234: Chapter 234 Ancient Formation Deduction, Double Circles Collapse

After the door opened completely—Lu Changyuan saw clearly into the stone room.

The stone room didn't look big from the outside—about two zhang square. But inside, there was almost nowhere to step. The four stone walls were covered with crisscrossing wooden shelves—and what was piled on the shelves were not books, but rubbings. Rubbings of ancient Array Patterns—each one had been flipped through countless times, the edges of the paper worn to a fuzz, and the array ink on some rubbings had been rubbed so thin by fingers that nearly half was gone. Between the rubbings were stuffed dilapidated Formation Plates—the array paths on the plates had been modified more than once, and after several layers of new array ink were stacked on top of the old, the direction of the array paths could no longer be seen. On the floor were stacks of old array diagrams as high as a person—the aisles between the piles of diagrams were so narrow that one could only walk sideways. The air had a very thick smell of dry array ink—mixed with the faint sour smell of old paper that had been dampened and then dried, and the burnt smell of Spirit Stone debris that had been burning on the cold light stone lamp for who knows how many years.

In the innermost part of the stone room—the only empty space—was an old rattan chair. The armrests of the rattan chair were worn shiny by elbows—the degree of shine could only have been polished by calluses from at least a dozen years. A person sat on the rattan chair.

Old Mo.

His hair was completely white—white enough to emit a very faint silver color under the warm yellow cold light stone lamp. His hair was combed back—but not neatly, with a few strands scattered from behind his ears to rest on his shoulders. The wrinkles on his face were not deep—but dense. So dense that the distance between each wrinkle was less than half a finger. The most eye-catching thing was his hands. His right hand—the old stains of array ink on his fingers were stacked layer upon layer. The color of the old stains ranged from deep black to dark blue to gray-brown—array ink from different years had left traces of different colors on his fingers. The bottom-most layer had already seeped into his fingerprints and could not be washed off. But his fingers were extremely steady—when he held the rubbing paper of the coral box that Lu Changyuan handed in, the edge of the paper did not move at all on his fingertips.

He was wearing an old gray cloth robe that had been washed white—the right cuff of the robe was worn with a hole, and the threads at the edge of the hole were already worn into fuzzballs. The cloth robe was stained with several spots of dried array ink—all the ink stains were on his right side. His left side was clean.

Old Mo lowered the coral box rubbing paper from in front of his eyes—and glanced at Lu Changyuan. His gaze swept from Lu Changyuan's face to the Storage Pouch at his waist—stopped for less than half a breath on the edge of the bamboo tube exposed at the mouth of the Storage Pouch—and then retracted.

"What is in that other bamboo tube?"

Lu Changyuan took out the second bamboo tube—and pulled out the rubbing copy of a part of the ancient Array Patterns sealing the Main Hub. The rubbing paper was unfolded—on the paper surface were three peripheral ancient array paths cut from the structure of the sealing Formation Platform that Leng Feng had rubbed during his fourth exploration of the abyss. The way the paths were bundled was exactly the same as the way the Array Patterns were bundled in the double-ring sealing array on the coral box—both were array-laying techniques from the sealing era two thousand years ago.

Old Mo placed the two rubbing papers side by side on his knees. On the left was the coral box double-ring sealing array—the positive and negative rubbings of the twenty-four nodes. On the right was the partial ancient array path of the Main Hub seal—the rubbing of the three peripheral array paths. His eyes swept back and forth between the two papers for nearly thirty breaths—the speed of his scanning getting faster and faster. When he scanned to thirty breaths—he dragged the rattan chair forward by nearly half a foot. The sound of the rattan chair legs scraping on the stone floor was extremely harsh—but he did not notice.

"Where did you get this box?"

"From the stomach of a commander of the Haiyuan Clan. I cut it out."

Old Mo flipped the rubbing paper over—facing the direction of the cold light stone lamp. The light shone through the back of the rubbing paper—revealing the varying degrees of light transmission of the stacked array ink. He was looking at the bundling direction of every stroke of array ink—it was clearer to see the bundling direction from the back of the paper than from the front. After looking for nearly forty breaths—he flipped the rubbing paper back over—and then stood up from the rattan chair.

After standing up, Lu Changyuan could see his height clearly—shorter than expected. Only reaching Lu Changyuan's shoulders. But when he walked to the workbench in the corner of the stone room—his steps were very steady. The workbench was a thick wooden board placed on two old stone stools—a half-drawn array diagram was spread on the wooden board. The array ink on the diagram was not yet dry—the ink marks glistened under the cold light stone lamp. He carefully rolled up the array diagram and set it aside—and then spread the coral box rubbing paper flat on the wooden board.

