisible hand, flipping and reforming layer upon layer.
"Something's wrong!" he barked. The perception of the Misplaced Ground Domain exploded through his sea of consciousness. The space beneath their feet was no natural cave at all, but an illusion constructed by some mechanism formation. Just as he was about to warn Bai Zhi and Mo Feng, the entrance to the chute overhead had sealed completely, without even a sliver of a gap remaining.
The scene before them abruptly changed.
The rubble, fissures, and oil lamps all vanished. The three stood in the center of a circular stone chamber, its surrounding walls smooth as mirrors and set with a ring of blue-glowing crystals. On the stone wall directly ahead, three large characters had been carved—No Entry Order.
At the center of the chamber, a pillar of light descended from the dome, shining upon an ancient scroll suspended in midair. The entire scroll was silver-white, delicate patterns flowing along its edges and faintly rising and falling as if it were alive. An indescribable oppression hung in the air, as though the entire space were breathing around it.
Mo Feng opened his mouth. "This... is the Heavenly Machine Scroll?"
Chen Wuya said nothing. He could sense that the aura emanating from this scroll differed from every martial arts manual he had encountered before. It did not