Chen Wuya stood outside the threshold, the rough feel of dried blood still lingering on his fingertips from the doorframe. He did not take another step forward. Instead, he slowly retreated half a step and fished a copper coin from his pack. He flipped it over in his palm, then lightly tossed it into the center of the doorway.
The instant it hit the ground, the overhead beam trembled slightly. A silver thread sprang from the shadows, slicing past where his hair tie had been moments ago, stretching taut through the air before swiftly retracting. Without betraying a hint of alarm, he crouched down and slowly moved his fingers along the cracks in the floor, sensing the faint tremors rising from underground.
This was no automatic mechanism. The pull on the line had a rhythm, and its retraction came with adjustments in force. Someone was controlling it.
He pressed his lips together, touched his tongue to the roof of his mouth, and let out an extremely low whistle—brief, sharp, and clear. Far off in the woods, Bai Zhi's fingers twitched almost imperceptibly. She immediately lowered her body and signaled for the team behind her to hold position.
Chen Wuya rose again, his gaze sweeping over the open spaces amid the weeds and shattered roof tiles within the door. The floor of the front hall looked level, but the edges of every flagstone were slightly misaligned. Stepping on them might not trigger a killing move at once, but the slightest hesitation in one's stride or shift in balance could set off a chain reaction. He closed his eyes, summoned the system within his sea of consciousness, and slowly guided the remaining reverse-meridian true qi in his body into the meridians of his right foot.
"Error Perception · Environmental Resonance—Rationalization."
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