Chapter 13: The Ancient Desolation Runes

"Has anyone seen Huo Niu?" Huo Gen anxiously asked the crowd.

"He ran into the shrine earlier," replied one of the villagers.

“He must have fallen in,” Mutong said, his face ashen, pointing a trembling finger at the gaping hole. His hands shook with grief, as if he himself were facing his final days.

“I’m going down to check. There’s a chance he’s still alive,” Huo Gen said, refusing to accept the worst.

“I’ll go too,” Mu Feng said resolutely. He had developed a bond with Huo Niu. Despite the boy’s constant questions and persistence, Mu Feng felt fond of him. That closeness would only come from genuine affection.

Huo Gen hesitated for a moment before nodding. He felt guilty involving Mu Feng in the village’s troubles, especially since they didn’t know what dangers lurked below. But Mu Feng’s determined eyes, full of concern for Huo Niu, convinced Huo Gen that the feeling was mutual.

After preparing themselves, the two carefully descended into the dark pit beneath the shrine.

What they thought would be a short descent turned into a seemingly endless journey. The deeper they went, the longer the passage stretched before them, with no end in sight.

“This is strange,” Huo Gen said, holding up his torch to illuminate the path ahead, but still seeing no sign of the bottom.

“It feels like we’re going in circles,” Mu Feng noted, suspicion creeping into his mind.

Suddenly, the word trap formation flashed through Mu Feng’s mind, and he realized with a start, “I think we’ve accidentally wandered into a trap formation.”

“A trap formation?” Huo Gen repeated, confused. “How could there be a formation in our small village?”

Different formations, made of various types of runes, served different purposes. Offensive formations emitted a killing intent—these were known as killing formations. Defensive runes formed unbreakable, ever-changing trap formations. There were also illusion formations, maze formations, transportation formations, and support formations, among others.

At the moment, Mu Feng and Huo Gen were trapped in a trap formation.

A trap formation was designed to ensnare its targets, disorienting them and sapping their strength. Filled with restrictions, these formations could weaken or imprison enemies, leaving them to wander endlessly within.

Mu Feng sifted through his memories of various trap formations, recalling the countless ones Bai Lao and Hei Lao had set for him. He began looking for subtle similarities that might help him escape this one.

“There it is!”

After circling the area a few more times, Mu Feng’s face lit up with a smile. He crouched down, removed several stones in the corner, and replaced them with jade pieces inscribed with Spiritual Suppression Runes, temporarily halting the flow of energy through the formation.

Next, Mu Feng swiftly shot an arrow at a nearby stone wall.

Instantly, the wall crumbled, and the sound of shattered formation crystals echoed around them. A new entrance appeared, and a blinding light poured through.

“Did… did you just break the formation?” Huo Gen stood there, stunned, not knowing how to react. He hadn’t been able to contribute, so he could only stand by and watch Mu Feng work his magic.

“There was quite a bit of luck involved,” Mu Feng replied with a modest smile. Using his knowledge of trap formations, he had been fortunate enough to locate one of the formation’s key crystals. By using jade pieces inscribed with suppression runes, he had disrupted the formation’s energy flow, found its weak point, and dismantled it.

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Beyond the crumbled wall was a stone chamber, its entrance lit by two lanterns emitting a faint, constant glow.

“I never expected there to be something like this beneath the shrine,” Huo Gen muttered, amazed at the hidden world that lay before them.

The two descended further into the stone chamber, lighting the remaining wall sconces as they went.

Upon closer inspection, Mu Feng noticed that the walls were covered in countless carvings, seemingly depicting an array of techniques.

“This looks somewhat similar to my family’s ancestral archery techniques,” Huo Gen remarked, surprised.

Mu Feng examined the carvings carefully and found that Huo Gen was correct. There were indeed many similarities, but the techniques on the walls appeared to be more refined and systematic.

Out of respect for the village’s heritage, Mu Feng refrained from studying the carvings in detail. These were Wuyou Village’s ancestral secrets, and it wouldn’t be right to learn them without permission.

“Brother Huo Gen, you go ahead and study the carvings. I’ll look around for any sign of Huo Niu,” Mu Feng said casually.

“I’ll come with you. I can always study this later,” Huo Gen replied, brushing off the significance of the carvings as he hurried to join Mu Feng.

“This chamber can’t be the end,” Mu Feng said, noticing the flickering flames of the sconces.

“There’s airflow, and it’s moving. That means there must be another way out.”

The two men carefully examined every brick and stone in the chamber until their eyes landed on the two lanterns at the entrance.

If there was a hidden mechanism controlling this chamber, it would have to be something that still functioned. The only objects that met that description were the two lanterns.

Mu Feng and Huo Gen each took a lantern and began experimenting with different movements—turning them left, right, together, apart, every combination they could think of.

But no matter what they tried, the chamber remained unchanged.

