The tremors beneath their feet continued, as though some slumbering mechanism were slowly being awakened. Chen Wuya stared at the enormous stone door. The bronze key in his hand was still lodged in the lock, utterly unmoving. He had tried turning it and pushing with all his strength, but the door seemed fused with the mountain itself, giving no response at all.
"Something's wrong." Mo Feng crouched before the door, his fingertips tracing the carvings on the ground. "This lock is only for show. The true condition for opening it isn't here." He looked up at Chen Wuya. "Those steps you took just now had a different rhythm from before."
Bai Zhi stood slightly behind them, her sword tip lowered as her gaze swept through the surrounding mist. The growls of the strange beasts had stopped, but she had not relaxed. A chill still lingered in the air, seeping through her meridians and slowly into the cracks between her bones.
Chen Wuya said nothing. He lowered his head and looked at his feet. That wave of trembling had reminded him of how it had felt crossing the spike passage—not finding the path with his eyes, but letting his body, drawn by Misaligned Force, naturally tread out a crooked yet effective footwork. Three steps left, two right, half a leap forward, a turning step... Those movements should have been stumbling, riddled with openings, yet they had somehow become the only path to survival.
"Maybe it doesn't want the key," he said quietly. "Maybe it wants how we walked up to it."
Mo Feng frowned. "You mean the footwork itself is the password?"
"Not ordinary footwork." Chen Wuya closed his eyes. Misaligned Force circulated slowly within him as he began recreating that state in reverse. The Governing Vessel Meridian surged backward, the