Earthfire Remnant Vein

"Is there still a fire burning down there?" Mo Chen's voice was strained.

Lu Yuan pressed his fingertips on the patterns on the Red-Patterned Rock, and the roots of the Blue Silver Grass burrowed downwards. The deeper they went, the more stable the fluctuations of Soul Power became, and they also carried a constant warmth.

That's not right. The mineral vein is depleted, so the Soul Power should be scattered.

He took out the bluish-white jade fossil and placed it next to the Red-Patterned Rock.

A faint, steady glow appeared within the water ripples on the stone.

Mo Chen's eyes widened. "Resonance?"

"It's not resonance, it's a response of 'field'," Lu Yuan shook his head. "The surrounding environment itself has a stable foundation. This Red-Patterned Rock is just the tip of the iceberg."

He stood up.

"Beneath the entire mine shaft lies a branch of subterranean fire that hasn't quite died out."

Mo Chen's Adam's apple bobbed. "Exhausted?"

"It's exhausted, but not completely dead." Lu Yuan brushed the dust off his hands. "Its energy is low, barely enough to keep itself active. But precisely because it's exhausted, its release is steady—like a nearly burnt-out ember, not very hot, but persistent."

He walked deeper into the cavern.

The space gradually widened. The white light from Mo Chen's short staff illuminated a larger area of dark red rock wall, making the patterns clearer.

Lu Yuan squatted down, his palms touching the ground. The roots of the Blue Silver Grass spread out along the ground, sensing the direction of the flow of Soul Power.

After a while, he opened his eyes.

"There's a flow of Soul Power. It's slow, but it's definitely moving." He pointed northwest. "The source is further down."

Mo Chen looked in the direction he was pointing. "Can you dig through?"

"No." Lu Yuan shook his head decisively. "The earth's veins are fragile. Digging recklessly will cause a collapse, and might even disturb that remaining fire, extinguishing it completely."

He stood up and traced the natural patterns on the rock face with his fingers.

"But we don't need to dig through. The Red-Patterned Rock itself is a 'conduit.' These patterns are natural channels left by the earth's ley line Soul Power; they're inefficient, but stable enough."

Mo Chen was stunned for two seconds before suddenly realizing what was happening.

You want to attract traffic?

"Yes." Lu Yuan nodded. "It's like attaching a thin bamboo tube to a nearly dried-up spring to draw out the last bit of water. We don't need to be greedy; just a stable flow of Soul Power with fire and earth attributes is a treasure to us."

Mo Chen's breathing quickened.

He knew all too well what a constant temperature environment, a stable energy source, and the fire and earth attributes meant for the smelting of Soul Tool and the preparation of potions.

"How can we induce it?" Mo Chen habitually poured cold water on the idea. "The patterns on the Red-Patterned Rock are fixed; can't they be changed?"

Lu Yuan did not answer. He walked to the rock wall, condensed a wisp of extremely fine Soul Power at his fingertips, and touched the end of a dark red pattern.

The texture is slightly shiny.

His fingers moved along the lines of the patterns, his Soul Power output remaining constant. The point of light followed his fingertips, meandering through the natural patterns like water flowing in a ditch.

After walking half a foot, Lu Yuan's finger suddenly veered to the side—there were no natural patterns there.

The light paused for a moment, and then actually shifted, "burning" a very faint new mark on the rock wall.

It's light red, but it definitely exists.

Mo Chen gasped.

"Soul Power Etching." Lu Yuan withdrew his hand. "Red-Patterned Rock has a memory for Soul Power of a specific attribute. By soaking it with a small amount of Soul Power of the same attribute for a long time, it can be 'guided' to form new patterns, like branching off from an existing riverbed."

He turned around.

"It will take time, and require extremely precise control of Soul Power. But it's theoretically feasible."

Mo Chen opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He looked down at his trembling hands, his eyes darkening.

Lu Yuan noticed.

"Your old injury," he suddenly asked, "Was it caused by a backlash of fire-attribute Soul Power, right?"

Mo Chen suddenly looked up.

"How could you...?"

"Just a guess," Lu Yuan interrupted. "Your complexion was even worse when you touched the Soul Marrow Fragment and the Azure Jade Fossil—unless your disordered Soul Power attribute is special and conflicts with the stable field."

He paused.

"The most troublesome thing about fire-attribute berserk is the subsequent 'scorched' feeling. The Soul Power meridians are like burnt wood, the surface is carbonized, and there are still embers inside, causing stinging pain and cramps at the slightest provocation."

Mo Chen's face paled, but he didn't deny it.

Lu Yuan reached out. "Wrist."

Mo Chen hesitated for a moment, then extended his left hand. Lu Yuan placed three fingers on his wrist, probing in with his Soul Power —extremely cautiously, like a feather lightly touching red-hot iron.

The feedback was terrible. The meridian walls were charred and hardened in many places, the flow of Soul Power was sluggish and painful, and deep inside there were a few small balls of violent fire-attribute energy, like sparks in ashes.

How long have you been injured?

"... Seven years." Mo Chen's voice was hoarse. "The soul guide core overload experiment... the protective array collapsed, and fire attribute energy flowed back."

Lu Yuan released his grip and pondered for a moment.

"The Soul Power of the remnants of the Earth Fire veins is biased towards fire and earth, but because it is a decaying remnant, its offensive power is almost zero. Instead, it has a 'nurturing' characteristic." He looked at Mo Chen, "If a wisp can be drawn out and slowly soaked into the wound over a long period of time, it might be able to gradually dissolve the scorched area."

