66: Chapter 66 Master Huo's Plans

On the western slope of the pit, the sound of shovels digging into the earth rang out one after another.

The one-eyed old man had been digging for half an hour, while the old woman nearby squatted on the slag heap, inspecting the excavated fragments stone by stone; her fingers traced the grain on the stone surfaces, and whenever she touched one, she shook her head and tossed it aside.

Master Huo stood at the top of the slope with his hammer propped beside his feet, his gaze slowly shifting from the direction of the pit to the hazy layer of morning mist atop the western city wall.

"Old Huo." The one-eyed old man thrust his shovel into the ground. "Didn't you sleep again last night?"

The old woman raised her head from the slag heap, opening her right hand, which was missing half a finger, to reveal a fist-sized Ore lying in her palm.

The surface of the Ore was extremely rough, lacking the dark red metallic luster of a copper ingot, and only possessed a very faint grayish-blue layer.

She lifted the Ore to her eyes, closed one eye, and looked at it against the morning light.

Something was flowing slowly deep within the Ore, sharing the same origin as the four thumb-nail-sized Cold Crystals she carried in her bosom.

"The Supreme Deity's raw Materials are running low too." The old woman slid down from the slag heap and shoved the Ore into Master Huo's hands. "Old Huo, what on earth are you planning to forge? With this material, it's a waste to forge a sword. As for a staff, even the chief of the Tianque Sect's Artifact Hall might not be able to wield it."

Master Huo lowered his head to look at the grayish-blue Ore in his palm, turning it over.

"To forge a staff and embed a statue of the God of Toads." His tone was as ordinary as saying he was going to forge a hoe today.

The one-eyed old man's pipe slipped from the corner of his mouth.

The old woman's single good eye narrowed.

The several old artisans squatting beside the slag heap picking up stones stopped simultaneously, their shovels suspended mid-air.

The western slope of the pit fell quiet for a moment.

Master Huo tucked the Ore into his bosom and turned to face the old artisans.

His light gray eyes reflected the dawn light, and the two charcoal-like bright spots slowly narrowed.

"The God of Toads has given us a revelation; that thing beneath Ranhuo City is not an anomaly. Just like when the senior Cultivator brought it back six hundred years ago, it is slowly waking up. The Seal cannot hold. The day it completely awakens, the geothermal furnaces of the entire Ranhuo City will explode. We have hunkered down in this city for decades precisely to eliminate that thing beneath the earth. Before we leave, let us forge that staff for that youngster. After all, he is the person chosen by the God of Toads."

The one-eyed old man stuffed his pipe back into his mouth and took a fierce puff; smoke spewed from his nostrils and was scattered by the morning wind. "When did the revelation descend?"

"Three months ago, everything is already prepared."

The old woman placed the Ore in her hand onto the slag heap, and her body began to change.

Her spine deformed first; her back, which had been slightly hunched due to old age, suddenly expanded outward, her shoulder blades swelling toward both sides, and her bones emitting an extremely faint crackling sound beneath her skin.

Her limbs elongated, and her fingers transformed from severed stumps into three extremely long and thick toe-claws.

Dark brown fur emerged from the folds of her skin, spreading downward from her hairline to cover her entire face, torso, and limbs.

Her face reshaped beneath the fur; her cheekbones protruded forward, her jaw widened, her nasal bones collapsed into two slender apertures, and her ears stretched upward into two pointy triangles covered in short fur.

The rest of the old artisans changed as well; hammers slipped from between lengthening toe-claws, and shovels were knocked over by expanding torsos.

After completing his transformation, Master Huo stood in place, lowered his head to look at his palms bearing three thick toe-claws, then clenched his fists and opened them again.

The one-eyed man used his toe-claws to pick up the pipe from the ground, blew off the dirt, and tucked it into the leather rope around his waist.

Then he spoke. His voice came from his throat completely differently than when he was human—deeper and huskier, with every syllable carrying a heavy guttural sound, but he was still speaking human words.

"That youngster, he is hiding the statue in his sleeve. I talked to him face-to-face for a long time without him recognizing what I am; is he truly the person chosen by our deity?"

The old woman used her three toe-claws to pick up the grayish-blue Ore from the slag heap again and shoved it into Master Huo's bosom.

"How do you plan to get the statue from his hands? Ask him directly?" The old woman's ears twitched. "You originally planned to let him find the Materials himself; if he couldn't find them, he would naturally have to come beg you. When the time comes, you would take out the Supreme Deity's raw Materials and trade them with him for that statue, and he would definitely be willing."

"As a result, he didn't find the Materials." The one-eyed man pulled the pipe from his mouth and tapped it with his toe-claws. "Yet he didn't come look for us either; he went straight into the Seal empty-handed."

Xie Feng sneezed.

"The statue is still on him." The old woman pushed the Ore another inch into Master Huo's bosom. "We provide him with Materials and forge that weapon for him; once forged, he gives us the statue. Whether the Seal breaks or the city explodes, we leave through the underground mine tunnels."

Master Huo tucked the Ore into his bosom. His light gray eyes narrowed slightly in the dawn light, and then he nodded.

He picked up his hammer and walked toward the entrance of the pit, while the rest of the people leaned their shovels against the slag heap and followed behind him.

The morning sunlight spilled over the top of the city wall, shining on their brown fur and making the tiny Cold Crystal mineral dust at the tip of every hair glow slightly. The sound of forging in the city still rang out one after another, clanging and surging from every alley.

