75: Chapter 76 The First Sound of the Spore Plague

The moment the dark gold sealing pattern pressed onto the main fire pillar, the entire Grey Stele Post felt as if someone had choked it by the throat.

The fire did not go out, but it was clearly gasping for air.

Grey Pupil stood before the stele, watching for only two breaths before his voice dropped low: "It isn't sealing the pillar directly; it's eating the Well-line."

Lu Jin shifted his gaze, landing on the old fire groove at the lower left of the main fire pillar that had already been dimmed. The dark gold pattern hadn't locked onto the stele body; instead, it was drilling into the fire groove bit by bit, as if it were learning the way, or perhaps searching for the root.

"Can you break it?" he asked, his tone devoid of any redundancy.

"A hard burn can break a section," Grey Pupil said, his black staff pressing against the base of the stele, the tip vibrating faintly. "But if the Well-line is also blocked, as soon as it's broken here, it will just crawl back from over there."

Wu Fu spoke coldly within the Sea of Consciousness, having already understood the crux of the problem: "It's the Fire Well. They didn't just place a lock on the Post Station; they also conveniently stifled the Outer Fire Well."

Lu Jin did not pursue the matter further and immediately issued an order, crisp and decisive: "Wen Zhao, guard the Post Station. Qiao Ye, stay at the main entrance; bandage your wounds first, and do not pursue any further. Grey Pupil, you hold the main fire pillar."

He raised his hand and grabbed the thin fire line running from the Post Station to the Outer Fire Well, pulling it into his Sea of Consciousness—the line was still there, but it felt as if it had been stuffed with a rotten stone, blocked completely, with no flow at all.

"I'm going to the wellhead."

Wen Zhao was just about to speak in protest, but Lu Jin had already looked at him, his tone calm yet firm: "You stay here. The Post Station isn't afraid of a fight right now, but it is afraid of losing its breath. You watching the supply line is more useful than coming with me."

Wen Zhao's Adam's apple bobbed, and he finally nodded in agreement: "I'll leave you the supply line at the Well-Back Trench. If it's really blocked dead, don't worry about the people first; save the well."

Lu Jin gave a grunt of acknowledgement and turned to leave. Wu Fu had already followed a step behind, not bringing a large contingent of soldiers, but only two Burrowing Spear Rats, three Bone-Armor Furnace Guards, and a small string of grey shadows crawling along by her feet.

Those grey shadows had low shoulders and arched backs, their grey sacs beneath their bellies rising and falling—they were the fierce soldiers Wu Fu had kept suppressed in the Brood Nursery Court, ones she had never tested in the blood of the ruins: the Spore-Plague Explosive Rats.

Lu Jin glanced at them, his pace not faltering: "How many?"

"Six," Wu Fu said, her speaking speed extremely fast. "I wouldn't dare release any more at this time; I couldn't control them."

No sooner had she finished speaking than, on the belly sac of the very last Explosive Rat, a faint line of old gold pattern flashed in the grey light, then quickly vanished. Grey Pupil added coldly across the Sea of Consciousness: "That one has the heaviest whisper; if you can't suppress it, burn it first."

Wu Fu did not turn her head, her sharp teeth grinding lightly: "Tend to your pillar first; I'll pull the thorns on this side myself."

The distance from the Post Station to the Outer Fire Well was not far, but this short stretch of road felt heavier tonight than it had when they seized the well earlier. Both supply fire grooves on the outer edge of the Well-Back Trench had gone dim. The supply seam at the side gate under the bridge was still there, but the path was littered with gravel, beast blood, and half-broken beams deliberately smashed down by someone. Further ahead, instead of smelling the Fire Well's heat, they first caught a whiff of a deathly aura, a mix of earthy stench and the cold metallic smell.

Lu Jin's eyes turned cold—the wellhead had truly been blocked.

When they crept to the collapsed edge of the Outer Fire Well's outer circle, the scene before them was even uglier than anticipated. The entire Outer Fire Well had been forcefully turned into a stopper; the slope in front of the well, which should have been used for channeling materials and rotating fire, was firmly jammed by three layers of things.

The outermost layer consisted of native Night Beast carcasses scattered haphazardly; they were not freshly dead, clearly dragged there intentionally to both block the path and obstruct the view. The middle layer was a short wall of rock shields, commonly used by Beiyue Academy; it wasn't tall, but it was connected very solidly, locking down all the best leverage points on both sides of the wellhead. The innermost layer was a dark gold sealing groove pressed extremely low. The two Yaosigns from before were gone, leaving only the thin dark gold lines they had dragged behind, which were currently drilling into the old fire groove along the well rim like two unhurried little snakes.

The well wasn't dead, but it was already struggling to breathe.

Lu Jin only needed one look to know they couldn't charge it head-on—it wasn't that they couldn't take it down, but that a frontal assault would shatter half of the well rim and fire groove first. And behind the blockage, there were indeed people hiding.