“Do we need to learn the archery techniques on the wall to find the next entrance?” Huo Gen wondered aloud.

“Brother Huo Gen, you should study it and see,” Mu Feng suggested.

“Let’s do it together!” Huo Gen responded without hesitation. “I see you as family. There’s no need for formalities between us.”

“Come on, let’s study it together. That way, I won’t have to teach you later,” Huo Gen said, pulling Mu Feng over to the wall with a generous smile.

Mu Feng was touched by Huo Gen’s openness. Not only did he share everything he knew, but he did so without a hint of reservation. It was a quality Mu Feng deeply admired.

The techniques carved into the wall were comprehensive and easy to understand. While there were a few advanced archery skills, most of the carvings focused on the basics—drawing the bow, aiming, timing, and the like.

Since both Mu Feng and Huo Gen already had a solid foundation, they quickly absorbed the techniques, memorizing the skills and the crafting methods for arrows described on the wall.

Strangely, as they neared the end of their study, the wall before them suddenly opened, revealing a passage.

The sight startled them both out of their concentration.

As the stone door lifted, Mu Feng and Huo Gen instinctively assumed Huo Niu had activated a mechanism elsewhere.

But when the door fully opened, Huo Niu was nowhere to be seen. Instead, they were met with the sight of an enormous, peculiar structure beyond the door.

This new chamber was much larger than the previous one, with a ceiling four to five times higher. In the center stood a massive, strange structure.

From a distance, it looked like several enormous stone discs stacked on top of one another, like a giant, tiered cake or a truncated pagoda. Each layer was about a third of Mu Feng’s height, and there were seven layers in total. Three stone pillars stood at the top, each capped with a bowl-like structure.

“Let’s go take a look,” Huo Gen said in a hushed voice.

They cautiously approached the structure, and after confirming that there was no immediate danger, they exchanged a glance and began climbing.

Mu Feng led the way, with Huo Gen close behind. Though the stone discs were tall and a bit tiring to climb, they weren’t enough to deter the two men. When they reached the sixth layer, Mu Feng noticed a strange silence descending upon the chamber. He brushed it off and continued to the final layer.

But when he stood at the top, he realized the source of the silence.

Huo Gen was nowhere to be seen. The vast chamber had somehow emptied itself of everyone except Mu Feng. He hadn’t even noticed when Huo Gen had disappeared.

Cold sweat ran down Mu Feng’s back. The stone chamber felt far more ominous now.

His unease deepened when he looked down at the disc beneath his feet and saw the pattern etched into its surface.

At the center of the top disc was a vividly detailed eye—massive and eerily lifelike. Standing upon it made Mu Feng feel as if he were being watched, held in the gaze of something ancient and malevolent.

Surrounding the eye were intricate, ancient runes. They were old, unadorned, but carried a sense of power. No one could mistake them for mere decoration.

And, perhaps because of the eye, Mu Feng felt as if these runes were alive.

The more he studied them, the more they seemed familiar, but he couldn’t recall where he had seen them before.

Standing atop the structure, Mu Feng suddenly realized that this bizarre building resembled a sacrificial altar he had once read about in a book.

A sacrificial altar was a high platform used in certain regions for offering sacrifices, sometimes even involving live humans as tributes to the spirits.

And at this moment, Mu Feng realized that he had become the lone offering atop the altar.

A sense of dread welled up within Mu Feng, and he immediately attempted to jump down and escape.

But it was too late. No matter how hard he tried, he could not escape the two-meter-wide stone disc.

The eye engraved at the top of the altar began to change, shifting from a calm, closed state to a furious, glaring one, exuding a menacing aura. The ancient runes around the eye started to glow with a deep orange light, slowly rotating around the eye.

“The formation is activating!”

Mu Feng’s heart raced with panic, but he didn’t know how to stop it. He could only watch as the formation took shape.

These strange, ancient runes were beyond anything Mu Feng had encountered before. Their intricacy suggested a formation of the highest order.

As the orange light spread from the eye, the spiritual energy in the stone chamber began to wither and dry up. Mu Feng felt his strength ebbing away, and even his breathing became labored.

“Ancient Desolation Runes!”

Mu Feng’s memory finally clicked.

These runes were from the ancient texts he had read. They were the legendary Ancient Desolation Runes.

Mu Feng had come across a brief mention of these runes in an old volume called The Linglong Compendium. The book described the most powerful and rare formations of the Xuantian Continent, and the Ancient Desolation Runes ranked among the top.

“Ancient Desolation Runes… Ranked 17th in The Linglong Compendium, these runes form a desolation formation that drains spiritual energy and creates a dead zone where even the air becomes stifling…”

He remembered this passage vividly, but unfortunately, the book had not detailed any way to break the formation.

Of course, any formation recorded in that ancient tome would not have an easy solution.