The stone passage stretched deep beneath the mountain.
Each step Mo Xuan took echoed softly through the silence, the sound swallowed by the darkness ahead. The blue crystals embedded in the walls grew sparser until only the Glow Script hovering above his palm illuminated the narrow corridor.
The air here felt different. Every breath carried a faint scent of stone that had rested undisturbed for countless years.
Mo Xuan walked slowly, his gaze constantly sweeping the passage. Faded Living Script covered the walls — most too worn to recognise, yet their faint spiritual fluctuations still lingered.
He crouched and brushed away a layer of dust from a section of the floor. Beneath it lay a shallow groove. Another intersected it several feet away. Then another.
As he traced them with his eyes, the pattern gradually emerged. His pupils contracted. "A formation array…"
He straightened and expanded his Spiritual Sense. The more he observed, the larger the structure revealed itself to be.
The entire corridor was merely an extension. The true formation lay ahead.
After walking nearly another hundred metres, the passage suddenly widened.
Mo Xuan stopped.
Before him lay a circular stone chamber nearly thirty metres across. The floor had been carved from a single enormous slab of dark jade. Countless runes spread across it in concentric circles, connected by lines no thicker than a strand of silk.
Though many had dimmed with age, they still retained a faint silver glow.
Mo Xuan stepped closer, his breathing unconsciously slowing. "So intricate…"
Unlike the formations recorded in the Rune Archive, this was like comparing a child's drawing to a master's painting.
Every rune connected perfectly with the next. He circled the chamber's edge, studying carefully. A description in one of the books from the Storage Ring surfaced in memory. He extended his Spiritual Sense into the ring and retrieved the volume.
Comparing the diagram in the book to the formation before him, the match was exact. He could not understand the accompanying text — it was written in the same ancient script — but the schematic was unmistakable. A transport formation. Meant to move people or objects from one location to another.
Perhaps it led out of here. His father would be frantic by now.
The thought of his father sharpened his focus. Holding the book, he compared every detail. Everything matched except for one component — a stone-like object depicted at the formation's core. He searched his memory, then recalled the Spirit Stones in the Storage Ring. Their description matched.
The formation required Spiritual Energy to activate.
He turned his attention back to the ring. Plenty of Spirit Stones inside. After cross-referencing the diagram with the formation several times, he selected the required stones and began placing them into the shallow sockets one by one.
He drew one out, examined it briefly, then positioned it according to the schematic. When he reached for the final stone, he paused, a thought surfacing before he could act on it — if this truly was a transport formation, he had no way of knowing what waited on the other side. Better to test it first. He returned to the chamber with the Blood Essence Fruit tree. He stripped the tree bare, storing every fruit. Then he emptied several jade bottles and filled them with water from the underground pool — water that pure had no business being ordinary.
Satisfied, he returned to the formation and set the last Spirit Stone in place.
*Click.*
A faint sound echoed through the chamber.
Mo Xuan froze.
The runes beneath his feet suddenly lit up.
One circle. Then another. Then another.
Silver light raced through the formation in a precise sequence until the entire array blazed with illumination. The underground pool began to ripple. The air above the formation twisted strangely, like heat rising from sun-baked stone.
Mo Xuan instinctively took a step backwards.
The formation hummed to life. But instead of stepping onto it, a thought struck him.
He picked up a stone shard from the floor and tossed it into the centre.
For a moment… nothing happened.
Then — *Whoosh!*
The shard vanished.
His eyes widened.
He waited. Nothing returned.
He stared at the empty centre of the formation.
A slow grin spread across his face.
Still not entirely convinced, he took one of the Blood Essence Fruits and threw it in.
The fruit disappeared. Immediately, the shimmering gate of light collapsed. He flinched — then noticed the Spirit Stones he had placed had turned to grey ash, their energy sucked dry.
Mo Xuan studied the formation for a long moment. Taking a deep breath, he retrieved another set of Spirit Stones — purer and brighter than the first batch — and placed them in the same sockets. The formation surged to life again.
He looked around the chamber one last time, making a silent promise to himself to return.
He had entered this place because a wounded Blood Wolf had chased him inside.
He had nearly died.
Instead, he had found an ancient inheritance.
