Yin Wujou stared at it for a long time, then gently traced the groove of the engraving with his fingertip. The groove was filled with a dark brown substance, which he brought closer to smell; it had a very faint metallic rust scent.
"Blood," Snow Empress said behind him, "The person who carved the words had a cut on their hand, and the blood seeped into the carvings."
Yin Wujou didn't turn around, but nodded. "It's my master's handwriting. He stopped here—not to go back, but to carve these two characters, and then continued walking in."
How did you know he kept going in?
Yin Wujou pointed deeper into the rock face, to a place where the light from the luminous pearl couldn't reach. "After he carved the words with his blood, if he had retreated, the bloodstains should have dragged outwards, but the last stroke of those two characters pointed inwards. He went in after he finished carving."
Daoist Yun listened in silence for a long while before whispering, "Your master is a Ruthless."
Yin Wujou didn't reply, but bent down and continued walking forward. The passage narrowed for about twenty zhang before gradually widening again. The rock strata above rose again, and the extremely faint pulsation of the earth vein in the air became clearer and clearer—the interval between the pulsations shortened from once every dozens of breaths to once every ten or so breaths, as if the thing below had sensed something and was slowly awakening.
Yin Wujou stopped when the tenth copper ball was placed. The silver thread on his wrist was already wrapped thickly, taut and straight, extending from his palm and disappearing into the darkness ahead. He squatted down and probed the ground with his fingers. The stone surface was warm, almost the same temperature as the pool of liquid at the bottom of the main cave of Soul-Severing Gorge.
"We're almost there," he said. "Place the last ball in the center of the formation. The old formation should be not far ahead."
He stood up and walked forward with light steps. The light from the luminous pearl shone about ten feet in front of him, with a faint haze at the edge of the light—the traces of water elemental energy spreading in the air. A thin layer of emerald mist flowed slowly along the ground like a glowing stream. Silver threads guided the water elemental energy emanating from the eleven copper balls in front of him, spreading along the Dao Yi. The emerald mist on the ground had formed a complete path, flowing towards the depths of the passage like a silent, invisible guiding ant.
The passageway came to an end. The scene before them made all three of them stop in their tracks.
It was a naturally formed underground cavern with an extremely high dome. The light from the luminous pearl couldn't reach the top, only illuminating an area of about three or four zhang around the entrance. The ground was covered with a layer of smooth black stone slabs, the seams between the slabs filled with a silver-gray substance that gleamed metallically under the pearl's light. The stone slabs were covered with densely packed patterns—patterns older than any array Yin Wujou had ever seen. The lines were bold and vigorous, as if something extremely hard had been pressed directly into the stone surface. Each groove was as wide as a finger, and the deep recesses were filled with a dark, reddish substance, much deeper and thicker than the bloodstains that had seeped in when the words "Danger Stop" were carved.
At the center of the array was a circular pit, about three feet in diameter, with smooth, mirror-like walls. The pit was empty except for a broken stone pillar at the bottom center. The pillar's break was jagged, as if it had been forcibly twisted off at the base. Several engravings could still be seen on the remaining part of the pillar, connecting with the patterns of the array on the ground, but they stopped abruptly at the break.
"The key to the formation." Yin Wujou's voice was soft yet steady in the cave, "The stone pillar is broken; the central node of the formation is broken."
He walked over and squatted down at the edge of the circular pit, looking down at the broken pillar. The pillar was made of the same black, hard stone as the stone slabs on the ground, but the broken edge was whitish, forming a stark contrast with the dark color of the pillar itself. He reached out and gently touched the edge of the broken edge. The instant his fingertip touched it, an extremely violent throbbing surged up from the depths of the ground, making his entire arm go numb.
Snow Empress grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back half a step. "Don't touch it!"
Yin Wujou withdrew his hand and looked down at his slightly trembling fingertips. A layer of extremely fine white powder clung to his fingertips, fragments weathered and flaked off from the broken stone pillar. He brought the powder to his nose and sniffed it; there was no odor, but a strange sensation lingered on his fingertips—like being densely pricked by extremely fine needles, both numb and itchy.
"It sensed it," he said. "The thing below sensed the empty space at the array's core. It knows this array can no longer trap it."
Daoist Yun walked around from behind, holding an oil lamp he had taken from his storage ring and shining it into the round pit. The light illuminated the carvings on the pit walls, which stretched from the pit's opening to the base of the broken pillar at the bottom. The lines varied in depth and thickness, and together they resembled a blooming flower—the petals were made of twisted lines, and the heart of the flower was the broken pillar.
"This is an ancient formation using the 'suppress' technique." Daoist Yun squinted at it for a long time, then suddenly gestured with his hand to indicate the direction of the formation's patterns. "Look at the direction of these lines—they all point inwards, not a single one outwards. This formation isn't used to trap things inside; it's used to suppress things underneath. All the power is concentrated towards the central stone pillar, which is the dot of the character 'suppress'."
Yin Wujou followed his gestures and read it, his expression changing. "So after the stone pillar broke, the suppressing power dissipated from the center."
"Yes, but it hasn't completely dissipated." Daoist Yun moved his oil lamp aside, illuminating the dark red substance filling the deep lines on the ground. "These things are still effective, just not as strong as before. The patterns of the array are still there, and the power is still flowing within, but it's missing that central node to hold all the power together."
Yin Wujou squatted there in silence for a long time. The cave was extremely quiet, with only a very low throbbing sound coming from the depths of the earth every ten breaths or so, muffled and heavy, like a giant beast turning over in its sleep. The dim light of the luminous pearl illuminated his profile as he squatted by the round pit. His brows were tightly furrowed, his gaze wandering back and forth between the patterns of the array, and his fingers unconsciously tapping on his knees.
"The bronze ball," he suddenly spoke, his voice soft but clear, "I won't put the last bronze ball in. I'll embed it into the broken part of the stone pillar."
Snow Empress and Daoist Yun both looked at him.
"The stone pillar is broken, and the array is missing its central node, but the array's patterns remain, and the power is still flowing. Embed the last copper ball into the broken stone pillar. The tea powder inside the ball will continuously release water elemental energy, drawing the power of the entire array back towards the center." Yin Wujou stood up, holding the twelfth copper ball he hadn't yet placed. "Moreover, it's not stone, it's copper—copper is one of the best conductors among array materials. The tea powder inside the ball continuously releases water elemental energy, which seeps out from the holes in the ball's wall, filling the entire pit, and then flowing back into the array through the patterns on the pit's wall. This is equivalent to temporarily reconnecting the broken node with flowing water elemental energy."