"Double-ring sealing array—the outer ring locks clockwise, the inner ring locks counter-clockwise. The locking directions of the two rings are opposite—if you use Spirit Stone energy to forcefully charge from the outer ring—the outer ring will open, but the inner ring will lock even tighter. There is a relay array path between the two rings—the relay array path is activated by a specific Spirit Stone energy frequency when the array is laid. The person breaking the array must find that frequency—and inject it into the outer and inner rings simultaneously using the same frequency—only then will both rings loosen at the same time."

He did not look at Lu Changyuan while speaking. His eyes were constantly on the rubbing paper—his fingertips slowly traced the direction of the outer ring Array Pattern from the first node to the twelfth node. When he traced to the seventh node—his fingers stopped.

"Here—the seventh node. The bundling direction of the array ink takes a turn here that it shouldn't." He pushed the rubbing paper another half inch under the lamp. "Active Array Master draw sealing arrays—the bundling direction follows the trend of the array path and bundles outward. At this position—it should continue to turn outward. But this Array Pattern is not—it bundled inward. Bundling inward is equivalent to leaving a tiny Spirit Stone energy pressure relief port for the subsequent array path while sealing it. Active Array Master would not draw it this way—drawing it that way is equivalent to leaving a gap in the seal. But ancient Array Master would—they deliberately left a gap less than half a grain of rice wide at the bottom of each circle of secondary patterns. It's called an exhaust vent."

"Exhaust vent—what is it used for?"

"For breaking the array." Old Mo drew a tiny circle at the bundling turn of the seventh node with his finger. "When ancient Array Master laid sealing arrays—they would deliberately leave an exhaust vent at the bottom of the secondary patterns of each ring. Only the person who laid the array knew the location of the vent. The function of the vent—is to allow the person breaking the array to use extremely weak Spirit Stone energy to probe into the vent after finding it—to probe for the original frequency of the relay array path. If you find it—the array is broken. If you can't find it—the result of brute-forcing the array is the outer ring opening and the inner ring locking. This is a game that ancient Array Master played with later generations: I left you a back door—but you have to be smart enough to find it."

He lifted his finger from the seventh node—and then searched one by one on the other twenty-three nodes of the coral box rubbing paper. The speed of searching was not slow—he paused for about three breaths at each node—and drew a small circle on the Array Pattern bundling point with his finger. When he found the eleventh one—another inward-turning bend. The fifteenth one—another one. The twenty-third one—another one. The outer ring of the double-ring sealing array had a total of four exhaust vents—the inner ring also had four—the positions were not completely symmetrical. Every time he found one, he marked a tiny dot with a charcoal pencil on the edge of the rubbing paper.

After finding the last one—he took the coral box from Lu Changyuan's hand.

He flipped the box over in his hands—he faced the bottom of the box upward—and looked at it against the cold light stone lamp. The longitudinal patterns of the shallow-water coral on the bottom of the box showed a very faint layered structure under the light—each layer of pattern represented one year the coral grew in shallow water. There were too many layers—they couldn't be counted. Then he flipped the box back—his fingertips hovered about half an inch directly above the double-ring Array Pattern on the surface of the box—and he closed his eyes.

The Divine Sense of a Golden Core Late Stage Cultivator—probed from the fingertips onto the Array Pattern on the box surface. The tactile sensation of Divine Sense was different from Spirit Stone energy. Probing the array with Spirit Stone energy—the Array Pattern would bounce back the Spirit Stone energy fluctuations. Probing the array with Divine Sense—the Array Pattern could not block the Divine Sense, the Divine Sense could drill into the gaps between the array ink, and touch the direction of the relay array path beneath the array path. But his Dantian was damaged—the output of his Divine Sense was only nearly sixty percent of a normal Golden Core Late Stage Cultivator. When the Divine Sense was released from his fingertips—his brows furrowed slightly. The degree of his brow furrowing was extremely small—it relaxed in less than half a breath.

Lu Changyuan stood by the workbench—without making a sound. He could not understand the specific operation of the Divine Sense probing the array at Old Mo's fingertips—but Su Qingli had drawn a simple diagram for him before coming. The diagram marked four key observation points: the location of the exhaust vents at the bottom of each ring of secondary patterns, the two frequency intersection points of the relay array path, the Spirit Stone energy injection angle for both rings of the sealing array to loosen simultaneously, and the color change sequence when the Array Pattern on the box surface turned from bright to dark. He kept these four observation points in his mind—now Old Mo's fingers were at the position of the first observation point.

After about the time it takes to burn half an incense stick—Old Mo opened his eyes.

"The original frequency of the relay array path—has been found." He placed the coral box flat on the workbench—box face up. "But the original frequency is from two thousand years ago—the array ink has aged over two thousand years. The aged array ink will have a deviation in its response to the Spirit Stone energy frequency—how much it deviates depends on the specific formula of the array ink. This formula—I have to test it."

