Chapter 454 - 427: Information

Chapter 454: Chapter 427: Information

Li Yuan sat cross-legged on the stone platform of the Mozhou Spirit Vein, extending his perception from the Earth Vein’s nexus along the Spirit Vein’s main trunks in every direction.

During the process of repairing the Jade Bead and his long period of secluded cultivation, he had become extremely familiar with the overall structure of the Mozhou Spirit Vein. Twelve main trunks of the Spirit Vein originated from a core node, spreading out into the surrounding rock strata like tree roots and branching into hundreds of tributaries at different depths and in various directions.

In his sea of consciousness, Li Yuan connected the endpoints of the twelve main trunks.

An irregular polygon emerged.

This was no natural geological formation, but the pattern of a man-made Array.

The twelve main Spirit Vein trunks were the twelve main lines of the Array, and the core node was the Array Hub. He had already concluded that the entire Mozhou Spirit Vein had been transformed by the Profound Nether Sect into a massive Array base with an extremely wide coverage. But only now was he seeing the full picture of this base for the first time.

The outline of the shape was a high match for the master diagram of the sealing system recorded in the Jade Bead’s archives, but there were three obvious gaps.

The locations of the gaps corresponded precisely to the areas where three of the main Spirit Vein trunks were broken or had deviated. Hundreds of years of geological change had caused these three trunks to stray from their original designed paths, preventing the shape from closing completely.

Li Yuan recorded this discovery, then rose and left the stone platform.

Most of the Demonic Qi accumulated in the Spirit Demon Transformation Array had already been consumed by him during his seclusion, but the Array was still operating, slowly converting Spiritual Qi into a new reserve of Demonic Qi.

After leaving the Spirit Vein’s core region, Li Yuan went to the settlement of the descendants.

Old Shen was sitting on a stone bench at the entrance of the settlement, whittling a wooden staff. Seeing Li Yuan approach, he barely lifted an eyelid.

"You’re back again."

"Brought some things." Li Yuan placed a storage bag in front of Old Shen. Inside was a batch of medicinal pills, Spirit Grass seeds, and daily consumables purchased from the market—his routine supplies for every trip to Mozhou.

Old Shen took the storage bag without looking inside and handed it directly to Ah Cheng, who was beside him.

"Old Shen, what do you know about the structure of the Sunken Abyss Grotto’s outer hall?" Li Yuan sat down on the bench opposite him.

Old Shen’s hand, the one whittling the staff, paused.

"You want to go to the outer hall?"

"I want to take a look."

Old Shen fell silent for a moment before putting down the wooden staff.

"The entrance to the outer hall is located about three hundred zhang below the settlement. The map passed down from our ancestors marks the general direction, but no one has ever actually gone inside. The Restriction at the entrance is too powerful. The first generation of ancestors who escaped tried a few times, but they were all wounded by the backlash. After that, no one dared to touch it again."

"Take me to see the entrance."

Old Shen glanced at him and stood up.

The two of them descended a narrow passage behind the settlement. The deeper they went, the heavier the moisture in the air became, yet the concentration of Spiritual Qi steadily rose. A tributary of the Spirit Vein was not far beneath their feet, providing a continuous supply of energy to the area.

After walking for about an hour, a massive stone wall appeared at the end of the passage.

The stone wall was about five zhang high and three zhang wide, its surface polished to a mirror shine. A stone door was embedded in the very center, its face covered with dense Array Patterns.

Li Yuan approached the stone door and pressed his palm against its surface.

His permanent ability, Array Base Retrospection, activated instantly.

His perception seeped from his palm into the Array Patterns on the door’s surface. Like a scene playing in reverse, the energy signature from the last time the Array was activated replayed completely in his mind.

But the replayed scene was almost blank.

This Restriction hadn’t been properly activated for several hundred years. The trace of its last activation was extremely faint, having almost completely decayed, leaving only a faint, phantom ripple in the deepest layer of the Array Patterns.

Li Yuan repeatedly magnified that faint ripple and finally managed to extract an extremely blurry set of spectral data from it.

The characteristics of the spectrum were of the exact same origin as the Spiritual Power circulation circuit inside the Jade Bead.

The Jade Bead was one of the keys to this stone door.

Li Yuan withdrew his palm, his Divine Sense sweeping over the entire Array Pattern structure of the stone door instead.

The Array Patterns were divided into three layers.

The outermost layer was a standard Tier Three Top Grade protective Restriction, the same model as the one at the entrance to the Skeleton Ridge ruins. This layer was responsible for the physical seal, preventing anyone from forcing their way in.

The middle layer was an identity verification Array. It required a specific Spiritual Power spectrum to be triggered in order to deactivate the outer Restriction. Judging from the spectrum’s characteristics, the Jade Bead’s energy was a perfect match.

The innermost layer was an additional seal. Unlike the first two layers, its Array Pattern structure had a blank connection port, clearly reserved for some kind of external component.

The shape and size of the connection port were strikingly similar in proportion to the three gaps in the incomplete diagram he had previously discovered at the core of the Spirit Vein.

Three keys.

The Jade Bead was the first, and he already had it. The Spirit Vein diagram was the second. The third was related to the connection port on this seal, which required a matching external component.

As for what that component was, there were no direct clues in the Array Patterns.

’In the Sect Master’s private chambers.’

As for where the Sect Master’s private chambers were, he had no idea.

Li Yuan took two steps back, imprinting the complete Array Pattern structure of the stone door into his mind.

Old Shen didn’t ask any questions and led him back the way they came.

After returning to the settlement, Li Yuan and Old Shen sat at the entrance for a while longer.

"On the map passed down from your ancestors, is there any mention of the Sect Master’s private chambers?"

