253: Chapter 253 Spirit Wine Cleanses the Marrow, Secret Report

Chu Yunfei flicked his fingernail against the twelfth Spirit Stone fragment of the Seal Array at the mouth of the jar. The closed loop of the Array Pattern began to extinguish, one fragment at a time. Each fragment emitted a faint, crisp "pop" as it died, like a crack in ice spreading from the rim of a cup. Twelve sounds in succession—less than three breaths later—the entire sealing Array Pattern on the jar's mouth transformed into a faint, cyan-colored spirit mist.

The spirit mist did not disperse. It hovered less than half a foot above the jar's mouth, so thick it could almost be stirred with a finger. Cyan-colored cold light shone through the mist layer, turning the color of the tea in front of Chu Yunfei from amber to a pale grayish-green. Within five breaths of the mist spreading, the temperature on the first floor of the stone building dropped by at least half a degree. It was that constant, low temperature brought out by deep seawater flowing through rock crevices that hadn't seen the sun in a thousand years, spreading outwards from the center of the mist in layers.

"The raw material for the Azure Sea Jade Liquid isn't fruit; it's a type of Sea Marrow Moss that only grows at the roots of Starlight Coral that are over three hundred years old. One coral root can only nourish a patch of moss the size of a palm. When harvesting, one must use a jade knife to scrape it off the coral root right against the stone wall. You cannot use your hands or metal—metal turns the moss black upon contact, rendering its medicinal properties useless." Chu Yunfei tilted the jar and poured the first cup. The color of the wine was a faint silver-blue. It didn't cling to the sides of the cup, and looking from the bottom of the cup up, one could clearly see the grain of the ceiling wood through the liquid. "This jar is three hundred years old, and the moss is at least three hundred years old. Having been nourished by the coral root for over three centuries, the coral's spiritual power has grown together with the moss. What you are drinking isn't just wine; it's the spiritual power of the coral extracted by the wine."

He pushed the first cup toward Lu Changyuan. As the cup slid across the tabletop, the silver-blue wine at the bottom only swayed once before settling back into a perfectly flat liquid mirror.

Lu Changyuan picked up the cup, but he didn't drink immediately. He brought the cup near his nose. He didn't smell wine. What he smelled was a faint, salty scent of deep-sea rock walls—the exact same scent that clung to Leng Feng every time he surfaced from the depths of the abyssal vein. Then, he took the first sip.

The silver-blue wine slid down his throat into his body. At first, it was cool. That coolness spread down his esophagus, and as it passed through his chest, he could feel the temperature on the inside of every rib being peeled away layer by layer. Then, the wine fell into his Dantian.

In that instant, the coolness vanished.

Replacing it was an explosion. The three-hundred-year-old water-attribute spiritual power contained in the spirit wine was like a deep-sea undercurrent suddenly released after being compressed to the extreme. It poured out from his Dantian, and his Meridians were repeatedly washed by waves of spiritual power. Each impact carried the density of spiritual power accumulated by the coral roots over three hundred years. It was violent and relentless—like using seawater to repeatedly crash against reefs, treating his Meridians as the rocks.

Lu Changyuan set down the cup, sat cross-legged, and pressed his hands onto his knees. Within his body, his Meridians were experiencing a precise, directional tearing sensation. The spiritual power started from his Dantian, poured along the Meridians of his four limbs to the extremities, rushed to the tips, and then folded back to his Dantian before rushing out again. With each return, a small piece of the extremely thin layer of dark residue that had deposited on the inner walls of his Meridians due to the long-term consumption of low-grade Medicinal Pill was washed away. The residue was dark gray, having stuck to the inner walls of his Meridians for at least several months. In some places, it had formed an extremely thin film that couldn't be felt with a hand but could be felt as an obstruction. When the spiritual power tide of the spirit wine had washed over them for the seventh or eighth time, the speed of spiritual power circulation within his Meridians began to change. The residual obstruction after each wash was nearly ten percent less than the previous one. After accumulating a dozen times, the circulation speed was nearly twenty percent faster than before the washing.

The entire process lasted for nearly an hour.

When the last wisp of silver-blue spirit mist completely dissipated from the jar's mouth, Lu Changyuan opened his eyes. He looked down at his hands. The finger joints showed no change under the cold light stone lamp. But when he circulated his internal spiritual power, the flow speed from his Dantian to his fingertips was nearly twenty percent faster than an hour ago. Several Meridian nodes that had been slightly clogged due to the long-term consumption of low-grade Medicinal Pill had been cleared. The blockage points that would have originally required at least half a year of grinding effort to clear had been saved by this jar of three-hundred-year-old spirit wine in less than an hour.

