Lin Mu walked further ahead while the others explored, following a strange tickling sensation that had begun to prickle at his senses the mont they entered the chamber. It was faint—like the whisper of a breeze in a sealed room—but it was unmistakable.
"Spatial traces," he murmured, narrowing his eyes.
He quickened his pace, following the invisible signature with his spatial perception like a hound on a scent trail.
Soon, he ca to a stop before what seed to be a blackened platform—half-sunken into the stone floor and surrounded by shattered pillars. The stone was scorched, the floor etched with fractured runes that still held a lingering echo of spatial energy.
"A teleportation array," Lin Mu said aloud.
Daoist Chu turned imdiately, walking over. "Where?"
Lin Mu pointed at the remains of the array. "Right here. It’s broken... no, it’s been sabotaged. Soone didn’t just let it decay—they destroyed it deliberately."
Daoist Chu crouched beside him, running his fingers along the cracks. "That’s precision damage. The key rune matrices were struck first. Whoever did this knew what they were doing."
"And they didn’t want it being used again," Lin Mu added.
Elyon ca up beside them and sniffed the air. "I sll distortion. Spatial energy, still hanging."
Lin Mu nodded. "That ans it was used recently. Based on the residue and decay... I’d say no more than two months ago. Possibly even less."
"Which matches the last confird ti the elders were seen," Daoist Chu said, frowning. "So they did co here."
"And they left through this array," Lin Mu finished.
"But to where?" ng Bai asked, kneeling beside the broken array with a furrowed brow. "Can we find out?"
"Not from here," Lin Mu replied. "The destination coordinates would’ve been part of the central formation—now completely destroyed. We’d need the corresponding array on the other side to have any hope of tracking it."
"So we’re back to square one?" ng Bai muttered.
"Not exactly," Daoist Chu said. "We know they ca here. We know they left through a teleportation array, and we know the tiline."
"That’s more than we had before," Lin Mu added.
Elyon’s ears twitched. "Still. If they went that far to cover their tracks, it ans they feared soone was close. The Ephera Sect?"
"Likely," Daoist Chu said. "You said you were attacked multiple tis by people impersonating the Xian Sword sect."
"Which ans the sect is probably watching this entire region closely," Lin Mu said.
Ashy chirped nervously on ng Bai’s shoulder. "Then what now?"
Lin Mu turned back to face the others, his eyes narrowing. "Now we follow the leads outside. We know the array was used. That energy would’ve rippled. Soone—or sothing—might’ve sensed it."
"We start looking for a matching pulse signature," Daoist Chu said, catching on imdiately.
"And if that fails?" ng Bai asked.
Lin Mu gave a small smile.
"Then we make so noise... and see who cos to silence us."
Elyon let out a low growl of approval.
"Now that," the wolfkin said, "sounds like a plan I can follow."
But before they departed the cavern, Lin Mu motioned for the group to pause. Sothing tugged at his intuition—not from his sword intent or elental cores, but a subtle, internal sense honed through countless battles and near-death encounters.
"We should check everything," he said. "Just in case there’s anything more left behind."
Daoist Chu nodded. "A good call. These kinds of places always have more than they let on."
Without complaint, the group began combing through the massive subterranean chamber.
The winding tongues of Earth Fla energy provided natural light, flickering dimly against the aged walls and scattered debris. Broken furniture, shattered rocks, and rusted fragnts of long-forgotten tools lay embedded in the earth.
It was Elyon who finally found sothing of note.
"Over here," the wolfkin called out from a crevice near the edge of the chamber. His sharp claws scraped away a thin layer of fused ashstone, pulling free a faintly glinting tallic shard, no longer than a finger but jagged and dense.
As he brought it closer, the group imdiately sensed sothing unusual. The shard emitted a faint pulse of energy, resonating with two distinct signatures. One was cold and sharp—clearly sword qi. The other was turbulent, more difficult to identify.
Daoist Chu furrowed his brow and took it carefully from Elyon’s hand, inspecting it closely. "Two opposing traces. One of them is sword intent... the other... perhaps an elental imprint or protective aura."
He handed it to Lin Mu, who focused his senses on it.
"There’s no mistaking it," Lin Mu said, his expression turning serious. "The sword qi dominates this shard. Which ans it belonged to the one doing the attacking. If the elders were involved, then this... this is likely a remnant from a defensive artifact or armor that they destroyed."
"That supports what we suspect," Daoist Chu said. "They confronted soone here. Fought them."
Elyon narrowed his golden eyes and raised the shard again. "Let’s see if the darkness rembers."
With that, the wolfkin knelt and placed the shard on the ground. A subtle chant left his throat—guttural, primal, and yet strangely refined.
Shadows imdiately gathered around the shard, like smoke curling in reverse from unseen flas. The darkness slithered up from the stone floor and coiled around the tal, forming a black cocoon.
The group stepped back as the shadows began to pulse, a faint light rising from within. Then, like smoke cast against canvas, the shadows projected shifting silhouettes into the air.
Lin Mu’s eyes widened.
"This... this is a mory?" he asked.
Elyon gave a slight nod. "Darkness rembers what light forgets. And in places like these—untouched by daylight for centuries—those mories are still fresh."
The illusions weren’t detailed, but they were clear enough.
A pair of figures—clearly the two Xian Sword Sect High elders—stood in the middle of the chamber, facing an opponent cloaked in indistinct robes. The sword intent surged in streaks of what might have been silver and white, but they appeared as streaks of black Instead.
Despite that, they were sharp enough to make ng Bai feel a slight sting despite it being only a projection.
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