Passerby: Secret Image of Ancient Scrolls

Everyone immediately gathered around, their eyes all falling on the photograph. Even the white deer in the basket looked up.

Shen Xun bent down to look at the black stone on the photograph, his brows furrowing suddenly. He ran his fingertips over the strange patterns on the stone through the photograph, and his eyes instantly darkened.

He remembered the pattern clearly. When he first met Lin Jian, he showed him a photo in a snake-patterned wooden box in an old alley in Hangzhou. The stone tablet in the background of the photo had the exact same pattern.

This is the marker for Yin-Yang nodes.

Lin Jian also reacted at the same time, his heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly opened his backpack, took out the snake-patterned ebony box, opened the lid with trembling hands and took out the old photos left by his grandfather, and quickly placed them side by side with the photo paper on the folding table.

Under the warm yellow light, the textures in the two photos are clearly contrasted. The crooked yet strangely regular engravings on the black stone are exactly the same as the textures on the stone tablet in the old photo.

"It's this, it's exactly this!" Lin Jian's fingertip touched the pattern, his voice filled with barely suppressed shock. "This is the pattern carved on the stone tablet in the photo my grandfather left behind!"

Ao Luya immediately leaned closer, hovering her fingertips over the photograph and examining it carefully for a long time, her expression gradually becoming serious.

After a long pause, she spoke softly, her tone firm yet heavy: "I've heard Grandma mention that this is the protective array left behind by the first Great Shaman, the core evil-suppressing mark of our Evenki people."

She looked up at the crowd and continued, "We Evenki people have guarded this land for generations, protecting more than just the barrier at the bottom of the river. From the Heilongjiang River to the depths of the Greater Khingan Mountains, there are several such protective array points scattered throughout the mountains, forests, and rivers of Northeast China. Each and every stone tablet is an anchor point that anchors the boundary between Yin and Yang. If even one is missing, the entire Yin-Yang barrier will crack."

Ao Luya lightly tapped the blackened stone on the photograph paper with her fingertip, her tone becoming even more somber: "This array eye stone should be white, but now it's completely black, shrouded in malevolent energy. Its core has been thoroughly corrupted by evil spirits. Su Jin intends to destroy these protective array eyes one by one from the root."

As soon as these words were spoken, the sky fell silent, with only the crackling of the fire and the rustling of the wind and snow blowing through the tarpaulin outside.

Everyone knew what this meant.

The core of the formation at the bottom of the river has been eroded. Su Jin's conspiracy is far deeper than they imagined. His target has never been this river boundary, but the yin-yang barrier of the entire mortal realm.

Old Gu squatted by the stove, the soup ladle in his hand hovering in mid-air, his lips trembling slightly.

Thirty years ago, before Xiulian left, she said that she was going to the mountains to guard something very important, because if she couldn't guard it, the whole world would be in chaos.

At the time, he thought Xiulian was just making excuses to leave him, but now he understands that what she wanted to protect was the core of the protective array.

Only today did I truly understand what she said back then. My heart aches with bitterness and stagnation.

"Don't think about it too much for now." Old Gu took a deep breath to suppress the turmoil in his heart, picked up the soup ladle again, and served everyone a full bowl of mutton soup, sprinkling it with chopped green onions. "Drink the hot soup first and warm yourselves up by the fire. Whatever it is, we can discuss it slowly after we've eaten our fill and warmed up."

The piping hot mutton soup was served in bowls and handed to everyone. The tension and exhaustion brought on by the days of life-and-death battles gradually seeped up from the bones with this warmth.

The canopy is fixed to the side of the 2045 vehicle. With the addition of the side and front canopies, it has become an independent little world connected to the vehicle body. The wood-burning stove in the middle is burning brightly, and the warm yellow camping lights are hanging on the brackets, casting a gentle shadow on everyone.

The fire burned brighter and brighter, and the room grew warmer. The chill on everyone's bodies gradually dissipated. Lu Ye got up and pulled back the tarpaulin in front of the canopy, opening a half-person-wide entrance for ventilation.

Ao Luya also got up and walked to the nearby conical tent, opening the door of the fully enclosed protective gear. The door faced the entrance to the canopy, protecting the white deer from the wind and snow while allowing her to see it easily from inside. She and the white deer were of one mind; she felt uneasy if they were apart for even a moment. Even when eating together by the fire, she needed the deer within her sight to feel at ease.

The evening breeze, carrying the damp chill of the riverbank, was instantly enveloped by the warmth of the fireplace, making the air feel much fresher.

Outside the sky, Mohe was experiencing a frigid winter with temperatures below -30 degrees Celsius. Snow and ice shards swept across the open fields, while inside the sky, the air was filled with the aroma of meat, the warmth of a fireplace, and a rare sense of relaxation after days of tension.

