Return to the Abyss
They hurried back. Long Tian inquired about the recent tide table in town; the next Moon Tide would arrive in the early morning of five days later. At the speed of their previous journey, it would take about a day and a half to travel from Longfish Bay to Great Abyss. Arriving a day early would allow them to enter the building when the tide was at its lowest. He bought fresh water and dry rations in town and, together with Yu Jin, arrived at Longfish Bay the following morning.
The men at the stern were tidying up a stack of old nets on the dock. After listening to their words, they folded the nets, put them in the cabin, and untied the mooring ropes. Just like last time, they didn't ask any further questions. The boat left the bay in the morning sun. The sea was calm, and the wind was blowing evenly from the southeast.
The journey was smoother than the last one. Long Tian reviewed the data on the tide record again, confirmed the matching relationship between the arrival time of the Moon Tide window and the sailing speed, and then put it away. Yu Jin sat at the hatch, the light of the dark gray bead shining through his collarbone in the sunlight, like a crystal that maintained its brightness inside after being illuminated by the sea breeze and sunlight.
The ship reached the light-colored area again on the afternoon of the second day. The seawater gradually changed from deep blue to grayish-white, and the outline of the underwater stone platform was faintly discernible in the shimmering light. Long Tian squatted at the bow and watched for a while as the light-colored plane gradually approached the surface of the water, estimating the progress of the Moon Tide. The people at the stern slowed down the ship, allowing it to hover along the edge of the platform and wait for the water level to continue to drop.
As night fell, the tide receded to the same level as before. The stone platform reappeared above the water, gleaming with that familiar light gray luster under the moonlight. Long Tian disembarked and stepped onto the stone surface, with Yu Jin following behind him. The two retraced their previous route, passing through the narrow crevice, the upper front hall, and the lower main hall, finally stopping once again in front of the round stone slab of that small room.
The light layer of the Dragon Shadow spread out from behind Long Tian, illuminating the entire room. Yu Jin walked to the edge of the stone slab, squatted down, and took the dark gray bead off his collar, holding it in his palm. The color of the circular stone slab surface brightened slightly the moment the dark gray bead approached, then returned to normal, as if it had opened a passage after confirming the properties of the approaching object, but it had not yet been fully triggered.
Long Tian crouched on the other side of the stone slab, watching Yu Jin's movements. He remembered Tang San saying, "The contact surface of the interface groove might not be the spot you touched the first time." He placed his palm back on the edge of the stone slab and slowly moved it towards the center along the route he had previously explored. When his palm reached a point about a hand's width from the center of the stone slab, the pulsation of the Origin Return Pearl was transmitted into the interior of the stone slab, and a layer of fine light patterns began to appear on the surface of the stone slab, spreading segment by segment from the edge towards the center, forming a circular trajectory at the end of the light patterns that was the same diameter as the bead.
Yu Jin gently placed the dark gray bead into the center of the circular trajectory. The moment the bead landed, the color of the stone slab changed from dark gray to grayish-white. Then, a very faint gray light began to seep from the seams along the edges of the slab, like a lit wick burning upwards from the bottom after the oil comes into contact with the flame. The gray light slowly spread along the circumference of the stone slab, covering the entire surface. Then, a resonance generated with the bead was conducted from inside the slab, through Yu Jin's palm back to his core, and then through the Qi-Merging Circuit between the two into Long Tian's Origin Return Pearl. During the continuous transmission, Long Tian felt the rotation speed of the Origin Return Pearl increase by one level, as if it had been injected with additional propulsion. Then, the stone slab began to slide from the center to both sides, and a staircase appeared from below the slab, extending diagonally downwards. The space at the bottom of the staircase was larger than any level he had been to before, a wide domed space. At the top of the dome, there was an opening that pierced through the stone wall, and moonlight poured in from the opening, forming a slanted beam of moonlight in the space.
Long Tian descended the steps to the bottom dome. Yu Jin followed behind him, the dark gray bead still embedded in the circular stone slab. The light from the bead continuously illuminated the surface of the steps through the conduction path between the stone slab and the steps, and the edge of each step was clearly outlined by that light, as if it had been marked.
At the center of the dome stood a stone pillar, its surface engraved with a spiraling dragon pattern, mirroring the upward-spiraling dragon pattern found in the sea cave. After entering the dome, the Dragon Shadow rose from behind Long Tian to the top of the pillar, its wings spread and its four eyes open. The vertical line on its forehead shone with unprecedented brilliance, as if sensing a corresponding wavelength within the pillar. The light surged from the line, spiraling down the dragon pattern on the pillar's surface, gradually merging with, overlapping, and merging with the original patterns, becoming one. The pillar began to emit a continuous humming sound, and the light layer throughout the dome slowly spread outwards from its center, like ripples created by a pebble thrown into water, expanding ever further.
Amidst the continuous hum and the spreading light, a complete map began to illuminate the inner wall of the dome—its path perfectly aligned with the silk map, the dragon pattern in the sea cave, and Tang San's illustration. However, this was the first time it had been presented simultaneously on the same wall in such a complete manner. None of the lines ended abruptly; they converged at an arc in the southeast, merging into a mark identical in shape to the vertical line on the Dragon Shadow's forehead. Inscribed on the edge of the mark was a line of small characters—not the common language of the continent, but an ancient script—but its location differed from the other path markings, like a final destination. Long Tian stood before the map, reading the last stroke of the ancient script, feeling a simultaneous slight vibration in his chest's Origin Return Pearl and New Core, as if a continuous connection had been established between the mark on the map and them at that moment, ultimately converging all the information into a complete endpoint.