Chapter 276: Bluewave city 8.

These two were not merely companions.

They were completely devoted to each other.

If one were threatened, the other would probably tear the entire city apart without hesitation.

Han Qing decided not to ask further questions.

Instead, she said, "We need to reach the ritual chamber."

"Where is it?" Su Yubing asked.

"Under the city lord’s mansion."

Mo Yuxin looked toward the ceiling.

"Then we need to return to the surface."

"The passages are sealed."

"We can open them."

"There are guards."

"We can avoid them."

"The city lord has several Nascent Soul cultivators."

Mo Yuxin smiled faintly.

"That is fine."

Han Qing looked between them.

She suddenly felt that perhaps she had found exactly the wrong people to drag into this mess.

But also the right ones.

The three women left the underground temple.

They moved through the hidden streets while the city above remained in darkness.

As they went, they found more traces of what had happened.

Cells.

Empty cages.

Storage rooms filled with sea beast blood.

Formation materials.

And, in one chamber, dozens of nameplates belonging to missing cultivators.

Han Qing stopped there.

Her face turned pale.

One of the nameplates belonged to her younger brother.

She picked it up with shaking fingers.

"He told me he was going south with a merchant ship."

Su Yubing placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I am sorry."

Han Qing looked at the nameplate.

"He was only nineteen."

Mo Yuxin did not speak.

She looked at the formation beneath the floor.

It was absorbing spiritual essence from the nameplates.

Not the bodies.

The memories.

The city lord had not simply been sacrificing people.

He had been feeding their souls into the formation.

Su Yubing saw it too.

Her eyes turned cold.

"He is using them to stabilize the seal."

Han Qing’s grip tightened.

"Then why open it?"

Mo Yuxin answered quietly.

"Because he believes the thing beneath the city is worth more than the lives being used to seal it."

They moved on.

The hidden passage eventually reached a stone stairway.

At the top was an old cellar beneath a merchant warehouse.

Mo Yuxin opened the trapdoor.

They emerged into the city.

The darkness outside was much deeper now.

Bluewave City was still sealed.

No moonlight entered through the formation in the sky.

Spirit lanterns had not recovered.

The streets were lit only by the occasional glow of a cultivator’s technique.

People crowded the central square, arguing and panicking.

City guards were trying to control them.

Mo Yuxin and Su Yubing moved through the crowd silently.

They reached the road leading toward the city lord’s mansion.

Along the way, they passed several classic scenes that would have made any xianxia storywriter feel at home.

A sect disciple was standing on a rooftop declaring that he would protect the city.

A mysterious masked woman was secretly handing out talismans.

A rich young master was insisting that his family could buy its way through the blockade.

An old beggar sat under a bridge and smiled as though he knew everything.

Mo Yuxin looked at the beggar.

The beggar looked back.

For one breath, their eyes met.

The old man’s pupils turned silver.

Mo Yuxin stopped.

The old man winked.

Then he went back to pretending to be asleep.

Su Yubing whispered, "Hidden expert."

"Obviously."

"Should we talk to him?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because he will probably ask us to fetch a medicine from the forbidden zone."

Su Yubing laughed quietly.

"That is true."

They kept going.

Before they reached the city lord’s mansion, Su Yubing suddenly stopped.

"Wait."

Mo Yuxin stopped too.

Han Qing looked back.

"What is it?"

Su Yubing pointed toward a narrow side street.

"The auction house."

Mo Yuxin followed her gaze.

The grand building stood dark and closed, but unlike the other shops around it, several faint formation lights still glowed along the roof.

"Why would the auction house still have power?" Mo Yuxin asked.

Han Qing frowned.

"It should have shut down with the rest of the city."

They entered through the side door.

Inside, rows of chairs filled a large hall. The stage was empty. Wooden boxes and display cases stood behind it. The place looked abandoned, but spiritual energy was still flowing through the walls.

Mo Yuxin walked to the stage.

A small formation was engraved beneath the floor.

Su Yubing crouched beside it.

"This was installed recently."

"How recently?"

"A few weeks."

Han Qing’s expression changed.

"The auction house was a cover."

Mo Yuxin nodded.

They searched the back rooms.

At first they found ordinary auction materials. Spirit herbs, pearls, swords, jade bottles, and a few valuable monster cores.

Then they found the hidden room.

It was behind a wall that looked solid.

Mo Yuxin touched it and the wall opened.

Inside were dozens of wooden cases.

Each case held a black piece of stone.

The stones were cold.

Extremely cold.

Han Qing stepped closer.

"What are those?"

Su Yubing shook her head.

"Fragments of the city formation."

Mo Yuxin picked one up.

A faint image appeared above it.

A map of Bluewave City.

But the map was wrong.

The current city was shown on top of another shape.

The underground streets.

The old harbor.

The hidden temple.

The city lord’s mansion.

And beneath everything, an enormous circular structure.

Mo Yuxin narrowed her eyes.

"This is the real formation."

Han Qing looked at the map.

"Then the city was not built over the ruins by accident."

"No."

Su Yubing pointed at the center.

"It was built as a seal."

That changed everything.

Bluewave City was not merely hiding an ancient ruin.

It had been constructed to keep something beneath the sea asleep.

The city lord was not opening a treasure vault.

He was removing the locks.

Mo Yuxin put the fragment down.

"How many pieces are there?"

"At least eighty," Han Qing answered.

"And if they are all moved?"

Su Yubing looked toward the ceiling.

"The seal collapses."

They heard footsteps outside.

Someone was approaching.

Mo Yuxin waved a hand.

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TO BE CONTINUED.