Lu Ye first took the walkie-talkie to inquire about the team's situation. After confirming that everyone was alright, he rechecked the mountain-entry plan. His pen scratched across the notebook, marking the terrain risk points of Xishan Pass: "The north side of Xishan Pass has many hollow snow pockets. The ground looks solid, but underneath are hollow ice crevasses. Once you step in, it's hard to pull yourself out. The south side is a shady slope with many brittle icicles that can easily fall and hit people. The only supply point can be the ruins of the old forest ranger's cabin in the middle." After writing a few strokes, he would unconsciously look up at Ye Zhuo. When Ye Zhuo looked over, he would immediately look back and pretend to be looking at the drawings.

Ye Zhuo had already removed her tactical equipment, leaving only a self-defense dagger and a handheld device within easy reach. She sipped her hot soup, occasionally glancing at Bai Lu, who nodded slightly in response.

After Lu Ye finished explaining the terrain risks, Ye Zhuo looked up and added, "Although I haven't been through the Greater Khingan Mountains, the winters in the western Gobi Desert are just as harsh as here, so the experience in preventing hypothermia is applicable. Wear quick-drying clothing next to your skin, with a fleece lining to lock in warmth, and don't tie your outer down jacket too tightly, leaving some room for ventilation; when camping at night, you must avoid windy spots, and wrap an emergency blanket around your sleeping bag to reflect heat; if you encounter wild animals, don't panic. Wolves in the Gobi Desert and bears in the mountains have different habits, but they are both afraid of bright light and sudden loud noises, so carry a high-powered flashlight and signal flares with you at all times."

Lu Ye listened attentively, taking notes one by one, his eyes filled with undisguised admiration as he looked at her: "These experiences can be life-saving in critical moments. I'm only familiar with the terrain; when it comes to outdoor survival and dealing with wild animals, you have much more experience."

Lin Jian carefully put the photographic paper and old photos into the wooden box and stuffed them into his backpack.

She sipped the hot soup, her gaze sweeping over the crowd gathered around the fire, then back to the white deer in the bear-scale curtain, her heart softening.

From an ordinary girl driven to desperation by wandering ghosts in the old alleys of Hangzhou, to now standing on the riverbank, a barrier between life and death, able to find crucial clues for everyone with just a Polaroid camera, all in just two or three days.

The fear and anxiety that plagued her day and night seemed to have vanished in the warmth of the fire and the hot soup in the sky.

She sent two messages to Demon King Dong to let him know she was safe, and then put her phone away.

Occasionally, Aoluya would walk to the entrance of the conical tent, bend down and speak Evenki to the white deer inside, gently stroking its head through the armor plates with her fingertips.

The white deer gently rubbed against her fingertips, occasionally flicking its tail. Its bright black eyes warily scanned the wilderness outside, but relaxed when it sensed the presence of the people inside the canopy.

It is a spirit beast of the Greater Khingan Mountains, with a proud and wary nature. Apart from Aoluya, who has recognized its master, it rarely gets close to others. But these past few days, it has gone through life and death with everyone and has already recognized these companions who have stood shoulder to shoulder with it. At this moment, it rarely lets down its guard and stays quietly in the tuoluozi.

When a team member tried to feed it, Ao Luya smiled and waved her hand. She took out some dried moss from her backpack and handed it through the door. The white deer then obediently took it and chewed it slowly.

The team members that Lu Ye brought, although well-trained, had never encountered such a scene before, let alone seen such an intelligent white deer. They were all very curious, but could only watch from afar, their eyes full of novelty.

The two team members who were changing shifts came in from outside at this time, carrying a chill with them, and their hats and snow camouflage jackets were covered with a layer of white frost.

The two first stomped their feet at the door to brush off the snow before carefully approaching the stove to warm themselves, quietly listening to everyone talking.

"Miss Aoluya, if we may ask a question," the younger man among them, having recovered his composure, couldn't help but speak up, "When I was little, I heard stories from my elders about a river-suppressing stone in the river that once suppressed evil spirits that sprang from the riverbed. It's said that the area within hundreds of miles was badly ravaged by these evil spirits. The river-suppressing stone is the protective array you mentioned, the stone tablet that suppresses those filthy things, right?"

Upon hearing this, Ao Luya raised her eyes, her gaze sweeping over the neatly stored black stone photograph on the table before turning to the deep night outside the tent. The gentle smile on her lips gradually faded. This seemingly ordinary question, however, was like a pebble striking the secrets of guarding Yin and Yang.

Shen Xun, who had been sitting silently by the fire, paused for a moment as he gently stroked the gourd jade pendant with his fingertips.

Some truths about the core of the formation are only left as fragments in the Evenki tradition.

A wild beast, unable to contain itself in the darkness, was already at its wits' end.