stjorthotic Chapter 998 Terrifying Notebook
Chapter 998 Terrifying Notebook
"There is a cavity under the bone platform, like the gap left after some organ degenerated and was filled with calcification, which causes uneven sound transmission in the whole area." Lin Qiye stood up and his gaze fell on the legs of the remains—the hem of the robe covered the legs, but judging from the degree of collapse of the fabric, the legs of the remains were not in a stretched-out sitting posture, but were curled up at an abnormal angle, as if they had been broken by something falling from a height and not reset, and were just pressed down on the body.
"He didn't die in a cross-legged position. He fell here, broke both legs, and couldn't move. Then, leaning against the bone platform, he used his last strength to assume a posture similar to that of cultivation."
Ah Jiu immediately leaned closer to examine it, and after a moment he gasped: "He's right. There are obvious fracture marks on the tibia and fibula of both legs. The fracture surfaces don't look like they were shattered by a weapon, but more like impact fractures from a fall from a height."
"So he didn't enter this side cave on his own. He fell from above—from some higher place." Mo Yuan raised his head, his gaze falling on the top of the side cave. There was an irregular dome, covered with stalactite-like bone spikes of varying thickness, and between the spikes, one could vaguely see several brown marks, which were bloodstains that had dried for who knows how many years.
"He was severely injured and unable to move, so he could only wait for rescue in this secluded cave. He then placed all the defensive talismans he carried on the cave walls—" Mo Yuan's gaze swept over the barely visible remnants of the runes on the cave walls, "but these runes were no match for the erosion of the Bone Tower's harmonic waves. Judging from the marks on the outer side of the cave walls, the harmonic waves seeped in from the outside. His defensive runes held out for a while, but were eventually breached. He was trapped here and died under the continuous erosion of the harmonic waves."
"What about his belongings?" Ajiu's gaze swept around the remains. "A grandmaster-level array master couldn't have entered the Canggu Mountain Range empty-handed. He should have at least array diagrams, sealing runes, or even high-level array plates he carried with him."
"Perhaps someone else came before us," Mo Yuan's voice became very low, "and took his things."
This speculation made the atmosphere inside the cave even more somber.
Mr. Xun stood before the remains for a long time before finally bowing slowly and performing a standard array master's salute: "Senior, please forgive my intrusion. The four of us are trapped here. If you have left any clues or warnings, I will humbly investigate, hoping to get my companions out alive. Please forgive me if I have offended you."
After saying that, he reached out and carefully turned over the decaying robe of the remains.
The inner fabric of the robe crumbled at the slightest touch, turning into dust that fell away in a flurry. Around the waist of the remains was a silver belt that had oxidized and turned black, with several small pouches hanging from it. Most of them were empty, except for one palm-sized leather pouch, which was bulging and had a tiny, intricately structured sealing array remaining at the seal.
Mr. Xun untied the leather bag and poured the contents into his palm.
Three things.
A fist-sized black disc, its surface covered with dense array patterns, showed no signs of rust or damage despite being thousands of years old. It was heavy and cool to the touch, with a faint glow flowing within the array patterns—this was a miniature high-level array disc, so high in quality that Mr. Xun gasped at just one glance.
A palm-sized fragment of fluorescent blue crystal was tightly wrapped in a thin, pale gold sealing membrane. The membrane was exquisitely crafted, with at least seven different sealing runes layered upon each other, remaining as sturdy as ever even after a thousand years. But what caught everyone's attention most was that the crystal fragment's color wasn't the pale fluorescent blue of the outer mountain range, but an extremely intense, almost liquid, deep blue. Even just a glance through the seal revealed a chilling aura emanating from the fragment.
The third item was the least noticeable—a small leather notebook, about the size of a palm. The cover was dry, cracked, and hardened, and the corners were badly worn, but overall it was still relatively well-preserved.
Mr. Xun first picked up the manuscript and carefully opened it.
Most of the pages were blurred, the ink faded to a pale gray by time, barely revealing a few scattered words—array patterns, seals, bone towers, core, pulsation, awakening cycle. These words didn't form complete sentences, but they could send a chill down the spine of anyone in the know.
When the manuscript was turned to the last page, the ink suddenly became exceptionally clear. Not because this page was better preserved, but because the words on this page were not written with ink—they were written with blood. The dark red ink seeped deeply into the paper fibers, and after a thousand years, it not only did not fade, but instead shimmered with a faint glow due to the residual vital energy in the blood.
The blood-written words were only a few lines long, written in a wild and hasty hand, clearly hastily penned before his death. Mr. Xun held the page, his gaze sweeping over the blood-written words line by line, his face growing paler with each passing moment.
"The ancient beast is about to awaken, not naturally, but through a soul-summoning spell. Someone in the tower, or rather someone once was, sacrificed themselves to infiltrate the ancient beast's dormant consciousness in a specific way, making it mistakenly believe that the time for awakening had come. I have investigated for a thousand years and finally found the remains of the soul summoner in the deepest part of the bone tower, but it was too late—the soul summoner is dead, but the restrictions on the bone tower have already been broken, and the entire tower is accelerating its transformation into a state of complete revival."
"Once this ancient beast fully awakens, its impact will extend far beyond the Azure Bone Mountains."
"To stop it—" Mr. Xun's fingers trembled slightly, his voice carrying a tremor he himself was unaware of, "two conditions are required. First, shut down the core altar of the Soul Summoner, severing the resonance connection between its remaining divine soul and the ancient beast's consciousness. Second, find and activate the seven sealing array eyes scattered throughout the mountains, suppressing the ancient beast's conscious consciousness back into a dormant state."
He turned the page; there were no more bloody words after that, but on the inside back cover of the journal, a map was simply drawn in light ink—a distribution diagram of seven small sealing array eyes. The lines connecting the seven array eyes perfectly enclosed the entire Canggu Mountain Range into an irregular closed shape, and at the very center of the shape was the location of the bone tower.
"The Seven Sealing Array Eyes... the last insurance left by those who participated in its construction. But after its completion, all those who knew about it were required to swear a blood oath never to reveal the exact locations of the array eyes to their descendants—to prevent them from being corrupted by the Bone Tower's will and actively destroying the array eyes. Therefore, even Grandmaster-level array masters don't know the exact locations of these seven array eyes." Mr. Xun read aloud a line of small print next to the map on the back cover, then looked up at Mo Yuan, "This senior devoted his entire life to finding the locations of only five of the array eyes. He marked them on this map with thin lines. The remaining two—one in the southwest of the Canggu Mountains, and one somewhere in the north—he didn't have time to find before..."