The Direction Facing the End Face
Long Tian chose to set off during the darkest period before dawn. He re-tied the leather pouch, arranging the silk map, tide record, and the thin piece inside, ensuring each had its designated place. Yu Jin had already packed his bundle in the courtyard; the light from the dark gray beads shone through the collar, like a fixed beacon on an old wall in the pre-dawn light. Long Tieshan stood inside the threshold, an oilcloth bag filled with dry rations beside him, which he handed to Long Tian as he passed. Long Tian took it, placed it in his pouch, paused for a moment before the threshold, and then continued down the slope.
They crossed the first flat section of the main road before dawn, and turned onto the side road leading to Longfish Bay as the sun fully rose. The people at the stern were placing a new earthenware pot into the cabin at the dock. Seeing them come down the slope, they straightened up and untied the mooring rope from the iron stake. After leaving the shore, the boat's course on the sea was the same as before—passing through the shallow waters near the shore, entering the deep blue open sea, and slightly increasing speed upon reaching the entrance to the inky waters, as if being received by a current channel. Long Tian squatted at the bow, periodically testing the water temperature with his hand to confirm that the boat was not deviating from the direction it was facing.
That afternoon, the ship passed the area at the end of the long wall. The top of the wall appeared as a very narrow line on the sea, reflecting a pale gray light in the sunlight, like a long ruler floating horizontally on the water. Long Tian stood up at the bow, looked along the direction of the wall's top for a while, and confirmed that the end was still discernible. Then he squatted down again, urging the ship to continue moving in the direction directly opposite the end. During this continuous journey, the color of the sea transitioned from deep blue to dark grayish-blue, and then gradually lightened after the ship had traveled for about half an hour, like a layer of diluted ink being diluted by more layers of water as it continued to expand, slowly receding back to its original depth. The ship's draft did not change significantly in this area, but the color of the seawater was indeed half a degree lighter than the surrounding area.
Long Tian crouched at the bow, dipping his hand into the water. The water temperature was only slightly different from the surrounding sea, but his fingertips detected a different sensation, as if passing through a layer of water disturbed by an external force. He withdrew his hand and wiped the water droplets off the edge of the deck. The person at the stern secured the rudder after the boat entered the edge of this light-colored area, maintaining the boat's current speed and direction.
The ship traveled through this light-colored area for nearly half an hour. There were no visible structures on the surface, no changes in color bands, no unusual ripples; the seawater maintained the same lightness throughout the journey, neither deepening nor lightening. Long Tian stood at the bow, gazing at the surrounding sea—a uniform, continuously spreading expanse of light gray water, like a flat surface evenly illuminated by sunlight, without any undulations or markings. He glanced down at the Dragon Shadow; Dragon Shadow aura remained steadily bright, its eyes slightly lowered, and the aura on the vertical line on its forehead brightened slightly, as if confirming a connection between their current location and some internal marker. Following the Dragon Shadow's direction Long Tian looked at the seawater ahead—a very faint eddy appeared a few dozen feet in front of the ship. The eddy rotated slowly, its edges covered with a layer of fine white foam, like a continuously churned layer of water swirling gently, neither expanding nor shrinking.
Long Tian stopped the boat at the edge of the eddy. He flipped overboard, stepped into the water, and swam towards the center of the eddy, bypassing the most rapid section at the edge and cutting into the upper layer of the eddy from the side. His Dragon Shadow followed behind, and the layer of light unfolded as he entered the upper layer of the eddy. At the center of the eddy, about an arm's length below the surface, a smooth, dark surface appeared—like a cleaned stone. The stone surface was circular, about ten feet in diameter, with a ring of fine serrations around its edge. The spacing of the serrations matched that of the serrations on the Dragon Bone Marker Disc, as if it were a marking plate magnified several times, placed at the bottom of this continuously swirling water layer, maintaining its position and orientation in the continuous eddy, like a reference surface fixed in the continuous current. Long Tian floated on that circular stone surface. Above, the aura of the Origin Return Pearl was channeled into the stone surface. Upon contact, the aura traveled along the grain of the stone, completing a circle. After this circle, the grain along the edge of the stone began to light up segment by segment, transmitting energy from the edge towards the center, finally converging at the center. After convergence, a vertical crack appeared in the center of the stone, extending outwards for about an arm's length before stopping. Then, along the crack, the two sides of the stone surface began to move in their respective directions, revealing a vertically downward opening. The inner wall of the opening was smooth, with a downward-sloping channel extending diagonally into a deeper area. Long Tian floated at the edge of the opening, allowing the light layer of his Dragon Shadow to extend downwards along the channel. The channel was short, reaching its bottom after a short distance. The bottom was covered with a layer of stone of the same material as the stone surface, like... Cast together. He stopped at the edge of the opening, sensing that the ground below was dry, stable, and at a constant temperature, without any abnormal fluctuations. He descended along the passage, and stood up after reaching the bottom. The light layer of the Dragon Shadow unfolded again as he moved down, illuminating the space he was in. It was a new stone chamber, rectangular in shape and not very large. The walls were unmarked, except for a line of characters carved on the wall directly opposite—the same as the two characters "entrance" on the fragment provided by Shen Mo, with the same stroke order and aligned with the center of that wall. Below the characters, there was no door, no opening, no additional markings, only a thin vertical line flush with the stone surface, as if a pre-reserved opening position had been left. Long Tian stood in front of the line of characters, examining its stroke order and spacing. Then, he extracted the energy of the Imperial Seal from the Origin Return Pearl, allowing the light that had already merged into his body to flow along his arm to his palm, and then spread forward from his palm, touching the thin line on the wall. The thin line began to light up from the center outward the moment the Imperial Seal's aura made contact, like a lit fuse spreading outward from the center until it covered the entire length of the thin line. After the thin line was fully lit, the surface of the wall moved to both sides along the direction of the line, revealing a door that could be pushed open horizontally. The light layer of the Dragon Shadow probed inward through the open door crack, illuminating the space behind the door. It was spacious and dry, with light continuously spreading outward, like a pre-installed lighting structure that remained in a state of being ready to be activated at any time even after a long period of disuse, waiting for someone to step into its range.