Chapter 72 - 71: A strange entrance.

Chapter 72: Chapter 71: A strange entrance.

The four exchanged a few glances, but none of them seemed particularly interested in the old man’s riddle.

They had come to find information about the mission site, and although his story was strange, it offered little they could actually use.

Yuexin stood and brushed the dust from her clothes. "That’s all?"

The old man spread his hands. "That’s what you paid for."

"Then let’s go."

Yichen looked as though he wanted to ask another question, but Minghao had already caught his sleeve and pulled him along.

The old man called after them, offering a few more vague remarks about the tomb, but the four soon disappeared into the busy market.

They spent the rest of the day preparing for the journey ahead. Minghao made sure they had enough food, medicine, and basic supplies, while Yuexin checked their remaining spiritual stones and replaced several items they had used along the way.

Yichen, meanwhile, kept getting distracted by the city’s unusual goods, though the other three made sure he didn’t spend money on anything unnecessary.

Xiaoyu occasionally stopped to examine the spiritual plants and unusual materials displayed in the stalls, but she did not linger for long.

Most of the goods were ordinary, and even the more unusual ones were not particularly useful for their mission.

By evening, their storage items were stocked, and they found an inn where they could rest properly.

They decided to stay for another day rather than leave immediately. After nearly a month of travelling, a little time to recover and prepare would not hurt.

The following morning, the four left the inn and headed toward the northern gate. To their surprise, the City Lord was already waiting there with several attendants.

The middle-aged man wore a dark blue robe embroidered with the emblem of Jade River City. When he saw them approaching, he stepped forward and cupped his hands.

"Young friends of the Chen Family, are you leaving already?"

Minghao returned the greeting. "We’ve rested enough. We don’t want to delay our mission any longer."

"Of course." The City Lord smiled. "Jade River City welcomes the Chen Family’s younger generation. Allow me to see you off."

Yichen glanced at the attendants standing behind him, then quietly leaned toward Minghao. "Isn’t this a little much for four people?"

Minghao gave him a look. "Do you think the City Lord can afford to ignore the Chen Family?"

Yichen considered that for a moment before nodding. "Right. I suppose not."

The City Lord personally escorted them beyond the gate, exchanging a few polite words before finally stopping. The four thanked him and continued north, leaving Jade River City behind.

For the next several days, they travelled across the wilderness. The land gradually grew rougher, with fewer settlements and longer stretches between places where they could replenish their supplies.

They crossed rocky ridges and dry riverbeds, occasionally slowing to examine unusual traces of spiritual energy along the way.

Nothing they encountered suggested immediate danger, however, and they continued at a steady pace.

Then, after several days of travel, they reached the edge of a vast grey expanse.

The change was so sudden that all four slowed down.

Before them stretched a lifeless region, extending for dozens of kilometres.

The green grass ended at an uneven line, giving way to grey soil and bare stone.

There were no trees, no shrubs, and no visible signs of animal life. Even the distant hills seemed stripped of colour, their surfaces covered in dull ash-like dust.

Yichen stopped and looked across the barren land. "Is this the place?"

"The desolate plain?"

Minghao took out the mission slip and checked it again. His eyes moved between the recorded location and the terrain ahead.

"It should be here."

Yuexin crouched near the boundary and picked up a handful of soil. It crumbled between her fingers, leaving a fine grey residue on her palm. She rubbed it lightly, then let the dust fall.

"Nothing’s growing here," she said. "Not even weeds."

Xiaoyu stood a short distance away, her amber eyes moving across the boundary where the green grass gave way to grey soil. She did not immediately approach it.

Instead, she lowered her gaze toward the ground, observing the sharp difference between the two sides.

Yichen looked toward the distant end of the grey land. "How long has it been like this?"

"How would I know?" Minghao replied, though his eyes remained fixed on the barren expanse. "But it doesn’t look natural."

"Could it be because of a spiritual disturbance?" Yuexin asked.

"Maybe. We should check before going too far in."

Minghao put away the mission slip and scanned their surroundings.

The wind carried no familiar scent of grass or soil from the grey region. Instead, a faint, dry smell lingered in the air, like stone that had been scorched and left untouched for years.

Xiaoyu finally stepped closer to the boundary. She extended her spiritual sense toward the barren land, then withdrew it after a moment.

"The spiritual energy feels different," she said quietly.

Minghao turned toward her. "Different how?"

