Chapter 3975: Old Archives

Lin Mu crouched slightly and examined the formations. "Hmm."

The formation was ancient and he could tell immediately. Some of its components had degraded over time, while several others had clearly been repaired. The repairs themselves were old enough that they had become almost indistinguishable from the original construction.

The formation began rotating as several tiles shifted before the center of the floor sank downward. Stone ground against stone as the entire section slowly separated and a hidden staircase appeared beneath it.

The staircase descended into darkness as Lin Mu stared down. The first steps were made from stone, though his spatial perception immediately noticed that the passage continued far deeper than the shed itself should have allowed.

It was another hidden spatial extension, seeing which, Lin Mu smiled.

"They really don’t update their arrays, do they?" The thought reminded him of the loopholes Zhenyu had recorded.

The old elder had complained about this exact habit of the sect.

Once an array was proven functional, the formation masters responsible for it often considered the matter finished. Maintenance was performed when something broke, though complete redesigns were rarely considered unless absolutely necessary.

Over tens of thousands of years, that created layers upon layers of outdated systems.

Lin Mu stepped onto the first stair while the formation behind him remained active. He descended and after several steps, the light from the shed disappeared behind him.

SHUA

The stairs continued downward and Lin Mu’s immortal sense spread ahead. There were no people or any traps. Of course there were several defensive formations, though most were dormant or were in utter disrepair.

The deeper he went, the more complicated the surrounding formation network became showing that this was clearly an old route. And according to Zhenyu’s records, that meant it led toward one of the oldest archival sections of the Records Division.

Lin Mu’s expression became increasingly engrossed. If Zhenyu had been telling the truth, then somewhere below this ordinary shed was an archive that had been forgotten by most of the current sect.

Perhaps it contained records that had never been rewritten. Perhaps the name of Junior Elder Zhenyu was still there. Perhaps there were records of the Hopeful Star Pavilion. And perhaps, if he was fortunate, there would even be records concerning the events that had connected the Mad Demon to the Heavenly Stream Guardian Sect.

Lin Mu continued descending as the staircase seemed to have no end.

Yet with every step, his anticipation grew. His footsteps produced only faint echoes against the worn stone, and the deeper he went, the colder the air became, though the change was subtle enough that an ordinary cultivator might have dismissed it.

Lin Mu noticed it immediately. The temperature was not the only thing changing either. The spiritual energy in the surroundings was becoming increasingly faint, and the further he descended, the more isolated the passage felt.

It was almost as though the staircase had been deliberately separated from the rest of the Records Division. There were no sounds from above, no fluctuations from nearby formations and no traces of anyone having used the passage recently.

He continued for several minutes before his spatial perception suddenly caught something ahead. Lin Mu stopped and his eyes narrowed as he stared into the darkness. There was nothing visible to his normal senses.

The staircase continued ahead just as it had before, with the same rough stone walls and dim illumination provided by tiny formation lamps. Yet within his spatial perception, he could clearly see a faint distortion hanging across the passage.

A thin layer of compressed space had been stretched across the corridor, almost like an invisible curtain.

"Interesting." Lin Mu approached it slowly and extended his hand.

His fingers passed through the barrier without resistance and there was no sensation of touching anything. Yet the instant he stepped forward, the world around him seemed to shift. For a fraction of a second, Lin Mu felt his body passing through a strange spatial fold.

Then his feet touched the ground again and he looked around. The staircase behind him had disappeared and Lin Mu’s brows rose. He immediately spread his spatial perception around himself and examined the surrounding space.

The distance he had just crossed became obvious.

"At least a kilometer." His eyes brightened with interest. "A spatial compression gate."

He examined the faint remnants of the formation behind him, carefully studying the way the space had been compressed and connected.

"For one to still exist after all this time, the creator must have been very good. Probably used multiple passive power sources and a self repair auxiliary array." Lin Mu’s assessment came naturally.

The older he became, the more he appreciated formations that could continue functioning without constant maintenance.

A formation that was powerful for a few years was useful. A formation that remained operational for tens of thousands of years required an entirely different level of understanding.

This one had apparently survived for more than a hundred thousand years. Even with the Heavenly Stream Guardian Sect maintaining the surrounding structures, Lin Mu doubted anyone had been coming down here regularly to repair it.

That meant the formation had been designed to maintain itself. Lin Mu gave it one final glance before turning around as there was little point lingering. He had finally reached the hidden archives.

The room he found himself in was surprisingly small.

It was barely large enough for a few people to stand comfortably inside, and the air immediately struck him as dank and musty. The smell of old wood, dust and stagnant air filled his nose.

There was a faint trace of moisture in the walls, and several patches of discoloration could be seen along the stone.

Lin Mu frowned slightly. "This place hasn’t been opened in a very long time."

He scanned the room with his immortal sense and there was no one here. There were no active defensive formations either, aside from a few extremely weak restrictions that seemed to exist purely to preserve the structure.

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