Something was wrong...
Chen Mo surveyed the surroundings, then looked up at the sky. Dusk was already drawing near.
Autumn dusk always came earlier. The sun still hung over the western ridge, yet the light had already begun to dim.
He withdrew his gaze and circled the cave entrance once, measuring the bearings and distances in his mind.
The entrance faced south with the mountain at its back. Decades-old piles of waste rock lay to either side, while ahead stretched an open gentle slope that descended into a ravine heaped with mine tailings.
Judging by the terrain, this was a natural depression, shielded on three sides with only a gap to the southeast. It was an ideal place to set up an array.
Chen Mo took eight sheets of nether-bamboo talisman paper from his storage space. Each had already been inscribed with talismanic patterns.
He had stayed up late at the inn drawing those patterns the night before, using blood cinnabar. The design was the Inspection Bureau's standard array diagram—a simple beginner's array known as the Eight Gates Spirit Locking Array.
It was not particularly powerful, serving only to warn him and conceal his aura.
He planted the eight talisman papers at eight positions around the entrance. With each one, he injected a thread of lunar yin power, creating a faint spiritual connection between the paper and the ground.
As he planted the last sheet, he could clearly sense the spiritual power among all eight talismans beginning to echo one another, as though an invisible thread had linked them together.
Chen Mo stepped back two paces and formed a hand seal.
The eight talisman papers flashed at once, their light vanishing in an instant. Once they dimmed, the cinnabar patterns on their surfaces bore a faint, ghostly gleam, shimmering softly