The formation at the Stone Altar gradually settled down, its frenzied pulling force dissipating without a trace.
At the center of the original Stone Altar, there was now a pit roughly a meter in diameter.
Yue Long cautiously tossed a pebble into the pit. It caused no change; only the deep, hollow sound of something falling echoed back.
The pit was immensely deep. The sound of the pebble's descent continued for a long while, yet no sound of it striking the ground came.
His Soul Consciousness reached downward, yet found no bottom at all, as though it could not reach an end.
Faint fluctuations of formation energy drifted up from within the pit.
It felt as though the Stone Altar formation from before had, like a startled soul beast, fled deep underground.
Watching the changes around the Stone Altar, Yue Yan pondered for a moment and frowned.
Seeing Yue Long about to approach and further inspect the formation,
he stopped him and led him aside.
Before speaking, Yue Yan glanced toward Li Taiyuan and Cang Lan in the distance. Seeing that both were exerting themselves to recover their strength, deeply settled in meditation and wholly unaware of the activity here, he finally said to Yue Long,
"How are your injuries?"
His concerned voice carried a hint of severity.
Yue Long smiled easily. "Nothing serious. At most, I'll need half an hour to recover."
Yue Yan's expression eased considerably at those words. He then asked solemnly, "Tell me. Why did you do this?"
Yue Long froze, blinking blankly. "What are you talking about, Brother?"
Yue Yan's face turned cold as he said bluntly, "Stop playing dumb. You noticed the change earlier, didn't you? Why didn't you take precautions beforehand? Why let things reach this point?"
Looking somewhat embarrassed, Yue Long smiled.