Firelight danced across the stone walls, casting the torn pages of the Heavenly Machine Scroll: Foreign Tribes Chapter into twists and contortions like a living thing. The paper was not devoured by the flames. Instead, layer upon layer of text and symbols emerged in the searing heat, like countless tiny insects crawling across the page. Chen Wuya stepped forward, but the instant he raised his hand, a powerful grip clamped around his wrist.
"Don't touch it." Bai Zhi's voice was cold as well water. "Those words were written in blood souls. Touch them, and they'll enter your heart."
He stopped, his knuckles whitening from the force of his clenched fist. The words in the fire slowly pieced themselves into a topographical map. The mountain ranges were unfamiliar, yet they bore a startling resemblance to a hidden valley route along a section of the border pass. A prompt popped up in his mind: [Foreign tribe military tally fragment detected. Match rate: 89%.]
At that moment, a streak of silver shot out from the side of the altar, aimed directly above the burning tome. A small mechanism nail struck a floating rune node with precision. With a soft hum, the writhing script abruptly froze for an instant.
All three turned at once.
Mo Feng emerged from behind a broken stone pillar, his folding fan already tucked back into his sleeve, his fingertips still trembling faintly from firing the mechanism. Neither hurried nor slow, he walked to the stone platform, glanced at the still-smoking fire, then looked at Chen Wuya with a curl of his lips. "What, still haven't learned to stay three feet from the fire before looking at something?"
Chen Wuya stared at him. After a moment, he said quietly, "Mo Feng?"
"That's me." The other man grinned, showing his canine