He pulled out a flat old wooden box from under the workbench—inside the box were twenty-something extremely thin array ink sticks arranged neatly. The colors of the array ink sticks ranged from deep black to dark red to gray-blue—different formulas, different years. He picked three of them—dipped a bit of ink powder the size of less than half a grain of rice on his fingertips. Then he gently drew a very short test line with the three array ink sticks at three different positions on the outer ring Array Pattern of the coral box—the length of the test line was less than half a grain of rice.

The first one—deep black array ink. After the test line was drawn—the ghostly blue light of the outer ring Array Pattern shrank inward by nearly half an inch. Not right—the frequency was too low.

The second one—dark red array ink. After the test line was drawn—the light of the outer ring Array Pattern expanded outward by nearly an inch. The frequency was too high.

The third one—gray-blue array ink. After the test line was drawn—the light of the outer ring Array Pattern remained still for about two breaths—and then began to pulse with a light and dark rhythm completely synchronized with the inner ring Array Pattern on the box surface. The frequency matched.

Old Mo nodded. He pulled two gray-blue array ink sticks from the wooden box—dipped one on his right index finger, one on his right middle finger. Then he pressed both fingers simultaneously on the center of the outer and inner rings of the coral box double-ring sealing array—the outer ring clockwise, the inner ring counter-clockwise—injecting two extremely weak Spirit Stone energy streams with the same frequency but opposite directions at the same time.

The moment the Spirit Stone energy was injected—the double-ring Array Patterns on the surface of the coral box began to light up simultaneously from ghost blue and dark red. The speed of brightening was not fast—it spread bit by bit from the center of the Array Pattern to the edge. When it spread to the edge—a very light metallic crisp sound was heard at the junction of the outer and inner rings. It was not the crisp sound of copper or iron—it was the sound of some lighter and thinner metal sheet being popped open.

Both ring Array Patterns dimmed at the same time.

The lid of the coral box—automatically popped open a crack. The width of the gap was less than half a grain of rice—but the light coming from the gap was extremely bright. It was blue-white cold light—the intensity of the light was at least ten times higher than that old cold light stone lamp in the stone room. The cold light shot out from the box gap—casting extremely clear shadows on every wrinkle on Old Mo's face. His pupils shrank by nearly half under the blue-white light—but his fingers did not move away from the box surface.

He used his fingertips to lift the box lid.

After the box lid was flipped open—the blue-white cold light illuminated all four walls of the entire stone room. Those old rubbings on the wooden shelves on the wall—once illuminated by the light, the ancient Array Patterns drawn with array ink on the rubbings revealed pattern directions completely different from the front under the backlight. Old Mo lowered his head and took a look inside the box.

Inside the box—on the dark red coral inner wall, a whole piece of something about the size of a fist lay quietly. Translucent—the texture was like solidified glue but more transparent than glue. The color alternated very slowly between blue and white—the rhythm of the alternation was as slow as a person's breathing while sleeping. Every time it alternated—the cold light in the box flickered once.

Old Mo's fingers stopped in mid-air. The position where it stopped was less than half an inch away from the thing inside the box—but his fingers did not fall. His eyes stared at the inside of the box—looking for nearly ten breaths. Then he turned his head—and looked at Lu Changyuan.

His voice was nearly half a degree lower than before—so low that it was almost spoken while suppressed in his throat.

"This is Deep Sea Spirit Marrow." He withdrew his fingertips from above the box opening—the action of withdrawing his hand was extremely slow—as if he was afraid of breaking something. "Do you know that this thing in the black market—is priced by the 'drop'? One drop—the settlement uses Mid-Grade Spirit Stone. The weight of one drop is less than half a grain of rice. This piece of yours—fist-sized—can extract at least several thousand drops."

He turned his head back—and took another look inside the box—then gently closed the box lid with the back of his hand. After closing it—the blue-white cold light disappeared from the stone room. The rubbings on the wall returned to the dim color of old paper.

"This thing—in the black market can make Golden Core Cultivators turn against each other. It can make False Infant Cultivators come to talk in person. It can make the intelligence network of an entire fortress move for it." Old Mo pushed the coral box nearly half a foot in the direction of Lu Changyuan. "You brought it to find an old man like me who has retired—aren't you afraid that I might have other thoughts?"

Lu Changyuan did not answer this question. He was looking at Old Mo's fingers—the fingertips still rested on the box surface after closing the box lid—without moving away. The old fingers with dozens of layers of old array ink stains—the fingertips were trembling very lightly and slowly. The amplitude of the trembling was extremely small—less than half an inch. But the frequency of the trembling was exactly the same as the flickering rhythm of the Spirit Marrow in the box.

A person who has been obsessed with ancient arrays for twenty years—seeing for the first time a material he had only read about in ancient books. This material was half an inch under his fingertips.

Lu Changyuan picked up the coral box—and put it into the Storage Pouch. Then he took out a small pot of hot tea and two coarse pottery cups prepared for him by Su Qingli from the Storage Pouch—and placed them on the workbench.

"Old Mo—drink some tea first."