Meanwhile, deep inside the underground dome, Xie Feng sneezed again.

That inexplicable sneeze where the back of his head suddenly turned cold.

Tu Ziguan poked his head out from the side of the stone steps to look at him, and Gu Jian also turned his head. Xie Feng rubbed his nose.

"Someone must be cursing you behind your back, right?" Tu Ziguan said.

"Why would anyone curse me?" Xie Feng turned the statue over in his palm. The statue had no reaction; it simply squatted, closed its eyes, and said nothing. He shoved the statue back into his sleeve and continued squatting. The ball of flames in the center of the dome was still watching him, the light patterns deep within its blue-and-white core slowly flowing, maintaining synchronization with the rhythm of the statue's breathing.

The sound of engraving knives repairing runes had been ringing in the dome for quite a while. When Qin Tianzong retreated from the darkest section of the inner wall, a thick layer of rune ash had accumulated on his sleeves, and several blisters had been scalded onto his fingertips by the high-temperature engraving knife. Qiao Song followed behind him; well over half of the detection plates in the iron box had been used up, Mo Tang had already switched to her third charcoal pencil, and the dense numbers on the paper were crammed so tightly that the rows and columns were almost illegible.

"The three outer layers are all reactivated." Qin Tianzong placed the detection plate on the ground, his voice hoarse. "The Spiritual Qi reflux is smooth, and the decay rate has returned within the safe threshold. Eight tenths of the inner-layer runes have been replenished; the Tianque Sect's engraving knives can only hold out to this extent at the current temperature."

Elder Han walked down from the other side of the inner wall. The cuffs of his dark brown robes were stained white by rune ash, and beads of sweat the size of soybeans hung on his forehead, but his expression had relaxed much more than before coming down. "Of the seven sections of runes the Tianque Sect is responsible for, six have completed activation. The overall framework of the Seal can withstand pressure again."

Only the final section was left.

At the highest point of the dome, embedded on the inner wall directly facing the flame core, were three extremely deep carved marks. Completely different from the dense runes all around, the strokes were extremely simple and broad, each stroke sinking three feet into the stone, with not the slightest hesitation at the turns of the blade.

These were runes personally carved by that senior Cultivator of the Tianque Sect six hundred years ago. Spiritual Qi of the Eighth Realm and above still lingered deep within the carved marks, forming a distinct boundary with the ordinary runes around them.

Qin Tianzong stood beneath these three carved marks, tilting his head back to look for a long time. Then he glanced back at Elder Han. Elder Han also stopped.

"How are these few recorded in the Tianque Sect's classics?" Qin Tianzong asked.

Elder Han was silent for a few breaths. "Natal runes. The senior Cultivator carved them by using his own Lifespan as a catalyst. Successive city lords of the Tianque Sect have tried to replicate them, and all have failed. The senior Cultivator of that year possessed profound cultivation; it is difficult for us to replicate them, and even with the same Realm, we cannot reproduce them."

Qin Tianzong did not speak. He pushed his cuffs up further, revealing the dense old scald scars on his forearm, bent over to pick up an engraving knife, walked beneath the carved marks, and channeled his Spiritual Qi into the tip of the knife.

The Seventh Realm Spiritual Qi condensed into an extremely bright point at the knife tip and pressed down toward the depths of the carved marks, but the Spiritual Qi was bounced right back the moment it touched the edge of the carved marks.

Qin Tianzong furrowed his brow, wondering why the Spiritual Qi of these runes felt so bizarre.

"Since we cannot replenish the original patterns, we can only reinforce the periphery. We will add a few more circles of auxiliary runes around these three natal runes, and use quantity to prop up the overall structure of the Seal framework."

Elder Han nodded, and the two no longer mentioned the matter of replicating the natal runes.

Qin Tianzong made a gesture to Qiao Song and Mo Tang, and the two moved the detection boards beneath the carved marks, beginning to deploy auxiliary runes around the natal runes. Mo Tang's fingers were trembling; after continuous high-intensity work, her Spiritual Qi was somewhat overdrawn, and two Tianque Sect Disciples behind her also joined in.

A quarter of an hour later, the final auxiliary rune was activated. The instant the Seal framework closed again, the rune light patterns on the inner wall of the dome rippled outward from the repair point in all directions like water waves, pressing the darkness back to the edges of the dome.

The light patterns deep within the flame core paused for a moment, then recovered stability, and the Fire Vampires stopped drifting after the rune barrier was reactivated.

Qin Tianzong placed the detection board in his hand onto the stone steps and sat down, while Elder Han leaned against the inner wall and closed his eyes.

Xie Feng squatted in place, withdrawing his hand from Tsathoggua's statue. The statue squatted in his palm with its eyes closed, and the corners of its mouth were no longer upturned, looking somewhat displeased.

Tu Ziguan lay prone on the side of the stone steps, letting out a long breath. "With the runes repaired, won't that thing be unable to come out?"

"How would I know?" Xie Feng shrugged. "Let's hope so."

"Let's head out first." Elder Qin propped his body up from the ground and pushed the detection board to Qiao Song. "The Seal has stabilized, and subsequent reinforcement can be discussed at length. Everyone fall back."

Qin Tianzong propped his body up and pushed the detection board to Qiao Song; Elder Han opened his eyes without objection.

The Third Princess had already reached the end of the stone steps, the hem of her martial attire swaying gently in the hot wind.

The difficulty of the repair far exceeded imagination; everyone was utterly exhausted.