62: Chapter 62, Page 2 (Sealing Page)

The Star Map Library closed its main entrance once night fell. Instructor Gu Pingchuan led Lu Jin down the grey corridor on the west side, which was only wide enough for two people to walk abreast.

There were no lamps in the corridor; only wisps of cold, white starlight patterns seeped from the crevices in the walls, snaking along the floor. The deeper they went, the quieter it became, as if even their footsteps were being heavily suppressed, landing with extreme lightness.

At the end of the corridor stood a semi-circular black door. It had no lock, only two embedded grooves—one for the Zhuixing Academy auxiliary record seal, and the other for the Old Military Court's temporary fire insignia.

Instructor Gu Pingchuan first inserted his own pass, and half of the grey star patterns on the door lit up. He then turned his head to look at Lu Jin. "Your pass."

Lu Jin raised his hand and pressed his Military Court temporary pass into the other slot.

With a soft "click," the accumulated dust of years inside the black door seemed to be blown open a crack by an internal force. The door did not open fully, leaving only a gap wide enough for one person to pass through.

Instructor Gu Pingchuan did not rush to enter. He first looked toward the thin black curtain hanging by the door and said in a deep voice, "Record Keeper Ji, I have brought the person."

It was quiet behind the curtain for two breaths, then a withered, thin hand lifted the corner of the curtain.

Sitting behind it was an old woman with white hair, draped in the grey velvet short cape of the Zhuixing Academy auxiliary records department. Her eyelids were thin, but her gaze was sharp. She first swept her eyes over Instructor Gu Pingchuan, then turned them toward Lu Jin, pausing for a split second on the black-listed embroidery on his cuff. Her tone was flat, yet hidden with sharpness: "People observed by the sacrificial path can enter the Sealed Scroll layer now?"

Instructor Gu Pingchuan's expression did not change, his voice firm: "They can enter tonight. The Military Court auxiliary pass and the Zhuixing Academy approval seal are both present."

Record Keeper Ji did not argue further. She only pushed a grey page out from behind the curtain: "Read the rules first. Limited to the individual, limited to one page, limited to one stick of incense; you may only commit it to memory. No rubbings, no copying, and do not break the seal threads."

She looked up and stared directly at Lu Jin, adding another sentence, full of meaning: "What is written in the sealed scrolls is not necessarily entirely true; but what you see today is not necessarily entirely false either."

Lu Jin nodded—this was not a reminder, but a preemptive drawing of a boundary: the scroll could be read, but the truth or falsehood had to be discerned by himself.

Instructor Gu Pingchuan added in a low voice from the side: "I will wait in the outer layer. If you see something truly amiss, remember the sequence first. Do not be rash."

"I know," Lu Jin replied.

Record Keeper Ji flipped open the grey page, revealing the star-sand token underneath, as thin as a cicada's wing: "Go in. Second layer, Rack Bing-Seven. You only have one stick of incense."

Lu Jin turned sideways and entered the door, a chill even heavier than that in the corridor rushing toward him.

He had been to the outer layer of the Star Map Library, but the Sealed Scroll layer was by no means a cold storage room hung with starlight catalogs—it was lower and older. Rows of black racks were arranged along the semi-circular walls. There were no books on the shelves, only pieces of almost transparent grey pages, like frozen starlight, quietly inserted into narrow slots.

With every step he took, a short number lit up beneath his feet: Bing-Three, Bing-Four, Bing-Five...

When he reached Rack Bing-Seven, Lu Jin stopped.

On the narrow slot in the center, two layers of seal threads were pressed down: the outer layer was the Zhuixing Academy grey star pattern, and the inner layer was the extremely fine Old Military Court fire pattern. Both layers of patterns appeared complete, but Lu Jin spotted the anomaly at a glance—the Academy seal was neat, but the Old Military Court seal had a tiny misalignment, clearly having been resealed later.

His heart sank slightly. Remembering Instructor Gu Pingchuan's instruction to "remember the sequence first," he did not rush to touch it. He first engraved the position of the misalignment into his mind before pressing the grey paper token onto it.

