The Third Pair of Eyes

"The place is a bit chaotic."

Mo Chen lifted the tattered curtain and slipped inside, casually kicking aside an empty wine bag at his feet. Lu Yuan followed, taking a moment to adjust to the light and smells inside—metallic, Soul Power grease, cheap wine, and the musty odor of long-term lack of ventilation, all mingling together and assaulting his senses.

The workbench was piled high with parts and animal hides covered in scribbles. Rusty tools and discarded Soul Tool shells leaned against the wall. The only relatively tidy spot was the "bed" made of stone slabs next to it, covered with a faded old animal hide.

Mo Chen rushed to the front of the stage and quickly rummaged through a pile of clutter. "Found it! It's here!"

He pulled out a thick stack of things, booklets sewn from thin leather that had been treated, with frayed edges. He handed them to Lu Yuan with both hands as if they were precious treasures.

"I traced those remaining patterns at the entrance of the ruins seven times! I recorded the residual Soul Power fluctuations from each trace! And I also drew analytical diagrams and deduced the array nodes..."

He spoke extremely quickly, his fingers tapping across the leather booklet, his eyes shining with an astonishing light.

Lu Yuan took it but didn't rush to look through it. His gaze swept over the inside of the shack, noticing several charred marks on the floor next to the "bed" and dim scratches on the wall caused by Soul Power erosion.

This place doesn't feel like a home; it feels more like a laboratory that could explode at any moment.

He walked to the workbench, carefully moved aside a few pieces of metal, made room to put the leather book down, and began to read it.

Mo Chen immediately moved closer, almost touching his shoulder.

"Look here, the curve's turn... I feel something's off. According to the 'triangular stability' principle of conventional protective formations, it should be three degrees to the left, but the actual imprint is about two degrees to the right..."

Lu Yuan remained silent, his fingers slowly tracing the delicate ink lines on the leather book. His gaze was focused, and the slight wariness he had felt earlier about the "fresh footprints" outside the door was temporarily suppressed by the ancient patterns before him.

Mo Chen's rubbings were incredibly detailed. Not only the shape, but also the Soul Power attribute tendency and fluctuation intensity were marked in tiny characters next to it. The tools were rudimentary, the method primitive, but this meticulousness revealed the researcher's unique obsession.

Those analytical diagrams were wildly imaginative, some clearly going astray; but occasionally, a few strokes would reveal flashes of brilliance.

Lu Yuan watched for about half an hour. Mo Chen stood beside him for the same half hour, without urging him, but his body was always slightly leaning forward.

As darkness fell outside, the wind howled louder through the stone forest, whistling through the cracks in the rocks.

Lu Yuan finally closed the leather book and rubbed his temples.

"How is it?" Mo Chen asked immediately, his voice tense.

"The basic rubbings are very valuable. Your analysis..." Lu Yuan paused, "... has many directions and needs to be systematically organized."

A hint of disappointment flashed across Mo Chen's face, but it was quickly replaced by eagerness. "How do we sort it out? Can the model you mentioned be used on this formation?"

"We can try," Lu Yuan said, "But it will take time and a more stable environment."

He turned towards the deepening twilight outside the door. "The footprints you mentioned... have you really not found them again?"

Mo Chen paused for a moment, then frowned and scratched his messy hair.

"No. Just that one time." He walked to the door, lifted the curtain, and looked outside. "I also find it strange. If it was just passing by, it shouldn't have disappeared after only one appearance. If it was coming for the ruins..." He turned back, his eyes sharp, "The footprints appeared not on the usual path, but in a corner where the turbulent current was calm but the terrain was concealed."

He lowered his voice. "It seems... they deliberately chose a location that wouldn't be easily noticed, yet still allows them to observe the ruins and the surrounding area."

Lu Yuan's heart tightened.

observe.

"Can you see your shack from there?"

Mo Chen thought for a moment, then shook his head. "We can't see them at all, they're blocked by the stone pillars. But if the other party has keen Soul Power perception, or has special Soul Skill..." He didn't finish his sentence.

Neither of them spoke for a moment. Only the sound of the wind and the chirping of insects in the distance filled the shack.

After a long pause, Lu Yuan spoke, "Starting tomorrow, I'll first help you understand the basic theory behind your left hand injury. At the same time, we need to make this place more 'safe'."

"Safe?" Mo Chen raised an eyebrow. "This crappy place is undefendable if someone above the Soul Ancestor, skilled in stealth, comes along."

