Chapter 15: The Records of Yunhai
The road to the Western Region stretched across a vast expanse of mountains, narrow valleys, and settlements that had prospered for generations through trade between cultivators.
Before the Convergence, this route had been known for transporting Gu refinement materials, spiritual herbs, and minerals extracted from the depths of the mountains. Merchant caravans traveled along its winding roads, carrying goods between remote settlements and the larger cities that controlled the region's trade.
Those days had not entirely disappeared.
But the road had changed.
Entire caravans now avoided certain stretches, while groups of cultivators ventured into newly altered territories in search of opportunities created by the changing laws of the world. Some hoped to discover rare resources. Others hunted for ancient ruins, unstable spiritual materials, or techniques that had become more valuable after the Convergence.
And a few were simply desperate enough to risk their lives for anything that might improve their chances of survival.
Han Feng had encountered all three types during his journey.
He had learned to observe them without becoming involved.
That afternoon, he spotted another caravan moving along the mountain road.
Six wagons traveled in a loose formation, protected by slightly more than a dozen guards. Their banners belonged to a small commercial association, and the defensive formation surrounding the vehicles suggested that its members understood the dangers of the region.
At first glance, there was nothing unusual about them.
Then Han Feng noticed the final wagon.
The spiritual energy concentrated around it fluctuated at regular intervals.
The changes were subtle, almost too faint to notice without deliberately examining the surrounding energy currents. Yet they followed a consistent rhythm, rising and falling at intervals that were too precise to be entirely natural.
Han Feng slowed his pace.
No cultivator stood near the wagon, and none of the guards appeared to be operating a technique.
The fluctuation could have come from a defective artifact, an unstable spiritual material, or residual energy left behind by the Convergence.
However, its rhythm reminded him of something he had observed near the underground structures.
He studied the wagon for several breaths.
Then he looked away.
He had made a decision after the incident at the abandoned observation post: he would no longer investigate every anomaly simply because it attracted his attention.
Curiosity was useful.
Uncontrolled curiosity was expensive.
His objective was to reach Yunhai, locate the historical records, and understand why structures resembling the underground door existed in different regions.
Interfering with an unfamiliar caravan would add another uncertainty to a journey that already contained too many.
Han Feng left the main road and followed a narrow trail around the group.
He did not look back.
Behind him, the caravan continued toward the mountains, carrying whatever secrets lay inside its final wagon.
For now, those secrets were not his concern.
By late afternoon, Han Feng reached a settlement built beside an old riverbed.
The river itself had narrowed considerably, leaving broad stretches of exposed stone along its banks. Despite that, the settlement remained lively. Merchants argued over prices, cultivators exchanged materials, and small groups gathered around public notice boards where warnings about dangerous territories were posted each day.
Han Feng entered without attracting attention.
The first thing he noticed was how openly people discussed the changes brought by the Convergence.
Before the worlds had begun to overlap, cultivators generally guarded information about their techniques, resources, and discoveries. Such knowledge was an advantage, and revealing it carelessly could invite competition.
Now, uncertainty had changed the market.
Rumors about unstable energy zones circulated beside reports of newly discovered ruins. Travelers sold sketches of unfamiliar formations. Merchants offered maps of dangerous routes, while independent cultivators competed to acquire materials whose properties had yet to be fully understood.
Some of the information was probably worthless.
Some was deliberately false.
But the demand for knowledge had grown faster than the ability to verify it.
Where uncertainty became valuable, people quickly learned to sell it.
Han Feng approached the settlement's main notice board.
Most of the documents concerned ordinary matters: escort contracts, missing shipments, requests for rare medicinal herbs, and rewards for recovering materials from dangerous regions.
One notice, however, carried the insignia of the Regional Council.
It offered a substantial payment for information concerning three missing employees from a mountain research facility.
Han Feng read the document carefully.
The wording was remarkably restrained.
According to the notice, the three individuals had abandoned their assigned positions without authorization. Their identities were listed, along with brief descriptions and the date they had disappeared.
There was no mention of the underground installation.
Nothing about the pale stone door.
Nothing about the experiments involving spiritual energy and primordial essence.
The Council had reduced the incident to a matter of missing personnel.
Han Feng's expression remained unchanged.
The intention was obvious enough.
Find the missing employees without revealing what had happened at the facility.
The reward was generous enough to attract mercenaries, independent cultivators, and anyone who believed the missing workers might be carrying valuable information.
Han Feng stepped away from the board.
The three employees should already have traveled some distance from the installation. Yet the appearance of the notice meant their advantage was shrinking.
