Another "Key"?

Lu Yuan remained silent for about three breaths.

"Lead the way." He said in a very low voice.

Li Wangye turned and left. Lin Xiao followed, his tongue unconsciously licking his canine teeth.

The abandoned passage to the east was half-collapsed, leaving only a narrow crack. The trace could be found at a bend in the spiral staircase deep inside the passage.

Footprints were embedded in the dust, and there was more than one. Lu Yuan squatted down and carefully scanned them with his Soul Power.

It certainly won't exceed three days.

There were fresh, shallow scratches on the rock face. Lin Xiao squatted on the other side, his nose twitching. "Residual Soul Power. It smells different from this godforsaken place."

Lu Yuan focused his mind.

The ancient and stagnant Soul Power ruins permeated the air. Near these scratches, however, there remained a trace of more "active" energy. They were of the same origin, but they felt... somewhat familiar.

I can't remember where I've seen it before.

"Lin Xiao, Su Yan." He stood up.

Su Yan had already appeared outside the narrow crevice, her bright black eyes fixed on what was inside.

"You two, probe upwards," Lu Yuan said calmly. "Don't go too deep, stay hidden. Confirm the end of the trail, estimate the number and strength of the enemy. If anything unusual happens, retreat immediately."

Lin Xiao's lips curled into a smirk as he slid into the shadows of the stairs.

Su Yan nodded, squeezed into the narrow gap, and walked very quietly.

Lu Yuan and Li Wangye retreated to their camp. Shen Moxin and Mo Chen arrived upon hearing the news, their expressions grim.

"Someone beat me to it?" Mo Chen rubbed his oily fingers.

"Not sure." Lu Yuan shook his head. "The traces were carefully covered up, but not completely removed. Either the other party was in a hurry, or... they thought this place was secluded enough."

Shen Moxin adjusted her glasses. "If it's the latter, it means their understanding of the ruins might be deeper than ours."

Lu Yuan didn't reply. He walked back to the "quiet room" separated by a curtain and took out the three grayish-white "Source Seed" crystals from his leather pouch.

The crystals were cold and lifeless, covered with Spiderweb cracks.

Ancient manuscript fragments mention specific Soul Power frequencies that stimulate the "Source Seed," describing them as "imitating the fluctuations of the beginning of life."

Mimicking the beginning of life?

Lu Yuan closed his eyes, recalling the feeling when his Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul stirred. It was the resonance with the underlying rules of heaven and earth when the seed broke through the soil and the tender sprout unfurled.

He tried to adjust his Soul Power, abandoning all the inertia of attack and defense, retaining only the purest thoughts of "existence" and "growth". The output of Soul Power became slow and gentle, and the frequency gradually approached that throbbing.

Like trying to catch ripples on the water with your fingers.

Time passed. Faint sounds of hushed voices and the rustling of stones being moved could be heard from outside the curtain.

After an unknown amount of time, when the Simulation frequency reached a certain fuzzy critical point --

A crack appeared on the surface of the "Source Seed" crystal in my palm, and it flashed very slightly.

The light was dim, grayish-white, and fleeting.

But Lu Yuan could clearly sense that the dormant energy inside the crystal also showed a faint but clear pulsation with this flicker.

Thump.

It felt like my heart skipped a beat.

Lu Yuan's breathing stopped abruptly.

What made his scalp tingle even more was that the frequency of this pulsation overlapped by 30% with the frequency of the deep throbbing within his Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul!

It's not a coincidence.

He abruptly severed the Soul Power. The crystal returned to its lifeless state.

My back was soaked with cold sweat.

Could it be... that this "Source Seed" is something left behind by an awakened being who attempted to forge the "Key" in ancient times? Can it react to Martial Soul with specific life imprints? Or even stimulate their growth?

What about the unknown beings who left traces? Did they also know of the existence of the "Source Seed"?

Fragments of clues collided in his mind: the "Rule Shackles" and "Origin Energy" in the notebook, the heart-pounding pulse deep within the ruins, the resonance between the crystals and the Martial Soul, the traces of humanity outside that had been there for no more than three days...

Everything seemed to be connected by invisible threads.

Lu Yuan gripped the crystal tightly; his fingertips were icy cold.

When he lifted the curtain, Lin Xiao and Su Yan had already returned.

"The tracks end at a landslide-dammed pile of rubble," Lin Xiao said quickly. "The rocks are piled up tightly, and the path is cut off behind it. The footprints circle around the pile of rocks. Either the other party couldn't get through, or..."

"Or they deliberately erased the traces to create the illusion of a blocked road," Lu Yuan continued.

Lin Xiao nodded. "The residual Soul Power was strongest near the pile of stones, and almost imperceptible afterward. It's as if it suddenly diminished."

Su Yan added, "The pile of stones is old, not recently collapsed. But the top few stones... show signs of being slightly moved. They're very new."

Lu Yuan's gaze darkened.