Two grey-brown shadows lay prone behind the rock shields, revealing only half their faces and hands holding hooks; they were the blocking guards intentionally left behind when Beiyue Academy retreated. Further back, a small team of figures crouched even lower; there were no family crests on their sleeves, only a faint dark gold glint at the buckles of their arm guards.

They were here to wait—to wait for the Post Station to be crushed, to wait for Lu Jin to come and gnaw on this most disadvantageous hard bone himself; they were definitely not here to seize the point.

Wu Fu curled her lips in the Sea of Consciousness, her smile devoid of any warmth: "This blockage really does look like it was left for me."

Lu Jin's gaze did not leave the wellhead: "Can you go from underneath?"

"Yes," Wu Fu said, staring at the few Spore-Plague Explosive Rats lying prone on the ground, her voice extremely low. "Under the rock shields, beneath the bellies of the beast carcasses, and along the edge of the well rim's fire groove—there are gaps everywhere. Normal soldiers can't get through, but they can."

"And the cost?"

Wu Fu was silent for a breath before answering truthfully: "The ones that go in for the first round will mostly not come back. If the second round isn't suppressed steadily, the spore ash will scatter wildly. But if we don't use them, the well will be gone first."

Lu Jin nodded, using only two words, crisp and resolute: "Then use them."

As soon as those two words fell, the spark of light that Wu Fu had been suppressing in her eyes finally ignited completely. She crouched down, her fingers pointing one by one at the belly sacs of the six Explosive Rats, her instructions clear: "One and two, crawl under the rock shields; three, go to the very bottom of the beast pile; four, stick to the left fire groove, don't touch the well core; five, wait for my second order."

When she pointed to the last Explosive Rat, the one with the old gold pattern on its belly sac, her fingertip paused for half a beat. The Explosive Rat looked up; its eyes weren't quite red, but rather tinged with a bit of grey, like a small clump of fire that hadn't fully burned through.

"Six... you come with me," Wu Fu's voice dropped even lower.

Only then did Lu Jin speak, his tone steady: "In the first round, don't bomb the people. First bomb the path, bomb the sealing grooves, bomb the blocking lines. Don't hurt the well core."

Wu Fu looked up at him and suddenly smiled: "I know. If I really blew up the well core, I would be more heartbroken than you."

The next instant, a nest-thread flicked.

The five Spore-Plague Explosive Rats darted out, keeping low almost simultaneously. There was no screeching, no pouncing; like five grey shadows capable of burrowing, they flashed against the rubble, beast carcasses, and chaotic ash, vanishing in an instant. The two blocking guards behind the wellhead didn't even notice at first, not until the first faint scratching sound came from beneath the rock shields.

"Underground!"

One of them shouted abruptly, thrusting their short hook downward. But just as the tip of the hook touched the gap beneath the rock shield, the grey sac beneath it had already lit up—not with intense fire, but with a deep explosion.

Boom!

The entire rock shield wasn't smashed open from the outside, but forcefully lifted from underneath. Rubble, beast bones, grey slurry, and half a hook-rope were all thrown into the air together. The two Beiyue Academy blocking guards, along with their shields, were violently knocked over, tumbling into the chaotic ash left behind by Beiyue Academy earlier, rolling three zhang as they spat out nothing but blood-stained ash.

The first blast of the Spore-Plague was unexpected and sudden.

The team of figures in dark gold arm guards behind the wellhead finally moved, but before they could reinforce the second layer of the blocking line, a second bulge appeared at the very bottom of the beast carcass pile—at first, it was just a light arching, as if something were exerting force beneath the dead flesh, and the next instant, with a bang, a muffled explosion erupted.

The entire pile of Night Beast carcasses was torn open from beneath their bellies, and foul-smelling grey blood, along with the broken wood stakes sealing the slope, flew everywhere. The layer that had been blocking the view the most was instantly cleared by more than half. The wellhead was revealed for the first time.

"Left groove." Lu Jin's voice dropped, seizing this fleeting gap.

The third Explosive Rat, which had been moving along the left fire groove, immediately drilled inside. The thin dark gold line had been crawling slowly into the old fire groove, but now, seemingly sensing danger, it flashed briefly and tried to shrink deeper, but it was already too late—the Explosive Rat had burrowed its entire body into the groove crack. A moment later, a sharper explosion than before erupted from beneath the well rim.

It wasn't loud, but it was precise.

The dark gold pattern broke in half on the spot, and the patch of sealing ash that had just formed on the right side of the wellhead was overturned. The grey-red old fire suppressed underneath suddenly caught a breath, and the deepest fire seam on the well rim lit up once again.

In Lu Jin's Sea of Consciousness, there was a simultaneous sense of relief—over at the Post Station, the main fire pillar, which had been dimmed by half, clearly regained its strength.

But it wasn't enough. The sealing grooves dragged out by those two Yaosigns were still there, and the group of blocking guards behind the wellhead had finally come to their senses.

"Reinforce the line!"

"Don't let them drill again!"

Three fire sacs and two short shields pressed forward toward the wellhead simultaneously. They were no longer holding back, clearly aware that if they let these little things drill two more times, the sealing work tonight would have been for nothing.

