Beneath the Rift

A map lay spread out beside the fire, several descent routes outlined in charcoal. Lu Yuan traced the path to the east. "We'll take this route tomorrow."

Lin Xiao squatted opposite him, licking his canine teeth with the tip of his tongue. "The old man hasn't even finished walking yet."

"Let's use it first." Lu Yuan put away the map. "We'll split into two groups. Lin Xiao, Teacher Shen, and I will go along the eastern route. Uncle Mo and Su Yan will lead the men westward to build a second escape route."

No one objected. Yun Youzi's warning about being a "Secret Keepers" was like a thorn that couldn't be pulled out; he could only carry it with him.

The next morning, the team moved.

The passageway on the east side was more spacious than expected, and the lighting runes on the walls could still be faintly activated, their pale light illuminating the dusty metal fragments.

The first storage room was mostly empty. Shen Moxin squatted in the corner, carefully cleaning a stone slab. "Experimental record. 'Purity of Soul Power Medium and Structural Stability'... The concept is two hundred years ahead of its time."

Lu Yuan leaned closer to examine it. The symbols looked familiar, and were more systematic. It was like finding the border of a scattered jigsaw puzzle.

Lin Xiao kicked aside the rusted parts at the other end, revealing half a charred bone underneath. It was twisted in shape and had traces of melting on its surface.

"The remains of an experimental subject." Lu Yuan crouched down. "Energy outage caused instantaneous carbonization. Look at the joints; there are signs of forced modification. An ancient Soul Engineer was attempting to create an ' Artificial Martial Soul '."

Lin Xiao clicked his tongue. "Playing with fire will only get you burned."

Three more similar rooms were discovered. The findings were fragmented, but the picture was becoming clearer: this place was once an ancient research base, with research focusing on the essence of Soul Power and life modification. Failures were everywhere.

The fourth one is different.

The door, made of heavy alloy, was half-open, its edges melted through. Soul Power probed in, and a subtle, chaotic energy fluctuation emanated from the air, like a broken string still vibrating.

Lu Yuan went in first.

In the center of the room was a huge circular metal platform, over ten meters in diameter. The surface of the platform was covered with grooves and patterns, which should have formed a complex array of runes. But now, a hideous gap had split open in the very center of the platform.

No, it was forcibly torn apart.

Below the gap is a vertical, pitch-black fissure. The metal at the edges flows down and solidifies like molten wax. There is no light in the fissure, only visible ripples of distorted space emanating from it, causing the air to hiss like glass rubbing together.

The edges of the fissure were marked with charred, explosive shockwave patterns that radiated across the entire platform. Embedded within these patterns were tiny, shimmering fragments of space—"scars" left behind after the rules were violently torn apart.

Shen Moxin gasped and took a half step back.

"Spatial trauma." Lu Yuan's voice was dry. "An experiment went out of control, permanently destroying the structure of this space." He pointed to the debris. "Those are the 'edges' of spatial rifts, still evaporating. This place is extremely unstable."

Lin Xiao crouched at the edge of the platform, his vertical pupils contracting. "Unfathomable depths. Something is 'breathing' down there, very slowly, and each time it 'exhales,' the surrounding Soul Power becomes chaotic."

Lu Yuan took out Yun Youzi's map. This area was only marked with a danger symbol, with a note beside it. "Void Rift, Do Not Approach".

He closed the picture.

"Mark the restricted area. Everyone back off, and tread lightly."

Only after leaving the room and closing the half-melted door did the pressure in my chest ease.

Lin Xiao sighed. "The old man was right, we should stay away."

The subsequent exploration was more cautious. Two more storage rooms were discovered, yielding some metal parts and a fragmented data tablet. The group returned to camp at dusk.

After dinner, Lu Yuan went alone into the innermost stone chamber.

The stone platform was covered with a thick velvet cloth, on which lay the "Source Seed" crystal. It had a grayish-white luster and clear internal cracks.

He didn't act immediately. He first set up Soul Power buffer runes, with Su Yan guarding the door and Shen Moxin and Mo Chen protecting the two sides inside.

Lin Xiao leaned against the doorframe. "Really want to try?"

"We need to know what it can do." Lu Yuan stared at the crystal. "Yun Youzi is willing to cooperate because of this. We can't stay passive forever."

