Imperial Seal
Long Tian squatted by the disc for a while. After the chamber returned to silence, he placed his palm on the disc again. The aura of the Origin Return Pearl was reinjected into the disc, and the halo lit up again like a light that had been turned on repeatedly, spreading out segment by segment along the edge of the disc. He stood up before the halo had fully stabilized, walked along the path of the halo to the shallow groove, and placed his other palm about a fist's height above the thin metal sheet at the bottom of the groove, leaving his palm suspended in the air.
The aura of the Origin Return Pearl flowed along his arm into the shallow groove, pausing briefly before contacting the thin surface. He simultaneously activated the external power of his Light and Dark Twin Martial Souls, allowing golden and black light to seep out from his palms at the same time. After the auras merged into the shallow groove, they were not repelled by the thin plate during their journey, but instead slowly seeped into the interior along the texture of the thin plate's surface, as if they had encountered a homologous energy structure.
Upon receiving the aura, the surface of the thin sheet changed. A persistent luster began to emanate from the metallic surface, spreading from the center outwards and gradually covering the entire surface. A ring of fine light patterns appeared at the edge, spreading evenly along the outline of the sheet. The arrangement of the light patterns resembled the serrations on the Dragon Bone Marker Disc, with consistent spacing and depth, as if they had been engraved from the same mold. The thin sheet began to rise along the axis of the seam, not popping out, but slowly rising segment by segment along its insertion direction.
After detaching completely from the shallow groove, the thin slice hovered about a finger's width above it, its surface gleaming with a continuous light, like a mark held aloft by energy. Long Tian reached out and caught it. It felt slightly cool to the touch, with smooth edges, and the material was lighter than stone, more like a composite texture formed after high-temperature sintering. He flipped the slice over to examine the bottom—a mirror image of an ancient character was engraved on the bottom. The font was from the same system as the ancient characters on the side of the base, and the arrangement was also a mirror image from right to left. He mentally reversed the stroke order of the mirror image back to the normal direction, obtaining a complete word that matched the stroke order of the ancient characters on the side of the base, both pointing to the same thing.
He held the thin piece in his hand, turning it over and over for a moment, then looked up at the inside of the shallow groove. The inner wall of the groove, after the piece detached, revealed a smooth, unadorned stone lining. He carefully grasped the piece again, walked back to the edge of the disc, squatted down, and placed the piece flat in the center of the disc. As soon as the piece touched the disc, a halo of light from the disc's surface circled the edge of the piece, as if aligning themselves. Once aligned, there was no longer a gap between the piece and the disc; their surfaces formed a continuous, seamless plane.
Long Tian pressed his palm against the thin plate. The aura of the Origin Return Pearl passed through the plate and entered the disc. At that moment, a halo of light, denser than ever before, illuminated the disc, covering its entire surface. The halo then began to spread to the walls of the chamber. Under this light, the stone layers on the walls began to change gradually. Patterns and lines that had not appeared before lit up on all four walls simultaneously—the branches of the dome map spread between the side walls and the base; the outline of the Dragon Bone Marker Disc appeared below the north wall; and on the south wall, a dragon pattern more complete than any of the other patterns was emerging. The dragon was coiled, its head facing the center of the chamber, its mouth slightly open, as if continuously emitting a faint grayish-white halo from within its body.
Long Tian stood up, walked to the south wall, and stood before the coiled dragon pattern. The Dragon Shadow rose behind him to the same level as the pattern, its wings spread, its four eyes wide open, and the vertical line on its forehead continuously glowing. As the dragon shadow approached, the light layer on the surface of the Dragon Shadow gradually converged towards its mouth, forming a ball of light. The ball of light then detached from the wall and hovered about a palm's width in front of Long Tian. As it continued to hover, the shape of the ball of light gradually expanded into a disc-shaped three-dimensional projection. The outline of the projection was clear, like an enlarged three-dimensional stone disc, with a mark in the center of the disc identical to the vertical line on the Dragon Shadow shadow's forehead.
Long Tian stretched out his hand, his palm touching the surface of the suspended light and shadow. Upon contact with his palm, the light and shadow traveled along its path into his body and was absorbed by the Origin Return Pearl. After absorption, the Origin Return Pearl maintained a constant rotation speed, spinning evenly. The light and shadow lingered on the south wall for a moment after being absorbed, like a lingering warmth slowly cooling down. Long Tian withdrew his gaze from the wall and walked back to the thin piece embedded in the disc, squatting down. He removed the thin piece from the disc and, along... The shallow groove was repositioned. After it was placed in position, it re-fitted with the groove body, and its surface returned to being flush with the bottom of the groove. The patterns and textures on the chamber walls gradually narrowed and faded after the thin sheet was put back in place, as if they were all turned off simultaneously by the same switch, leaving only the light layer of the Dragon Shadow continuously lit in the chamber. Long Tian stood up and stood in the center of the chamber for a moment, mentally mapping all the structures that had just appeared on the walls to the existing map and marking disk, confirming that all deviations had been eliminated.