Daoist Yun was in charge of setting up a sealing array around the Soul-Severing Gorge. Yin Wujou took out several array flags from his storage ring and handed them to him. They were all pre-drawn and only needed to be inserted according to their positions and infused with Spiritual Power to take effect. Daoist Yun took them, weighed them in his hand, and nodded. He usually seemed carefree and nonchalant, but when it came to serious matters, he was incredibly efficient. He took the array flags, turned around, and left. At the door, he turned back and waved to Yin Wujou and Snow Empress: "Be careful when you go to the Scripture Pavilion. Those old fogies on the third floor have terrible tempers. Don't rummage around."
The Sutra Repository is located on the north side of the main city. It is a three-story stone building that looks ordinary on the outside, but the entire building is protected by hundreds of restrictions. Without a token issued by the Pavilion Master, one cannot even touch the door. Yin Wujou had an old acquaintance with the Pavilion Master and had received a pass jade token many years ago, which he kept in his storage ring. When the two rode out of the Wujou Hall, it was already bright daylight. There were already people walking on the streets of the main city. Several vendors who had set up stalls early in the morning recognized Yin Wujou and greeted him with cupped hands from afar. Yin Wujou nodded in return.
Upon arriving at the entrance of the Sutra Repository, the old man guarding the pavilion took the jade token, examined it, and then looked Snow Empress up and down. Perhaps finding her unfamiliar, he asked, "And who is this?"
"My fellow Daoist companion," Yin Wujou said.
The old man said nothing more, pushed open the heavy stone door, and let the two in. The first floor of the Scripture Pavilion had ordinary scroll shelves, the second floor contained various sects' martial arts manuals and miscellaneous records, but the third floor was different—the stone steps ended at the end of the second floor, with only a narrow iron ladder leading to the entrance of the third floor. The iron ladder was covered with fine runes, and when you stepped on it, you would feel a very slight tremor under your feet, which was the restriction operating on its own.
Upon reaching the third floor, the light suddenly dimmed. All the windows on the third floor were sealed off, and the lighting relied on four eerie fire pearls suspended at the four corners of the dome, emitting a cold white light that made the entire floor feel gloomy. The shelves around the room were piled with jade slips and animal skin scrolls, each about a foot wide. Some of the scrolls were so old that their edges had become brittle and blackened, and they would crumble into powder with the slightest force.
Yin Wujou skillfully walked around to a shelf on the east side, squatted down, and rummaged through the bottom shelf. Snow Empress stood behind him, her gaze sweeping over the titles marked on the scrolls around her. Most of them were titles like "Study of Earth Veins," "Records of Mountains and Rivers in the Demon Domain Realm," and "Tracing the Source of the Nether Spring," and some of the writing was so blurred that it was illegible.
"Found it." Yin Wujou pulled out a roll of animal hide from the bottom. The roll was at least an arm's length long, and the opening was tied with a dark red silk rope, the knot tightly sealed. He used his short knife to Thread Severing and unfolded the animal hide, laying it on the ground. On the animal hide was an extremely detailed map of the earth's veins, drawn in ink lines, more than ten times more detailed than the one in the notes. The terrain of the mountains and rivers, the flow of underground rivers, and the confluence of spiritual and demonic veins were all clearly marked.
Yin Wujou traced the earth vein map southward from the main city, finally stopping at the location of the Soul-Severing Gorge. Below the Soul-Severing Gorge on the map was a thick, dark curve, with seven ink dots marking the curve at intervals. Next to each dot was a tiny annotation. Yin Wujou looked closer and saw that the first dot read "Initial Metamorphosis," the second "Second Metamorphosis," the third "Third Metamorphosis," and so on, up to the seventh "Seventh Metamorphosis Completed," and then it stopped.
"Melting?" Yin Wujou repeated the word in a low voice. He looked up at Snow Empress, "What does 'melting' mean?"
Snow Empress squatted down beside him, examining the ley line map. Her finger traced the thick, dark curve downwards, stopping below the seventh dot. Although no further dots were marked there, the curve's end curved slightly upwards, like a snake raising its head. "Shedding... it's molting," she said. "This thing shed its skin seven times down there. After seven complete molts, it should have changed its form, no longer resembling its previous appearance."
Yin Wujou's brow twitched. He recalled the tentacle he had seen in the dark red liquid yesterday—covered in dark green scales, trembling as it extended and then retracted. If that thing had already molted seven times, then what he saw yesterday was only a tiny part of its entire body. If a single tentacle was as thick as a finger, how big must the whole thing be?
He looked down at the bottom of the scroll, where there was a smaller section of text, a supplementary note written in red ink. The handwriting was hasty, as if it had been written in a very rushed manner, "At the bottom of the dark spring, there is a living creature, suspected to be Demonic Flood Dragon Remnant. After seven transformations, it can take human form, is good at bewitching minds, and craves spiritual energy. If you encounter it, do not look it in the eye, do not answer it, and do not let it know your name. Remember this."
Yin Wujou read the line of text three times. He reached out and rolled up the animal hide; the silk rope was broken. He casually gathered it up a couple of times and stuffed it into his storage ring. As he stood up, he exchanged a glance with Snow Empress. Neither of them spoke, but they both knew very well: they had squatted in front of that pool of liquid for so long yesterday, even probing it with a short knife. If that thing was truly Demonic Flood Dragon Remnant, it probably already knew who they were.
"Your master was right not to probe further back then," Snow Empress said, her voice low. "If he had, that thing might not have completed its seventh transformation at that time. Now it has."
Yin Wujou nodded. His steps were heavier as he descended from the third floor than when he went up. The old man guarding the pavilion glanced at him again, probably noticing his unusual expression, but didn't ask further. The two left the scripture pavilion, mounted their horses, and the hooves clattered on the stone slabs. Snow Empress rode beside him, suddenly turning her head to ask, "What do you plan to do?"
Yin Wujou stared ahead, silent for a moment. "First, let's go to Soul-Severing Gorge and see how Daoist Yun's sealing formation is going. Then—" He paused, "Then I'll go down there."
I'll go too.
"Of course you'll go." He glanced at her sideways, a slight smile playing on his lips. "You go first, I'll stay behind. In case anything happens, you can keep an eye on what's behind me."
Snow Empress paused for a moment, then smiled. These were the words he had spoken to her on the rocky platform yesterday, and she was now returning them to him verbatim. The two rode their horses through the main city's streets and alleys, exiting through the south gate. The ochre-red official road stretched beneath their feet, and the outline of Soul-Severing Gorge floated far on the horizon, like a deep scar on the earth. The sky was clear, without a single cloud, and the sunlight poured down, illuminating everything brightly. But the closer they got to Soul-Severing Gorge, the stronger the fishy smell became, and a sticky heat clung to the wind, making the clear sky seem as if it were covered by a layer of dirty gauze.
As Daoist Yun was already busy on the outskirts of the canyon. When the two arrived, he was squatting on a protruding rock at the edge of the cliff, inserting the third array flag into a crevice. The flag vibrated with a buzz as it entered the rock, and a very faint light screen spread out from its surface, merging with the two array flags that had been inserted earlier. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, stood up, and waved when he saw Yin Wujou and Snow Empress approaching from afar.