The Scent of Nighttime Visitors

The three faint lights on the Red-Patterned Rock base finally went completely dark.

Mo Chen squatted beside him without moving, his fingers stroking the rough surface of the Soul Stone. Lu Yuan also breathed a sigh of relief. After ten days of trouble, they had finally seen something of substance.

The daylight was almost gone.

The two began to tidy up. They wrapped the essential tools in rags and stuffed them into the crevices of the rocks, and covered the palm-sized base tightly with thick moss to hide it. Only after doing all this did Mo Chen straighten up.

"Continue tomorrow?"

"Okay." Lu Yuan nodded. "First, improve the stability of the traffic splitting, then add your verification module."

Mo Chen grinned, but couldn't manage a smile.

The two walked out in the dark. When they were almost at the landslide area, Lu Yuan suddenly stopped.

"How?"

Lu Yuan didn't answer. He extinguished the blue light at his fingertips and froze in place, listening. There was the sound of wind outside the cave, and... a very faint rustling sound. It wasn't an animal.

He crouched down, his palms touching the ground. His Soul Power spread out along the roots of the Blue Silver Grass he had laid out.

In an instant, feedback flooded back.

The withered grass to the east was trampled down, and pebbles rolled down to the north. The Soul Power fluctuations near the southwest depression were chaotic—at least five sources. There were three Soul Master, one close to Soul Elder, and another with strange fluctuations. They were tentatively approaching the mine.

Mo Chen's face turned pale. "They're coming for us?"

"Doesn't seem like it." Lu Yuan shook his head. "They're moving slowly; they're searching for something. They might be passing by while Soul Hunting beasts."

Even as he said that, his heart skipped a beat. What kind of Soul Beast could possibly be worth five Soul Master sneaking out in the dead of night in this godforsaken place, Old West Gully?

Mo Chen's Adam's apple bobbed. "What should we do?"

Fighting head-on is suicide. Escape? There are only a few exits, and the enemy is approaching in a fan shape; you'll just run into them.

It can only be hidden.

"Go back to the innermost cavern." Lu Yuan made a decisive decision. "Suppress all Soul Power fluctuations to the minimum. Do you have anything on you to conceal your aura?"

Mo Chen was taken aback, then pulled out a small leather bag. "' Breath-Suppressing Powder,' not very effective."

"That's enough." Lu Yuan took it. "Go back and clean up the traces first. Hide the tools deep inside, and make sure the base is completely sealed. Not a single ray of light can get through."

"And you?"

"I'll go to the cave entrance and set up some 'little gifts'," Lu Yuan said calmly. "To buy time and mislead the enemy."

Mo Chen gritted his teeth and nodded, then turned around and started to feel his way back.

Lu Yuan breath, his Soul Power was restrained to the extreme, and he slid towards the cave entrance like a shadow.

The moonlight outside the cave was pale. On the distant hillside, a few flickering halos of Soul Power were slowly moving downwards. They were still two hundred paces away.

There's still time.

He reached out, and Blue Silver Grass silently sprouted from his palm. A dozen main vines slid along the ground toward the key location.

At the cleared entrance on the east side, Blue Silver Grass curled up withered vines and piled up pebbles, creating the illusion of a natural collapse. On the path to the north, vines crushed shrub leaves and smeared them on the rocks—the crushed leaves emitted a pungent smell similar to "Foul Skunk."

After finishing these steps, Lu Yuan took out a small paper packet. It contained a self-prepared powder, a mixture of poisonous insect excrement and Paralysis Grass powder, with a pungent odor that could Simulation the smell of a poisonous insect's nest.

The powder was sprinkled near the most easily accessible openings of the cave.

Finally, he manipulated the Blue Silver Grass to scare away several nests of common poisonous insects that lived there. Centipedes and scorpions scattered and fled, burrowing into the area where the powder was sprinkled.

After a few dozen breaths, the setup was complete.

Lu Yuan retrieved the Blue Silver Grass, sweat beading on his forehead. He glanced around: collapsed entrance, pungent odor, scurrying poisonous insects... at first glance, it looked like a dilapidated mine abandoned for many years and overrun by poisonous insects.

He quietly retreated.

Inside the cave, Mo Chen had already tidied up. He squatted in the corner, clutching a chipped file in his hand, his knuckles white.

Is it done?

"Mm." Lu Yuan squatted down next to him, completely suppressing his Soul Power. "Don't make a sound, wait for them to pass."

In the darkness, the two stood like two stones.

The sounds outside the cave gradually subsided.

The footsteps were disorderly, and people were talking in hushed tones.

"... Really here? Old Liu, is your ' Tracking Rat ' reliable?" A rough, hoarse voice asked.

"Stop talking nonsense!" the shrill voice retorted. "The Burrowing Rat took a hit from my ' Wind Blade,' it can't have gone far while bleeding. The bloodstains faded around here, it must have burrowed into its hole."

"But this dilapidated mine... damn it, what's that smell?"

The footsteps stopped at the cave entrance.

