When the black cat dragged a dead snake back from deep in the woods, he almost thought he had come to the wrong place.
The spot that had once been overgrown with weeds had been cleared into a smooth, level black foundation several hundred meters across. Dark red magic slowly flowed through channels poured with graphite powder, giving off faint, obscure ripples.
Six stone pillars stood around the magic array, square at the bottom and round at the top, each divided into three sections and covered in wrinkled incantations. They looked like upright fingers.
At the center of the magic array stood a wall covered in sky-blue, blue-violet, and white tiles arranged in a mosaic. In the middle of the wall was an arched door with an onion-shaped dome, its two leaves tightly shut. The door was covered in lavishly colored reliefs depicting scenes that seemed to come from mythological tales, yet upon closer inspection, none of them quite matched.
Around the edge of the magic array stood rows of yellow clay boards stuck haphazardly into the ground. They wrapped around the entire array like the petals of a blooming flower. The boards were about a foot wide, with a foot and a half exposed aboveground. Each was smeared with patterns resembling branches and stars in Dragon Bone Powder, looking especially eerie.
The black cat raised his head and glanced at the sky.
The pale sun and moon hung motionless in midair, giving him no way to tell the exact time.
"How long was I gone?" the black cat asked uncertainly.
The Red-banded Snake hanging around his neck quietly lifted its head, and the tip of its tail twitched tentatively. Without even lowering his eyelids, the black cat raised a paw, extended his claws, and raked them along the Red-banded