Grey Pupil's voice pressed into the Sea of Consciousness at the right moment: "Once you finish bombing, clean up the spore ash. If this scent gets on anyone's armor, the Temple will be the first to smell it out."

Lu Jin's gaze did not leave the wellhead, and he simply said calmly: "Second round."

This time, Wu Fu didn't release the fifth one first; instead, she picked up the last Explosive Rat with the old gold pattern. The creature didn't struggle, but its belly sac was jumping faster than the others—not expanding outward, but shrinking inward, as if it had heard something from deeper within the well and was gently breathing along with it.

Grey Pupil's voice was instantly taut: "It's responding to the whispers below. Wu Fu, don't be greedy."

The brightness in Wu Fu's eyes did not fade, but her tone grew heavier: "If I don't let it go down, this blocking line won't be overturned cleanly." After she finished speaking, her finger swiped, and an extremely thin nest-thread wrapped around the Explosive Rat's belly sac—not for guidance, but to constrict it.

"You listen to me, not to what's below."

The Explosive Rat gave a low hiss, the old gold pattern on its belly sac flickering, but in the end, it was forcefully suppressed by her.

Only then did Lu Jin speak to deploy: "The fifth one goes to the right groove; the sixth one, drill into the dead ash board in the center in front of the well."

"The center?" Wu Fu looked up, somewhat puzzled.

"That wasn't naturally blocked," Lu Jin's gaze was cold and steady. "That board is too flat and too old; there's something underneath it."

Wu Fu didn't ask any further; she flicked her fingertips, and the two Explosive Rats, one to the left and one to the center, darted out simultaneously.

The one in the right groove went first, drilling into the ash seam that had just been loosened by the explosion, gnawing fiercely along the dark gold sealing groove that hadn't completely broken yet. A blocking guard in dark gold arm guards behind it tried to use a short shield to press down hard, but just as the shield fell, a deep explosion already sounded from within the groove.

Boom!

The person, along with their shield, was thrown into the air; half their body was scorched by the exploding fragments of the groove and grey fire, and they spat out a mouthful of blood while still in mid-air. Two others nearby tried to fill the position, but their feet were scalded by the fire groove that had been ripped open, causing them to twitch, and their movements were ultimately a beat too slow.

It was in this half-beat gap that the Explosive Rat with the old gold pattern in the center arrived.

It didn't push into the crowd, nor did it drill into the well rim; as if it had locked onto its target, it lunged straight toward the most inconspicuous dead ash board in front of the well, diving headfirst into the thin gap beneath the board. The next instant, the old gold pattern on its belly sac suddenly lit up completely, glowing not like an old mark in the ash, but like an ancient pattern that had been buried for too long and had finally seen fire.

For the first time, Wu Fu's expression truly changed, and she shouted a stern command: "Explode now!"

The nest-thread constricted violently.

The dead ash board in front of the wellhead first arched upward, and then the entire board, along with the old slurry, rubble, and half-blocked black fire bricks pressed beneath it, were all forcefully ripped through from underneath. It wasn't just one explosion, but three consecutive muffled explosions that went off one after another—the first lifted the board, the second overturned the groove, and the third completely pushed up the layer of dead ash that had been pressed down for too long at the bottom of the well.

The entire Outer Fire Well seemed to be awakened by this blast, and the grey-red well fire surged upward from the cracks. The two dark gold sealing grooves that had been drilling into the well rim were hit head-on by this rushing fire, cracking inch by inch like two scorched little snakes, curling up and dying on the spot by the well side.

Over at the Post Station, the Well-line that had been blocked in Lu Jin's Sea of Consciousness was finally clear. The main fire pillar, which had been dimmed, completely regained its breath.

But Lu Jin did not look toward the Post Station first; his gaze fell first to the bottom of the well—that third blast just now hadn't just blown open the blocking line; it had also blown out something that shouldn't have been in the well.

The broken ash and scorched slurry in front of the wellhead collapsed downward bit by bit, and in the end, a charred old stone disk was revealed in the center. It wasn't a well brick, nor was it a well-repair board; embedded in the center of the stone disk was a long, narrow, inward-recessed groove. A circle of old fire patterns around the groove had been pressed by ash for who knows how many years, and now, licked by the well fire, it was slowly beginning to glow dark red from the black.

Lu Jin only needed one look, and his pupils constricted slightly—that wasn't an ordinary locking slot; it was a gate slot, and specifically, one from the old Royal Court system, used exclusively for recognizing fire, recognizing seals, and recognizing right-of-way.

Wu Fu saw it too, her hands, just having finished suppressing the Explosive Rats, pausing, her tone carrying a hint of surprise: "This well bottom..."

Lu Jin slowly moved half a step forward, his voice pressed extremely low, saying word by word: "It is not the well root."

He stared at the old slot that had been truly blown open for the first time by the Spore-Plague Explosive Rat, his eyes sinking bit by bit, his tone devoid of any ripples, yet revealing a sense of gravity: "It is the old Fire Gate key slot."