If the Council found them first, it could recover whatever information they possessed through interrogation—or force them to participate in another experiment.
Han Feng had no intention of becoming responsible for three strangers.
He barely knew whether they were trustworthy.
But he could not ignore the consequences of allowing the knowledge to return to the hands of people who continued trying to open the structure.
He had already seen what happened when two cultivation systems were forced into an unknown mechanism.
The resulting disturbance had not remained confined to the underground chamber.
Whatever the door represented, another attempt could have consequences far beyond the facility itself.
Han Feng turned away from the notice board.
He needed more information before deciding whether the missing employees mattered to his own investigation.
And he knew where information was most likely to surface.
Not in official reports.
In ordinary conversations.
The tea house stood near the settlement's eastern gate, squeezed between a shop selling spiritual paper and a workshop that repaired damaged cultivation instruments.
Its interior was crowded, but the noise worked in Han Feng's favor.
He selected a table beside the window, ordered an inexpensive tea, and listened.
For a while, the conversations concerned ordinary business. A merchant complained about rising transportation costs. Two cultivators argued over the authenticity of a medicinal herb. Someone at the neighboring table was trying to sell a map that supposedly revealed a newly discovered spiritual vein.
Then a man with a short beard mentioned the Regional Council.
"I heard they lost another team in the mountains."
His companion looked up.
"Another one? I thought that problem had been dealt with after the last incident."
"Dealt with?" The bearded man snorted. "They simply stopped talking about it."
He lowered his voice.
"My association received an offer to transport equipment to a facility near Broken Bridge. The payment was far too high for an ordinary delivery, and the employer insisted that nobody ask what was inside the crates."
"Did you accept?"
"Of course not."
The man took a drink before continuing.
"One of the transporters who accepted the job disappeared last week."
His companion frowned.
"Maybe he ran off with the payment."
"Perhaps. But his companions said he never collected the final installment. And the people who hired them haven't returned to settle the account."
Han Feng lifted his cup.
The information was incomplete, but it added another piece to the picture.
The operation surrounding the underground facility required more resources than he had initially assumed.
Equipment had to be transported. Researchers had to be recruited or retained. The installation needed maintenance, supplies, and people willing to work in a region where ordinary instruments sometimes failed to produce reliable readings.
The door was not the result of a few reckless cultivators experimenting in an abandoned chamber.
Someone had invested considerable time and resources in studying the phenomenon.
And someone was prepared to spend more.
"Maybe they were transporting materials for one of those new formations," another customer suggested.
The bearded man shook his head.
"Then why forbid the transporters from asking questions?"
"Because employers don't like nosy workers."
A few people laughed.
The conversation might have ended there, but a third customer leaned forward.
"I heard they discovered ancient inscriptions in an old supply station. Supposedly, the markings were carved before the Convergence."
The bearded man laughed again.
"People will invent anything to sell maps and pieces of stone."
"Maybe. But I know someone who worked in archaeological surveys. He said the symbols didn't belong to any cultivation tradition he recognized."
Han Feng's fingers paused against the side of his cup.
An old supply station.
Ancient inscriptions.
He listened more carefully.
Unfortunately, the conversation produced no additional details. The customers soon returned to discussing transport fees, rare materials, and the growing number of dangerous routes.
Han Feng finished his tea and left.
The reference to the supply station might have been nothing more than a rumor inspired by recent events. Still, the mention of inscriptions predating the Convergence strengthened his decision to investigate Yunhai's archives.
He needed original records.
Not another collection of secondhand stories.
If the structures existed before the worlds began to overlap, then their recent activity could not be explained simply by the arrival of unfamiliar spiritual energy.
Something else had changed.
He intended to discover what.
Han Feng left the settlement before sunrise the following morning.
The main road led directly toward the Western Region, but it was also the route most frequently used by merchants and Council agents. He chose a less traveled path through a stretch of low hills where vegetation grew between exposed rock formations.
The journey proceeded without incident for several hours.
Near midday, however, he noticed a gradual change in the distribution of spiritual energy.
The difference was subtle.
Energy became denser around certain points and weaker around others, as though invisible currents were moving beneath the terrain in conflicting directions.
Han Feng stopped beside a formation of weathered rocks.
Nothing about the surroundings suggested an artificial formation. The stones showed ordinary signs of erosion, and the vegetation grew without any obvious pattern.
Yet the spiritual currents seemed to bend around a particular point.
He studied it from a distance.
