Pressing for Answers!

"Buzz!!"

The instant Diwu Chijin's foot stepped onto the edge of the stone platform, another ring of orange-red firelight exploded beneath his boot and crushed outward in all directions.

"Crack, crack"—web-like fractures spread across the bluestone bricks. Red-hot fragments sprang up, warping the surrounding air with their heat.

The gray-bearded old craftsman closest to him had his beard curl into charcoal with a "sizzle."

He let out a howl and toppled backward, the back of his head striking the corner of the platform. Blood ran down his neck.

"Spare... spare my life..."

The old man scrambled over and over, then his knees gave way. He dropped to his knees amid the rubble with a thud. "Immortal, spare my life!

"This lowly one truly does not know what that 'emerald-green stone in the groove' is!"

Every time he struck his head against the ground, broken bricks dug into the flesh of his forehead. Blood mixed with dust and smeared across his face.

Beside him, a tall, skinny master craftsman braced both hands against his knees. Kneeling, his back bent like a shrimp, and even the words squeezed from his throat carried a tearful quaver. "Y-Yes! We were merely summoned by the ruler of the Great Yan Kingdom and ordered to study this thing."

Half his eyebrows had already been scorched away by the heatwave, and dense little blisters covered his bare brow ridge.

Whenever he spoke, the movement of his facial muscles tugged at the blisters. They popped with a "pop," oozing pale-yellow pus.

"B-But we are incompetent. Even to this day, we have not found the slightest clue!"

The other master craftsmen, tormented by the scorching flames until they wished they were dead, also fell to their knees and begged for mercy. "Immortal, see the truth!

"We cannot even identify