Nine Desolate Records

The torrential rain pounded on the green tiles of Guilin Villa, the sound so dense it was unsettling.

In the main hall, the light of the oil lamp struggled to create a small, dim yellow glow in the damp, cold air. Yun Jin lay on the long table, seven soul-stabilizing needles forming a subtle star pattern around her brow. A faint gray-black aura slowly dissipated from the tips of the silver needles—the remnants of fear forced out from the cracks in her soul.

Uncle Chen guided the wisp of grayish-black energy to the oil lamp flame. The energy made a soft "sizzling" sound as it touched the firelight, then dissipated into a wisp of white smoke. After doing all this, he straightened up and looked at Lu Li with his cloudy eyes: "The Soul-Stabilizing Needle's effects last for a maximum of six hours. During this time, her condition will not worsen, but it will not improve either."

Lu Li's gaze fell on the sachet at Yun Jin's waist. The sachet was inconspicuous, made of coarse indigo cloth with worn and faded edges, and embroidered with a faded cloud pattern, exactly the same as the pattern on her collar and cuffs.

"Uncle Chen," Lu Li began, "what exactly does the token you mentioned look like?"

The old man was silent for a moment, then turned and walked towards the shrine. He reached out and took the broken sword, his movements as gentle as if he were touching fragile porcelain. There was an irregularly shaped groove on the hilt of the broken sword.

"Lord Yun left behind two tokens." Uncle Chen's voice sounded particularly deep in the rain. "One was his personal 'Cloud Pattern Pendant,' which could unlock all the regular restrictions of the manor. The other was the 'Sword Tomb Token,' which he brought from Mount Shu and was specially forged to open the underground secret chamber."

He showed the three the groove on the broken sword: "The Sword Tomb Token is embedded here. Thirty years ago, when Lord Yun left the manor, he took it with him. He said... if one day he doesn't come back, someone will bring the Sword Tomb Token back."

Lin Qingyuan leaned against the wall, his right eye completely blind, and his left eye barely able to discern light and shadow. He gasped for breath, "What about the cloud-patterned pendant?"

"Lord Yun gave it to his daughter." Uncle Chen's gaze fell on Yun Jin's waist. "It's in that sachet."

Shi Yong's eyes lit up: "Then can we...?"

"It's useless." Uncle Chen shook his head. "The Cloud Pattern Pendant can only open the array passages on the outer perimeter of the manor and the ordinary storerooms. The seal on the underground secret chamber is a 'Nine-Lock Linked Array' personally set up by the Sword Guardian Elder of the Shu Mountain Sword Tomb at Lord Yun's request. It can only be opened with the Sword Tomb Token. Not even one link can be missing."

A brief silence fell over the main hall.

There was only the sound of rain, and Yun Jin's faint but steady breathing.

"Sword Tomb Token..." Lu Li repeated these three words, and a scene suddenly flashed through his mind: the Sword Tomb of Mount Shu, above the abyss, when Xuan Ji came stepping through the air, he seemed to have a dark token hanging on his waist.

"Senior," he looked at Uncle Chen, "is the Sword Tomb Token... black, about the size of a palm, with a mountain shape engraved on the front and the character 'Guard' on the back?"

A glint of light suddenly flashed in Uncle Chen's cloudy eyes: "You've seen it?"

"On the Sword Tomb of Mount Shu, on the body of the tomb guardian, Senior Xuanji," Lu Li said quickly, "he had a token like that hanging from his waist."

"That's right." Uncle Chen let out a long sigh, whether from relief or deeper worry, it was hard to tell. "The Sword Tomb Token is a symbol of the identity of the Sword Guardian Elder. Lord Yun was able to borrow the fragments of the 'Stop the War Sword' from the Sword Tomb to set up the formation back then because of the token's credibility. After his death, the token should naturally return to the Sword Tomb."

He paused, then looked at Lu Li: "But since Xuan Ji is willing to lend you the Turtle-Suppressing Dagger, and even allows you to return to the Sword Tomb to cultivate in twenty days... perhaps you can try to borrow the Sword Tomb Token from him."

"Twenty days..." Lin Qingyuan smiled bitterly, "Yun Jin can't wait twenty days, and neither can I."

Uncle Chen didn't reply. He simply walked back to the long table and checked Yun Jin's condition again. The silver light of the Soul-Stabilizing Needle was stable, but the girl's face was still pale and transparent, as if it would shatter at the slightest touch.

"Actually," the old man suddenly spoke, his voice very low, "there is another way."

All three eyes focused on him at the same time.

