Chapter 50: Lost, Wash Socks

Zhang Jun's nails dug into the altar's stone seams, his joints whitening from excessive force. In the hologram, the purple-robed person's kneeling posture reminded him of how he offered incense to his grandfather every Qingming—devout to the point of abjectness.

"Venerable, the energy threshold has reached critical point." The purple-robed person's hand holding the jade box trembled, gold-blue light particles seeping from the lid's seam, "Forcibly severing the bloodline power will..."

"It's fine." The Heavenly Human Venerable raised a hand to cut off the rest of the sentence, fingertip touching the purple-robed person's brow. Zhang Jun suddenly clutched his forehead and staggered two steps, a burning sensation flaring at the same spot.

When Lin Xue steadied him, Ice Soul Power automatically formed a shield. The two watched as the Venerable poured the flowing light veins into the jade tablet, each flaring rune accompanied by the purple-robed person's violent trembling. When the final seal was completed, frost whitened the Venerable's temples.

"That old fool's acting is terrible." Zhang Jun suddenly snorted, "His lip twitched three times, his right ring finger drawing circles in his sleeve—just like my dad when he lies."

When the betrayer emerged from the shadows, Lin Xue reflexively flung an ice cone. The phantom pierced the attacker's body and pinned it to the mural, startling a roosting bat swarm. The purple light on that person's palm matched Zhao Wushuang's exactly.

"What right do you have!" a roar shook loose stones from the cavern ceiling, "I improved the Twenty-Eight Mansions Array, I found a way to stabilize the soul‑seed!" As a purple light pillar slammed into the altar, Zhang Jun suddenly grabbed Lin Xue and lunged toward the left stone pillar.

The blast wave flung them three meters away; the dull thud of their backs hitting the rock wall was swallowed by the explosion. When the smoke cleared, a point of light that the Heavenly Human Venerable had shot toward the purple‑robed person before dissipating landed right at Zhang Jun's feet—a half‑broken jade tablet.

"This thing…" he bent to pick it up, but the jade tablet suddenly levitated, flying toward the jade pendant at Lin Xue's neck. As the three fragments snapped together, every rune in the cavern flared at once, projecting a rotating star map onto the dome.

Lin Xue suddenly grabbed his collar: "Look at the third star of Orion!" Ice crystals condensed on her fingertip into an arrow, pointing at a blinking red dot, "The planetarium's star‑map demonstration last month…"

"It's my dad's lab coordinates!" Zhang Jun slapped his thigh, "The old man hid something in the safe…"

The ground suddenly gave way. As they rolled into the hidden passage, Zhang Jun's rear skull knocked against a protruding bronze beast head. He felt a pipe clenched in the beast's mouth—sandalwood, its edges scorched by fire.

"Old Wang was here." He slipped the pipe into his pocket, "That old fool loves stashing souvenirs in the mechanisms."

The jade pendant suddenly buzzed, casting a blue arrow on the wall. Just as Lin Xue was about to step forward, Zhang Jun seized her ponytail: "Wait, by the book there should be…"

Eighteen poison‑tipped crossbow bolts grazed their skulls and slammed into the stone wall.

"Damn! This shitty cavern's about to fall apart!"

Lin Xue's rear skull grazed falling debris as it struck the rock wall, her ponytail shaking loose a few ice shards. Zhang Jun yanked her wrist and rolled them into the darkness, his combat boots carving two mud tracks in the moss.

The altar's bronze patterns suddenly glowed blue, Zhang Jun's jade pendant searing his chest. He drew the Heavenly Human Sword and thrust it into a stone crack; the hilt struck a protruding beast head, the sandalwood pipe's tarry smell mixing with blood as it rushed into his nostrils.

"Old Wang was here." Zhang Jun flicked the pipe with his sword tip, spinning it twice, "Last month he taught me how to crack a linked array—this is exactly his feint‑west‑strike‑east trick."

An ice ridge scraped past her ear and lodged in the rock wall; Lin Xue kicked open a broken arrow shaft: "First, can we deal with this Twenty‑Eight Mansions Array right now?"

