Start with acting, and you'll achieve immortality!

"Not a single person will be left behind."

Li Ping pressed his five fingers against the spine of the book, firmly holding the pages in his palm. His gaze pierced through the layers of thin tubes, fixing on the red light pulsating on Fang Cheng's chest.

Another muffled thud came from the direction of the stone steps, and gravel fell from the crack in the door, indicating that the people outside had broken through the first layer of the mechanism.

Fang Cheng yanked his wrist, the chain scraping against the copper ring with a piercing screeching sound. The thin, dry skin tightened, and a trickle of dark blood seeped from beside his wrist bone.

"Then let's all die together."

"You've guarded this well for three years, and the exit has always been under the stone platform. If it really required a change of personnel to open it, you should have been trapped here to death long ago."

Fang Cheng's smile faltered halfway, then gradually flattened, and his knuckles tightened on the chain.

Ren Jun pressed down on the cracked soul seal with his other hand, taking two steps back to Li Ping's side. With each step, a drop of blood squeezed from between his fingers and fell onto the stone surface.

"You mean, replacing him is just a condition for him to escape, not a condition for opening the door?"

"The copper rings pinned him down, the thin tubes recognized him—he is now the master of the well array."

Li Ping pointed to the copper ring on Fang Cheng's right wrist.

"Copper rings pinned his body to the ground, and thin tubes connected to the array's core. Three years ago, Qin Bo sealed the well, and the well array recognized him. Changing personnel was his condition for leaving the stone platform, not our condition for leaving."

Qin Bo slowly turned his face away, his thumb pressing firmly against the chipped corner of the wooden plaque, his gaze moving from the brass ring on Fang Cheng's right wrist all the way to his chest.

How do we open the export route?

Fang Cheng's eyelids slowly closed, but the chain on his wrist trembled slightly, making a soft clanging sound.

Another loud bang came from outside the iron gate.

A thin needle pierced through the doorway and embedded itself firmly in the stone wall, a wisp of gray smoke trailing from its end, instantly intensifying the medicinal odor.

"Holding your breath"

Su Wan tore off a piece of her clothing and covered her mouth and nose. The red mark on her right shoulder was still climbing upwards, and her left hand, which was holding the sword, began to tremble.

Li Ping pinched the fire talisman between two fingers, ran his thumb along the corner of the talisman, and waited for a burst of red light before flicking it out through the crack in the door.

The talismanic flame burned against the iron gate, pushing the ashes back outside the peephole. Coughing sounds followed, and soon someone sealed the small hole with wet mud.

Just now, the talismanic fire could still engulf the entire crack in the door. But after sealing it with wet mud, the flames shrank to the size of a bean. Once it extinguishes, the medicinal smoke will return.

"What exactly is 'not returned'?" Li Ping looked at Fang Cheng. "Explain clearly, and I might find a way to keep things under wraps for you. I'll destroy the tube first."

Fang Cheng opened his eyes

"If you destroy just one, the well array will replace it with the one closest to you."

"Let's start with the furthest one."

Li Ping took out half of a cloud-patterned black nail and pressed it against a thin tube at the edge of the stone platform.

Fang Cheng stared at the black nail for a moment, then finally spoke.

"People can leave their original homes, but the furnace imprint will not disappear. The Jia-character furnace sieve has passed through the soul and left its mark. As long as the soul power does not return to the mother array, two words will be written on the tent every day: Not Returned."

Ren Jun raised his bleeding forearm

"I've traveled all over Jiangbei over the years, and the furnace seal has never flared up. If it has always been there, why tonight of all night?"

"It's not that the furnace seal is malfunctioning; it's that the main array hasn't been fully activated. The well array, medicine furnace, and mine eye can only be used to pull nearby objects. But you brought the armor record to the array eye, which is equivalent to taking the general ledger and calling roll for the main array."

Li Ping turned his gaze to Su Wan.

The red lines below her neck were pulsating, at the same frequency as the red light emanating from Fang Cheng's chest.

"What happens after the main array is activated?"

"Once the Mother Formation is activated, there's no escaping it even if you leave Jiangning."

Fang Cheng stuck out his tongue and licked his chapped lips.

"As long as one remains within the area covered by the twelve outer edges, their soul power will flow back along the furnace seal. The higher one's cultivation level, the more fiercely the formation will extract power. First, one's spiritual power will become chaotic, then one's mind will be damaged, and finally, only a shell that obeys the formation will remain."

Ren Jun's chest heaved more and more rapidly, and blood seeped from between his fingers as he pressed his forearm.

"Who else is on the list?"

"It's you, Su Wan, and Pei Xing."

Su Wan raised her head

"Senior Brother Pei has never been to the old dormitory."

"Just because you haven't been inside the old house doesn't mean you haven't encountered the furnace formation. Which of the introductory medicines, jade talismans, and cultivation techniques Chen Boyong gave you can't be used to plant seals?"

Qin Bo lowered his voice and said sharply, "If you only wanted to plant the furnace seal, why use the soul-stabilizing medicine to suppress it before saving people?"

"Suppress it, or let it grow?"