Then he released a tiny amount of primordial essence toward the location.
The energy traveled several meters before disappearing.
Han Feng waited.
He repeated the experiment with an even smaller amount.
The result was identical.
His expression grew serious.
He collected the remaining essence and examined the terrain for several more breaths.
The disappearance resembled the phenomenon recorded at the underground door. But there was an important difference.
Here, the anomaly did not appear to be connected to any visible physical mechanism.
There was no door.
No inscription.
No trace of a constructed formation.
Only a point where spiritual energy ceased producing the effects he expected.
Han Feng crouched and picked up a pebble.
He tossed it toward the suspected location.
The stone crossed the area and landed on the other side.
Nothing unusual happened.
He repeated the test, this time coating the pebble with a faint trace of primordial essence.
The energy vanished at the same point.
The pebble continued forward.
Han Feng watched it settle among the rocks.
So the anomaly did not necessarily obstruct physical matter. It interfered with the energy attached to it.
That was useful to know, but it did not tell him what the phenomenon actually was.
He considered approaching the point more closely.
Then dismissed the idea.
He had no reliable way to measure the effect, and he did not know whether repeated contact might produce a stronger reaction.
The sensible choice was to record the location and continue.
Han Feng memorized the surrounding landmarks and the approximate direction of the anomaly.
If he encountered similar phenomena elsewhere, he could compare their behavior.
Until then, any theory would be premature.
He resumed his journey.
Yunhai remained his priority.
By dusk, Han Feng reached a wider road paved with ancient stone.
The path led toward a sizable city surrounded by low defensive walls and observation towers. Commercial banners fluttered above the gates, and the steady flow of cultivators suggested that the city had retained its economic importance despite the dangers spreading throughout the region.
Above the main entrance, three characters were carved into a weathered plaque.
Yunhai.
Han Feng passed through the gates without difficulty.
The atmosphere inside the city differed sharply from that of the smaller settlements along the road.
The Convergence had visibly transformed Yunhai's economy.
Specialized shops sold instruments designed to measure spiritual fluctuations. Workshops accepted commissions for containers reinforced against unstable energy. Auction houses advertised materials recovered from territories where the laws of cultivation had changed.
Some merchants even offered to purchase records of unusual phenomena.
Knowledge of the anomalies had become a commodity.
And wherever knowledge could be sold, someone was willing to pay for it.
Han Feng kept his pace unhurried as he surveyed the streets.
He did not ask strangers about ancient doors or underground installations. Such questions could easily attract the attention of people who were already searching for similar things.
Instead, he found an inconspicuous inn, paid for a room in advance, and left his belongings there.
Only then did he head toward the older district.
The original Yunhai supply station had been absorbed into the expanding city many years earlier. Most of its buildings no longer existed, but the municipal archives retained documents concerning the old trade routes and abandoned structures uncovered during construction projects.
Access would not necessarily be easy.
Historical records were one thing.
Documents connected to unexplained phenomena were another.
Han Feng arrived at the administrative building shortly before the offices closed.
A gray-haired clerk listened to his request with an expression of practiced indifference.
"Records from before the Convergence?" the man repeated. "We have thousands of documents from that period. You'll need to be more specific."
"I'm looking for reports concerning an old supply station and underground structures discovered during expansion work."
The clerk raised his eyes.
It was a small reaction, but Han Feng noticed it immediately.
"Why are you looking for those?"
"Historical research."
"What kind?"
"The kind that requires old documents."
The clerk stared at him for a moment.
Han Feng returned his gaze without hostility.
He had no intention of explaining his entire investigation to a stranger, especially one who had already shown an unusual interest in the subject.
Eventually, the clerk picked up a wooden tablet and wrote down several details.
"Wait here. I'll check whether those records are available."
He handed the tablet to an assistant, who disappeared through a side door.
Han Feng remained near the counter.
He observed the room while he waited.
The building contained no particularly powerful defensive formations, but the pillars bore inscriptions associated with containment techniques. Small detection instruments had been installed near the windows, and the storage doors were reinforced with thin metal plates.
Yunhai took its archives seriously.
That made sense.
In the current climate, an old document could be worth more than a shipment of spiritual herbs.
Several minutes later, the assistant returned with a middle-aged woman wearing a dark blue robe. She carried a bundle of documents secured with a cord and studied Han Feng with cautious interest.
"I'm Qin Yue, responsible for the historical records section," she said. "The clerk tells me you're searching for reports about ancient underground structures."
"That's correct."
"Those documents were restricted three years ago."