"It’s difficult to explain. It doesn’t feel completely absent, but there’s something unusual about it, like a scorching fire was fused with it. Maybe that’s why the plain is like this... "

Yuexin looked at the grey expanse again. "Then we should be even more careful."

Yichen took a few steps closer, then stopped at the boundary.

"Well, we came all this way." He glanced at the others. "We can’t just stand here, can we?"

"Nobody said we were going to," Yuexin replied. She looked toward Minghao. "Let’s be careful. We don’t know what’s waiting inside."

Minghao nodded. "Stay close, and don’t touch anything until we’ve had a proper look."

With that, the four stepped into the grey land.

They did not venture far into the region at first. They had travelled all this way to investigate the area, not to rush headlong into an unknown danger.

After agreeing on a direction, Minghao took out a map and compared it with the mission slip, while Yuexin, Xiaoyu, and Yichen prepared their recording scrolls.

The scrolls were ordinary items used by cultivators to preserve written information.

Once spiritual energy was channelled into the surface, words could be added with a brush or directly through one’s finger.

They were convenient for recording observations during a journey, especially when the information needed to be submitted to the Mission Hall later.

Yichen unrolled his scroll and held it against his forearm. He looked across the barren ground, then lowered his finger to the surface.

"Investigation of an uncharted region," he murmured as he wrote. "First observation: a very large patch of land with absolutely nothing growing on it."

"That’s not an observation," Yuexin said, looking over his shoulder. "That’s you complaining."

"I’m recording what I see."

"Then write it properly. The soil is grey, vegetation is absent, and there are no visible signs of animal activity."

Yichen looked at her. "You could have just said that earlier."

"I thought you were capable of writing a report without my help."

Xiaoyu glanced at Yichen’s scroll, then lowered her own finger to its surface.

She recorded the condition of the land and the sharp boundary between the barren region and the surrounding grassland, keeping her wording brief and factual.

Minghao crouched a short distance away, rubbing a small amount of soil between his fingers. He watched the particles fall from his palm before taking out his own scroll.

"Don’t just record what you can see," he said. "We need to check whether the spiritual energy here is different from the surrounding land."

Yichen glanced around. "How?"

"Use your spiritual sense. Compare it with what you felt before crossing the boundary."

Yichen closed his eyes and extended his perception. At first, he noticed little beyond the faint movement of wind and the distant spiritual energy in the earth. Then he frowned and opened his eyes.

"It’s weaker here."

"By how much?" Minghao asked.

"I don’t know. It’s not like I can measure it exactly."

"Then describe what you felt."

Yichen scratched his cheek, looking somewhat embarrassed. "It feels... thinner? Like there’s less spiritual energy in the air."

Yuexin had already begun checking the ground. She moved a few paces away, crouched, and pressed her palm against the soil. After a moment, she withdrew her hand and brushed the dust from her fingers.

"He’s right. It’s weaker, but not completely absent. The spiritual energy beneath the ground is still there."

Xiaoyu tried sensing the surrounding energy as well. Her expression remained calm, but she seemed to be concentrating on something beneath the surface.

"The energy underground feels more concentrated than what we can sense above it," she said after a moment. "It’s as though the surface has been affected, but whatever lies beneath hasn’t been completely drained."

Minghao wrote down their observations. "Then the land may have been affected by something that depleted the spiritual energy near the surface."

"Or something that killed everything growing here," Yuexin added.

"That would explain the lack of vegetation, but not why the spiritual energy is still present beneath the ground."

Yichen looked between them. "Can we write both possibilities? We don’t know which one is right anyway."

Minghao nodded. "That’s what we’re supposed to do. Record what we observe, then separate it from what we suspect."

They continued northward at a measured pace, keeping within sight of one another.

The grey land was uneven, though not particularly difficult to cross.

In some places, the ground was covered in fine dust that sank beneath their boots. Elsewhere, large patches of exposed stone broke through the soil, their surfaces cracked and weathered.

The absence of life became more noticeable the farther they went. There were no insects crawling beneath the rocks, no birds passing overhead, and not even the occasional spiritual beast track.

The wind moved across the barren land without stirring a single blade of grass.

Xiaoyu occasionally slowed to examine the ground, paying particular attention to the places where the grey soil met exposed stone.

She did not find anything that could explain the strange condition of the region, but she continued observing as they walked, occasionally making a brief note on her scroll.

Yichen eventually stopped beside a shallow depression.

"Look at this."

Minghao, Yuexin, and Xiaoyu approached. The depression was roughly circular, perhaps several metres across, and its centre was covered in a layer of pale grey dust. Yichen knelt and brushed some of it away with his hand.