Mo Chen's eyes widened.

"Are you... serious?"

"It's just speculation," Lu Yuan said frankly. "I'm not sure. But theoretically, gentler energy of the same origin is safer for resolving the aftereffects of a berserk state of the same attribute than forcibly suppressing it or using attribute counteraction."

He paused.

"There are risks too. If it's not controlled properly, and those 'sparks' deep within the injury are stimulated, it could trigger a secondary impact."

The cavern fell silent. The white light from the short staff lengthened the shadows of the two figures.

Mo Chen stared at his left hand, his fingers trembling slightly, unable to even hold the finest carving knife steady. Seven years had passed; he had long since given up hope.

But now...

"Damn it." Mo Chen squeezed out the word through gritted teeth, his eyes bloodshot but frighteningly bright when he looked up. "The worst that can happen is this. Let's give it a try, if we die, so be it."

Lu Yuan nodded.

"Then let's solve the problem of channeling the energy." He walked back to the Red-Patterned Rock. "We need to design a ' Soul Power Guidance and Diversion Device' —two functions: first, to safely extract a trace of residual earth fire Soul Power from the natural patterns of the Red-Patterned Rock; second, to split this trace of Soul Power into two streams, one for the base's energy and the other for your healing."

Mo Chen leaned closer, his mind racing.

"Diverting the flow isn't difficult; I designed a similar structure years ago. The challenge lies in stable extraction and preventing backflow." He traced lines on the rock face with his finger. "Even the weakest ley line Soul Power is 'alive,' possessing its own rhythm. Forceful extraction would disrupt the balance; a 'resonance extraction' circuit must be designed..."

He stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence, his expression strange.

"Wait a minute." Mo Chen turned his head. "You just said you wanted to use Red-Patterned Rock as the base?"

"Um."

"But Red-Patterned Rock is a natural material with uneven texture, and its Soul Power conductivity fluctuates greatly. Using this stuff as a base for Soul Tool..." Mo Chen's lips twitched, "Which proper Soul Engineer would dare to do that? The accuracy simply cannot be guaranteed."

Lu Yuan looked at him.

"That's why we're making a fuss here," Lu Yuan said. "If we used readily available, perfect materials for everything, what would be the difference between us and those sects and families that built their empires on resources?"

He ran his fingers along the rough surface of the rock wall.

"If the materials are defective, compensate with structural design; if the precision is insufficient, rely on repeated debugging and algorithm correction. This is what 'knowledge' should do—not complain about not having good cards, but find ways to play a bad hand to win."

Mo Chen was stunned.

He recalled his designs from years ago, which were dismissed as "outlandish." Those old-timers who reviewed them always said: the materials are no good, the precision is insufficient, and the risks are too great.

But this kid in front of me...

"A madman," Mo Chen muttered under his breath, then grinned, "He's a fucking madman."

He plopped down, pulled out his greasy notebook and half a charcoal pencil, and began to draw rapidly on his knees by the light of his cane.

"Resonance Extraction Circuit... double helix structure, one main and one secondary. The main circuit conforms to the natural texture, the secondary circuit provides fine-tuning and buffering..." Charcoal sketched out the rough lines, "A one-way Soul Power valve is used to prevent backflow, but ordinary valve cores can't withstand long-term erosion, so it has to be changed to..."

He kept muttering to himself, his hands never stopping.

Lu Yuan didn't disturb him. He picked up pebbles and scratched them on the ground to deduce the mathematical model of Soul Power flow.

The only sounds in the rock cavity were the scratching of charcoal pencils and the soft clatter of gravel.

About fifteen minutes later, Mo Chen stopped writing and looked up.

"There's a problem," he said gravely. "The splitter requires a small Soul Power core as its control center. We... don't have any that are usable."

Lu Yuan didn't look up and continued paddling.

"Your initial concept for a ' Universal Soul Tool Core '," he suddenly said, "Doesn't it need a stable basic energy source for testing?"

Mo Chen's eyes suddenly lit up, then he frowned.

"Dream on!" he spat. "That's just a lousy sketch, the materials, the precision..."

"Materials can be gathered gradually," Lu Yuan interrupted him, looking up at him. "Precision can be refined repeatedly. The key is that we now have a free and stable 'testing platform'."

He pointed to the ground beneath his feet.

"The Soul Power of the remnants of the Earth Fire veins, though weak, is pure, stable, and inexhaustible—perfect for long-term testing of your idea."

Mo Chen's breath hitched for a second.

Universal Soul Tool Core. He had been working on it for over a decade, drawing countless sketches, but ultimately had to abandon it due to backlash and resource depletion.

Now...

"Let's start with the simplest design: the ' Soul Power Guidance and Diversion Device.' Lu Yuan 'll use this Red-Patterned Rock as the base. If we succeed, we'll have a stable energy source and hope for your healing; if we fail, it'll just be a waste of time."

He paused.

"But I think it can work."

Mo Chen stared at the scribbled drawing on his knee, then looked up at the dark red patterns on the rock wall. Seven years of decadence, resentment, and despair were now violently stirred up.

He picked up the charcoal pencil and wrote heavily next to the sketch:

[Earthfire Remnant Vein Diversion Device - Initial Design]

The pen tip pierced the parchment.

"Then let's do it." Mo Chen said in a hoarse voice, the light in his eyes burning hot.

Lu Yuan nodded, looking at the faint light filtering into the cavern.

A project starting from scratch quietly laid its first foundation stone deep within this abandoned mine.