In a high-level martial arts game, a wife is given to you at the start.

"Hold it in your hand." Gu Ruolan handed the crystal to him.

Lin Qiye took it without hesitation.

The moment the crystal touched his hand, the dark gold emblem on his palm suddenly lit up, and a surge of heat flowed from within the crystal, spreading upwards along his palm. The patterns on the crystal's surface seemed to be awakened, emitting a faint dark gold glow that echoed his emblem.

The air in the main room suddenly became quiet.

Gu Ruolan gazed at the crystal slowly swirling in the dark golden light, a look of shock appearing in her gentle eyes for the first time. She stared at it for a long time, so long that Lin Qiye thought she was about to say something, but she suddenly turned around, her back to him, her voice slightly hoarse:

"You should leave. The Gu family can't keep you."

"Auntie!" Gu Qingshuang cried out anxiously.

"I told him to leave, not to kick him out," Gu Ruolan interrupted her, her voice calming. "I'm usually very good at judging people. You…" She turned to look at Lin Qiye, "You and this crystal come from the same source."

Lin Qiye's heart skipped a beat: "How did it come about?"

Gu Ruolan didn't answer directly. She walked to the desk, pulled out a yellowed booklet from a hidden compartment, and handed it to Lin Qiye: "This is a notebook left by the Gu family's ancestors. Take it back and read it; you'll understand after you've read it."

"Our ancestor left a will saying that the emblem of the Holy Temple was missing a corner," Gu Ruolan said. "Our ancestor was the first head of the Holy Temple's Purification Division. Later, he discovered something he shouldn't have, and with his entire family, he escaped from the Holy Temple and went into seclusion in Ironwall City, where they have guarded this land for generations."

She paused, her voice lowering, "He only left one sentence before he died. When the person who can make the crystal light up arrives, the burden of the Gu family can be handed over."

The main room remained quiet for a long time.

Lin Qiye held the crystal, looked at Gu Ruolan, then at Gu Qingshuang, and slowly said, "I'll take on this responsibility."

Gu Ruolan looked at him, something flashing in her eyes. She didn't speak, but simply let out a long breath, as if she had unloaded a heavy burden that had been pressing down on her for a long time.

"Qing Shuang," she called out.

"aunt."

"Take him to a guest room to rest," Gu Ruolan said. "Tomorrow, let him look at that map."

"A map?" Lin Qiye asked.

"It was left behind by the Gu family ancestors," Gu Qingshuang said, her voice carrying an indescribable solemnity. "A map marking seven sealing points. Something the Gu family has guarded for over a hundred years."

……

The next morning, Gu Ruolan personally took Lin Qiye to see her. She had changed into a sharp black outfit, her dark hair tied up with a wooden hairpin, making her look completely different from the gentle woman who had been annotating books under the lamp the night before. She stood tall and straight, her steps were steady, and she exuded an aura that commanded respect.

Gu Qingshuang followed behind them, half a step behind, like a shadow.

The secret chamber of the ancestral hall was not large, with empty walls on all four sides, except for a stone table in the center, on which was a yellowish silk cloth. The silk cloth was about ten feet square, with the outlines of mountains and rivers finely drawn on it in cinnabar, and seven dark red circles marked with place names in tiny characters.

The Azure Bone Mountains. Black Wind Valley. Dry Bone Ridge.

Lin Qiye recognized the first three names.

The fourth is called "Falling Star Beach," the fifth is called "Old Dragon Abyss," the sixth is called "Valley of No Return," and the seventh has no name, only a city is drawn at the bottom of the silk scroll. The Holy City of Return to the Ruins.

The seven sealing points form a huge circle, surrounding the holy city in the very center.

"The notes left by the Gu family's ancestors say that these seven sealing points were locks set up by a powerful being in ancient times." Gu Ruolan's fingers slowly traced across the silk. "What's locked inside is beneath the Holy City."

"What's locked up?"

"I don't know." Gu Ruolan shook her head. "Our ancestor only left one sentence: Once that thing is released, there will be no more living beings in the entire Lost Land, or even further afield."

The air in the sealed room fell silent for a moment.

Lin Qiye stared at the map, his gaze lingering on the four characters "Guixu Holy City" for a long time.

Holy City.

He recalled the sun-shaped vertical pupil emblem on the chest of the temple deacon, the records in the household registration office that had been deliberately erased, and the words of the one-armed old man Gu Chen: "The one who pries it open is in the Holy City."

Seven seals surround a city.

And at the heart of that city was the temple.

"The Blood Ravens are trying to pry open these seven sealed points," Lin Qiye said calmly. "They're not just randomly choosing a place to attack. They have a map, or perhaps someone gave them one."

Gu Ruolan glanced at him but didn't deny it: "I've been investigating for three years, and there is indeed someone behind Blood Raven. But that person is very well hidden; the Gu family can't find them."

"If we can't find him, we'll lure him out," Lin Qiye said.

"How do I lure it?"

"Doesn't Blood Raven want the Zhenyuan Seal?" Lin Qiye said. "Then let them know who has the Zhenyuan Seal."

Gu Ruolan was silent for a moment, looked at him, and suddenly laughed: "You've got guts."

"A coward wouldn't be alive today."

Gu Ruolan didn't reply immediately. She looked at the young man before her, pondering something, her gaze lingering on his face before shifting away. Finally, she only said, "You've finished looking at the map. Qing Shuang will tell you the rest."

After she finished speaking, she turned and walked out of the secret room. She paused at the doorway, but didn't look back. "Regarding the Zhenyuan Seal, act according to your capabilities. The Gu family owes you one life; they don't want to owe you another."

The footsteps faded into the distance.

Gu Qingshuang stood by the stone table, watching her aunt's figure disappear through the door, and suddenly spoke: "My aunt is a woman of few words, but when she says 'do what you can,' she really means she's worried."

"Worried about me?"

"I was worried about you," Gu Qingshuang said, her tone carrying a hint of something ambiguous. "In all my years, I've never seen her say such things to a stranger."

Lin Qiye didn't reply. He looked down at the map and memorized the locations and terrain of the seven sealing points.

He stayed at the Gu family's house for the next few days.

During the day, he followed Gu Qingshuang around Ironwall City, thoroughly familiarizing himself with the Blood Ravens' strongholds, sentries, and trade routes. At night, he returned to his room and perused the notebook left by Gu's ancestors, reading it page by page.

The journal contained a jumble of contents. There were old stories of the Purification Division, secrets of the Temple, survey records of the sealing points, and numerous incomprehensible rune diagrams. But from those fragmented records, Lin Qiye slowly pieced together a clue:

The Gu family ancestor was in charge of maintaining the sealing points in the Holy Temple's Purification Department. He discovered someone was secretly sabotaging the seal. It wasn't Blood Raven; Blood Raven didn't exist then. It was someone from inside the Holy Temple.

His ancestor presented the evidence, and the next day, his superior died suddenly. He himself was falsely accused of "dereliction of duty" and nearly executed. He fled the Temple with his family that very night, hiding in Ironwall City, and from then on never spoke of the events of that year again, leaving only one sentence in his journal:

"The chains rusted, not because they were old, but because someone kept watering them."

Lin Qiye closed his notebook, gazing at the deep night of Iron Wall City outside the window, his eyes profound.