Old Shen thought for a moment, then shook his head.

"No. The map only marks the location of the outer hall’s entrance and a few escape routes. This is the first I’ve ever heard you mention anything about a Sect Master’s private chambers."

"If you have any legends or word-of-mouth information about the deep structures of the grotto, no matter how fragmented, tell me."

"Alright." Old Shen nodded. "I’ll ask some of the other elders later."

As Li Yuan stood up to leave, a subtle vibration suddenly came from his sea of consciousness.

It was a signal from the Spirit Detective Talisman network.

The Spirit Detective Talismans he had set up in the market and various locations throughout Liangzhou formed a passive sensory net with extremely broad coverage. This net usually just silently recorded Spiritual Wave data from various locations. Unless an anomalous signal exceeding a preset threshold appeared, it wouldn’t proactively send him an alert.

The signal triggering the alarm right now came from the direction of Skeleton Ridge.

Li Yuan closed his eyes and connected his Divine Sense to the data stream of that Spirit Detective Talisman.

In a crevice in the rock strata ten zhang above the entrance to the Skeleton Ridge ruins, the hidden monitoring Array, built in the style of the righteous path, had been refreshed again.

The surveillance data stored in the three Array Hub nodes had been extracted, and fresh Spiritual Power was injected to maintain its operation. The Spiritual Power was extremely fresh; based on its decay rate, he calculated that it had been refreshed within the last two days.

’He’s back.’

The righteous-path Golden Core Cultivator who had set up this monitoring Array was still paying regular visits to Skeleton Ridge.

Li Yuan opened his eyes. After bidding farewell to Old Shen, he returned to Liangzhou via the Teleportation Array.

That night, Li Yuan used the Earth Escape Technique to stealthily approach the outskirts of Skeleton Ridge.

The moonlight was dim, and the white, bone-like rock formations glinted coldly in the night wind.

He didn’t approach the ruins’ entrance directly. Instead, he moved laterally along a geological fault in an old mining zone, arriving in an abandoned mine tunnel about twenty zhang directly below the monitoring Array.

The tunnel had long since collapsed for the most part, but a space just large enough to stand in remained. Li Yuan steadied himself in the tunnel and extended the sensory net of his Dark Evil Insight upward.

The monitoring Array’s three Array Hub nodes appeared clearly in his perception. The Array was running in a low-power mode, passively recording the surrounding Spiritual Waves.

Li Yuan moved upward along the tunnel until he reached a rock wall that was closest to the monitoring Array.

The surface of the rock wall was rough and uneven, covered with chisel marks left from mining. One of the monitoring Array’s Array Hub nodes was embedded in the wall above him, less than three chi away.

Li Yuan stretched out his right hand and pressed his palm against the rock wall.

’Array Base Retrospection.’

His perception infiltrated the crevices in the rock, moving upward until it touched the Array Hub node.

This was no Tier One basic Array from the market. The technical level of this monitoring Array was far beyond Tier One; the precision of its Array Patterns and its energy efficiency were at least Tier Two High Grade or above.

But the effect of Array Base Retrospection was not limited by an Array’s tier.

As long as he could touch any component of the Array, he could trace back the energy signature of its most recent activation.

Retrospection initiated.

In his mind, a complete, dynamic scene unfolded as if in reverse.

At some point two days ago, a stream of Spiritual Power shot toward the sky above Skeleton Ridge from the north-northeast. The intensity of the Spiritual Power was terrifying, far surpassing the level of Foundation Establishment Perfection, and it carried a pressure so dense it was almost liquid.

’Early-stage Golden Core.’

The Spiritual Power’s nature was extremely righteous and pure, without a trace of impurity. The characteristics of its operational spectrum were an exact match for the residual traces he had captured while tracking on the outskirts of Skeleton Ridge previously.

’The same person.’

As for the trail he’d tracked from the Gray Road exchange point, that person’s Demonic Qi signature was completely different from this righteous-path Golden Core Cultivator’s. It was clearly a separate, independent infiltration route. Although the destinations of both trails pointed north-northeast, the sources were two entirely different groups of people.

That stream of Spiritual Power had lingered above the monitoring Array for an extremely short time, no more than ten breaths. During that period, it performed three actions: extracting the surveillance data from the Array Hubs, injecting new Spiritual Power for maintenance, and making a micro-adjustment to the Array’s concealment layer.

The micro-adjustment enhanced the Array’s anti-detection capabilities. Compared to the last time Li Yuan had scanned it, the monitoring Array’s concealment level had been raised by another tier.

After completing these three tasks, the stream of Spiritual Power departed at high speed, following the same path it had taken to arrive.

North-northeast. Toward Jingzhou.

Li Yuan had a basic understanding of Jingzhou’s geography. The Celestial Peak Sect, a Nascent Soul Sect, was based in Qiongzhou, in the eastern part of Jingzhou. Skeleton Ridge was located in the northwest corner of Liangzhou. Extending north-northeast from here didn’t lead to Qiongzhou, where the Celestial Peak Sect was located, but to the central-western region of Jingzhou.

That region was the sphere of influence of Jingzhou’s other two major sects: the Bitan Sect and the Cyan Rock Sect.

An Early-stage Golden Core righteous Cultivator was periodically sneaking into Liangzhou from the central-western region of Jingzhou to single-handedly monitor the Profound Nether Sect ruins at Skeleton Ridge. They didn’t belong to the Celestial Peak Sect or the Primordial Yang Sect, and their actions were extremely secretive.

’One of Jingzhou’s three sects?’

’Or some other power? Or were they simply heading to the White Mirror Market to replenish their resources?’

The certain information ended there. He would need more data to lock down the other party’s identity.