"We can't stop everything, but at least we need to know someone's been here." Lu Yuan pointed to the scattered parts. "You're good at making gadgets. Set up some soul-guided devices with early warning functions around the shacks and near the entrance to the ruins. They don't need to be very powerful; the key is that we'll know immediately when they're triggered."

Mo Chen's eyes lit up. "I'm good at this! When I was researching universal Soul Tool before, I made quite a few small detection and alarm devices. Although most of them failed, I still had the ideas!" He rubbed his hands together. "Give me a day! The materials are readily available; I can modify them and it will work!"

"Okay." Lu Yuan nodded. "I'll take charge of the outer perimeter."

"You? How will you take responsibility?"

Lu Yuan didn't explain. He walked to the corner of the shack, where there was a small pile of dry grass. He picked up a few blades, and his fingertips emitted an extremely faint pale green Soul Power glow.

The grass blades visibly regained a hint of life, with a faint glimmer of light flowing through their veins, before quickly fading and returning to their withered yellow color.

Mo Chen's pupils contracted. "This is... Martial Soul ability? No, you didn't use your Martial Soul, just the most basic Soul Power nourishment and... some kind of guidance?"

He could see it clearly; the technique was extremely precise, and the output of Soul Power was terrifyingly stable.

"I suppose so." Lu Yuan carefully placed the processed grass leaves into the leather bag. "Arrange them in suitable locations. They are fragile, but they have a weak connection to my Martial Soul. If they are touched at close range by unfamiliar Soul Power fluctuations, I can vaguely sense them."

Mo Chen stared at him, as if looking at something rare. "What exactly is your Martial Soul? This control... it's unlike that of an ordinary plant-type Soul Master."

"Blue Silver Grass."

Mo Chen opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a word for a long time. Finally, he chuckled and shook his head. "Fine, you're impressive. You can make something out of Blue Silver Grass, I believe you. Let's split up."

For the next two days, the two of them devoted themselves entirely to "defense" except for necessary meals.

Mo Chen was skillful. He rummaged through the junk and found some usable core parts, then tinkered with them for a while. Lu Yuan watched him work—his fingers were a little twisted due to old injuries, but his stability and precision were still amazing. The Soul Power engraving knife sliced across the metal sheet, leaving behind intricate patterns.

The items he made were very small, the largest being no bigger than the palm of his hand, and they came in various shapes. According to him, these things could sense fluctuations in Soul Power and ground tremors, and once triggered, they would send a weak pulse to the receiving core deep inside the hut.

"The pulse signal is very weak, but in a complex environment like the Stone Forest, it's actually quite well concealed." Mo Chen proudly displayed a device disguised as gravel. "Unless the target is Soul King or higher who is proficient in using Soul Tool for detection, or is so unlucky as to step directly on it, it's very difficult to detect."

He carefully placed the devices in key locations within a thirty-foot radius of the hut. Several more were also placed near the entrance to the ruins.

Lu Yuan, however, went even further.

He carried the specially treated Blue Silver Grass deep into the stone forest. He moved slowly and carefully.

His Soul Power was compressed to its limit, and he poured it into the selected plants, one Sisi. He didn't forcefully control them, but rather guided their own faint vitality to establish a temporary, one-way resonance link with his Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul. These plants became his extended, sluggish "sensory endings."

The process was mentally taxing. Fine beads of sweat appeared on Lu Yuan's forehead, but his eyes remained calm.

His main focus was on the rocky area where Mo Chen had found the footprints, and the possible roundabout routes from that direction. He wasn't trying to block anyone, but simply to buy some reaction time before the other party got too close.

During lulls in the surveillance, Lu Yuan would also keep an eye on the ground.

On the afternoon of the third day, he made a discovery in a sheltered rocky hollow about a mile away from the hut.

The footprints were faint, almost completely obliterated by the wind and sand, but upon closer inspection, the distinctive patterns on the soles of the shoes could still be discerned—consistent with Mo Chen's description. There was more than one pair. Judging from the direction and degree of overlap, at least two people had briefly stayed here.

Lu Yuan crouched down, his fingertips lightly touching the ground. The direction of the footprints was strange; they didn't point directly towards the ruins or huts, but rather extended diagonally, pointing to an unexplored area deeper within the stone forest.

He cautiously probed forward for over a hundred feet, following the direction of the footprints. The footprints appeared and disappeared intermittently, sometimes abruptly ending only to reappear a few dozen feet away. The other party was intentionally concealing their tracks.

