The Endpoint
After a period of continuous illumination, the patterns on the inner wall of the dome began to slowly darken, receding from the edges towards the center, like the last burning wick of a lamp being gradually consumed before the oil runs out. The light on the mark faded the slowest; after all the lines had dimmed, it remained lit for a while longer before slowly fading away as well. The entire dome returned to its original state of exposed rock, with only the spiraling dragon patterns on the stone pillars retaining a very faint layer of residual heat.
Long Tian stood motionless before the stone pillar, mentally reviewing the path and endpoints of each segment of the map over and over again. Before the light on the inner wall of the dome completely faded, the last ray of light briefly illuminated a fine line at the base of the pillar that he hadn't noticed before—a line of ancient characters identical to the one next to the mark was carved at the junction of the pillar base and the ground, much smaller than the large characters on the dome, like a later addition. After seeing the last character of that line, he mentally mapped its position and shape, then stepped back from the pillar. Yu Jin walked over from the circular stone slab and stopped beside Long Tian before the light layer of the dome completely dimmed. The light layer of Dragon Shadow receded back into a narrow shape that hugged his back.
They followed the steps they had come up to and returned to the upper room. Yu Jin crouched at the edge of the circular stone slab, gently removing the dark gray bead from its circular path. He held it in his palm for a moment, confirming its temperature and texture hadn't changed, before hanging it back up his collar. The circular stone slab slowly closed after the bead was removed, returning to its closed, flat state. Long Tian stood in the center of the room for a moment, confirming his memory was intact, then retraced his steps, passing through the lower hall and the upper foyer, returning to the stone platform through the narrow crevice. The tide had begun to rise, and a thin film of water covered parts of the platform's edge, the moonlight shimmering on it with a delicate silvery-white glow.
Long Tian climbed onto the boat, stepping onto the edge of the rising tide. Yu Jin followed. Before the tide reached the edge of the platform, the people at the stern untied the rope from the rock corner and used a pole to propel the boat away from the shore. As the boat turned back on the sea, the stone platform behind them was being gradually covered by the rising tide. The light gray stone edges were sinking into the water one after another, like a lamp being extinguished, its last glimmer of light gradually narrowing as it went completely dark. The bow drew a straight line on the inky water ahead, and the Dragon Shadow shone continuously above it, like a flag extending from the bow in the moonless night sky. It maintained its constant direction in the wind and its uniform brightness as it moved, as if it had been fixed in place and no longer needed any additional force to maintain its position.
Long Tian sat at the bow of the boat all night. Leaning against the deck, he repeatedly examined every detail of the complete map of the dome in his mind, confirming that there was no mismatch between the location of the map's endpoint and the direction indicated by the ancient characters. After repeatedly confirming, he took out the silk map and unfolded it on his lap. Behind the end of the path interrupted by the wavy line, he used his fingernail to draw a short mark along the direction of extension seen on the dome map—it was a longer extension line that continued outward from the location of the wavy line for a distance before finally reaching an endpoint that he had never seen on the map before.
When Yu Jin woke up in the morning light, he saw Long Tian sitting at the bow of the boat. On the silk map in his hand, there was an extended line drawn with his fingernail, with a small circle at the end. He also squatted down at the bow and glanced at the direction of the extended line, then looked up at the sky gradually brightening on the horizon, and then looked down at the position of the small circle.
When do you plan to go to that location?
Long Tian put away the silk map and looked up at the sunrise rising over the sea. Sunlight poured in from where the sea and sky met, spreading a golden reflective surface on the water in front of the bow, like a bright, continuously unfolding ground stretching forward.
"I'll set off after I've mapped out all the paths on the map." He stood up, stretched his numb legs, and tightened the straps of his leather bag. "Right now, I only know roughly where the destination is, but before I set off, I need to confirm one thing—what exactly those ancient characters mean."
As the ship continued its return journey, it passed the end of the light-colored stripe, the edge of the dark waters, and returned to the deep blue of the open sea. The outline of Longfish Bay appeared ahead of the bow at noon on the third day. The canopies of several old trees on the shore, bent low by the sea breeze, cast jagged shadows in the sunlight. As the ship docked, Long Tian and Yu Jin each picked up their bundles and jumped onto the pier. The man at the stern squatted down and wound the mooring rope around the iron stake, completing the last action of this voyage, as if he had completed the closing procedures for every voyage, maintaining the same habit in continuous repetition.
After landing, Long Tian stood for a moment at the fork in the road on the outskirts of Longfish Bay, not immediately deciding whether to return to the stone house or go to the Shrek Academy. As he stood there weighing his options, Yu Jin suddenly turned his head and glanced in the direction of the fork. A horse was walking towards them along that road, and the rider, dressed in a dark gray short robe, was familiar. As the horse drew closer, the rider reined in the horse in front of Long Tian and dismounted. It was Shen Mo. His clothes were older than before, as if he had been traveling for some time, but he didn't appear injured. He stopped in front of Long Tian, taking two steps apart, and said, "I've deciphered those ancient characters. They're ancient Sea Clan sacrificial inscriptions, roughly meaning ' the Place Where the Dragon Sleeps.'"