Chapter 86 — The Talisman Painter Who Guards the Village

Central Repository

The moonless night covered the capital city of Lệ Dương, with only sparse lantern light shining from a few strictly guarded mansions. Diệp Sương, Thanh Việt and Chúc Nghi Lam followed the eastern wall of Khâm Vân Ti headquarters, their steps light as mist, while Tất Bá Kỳ stood waiting at the nearest street corner, ready to send a signal if there was any movement.

"This way," Chúc Nghi Lam whispered, leading the way to a small door hidden behind a bunch of luxuriant vines, almost impossible to notice if you didn't know the exact location in advance. She pulled an old key from her sleeve, her hand shaking slightly as she inserted it into the rusty lock. "I still have this key from the day I worked here. I never thought I would need to use it this way."

*

The door opened without a sound, leading down a narrow stone staircase into darkness. The air below was cold and musty, carrying the smell of old paper and dust accumulated over decades. Thanh Việt lit a small oil lamp; its weak yellow light illuminated only a few steps ahead.

“The main archive is deeper, through three layers of doors,” Chúc Nghi Lam whispered, leading the way through narrow corridors filled with towering shelves of papers. "But the files on the Special Coordination Line, if I remember correctly, are kept in a private, locked room, where only high-ranking people are allowed in and out."

*

They weaved through each row of shelves in tense silence, with only the sound of breathing and gentle footsteps on the cold stone floor. Diệp Sương felt her heart pounding every time the oil lamp passed through a dark corner, afraid that at any moment someone might appear.

Arriving in front of a heavy iron door, engraved with a strange symbol - a small vortex surrounding a point of light - Chúc Nghi Lam stopped, breathing rapidly. "Here it is," she said softly. "But this door requires a special key, only the Supervisor has it."

*

Thanh Việt bent down to observe the lock, his eyes narrowed in concentration. "This is a type of magical lock. It requires a proper talisman to open it, not an ordinary key."

Diệp Sương walked over and took out the old inkstone and the last remaining piece of paper from her pocket. She closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the faint energy still lingering on the lock—a trace of an old sealing talisman, worn over the years but not completely ineffective.

“This type of lock is not reinforced very often,” it whispered, realizing something. "It's as if the person who placed it didn't expect anyone capable of opening it without a key."

*

She dipped her pen into the remaining ink, her hands shaking slightly but firmly, drawing lines that blended the methodical seal-breaking technique of the sect and the adaptive intuition she learned from Mr. Tám Mực, placing it on the exact position of the energy core of the old sealing talisman. A soft click rang out and the lock opened.

"You did it," Chúc Nghi Lam exclaimed, her voice filled with both surprise and admiration.

*

Inside the small room were dozens of wooden boxes neatly arranged on shelves, each labeled with a unique code. Chúc Nghi Lam searched quickly, pulled out a box marked fifteen years earlier, and opened it to reveal a thick stack of documents.

Diệp Sương picked up the first page and scanned the words, her heart pounding. This was the original plan for the Special Coordination Line, signed by Lỗ Khắc Viên himself, along with a map marking dozens of mining sites across Cửu Vân—including a small red dot at the exact location of Tùng Lĩnh Village.

*

"This," Thanh Việt said, his voice also trembling as he turned to another page. "It is a report on a location called Khuyết Nguyên Abyss, built right under this very area, described as the 'central convergence point', where the energy drawn from all the mining sites across Cửu Vân is channeled and stored."

"A giant well, draining the vitality of an entire kingdom, right at the foot of the capital," Diệp Sương whispered, a shiver spreading through her body as she imagined the true scale of the fifteen-year-old conspiracy.

*

At that moment, a soft sound rang out in the hallway outside, causing all three people to stop. Thanh Việt quickly blew out the oil lamp, pulled Diệp Sương and Chúc Nghi Lam into a dark corner behind a row of high shelves.

The footsteps approached, slowly, purposefully, not like normal patrol footsteps. A figure appeared in the door frame, holding a small lamp, the light illuminating a familiar face - it was Ngộ Khắc Bình, the Deputy Supervisor who had come to inquire about Diệp Sương in Rễ Bàng Hamlet.