Blue Silver Grass appeared in his right palm, vines Entanglement, emitting a pale blue halo. Soul Power threads extended from his left hand, slowly approaching the crystal.

The moment they made contact, the pulsations inside the crystal jolted violently.

Lu Yuan adjusted the frequency of his Soul Power. It wasn't a forced intrusion, but rather an imitation and adaptation. It was difficult at first, the energy structure as complex as a tangled mess. He patiently probed, recording each tiny feedback.

Time passed. The only sounds in the stone chamber were the hum of the Soul Power lamp and his even breathing.

Suddenly, the crack on the crystal surface contracted very slightly.

Lu Yuan's pupils contracted.

It wasn't an illusion. The edges of the crack were healing at a speed almost imperceptible to the naked eye. At the same time, a wisp of energy, so pure it was indescribable, escaped from the crack, warm and profound, like the Origin power that had accumulated over countless years.

This wisp of energy drifted toward the Blue Silver Grass.

The vines trembled slightly, eagerly welcoming the energy. The moment the energy merged, the pale blue halo brightened noticeably. Lu Yuan clearly felt a subtle "fullness" emanating from his Martial Soul body, like parched roots drawing in sweet spring water.

It was faint, but real.

The Key... has an auxiliary effect on Key -type Martial Soul. The secret of the Yun Youzi has been confirmed.

The joy lasted less than three breaths.

The internal energy structure of the crystal suddenly became fragile and sensitive due to the precipitation of this Origin. The slightest fluctuation of the Soul Power threads caused the entire crystal to tremble violently, its light to flash wildly, and the cracks to show a tendency to expand again!

He made a decisive move, instantly severing and retracting the threads of Soul Power.

The crystal tremors gradually subsided, returning to its grayish-white stillness. The surface cracks were now negligible, even shallower than before the experiment.

Lu Yuan's forehead was covered in cold sweat.

"How is it?" Shen Moxin.

"It works." He wiped away his sweat, his voice hoarse, "But it's ten times harder to control. A slight misstep could trigger an even more violent loss of control than last time." He looked at the crystal, his gaze complex, "It's a treasure, but also explosives."

The stone chamber was silent.

Just then, hurried footsteps came from outside the door. Su Yan pushed open the door, her face pale.

"Sir, Li Wangye's group is back. Something happened."

Lu Yuan's heart skipped a beat. "Where is he?"

"At the camp gate, they brought back a body. It wasn't one of ours."

The group rushed out of the stone chamber.

Beside the campfire, Li Wangye and two team members stood, with a body covered by a tattered cloak at their feet. The cloak wasn't fully covering them, revealing legs dressed in black and a hand wearing a metal glove, tightly gripping something.

Li Wangye's face was pale, and his voice trembled. "The corridor on the southwest side was half collapsed... It's a safe zone marked on the map. It was found behind the rubble at the corner."

Lu Yuan crouched down and lifted his cloak.

The corpse lay face down, dressed in a full set of black, tight-fitting clothes made of a material that was neither leather nor cloth, but had a matte finish. A cold metal mask covered its face, revealing only the holes for the eyes and nostrils; the mask had a smooth surface and no markings.

He turned over.

The fatal wound was in the back of the heart. It was an extremely fine, penetrating wound with clean edges and no unnecessary tears. The fabric around the wound was dark red, but strangely, almost no blood seeped out. The surrounding skin was an unnatural grayish-white, as if life had been instantly drained away.

What's even more chilling is the degree of rigor mortis and the temperature of the corpse. The time of death was definitely no more than two hours.

Lu Yuan pried open the tightly clenched hand.

In his palm was a metal token about the size of a thumb. It was dull and worn, with a simple, sinister eye pattern engraved on the front.

The back is smooth and has nothing on it.

The campfire crackled and popped, sending sparks flying.

Lin Xiao stared at the eye pattern, his vertical pupils shrinking to pinpoints. "The Secret Keepers?"

No one answered.

Lu Yuan gripped the cold token and slowly stood up. In the distance, the darkness of the ruins' passage seemed bottomless.

"Clean up any traces." His voice was calm, a calmness that sent chills down your spine. "Strengthen all sentries. Double the patrols starting tonight."

He paused, then looked at the deeply engraved eye on the token.

"They're here."