The Membrane
The boat traveled for most of the night on its return journey. Long Tian sat at the bow, repeatedly reviewing in his mind the texture and elasticity he had felt from the membrane at the base. When he pressed down on the membrane, it dented slightly inward before returning to its original shape, as if it had been stretched to its limit and then rebounded on its own. It didn't seem to have been opened by external force, but rather as if the contact at a specific frequency had temporarily weakened its own tension structure.
After returning to Longfish Bay at dawn, Long Tian didn't linger and went straight back to the stone house along the official road. He went inside, sat down at the table, and went over the sensation of the barrier and Long Tieshan's earlier statement, "Find the point where its feedback is weakest," connecting the two parts. Long Tieshan came in from outside, carrying a bowl of freshly boiled water. He placed it on the table but didn't leave immediately, standing quietly by the table for a while.
After Long Tian finished explaining the situation with the diaphragm, Long Tieshan sat down across the table, placed his hand on the table, and asked, "When you pressed it down, did it spring back softly or tautly?"
It bounces back softly, like pressing on a thick, thoroughly soaked film. There's a slight resistance when you press down, and the rebound is slightly slower than the initial pressure.
Long Tieshan remained silent for a moment, as if confirming a known material type from Long Tian's description, before speaking, "That's a water film seal commonly used in the old ritual artifacts of the Sea Clan, made from a mixture of the sheath of a deep-sea mollusk and fine stone powder. Its structure requires continuous and stable contact with Soul Power of the same origin to remain transparent; otherwise, it will automatically revert to a sealed state."
Long Tian reviewed the material composition and water film sealing triggering method that Long Tieshan had described in his mind, then stood up and slung the leather bag over his shoulder. When he reached the door, Yu Jin was already standing in the open space waiting for him, with the bag on his shoulder.
They walked along the official road for nearly two days. On the afternoon of the second day, before approaching Longfish Bay, Long Tian slowed down when they passed the fork in the road outside the Shrek Academy. Tang San was squatting on the ridge by the fork in the road, sorting a bundle of grass that had just been pulled from the field. When he saw them coming from the official road, he stopped what he was doing, wiped the mud off his hands on his trousers, and stood up to wait by the ridge.
Long Tian walked to the edge of the field and described the texture of the water film seal and the materials provided by Long Tieshan. After listening, Tang San squatted down and drew several arcs on the mud with the grass stem in his hand. The arcs were evenly spaced, with consistent spacing between each arc. "I've seen records of a material made from the sheaths of deep-sea mollusks mixed with fine stone powder. Its structure is layered, requiring triggering of a shared frequency to relax each layer. If you only press it once, you're only triggering the first layer. It needs to unfold layer by layer through prolonged, continuous contact—your Origin Return Pearl's aura must maintain a uniform and stable output, allowing it to naturally transition from the initial brief contact to a continuous release state, so that it can penetrate all its layers."
Long Tian squatted on the ground, looking at the arcs, memorizing the spacing and arrangement of each layer. Then he stood up, nodded in Tang San's direction, and continued walking along the path. Yu Jin followed. As they approached the slope of Longfish Bay, they slowed down. The people at the stern were squatting by the dock wiping the oars with an old cloth. Seeing them approach, they put down what they were doing, placed the oars against the gunwale, and untied the mooring ropes to wait for them to board.
The ship departed from Longfish Bay at dusk, navigating through the dark waters and light stripes in the night, and arrived at the sea directly above the marker plate in the early hours of the next day. Long Tian flipped into the water, followed the path of light through the keel base into the underwater space, stopped on the side of the base, and placed his palm on the membrane surface at the edge of the gap.
He adjusted the energy output of the Origin Return Pearl to a continuous release mode. The energy spread evenly along the surface of the membrane, and with his continuous contact, the membrane began to gradually become translucent, like paper being soaked through layer by layer with water, becoming more transparent from the outermost layer inwards. The time each layer of the membrane remained translucent under the continuous coverage of the energy increased, and after several layers were completely translucent, the membrane began to narrow from the center towards the edges, eventually forming an opening in the center of the area covered by his palm. The edges of the opening were thin and neat, without any signs of tearing, maintaining its complete shape, as if it had receded evenly from the center along a pre-set path.
Long Tian withdrew his hand and hovered it in front of the opening for a moment to confirm that the diameter of the opening was large enough for a person to pass through. The thin film at the edge of the opening remained curled, like a curtain that was being continuously stretched open. He stretched his wrist across the edge of the opening to test it—no water flowed in, and the space inside the opening remained dry. When his wrist passed through the opening and entered the air chamber, he touched still air.
He squeezed into the air chamber through the opening. The Dragon Shadow followed him in through the opening, its wing membranes contracting into a narrow slit as it passed through, then unfolding again inside the air chamber. A layer of light spread from its forehead, illuminating the entire interior structure. The air chamber was small, about two zhang square and one zhang high. The four walls were smooth stone surfaces, without any carvings. The floor was covered with a layer of dry stone slabs, with a thin layer of dust on the surface. The air inside was dry and warm, as if it had been sealed for too long, and the internal temperature had reached a stable equilibrium with the surrounding environment. In the center of the air chamber stood a low stone platform, its surface flat, inlaid with a long, horizontally placed stone box. The box was made of the same material as the base, its surface smooth, without carvings or markings, except for a very narrow seam on the side, as if it could be opened somewhere. Long Tian walked to the stone platform, squatted down, and placed his palm on the side of the box. The aura of the Origin Return Pearl slowly spread along the surface of the box, evenly dispersing at the seam, without providing any abnormal information. The stone box was stable in texture, with no wax seal or clasp at the seam, like a... The old container, simply opened, had been sitting for so long that a thick layer of dust had accumulated on its surface. Long Tian squatted before the stone platform, gently brushing away the dust from the edges of the stone box, and then slowly lifted the lid upwards along the seams. The lid opened without a sound, as if its weight had been precisely balanced; the gaps between each joint remained extremely small throughout, and even at the moment of opening, that stable smoothness persisted. Inside the stone box was a soft, dark-colored lining, and on the lining lay something... West—a round, grayish-white stone disc, smooth at the edges, about a foot in diameter. The surface was uncarved, covered only by a uniform, light silver coating, like a repeatedly polished mirror, reflecting the light of the Dragon Shadow and the silhouette of Long Tian crouching before the stone platform. Long Tian remained crouched before the platform, not reaching out to pick up the disc. He looked down at it, confirming from its reflection that there was no deviation between its position and angle and his own—it was indeed reflecting everything it received, without tilt or deviation.