Start with acting, and you'll achieve immortality!

It felt like a piece of red-hot iron was pressing on my chest; the burning pain drilled into my meridians, twisting inch by inch towards my dantian.

Li Ping braced himself firmly against the stone wall with one hand, his fingertips scraping off a layer of damp, cold lime. The spiritual energy within his dantian was now out of control, circulating faster and faster along his meridians, soon approaching twice its usual rate. Each time a cycle was completed, the spiritual book hidden inside his outer robe would vibrate.

"Don't use your internal energy."

Qin Bo turned around and looked at him

"I didn't circulate my inner energy; it was the system that urged the spiritual power to flow."

Li Ping gripped the corner of his outer robe, pulled half of the booklet out from inside, then wrapped his fingers tightly with the fabric before carefully turning back the last page.

The words "Li Ping, Mountain Twelve, Earthly Origin, Not Yet Returned" deepened, the ink seeping into the paper's texture, fine as hair, creeping one after another towards the edge of the page, finally pinning his left hand, pressed against the stone wall, to the surface.

Su Wan raised the fire talisman

The firelight spread along the wall, first illuminating the original three battle lines. Between these lines, a thin, earth-yellow line emerged from beneath Li Ping's palm, creeping along the crack in the stone towards the depths of the narrow staircase; its other end disappeared into the wall, pointing straight towards the southwest.

Wanzhong Mountain is located in the southwest of Jiangning.

Ren Jun sat down with his back against the stone wall, biting one end of the cloth strip with his teeth. He tightened the strip with one hand, just enough to stop the tear in the soul seal, and dark red blood seeped out again from the edge.

"Xiyun Abandoned Mine is Mountain Twelve."

Li Ping did not answer.

One by one, Li Ping's five fingers left the stone wall. Only when his palm was completely suspended in the air did the yellow line on the wall slowly dim, and the spiritual energy in his dantian also slowed down slightly. However, the burning pain in his chest remained, burning dully against his meridians.

"If the black nails don't seal it, then pull them out again," Uncle Qin said, extending his hand. "I can temporarily seal this line."

Su Wan stood between the two with her sword drawn.

"Put your hand back."

Uncle Qin's gaze was fixed on her bleeding right shoulder.

"If we delay any longer, the earth's veins will drain him along this line."

"Before you identified the person in the birth register, you also said it should be burned," Li Ping said, taking out the black nail. "First, explain clearly how this line identifies people, and how the black nail is sealed."

"The Earthly Element Technique uses external branches to cultivate one's spiritual power and also helps them find their way. It remembers the cultivator's meridians and then collects spiritual power along the original path once the main array is activated."

"Is it only spiritual energy that's being taken away, or is life also taken into account?"

Qin Bo did not respond.

Li Ping pressed the nail tip close to his chest.

The nail tip was still half an inch from his clothes when the spiritual energy in his dantian suddenly surged into his chest. Li Ping's meridians tensed, and the half-hidden cloud pattern on the nail lit up. The yellow line on the wall seemed to have taken a big bite, suddenly thickening by a circle.

This nail can suppress the Book of Life, but when it encounters the Earthly Seal, it transforms into an object that guides the way.

Li Ping immediately stopped.

"Do you want to seal the line, or do you want it to pull out faster?"

Ren Jun, supporting himself with the bronze shield, rose to his feet, blocking Qin Bo's retreat.

Qin Bo's face turned extremely ugly.

"I only used it to open the Well Ring Earth Seal; I never touched it."

"Then avoid things you don't understand."

thud

A dull thud came down from above the long staircase, causing the stone steps to tremble slightly. Dust and dirt from the cracks in the ceiling fell down, hitting everyone's shoulders.

The pursuers were still banging on the door; they wanted to force Fang Cheng to open it again.

Su Wan looked back at the road she had come from.

"If Fang Cheng can't hold on, how long can that door stay closed?"

"Let's see if those people want to be spared, or if they want to replace them with a new well owner."

Qin Bo grasped the dark red wooden plaque and walked down first.

"If you want to go out, just walk down the drain at the end of the gate and follow it eastward; you'll reach the outside of the abandoned dyehouse."

"You've been here before?" Ren Jun asked.

"When this well was sealed off three years ago, I walked out along that canal."

"You've already taken this route of retreat, why wait until now to say it?"

"If I was able to get to where I am today three years ago, I wouldn't dare use it as a fallback plan."

The sound of water came from the end of the narrow staircase, mixed with the clatter of rolling stones.

Li Ping neatly stacked the armor book and the life record book, separating them and then wrapped them back inside the lining of his outer robe, pressing them tightly against the collar. He then carefully checked them with his palm, making sure not a single corner of the book was sticking out.

"Get out of the way first, don't wait for them to break the door down."

The four continued down the narrow staircase. Su Wan walked ahead of Li Ping, her right arm hanging stiffly at her side, holding the fire talisman only in her left hand. With each step she took, her right shoulder slumped slightly, and the bloodstains on her clothes stained a ring.

Li Ping followed for a few steps, and his chest burned again.

The yellow lines inside the wall are constantly drawing away the earth's spiritual energy.

