Faint moonlight leaked through the dome of the Qing Teng City Library. Su Yao’s fingertips brushed against an Ancient Tome, a scent of aged ink wafting from its yellowing pages. Lin Yu knelt on the floor, marking a map with a cinnabar pen. "According to the star chart in the Jade Slip, the next node is at Ci’en Temple in the old district. But it’s been abandoned since a massive fire ten years ago. Rumor has it that chanting echoes there late at night..."
"The Blood Fiend Sect always likes to hide their tracks behind evil spirits." Zhao Ya rubbed her Ice-type magical instrument. As her sleeve slipped back, several unhealed scars—souvenirs from the battle at the chemical plant—gleamed a pale blue. She suddenly frowned, her gaze sweeping over the shadows of the locust trees swaying outside the window. "Do you hear... the sound of a wooden fish?"
In the silence of the library, a rhythmic "thump, thump, thump" suddenly erupted, the sound slow yet filled with an uncanny sense of oppression. The Ancient Tome in Su Yao’s hands stirred without a breeze, its pages flipping rapidly until they reached a blank sheet, where blood-red characters emerged like living things: "Intruders shall fall into eternal reincarnation."
Chapter 228