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

"Me too." The man turned around.

It was the face of a middle-aged man, with thin features and deep lines at the corners of his eyes, looking like a scholar. But his eyes were cold, as cold as two dry wells, devoid of any vitality. His left hand hung at his side, his fingers slightly curled, a string of dark beads hanging between his fingers, the beads also gleaming with a fluorescent blue light.

"What I'm looking for is in this pillar," the man said, "but unfortunately, someone else got there first. What about you?"

"Same," Lin Qiye said, "A step too late."

The two stared at each other for a moment across the open space.

"Interesting." The man suddenly smiled, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. "My name is Mo Wujiu. The third Director of the Purification Division."

Lin Qiye's pupils contracted slightly.

Gu Chen said that of the previous heads of the Purification Division, one died suddenly, two went missing, and another was demoted to guard a mine. Was the one in front of you among the two who went missing?

"Why would the people from the Purification Division attack the sealing pillar in the Valley of No Return?" Lin Qiye asked.

"Why can't the Purification Division attack the sealing pillars?" Mo Wujiu retorted. "The Purification Division has guarded these things for hundreds of years, and what have they gained? One died suddenly, two disappeared, and another had his arm cut off. In the end, they protected nothing."

He looked down at his hands, his tone flat: "So I tried a different approach. What you can't hold onto, you smash."

"You killed those dozen or so Blood Ravens outside."

"They're trying to steal my things," Mo Wujiu said. "I hate it when people take my things."

He raised his eyes to look at Lin Qiye, the bead between his fingers twirling slightly: "You also have something I want. That iron plaque of yours—was it given to you by Gu Chen?"

Lin Qiye did not deny it.

"Old Gu isn't dead yet." Mo Wujiu's tone was devoid of emotion. "He still has that plaque. Good, saves me the trouble of looking for him."

He took a step forward.

"Leave the sign, and I'll let you go," Mo Wujiu said. "I don't want to kill another member of the Purification Division in Wuhui Valley."

"I can't give you the badge," Lin Qiye said. "I need it."

"Then don't blame me."

The bead on Mo Wujiu's fingertip suddenly lit up.

A fluorescent blue light exploded between his fingers, transforming into a cold beam of light that pierced straight at Lin Qiye's throat—so fast that its trajectory was almost invisible, leaving a thin white streak in the air.

Lin Qiye did not dodge.

He raised his right hand, fingers spread, and the dark gold emblem on his palm lit up. The fluorescent blue light struck his palm as if hitting an iron wall, shattering with a hum, turning into specks of light that dissipated into the black mist.

Mo Wujiu stopped moving.

He looked down at the dim bead between his fingers, then looked up at Lin Qiye, and for the first time, a flicker of emotion appeared in his dry, well-like eyes.

"You..." His voice was hoarse, "Why do you have that mark on your body?"

Lin Qiye lowered his hand: "Which mark?"

"Horns." Mo Wujiu stared at the emblem on his palm. "Two horns guarding the sun. That's the earliest emblem of the Purification Division—left by the first Director. I've searched for it for decades, always believing it was buried beneath the temple along with that Director."

"The first Chief Justice..." Lin Qiye looked at him, "You know him?"

"I don't know him," Mo Wujiu said, "but I know who he is. He's the only person in the entire Lost Lands who dared to turn against the Temple. It's clearly written in his notes—the Temple's emblem is missing a corner because they cut it off themselves."

He paused for a moment, then suddenly asked an unrelated question: "Is the Gu family still guarding that map?"

Lin Qiye's eyes flickered slightly.

"You don't need to answer," Mo Wujiu said. "The mark on your body is of the same origin as the crystal from the Gu family. The fact that you were able to get here means that the Gu family gave you everything. So I'll tell you something too—"

He raised his hand and pointed to the ground beneath his feet.

"What's buried here is even older than the one hidden in the Temple. It was there before the Temple was even built."

"What is that?"

"I don't know," Mo Wujiu said, "but I know what it's made of—it came with the first Director."

After speaking, he didn't linger. He turned and walked deeper into the valley. After a few steps, he stopped again, without looking back.

"Kid, for Old Gu's sake, I'll give you a heads-up. The Temple isn't what you think. The mark on you can protect you for a while, but not forever. Once you figure out where it came from, you'll understand why the Temple fears it."

His figure gradually disappeared into the black mist.

Lin Qiye stood at the edge of the open space, watching the figure disappear, then looked down at the emblem on his palm, remaining silent for a long time.

Mo Wujiu. The third Director of the Purification Department.

One died suddenly, and two went missing—it turns out the missing person came here and broke the seal that he had guarded for hundreds of years.

He turned around, glanced at the stone pillar from which the Zhenyuan Seal had been removed, and without lingering, retreated from the Valley of No Return along the same path.

When we returned to the mouth of the valley, it was already dawn.

He stood at the valley entrance, gazing in the direction of the Holy City, recalling Mo Wujiu's words—"The Holy Temple isn't what you think."

He suddenly had a gut feeling.

The Temple, the Purification Bureau, the Gu Family, Blood Raven, the Seven Seals, that Horn...

All of these things revolve around the same secret.

The core of that secret lies beneath the temple.

He did not return to the Holy City immediately.

He first made a detour to Ironwall City—not for any other reason than that the Gu family's storeroom still contained several old files that their ancestors had brought out from the Holy Temple. He remembered Gu Ruolan mentioning that one of the files was a handwritten copy of the Holy Temple's underground structure.

Gu Ruolan didn't ask any further questions, and handed him the old file. She only said one sentence: "Put it back when you're done reading."

Lin Qiye responded and returned to the Holy City with the old files.

That night, under the lights of Qing Shi Lane, he unfurled the roll of yellowed silk.

The silk scroll depicts the underground structure of the temple—seven levels extending downwards from the main temple. On the lowest level, a huge circular space is depicted, labeled with two words: Forbidden Ground.

The forbidden area was surrounded by densely marked rune arrays, the locations of which were exactly the same as the sealing pillars he had seen in Old Dragon Abyss and Valley of No Return.

In the very center of the forbidden area, there was a simple design—a vertical pupil.

It is exactly the same as the vertical pupil on the temple emblem.

He stared at the pattern for a long time.

In the notes of the Gu family ancestor, there is only one sentence describing this vertical-pupiled creature: "A being at the bottom of the palace, neither god nor demon. It sees the world through its pupils, and nourishes its pupils with the world."

He closed the silk cloth, blew out the lamp, and sat in the darkness for a long time.

See the world through your eyes, and nurture your eyes through the world.

He suddenly understood—that vertical pupil wasn't the temple's totem. The temple was simply guarding something for it, or rather, watching over something for it.

The seven sealing points do not surround the temple, but rather that vertical pupil.