Those runes did not belong to the sealing formation built into the stone pillars. Someone had added them later.
"Someone's been here." He crouched down, running his fingers over the concealed runes. "And more than one group, too. These runes show at least three distinct styles of handwriting, with dates ranging from a few months ago to a year ago?"
Lu Mingzhang stepped forward, his eyes flashing. "Wasn't Heavenly Que only just opened?"
"The entrance to Heavenly Que was only just opened." Chu Heng straightened, his tone turning more serious. "But the outer regions of Heavenly Que have always existed; it's just that no one could enter the core. The area between these stone pillars wasn't completely sealed off while Heavenly Que was closed, either. For Cultivators with sufficiently advanced methods, moving around the outskirts wasn't impossible."
With that, Chu Heng was the first to take out his compass and begin calculating the direction of the spiritual veins ahead. Jiang Yun and Tao Yong followed close behind, and the three soon settled into their work.
Xu Huaiyi and Zhou Hui crouched beside a boundary stele, studying the runes on it and occasionally discussing them in low voices. Lu Mingzhang leaned against another stone pillar, his folding fan half covering his face, looking utterly unconcerned.
Gu Chengming, meanwhile, was enduring a rather delicate kind of torment.
"Deputy Commander Gu! Look at the lines on this pillar. Don't they look like a dragon?"
Crouching beside a low stone pillar, Zhou Qingmu looked up and beckoned to Gu Chengming. Her voice was full of the curiosity and excitement one would expect from a young General Flag Officer setting foot in the outskirts of a secret realm for the first time.
Gu Chengming went over and glanced down. It didn't have the slightest resemblance