The three of us didn't quite understand what he meant, but I was too concerned about Yang Jun's safety to care. I bypassed Hao Zhengyi and ran straight toward where he had appeared. As I came level with him, he glanced at me and said, "Don't waste your strength. That path's been sealed."
I ignored him and kept running. But when I reached the far end, I saw a massive stone slab blocking the exit. The stone looked custom-made for the opening—it fit so precisely that there wasn't even a sliver of space left. The path was truly sealed. I tried several times but couldn't find any way past it. Frustrated, I returned to where Sun Fatty and Hugo were waiting. I shook my head slightly and said, "A huge stone is blocking the exit. That path is done for."
Then I turned to Hao Zhengyi and asked, "What happened to Yang Jun in there? Is he in any danger?"
Hao Zhengyi paused a moment before answering. "Relax. Yang Jun didn't even get a scratch. That deathly aura he inhaled isn't as bad as you think. I even suspect he did it on purpose—took in all that Death Qi just so he could get inside."
Sun Fatty gave Hao Zhengyi an exaggerated look. "No offense, Director Hao—or should I call you Big Brother Hao—but can we get to the point? Could you maybe skip the theorizing until we actually need it?"
Hugo chimed in, "Chairman Hao, you're in pretty bad shape yourself. For the sake of the Lord, you should treat your wounds first. It's too damp in here—if that gets infected, it won't be a joke."
Hao Zhengyi exhaled heavily, then gave a faint smile. "It's nothing. Just broke two ribs. Not fatal. The rest are just surface wounds. No big deal."
Sun Fatty gave Hugo a displeased glance, then turned to Hao Zhengyi. "Big Brother Hao, I don't mean to rush you, but can we please clarify what happened to our Yang Jun and that... whoever he's with? You've had plenty of time to wax poetic."
As always, Hao Zhengyi treated Sun Fatty with a sense of superiority. He didn't take offense but also didn't directly answer the question. Instead, he said, "Little Fatty, lend me your lighter."
"What? A lighter? Seriously, Director Hao? You want a smoke now?" Sun Fatty couldn't understand what Hao Zhengyi was getting at, but still handed him the lighter.
After taking the lighter, Hao Zhengyi didn't use it right away. He clipped it to his waistband, took a deep breath, gritting his teeth against the pain in his ribs, and began feeling along the nearby wall with both hands.
Something's wrong with that wall! I grabbed a lamp base and used its light to examine the surface myself. The wall was covered with murals, and although it was uneven in places, nothing immediately suggested a hidden mechanism. My movements caught Hao Zhengyi's attention, and he turned his face toward me. "Hey, your name's Shen La, right?"
"Yes, that's me," I replied, thinking he was about to share clues about the wall. But instead, he said, "Back off. Don't mess up what I'm doing."
What, is this your wall now? You get to touch it but I don't? I was about to say something when Sun Fatty came over and grabbed me. He whispered, "Lazi, stay back. I don't like the look of that wall."
"Huh?" I gave him a confused look.
Still frowning, Sun Fatty repeated, more slowly this time, "That wall... looks off to me."
That tone of his made me realize something wasn't right. I instinctively backed a few steps away. If even Sun Fatty felt uneasy, then something dangerous was definitely going on—maybe the wall was about to collapse.
Hugo had been about to check the wall too, but we stopped him. Before we could come up with a good excuse, Hao Zhengyi had already found what he was looking for. Using both hands, he felt around a recessed spot on the wall for a while. Once he was sure he had the right place, he pressed down hard with his thumb.
A soft pop echoed as his thumb sank into the recess, forming a hole. From within, a thick black liquid began to ooze out. Strangely, the liquid didn't just drip down—it followed a specific pattern, slowly forming a bizarre design as it flowed.
Only after the liquid had finished spreading did Hao Zhengyi take out the lighter. He flicked it on and brought the flame close to the hole.
But things didn't go as he had planned.
With a loud boom, a fireball burst out of the opening, catching Hao Zhengyi completely off guard and engulfing him in flames.
Fortunately, he reacted fast—he dropped to the ground and rolled around in the waterlogged floor. With about half a foot of standing water, the flames were quickly extinguished. But even so, large blisters had already formed on his hands and face. Just one look at him made my scalp tingle—half his hair was burned off, and his undershirt had practically disintegrated except for the sleeves. In his current state, if he squatted on a street corner, I'd probably toss a few bucks at him without thinking.