*

"I knew you would come," Ngộ Khắc Bình said, his voice strangely calm, not showing any surprise when he saw three figures hiding in a dark corner. "Master Lu predicts that you won't have the patience to wait five days."

Diệp Sương stepped out of the darkness, no longer intending to hide. "So are you here to arrest us, or to get in the way?"

Ngộ Khắc Bình was silent for a long time, his eyes glanced over the stack of documents Chúc Nghi Lam was still holding tightly in his hands. "I came here," he said at last, his voice slow as if he were struggling with himself, "to see what you found. I have served under Lord Lỗ for ten years, trusting that all his orders are for the sake of the big picture. But recently, I have begun to doubt whether that big picture really exists, or is it just a beautiful cover for one man's greed."

*

"So please help us," Chúc Nghi Lam said immediately, her voice urgent. "You know this system better than anyone else. If you really have any sense left, this is your chance to redeem yourself for everything you did under orders, including coming to interrogate and put pressure on innocent people at the border."

Ngộ Khắc Bình closed his eyes for a moment, his face full of tears. "I can't betray you publicly right now," he said, his voice quiet. "But I can pretend I never saw you here, and give you a moment to leave before the next patrol arrives."

*

"Not enough," Diệp Sương said, her eyes looking straight at him, not avoiding. "You know where the Khuyết Nguyên Abyss is, right? If you really want to make amends, tell us, so we can end it all before anyone else pays the price."

Ngộ Khắc Bình hesitated for a long time, the trembling oil lamp light in his hand reflected the intense struggle in his heart. Finally, he sighed, a heavy sigh as if releasing a burden that had been on his shoulders for ten long years. "The Khuyết Nguyên Abyss is located right under the foundation of this headquarters main hall, deeper than the archive you are standing on. But I warn you in advance, Lord Lỗ will not let you get close to it easily. That place is guarded by the very things he has extracted from Linh Mạch over the years, no longer normal humans can deal with it."

*

Out in the hallway, the next patrol's footsteps began to sound, getting closer and closer. Ngộ Khắc Bình turned around quickly. "Go now, through the door you entered. I will find a way to delay."

"Thank you," Diệp Sương said softly, although her heart was still somewhat wary. But his eyes, when he turned to look at her one last time before disappearing into the darkness of the hallway, carried a sincerity that she believed, at least in this moment, was not a lie.

*

Outside the city wall, Tất Bá Kỳ was waiting at the corner of the street, his face showing relief when he saw the three returned safely. "What's going on inside?" he asked immediately, his eyes scanning each person, realizing there was something unusual in the tense atmosphere that still lingered.

On the way back to the mansion, Diệp Sương recounted everything that had just happened, from the original document signed by Lỗ Khắc Viên, the map marking Tùng Lĩnh Village, to the unexpected meeting with Ngộ Khắc Bình. Tất Bá Kỳ listened silently, his face suddenly darkened when he heard the name Khuyết Nguyên Abyss.

"A central convergence point under the main hall," he repeated, his voice heavy. "If that's true, the scale of that project couldn't have been built in secret by just one person. There must have been a whole team of workers, engineers, and possibly even spirit talisman disciples who were bribed or forced to participate."

*

Chúc Nghi Lam held the documents tightly in her hands like a treasure, even though her steps were still trembling because of unrelenting fear. “We have enough evidence to prove the origin of the Special Coordination Line,” she said, her voice both relieved and worried. "But paper evidence cannot stop a machine still operating underground. If Lỗ Khắc Viên realizes the documents are missing, he can destroy the entire Khuyết Nguyên Abyss before anyone can intervene, leading to a disaster that no one can foresee." Diệp Sương nodded, her eyes looking toward the General Manager of Khâm Vân Ti farther behind, where darkness still covered secrets not fully revealed. "Then we don't have much time to wait any longer," she said, her voice determined. "As soon as morning comes, we will present all this evidence to the General and prepare for the final confrontation."

The four of them walked faster into the night, their hearts still pounding, carrying in their hands the final evidence and an exact location — Khuyết Nguyên Abyss, the dark heart of the entire conspiracy, waiting right underground in the capital, ready for the decisive confrontation not far away.