He didn't forcefully suppress his Qi Sea; instead, he forced out a wisp of spiritual energy from his fingertips. The yellow thread adhered to it and swallowed it, and a small, faint light immediately appeared inside the wall. The light circled around the bottom of the stone steps, then transformed into a chill, seeping back into his Qi Sea from the soles of his feet.

Less than 30% of the returning spiritual energy remained, sinking like a handful of wet sand, clinging to the meridians and falling into the dantian.

Li Ping stopped.

"This is not a line that draws spiritual energy in only one direction."

Ren Jun turned around

"What else did it send back?"

"The outer branches not only receive spiritual energy, but also send earth energy back."

Li Ping then squeezed out a wisp of spiritual energy from his fingertips and sent it into the yellow line in the wall.

The yellow light had barely appeared when the stone steps beneath their feet trembled slightly. The cold earth energy opened up the meridians in their feet, guiding the energy upwards inch by inch along the predetermined path, circulating completely within their dantian before stopping.

This time, the ink on the student record book did not darken.

"It uses the earth's energy from the outer branches to nourish people, and then uses the meridians of practitioners to nourish their path."

Li Ping pointed to the yellow line with his finger.

"The more earth energy you borrow on a regular basis, the tighter your meridians and battle lines will mesh. When the main formation starts to collect its debts, the cultivators will have to return everything, including the principal and interest."

Qin Bo turned around

"Therefore, it is a poisonous martial art."

Not entirely.

Li Ping's gaze fell on the stone steps beneath his feet.

The earthy spiritual energy surging beneath his feet reminded him of that night in the abandoned mine and ruined array—it was the same earth energy that had opened the door to his cultivation and saved his life in a deadly predicament. The memory flashed by, and his gaze returned to the yellow lines on the wall. The cultivation technique itself could draw upon the earth's veins, but someone had removed the part that severed the array lines and reconnected the cultivation route to the twelfth mountain.

The bait was real, and the hook was real too.

"The poisoner is afraid the prey won't take the bait, so he's willing to give them a reward."

Ren Jun reached out and tugged at the blood-stained cloth.

"Can it be broken?"

"First, find the missing section."

Li Ping opened the armor book.

The "Jing San" below Fang Cheng's name had turned black, and a tiny dot had appeared next to it. This dot flickered, indicating that the owner of the well formation was still alive.

The last page of the student register has a new change.

Below the characters “地元”, there is a line of light-colored small characters.

"Borrowing nine, returning to one."

Upon seeing this, Qin Bo's Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

Su Wan's sword immediately moved towards him.

Have you seen these four words before?

"There was no Earthly Furnace in the old house; I only saw it in a supplementary book."

"Whose booklet is this?"

Qin Bo dodged the sword's edge, his gaze falling on the bottom of the narrow staircase.

"Lord Chen"

Ren Jun's face turned pale

Li Ping closed the birth booklet.

"He said the booklet was kept by Chen Boyong, but that doesn't mean the cultivation method was put into the abandoned mine by Chen Boyong and then reconciled later."

The sound of water getting closer and closer

At the end of the narrow staircase lay a stone channel about waist-high. The firelight peered forward, first illuminating knee-deep black water, then sweeping across the rubble blocking the eastern exit; water was still pouring into the western opening, the sound of water sloshing back and forth against the low stone roof.

Uncle Qin squatted down and reached out to touch the pebbles on the ground.

"Newly collapsed"

Li Ping lowered the fire talisman, first shining it on the fresh, broken surface of the pile of stones, then probing the flame into the cracks between the rubble. A corner of black cloth was caught in the crack, its edges frayed from being torn by the stones, and beads of blood were slowly dripping down the fabric.

If it were an old collapse, the stone surface should have been covered in dust long ago, and the blood on the cloth wouldn't still be dripping. This place was only recently blown open, and after the other side passed through the East Canal, they personally sealed off the way back.

Another impact sounded from above, this time even closer.

A buzzing sound emanated from beneath the stone gate, layer by layer.

The battle lines on the wall lit up one by one, and the dot next to Fang Cheng's name on the armor plate suddenly tightened, leaving only a tiny, dim light.

Ren Jun raised his shield

"Should we dig up the pile of stones?"

Too late

Li Ping looked at the water inlet on the west side, then glanced at the yellow line in the wall.

The yellow line turns away from the gravel on the east side without stopping for a moment.

The firelight followed it westward, and the sliver of yellow light disappeared into the black water, meandering along the bottom of the canal until it stretched into a depth unseen by the firelight.

Li Ping stuffed the armor back into his clothes and stepped into the water first.

"Following the Mountain Twelve"

Duke Qin blocked the canal entrance

"The west side leads to the heart of the well formation; getting in is easy, but there's no way back."

The Earthly Seal on Li Ping's chest heated up again, and the yellow line underwater lit up, reflecting a series of footprints on the bottom of the canal.

The footprints were very fresh.

Someone had gotten ahead of them and had already entered along the line of the Twelfth Mountain.

Li Ping stared intently at the end of the footprints.

"Just right"

"He blew up the East Canal, but he didn't erase the footprints here," Li Ping said, walking along the yellow line into the depths of the canal. "This path seems to have been left for us on purpose."