On the bright side, the fireball had ignited the liquid design on the wall. That thick black liquid must've been some kind of oil—probably fire oil. Hao Zhengyi had simply been unlucky. A normally sharp guy, he hadn't anticipated that flammable gases might have mixed with the oil.
Still gasping from the pain, Hao Zhengyi struggled to his feet. I was beginning to admire the guy a little. Already battered and with two broken ribs, now badly burned—and yet, he still managed to stand. Most people would have passed out by now. Once up, he ignored the pain and turned to inspect the wall, now lit by flames.
Hugo couldn't stand it anymore. He took off his coat and draped it over Hao Zhengyi's scorched shoulders.
The patterns now burning on the wall were completely different from the previous murals—what was burning now resembled more of a map. Hao Zhengyi stood motionless, staring intently at the flaming map. Judging from his expression, he was trying to commit it to memory. Behind him, Sun Fatty sighed, took out his phone, and snapped a photo of the map. Hugo and I soon followed suit and also took pictures.
After putting away his phone, Sun Fatty said, "Hao Wenming's big brother, no offense, but with all those blisters on your face, aren't you worried they'll leave scars later? But anyway, where exactly is this map pointing to?" When Hao Zhengyi spoke, the blisters on his face tightened, looking like they might burst at any moment. He said, "This Fire Oil Map wasn't something I previously knew about. It was mentioned just earlier by Yang Jun when we came in."
The burning patterns on the wall began to dim. While the flames hadn't yet gone out, I turned to Hao Zhengyi and asked, "What exactly is this map for? Don't tell me there's another layer within the Yin Convergence Point? President Hao, we're done playing games. Just tell us where Yang Jun is, and we'll go find him ourselves." Hao Zhengyi glanced at me, then said slowly, "This map is the way to find Yang Jun. The path we came through has already been sealed. If we want to go any further, we'll have to rely on this map."
I looked at him and asked, "President Hao, what exactly happened to you three earlier? Are Yang Jun and Crow really all right?" Hao Zhengyi gave a bitter smile. With his face full of burn blisters, that smile was the very picture of pain. "We were just unlucky. We ran into the master of this Yin Convergence Point…"
Over an hour ago, after Crow knocked me out, the three of them continued onward. Along the way, they encountered several semi-formed versions of Nyeh. Thanks to prior experience, they already knew these creatures' weaknesses. Working in tandem, Hao Zhengyi and Crow methodically eliminated them. Yang Jun, however, remained listless, trailing behind them and only moving forward once the path had been cleared.
Just as Sun Fatty had suspected later, Hao Zhengyi initially thought they had missed one of the creatures, and was about to search the area with Crow when a sudden flash of lightning streaked through the darkness ahead. The sight startled both of them, but Yang Jun reacted entirely differently. It was as if he had been waiting for this flash. He immediately quickened his pace and walked toward it. Hao Zhengyi called out to him several times, but Yang Jun didn't respond. With no other choice, Hao Zhengyi and Crow followed after him.
When they arrived at the plaza, Hao Zhengyi and Crow were stunned by the anomaly above. Even someone like Hao Zhengyi, groomed as a successor to the Director of the Bureau of Paranormal Investigation and now President of the Religious Affairs Commission, had never heard of seawater floating mid-air. Yang Jun was just as shocked at first by the sight of the seabed on the ceiling, but his attention quickly shifted.
His vision seemingly unaffected, Yang Jun circled around the plaza, eventually focusing on a wall covered in murals. Hao Zhengyi noticed his unusual behavior and followed his gaze with a flashlight, revealing a wall full of red-painted images and strange pictographs.
The murals looked familiar to Hao Zhengyi, but the information overwhelmed him, and he couldn't immediately make sense of them. He glanced at Yang Jun, who was still fixated on the wall, and before he could speak, Yang Jun said, "These murals depict the process of Nyeh defying the natural order and coming into being." As he spoke, he didn't even turn his gaze—he was practically talking to the mural itself.
Hearing this, Hao Zhengyi's pupils contracted sharply. He recognized the script on the wall—it was a type of Daoist cryptoscript that had briefly flourished in the late Northern Song dynasty. At that time, tensions between Buddhism and Daoism ran high. To prevent Buddhist practitioners from prying into their texts, the orthodox Daoist sect Luoyun Temple had created this unique script and spread it across Daoist temples. They had planned to rewrite all Daoist scriptures in this cipher.
