Two loops

Han Jiang pulled out a short sword: "Dig."

"You still have the one I gave you before?"

"It's not heavy, just in case." Han Jiang wasn't very good with weapons, so Wen Xu always practiced swordsmanship. Sometimes she would follow behind and practice, but she was basically inconsistent and didn't make much progress.

The short sword given by Cang Jingqi was surprisingly useful, so Han Jiang specially made a scabbard for it at the foot of the mountain and hung it on his waist.

Cang Jingmo questioned, "How long are you going to keep digging for this little sword?"

"Do you have a better method? Or do you have a better tool?"

"Put it away, this sword is very expensive." Cang Jingqi made Han Jiang step aside. "We can't let a little girl like you do the chiseling of the wall, can we?"

Han Jiang honestly sheathed his short sword and gestured for him to go: "If you're so capable, then you do it!"

Cang Jingqi placed his hand on Cang Jingmo's shoulder, used the momentum to leap into the air, and deliberately struck a pose before kicking hard against the wall.

The plaster has peeled off, and cracks have appeared in the wall.

When landing, remember to adjust your body balance to ensure you don't make a fool of yourself.

Then Cang Jing hissed and stumbled, leaning towards Han Jiang.

"Didn't you stand up? Why did you suddenly fall again?" Han Jiang instinctively dodged, while Cang Jingqi barely managed to steady himself against the wall: "Han Xiaoman, you're so inconsiderate! You didn't even offer to help me up?"

"How can you just throw something on someone without warning?" Han Jiang found it amusing.

Cang Jingqi bent over, rubbing his ankle with a sad expression.

"Does your foot hurt?" True, even though it wasn't a reinforced concrete wall, it was still a pile of dirt; kicking it would definitely hurt. Han Jiang swore he would never believe those TV dramas where people fall against a wall, the wall collapses, and then they can get back up.

"You believe him?" Cang Jingmo rarely showed such an expression, looking at Cang Jingqi with a mocking look.

"Shut up." Cang Jingqi glared at Cang Jingmo.

Han Jiang couldn't figure out the secrets between the two brothers, and only wanted to break through the wall as soon as possible.

"Can we hurry up?" Han Jiang was surprised that it was her turn to urge them on; she was usually the laziest one. But seeing that the two were about to start bickering like elementary school kids, she had no choice but to speak up and urge them on.

"Amo, I've tried it for you. You won't be repelled without magic. It's up to you now."

Cang Jingmo clenched his fist and slammed it into the wall. With two punches, the cracks in the wall widened rapidly, and the wall soil fell down.

Han Jiang retorted to Cang Jing, "Your Highness, are you here to be funny?"

What does "funny" mean?

Han Jiang regretted only knowing internet slang and said, "It means you're not doing anything. The Second Prince has dug a hole, let's go in." Indeed, one can't have much hope for a cannon fodder; she herself was cannon fodder, basically just playing a minor role.

The huge circular hall has a central platform with three tiers of steps. The three tiers are of different heights; the first and third tiers are quite high, while the second tier, sandwiched in the middle, is quite low.

It's easy to trip when you walk up there.

Similar to the Yin-Yang symbol, the truncated cone has a wide gap in the middle, dividing it into two parts. The gap meanders from both sides of the cone towards the center, forming a circle around the very center where they meet.

It looks a bit like a drainage channel.

The gap was wide enough to fit a foot, and almost ankle-deep. Runes, some deep and some shallow, were engraved on the inner walls.

Aside from the gaps, the truncated cone has a unique design, engraved with a different pattern.

"The Spirit Gathering Altar." Han Jiang was the first to react.

She had seen the Spirit Gathering Altar countless times and knew its design by heart; she could recognize it at a glance.

In the center of the platform was a round crystal coffin, which was quite different from the one she had seen at the Maple Fire Reflecting Frost Pavilion.

The crystal coffin in Maple Fire Reflecting Frost Pavilion was the same size as an ordinary coffin, but its texture was blurry. The coffin was perfectly embedded in the central circle, much larger than a normal coffin, and not only was it circular, but the person inside the crystal coffin could also be clearly seen.

A middle-aged woman with a pretty face held something in her arms, her hands clasped together.

White flowers are placed on both sides, making it look like a "cure-all".

The "cure-all" herb is actually a plant, but it looks very much like a flower. It uses this deceptive appearance to attract insects, then puts them to sleep, eventually letting them slumber in the soil beneath it and become nutrients.

The person in the coffin must be the owner of the tomb.

"She should have died hundreds of years ago, yet her body is so well preserved. Is the crystal coffin so powerful that even this flower can survive?" Han Jiang exclaimed.

Cang Jing said, "The crystal coffin cannot preserve flowers and plants; it can only preserve the spiritual energy of the human body. These flowers seem to have been picked and placed inside regularly."

"The offerings in the temple are also very fresh. Perhaps it's because the descendants live nearby and come to visit often?" Cang Jingmo said.

“Those offerings are all rotten.” Han Jiang took a fruit out of his pocket, broke it open, and showed it to Cang Jingmo.

"You even took some to eat?" Cang Jingmo's eyes were filled with disdain.

Cang Jingqi defended Han Jiang, saying, "Do you think everyone is like you were when you were a child, eating everything? Han Xiaoman isn't as greedy as you."

"Cang Jingqi, can't you shut your mouth?"

Han Jiang rolled her eyes inwardly. A male lead whose character is constantly on the verge of collapse, and a cannon fodder vase who only watches and does nothing. The most reliable person here is actually her.