Perhaps this was what people meant by fate. You never knew whether the road that seemed to lead to death might actually become the path to opportunity.
Mo Xuan stepped onto the formation.
The instant his foot touched the inner circle —
*BOOM!*
The entire array erupted with silver light.
His vision whited out.
His body suddenly became weightless. For a brief moment, he felt as though he were being pulled apart into countless particles before being dragged through an endless tunnel.
He had no way of knowing the formation would carry him far beyond anywhere he intended to go.
***
When his vision returned…
Mo Xuan stood beneath a completely unfamiliar sky. The first thing he noticed was the air. It was incredibly dense with Spiritual Energy. One breath entered his lungs, and his entire body instinctively responded. His meridians seemed to hunger for it. Mo Xuan slowly inhaled again.
His eyes narrowed. "This…"
He turned slowly. Ancient trees towered around him, their branches stretching high above the forest canopy. The vegetation was unlike anything he had seen near the Mo Clan. Even the smallest plants seemed to contain Spiritual Energy.
The world itself felt different.
He cautiously extended his Spiritual Sense. It spread outward. His expression gradually changed. The place was enormous. No familiar landmarks. No Mo Clan. No mountain village. Only an immense forest.
A faint path seemed to lead out of the woods.
Mo Xuan looked toward the distant trees.
Instead of panicking, his heart settled. He considered various explanations for what might have happened, and when he could not reach a conclusion, he knew one thing for certain:
He had left the cave. But he had no idea where he was.
Making up his mind, he removed the Storage Ring from his finger, tore a strip of cloth from his sleeve, strung the ring onto it, and then tied it around his waist beneath his robes — hidden from sight. He had once read that an innocent man brings trouble upon himself by flaunting his wealth.
After ensuring everything was secure and he looked unremarkable, Mo Xuan adjusted his clothes and began walking toward the path leading out of the forest. He occasionally paused to examine unfamiliar plants or listen to distant sounds. The Spiritual Energy was astonishing, but the strange environment kept him cautious.
He had long since concluded this was nowhere near the Mo Clan. Perhaps not even within the same region.
After walking for some time, he noticed something unusual.
Smoke.
Thin grey strands rose above the distant treetops.
Mo Xuan stopped.
Someone lived nearby.
He immediately changed direction. The forest gradually thinned. The sound of flowing water reached his ears. Then another sound.
Laughter.
Children.
Mo Xuan slowed his steps. Through the trees, he finally saw a small valley. A village sat peacefully between the mountains. Simple wooden houses dotted the hillside, their chimneys sending thin streams of smoke into the afternoon sky.
Children ran along a dirt path. Several villagers worked in small fields.
For a moment, Mo Xuan watched.
A voice broke the quiet behind him. "My, you're not from around here, are you, child?"
Mo Xuan turned.
An old woman sat beneath a large tree near the village entrance. She was weaving straw with slow, practised movements. Her hair was almost completely white; deep lines etched her face, but her eyes remained bright and alert. She looked at him with curiosity rather than fear.
Mo Xuan hesitated.
He had spent years learning to keep secrets — but none of the answers he'd prepared covered explaining why a nine-year-old child had suddenly emerged from the forest alone.
He bowed politely. "No, Grandma."
The old woman studied him. His clothes were torn. His hair was dishevelled. Faint marks of battle still lingered across his arms and face. He looked like a child who had barely survived something terrible.
"What happened to you?"
Mo Xuan lowered his gaze. For a brief moment, he considered telling the truth. But what truth could he tell? That a Blood Wolf had chased him? That he had fallen into a hidden cave? That he had discovered an ancient inheritance? That he had activated a teleportation formation and crossed an unknown distance?
Even if he told her everything… would she believe him? Probably not.
Not every truth needed to be spoken.
Timidly, he said, "My family…"
Mo Xuan paused, choosing his words carefully. "We were attacked by Blood Wolves in the Beast Range."
The old woman's expression immediately changed. "Blood Wolves?"
Mo Xuan nodded.
"I became separated from them."
He lowered his head. "I don't know if they survived."
The old woman stared at him for several long moments. Then her expression softened. "Oh, you poor child."
She slowly set the straw in her hands down and stood. "Come here."
Mo Xuan remained where he was.
The woman smiled. "I'm not going to eat you."