As soon as the grey paper token was applied, the outer grey star pattern dissipated first, and the inner Old Military Court fire pattern suddenly lit up, as if it recognized the fire intent from the temporary pass in his sleeve. The next instant, a slightly thicker grey page slowly floated up from the slot.

There was no large headline at the top of the page, only a line of old, small characters: [Third Route Reconnaissance Team, Second Entry into the Rift, Record - Part Two]

Lu Jin's gaze fixed—the Third Route Reconnaissance Team, it matched the black fire slip number from before perfectly.

He continued to read down. On the left was a short task list: replenish markers, reignite fire, calibrate bridge, recover abnormal stele samples; below were listed three place names: Grey Stele Post, Outer Fire Well, Rift Gate Fire Bridge.

Lu Jin's breathing suddenly steadied—not because of the place names, but because of the order.

These three places were by no means listed randomly; they were a concrete route of progression: the Grey Stele Post was the first foothold after entering the Rift, the Outer Fire Well managed the fire, and the Rift Gate Fire Bridge managed the path. The coordinates obtained previously in the Fragment Realm, the old characters under the stele, and the fire gate induction finally pieced together into a viable, actual path.

In the middle of the grey page was a fragmented old battle map. Although a piece had been burned off the top right corner, the main line was still clear: a grey line went south from the Post Station, cut into the black pattern area, stopped beside a well pattern, then turned east and connected to a bridge-shaped fire marker.

Lu Jin stared intently at the map, understanding in his heart: first station at the Post, then stabilize the Fire Well, and finally pass the bridge. Without the well fire, the bridge would be a dead bridge.

At this moment, he caught sight of a shallow scratch on the side of the map—it was not burned by fire, but caused by someone later scraping away the original characters with a knife tip. He tilted the grey page slightly, using the cold light to shine obliquely, and finally saw the remaining half-character under the scratch: it was not "Bridge," but "Gate."

Rift Gate Fire Bridge; the original record was "Rift Gate," and it was only later annotated as "Fire Bridge."

The original record for this place was not a bridge point, but a gate.

Instructor Gu Pingchuan's words were not false; this sealed scroll had been tampered with, and more than once.

Lu Jin did not stop and continued downward. The lower half of the grey page contained names and execution symbols, all concise task annotations from the Old Military Court: Observer Lu Chenyuan, Qi Heng, Shen Li.

Each had a small fire pattern pressed beside it.

The moment he saw his father's name, Lu Jin's fingertips tightened quietly, his knuckles turning slightly white, but he forced himself to suppress his emotions and did not move.

The finer small characters on the right were heavy as a thousand catties: [Grey Stele Post reignition failed, switched to well line to continue fire] [Rift Gate bridge pattern dormant, requires secondary calibration] [Abnormal fire stele sample sealed, temporarily not returning to the main road]

These three short sentences told the whole story of the hidden circumstances back then: the reignition of the Post Station failed, so the team switched to the well line; the abnormal fire stele was not brought back to the main road, but was sealed mid-way.

The fragmented clues in Lu Jin's mind finally connected for the most part—the grey stele, fire stele, and well line fragments left by his father were originally the replenishment route from back then, and this route had clearly undergone a major catastrophe later.

Just as he was sorting out the thread of events, his gaze swept to the very bottom of the grey page, and his brows suddenly furrowed.

What should have been a full line of concluding annotations was now only half a line: the first half had been scorched by fire, and the second half was covered with a layer of new ink, the color of which was completely different from the Old Military Court fire characters, clearly written by another hand.

Only a few legible characters remained: [...lost contact...][...recalled...]

These four characters again. But this time, Lu Jin did not dwell on the result; he only stared at the sequence—the entire page of records was recorded according to the process, but only this line of time codes was chaotic. The old fire code on the left was a notch lighter than the one above, clearly tampered with later, and the end of the page had even been resealed.

A chill gradually rose in Lu Jin's heart.

He had long suspected that his father did not die on the battlefield, but suspicion and witnessing it with his own eyes were two different things.

This page of the sealed scroll already proved it: not only had something happened back then, but someone had returned afterwards to tamper with the files.