Chu Yunfei only drank a small cup himself. He divided that small cup into three tiny sips, with at least half a stick of incense time between each sip, giving his Meridians enough time to fully digest the spiritual power of each sip. His face was slightly flushed, but the consciousness in his eyes remained clear—clear enough to accurately calculate the remaining spiritual power of each sip of wine.

"This was obtained through the Chamber of Commerce channels. I had to stuff three months' worth of Spirit Stone into the pockets of the old man in charge of the warehouse before he let go. That old man has been watching the Medicinal Pill warehouse at the fortress for nearly his entire life. He spends all day touching Medicinal Pill until his fingerprints have been worn smooth, but he never dares to drink what he guards." He resealed the jar's mouth with a layer of ordinary sealing talisman. There was still nearly half a jar of silver-blue wine left. "A small cup is enough for me. You take the rest."

Lu Changyuan did not decline. He put the wine jar into his Storage Pouch. His fingertips paused for less than half a breath on the extremely thin, fresh scratch on the jar's body.

"Chu Yunfei, thank you."

Chu Yunfei was tidying up the cups. The bottom of a cup clicked against the tabletop with a faint, crisp sound. "No need to thank me. Changyuan, I didn't help you get this thing just to make you owe me a favor." He flipped the cup over, placing it face down on the table. "The things you did on Blue Moon Island—the commanders on the front line don't understand. They only look at combat reports. If you win, it's good; if you lose, it's rotten. But I am different. I am a merchant. I look at the accounts. Three months ago, you were a poor lord of a D-grade stronghold. Now, the Ore and combat merit points in your hands combined already make you the most significant resource node in the flank war zone. The people from the Chambers of Commerce in the Royal Capital will start asking about you in a month or so. If news about the ruins gets out, the people lining up to ask about you will fill an entire street."

He pushed the cup face down on the table half an inch toward the wine jar. "I am helping you. Not by helping you at the wine table, but by paving the way for you before you even need them."

Lu Changyuan looked into Chu Yunfei's eyes and did not answer immediately. Chu Yunfei was calculating. The accounts of a Chamber of Commerce broker—the account of favors and the account of Spirit Stone follow the same logic: invest in the person with the most potential early on; when the other party truly rises, the return is far greater than the investment. Since the first day he met Lu Changyuan, Chu Yunfei had been making this investment, and this time was no exception.

"Then I will accept it." Lu Changyuan tightened the mouth of his Storage Pouch. "After the road is paved, I will remember who was the first to squat down while it was being paved."

The next morning.

Lu Changyuan summoned Leng Feng in the secret room on the second floor of the stone building. Leng Feng had rushed back from the outskirts of the ruins overnight. His armor plates were covered in dark purple corrosion mist residue. Those residues had condensed into a thin layer of salt frost on the surface of the armor plates. It melted with a swipe of a finger, but after wiping it off, it would seep out again from the seams of the armor plates within a few breaths. The corrosion mist residue contained tiny particles of Haiyuan Clan bone spear fragments, splashed onto the armor plates when rubbing against the bone armor underwater. His breathing was nearly twenty percent faster than usual; after soaking in the water for at least a day and a night, his lungs were still adapting to the air.

On the dark copper alloy guard plate at the location of the old wound on his left shoulder, there was a new scratch. The scratch was not deep, cutting diagonally across the edge of the guard plate for nearly three inches. A tiny, ink-green bone fragment was embedded at the end. It was splashed out when the bone spear tip of a Haiyuan Clan patrol soldier grazed him.

"Lord, I have been squatting outside the gate for a day and a night." Leng Feng untied the observation lens from his waist and placed it on the table. The outside of the lens barrel was covered in salt frost and the dark purple hard shells of dried corrosion mist. He pulled a new piece of waterproof oilcloth from his chest and spread it out on the table.

What was drawn on the oilcloth was a troop distribution map within a ten-mile radius outside the stone gate of the ruins. Leng Feng used a charcoal pencil, the same technique used for drawing the Ore vein coordinates previously, but this time the oilcloth was filled with dense, small circles and triangle symbols of varying sizes. The small circles represented Haiyuan Clan elites above the Late Foundation Establishment Stage, so dense that at least hundreds were drawn in an area of less than five miles. The triangle symbols represented Golden Core Abyssal Beast. The movement direction and activity radius of each one were marked separately. Lu Changyuan counted them; there were no fewer than ten triangle symbols.

