Chapter 312 - A Foreign Imprint and an Older Fear

Chapter 312: Chapter 312 - A Foreign Imprint and an Older Fear

The sound that followed was nothing like the earlier reactions.

Lu Canghai’s expression changed almost immediately.

The Qi sealing his hearing distorted beneath the first wave of noise, while Huo Yan’s protection fared little better.

The voices forced their way through the barriers, no longer resembling ordinary sound so much as vibrations passing directly through flesh, bone, and spiritual energy.

Huo Yan gritted his teeth.

Lu Canghai raised one hand, and clouds gathered around the courtyard to prevent the disturbance from spreading beyond Clear Cloud Peak.

Su Bai remained beside the trough.

What reached him was very different.

The familiar pleasant voice returned, although for the first time since he obtained the strange trough, it lacked its usual confidence.

"Item: Unidentified."

Su Bai blinked.

The dark liquid churned around the token.

"Origin: Outside recognized records."

His expression changed.

That was already different from the ordinary failures he had expected.

The voice continued.

"Composition: Unable to determine."

"Quality: Unable to measure."

The formation lines across the metal token shone weakly beneath the dark liquid.

"Current Condition: Stable. Minor structural degradation detected."

At least the trough could still recognize its present state.

Su Bai listened more carefully.

"Primary Function: Unidentified."

A brief pause followed.

"Usage History: Unable to reconstruct."

His earlier amusement disappeared completely.

The final result came several breaths later.

"Core Formation Principle: Unidentified."

The brilliant light collapsed.

The overwhelming chorus vanished with it, leaving only the clouds slowly drifting around the courtyard.

Lu Canghai lowered his hand.

Huo Yan removed the Qi from his ears and stared at the basin. His earlier fascination with the strange treasure noticeably diminished.

Su Bai remained crouched beside it.

The result was poor enough to be useful.

The trough had recognized almost nothing about the object. It could judge its present condition, but its material, quality, function, history, and underlying formation structure all lay beyond its ability to properly identify.

More importantly, its response concerning the object’s origin had not been the same as an ordinary lack of information.

It had found no recognized origin at all.

Lu Canghai studied his disciple’s expression.

"What did you learn?"

Su Bai straightened.

"Very little about the object itself."

Huo Yan waited for him to continue.

"It couldn’t identify its name or material. It couldn’t measure its quality, determine its function, or reconstruct its history."

Su Bai glanced at the token beneath the dark water.

"The formation principle was also unidentified."

Huo Yan’s brows tightened.

If that had been all, the result would have proven very little. An object ancient enough or advanced enough might simply lie beyond the trough’s ability.

Su Bai understood that as well.

"There was one difference."

Both elders looked toward him.

"When it tried to identify the object’s origin, it didn’t simply say that the information was unknown. It said the origin was outside what it recognized."

The courtyard became quiet again.

Su Bai retrieved the token and returned it directly to his storage.

He did not mention where the object had come from, and neither elder asked.

Su Bai looked toward the demonic fragments.

"The objects the demons made were different."

Huo Yan followed his gaze.

Su Bai continued carefully.

"The trough could identify where those artifacts were forged, what materials were used, who made them, how they were modified, and what happened to them afterward. Everything belonged to this world until it reached the formation pattern they had copied."

Huo Yan’s expression slowly changed.

That distinction was far more important than the token simply being unreadable.

The demonic artifacts themselves were ordinary enough for the trough to trace.

Only the foundation they had borrowed refused to fit within the rest of their histories.

Su Bai did not claim certainty where he did not have it.

"The difference could still involve the level of the formation principle or some limitation we don’t understand. I can’t completely rule that out."

He paused before continuing.

"But after seeing how the trough reacted to something whose origin it couldn’t recognize at all, I don’t think age alone explains what we’re seeing."

Neither old man answered immediately.

Huo Yan looked at the scattered fragments again.

Until now, he had been treating the common formation principles as evidence of some hidden inheritance shared among demonic factions.

The possibility before him was considerably worse.

"The artifacts were forged here," he said slowly. "But the foundation they copied may have come from somewhere else."

Su Bai nodded.

That was the conclusion the evidence was beginning to support.

Lu Canghai’s expression grew more solemn.

For him, the idea of something originating beyond their world was not an abstract possibility.

The Great Fissure had already proven that different realms could touch one another.

The scars left behind by that era still existed, even if most cultivators living today had never personally witnessed what had crossed between the realms.

Huo Yan exhaled slowly.

"If the source truly came from another realm, which one could produce formations like these?"

Lu Canghai shook his head.

"There is nowhere near enough evidence to answer that."

The artifacts had been designed for disruption, escape, perception interference, spatial restraint, and the destruction of formations. Those traits might become useful clues later, but assigning them to one of the Six Realms now would only turn suspicion into assumption.

Huo Yan accepted that.

His eyes remained on the fragments.

What disturbed him most was no longer the sophistication of the artifacts.

It was the fact that multiple demonic factions knew how to reproduce pieces of the same foreign foundation.

That knowledge had reached them somehow.

Whether it came through an old inheritance, something that had survived after the Great Fissure, or a newer connection between realms remained impossible to tell.

The last possibility was the one nobody wanted to voice too quickly.

Lu Canghai’s gaze darkened.

If the Great Fissure had opened again somewhere beyond the notice of the major factions, strange demonic artifacts would be among the least of their problems.

There were less immediate possibilities. Something from another realm might have remained hidden in the cultivation world after the old disaster. An inheritance could have survived for generations before reaching the demonic factions, or a race that never completely left might finally have begun moving again.

None of those possibilities were comforting.

Huo Yan rose from his seat.

"I need to report this to the Sect Master."

Lu Canghai nodded.

"Tell him what we found. Don’t turn the realm connection into certainty yet."

"I won’t."

Huo Yan gathered the fragments and carefully sealed the Formation-Eating Nail once more.

His gaze passed briefly over the Gossiping Quenching Trough before returning to Su Bai.

Whatever curiosity he still had toward the strange basin could wait.

Moments later, he left Clear Cloud Peak.

Lu Canghai restored the barrier behind him, and the courtyard gradually returned to the peaceful silence it had held before the experiments began.

Su Bai returned the Gossiping Quenching Trough to his System Inventory and sat down.

Across from him, Lu Canghai remained quiet.

His gaze had drifted toward the clouds beyond the courtyard, although Su Bai doubted he was actually looking at them.

Memories connected to the Great Fissure were not things his master visited willingly.

Too many cultivators had disappeared during that period. Too many beings had crossed boundaries that were never supposed to open, and even after the Great Fissure closed, nobody could claim with certainty that everything which had entered their world had truly left.

Lu Canghai eventually closed his eyes and released a long breath.

"The world is starting to become ridiculous again."

Su Bai looked toward him.

Coming from his master, the complaint sounded considerably less amusing than it normally would have.

Beyond Clear Cloud Peak, Radiant Sky Sect had already returned to its usual rhythm. Most of its disciples had no idea that a few broken artifacts recovered after the battle had pointed toward a problem far larger than the demonic cultivators who carried them.