The first few hours passed without incident.
Han Feng moved through the outer ruins carefully, avoiding the wider courtyards and collapsed structures where other cultivators might be searching.
The deeper he went, the stranger the ruins became.
The broken buildings gradually gave way to older stone structures buried beneath layers of earth and rubble.
Then he noticed something unusual.
A narrow staircase descended beneath a collapsed hall.
Most of the steps had been buried, but the remaining ones were intact.
Han Feng crouched beside them and examined the surrounding stones.
There were no recent footprints.
No signs of excavation.
More importantly, the spiritual energy below was noticeably denser.
There is something underneath.
He slowly descended.
The staircase ended in a narrow corridor.
Ancient carvings covered both walls, most of them worn away by time.
Han Feng did not recognize the inscriptions, but he noticed that the chaotic Qi became stronger with every step.
After several minutes, the corridor split into three paths.
Han Feng stopped.
He did not choose immediately.
Instead, he closed his eyes and carefully sensed the surrounding spiritual fluctuations.
The Resonance Marker inside his spatial ring suddenly became faintly warm.
Han Feng opened his eyes.
It was not pointing toward anything.
There was no tracking thread connecting it to a distant object.
Rather, the marker seemed to be reacting to a familiar spiritual frequency somewhere nearby.
Another ancient structure.
Han Feng followed the faint reaction.
The left corridor soon became blocked by collapsed stone.
The middle passage ended at a broken wall.
Only the third path remained.
It was barely wide enough for one person.
Han Feng squeezed through.
After several dozen meters, he reached a stone door embedded in the wall.
Unlike the surrounding ruins, the door was almost perfectly preserved.
A circular symbol had been carved into its center.
Han Feng's expression changed.
He recognized the broken pattern.
It was the same symbol he had seen on the Resonance Marker.
He slowly removed the black jade from his spatial ring.
The moment the marker approached the door, its surface became warm.
A faint vibration passed through the stone.
Han Feng immediately stepped back.
He waited.
Nothing happened.
Then a thin crack appeared across the circular symbol.
Not an opening.
A release.
Something inside the ancient mechanism had recognized the marker's signature and weakened the old seal by a small amount.
Han Feng carefully pushed against the door.
It moved.
Only a few inches.
Enough.
A cold current of air flowed through the opening.
Han Feng narrowed his eyes.
He slipped through the gap.
The passage beyond descended steeply.
The walls were covered with increasingly complex formations.
Some had completely failed.
Others still contained faint traces of spiritual energy.
Han Feng followed the passage downward for nearly a quarter of an hour.
Then the corridor suddenly opened.
Han Feng stepped forward and stopped.
A massive underground hall stretched before him.
Broken pillars surrounded a circular chamber.
At its center stood a raised black-stone platform.
And resting upon that platform was a dark mineral roughly the size of a human fist.
Its surface was black, but thin silver lines moved beneath it like moonlight trapped inside stone.
Han Feng's breathing slowed.
Dark Moonstone.
He had finally found it.
But he did not approach.
Something about the chamber was wrong.
There were no footprints.
No signs of recent excavation.
No traces of cultivators.
It was almost as though the hall had been deliberately hidden from the rest of the ruins.
Han Feng's gaze moved slowly across the chamber.
Then he noticed the thin spiritual line connecting the ceiling to the platform.
His expression became serious.
The Dark Moonstone was not simply being stored here.
It was part of the mechanism.
And whatever that mechanism was protecting...
was still active.