Passerby: Secret Image of Ancient Scrolls

After the malevolent aura subsided, the raging wind and snow along the riverbank seemed to have stopped howling.

The tension in everyone's hearts eased slightly, but they dared not relax their nerves for a moment.

Shen Xun stood at the edge of the array, his eyes closed, concentrating on sensing the movements at the bottom of the river, but the heat of that moment still lingered in his body. It took him a few breaths to push it back into the hourglass.

The riverbed was deathly silent. Su Jin's divine sense completely retreated into the depths, and even the strange aura that suddenly appeared and then vanished in an instant left no trace.

This aura even stirred a sense of familiarity in him that he couldn't quite grasp the source of.

It was like many years ago when he touched the deepest part of the cycle of reincarnation, that fleeting, indescribable sensation. No matter how he tried to recall his memories, he couldn't find the source of that familiar feeling, nor could he pinpoint the exact location of that aura.

"The search of the surrounding one-kilometer radius is complete. There are no unusual traces. We have three shifts monitoring the area, so there won't be any problems." Ye Zhu put away his night vision goggles and quickly walked back, reporting in a low voice.

Lu Ye immediately stepped forward and handed him the tablet: "The data is all stable. There are no signs of the fissures expanding further, and the subsidence value has completely returned to zero, exactly the same as when the magic array was first completed." Shen Xun suppressed the strange feeling in his heart, slowly opened his eyes, nodded, and glanced at the dark river surface before looking at the outline of the Greater Khingan Mountains hidden in the wind and snow in the distance. He said in a deep voice: "Leave enough people on duty for rotation. The rest of you come back to eat and warm yourselves by the fire. Stay vigilant."

The group trudged through the thick snow and returned to the canopy tent beside the vehicle.

The embers in the wood-burning stove were still burning brightly. The moment the curtain was lifted, a warm, cozy steam carrying the lingering aroma of mutton wafted out, dispelling a trace of the chill.

Old Gu immediately squatted down by the stove, added two pieces of dry firewood, and put the mutton pot that had been warming by the stove on the fire. The milky white soup quickly started bubbling again, and the aroma of meat mixed with the aroma of ginger spread, slightly diluting the solemnity and doubt in everyone's hearts.

"Everyone, sit by the stove and warm yourselves up first." Old Gu stirred the pot with a long-handled ladle, looked up at everyone, and said with a hint of bitterness in his voice, "After what happened, you're all frozen solid. Have a bowl of hot soup to tide you over, and we can talk about what's going on while we eat."

Lin Jian shrank into a corner by the stove. When the evil energy was at its fiercest, she instinctively pressed the shutter several times. But she hadn't had time to take it out and look at it while she was busy avoiding danger and checking things out.

There was little sound in the tent for a moment, only the soft patter of wind and snow hitting the tarpaulin and the bubbling of meat soup in the pot.

Everyone had something weighing on their minds. The sudden change in those few seconds was even more unsettling than the life-or-death struggle that evening.

Everyone was aware of Su Jin's ferocity and cunning, but the origin of that unknown entity lurking in the shadows, radiating a powerful aura, was still unclear, like a fog that could rise up at any moment.

"What exactly was that thing?" Lu Ye broke the silence, unscrewed his thermos and took a sip of hot water, his brows furrowed tightly. "I've been doing geological exploration for so many years, and I've never seen anything like this. One second the radar readings were off the charts, and the next second they went straight to zero, leaving not a trace. It doesn't conform to any known fluctuation patterns at all; it's too abnormal."

Ao Luya gently stroked the white deer's back, her face still somewhat pale, and spoke softly, "It's not evil spirits. My grandmother's shamanic tradition has never recorded such an aura." There was a hint of bewilderment in her voice, "Whether it's a benevolent spirit or a vengeful ghost, even the primordial spirit that was previously controlled, they all have life and obsessions. But just now, I couldn't sense anything from that aura. It was as cold as the bottom of a river frozen three feet deep in the twelfth lunar month, icy and bone-chilling..." She had learned the tradition from the elders of her tribe since childhood, had seen the mountain guardian spirits in the deep mountains, and had helped long-lingering souls pass through, but she had never encountered such a being.

Old Gu paused in ladling soup, then sighed heavily, his cloudy eyes filled with unease: "Even the malevolent energy that Su Jin had accumulated for so long could be driven away by it." He paused again, then added in a hoarse voice, "We don't even know what this thing is or where it came from. If it's in cahoots with Su Jin, how can we still defend this gate?"

"It didn't target us, nor did it touch the magic array or the boundary gate. From beginning to end, it only disturbed the evil energy released by Su Jin." Shen Xun spoke slowly, his fingertips tracing the warm cup, his gaze as deep as the surface of a river in the dead of night. "At present, we can only confirm one thing: its power far exceeds that of Su Jin, its origin is unknown, and it is difficult to distinguish friend from foe. From now on, everyone must be on high alert and not act alone."

Bai Wuchang huddled beside him, his small brows furrowed tightly, and whispered, "I couldn't catch a trace of it either. It never even revealed its true form, and we couldn't see where it came from. It was like... it suddenly appeared and then suddenly disappeared."

After he finished speaking, the sky fell into a brief silence, and the atmosphere became even more heavy.

Ao Luya looked up at Ye Zhuo sitting opposite her, her gaze falling on her neckline. After hesitating for a moment, she spoke softly, "Sister Ye Zhuo, there's something I noticed when we first faced the original spirit by the river. But these past few days, I've been busy dealing with emergencies and haven't had time to ask in detail."

Everyone's eyes followed her words and fell on Ye Zhuo.

