The essence of the demonic veins surged up from the depths of the earth, some of which was absorbed as it passed through its body. The remainder, mixed with its excrement, coalesced back into a pool of liquid. That pool served as both its feeding trough and the entrance to its lair.
"What if we block the source of the demonic vein's essence?" Daoist Yun asked. "If we cut off its supply, won't it sink back down?"
Yin Wujou shook his head. "The seventh metamorphosis is complete. It no longer needs to absorb the essence of the demonic vein to grow. That pool of liquid is just something it habitually leaves there—like a snake leaving a layer of shed skin at the edge of its den. Removing the skin won't affect it."
Snow Empress had remained silent until now, when she suddenly pointed to a mark about three miles northeast of the Soul-Severing Gorge on the ley line map. "What's this place?"
Yin Wujou leaned closer to look. The mark was small, shaped like a curved dotted line, with a word almost faded to the point of being illegible written next to it: Qi. He held the animal skin scroll up to the sunlight to examine it carefully. The dotted line was an extremely thin branch, branching off from the main earth vein and leading northeast. At the end of the dotted line was a hollow circle, much larger in diameter than the seven ink dots of the Soul-Severing Gorge, but there were no markings inside the circle.
"A fork in the road?" Yin Wujou frowned. "Master's notes didn't mention this fork in the road."
He turned the animal skin scroll to the other side, which was also covered with dense lines and markings. On the back, corresponding to the hollow circle, there were several lines of extremely small characters, so small they were almost invisible, as if they had been engraved with a needle tip: "At the end of the fork in the road lies an ancient array, an ancient sealing technique that can suppress the Nether Spring for a hundred years. However, the array's core is damaged and needs to be repaired with something of the same origin."
"Things of the same origin." Daoist Yun read the sentence aloud. "What does that mean?"
Yin Wujou closed the animal skin scroll, his gaze falling on the direction of the fork in the road. "The ancient sealing array used the bones and blood of the same kind as the Demonic Flood Dragon as the array's guide—killing one Demonic Flood Dragon, taking its heart blood and spine to seal into the array's eye, was the only way to suppress another. But now Demonic Flood Dragon have long since disappeared, where can I find its counterpart?"
He paused abruptly after saying that. He remembered the tentacle he'd seen in the liquid yesterday—a dark green scale, trembling precariously. That thing was alive, a part of the Demonic Flood Dragon itself. If that thing could be removed from his body, a part of the Demonic Flood Dragon's true form could be used to repair the array's core...
"No." Snow Empress's voice suddenly rang out, cold and firm, "Don't even think about it."
Yin Wujou lifted his gaze from the map and met Snow Empress's eyes. Her gaze was incredibly sharp, like a sharpened knife, piercing straight into his face. "You're thinking of cutting a piece off it to repair the array's core," she said. "But it's alive. If you cut a piece off, it will only go even crazier. And—" She paused for a moment, "What will you use to cut it? The bronze mirror shattered the moment it touched its aura, and your short knife caused such a huge reaction when you touched the liquid surface. Do you think it won't retaliate when you get close to it?"
Yin Wujou, his mouth agape after her barrage of words, but he finally managed a faint smile. It was a gentle smile, unexpectedly so. "I didn't say I was going to cut it," he said. "I was thinking about something else."
"What's up?"
He glanced at the sky and put the roll of animal hide into his storage ring. "Let's go back to the Wujou Hall first. There are array flags sealing this place, so it won't seep upwards again today. Let's go back and thoroughly investigate that side path—Master drew that road on the map; he definitely didn't just draw it randomly."
The three rode back to the main city. On the way, Yin Wujou kept thinking about the small inscription on the back of the ley line map, "The array's core is damaged; it needs to be repaired with something of the same origin." His master must have already explored that side path back then, and might even have reached the old array, only to turn back after discovering the damaged core. Since he had inscribed that sentence on the back, it meant he must have left behind alternative solutions regarding "something of the same origin." His master never left only one path for himself.
After returning to the Wujou Hall, Yin Wujou went straight to his study and pulled out all the scrolls related to the ancient seal from the bookshelves, covering the entire table. Snow Empress and Daoist Yun helped him search through them one by one. The room was filled with the smell of old paper and ink ash. As darkness fell, the kitchen staff brought lamps twice and added oil again and again.
I don't know how much time passed, but Yin Wujiu suddenly pulled out a piece of paper as thin as a cicada's wing from a pile of files. The edges of the paper were brown and brittle. On it was a circular formation diagram, with the word "Yin" marked in cinnabar in the center of the formation diagram. Below the formation diagram were two lines of small Chinese characters: Use foreign objects to lure them into the old formation. They are different and not the same kind. They cannot be killed, and their flesh and blood are not taken, only their direction.
Yin Wujou examined the parchment three times, turning it over and over. "Different from the same kind"—not using the Demonic Flood Dragon's kind, but using a "different object" to lure it. What could possibly entice a Demonic Flood Dragon that had undergone seven transformations? What could make a creature that had dwelled underground for countless years willingly move its massive body to follow it?
He frowned and thought for a long time. Snow Empress placed a cup of hot tea beside him. He subconsciously picked it up and took a sip. The hot tea made his tongue numb, and he was brought back to his senses. He looked down at the tea. The tea leaves were green needles produced in the mountains north of the main city. The brewed tea was clear and bright, and a few Yezi slowly unfurled at the bottom of the cup.
He suddenly froze. Watching the tea leaves slowly unfurl in the hot water, he abruptly stood up as if struck by something, placed the teacup on the table, and walked to the other end of the desk. From under a pile of documents, he pulled out an even older, almost falling bamboo scroll. The characters on the scroll were engraved with an iron stylus, the strokes deep and filled with blackened ink. He found one of the scrolls, on which was engraved a passage. "The Demonic Flood Dragon craves spirits, especially pure water spirits. The source of water spirits lies in deep pools and secluded springs, but the spirits of plants and trees can also be drawn to them. Green needle tea draws water; the first brew contains dew, and its direction can be felt after the third boil."
"Green Needle." Yin Wujou held the bamboo slip up to the lamp to confirm repeatedly. "Master left a record— the Demonic Flood Dragon has a natural attraction to pure water essence, and the water essence condensed by the Green Needle tea tree at morning dew is especially pure. If a large amount of Green Needle tea is steamed to produce a rich water essence, and then flows into the old formation along the side path, it may be drawn there by the water essence."
Daoist Yun leaned closer to examine the bamboo slip, stroking his chin. "Using tea to lure an ancient Demonic Flood Dragon? That sounds incredibly improbable."
"It's not tea," Yin Wujou shook his head. "It's the essence of water. Tea is just a carrier; what truly draws it out is the essence of the water after boiling. Master wrote in the bamboo slip, 'Three boils are enough to sense its direction,' which means that the concentration of the water essence needs to reach a certain level before it can be transmitted and spread out at the level of the secluded spring."