The Imperial Seal Merges with the Heart
Long Tian stood in the center of the chamber for a moment, waiting for the light and shadow absorbed by the Origin Return Pearl within his body to completely subside. It did not bring any violent fluctuations, nor did it have the impact of a new Soul Ring being integrated. It was more like a layer of water added to the bottom of a pool, which, after a brief flow, merged with the original pool water and eventually stabilized at the same depth.
He walked back down the corridor, through the now-open protrusion, and pulled Yu Jin up as he returned to the top of the wall. Then the two of them walked back to the ship in the direction they had come from. The person at the stern, crouching by the gunwale, saw them walking back from the protrusion and didn't urge them on. He simply adjusted the bow slightly to bring the ship closer together.
Long Tian the ship and squatted down at the hatch. He turned the thin piece he had taken from the shallow trough in his hand twice to confirm that it had fully integrated with his body. Then he sat up straight on the deck and looked down at his palm—the gray-gold pattern on his palm was deeper than before, and the gaps between the lines were being filled with a denser base color, like paint that had been repeatedly ground and was finally reaching its proper saturation through continuous fusion. He turned his hand over and looked at the back of his hand. The outline of the scale pattern was faintly visible on the skin, and the color was closer to a dark gray-gold than before, like an ironware that had been repeatedly tempered and finally reached its proper hardness and color after the final tempering. He moved his fingers, feeling the contact between his fingertips and the surrounding environment, to confirm that his hand movements were not restricted.
Yu Jin squatted down beside him, and after watching him finish, asked, "Has everything that the bead absorbed in the chamber settled down now?"
Long Tian nodded. "It's absorbed. Like a layer of water added to the bottom of the pool, it flows briefly before merging with the existing water and eventually stabilizing at the same depth."
The person at the stern loosened the rudder, allowing the boat to drift slowly with the current for a short distance before stabilizing itself as the bow aligned with the direction of the wall's extension. Long Tian stood up and walked to the bow, crouching down a short distance behind him. He unfolded the silk map and laid it on the deck, drawing a simple mark next to the location of the Origin Return Pearl, a gentle slope gradually forming a transition layer between the pearl's core and outer shell. It was as if, after being injected with that light and shadow, the pearl's internal structure had been readjusted according to a pre-designed path, gradually undergoing deformation and reorganization in a continuous evolution.
He stood up, put the silk map into his leather pouch, gazed at the sea ahead for a while, and then spoke, his voice not loud but his pace even. "Once the end of that wall is revealed, and you've seen its final structure, you can return the way you came." He sat down by the gunwale, looking at the sea ahead, where sunlight shattered into a uniform layer of gold. The Dragon Shadow's shadow continued to shine above the bow, its vertical line of light about twice as thick as before, its expanded width covering a larger area and its brightness higher, like an old lamp with a replaced wick, continuing to burn with its originally designed light color and brightness.