Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3045: A Metal Shard

Lin Mu walked further ahead while the others explored, following a strange tickling sensation that had begun to prickle at his senses the moment they entered the chamber. It was faint—like the whisper of a breeze in a sealed room—but it was unmistakable.

"Spatial traces," he murmured, narrowing his eyes.

He quickened his pace, following the invisible signature with his spatial perception like a hound on a scent trail.

Soon, he came to a stop before what seemed to be a blackened platform—half-sunken into the stone floor and surrounded by shattered pillars. The stone was scorched, the floor etched with fractured runes that still held a lingering echo of spatial energy.

"A teleportation array," Lin Mu said aloud.

Daoist Chu turned immediately, walking over. "Where?"

Lin Mu pointed at the remains of the array. "Right here. It’s broken... no, it’s been sabotaged. Someone didn’t just let it decay—they destroyed it deliberately."

Daoist Chu crouched beside him, running his fingers along the cracks. "That’s precision damage. The key rune matrices were struck first. Whoever did this knew what they were doing."

"And they didn’t want it being used again," Lin Mu added.

Elyon came up beside them and sniffed the air. "I smell distortion. Spatial energy, still hanging."

Lin Mu nodded. "That means it was used recently. Based on the residue and decay... I’d say no more than two months ago. Possibly even less."

"Which matches the last confirmed time the elders were seen," Daoist Chu said, frowning. "So they did come here."

"And they left through this array," Lin Mu finished.

"But to where?" Meng Bai asked, kneeling beside the broken array with a furrowed brow. "Can we find out?"

"Not from here," Lin Mu replied. "The destination coordinates would’ve been part of the central formation—now completely destroyed. We’d need the corresponding array on the other side to have any hope of tracking it."

"So we’re back to square one?" Meng Bai muttered.

"Not exactly," Daoist Chu said. "We know they came here. We know they left through a teleportation array, and we know the timeline."

"That’s more than we had before," Lin Mu added.

Elyon’s ears twitched. "Still. If they went that far to cover their tracks, it means they feared someone was close. The Ephemera Sect?"

"Likely," Daoist Chu said. "You said you were attacked multiple times by people impersonating the Xian Sword sect."

"Which means the sect is probably watching this entire region closely," Lin Mu said.

Ashy chirped nervously on Meng Bai’s shoulder. "Then what now?"

Lin Mu turned back to face the others, his eyes narrowing. "Now we follow the leads outside. We know the array was used. That energy would’ve rippled. Someone—or something—might’ve sensed it."

"We start looking for a matching pulse signature," Daoist Chu said, catching on immediately.

"And if that fails?" Meng Bai asked.

Lin Mu gave a small smile.

"Then we make some noise... and see who comes to silence us."

Elyon let out a low growl of approval.

"Now that," the wolfkin said, "sounds like a plan I can follow."

But before they departed the cavern, Lin Mu motioned for the group to pause. Something tugged at his intuition—not from his sword intent or elemental cores, but a subtle, internal sense honed through countless battles and near-death encounters.

"We should check everything," he said. "Just in case there’s anything more left behind."

Daoist Chu nodded. "A good call. These kinds of places always have more than they let on."

Without complaint, the group began combing through the massive subterranean chamber.

The winding tongues of Earth Flame energy provided natural light, flickering dimly against the aged walls and scattered debris. Broken furniture, shattered rocks, and rusted fragments of long-forgotten tools lay embedded in the earth.

It was Elyon who finally found something of note.

"Over here," the wolfkin called out from a crevice near the edge of the chamber. His sharp claws scraped away a thin layer of fused ashstone, pulling free a faintly glinting metallic shard, no longer than a finger but jagged and dense.

As he brought it closer, the group immediately sensed something unusual. The shard emitted a faint pulse of energy, resonating with two distinct signatures. One was cold and sharp—clearly sword qi. The other was turbulent, more difficult to identify.

Daoist Chu furrowed his brow and took it carefully from Elyon’s hand, inspecting it closely. "Two opposing traces. One of them is sword intent... the other... perhaps an elemental imprint or protective aura."

He handed it to Lin Mu, who focused his senses on it.

"There’s no mistaking it," Lin Mu said, his expression turning serious. "The sword qi dominates this shard. Which means it belonged to the one doing the attacking. If the elders were involved, then this... this is likely a remnant from a defensive artifact or armor that they destroyed."

"That supports what we suspect," Daoist Chu said. "They confronted someone here. Fought them."

Elyon narrowed his golden eyes and raised the shard again. "Let’s see if the darkness remembers."

With that, the wolfkin knelt and placed the shard on the ground. A subtle chant left his throat—guttural, primal, and yet strangely refined.

Shadows immediately gathered around the shard, like smoke curling in reverse from unseen flames. The darkness slithered up from the stone floor and coiled around the metal, forming a black cocoon.

The group stepped back as the shadows began to pulse, a faint light rising from within. Then, like smoke cast against canvas, the shadows projected shifting silhouettes into the air.

Lin Mu’s eyes widened.

"This... this is a memory?" he asked.

Elyon gave a slight nod. "Darkness remembers what light forgets. And in places like these—untouched by daylight for centuries—those memories are still fresh."

The illusions weren’t detailed, but they were clear enough.

A pair of figures—clearly the two Xian Sword Sect High elders—stood in the middle of the chamber, facing an opponent cloaked in indistinct robes. The sword intent surged in streaks of what might have been silver and white, but they appeared as streaks of black Instead.

Despite that, they were sharp enough to make Meng Bai feel a slight sting despite it being only a projection.