Chapter 105: Seeking the Dragon and Pinpointing the Acupoint

The moment the two of them stepped through the rusted iron door, a deafening boom erupted behind them; the door had sealed itself shut.

Lin Jianyan felt a chill strike her heart as the surroundings were instantly plunged into an infinite, ink-black void. She could not help but ask, "Young Master Chu, if this door cannot be opened, what shall we do?"

Shangguan Chuci felt a surge of panic, yet she maintained her composure, smiling, "Director Lin, there is no need to worry. We shall simply return the way we came."

Upon hearing this, Lin Jianyan realized, "Indeed, Young Master Chu is correct."

Shangguan Chuci walked forward a few steps, feeling that the ink-wash terrain beneath her feet was not solid ground, but rather like a quagmire. Every step felt viscous and sluggish, requiring a great deal of effort.

Just as she was bracing herself, a "splash" resounded. A turbulent wave surged up from the dark, ink-colored river nearby and crashed toward the shore. The wave was several feet high, pitch black as night, yet laced with strange, iridescent flickers of light—reminiscent of a peacock’s tail, but radiating an indescribable, malevolent aura.

With a soft cry of "Oh!", Lin Jianyan lifted her skirts and darted backward several paces, narrowly avoiding the splattering ink droplets.

Staring at the relentless, churning torrent, she murmured, "Is this the 'Turbid Flow'?"

She possessed a foundation of the Dao, but in her world, the pure and the turbid were distinct; the turbid was like a flood confined beyond the levees, always watching, yet never able to breach its gates. The scene before her, however, was as if the levees had been razed entirely, allowing the flood to commingle with the very foundation itself.

She immediately understood: this was the cultivation method of the "Lamp-Bearers." By drawing the turbid flow into one’s body and feeding the demon within, one transformed their own Dao foundation into such a foul and chaotic realm to harness god-like, unpredictable power.

Shangguan Chuci watched intently. Although she was a newcomer to this world, her past-life experiences prompted a thought that left her both amused and distressed: "So, the 'iridescent black' really wasn't just a joke."

Her mind raced, and she said in a low voice, "Indeed, this is the Turbid Flow. Let us keep our distance; this substance is intensely malevolent. If even a drop touches us, I cannot fathom the consequences."

Lin Jianyan nodded repeatedly. The two followed the riverbank, carefully avoiding the turbid waters as they trekked toward the rolling, ink-wash mountains.

Before long, Lin Jianyan noticed the flame of the glazed palace lantern in her arms beginning to flicker unsteadily. Her pretty face turned slightly pale, and she gasped, "Young Master Chu, I fear my Heart-Lamp cannot hold much longer. We must hasten."

Shangguan Chuci had already secretly ignited her "Fire of Logic." In her eyes, the mountains and rivers of this world no longer held their physical forms, but had dissolved into countless intersecting lines—thick, dragon-like veins of earth and thin, silk-like flows of spiritual energy.

She could see clearly that all the spiritual energy here flowed like rivers into the sea, eventually converging into the macabre painting of flesh and blood hanging in the heavens. The veins of the earth sustaining this realm, however, were withered and dull; no wonder the landscape had lost its luster.

What she had to do now was akin to a master geomancer seeking a dragon’s den. Amidst these thousands of meridians, she had to locate the point where the vital energy converged and inject her own true essence to mend the depleted energy eye.

Fortunately, with the Fire of Logic, she could pierce through illusions. Within moments, she had mapped the terrain and found the dragon’s den closest to their entrance.

She said to Lin Jianyan, "We are almost there. Hold on a little longer."

Soon, they arrived before a solitary hill surrounded by the turbid flow. Without hesitation, Shangguan Chuci tapped the ground, her graceful form soaring into the air to land lightly atop the hill. She crouched down, extended a slender hand, and gently brushed the ink-viscous ground. "I have found it."

Before the words had faded, a heart-wrenching shriek erupted from the flesh-and-blood painting in the sky.

Instantly, the previously settling river of turbid flow surged with renewed violence! A massive wave, several yards high, rose into the sky with the force of a collapsing mountain. It split into two: one part surged toward Shangguan Chuci on the hill, while the other rushed directly at Lin Jianyan on the shore!

"Young Master Chu, watch out!"

Lin Jianyan cried out and prepared to retreat, but the turbid wave was already upon her. Although she dodged most of it, a few drops of ink splattered onto her ankle.

Shangguan Chuci, standing atop the hill with nowhere to retreat or hide, grit her teeth and took the brunt of the wave.

In an instant, a "buzz" echoed in her brain as countless chaotic thoughts flooded her mind like a deluge. The barrage of negative emotions threatened to shatter her spirit and turn her into a creature of the Dao on the spot. On the back of her right hand, which gripped her folding fan, the skin began to flicker with digital noise like a television losing its signal, as if it were about to dissolve into mere light and shadow.

Lin Jianyan, on the shore, fared no better. As soon as the ink droplets touched her, they burrowed into her skin. A sense of sinister, violent malice rushed to her heart, and on the back of her fair hand, one or two golden-green scales forcibly "grew" out.

Enduring the agonizing pain of her soul being torn apart, Shangguan Chuci poured her true essence continuously into the earth veins beneath the hill. As she did so, the ink-black color of the nearby mountains, which had been so dim, began to regain its richness at a visible rate. The surging turbid flow seemed to be pacified, gradually calming down.

Lin Jianyan, watching from the shore, saw the turbid water recede and cheered, "Young Master Chu, we seem to have succeeded!"

Shangguan Chuci did not speak, continuing to pour her essence into the dragon’s den. As her energy drained rapidly, her handsome face lost all color, replaced by a sickly flush. Finally, her body trembled; she could no longer hold on. She pulled her hand from the earth vein and flew back to the shore.

"Director Lin," Shangguan Chuci panted, "let us return..."

Lin Jianyan nodded and slowly rotated the three-petaled iris mechanism on the top of the palace lantern.

The ink-wash world before them immediately began to blur and destabilize, eventually collapsing into an infinite darkness that swallowed them both.

When they slowly opened their eyes, they saw the young man and Shen Guizhou watching them with faces full of concern.

"Thank goodness, Young Master, you have finally returned."

"How do you both feel? Did you encounter any danger?"

Shangguan Chuci did not answer, as she felt the world spinning; she was utterly exhausted from the over-consumption of her true essence. Subconsciously, she first looked at the "Dao-transforming" static on her own body and the golden-green scales on the back of Lin Jianyan’s hand.

Her suspicions were confirmed: if they had perished inside, they would likely have suffered the same fate in reality. It had truly been a perilous ordeal.

Lin Jianyan looked at the concerned gaze of Lu Chenyuan. Seeing that he cared first for their safety rather than whether they had succeeded, she felt a warmth in her heart and whispered, "We are fine. Young Master Chu should have succeeded."

Lu Chenyuan let out a long sigh of relief and opened his mouth to speak, but saw Shangguan Chuci’s body go limp, and she collapsed directly toward him.