069 The Ancient Laboratory

But even with a cheat, he couldn’t solve the problem of food. Xiunan had felt hunger in his body for a long time, and now that hunger was growing more intense. It hadn’t yet driven him to madness, but it was making him increasingly weak.

He walked along the narrow, circular corridor, surrounded by nothing but hazy darkness and the faint green glow of moss. The walls of the passage were incredibly sturdy, their surface a layer of rough, uneven black stone, but beneath that, the interior was made of smooth, delicate white bone. Even if Bai Mu, evolved to his very limits, struck it with all his might, he couldn’t make a dent.

So the idea of breaking through by force or blasting open a path was simply out of the question. All Xiunan could do was follow the corridor, hoping that he would eventually find an exit around some bend.

Tap, tap, tap...

His boots struck the uneven ground. Suddenly, Xiunan stopped. He realized something was odd about the light ahead—it wasn’t the pale green glow of moss, but a misty blue shimmer, rippling like water.

“Is that light? Or some kind of tiny insect?”

He wasn’t sure; in this cursed place, anything was possible. When he’d first been hunted here, he’d come across a field of dandelions, only to discover they were all poisonous insects.

He hesitated a moment, then summoned his runes. Bai Mu moved forward cautiously. When they were about five or six meters away, Bai Mu suddenly spread his wings and beat them powerfully. Although his wingspan wasn’t as great as when he’d been four meters tall, the gusts he raised were even stronger. The surging air swept over the blue light, but it didn’t disturb it in the slightest.

“So it’s not insects. It should be safe…”

Xiunan stepped forward, but left Bai Mu by his side, standing in the gap between Bai Mu and the rock wall. If anything happened, Bai Mu could shield him from attack, giving him time to enter a meditative state.

As he passed through the blue light, Xiunan was tempted to hurry, but one glance around the bend showed him a whole field of blue luminescence. The light was strange, spreading in the air in undulating ripples, like the surface of water. Xiunan walked through it without incident.

He let out a breath of relief and noticed the corridor ahead sloped upward—an incline. He climbed the slope, rounded a corner, and the space suddenly opened up.

He stood at the threshold of a vast, black hall suffused with blue light, the intensity much greater than in the corridor.

Perhaps this was the source of the blue glow?

Xiunan advanced warily. The hall was immense, the arched ceiling seemingly etched with murals, though it was too high to make out clearly. All around, ten humanoid statues lined the four walls, representing men and women, young and old. Each statue had a different posture and expression, but they all knelt on one knee, right hand crossed over the chest, palm resting on the left shoulder. It looked like a gesture of deep respect.

Following their gaze, Xiunan looked to the center of the hall, where a shattered white statue lay, its form unrecognizable, with only a circular ring before it remaining largely intact.

As he approached, Xiunan realized the ring was floating in midair, slowly revolving. Closer inspection showed it wasn’t unscathed—there was a thin crack running almost all the way around, with fine lines branching out from the fissure.

Curious, Xiunan reached out to touch it.

No sooner had his fingers brushed the ring than the whole hall began to tremble, a deep rumbling echoing from within the walls as dust rained down. For a moment, it seemed as if the hall would collapse, burying him alive.

Two seconds later, the shaking stopped. Having already retreated to the doorway in a meditative sprint, Xiunan turned back.

“It seems to be fine?”

He paused, hesitated, then returned. The dust-laden air was thick and choking. Xiunan glanced warily at the ring and then around the hall.

Immediately, he noticed something had changed.

The previously sealed walls now had three open passages, the stone collapsed and piled at their entrances. It didn’t look like a hidden mechanism, but rather that the quake had caused the collapse, revealing the tunnels.

Xiunan searched the hall again, finding nothing, and chose the rightmost passage. The air inside was foul, a strange smell mixed with choking dust.

After about ten minutes, Xiunan began to regret his choice. The blue light ahead was growing denser—was this the very source of the glow?

He peered around a corner and instantly froze.

He’d come upon a spacious room with a half-shattered, half-closed door, revealing all manner of experimental apparatus inside, some still humming with activity.

After making sure there was no immediate danger, Xiunan slipped through the gap and into the room.

He was awestruck by what he saw.

This was a laboratory—an ancient Rune Master's laboratory! Xiunan pulled a bone pendant from his chest and, comparing it to the equipment, examined his surroundings.

On the far right stood a massive table, something like a billiard table but many times larger, made of dark, matte metal. The surface was covered in an incredibly complex web of white circuits, a tangled mass of irregular, seemingly meaningless symbols, numbers, and lines.

Xiunan’s eyes blurred at the sight—this was a rune workshop, a very advanced one.

At one corner of the workshop stood a vertical metal pillar. Transparent threads stretched from the pillar and across the table, forming a precise grid. Within this grid, an incomplete model floated in midair, absolutely still.

Xiunan noticed a spot at the edge of the workshop’s surface where one could press a hand. Nearby hung a string of tools: engraving pens, modification spheres, and more.

He walked around to the spot, guessing it was used to control the circuits. Xiunan pressed down experimentally and immediately felt himself connected to thousands of circuits, his mind filled with dazzling patterns and their functions: engraving modifications, three-dimensional carving, side drafting…

“Hm?!”

Xiunan’s eyes flew open. He stared at his burning right palm—astonished, for the incomplete model that had been floating amidst the grid had fused into his hand like a tattoo!

“What is this…”