But it was a young Wang Zhiming—later known as the great Daoist master Chongyangzi—who traveled alone to Luoyun Temple and engaged in debates with the senior priests there. In a final confrontation with the abbot, he argued, "If this method prevails, the emperor may suspect us of scheming, and the people may abandon our faith for lack of guidance. Buddhist scriptures are widely shared; if we hoard ours, we destroy the foundation of Daoism. This cipher is poison to our faith!" His words left the 50-something abbot drenched in sweat and forced him to abandon the project.
This Daoist cryptoscript thus existed only for a short time. Someone like Ouyang Pianzuo might be able to decipher a hundred or so characters and get the gist, but Hao Zhengyi could only recognize it as the cipher and not understand it. But anything related to Nyeh couldn't be left undocumented, so he called Crow over, took out a prepared compact camera, and the two began photographing every mural detail.
After saying that one line, Yang Jun had gone completely silent, continuing to stare at the mural as Hao Zhengyi took photos. Only after the photos were finished did he turn to President Hao and say, "There should be another path—one that leads directly to the Womb Platform where Nyeh was born. On this wall, five feet from the ground, find the thirteenth recessed pit from left to right. Press into it, and oil will begin to flow. Once it dries, light it on fire, and a Fire Oil Map will appear. Follow the route on the map—it will take you straight to the Womb Platform."
After Yang Jun finished, Hao Zhengyi paused. His eyes shifted from the mural to Yang Jun. "I heard you were drifting at sea for a long time, and only recently returned to land. But it seems to me you know far too much for that to make sense."
Yang Jun met his gaze. "If you don't believe me, try pressing the pit and see for yourself. From here on, we should part ways."
Hao Zhengyi squinted slightly. "Part ways... you mean you want to split up?" Yang Jun glanced toward the exit of the plaza and said, "What you want is inside the Womb Platform. My purpose is different. It's time we each go our own way."
That only piqued Hao Zhengyi's curiosity further. "Our goals differ—then what exactly is yours? Also, how are you so familiar with this place? Don't tell me it's all just from The Hidden Atlas of Heaven. Is there something else you haven't told us? If you're still going to be so secretive, how can Crow and I dare to let you go off alone?"
Yang Jun looked at him, sighed, and said, "Back when I was at sea, a friend of mine used to bring me books to help ease my boredom. I had nothing but time, so I read some of them over and over again—so often I couldn't forget them even if I tried. One year, among the books he brought, there were a few letters from Dong Qichao, written to a friend during the Northern Song period. Don't ask me how they ended up with my friend centuries later—I have no idea."
"In the letters, Dong Qichao wrote that he had found a Yin Convergence Point in the Liao-Jin region, one that a senior cultivator had used to refine Nyeh. Though it had long been abandoned, Dong Qichao managed to locate the predecessor's notes and expressed his intent to revive the experiment with new variations of Nyeh."
Yang Jun was still weak and paused for breath before continuing. "Dong Qichao had traveled all over the famous mountains and rivers, identifying thirty-three Yin Convergence Points. He connected them into a single map and named it The Hidden Atlas of Heaven. But his friend, frightened by what he saw, worried it might be misused. So he split the atlas in two—one version with just maps and no text, and another with text but no maps."
At this point, Hao Zhengyi couldn't hold back. "Wait—you're saying The Hidden Atlas of Heaven was created by Dong Qichao?"
Yang Jun didn't mind being interrupted. He nodded. "That's what the letters said. Apparently, Dong Qichao even made a duplicate of The Hidden Atlas himself. What I saw was the replica."
"Perhaps he was lonely. After finishing the replica, he invited his friend to join him here. Fearing the place might be dangerous, he detailed the Yin Convergence Point's internal layout—including the murals and the Fire Oil Map—in those letters. His friend never came, but centuries later, someone found them and followed the clues. Sadly, I only had access to the layout portion; the letter containing the actual location must've been lost long ago. If not for you, I wouldn't have stumbled in here by accident."
Hao Zhengyi furrowed his brows and contemplated Yang Jun's words. He couldn't find any inconsistencies. After a moment, he looked up and asked, "Then why must we split up? What lies ahead?"
Yang Jun looked again toward the exit of the plaza. After a pause, he said, "Beyond here lies the tomb of Dong Qichao. In his final letter, he wrote that he felt his life nearing its end. He had nearly succeeded in bringing Nyeh to life but kept failing for reasons he couldn't explain. It tormented him. His exact words were: 'I shall die with regret.'"
"Then let us at least accompany you, Mr. Yang," Hao Zhengyi said. "We can look out for each other. Afterward, we'll return here together and check what's inside the Womb Platform." Having no other choice, Yang Jun agreed, and the three continued deeper into the tomb.