More importantly, these footprints cleverly avoided the areas where the ruins and shacks were located, taking a long detour.

They weren't approaching, they were more like... searching?

Lu Yuan stopped and did not venture any further. As dusk fell, the shadows deep within the stone forest stretched long.

He quietly retreated, erasing any trace of his presence.

When Mo Chen returned to the shack, he had just finished debugging the last warning device. Seeing Lu Yuan's solemn expression, he immediately understood.

"Found something else?"

"Hmm." Lu Yuan nodded and briefly explained the situation. "Its direction is erratic, deliberately avoiding this area. It doesn't seem to be heading our way, at least not yet."

Mo Chen's face darkened. "Looking for something?" he murmured. "What else is worth looking for in this Ghost Stone Forest besides that dilapidated ruin? Everything that should have been moved from the ruin back then was already gone..."

The two exchanged a glance, both seeing the doubt in each other's eyes.

The unknown is what makes people most uneasy.

On the fourth day, the treatment of Mo Chen's left hand injury officially began. The process was tedious and tedious. Lu Yuan needed to accurately sense the disordered Soul Power and burn energy remaining in the meridians of his arm to establish a detailed "injury model." Mo Chen endured the pain and cooperated, his forehead covered in sweat, but his eyes were bright.

Progress is slow, but we have a direction.

Days passed in a state of heightened vigilance and focused research. The early warning system remained silent, and the plant "sentinels" showed no unusual activity. Those mysterious footprints seemed to have vanished since their discovery.

But this calm only made the atmosphere more subtle.

Evening of the seventh day.

Lu Yuan finished his theoretical lecture for the day and went outside to get some fresh air. The setting sun tinged the stone forest with a dark red hue, and the towering stone pillars cast long shadows that intertwined like a maze.

He leaned against a stone pillar and closed his eyes. His Soul Power flowed slowly, attempting to communicate with the "sleeping" plant sentinels scattered in the distance.

Most of the feedback was a vague silence: the sound of wind, the rolling of sand and gravel, and the rustling of Soul Beast in the distance.

Just as he was about to withdraw his senses, a faint, distant, and strange tremor came back through a Blue Silver Grass link that stretched almost to the limit of the control range.

The throbbing was brief, fleeting. It wasn't a direct touch, but rather... someone passed by, their Soul Power fluctuations disturbing the withered vine that served as a "sentinel."

It's quite far away, and the direction is deep in the northwest of the Stone Forest.

With a thought, Lu Yuan focused all his attention on the link, pushing his Soul Power perception to its limit. The "image" transmitted from the other end of the link was blurry and indistinct, consisting only of fragmented light and shadow.

But following a gust of wind that happened to change direction, a few extremely faint, fragmented snippets of sound drifted over.

It was intermittent, and I couldn't hear it clearly.

"... Are you sure it's in this area?" A slightly anxious male voice asked in a low voice.

"... The sensation is very vague... that thing... appears and disappears intermittently..." Another voice was even more elusive, "... the interference is too strong... the turbulence within the stone forest itself..."

"Keep searching." The first voice interrupted, its tone cold and hard, "... The sect leader has given a death order... Time is running out..."

The sound stopped abruptly, as if the speaker had quickly disappeared into the distance.

The faint sensation on the other end of the link quickly disappeared, and silence returned.

Lu Yuan opened his eyes. The afterglow of the setting sun fell on his face, but it could not dispel the sudden chill that gathered in his eyes.

What are they looking for?

"That thing"... does it refer to the ruins, or something else in the stone forest that neither he nor Mo Chen knows about?

What's more troublesome is that the other party mentioned "Sect Leader" and "a death order".

This means that the forces operating deep within the Thousand Needle Stone Forest are not just a few scattered individuals, but an organized sect. They have a clear objective and have been searching this area for a long time.

Their existence, along with Mo Chen's, was like that of two foreign chess pieces that had accidentally fallen onto the board. They might not be in the other's sight yet, but in this not-so-infinite stone forest, as the other's search area expanded, it was only a matter of time before they were exposed.

Lu Yuan slowly straightened up and looked in the northwest direction from which the sound came. The stone forest looked particularly deep and secluded in the twilight.

We can no longer passively wait for the warning devices to sound.

We must find out their background as soon as possible, and what exactly they are looking for.

Or more fundamentally—to make oneself and this temporary base sufficiently concealed, even powerful enough to be unafraid of any spying.

Night was creeping up from the depths of the stone forest.