Han Feng kept his expression neutral.
"Why?"
Qin Yue glanced at the clerk before answering.
"Certain inscriptions began producing unexplained reactions in nearby instruments. We separated the relevant records from the general archive while the matter was investigated."
"Did the inscriptions change physically?"
"No. The characters remained exactly as they were. The instruments were what changed."
She opened one of the documents and showed him a page filled with technical notes.
"At first, we assumed the materials had been contaminated by unstable spiritual energy. But the phenomenon occurred only near particular records. We couldn't establish a satisfactory explanation, so access was restricted."
Han Feng examined the page without touching it.
The notes described dates, instrument readings, and minor irregularities recorded during several examinations. The fluctuations were weaker than those he had observed at the underground installation, but their pattern was familiar.
A reading would remain stable, then fall abruptly.
The instrument would register nothing for a brief interval.
Afterward, the readings would return to normal, sometimes with small differences from the original measurements.
The similarity was difficult to ignore.
"May I examine the documents?" Han Feng asked.
Qin Yue hesitated.
"I need to know who authorized your research."
"No one."
"Then I can't give you unrestricted access."
Her answer was reasonable. The archives belonged to the city, and she had no reason to trust a wandering cultivator who had arrived without credentials.
Han Feng did not pressure her.
"I don't need to remove anything from the archive. I only want to examine the inscriptions and the dates of the reports."
Qin Yue studied him.
After a moment, she closed the first document and reached for another.
"There is one record that may interest you. It describes a discovery made during an excavation long before the Convergence."
Han Feng's attention sharpened.
"The excavation uncovered a structure beneath the old supply station," she continued. "The report mentions a stone chamber, but the project was abandoned after two workers disappeared."
"When did this happen?"
"More than a hundred and fifty years ago."
For a moment, Han Feng said nothing.
The answer confirmed that the structure had existed long before the Convergence.
It had not been built in response to the recent changes.
Whatever was happening now, the origin of the phenomenon lay much further in the past.
Qin Yue removed a folded sheet from the bundle.
"The report is incomplete, but it describes a vertical surface without hinges, locks, or visible mechanisms. The workers initially believed it was an ornamental wall. During the excavation, however, one of their instruments recorded an abrupt drop in spiritual energy near the surface."
Han Feng felt the tension in his thoughts sharpen.
The description was too similar to the pale stone door at the observation post to dismiss.
"What happened to the missing workers?"
"The report doesn't say. The excavation was terminated, and the chamber entrance was sealed by order of the authorities at the time."
"Does a map still exist?"
Qin Yue considered the question before unfolding another document.
"There is a sketch. I can't guarantee its accuracy."
She placed the paper on the counter and carefully opened it.
The drawing showed the old supply station, a staircase, and a chamber beneath the ground. On the far wall, someone had recorded a symbol formed from three lines crossing at irregular angles.
Han Feng felt the Celestial Diagram vibrate.
The reaction was brief, but noticeably stronger than the ones he had experienced during his journey.
He kept his hands away from the paper.
The symbol was not identical to the markings on the underground door. Nevertheless, its structure carried a familiar quality. The three lines approached a common point without clearly merging into one.
For an instant, Han Feng remembered the symbol associated with the Threshold Society—the three curved lines converging around an empty space.
The resemblance was not exact.
He could not conclude that they shared the same origin.
But the Celestial Diagram had reacted before he could deliberately influence it.
That made the symbol worth remembering.
"May I copy it?" he asked.
Qin Yue watched him for a moment before nodding.
"You may. But don't attempt to reproduce whatever mechanism the report describes. We have no idea whether the structure still exists."
"I have no intention of activating it."
Han Feng memorized the symbol, along with the measurements and annotations surrounding it.
Then he noticed another detail.
A short line beside the drawing described a sudden interruption in the instrument's readings. The interruption had lasted only a few moments, after which the instrument had resumed operating normally.
The report offered no explanation.
Han Feng looked up.
"Were similar incidents recorded elsewhere?"
"Two records may be relevant," Qin Yue replied. "One concerns an abandoned mine north of Yunhai. The other describes an observation station built in the mountains."
She paused.
"Both were classified as inconclusive. Neither investigation produced a satisfactory explanation."
Han Feng stored the information.
Three structures in different locations.
All associated with unusual energy readings.
At least two involved disappearances.
And one contained a symbol that had provoked a clear reaction from the Celestial Diagram.
None of this proved that the structures belonged to the same system. Yet the possibility was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
"Can you tell me where the mine is located?" he asked.
