Divine Eye Appraisal: Starting with a Lucky Pickup of a Beautiful CEO's Family Heirloom

After the hidden door opened, it led to an even deeper passage. Wen Zhaoye walked ahead, his flashlight beam flickering in the darkness, illuminating the mottled moss on the walls. The dry, earthy smell in the air grew stronger, mixed with a strange odor, like the ashes left after something had been burned for a very long time. Gu Qinghan followed behind him, her footsteps so light they were barely audible. "How much further?" Wen Zhaoye asked.

"I don't know," Gu Qinghan said. "I've never been here before either." The two walked for another three or four minutes, and the passage suddenly widened. The beam of the flashlight shone out, and the area that could be seen became larger and larger. The moss on the walls began to decrease, and in its place were dense engravings—those ancient characters, more numerous and denser than those on the walls of the stone chamber before.

Wen Zhaoye slowed his pace.

Suddenly, a light shone overhead, not from a flashlight, but from a faint, bluish-green glow emanating from the wall. He looked up and saw that every few meters along the stone wall were embedded beads the size of a fingernail, emitting a ghostly, cold light.

"A luminous pearl?" he asked.

"No," Gu Qinghan said, "it's the ash left over from the ever-burning lamp."

Wen Zhaoye didn't ask any more questions.

A huge space appeared ahead of the passage.

Wen Zhaoye stood at the entrance of the passage, the beam of his flashlight shining out but not reaching the opposite wall. He took a few steps in, and the ground beneath his feet turned into smooth stone slabs. More and more luminous pearls appeared on the surrounding walls, illuminating the entire space.

This was a domed stone chamber about thirty meters in diameter. In the center of the chamber, on a stone platform about half a person's height, sat a bronze cauldron. Wen Zhaoye stood in front of the platform, staring at the cauldron, his breath catching in his throat.

The cauldron wasn't large, only about waist-high, with three legs and two handles. Its body was covered in verdigris, its surface pitted and uneven, as if gnawed by time. On one of the legs, there was a very obvious crack, running from the toe all the way to the bottom of the cauldron, as if it might break off at any moment.

"Is this the Nine Locks Main Cauldron?" Wen Zhaoye asked, his voice a little hoarse.

"Hmm." Gu Qinghan walked to his side, her gaze falling on the cauldron. "This should be it."

Wen Zhaoye reached out and gently touched the cauldron with his fingers. A very faint vibration came from his fingertips, as if something was slowly, very slowly pulsating deep within the cauldron's belly. Then, the Divine Eye moved on its own. Pale golden characters emerged from the surface of the cauldron's belly, like ripples spreading across water, appearing line by line—the inner wall of the cauldron was engraved with dense array diagrams, the lines as intricate as a giant spider web, with four characters marked in the center—"Foundation of the Dragon Vein."

Wen Zhaoye stared at the words, feeling a little dizzy. "The array diagram inside is the core of the entire Nine Locks Seal," Gu Qinghan said in a low voice, standing behind him. "What your father mentioned in the letter he left behind should be this."

Wen Zhaoye remained silent. He stared at the belly of the cauldron, trying to see more clearly. His divine pupils automatically adjusted their focus, and his gaze penetrated the rust on the cauldron's walls, reaching the interior of the belly—where a faint golden light shone, like a candle about to burn out, slowly, slowly dissipating in the darkness.

He was stunned.

"It's leaking away," he blurted out, his voice trembling slightly.

Gu Qinghan walked to his side and followed his gaze to the belly of the cauldron: "What?"

"That light inside," Wen Zhaoye said, pressing his fingers harder on the cauldron, "is slowly disappearing, like something is leaking out."

Gu Qinghan was silent for a moment, then said, "When your father sealed it, he used the Four Symbols Sealing Array, but that array could only slow down its depletion, not completely stop it."

Wen Zhaoye withdrew his hand, looked at the crack on the cauldron, and felt a strange feeling welling up inside him.

He recalled a sentence from his father's letter: "My father's biggest regret in life is that I couldn't be there to watch you grow up."

He recalled his father's words, "Don't mention the surname Wen."

He remembered the hesitant look on his grandmother's face whenever she mentioned his father. Now, he finally understood—his father didn't not want to come back; he couldn't. He had trapped himself here, guarding this cauldron with his life, guarding the foundation of that dying dragon vein.

"The jade pendant your father left behind," Gu Qinghan suddenly said, her voice very soft, "can temporarily reinforce the seal."

Wen Zhaoye paused for a moment, then took out the jade pendant from his inner pocket and held it in his hand.

The jade was warm, carrying the warmth of his palm, and gleamed with a faint oily sheen under the flashlight beam.

"How do I use it?" he asked.

"It should fit into this crack." Gu Qinghan pointed to the crack on the tripod's leg. "Look at the position of that groove, isn't it similar in shape to the jade pendant?"

Wen Zhaoye looked down and indeed, at the top of the crack in the cauldron, there was a very shallow groove, almost identical in shape to the jade pendant in his hand. He took a deep breath, aligned the jade pendant with the groove, and slowly inserted it. It fit perfectly.

It's like this thing was originally growing here.

The cauldron trembled slightly, very lightly, as if something inside had stirred. Then, Wen Zhaoye saw through his divine eye that the rate at which the golden light deep within the cauldron was dissipating had noticeably slowed down.

He stood before the cauldron, watching the jade pendant left by his father glow faintly within its body, and a feeling he couldn't quite describe welled up inside him.

"Dad, I found it." He said in a low voice, which echoed briefly in the empty stone chamber before disappearing.

Gu Qinghan stood beside him, silent. She simply gazed at the bronze cauldron, her eyes lingering on the ancient characters on its surface. After a long silence, she sheathed her short sword. "Let's go," she said. "What your father left behind is enough."

Wen Zhaoye nodded, taking one last look at the cauldron and the jade pendant his father had left him on its surface. Then he turned and followed Gu Qinghan out of the stone chamber. As they reached the entrance to the passage, they heard a very faint clicking sound from behind. Wen Zhaoye turned around and saw the hidden door at the top of the stone chamber slowly closing. The light from the luminous pearls gradually dimmed until the entire chamber was plunged back into darkness. He stood in the passage, his flashlight beam flickering in the darkness, then turned and continued forward.