Beneath the dust was a dark, smooth surface.

He paused and looked at the others. "This isn’t ordinary stone."

Minghao crouched beside him. He took out a small piece of metal from his storage pouch and gently scraped the exposed surface. The metal made a faint scraping sound, but the dark material did not appear to be scratched.

"Could be some kind of mineral," he said.

Xiaoyu leaned closer, careful not to touch the exposed surface. Her amber eyes followed its smooth edge before shifting toward the surrounding dust.

"There’s a line here," Yuexin said.

She pointed toward the edge of the exposed surface. A thin groove ran beneath the dust, curving around the depression. It was too straight to be a natural crack, though years of erosion had made it difficult to distinguish from the surrounding stone.

Yichen brushed away more dust, revealing another section of the line.

"It looks like a circle."

Minghao’s expression grew more serious. He followed the groove with his eyes, then stood and examined the surrounding ground.

"Don’t dig any further."

Yichen stopped immediately. "Why?"

"We don’t know what this is. If it’s part of an old structure, we shouldn’t damage it."

Yuexin moved around the depression, studying its shape from another angle. "There’s no sign of a building above ground. If this is artificial, it might be buried."

"Or it could be a sealed entrance," Minghao said.

The four exchanged glances.

Yichen looked down at the dark surface again. "An entrance to what?"

"That’s what we’re here to find out."

They spent some time examining the surrounding area. The groove continued beneath the soil, forming a broad circular outline that was almost entirely buried.

There were no visible hinges, handles, or markings. Even after clearing away more dust, they could not determine how the structure was meant to open.

Yuexin stood and wiped her hands against her trousers. "We should mark this location and report it."

"Before we leave, let’s check whether there’s anything else nearby," Minghao said. "If this is part of a larger structure, there may be other traces."

They moved outward in different directions, staying close enough to call to one another. Xiaoyu remained near the depression for a little longer, examining the ground around its outer edge before following the others.

Yichen headed toward a low ridge of grey stone, where the ground sloped down into a narrow depression. He was halfway up the ridge when his boot caught on something buried beneath the dust.

He stumbled, caught himself with one hand, and looked down.

"Ah, what is this?"

The object beneath his boot was not stone. It was a narrow strip of metal, darkened by age and almost completely buried. Yichen knelt and brushed away the dust. A few faint lines appeared on its surface, though most had been worn smooth.

"Over here!"

Minghao, Yuexin, and Xiaoyu came over. Minghao examined the strip without touching it at first, then carefully cleared the surrounding soil with a small tool.

The metal extended beneath the ridge. As they uncovered more of it, they found that it was not a loose object but part of a much larger structure. It ran along the slope before disappearing beneath a cluster of broken rocks.

Yuexin looked toward the ridge. "Could this be connected to the circle?"

"Possibly," Minghao replied.

They followed the metal strip along the slope, removing only enough dust to see where it led. After several metres, it turned sharply and vanished beneath a large slab of grey stone. The slab was partially tilted, leaving a narrow gap underneath.

Yichen crouched and peered into the opening.

"There’s something behind it."

Minghao joined him, lowering his head to look through the gap. At first, he could only see darkness. Then, as his eyes adjusted, he noticed a faint straight edge extending downward beyond the slab.

He reached into his storage pouch and took out a small spiritual lamp. After activating it, he carefully lowered the light toward the opening.

A set of stone steps appeared beneath the slab.

Minghao studied them for a moment before his expression gradually changed.

"Wait..."

Yuexin turned toward him. "What is it?"

"Do you remember what that old man told us in Jade River City?" Minghao asked, still looking at the entrance. "He said people had come here to search for the tomb. Some claimed to have found traces of an ancient ruin, while others never returned."

Yichen glanced at the steps. "And?"

Minghao pointed toward the opening. "It’s too strange... "

The others looked at it again. The stone slab had collapsed, leaving the steps exposed beneath it.

Although the entrance was partially covered by dust and debris, anyone who searched the surrounding area carefully could have found it.

"If people had already investigated this region," Minghao continued, "then surely someone would have discovered this passage before us. And if they did, why is there so little information about it?"

Yuexin’s expression turned thoughtful. "Unless the people who found it didn’t have anything useful to report."

"Or they never made it back," Xiaoyu said quietly.

The words settled over the group.

Yichen looked down the dark steps again. His earlier curiosity had not disappeared, but it was now accompanied by a measure of caution.

"Those people who never returned..." he murmured.