Fang Cheng turned to stare at him, his eyelids lowered slightly, and the last trace of a smile in his pupils vanished completely.

Qin Bo suddenly clenched his fists, the chipped corner of the wooden plaque digging into his palm. He stared at Fang Cheng for a moment, then swallowed his words.

Li Ping firmly suppressed this confession in his heart. Suppressing the furnace seal and maintaining it were, for now, merely explanations; without other corroborating evidence, no one could definitively conclude the facts.

The sound of metal scraping could be heard outside the door; the pursuers were dismantling the door hinges, and the left side of the iron door had already bulged inward.

"Exit," Li Ping pressed the black nail against the thin tube again. "Open it now."

"If I open the door and you all leave, who will protect me from the people outside?"

"If you don't open the door, you'll be the first person they take away after they come in."

"Can I afford to wait for you?"

"Wait until the Si family finds you a more obedient master?"

Fang Cheng's wrist stiffened

Li Ping noticed this movement and immediately turned his gaze to Qin Bo.

"Use the wooden plaque to untangle one link."

Ren Jun frowned

"If all four ring roads are opened, they'll change the driver. You still dare to let Uncle Qin move the wooden sign?"

"Open only one ring. The stone platform needs to be guarded by a living person. The exit only needs the master to give the order. If he refuses to do anything, we'll give him a hand."

Qin Bo walked around the drooping thin tube and stopped half a step in front of the stone platform. He glanced at Fang Cheng's right wrist before pinching both ends of the wooden plaque and slowly inserting the chipped corner into the groove of the copper ring.

Fang Cheng said coldly, "Once this link is opened, the price won't just fall on me."

"Let's make this clear first, who will bear the consequences?"

"The general ledger will follow this line to find the people, and every time the exit is opened, the furnace imprints of all those who have not returned will awaken once."

Su Wan leaned against the door frame, her face already pale.

"If we don't open it, we'll die here. If we do, at least we can get out and find a way to break the seal."

Ren Jun pressed down on the red line on his arm

"Open this link."

Qin Bo gripped the wooden plaque tightly. He first tried turning it slightly to the left, but the copper ring didn't respond. He then changed direction and twisted it inch by inch to the right.

The copper ring made a crisp sound, Fang Cheng's right hand detached from the stone platform, and dozens of thin tubes lit up simultaneously, the names on the well wall emitting a series of red lights.

Fang Cheng raised his hand, his fingers frozen in mid-air for a long time. He hadn't moved this arm for three years; only a thin layer of skin remained.

Li Ping didn't urge him, the black nail remained firmly pressed against the thin tube.

"Press the third brick on the left side of the stone platform, and I'll open the door."

Ren Jun bent down and touched a gray-white square brick. As soon as his palm pressed down, the red thread on his arm wrapped around the brick surface.

Fang Cheng pressed his right hand against his chest.

"Jing San, open the door."

The sound of chains rolling came from inside the stone platform.

A square crack appeared in the ground, and a cold wind rushed out from below. There was no waterway, only a narrow, sloping staircase leading downwards. The top of the staircase glowed with a dark red light, and the walls were engraved with thin lines extending to all parts of Jiangning.

An angry shout came from outside the iron gate. The bulging door panel cracked open, and the tip of a knife probed into the stone chamber, cutting back and forth along the bolt.

Qin Bo grabbed the wooden sign from the ground and was the first to step onto the narrow stairs.

"The lower gate can only hold up for the time it takes to burn an incense stick—or is it Fang Cheng who changed his mind, and the gate closes immediately."

Li Ping didn't follow immediately.

"Senior Brother Ren, go first. If Qin Boruo touches the hidden compartment in the middle of Su Wanju, cut off his hand."

Su Wan used the sword in her hand to support her body, lifted her foot and stepped down the stone steps.

"You're letting us go first, but you're not leaving yourself?"

"If he's willing to let me die, then close the door while the general ledger is in my hands."

Fang Cheng stared at Li Ping, his withered fingers slowly retracting from the stone platform.

"Chen Boyong uses his disciples as keys, while you use those who haven't returned as bargaining chips. What's the difference between you two?"

"A chip isn't a sacrifice; at the very least, it should know its own worth."

Of the battle lines on the well wall, three have already lit up.

One path leads to Ren Jun, another to Su Wan, and the third crosses the well wall, pointing towards the south of the city.

Two characters were visible at the end of the thin line.

裴行

Su Wan stared at that name

"It was Senior Brother Pei who awakened his furnace seal as well."

"The quantity is not limited to these."

Fang Cheng's right hand hung down by the edge of the stone platform, his withered fingers scraping along the edge of the stone again and again. Only on the third scrape did the corners of his mouth slowly twitch upwards.

Below the narrow staircase, a black book bound with red thread is rising from a hidden compartment.

"The Records of the Dead are only recorded in the Book of Documents."

Fang Cheng turned his gaze to the book in Li Ping's hand.

"This book records those who are not yet dead." The rolled-up black book stopped above the hidden compartment, the red threads binding the pages tightening one by one, emitting a faint tinkling sound.