166: Chapter 166 Traces

Uncle Chen's words made the group stop.

Zhou Rui turned back. Uncle Chen was standing in place, his hand pressed against his chest, as if listening to something.

The morning breeze blew down from the hillside, making the leaves of the bushes rustle. Dew was shaken off, dripping onto the dry dirt road and seeping into dark patches.

"Someone was here yesterday."

Uncle Chen's voice was a bit deeper than before.

Chen Zhen walked back a few steps. "How can you tell?"

"The Seal is twitching."

Uncle Chen lowered his hand. "It's not the way my father's did. It's the way it twitches when someone touches it from the outside, like being flicked with a finger. It hasn't reacted yet."

Zhou Rui crouched down and prodded the mud by the side of the road with his finger.

The grass had been trampled down; the broken ends were still wet and appeared white.

"No more than twelve hours ago." He stood up and brushed the mud off his hands.

Yun Xi walked up from behind and glanced at the ground. "How many people?"

"One."

Zhou Rui pointed to the footprints. "The shoe size isn't big, around a size 42. They aren't heavy; the depth of the prints is shallow. They were walking fast with a long stride, like they were in a hurry."

He walked a few steps in the direction of the footprints and stopped in front of a bush.

"They disappeared here. They stepped on a rock and left no trace."

Chen Zhen walked over, crouched down, and looked at the rock.

It was blue-gray with moss on the surface, but not thick.

There were no footprints on the rock, and the moss surface was smooth.

"They stepped on it, but the moss isn't broken. They controlled the force of their step."

Zhou Rui was taken aback.

"This isn't something an ordinary person could do."

Yun Xi glanced at Chen Zhen.

"A practitioner?"

"At least someone who has trained." Chen Zhen stood up and looked at Uncle Chen. "Can you sense where they went?"

Uncle Chen closed his eyes and was silent for a moment. "North. They went toward the Seal. They aren't there now." He opened his eyes. "They left, but they left something behind."

"What is it?"

"A trace of Qi. Very faint. It's not the Qi of a Mountain Guardian, nor is it like Shen Zhiyuan's. It's like... like water being held down, calm on the surface, but moving underneath."

Chen Zhen thought about this.

"They were messing with the Seal. They didn't open it, but they tried."

Zhou Rui felt the coil of rope he was carrying to make sure it was still there.

"Should we speed up? Maybe we can still catch them."

Chen Zhen shook his head. "If we walk too fast, we won't see clearly. They left more than just footprints; they left other things."

He walked forward in the direction of the footprints, slowing his pace, and pushed his Anomaly Perception to the maximum.

The dirt path underfoot turned into a gravel slope; loose stones rolled away from his feet, making soft clattering sounds.

After walking a distance, he stopped in front of a rock and bent down to pick something up.

It was a loose thread.

Dark gray, very thin, like it had been snagged off some clothing.

Zhou Rui leaned in to look.

"A windbreaker. Common fabric."

Chen Zhen put the thread into his backpack.

"We'll check it when we get back."

Uncle Chen stood behind them, his hand pressed against his chest, eyes closed.

He looked like he was listening to something, his brows slightly furrowed.

"It's still twitching," he said.

"A bit slower than before. It knows it was touched and is processing that information."

Processing information. Chen Zhen found this way of describing it interesting.

The Seal was like a living thing.

Like a tree that has been bumped; its branches would sway, and it would take a while to calm down.

He continued walking forward, moving slower and slower—not because he was tired, but because he was sensing the surrounding environment.

In his Anomaly Perception, the distribution of energy in the surroundings was not quite right, like a net that had been pulled out of shape.

In some places, the concentration of spiritual energy was higher, and in others, it was lower, as if someone had stepped on it.

He followed those anomalous points, turning from the gravel slope into a small grove, and bypassed an old, crooked pine tree.

Then he saw it.

A crack, about a thumb's width, extending from the ground all the way up.

The soil at the edge of the crack was dry and cracked, as if it had been forced open from the inside by some power.

There was no residual anomalous energy in the crack.

He crouched down, reached out, and hovered his fingertips over the crack.

There was no wind, and there was no temperature in the crack, but in his Anomaly Perception, he could feel a very faint fluctuation—not spiritual energy, but a vibration.

Like someone beating a drum far away; by the time it reached here, only a bit of the aftershock remained.

Zhou Rui walked to his side.

"This is..."

"The Seal is cracked." Chen Zhen stood up.

"It's small. But it's definitely cracked."

"Did that person yesterday do it?"

"Maybe. Or it might have been cracked for a long time, and he was just checking it."

Uncle Chen walked over, crouched down, and placed his palm on the ground next to the crack.

He closed his eyes, and after a while, shook his head.

"He didn't do it. It's an old injury. At least over a year old."

He stood up.

"The last time I came here, it wasn't cracked."

Chen Zhen stared at the crack.

Over a year.

Not the last time Uncle Chen came.

Then who was it?

Yun Xi leaned against a nearby tree, arms crossed.

"Could it be Shen Zhiqiu? Has he ever been to North Mountain?"

"He has." Chen Zhen remembered Shen Nian saying that Shen Zhiqiu had taken him to Kunlun, but hadn't mentioned North Mountain. "But it doesn't have to be him."

Zhou Rui took his notebook out of his pack and drew a sketch.

The location of Shiqiao Village, the trench, the pine forest, the gravel slope, the stone tablet, and the location of this crack, which was about a dozen steps northwest of the stone tablet.

"Master, can this crack be fixed?"

Chen Zhen glanced at Uncle Chen. Uncle Chen nodded. "It can be fixed. Use the knife, like I said before."

"How long will it take?"

"Half a day."

Chen Zhen looked at the sky.

It was past six in the morning, the clouds were clearing, and sunlight was shining through the thin clouds.

There was still time before noon. "We'll fix it before we go back."

Zhou Rui put down his backpack and pulled out a plastic storage box.

"I have some prepared spiritual Materials; they might be able to help."

Uncle Chen looked at him. Zhou Rui opened the storage box, which contained several small glass bottles filled with powders and liquids of different colors and states, with handwritten labels on the bottles.

"Cinnabar, anshen flower powder, spiritual plant ash, and a bottle of stabilizer I mixed myself."

He pointed to the largest bottle. "This can accelerate spiritual energy sedimentation, allowing the Seal to recover a bit faster."

Uncle Chen picked up the bottle and looked at it for a long time, then returned it to Zhou Rui and turned to Chen Zhen. "Your apprentice has some skills."

Zhou Rui was taken aback, his ears turning a bit red, and he lowered his head to take out his shovel.

Uncle Chen didn't say anything more, pulling that short knife from his cloth bag. The knife left its sheath; the blade was dull and dark, not reflecting any light.

He walked to the side of the crack, crouched down, aimed the tip of the knife at the edge of the crack, and pierced it in slowly and evenly.

The movements weren't large, but every strike used his full strength.

Chen Zhen walked to the side, took out the North Mountain jade plaque, held it in his palm, and injected spiritual energy into it.

The jade plaque began to glow.

The edge of the Seal lit up slightly, like a lamp that was about to go out being reconnected to power.

Zhou Rui crouched next to Uncle Chen, using a spoon to fill the crack with the stabilizer.

"Slow down, don't fill it up," Uncle Chen said.

"Leave a little gap so the Qi can flow on its own."

Zhou Rui slowed his hand, pouring it in bit by bit, like mixing ink.