The star map on the dome collapsed into points of light; as the purple‑robed phantom rose from the altar's center, Zhang Jun's sword tip was already three inches from its throat. Cold sweat from his combat uniform's lining trailed down his back, and he caught the lingering gunpowder smell on his cuff.

"Twenty years…" the phantom's voice crackled with electromagnetic interference, "Back then your father shattered three compasses here before locating the array's eye."

Lin Xue's ice blade suddenly swung to the rear‑diagonal: "The third blue‑gray brick in the wall corner, its seismic offset shifted seven and a half degrees—Uncle Zhang taught me how to dismantle this antique mechanism."

The altar slammed down three inches, revealing a jade box glowing faintly below. Zhang Jun tapped the lid with his sword hilt, hearing a buzzing resonance within. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled, recalling the feeling of tripping his father's lab alarm at age thirteen.

"Watch out!" Lin Xue suddenly jerked his collar backward.

A purple arc grazed his nose, scorching a black, snake‑like streak onto the stone wall. The phantom's hood was blown half‑open by a gust, revealing an old knife scar on its jaw—identical to the wound on the clone of Zhang Tiangang's face.

"Is that old geezer addicted to cosplay?" Zhang Jun hurled his scabbard at the altar's southeast corner, "Last time he played Zhao Wushuang he hadn't had enough yet?"

As the jade box sprang open, twenty‑eight golden shafts pierced the cavern ceiling. The hologram unfurled through the smoke: twenty years ago, Zhang Tiangang clutched a half‑jade pendant, a bead of blood trickling from his brow blooming into a dark‑red stain on the experiment log.

"……The seventh bloodline‑severing experiment failed." The recording of young Zhang Tiangang buzzed with static, "Lin Zhen was right—we shouldn't have meddled with the ancient gene chain."

The image suddenly dissolved into snow‑like specks, the purple‑robed phantom gripping Lin Xue's wrist: "Back when your mother swapped the experiment samples, she wasn't this indecisive."

Ice crystals crept up her forearm onto the purple robe, and Lin Xue suddenly laughed: "Remember when Mom laced her coffee with potassium cyanide? Guess how she managed to dodge every monitor so precisely?"

The altar began to shudder violently; Zhang Jun's sword split the lower hidden compartment of the jade box. A yellowed envelope drifted to the floor, its wax seal bearing the old logo of the Lin Clan from twenty years ago.

"To my dear traitor colleague…" Zhang Jun pried open the paper with his sword tip, "Gee, even suicide notes come with passwords these days."

Lin Xue suddenly flung three ice cones to pin the paper's four corners: "Check the watermark!"

Light refracted through the ice revealed a dark, DNA‑spiral pattern on the paper's back. Zhang Jun produced the half‑purple crystal from his pocket and pressed it on; the lab's 3D projection exploded amid the smoke.

"We must stop the Heavenly Human Plan." In the hologram, Lin Zhen was destroying data, "Those old fogeys want to turn all of humanity into…"

The explosion swallowed the rest of the sentence. Zhang Jun watched his parents from twenty years ago embrace in the sea of fire, then suddenly kicked the central star map on the altar: "Playing the tragedy again? Can't we get something fresh?"

The purple‑robed phantom suddenly solidified; the instant its mechanical arm shot out a blade, Lin Xue's ice blade had already pierced its chest. Motor oil mixed with purple slime splattered onto the altar's carvings, exuding a rancid almond stench.

"The acting's awful." Lin Xue crushed the hologram generator underfoot, "Do you really think I wouldn't recognize Zhao Wushuang's mechanical core?"

The rain of rubble from the ceiling suddenly ceased, the jade pendant's blue light pointing to a downward stair. Zhang Jun picked up the slime‑smeared paper and wiped his blade: "I'll bet fifty cents whatever's down here isn't going to be pleasant."

"Lose and you wash my socks for a month?"

"Deal! But first, your stinky socks full of ice shards need to thaw…"