"The reason why the Nine-Lock Linked Formation requires the Sword Tomb Token is because the core of the formation incorporates the sword intent of the Ceasefire Sword," Uncle Chen said slowly. "Sword intent recognizes its master and only responds to specific 'marks.' The Sword Tomb Token is that mark."

He looked up at Lu Li: "But what if you... have a mark that's more direct and recognized by the Sword of Ceasefire than the Sword Tomb Token?"

Lu Li instinctively pressed his hand to his chest.

There, the three-dagger seal was slowly circulating. And deep within the seal, he could sense an extremely faint, silvery-white sword intent, a "seed" left in his body when the Zhige Sword acknowledged him.

"You mean..." Lu Li's voice was a little hoarse.

"You can try using that sword intent to resonate with the array in the secret chamber," Uncle Chen said uncertainly. "This is just my guess. Thirty years ago, when Lord Yun was setting up the array, he mentioned that 'if someone in later generations were to gain the approval of Zhige, perhaps it would be possible to break the rules.' But he didn't elaborate, and I don't know exactly how to do it."

risk.

Huge risks.

Failure could trigger a backlash from the formation, or even destroy the secret chamber entirely. There, they would find the "Cleansing Dew" they desperately needed, all the intelligence Yun Potian had gathered over thirty years, and their only chance of survival.

Lu Li looked at Yun Jin, then at Lin Qingyuan.

Then he nodded: "Give it a try."

Uncle Chen didn't try to stop him. He simply took out a bunch of brass keys from his pocket and walked to the east wall of the main hall. There hung a landscape painting there, depicting the clouds and mountains of Sichuan. The old man lifted the scroll, revealing a hidden keyhole behind it.

Insert the key and turn it.

The wall slid open silently, revealing a downward stone staircase. The staircase was deep and seemed to have no end; only a cold, musty wind rushed up from below.

"Come with me." Uncle Chen picked up the oil lamp and stepped down first.

Lu Li asked Shi Yong to stay and look after Yun Jin and Lin Qingyuan, while he followed Uncle Chen into the secret passage.

The stone steps were long, with at least fifty steps. The further down you went, the lower the temperature and the more humid the air became. On the walls on both sides, marks of human excavation began to appear, along with some blurry inscriptions, all proverbs and maxims from ancient books. The handwriting was exactly the same as the two characters "Gui Lin" on the lintel of the villa, so they must have been carved by Yun Potian himself.

"Lord Yun spent three years here back then." Uncle Chen's voice echoed in the narrow passage, carrying a hollow resonance. "During the day, he studied ancient books and prepared medicines at the manor, and at night he would come down to carve these characters. He said... he always wanted to leave something for those who came after him."

Lu Li's fingers brushed over a line of words on the wall: "Heaven and earth are ruthless, treating all things like straw dogs; the sage is ruthless, treating the people like straw dogs."

The engravings are deep, each stroke carrying a resolute power.

"What did Lord Yun discover back then that led him to carve this phrase?" Lu Li asked.

Uncle Chen paused for a moment.

"He discovered... that the so-called 'Demon-Feeding Plan' had already begun three thousand years ago when King Yu of the Great enfeoffed prisoners." The old man's voice carried a sorrow that had been suppressed for thirty years. "A grand sacrifice is held every three hundred years, and a small sacrifice is held every thirty years. The flesh and souls of the living are used to feed the monsters sealed inside, so that they neither fully awaken nor truly die."

"Why?" Lu Li felt a chill rise up his spine.

"Because once the prisoners die completely, the 'concepts' they correspond to will disappear from the world." Uncle Chen turned his head, the light of the oil lamp illuminating his aged face. "And concepts are the cornerstone of maintaining the balance of the heavens. If fear disappears, all living beings will be fearless and fall into madness; if the will to fight disappears, the army will lose morale, and foreign enemies can drive straight in... The nine concepts are indispensable."

Lu Li recalled what Xuan Ji had said at the Sword Tomb: "Prisoners are the embodiment of the negative emotions of all ancient spirits."

It turned out to be the case.

It's not that I don't want to kill, it's that I can't.

"So Xun Wenruo and the others..." Lu Li's voice tightened.

"They've been doing this for three thousand years, only they've done it more 'refined'," Chen Bo sneered. "They select people with specific birth dates and bloodlines as sacrifices to maximize their use; they establish academies and demon-hunting guard systems to package the sacrifices as 'martyrdom' or 'accidents'; and even... cultivate specialized 'vessels' in an attempt to control the prisoners' power in human hands."

container.