The other party is likely still on the other side of the pile of stones.

"Starting today, increase vigilance." His voice wasn't loud, but every word was firm and decisive. "Especially the passageways leading to the upper areas. Arrange hidden sentries, in two shifts."

Shen Moxin immediately agreed and turned to adjust the duty roster.

Mo Chen scratched his messy hair. "Should we set up early warning mechanisms near the pile of stones? I have some materials on hand."

"Do it," Lu Yuan nodded, "But do it discreetly."

Over the next few days, the atmosphere in the camp became noticeably tense. Shen Moxin disguised the entrance to the spiral staircase using her illusionary Soul Skill. Mo Chen and his men buried miniature Soul Power disturbance alarms in the middle of the staircase.

Lu Yuan locked himself in the "quiet room" for even longer periods. He repeatedly tried to stimulate the "Source Seed" at a specific frequency, recording each pulsation of the crystal. The data was sporadic, but a trend was vaguely visible—as the number of stimulations increased, the pulsations showed signs of increasing extremely slowly. And each pulsation would trigger a slight, comfortable throbbing in his Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul.

This discovery both excited and unsettled him.

The Key may be in your hand, but what's behind the keyhole is anyone's guess.

Late night of the fourth day.

Shi Jian was in charge of keeping watch near the spiral staircase. His Martial Soul, Rock Shield, made him acutely aware of earthquake tremors.

Just past midnight, most people in the camp were already asleep.

Shi Jian sat back in the shadows at the corner of the stairs, his Soul Power perception spreading out like Spiderweb.

A deathly silence reigned. Only the eternal, low pulse of the ruins emanated from the depths of the site, echoing through the rocks.

He yawned.

Just then...

Through the pile of rubble blocking the passage, a very faint "crack" came from the other side.

Like a metal tool gently chiseling into stone.

Shi Jian's hair stood on end instantly! He held his breath and pressed his ears tightly against the rock wall.

Another "crack".

Then it turned into a continuous, fragmented, deliberately low-pitched sound of digging. Clang, thud, muffled, coming through the thick pile of rocks.

Shi Jian's heart pounded wildly, and without hesitation, he activated the emergency alarm at his waist—a small pebble specially made by Mo Chen to transmit Soul Power fluctuations in one direction.

Almost simultaneously, at the heart of the camp, another pebble at Lu Yuan's waist began to heat up slightly.

He opened his eyes instantly, grabbed a makeshift spear, and charged out. Lin Xiao's figure flashed out like Gui Mei, his amber vertical pupils shining frighteningly in the darkness.

Without further ado, Lu Yuan made a gesture, and the two of them rushed towards the east passage one after the other. Shen Moxin and Mo Chen quickly followed.

When they reached the middle of the spiral staircase, Shi Jian was staring intently at the pile of rubble, his face pale, and his finger was held up to his lips.

The digging sounds continued, and were a little clearer than before.

Lu Yuan gestured for everyone to be quiet, and his Soul Power senses slowly probed towards the pile of stones.

The pile of stones was very thick, and the penetration of Soul Power was greatly weakened. He could only vaguely sense several active Soul Power sources on the other side. At least one of them gave him a faint sense of pressure.

He listened intently.

Between the sounds of digging, intermittent, suppressed conversations drifted over.

"... Slow down... Don't disturb them..."

"... Energy resonance... Yes, it's here..."

Lu Yuan's pupils contracted.

Then, a slightly aged but powerful voice, raised a little, filled with barely suppressed excitement, clearly pierced through the crack in the rock:

"... The fluctuations of the ' Source Seed '... are stronger than expected... We must obtain... the clue to the 'gate'..."

Door?!

Lu Yuan's heart pounded. At the end of the ancient manuscript fragments, in those few almost illegible, hastily written passages, it seemed... there was indeed a vague concept of a "door," listed alongside "Shackles" and "Origin."

Could it be that hidden deep within these ruins lies not only the "Source Seed," but also the secret of the "Gate"?

His breathing became slightly rapid.

Just then, the digging sounds from the other side of the pile of rocks suddenly stopped without warning.

A deathly silence.

Then, the aged voice rang out again, its tone rising, filled with obvious doubt and wariness:

"... Wait... there seems to be another energy reaction on the other side?"

pause.

Another, younger voice hesitated, "Elder, you mean...?"

"Not just us." The aged voice was resolute, each word clear, "Across the pile of stones... there are people."

The air froze instantly.

In the shadows at the corner of the stairs, Lu Yuan, Lin Xiao, Shen Moxin, Mo Chen Shi Jian, and Shi Jian held their breath, their Soul Power restrained to the extreme.

There was no further sound on the other side of the pile of stones.

Only the eternal, deep pulse deep within the ruins, like the heartbeat of a sleeping behemoth, slowly echoes in the boundless darkness.

Two groups of explorers, separated by thick, unbroken rocks, sensed each other's presence amidst millennia of dust and silence.