Beneath the waters of the pool.
Shen Xiuhan controlled the deep blue bubble, slowly sinking into the depths.
The surrounding light grew dimmer and dimmer, until finally only a patch of blue light remained, casting a faint glow in the water.
The mud, gravel, and water weeds at the bottom of the pool swept past his field of vision one by one, with an occasional fish swishing its tail as it swam past the bubble.
Before long, Shen Xiuhan landed on the bottom of the pool.
He swept his gaze left and right, his brow slowly furrowing.
“Strange...”
The location marked by that pale gold light was clearly on the mud wall to his left!
Yet as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but silt, gravel, and tangled water weeds.
Shen Xiuhan tried reaching out to push it, but the mud wall felt cold and hard to the touch, not budging in the slightest.
Refusing to give up, he tapped on it a few times!
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Through the water, he couldn't hear if there was a hollow sound behind the wall.
Shen Xiuhan withdrew his hand and pondered for a moment, a sudden thought striking him.
“I've got it! Since the mortal eye cannot see through it, then...”
【Muxu Eye】!
Whoosh!
A golden light flashed and vanished in an instant.
Within his left eye, a bizarre magatama pupil suddenly emerged and began to slowly rotate.
Everything around him became completely different under this eye.
The texture of the mud and sand, the veins of the water weeds, and the quality of the stones were all revealed in microscopic detail.
But soon, his gaze finally locked onto the wall of mixed mud and stone, where a palm-sized stone fragment was half-embedded in the mud wall.
The surface of the stone fragment was covered with dark green water moss, its color no different from the surrounding pebbles and rocks.
At first glance, it looked completely ordinary, easily overlooked if one wasn't paying attention.
Yet under the 【Muxu Eye】, its incompatible material was instantly exposed.
It was no ordinary mountain stone, but a peculiar stone with a fine texture that emitted a faint, eerie light, a world of difference from the coarse mud wall around it.
Shen Xiuhan's eyes narrowed. A wisp of force gathered at his fingertip as he lightly poked the stone fragment.
Whoosh!
The next moment, his entire body felt weightless. A powerful sensation of weightlessness suddenly washed over him, as if an invisible giant hand were dragging him elsewhere.
The dark pool water vanished, replaced by a cave. It was pitch black all around, but under the 【Muxu Eye】, everything was clearly visible.
Shen Xiuhan steadied himself and glanced back.
The mysterious stone fragment was hovering in midair, emitting a faint glow.
Beyond the stone fragment was the deep pool of water from earlier, acting like a transparent membrane that separated the two places.
“Eh? This is...”
Shen Xiuhan's gaze suddenly focused, and he instinctively leaned closer to take a better look.
He couldn't see clearly from the outside just now, but now that he was inside, the scene on the back of the stone fragment was completely exposed.
Densely packed symbols were carved upon it. The patterns were complex, resembling seal script yet not quite, arranged in a highly organized manner like some kind of circuit.
At the very center was a depression, inside of which was embedded a fingernail-sized stone.
The stone was dark brown, looking like stone yet not stone, jade yet not jade.
Shen Xiuhan reached out to stroke it lightly, and a warm sensation traveled up his fingertip, reaching straight to his heart.
It felt exactly like a stone-jade.
He pursed his lips, reached into his robes, pulled out a stone of the same size, and held it in his palm.
Placed side by side, the two stones were almost identical.
However, the one behind the stone fragment was dim in color, like an oil lamp about to burn out, its energy nearly depleted.
In contrast, the one in his hand was more lustrous and full, containing a deep inner essence, clearly still holding abundant energy.
“This thing... is a Yuan Stone!”
Shen Xiuhan took a deep breath, a look of astonishment flashing in his eyes.
The Yuan Stone in his hand was obtained back then at the foot of Mount Li, in the nest of the Gold-Tailed Rat.
At the time, the intelligence had stated that this object was of great use to Gangjin martial artists.
Now it seemed its usefulness went far beyond that!
For if he was not mistaken, the stone fragment before him was actually an array plate!
Its function was a maze formation that could hide one's body, conceal one's form, and mask one's aura.
“No wonder no one has been able to find this place for so many years.”
Shen Xiuhan muttered to himself, his gaze sweeping over the surroundings.
“It was already in a hidden spot at the bottom of the pool, and on top of that, there was a formation to mask its aura. If not for the guidance of my intelligence and having opened the 【Muxu Eye】, I probably would never have found this place in my entire life.”
He let out a long breath, suppressed his thoughts, and turned around, intending to carefully inspect the entirety of the cave.
But the moment he turned his head, his expression shook slightly.
“Hmm? There's another one?”
Shen Xiuhan stared blankly at the left wall.
A palm-length short sword was suspended in midair, hanging by a hemp rope.
The blade was entirely pitch-black, reflecting not a single glint of light, and made of a peculiar material that was neither metal nor iron.
There was also a groove at the hilt, but the Yuan Stone inside seemed to have completely run out of energy, having turned into a small pile of grayish-white powder that would scatter at the slightest touch.
“A sword-shaped array plate... could it be a killing formation?”
Shen Xiuhan's gaze darted back and forth between the two stone walls, his heart trembling.
One maze formation and one killing formation, one in the light and one in the dark, one defensive and one offensive.
The maze formation was on the outside to deceive the eye, while the killing formation was on the inside to execute intruders.
This showed that the person who had set up this place was meticulous and ruthless.
If the Yuan Stone of the killing formation hadn't run out of energy long ago, the moment he touched the stone fragment earlier, he probably would have been met with a fierce, lethal attack.
A chill ran down Shen Xiuhan's spine. He took a deep breath, inwardly warning himself:
“This place is dangerous. I must take every step with caution.”
He slowly stood up. The golden magatama in his left eye rotated, and the 【Muxu Eye】 illuminated every corner and detail before him with crystal clarity.
This water cave was not particularly large; including the stone chamber at the end, it was only about fifty to sixty feet square.
The walls were damp and slippery, covered with a thin layer of light green water moss that felt cold and soft when pressed.
From time to time, water droplets seeped from the cave ceiling. Once they gathered to the size of a fingertip, they would quietly fall, hitting the ground with a crisp drip-drop, drip-drop sound.
The ground was covered with a layer of fine sand, marked with chaotic, crisscrossing footprints of varying depths. However, they were all ancient marks, left behind who knew how many years ago.
Aside from this passage, which served as a foyer, the only thing at the end of the cave was that single stone chamber.
The stone chamber was about thirty or forty feet square, its four walls flat and smooth with sharp, distinct corners, clearly carved out intentionally.
Inside the chamber stood a stone table and a stone bed, both made from local materials, looking rough and ancient.
On the table lay a scroll of paper, made of an unknown material, which still looked as good as new. On the bed sat a withered skeleton, cross-legged.
The skeleton's posture was upright, its spine straight as a pine tree, with its hands resting on its knees, palms facing upward. Even though the person had been dead for countless years, they still maintained the meditation posture.
Although the moon-white Daoist robe on its body had faded, its material remained intact. Tied to its waist was a small cloth pouch of the same color, its contents unknown.
By its feet, a long sword was broken into several pieces, discarded carelessly on the ground.
Shen Xiuhan stood at a distance, not daring to approach rashly.
For as far as his eyes could see, the withered skeleton was covered in at least dozens of wounds from head to toe.
Saber wounds, sword cuts, spear punctures, and several areas of skin and bone turned pitch-black—clearly marks left by festering after being heavily poisoned.
It was evident that this person had fled to this place after being severely injured, ultimately passing away in meditation here.
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