Lu Li pressed his hand to his chest.

The stone steps finally came to an end.

Before them stood a bronze door. It was three zhang tall and two zhang wide, its surface covered with intricate patterns. These patterns were not decorations, but rather densely packed, layered runes, interconnected to form a massive, three-dimensional array. In the center of the bronze door were nine keyholes arranged in a 9x9 grid.

Nine-locked linked formation.

Lu Li could sense a vast and ancient sword intent emanating from behind the door. It was the aura of the Zhige Sword. Although faint, its essence was extremely high, like a sleeping giant.

"This is it." Uncle Chen stopped three steps away from the door. "I can't get any closer. Thirty years ago, when Lord Yun set up the formation, my aura was recorded by the formation as a 'Guardian.' Once I step into the warning range, the defense mechanism will be triggered."

He placed the oil lamp on the ground and took a few steps back: "The rest is up to you."

Lu Li nodded, took a deep breath, and walked towards the bronze door.

The closer one gets, the clearer the sword intent becomes. It is not sharp, but rather has a calm and profound sense of weight, as if it has seen through a thousand years of vicissitudes. But beneath this weight lies an absolute rule, which none but those who hold the Sword Tomb Order may enter.

Lu Li stopped a foot away from the door.

He closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into his body.

The three dagger seals on his chest rotated slowly, their blue, red, and bronze lights stable and balanced. And at the deepest part of the seals, the silver-white seed of sword intent was pulsating slightly like a heart.

Lu Li stretched out his hand and placed his palm against the bronze door.

Without touching it directly, it stopped three inches away from the storefront.

He began to circulate that seed of sword intent.

Very slowly, very carefully.

A silvery-white light seeped from his palm, drifting towards the bronze door like mist. The moment the light touched the door, the complex runes suddenly came to life—they began to flow and recombine, like a school of startled fish.

The nine keyholes in the center of the door simultaneously lit up with a faint light.

The first keyhole lit up.

Then came the second, the third...

With each keyhole that lit up, Lu Li felt a portion of the sword intent seed within his body being drawn away. It wasn't a drain, but rather a "verification"—the formation was checking whether the sword intent was pure and whether it had truly gained the approval of the Zhige Sword.

The fourth, the fifth...

Lu Li's forehead began to bead with cold sweat.

He sensed that the formation was checking not only the authenticity of his sword intent, but also his "qualifications." An invisible force connected with his sword intent, probing into his consciousness, rummaging through his memories, and examining his true nature.

The despair of Cangwu Mountain, the escape from Linyuan City, the trials of Shu Mountain, the choices made by Guilin Manor...

Scenes were quickly viewed.

The sixth keyhole lights up.

The thought lingered on a fragment of memory: the Sword Tomb Abyss. He released his grip, gave up resisting, and said to the Sword of Ceasefire, "If you think I'm not worthy, then kill me."

A brief pause.

Then, the thought faded away.

The seventh and eighth keyholes lit up simultaneously.

Only one remains.

But at that moment, something unexpected happened.

The Prisoner's Origin in Lu Li's chest seemed to sense something and suddenly became violently agitated! Dark blue mist seeped out uncontrollably from the seal's cracks, attempting to connect with the sword intent and contaminate the array on the bronze gate!

"Oh no!" Lu Li was terrified.

The sword intent of the Ceasefire Sword and the prisoner's original essence are inherently mutually exclusive. His full exertion of sword intent just now caused a slight loosening of the seal, giving the original essence an opportunity to exploit!

The runes on the bronze door began to become disordered.

The eight keyholes that had already lit up began to flicker. The array emitted a low hum, a warning that something had intruded!

Even more terrifying, the formation determined that the sword intent was "impure" and began to activate its countermeasure mechanism. The light from the nine keyholes suddenly turned crimson, and the runes on the door began to tighten like red-hot iron chains. A destructive force was rapidly gathering!

Once the countermeasures are fully activated, not only will Lu Li be severely injured, but the entire secret chamber may also collapse!

"Retract it!" Uncle Chen shouted urgently from behind, "Disconnect immediately!"

Lu Li gritted his teeth, attempting to forcibly sever the connection between the sword intent and the sword.

But it's impossible.

The seed of sword intent has become deeply intertwined with the formation, like tree roots embedded in rock; forcibly pulling it out would only result in mutual destruction. Meanwhile, the pollution from the Prisoner's essence continues; the bluish-black mist has seeped into the outermost runes of the formation, beginning to corrode those ancient patterns!

The humming sound from the bronze door grew louder and louder, and the entire secret passage trembled!