"We can't get through." Leng Feng pointed his finger at the center of the oilcloth—that was the location of the stone gate. "No matter which direction we take—flank, frontal, circling from above, diving from underwater—the troop density in front of the stone gate is so high that there are at least three layers of encirclement. The outermost layer is cannon fodder at the Early Stage of Foundation Establishment, with patrol density crossing at least two shifts every half stick of incense. The second layer—Late Foundation Establishment Stage elites—each position is fixed, inserted into the reef area outside the stone gate like chess pieces, with no blind spots in their lines of sight. The third layer—closest to the door—is Golden Core level, no fewer than ten. They are not patrolling; they are surrounding the front of the door, guarding it facing outward. Anything that approaches within ten miles will be locked onto by at least two Golden Core simultaneously."

Leng Feng moved his finger from the center of the oilcloth to the bottom left corner. A tiny undercurrent corner was marked there. The corner was nearly twelve miles away from the stone gate, just in the gap between the outermost layer and the second layer of the three-layer encirclement. The gap was extremely narrow, less than twenty zhang wide. Twenty zhang—in the deep sea, it was only enough for a small flying boat to pass through, and to pass, one must maintain the spiritual power shielding of the stealth Array Pattern throughout.

"The only possibility—go by the token." Leng Feng's finger paused on the undercurrent corner for nearly three breaths. "The entry and exit Array path deduced from the crystal pattern—enter directly. Do not pass outside the gate. Do not go through the outer perimeter, do not go through the reef area, enter the lobby of the ruins directly from the outer wall of the Seal."

Lu Changyuan looked at the troop markings on the oilcloth and was silent for a few breaths. Then he said, "Then we wait for Old Mo. As soon as the deduction is complete, we leave."

Leng Feng began to roll up the oilcloth again. When he was halfway through, the bottom of his observation lens barrel knocked against the corner of the table, making a dull sound. He reached out to steady it, but his fingers stopped at the bottom of the lens barrel.

The salt frost at the bottom of the barrel had already formed a third layer. The first layer—gray-white sea salt crystals. The second layer—dark purple corrosion mist condensate. The third layer—extremely faint dark gold fragments. The particles of the fragments were nearly half as fine as the salt frost, not reflecting light under the cold light stone lamp, but a slight heat could be felt when placed on a finger. The residual spiritual power in the fragments was undergoing a very slow reaction after coming into contact with the air, and the heat radiated from the reaction.

"Lord, there is one more thing."

Leng Feng pushed the observation lens closer to Lu Changyuan. Under the cold light stone lamp, the edge of each dark gold fragment at the bottom of the lens barrel was emitting a very restrained pulsation, contracting like a heartbeat. The pulse frequency was exactly the same as that of the black crystal in Lu Changyuan's sleeve, but the rhythm was different. The crystal's frequency was continuous and stable; when the dark copper probe touched it, it locked onto a fixed frequency. The fragment's frequency was one beat, pause for a breath, another beat, then pause for a breath—a pulsed beat, completely different from the crystal's continuous and stable output.

"That new master fluctuation source—the Guardian Spirit. Its frequency is changing." Leng Feng pointed his finger at the layer of dark gold fragments at the bottom of the observation lens barrel. "It has changed from continuous output to pulses. It's like—waiting for something."

It was quiet in the secret room for nearly five breaths. The Spirit Stone fragments in the cold light stone lamp were slowly being consumed—pop—sounding every few breaths. Outside the window, on the stone road of the inner city of Zhenhai Fortress, the sound of Spirit Horse hooves and the shouting of Chamber of Commerce street runners continued, each occupying its own rhythm with the pulsation frequency of the fragments in the secret room.

Lu Changyuan reached out and picked up the largest dark gold fragment from the bottom of the observation lens barrel. Placing it in his palm, the fragment pulsed in his palm with an extremely stable rhythm of one beat, one breath, one beat. Like a pulse. Like a countdown.

He pinched the fragment between his fingertips and glanced at the sky over Zhenhai Fortress outside the window—the gray-white clouds were pressing lower than they were in the morning. Then he reached his hand back into his sleeve and touched the twelve things stacked together. The three items exchanged from the inner treasury today were also mixed among them. The black crystal was stuffed at the very bottom, its icy surface pressing against his forearm through layers of paper.

"Leng Feng, the mission on the outskirts of the ruins ends here. Return to Blue Moon Island with me tonight. Old Mo's deduction—should be within these few days."