He stared at the new ink at the end of the page, standing for a long time, until the Military Court temporary pass in his sleeve grew slightly warm, only then realizing that the stick of incense was almost finished. The cold lamps above the Sealed Scroll layer had dimmed by a section.

Lu Jin finally pressed toward the bottom of the page, intending to memorize the position of the new ink, but unexpectedly discovered a side note almost invisible on the corner of the page—it was not an Old Military Court fire character, nor was it the Academy's grey ink; it was a short note hastily burned with a fine needle, which would be extremely difficult to detect during normal page turning.

Only by tilting the grey page and letting the cold light graze the edge could the six characters barely emerge: First find the Well, then find the Gate.

There was no signature, no number, yet it was hidden in the most secret corner of the page, as if specially left for future generations, or as if it had been known long ago that this scroll would be tampered with, hiding the truth outside the main text.

Lu Jin engraved these six characters deep into his heart, word by word.

"Time is up," Instructor Gu Pingchuan tapped lightly on the door frame outside.

Lu Jin did not linger. He raised his hand and pushed the grey page back into the slot. The two layers of seal threads closed one after another, as if they had never been opened. But he was crystal clear in his heart: everything was different now.

After reading this page, the No. 7 Rift Zone was no longer just the place where his father lost contact; there was a path there, a well, a gate, and a black hand that had tampered with the files.

He walked out of the Sealed Scroll layer. Record Keeper Ji had already lowered the thin curtain, and the grey corridor returned to deathly silence. Instructor Gu Pingchuan did not ask about the content first; he only looked at his expression and said in a deep voice, "Heavier than I thought?"

"Yes," Lu Jin said in a low voice, "This page has been tampered with."

Instructor Gu Pingchuan's expression was waveless, as if he had expected it long ago: "How much did you see?"

"The Grey Stele Post is not the end point; it is the foothold for entering the Rift. The route is first the Outer Fire Well, then the Rift Gate Fire Bridge—no, the original record is not Fire Bridge, it is Gate."

Instructor Gu Pingchuan raised the corners of his eyes slightly: "Anything else?"

"The 'recalled after losing contact' at the end of the page, the time code is wrong; it was changed by someone later."

The grey corridor went quiet. Instructor Gu Pingchuan pondered for two breaths, then solemnly warned: "Do not say this to anyone for now. If it spreads, the Academy will play deaf, the noble families will play dumb, but the Divine Temple and the Military Court will immediately seal off all avenues."

"I understand," Lu Jin nodded.

"Did you see anything else?" Instructor Gu Pingchuan pressed.

Lu Jin paused slightly; those six characters were still roaring in his mind. He knew that once these words were spoken, the subsequent situation would inevitably be set in motion; but Instructor Gu Pingchuan brought him here not to let him pretend he saw nothing.

Finally, he spoke in a deep voice: "There was a side note hidden at the bottom of the page, six characters."

"What characters?"

Lu Jin's words were steady and his voice deep: "First find the Well, then find the Gate."

The cold wind in the corridor seemed to become even more piercing. Instructor Gu Pingchuan stared at him for a long time before slowly letting out a breath: "Good. Your trip tonight was not in vain."

"Go back and memorize the sequence firmly. Do not rush to touch the auxiliary records tomorrow. First, gather the materials for the forward station, the fire stabilization materials, and the Post Station materials. Once the No. 7 Rift Zone truly opens, without the well fire, you won't be able to find any gate."

Lu Jin nodded—this matched the side note at the bottom of the page perfectly.

He instantly became clear about his next step: do not chase the black hand that tampered with the files, do not touch deeper sealed scrolls, first consolidate his own preparations, and walk the path to the wellhead solidly.

Instructor Gu Pingchuan turned and walked out. Just before leaving the grey corridor, he threw out one more sentence: "About tonight's sealed scroll, if anyone asks, just say you saw an old replenishment route. Do not say a single word more."

"Understood."

Outside the Star Map Library, the night was already deep, and the entire Zhuixing Divine Academy seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep. But Lu Jin knew that after tonight, countless people would toss and turn, unable to sleep.

He walked down the grey stairs, the temporary pass in his sleeve still retaining its residual warmth, and the six characters in his mind were as steady as a rock: First find the Well, then find the Gate.