"I can provide the general region. The original access road has been abandoned, and the surrounding terrain has changed since the Convergence."
"That will be enough."
Qin Yue wrote down a rough location on a separate sheet.
She then gathered the documents and returned them to their bundle.
"I've shown you more than I normally would to an unregistered researcher," she said. "Please understand that these records remain restricted. If you discover anything relevant, report it to the archive."
Han Feng accepted the location note.
"I understand."
He thanked her and left the administrative building.
By then, night had settled over Yunhai.
Han Feng returned to the inn and locked the door to his room.
He placed the location note on the table, then sat down and reviewed everything he had learned.
The old excavation had taken place more than a century and a half before the Convergence.
That was the most important detail.
It meant the underground structures could not simply be a byproduct of the worlds overlapping.
They had existed before the recent transformation.
Perhaps they had remained inactive for centuries.
Perhaps they had produced anomalies so weak that earlier investigators dismissed them as instrument failures.
Or perhaps their purpose had never been understood in the first place.
Han Feng arranged his thoughts carefully.
The pale door at the observation post.
The black door beneath Three Stones Station.
The container at Seven Lantern Depot.
The old structure beneath Yunhai.
They were not necessarily identical objects, and he had no evidence that they served the same function.
Still, certain features appeared repeatedly: abrupt failures in spiritual perception, missing intervals in energy readings, and mechanisms that reacted to unusual combinations of energy.
The Convergence might have awakened them.
But that was only one possibility.
Perhaps the structures were responding to the same change in reality that had caused the Convergence itself.
If so, their activation would not be an isolated event.
It could be part of a much larger process.
Han Feng leaned back in his chair.
The Celestial Diagram remained silent.
He had not expected it to explain the symbol simply because he had found it in an archive. Its reactions were not a substitute for understanding, and every time he tried to interpret them too confidently, he risked turning an observation into an assumption.
Still, the reaction had been real.
Something in the old symbol had resonated with the Diagram.
He closed his eyes and reviewed the image from memory.
Three lines.
Different angles.
A common point that they approached without clearly reaching.
The symbol associated with the Threshold Society had also represented several paths converging around an empty space.
The two designs might have shared a visual resemblance without sharing a meaning.
Or they might have been distant variations of a much older pattern.
Han Feng could not distinguish between those possibilities yet.
He would need more examples.
The abandoned mine north of Yunhai was the next logical step.
If its records contained similar inscriptions, he might begin to determine whether the structures were independent anomalies or parts of a larger network.
He would not enter the mine blindly.
First, he would study the terrain, examine the surrounding energy currents, and look for signs that someone had recently visited the site.
If the structure still existed, he would approach it only after understanding as much as he could from the outside.
He had no intention of repeating the mistakes made at the observation post.
There, researchers had combined two cultivation systems without understanding what might answer.
Han Feng would not make the same mistake merely because he possessed the Celestial Diagram.
Power did not eliminate uncertainty.
Sometimes it only made the consequences of a mistake more severe.
He put the location note away and prepared to meditate.
Before closing his eyes, however, he felt a faint pressure at the edge of his consciousness.
The Celestial Diagram vibrated once.
Nothing in the room visibly changed.
The spiritual energy remained stable, and none of the inn's detection instruments appeared to react.
Yet for a single instant, Han Feng felt as though something distant had noticed the same symbol he had examined that afternoon.
It was not a presence inside the room.
There was no clear direction, no recognizable intent, and no distinct spiritual signature.
It might have been a residual effect of the Diagram's earlier reaction.
It might have been something else entirely.
Han Feng did not attempt to answer it.
Instead, he activated the Art of the Celestial Veil and remained motionless until the sensation faded.
Only then did he begin meditating.
That night, he reached a provisional conclusion.
The ancient structures should not be treated as ordinary passages between places. Their purpose remained unknown, but the evidence suggested that they were connected, in some way, to the boundaries between realities.
He had not found proof that they led to another world.
He had not established whether the Convergence had awakened them or whether their activity had contributed to the Convergence.
But he had discovered something important.
The structures had existed long before the worlds began to overlap.
Which raised a question more troubling than where they led.
Who had built them before the Convergence—and what had they been waiting for?
Han Feng extinguished the lamp.
Tomorrow, he would begin investigating the abandoned mine north of Yunhai.
This time, he would not be searching only for historical records.
He wanted to determine whether the three structures were part of the same system.
And whether the Celestial Diagram was merely observing that system...
or was connected to it in a way he had yet to understand.