Ye Zhuo paused for a moment, then looked up at her: "What is it?"

"I can clearly feel that you have always carried the spiritual essence of our Evenki shamanic tradition, which is the same as the aura of the white deer. This has been the case since the first time we met."

Ao Luya's tone was very serious. As soon as she finished speaking, the white deer that had been lying at her feet immediately raised its head, its pointed ears stood up straight, and its bright black eyes stared precisely at Ye Zhuo's collar. It took light steps to move closer and carefully rubbed against her collar with a hint of intimacy.

Ye Zhuo suddenly realized what was happening and reached out to take out the deer bone necklace hidden in her collar.

The pendant was a piece of deer bone that had been polished smooth and lustrous. It looked unremarkable, but it carried a warm and gentle aura. As soon as it was revealed, the white deer rubbed against it even more affectionately.

"So this is it." Ao Luya looked at the patterns on the pendant, her pupils shrinking slightly. "This really is the guardian deer bone of our Evenki shaman ancestors! Only the most respected shaman in the tribe is qualified to make this by hand, and it will only be given to those with whom we have a life-or-death friendship, those who can protect the mountains and forests and the boundary gate together."

She looked up at Ye Zhuo, her eyes full of curiosity: "Where did this pendant come from?"

"It was left to me by my grandfather." Ye Zhuo stroked the deer bone pendant with his fingertips, his tone calm. "My grandfather was an old forest ranger in the Greater Khingan Mountains. He spent his whole life guarding the mountains. When he was young, he had a very close relationship with the Evenki shaman tribe. This was given to him by the shaman of his tribe back then. He said it could ward off evil spirits and protect peace. I have worn it since I was a child, just as an ordinary amulet. I didn't know that there was such a deep meaning behind it."

"No wonder the white deer was completely unguarded with you from the first moment it saw you; it was because of this protective talisman," Ao Luya suddenly realized.

Old Gu also came over to take a look, nodding repeatedly, his eyes filled with a hint of nostalgia: "I recognize this! Xiulian used to wear a similar deer bone pendant, the size and pattern are the same. She always wore it close to her body, saying it was her talisman, her most precious possession. She told me back then that this pendant could protect her wherever she went, but I never expected..." He sighed halfway through his sentence and didn't finish, but the guilt in his eyes was undeniable.

After exchanging a few words around the deer bone necklace, the crowd's initial shock and doubt subsided, and the topic naturally returned to the earlier burst of malevolent energy.

Lin Jianmei spoke first: "Speaking of which, that wave of malevolent energy just now was also strange. Logically speaking, the malevolent energy that Su Jin controls is always a malevolent technique that controls the soul, but in that wave just now, I always felt that there was something solid inside, not just simple malevolent energy."

"I felt it too," Lu Ye immediately chimed in, his brows furrowing slightly. "Just now, I saw the malevolent energy about to break through the barrier. At the very center of that black wave, there was a solid, persistent black shadow that looked like a real object, not a phantom. Something was very wrong. At the time, I thought it was just an illusion caused by the intense malevolent energy, but now I realize it wasn't at all."

"Can we still hold on?" Old Gu looked down at the ground and said softly, "Xiulian didn't enjoy any happiness with me. She was tortured for thirty years after her death, and now this strange thing has appeared at the bottom of the river." He repeated, "Can we hold on?" Ao Luya's face was solemn: "The aura of that black shadow was very unfamiliar, I couldn't say what it was, yet it was wrapped in an extremely heavy yin and evil aura. The two auras were intertwined, which was particularly contradictory. When the evil aura was suddenly withdrawn, the black shadow also disappeared. I thought my perception was wrong."

After a few words, everyone was completely certain that the dark figure was not an illusion, and the atmosphere became tense once again.

What exactly did Su Jin do at the bottom of the river? What exactly is that dark shadow hidden at the core of the malevolent energy?

Lin Jian's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately remembered the photos he had taken in his haste.

She quickly took out the photographic paper she had been carrying in her bosom. It had been kept close to her body to warm up, so the paper had already warmed up, but she hadn't had a chance to look at it.

Everyone's eyes immediately fell on her.

Lin Jian picked up the photograph and held it in her palm. Her breath hitched, and her fingertips froze instantly.

On the photographic paper, amidst the surging, thick, dark malevolent energy, a complete black stone is prominently displayed in the very center. The stone is entirely black, as if it has been soaked in malevolent energy for countless years. Its surface is uneven, yet it gleams with an eerie glow within the black waves. On the front of the stone, several strange, crooked yet strangely regular patterns are carved, completely out of place with the surrounding surging malevolent energy.

"Black Stone...it's a black stone!" Lin Jian's voice trembled uncontrollably as he suddenly raised his head. "The black shadow in the evil aura just now wasn't a black shadow, it was a black stone!" The moment his words fell, everyone gathered around, their eyes fixed on the photograph.

On the photographic paper, amidst the surging, thick, dark malevolent energy, a complete black stone is prominently displayed in the very center. The stone is entirely black, as if it has been soaked in malevolent energy for countless years. Its surface is uneven, yet it gleams with an eerie glow within the black waves. On the front of the stone, several strange, crooked yet strangely regular patterns are carved, completely out of place with the surrounding surging malevolent energy.

Shen Xun's fingertips trembled again. The black stone wasn't originally black. He didn't say anything.

Ao Luya remained silent. Her fingers had unconsciously tightened around the deer bone doll at her neck. The white deer let out a low, uneasy moan.

Lin Jian looked at their faces and gripped the photograph in his hand even tighter.