Uncle Chen's face turned pale. He wanted to step forward to help, but as soon as he took a step, the formation split off a crimson chain phantom, forcing him back!

"Lu Li!" the old man roared, "Use the Turtle-Suppressing Dagger! Forcibly suppress the source!"

Lu Li reached into his robes with his left hand and found the Turtle-Suppressing Dagger in his hand.

But just as he was about to draw his dagger...

A faint but clear voice resounded directly in his mind:

"Don't move."

It was Yun Jin's voice.

No, it wasn't heard through the ears, it appeared directly in the consciousness, just like when the Zhige Sword transmitted information in the Sword Tomb.

"Father...left a backup plan... in the sachet..."

Yun Jin's voice was broken and intermittent, as if she had used up all her strength:

"Crush...the cloud-patterned pendant..."

Lu Li suddenly turned around.

Above the secret passage, towards the main hall, came Shi Yong's joyful shout: "Miss Yun! You're awake?!"

But Yun Jin's consciousness transmission continued:

"Quick... the formation is about to... record your presence... Once it's recorded as an 'intruder'... it will never be able to... be opened again..."

Lu Li did not hesitate at all.

His right hand continued to unleash his sword intent, while his left hand pulled something from his robes—not the Turtle-Suppressing Dagger, but the cloud-patterned jade pendant he had taken from the brocade sachet earlier. Uncle Chen had said that this jade pendant could only open the outer seals and was useless against the secret chamber.

But Yun Jin wouldn't lie to him at a time like this.

Lu Li exerted force with his five fingers.

"Click—"

The cloud-patterned pendant shattered upon impact.

The moment the jade pendant shattered, there was no dazzling light as expected. Instead, all the fragments turned into a handful of extremely fine, silvery-white powder. The powder did not fall to the ground, but floated in the air as if it had a life of its own, automatically drifting towards the bronze door.

Then, it seeped in.

It wasn't from the keyhole, but from the material of the door itself—those bronzes seemed to have countless tiny holes, into which powder easily seeped and disappeared.

Take a breath.

Two breaths.

Three breaths.

Nothing happened.

The bronze door's counterattack continues; the crimson light from the ninth keyhole has reached its peak, and destructive power is about to erupt!

Lu Li's heart sank to the bottom.

But just in the fourth breath—

"Buzz..."

A clear, resonant sword cry, unlike any before, like the roar of a dragon, rang out from inside the bronze door.

The crimson light on the door suddenly went out.

The light from the nine keyholes returned to its silvery-white color.

Then, one by one, they began to slowly rotate.

It's not about opening, but a more complex process, much like aligning a combination lock. Each keyhole makes a soft "click" sound when rotated to a specific angle.

When the ninth keyhole is put back in place—

"Rumble..."

A heavy, ancient, grinding sound.

The bronze door slid open slowly to both sides.

Behind the door was a huge, circular secret chamber. In the center of the chamber was a stone platform, on which sat a jade box. The surrounding walls were lined with bookshelves, piled high with scrolls, books, and notes.

On the wall directly opposite the secret chamber, a line of large characters is carved, the strokes powerful and vigorous, penetrating deep into the stone wall:

"Those who come after me, if they see these words, I am already dead. Everything in this room is yours to take. But I have one thing to tell you—"

"Do not trust Xun Wenruo."

The inscription reads: Yun Potian, September 17th, Guimao year.

Lu Li stood at the door, looking at the words, feeling as if something was blocking his chest.

Uncle Chen stepped forward, gazing at the familiar handwriting, tears streaming down his face. He bowed deeply into the secret chamber, his voice choked with emotion: "Lord Yun... thirty years... finally someone... has entered..."

Inside the secret room was the cleansing dew they desperately needed.

The whole truth behind Yun Potian's 30-year investigation.

There are also... more and heavier responsibilities.

Lu Li took a deep breath and stepped inside.

Behind him, the bronze door slowly closed.

The moment the last keyhole was put back in place, Lu Li clearly felt that his aura had been permanently recorded by the formation.

Not an "intruder".

It is the "successor".

at the same time.

Outside the villa, in the mountains and forests, torrential rain poured down.

Three dark figures landed silently on the treetops.

The leader pulled back his hood, revealing a young but sinister face. He stared at the faint lights of the distant manor, a cold smile playing on his lips.

"We've found you."

A token hung from his waist.

The token is engraved with a mountain shape on the front and the character "守" (shǒu, meaning "to guard") on the back.

Sword Tomb Order.

But the eyes of the one who held the command were pure, unblemished black.