Minghao nodded slowly. "If this passage leads into the ruin they were searching for, then perhaps we have found the reason."

He held the spiritual lamp steady, its light reaching only a short distance down the stairs.

"But we still don’t know what happened to them."

All four fell silent. The passage was narrow, barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side.

Yichen leaned closer. "Well... that’s definitely an entrance."

"Don’t put your head in there," Yuexin said, catching the back of his collar and pulling him away.

"I was only looking."

"And you can keep looking from here."

Xiaoyu stepped closer, but stopped beside Minghao rather than approaching the opening directly. She looked down the steps, then turned her attention toward the walls.

Minghao held the lamp steady, studying the passage. He could not sense any living presence below, but that did not mean the place was safe. The spiritual energy inside seemed even weaker than that of the surrounding land, almost as though the passage swallowed it.

Xiaoyu extended her spiritual sense toward the entrance. After a moment, she withdrew it and looked at Minghao.

"It’s difficult to sense anything beyond the first few steps," she said. "The energy seems to grow weaker as it goes down."

Minghao nodded. He took out his scroll again and recorded the discovery.

"An underground passage beneath the northern ridge," he read as he wrote. "Stone steps descending into an unknown structure. Entrance partially obstructed by a collapsed stone slab. No visible signs of recent activity."

Yuexin glanced at the opening. "Should we go down?"

Minghao did not answer immediately. He looked at the dark passage, then at the recording scroll in his hand.

"Our mission is to investigate the area and report unusual findings. We haven’t been instructed to explore unknown ruins."

Yichen straightened. "But we found an entrance. Isn’t that exactly the kind of thing we’re supposed to investigate?"

"Investigate doesn’t mean walk into it without knowing what’s inside."

"Then what do you suggest?"

Minghao considered it. "We should check the entrance for traps or signs of danger first. If we find anything suspicious, we leave and report it. If it’s safe enough to enter, we can explore only as far as we can return without difficulty."

Yuexin nodded. "And we should mark the entrance. If something happens, at least the family will know where to look."

Yichen looked down the steps again. His earlier excitement had faded, replaced by a more cautious curiosity. He could not see the bottom, and the faint light from Minghao’s lamp seemed to disappear after only a short distance.

"Do you think this place is connected to the reason the land became like this?" he asked.

Minghao looked at the barren region stretching behind them.

"Maybe. We don’t have enough information to say."

Xiaoyu glanced back toward the grey expanse. "The strange spiritual energy might be connected to it. But we should not assume the passage is the source just because we found it here."

Minghao gave a small nod. "Exactly."

He stepped closer to the entrance and examined the stone around it.

Beneath the dust, a faint pattern was carved into the upper frame. Most of it had been damaged, but a few symbols remained, arranged in a circle similar to the groove they had found earlier.

Minghao’s brows drew together.

"Yuexin, come look at this."

She approached and studied the markings. "Do you recognize them?"

"No. But they don’t look like ordinary writing."

Yichen leaned in from the other side. "Could they be formation inscriptions?"

"Possibly, but I can’t tell from this much." Minghao straightened and looked at the passage once more. "We should record these too."

Yuexin took out her scroll and began sketching the remaining markings. Her expression was focused, and she occasionally leaned closer to check the shape of a damaged line before adding it to the drawing.

While she worked, Yichen moved toward the side of the entrance and brushed dust from another section of the wall. His fingers stopped when they touched something smooth.

"There’s writing here as well."

Minghao turned. "Don’t rub it too hard."

"I know."

Yichen carefully cleared the dust with the edge of his sleeve.

"That symbol appears more than once," he observed. "Could it be part of the same formation?"

"Possibly," Minghao said. "But we shouldn’t conclude that until we’ve examined more of it."

He took a few steps back, looking from the markings to the descending stairs.

For the first time since entering the grey region, Minghao felt that their mission might be more complicated than a simple investigation of unusual spiritual fluctuations.

He looked at the three beside him.

"Let’s finish recording everything before we decide whether to enter. And don’t touch anything else."

Yichen nodded, though his eyes remained fixed on the stairs.

"Fine. But we’re coming back to this, right?"

Yuexin glanced at the dark passage, then at the scroll in her hands, "We’d better. We didn’t travel all this way just to find a hole in the ground and walk away."

Minghao gave her a brief look. "That’s not what I said just now, Yuexin."

"I know."

She rolled up her scroll and tucked it away.

"But I also know you’re curious."

Minghao looked toward the entrance again. He did not bother denying it.