They departed at midday.
No grand send-off. No formation array. Just six figures leaving through the eastern gate under routine patrol clearance.
Senior Qiao led at the front. The formation instructor, Instructor Han, walked near the center. The inner sect disciple in blue introduced himself shortly after departure.
"Xu Liang," he said calmly.
Lin Xuan nodded once. "Lin Xuan."
No more was needed.
The eastern route was mostly stone path for the first few li, then gradually shifted into uneven terrain. The air thinned slightly — not in oxygen, but in spiritual density. Less refined. More raw.
Instructor Han occasionally paused to place thin jade markers along the route.
"Reference anchors," he explained. "If the regional flow shifts, we'll detect it."
Systematic. Measured.
No one moved carelessly.
By dusk, the quarry valley came into view.
It was long abandoned. The exposed rock walls were jagged, pale gray with streaks of iron-red mineral veins. No vegetation grew within the basin. Wind moved through it in low, uneven currents.
Senior Qiao raised a hand.
They stopped.
Xu Liang stepped forward slightly. His gaze narrowed.
"Residual pattern present."
Lin Xuan closed his eyes briefly.
He did not extend his qi aggressively. Just a thin thread — controlled, restrained.
There it was.
Faint.
Not power.
Structure.
Like an outline drawn beneath the surface of the land.
Instructor Han placed three small formation plates into the ground in triangular alignment. Thin lines of light connected between them.
The air shifted subtly.
The faint structure beneath the valley became clearer.
Broken lines.
Intersections.
A node at the center.
But damaged.
"Do not approach directly," Qiao said quietly.
They descended slowly.
No sudden movements. No excess qi release.
The closer they moved to the center, the more Lin Xuan felt the shard within his dantian react — not violently, but with a steady hum.
Not resonance like before.
Recognition.
He stopped five steps short of the exposed rock at the center of the basin.
Xu Liang noticed.
"You feel interference?" he asked.
"Alignment," Lin Xuan replied.
Instructor Han crouched and brushed aside loose gravel.
Embedded within the stone was a fragment no larger than a palm.
Dark.
Veined with faint silver lines.
It did not glow.
It did not pulse.
But the formation plates around them began to vibrate slightly.
"Damaged node," Han muttered. "Extraction point disrupted."
Senior Qiao scanned the surroundings. "Any signs of prior removal?"
Xu Liang stepped closer to the rock face and ran a finger across shallow grooves etched into the surface.
"Tool marks," he said.
Clean.
Precise.
Recent.
Not natural erosion.
Someone had been here.
Not to destroy the node.
To study it.
Lin Xuan did not move closer.
He could feel something else.
Not from the fragment.
From beneath it.
A hollow.
Not physical.
Structural.
As if this node once connected downward — to something deeper.
Instructor Han activated a second array.
Lines of light extended outward, mapping sub-surface flow.
Several faint paths appeared — like roots spreading underground.
But most were severed.
Only one direction still held trace continuity.
East.
Further beyond the quarry valley.
Xu Liang's gaze sharpened. "That direction leads toward the border forests."
Senior Qiao straightened. "Which is outside regular sect patrol."
Silence settled briefly.
Not dramatic.
Just calculation.
Lin Xuan exhaled slowly.
This was not random shard scattering.
It was a network.
And someone was following it.
"Seal this node temporarily," Qiao ordered. "We document and move before nightfall."
Instructor Han nodded and began reinforcing the local flow to prevent further leakage.
Lin Xuan stepped back, eyes on the faint underground line only he seemed to feel clearly.
The shard within him did not surge.
It aligned.
Quietly.
Like a key brushing against a lock that had not yet been turned.
Night would make movement riskier.
But staying here longer would not yield more answers.
They would move east tomorrow.
And if someone had already traced the network—
Then they were not alone in this investigation.
Arc 2 was no longer just observation.
It was pursuit.