Lu Yuan held his breath. Mo Chen dared not blink.

A rustling sound of probing. Weapons poking at withered vines and broken stones.

"The hole has collapsed," the shrill voice said. "The marks are old; it doesn't look like something crawled in."

"There's another opening over there... Ouch! Scorpions! And centipedes! Damn, swarms of them!"

"Damn it!" came the third young voice. "The Soul Power is as weak as water, and there are so many poisonous insects. No wonder it's deserted."

Silence. Only the sounds of poisonous insects fleeing and heavy breathing could be heard.

Lu Yuan could sense a rough fluctuation of Soul Power sweeping across the cave entrance. The cavern where he and Mo Chen were hiding was deep inside, with many bends and landslide areas blocking the way, so the fluctuation dissipated halfway through.

"Boss, should we keep exploring further in?" the young voice asked.

A deep, authoritative voice, which had remained silent until now, rang out. "What are you looking for? A bunch of poisonous insects, their Soul Power is weak, not even a single valuable blade of grass. The Burrowing Rat are too badly injured to fit into this kind of collapsed burrow. Look elsewhere."

"But..." the shrill voice said unwillingly, "When I was chasing after them just now, I seemed to sense a very faint fluctuation of Soul Power, something rather unusual..."

"An illusion." A deep voice interrupted, "The Soul Power in this godforsaken place is chaotic. Let's get out of here quickly; it'll be even more troublesome once it's completely dark."

The footsteps faded into the distance, followed by muttering curses.

What a wasted trip! What bad luck!

"I'm going to beat up that cripple who sold information when I get back..."

The sound disappeared into the wind.

The cavern remained deathly silent for the time it takes to burn half an incense stick.

Mo Chen's shoulders slumped, and the file clattered to the ground. Only then did he realize that his back was completely soaked.

Lu Yuan slowly exhaled, got up and stretched his limbs, then walked to the entrance to listen carefully.

They really left.

"We're safe for now," he said wearily.

Mo Chen wiped his face. "Damn... that scared the hell out of me. That leader is definitely Soul Elder. If we had run into him, we would both be done for."

Lu Yuan didn't reply. He walked to the crevice in the base of the tomb and touched the surface of the Red-Patterned Rock.

It was cold. Its Soul Power had dissipated.

But he was thinking about that sentence from earlier—"a very faint fluctuation of Soul Power, something special."

Was it the residual effect of shattered Soul Marrow? Or was there a leak of Soul Power during the test?

Both are possible.

"We can't rely entirely on concealment here anymore," Lu Yuan said softly, almost to himself. "Today they were just Soul Beast passing by. What about next time? What if they come specifically to prospect for minerals..."

Mo Chen understood the implication, and his expression darkened. "You mean, what we have here... is no longer an absolute secret?"

Lu Yuan nodded. He gazed at the outline of the cave wall in the darkness.

"They didn't come in today because they think this place is worthless. But if we cause a bigger disturbance later, or if someone comes specifically to investigate..." He paused, "We need to prepare in advance. Early warning systems need to be more robust, escape routes need to be planned, and even... we need to consider defensive measures."

Mo Chen remained silent. Researching Soul Tool, especially something as unorthodox as the "universal type," was inherently a recipe for disaster.

"Troublesome," he muttered, weighing the file in his hand. "How about I rush to make a few simple trigger traps? Using scrap metal and low-level Soul Beast tendons, I can make mechanisms with paralyzing poison spikes."

Lu Yuan thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Not for now. Once the trap is triggered, it's like telling others that someone has set it up here. It would expose us instead."

"What do we do then? Just wait?"

"Observe first," Lu Yuan said. "Reduce going out these few days, and try to conduct Soul Power tests late at night to minimize fluctuations. I will expand the Blue Silver Grass warning network again. Issue early warnings for any unusual activity."

He walked to the entrance of the cavern and looked out into the thick darkness.

"Furthermore, we need to speed things up." The voice was soft but firm. "The ' Soul Power Guidance and Diversion Device ' needs to be perfected as soon as possible. Once we have a stable energy source, many things can begin. This includes healing you, and also... building a more reliable concealment and defense system."

Mo Chen watched his retreating figure, then chuckled after a while.

"Following you, there's never a peaceful day."

Lu Yuan turned around. A sliver of moonlight peeked through the crack in the cave entrance, illuminating half of his profile. His expression was blank, his eyes calm.

"Scared?"

Mo Chen spat.

"What's there to be afraid of?" He turned and walked towards the crevice where he hid his tools. "I'll figure out how to improve the stability of the distribution. Damn it, they're just a few wandering Soul Master..."

His voice lowered, turning into a muffled murmur.

Lu Yuan didn't move. He was still looking outside the cave.

The night wind whistled through the cracks in the rocks, its mournful sound seeming to carry the echoes of distant footsteps. It was faint, but like a thorn, it pierced this desolate place he had thought was secluded enough.

Once a secret is cracked, it will never be the same again.

He needs to walk faster.