But I haven't been a group leader for many years. When I first entered university, I was indeed ambitious and served as a class leader for a while, and I also took on important responsibilities in group projects, but I haven't done it since.

She studied the runes that circled the perimeter of the seam. She couldn't quite place where she had seen them before, perhaps a modified version.

“It’s not just because of the crystal coffin, but also because of this huge spirit-gathering altar that’s providing her with spiritual power.” Han Jiang tried to connect the matters of the underground tomb.

The crystal coffin provided by Guixu can only sustain a human body for a maximum of ten years. This person has been dead for at least several hundred years, so a single crystal coffin is not enough.

The light emanating from the crystal coffin was enough to illuminate the entire room, and many vines climbed the walls, extending down from the floor. Above was a hanging platform, from which hung something that also seemed to be emitting light.

Cang Jingmo flew over to look at the hanging platform: "It's a lamp!"

Isn't that what Guixu asked them to find?

"Can you take it down?" Han Jiang asked.

Cang Jingmo reached out to grab it, but just as he was about to touch the lamp, he was enveloped by a force that suspended him in mid-air, his entire body glowing white.

Han Jiang immediately became alert and looked around. The wall that had been breached was visibly "growing back up," forming a completely sealed chamber!

Cang Jingqi rushed over, flung out his folding fan, which spun and got stuck in the hole. Before it could hold on for long, it was ejected outside the wall by the forcibly healed structure.

The circular platform slowly lit up, with the two halves of the platform lighting up alternately.

"The runes in the crevice look like a spell used to transform a human into a demon!" Han Jiang suddenly remembered and exclaimed.

What kind of tomb is this?

As the lights dimmed, the light on the circular platform changed its rhythm, lighting up and dimming in unison like breathing, indicating that the formation had been activated.

Until the lights came on again, shaking open the dark mirror, and the bright light shone on everyone.

For a moment, I couldn't open my eyes at all.

"Han Xiaoman, your clothes? Your—face?" The lamp returned to its original brightness. Cang Jingqi wanted to check on Han Jiang's condition first, but Han Jiang had already changed his appearance.

"My clothes?" Han looked down and saw that her original Four Continents Sect attire had changed back into her modern clothes: a short-sleeved shirt, jeans, and sneakers, which seemed to be the clothes she wore on the day she entered the book.

She touched the back of her head, and her girlish bun turned back into a ponytail.

I even put on glasses. No wonder my vision suddenly became much clearer.

"I'm back to normal?" Han Jiang desperately wanted a mirror so she could see her own appearance clearly and see if she had returned to her original form.

The crystal coffin seemed to be able to be used as a mirror? Han Jiang ran up to the round platform, and more surprised than seeing her own face clearly, she was shocked to see that the corpse in the crystal coffin had turned into a skeleton. Even the flowers around her had disappeared, leaving the place empty.

Hanjiang greeted the two of them, "Come and see—what's wrong with you?"

Turning around, I saw Cang Jingqi and Cang Jingmo leaning against the wall, their breathing unsteady.

"For some reason, this place is suddenly filled with spiritual energy and demonic energy." Cang Jingmo sat down cross-legged and began to regulate his breathing.

Cang Jing pointed at the round platform: "It's overflowing from there, a mixture of human and demonic spiritual energy."

The light from the circular platform stabilized, while simultaneously releasing spiritual and demonic energy outwards.

As a body that dissolves spiritual energy, Han Jiang naturally wouldn't experience spiritual energy disorder, but it's hard to say about the two people in front of him, especially Cang Jingqi, whose spiritual energy perception is strong, so his spiritual energy disorder would only be more serious.

Since the cold descends cannot be sensed, we can only speculate. The essence of the human-demon transformation is to convert the spiritual energy in the human body into demonic energy, so the two halves of this circular platform should respectively store demonic energy and spiritual energy, which are then cyclically converted using the runes in the gaps.

Spiritual energy and demonic energy existing alone cannot be preserved for long without a human body, but Han Jiang remembers that the spiritual energy in the crystal coffin was very abundant and would not dissipate.

This formation takes advantage of this, circulating demonic energy and spiritual power and storing them here, while also gathering them using the Spirit Gathering Altar.

This is different from the previous Spirit Gathering Altars; there's only one here—

Is there really only one? Han Jiang suddenly realized.

Actually, both spirit-gathering altars are here, but they are overlapping. One altar is placed beneath the other. Han Jiang thought it was a three-tiered staircase, but it was actually the spirit-gathering altar underneath, which is why the three tiers are not at the same height.

The two spirit-gathering altars form another cycle, circulating the spiritual energy in the room from one to the other.

In this way, the spiritual energy always circulates within the room and cannot overflow.

When Cang Jingmo initially smashed the wall, he was repelled by the spiritual energy barrier. The spiritual energy barrier serves two purposes: first, to prevent spiritual energy and demonic energy from escaping, and second, to prevent the spirit gathering altar from absorbing spiritual energy from the outside world.

If the Spirit Gathering Altar absorbs the spiritual energy of all living things, then nothing will grow near the temple. The Vermilion Bird Pavilion can easily find this place with a simple investigation.

Unless an outsider intrudes, the two cycles will remain stable and continuous, ultimately ensuring that spiritual energy flows into the crystal coffin.

Although perpetual motion machines don't exist, everyone here is cultivating immortality and there are even demons, so who cares about whether it's scientific or not?

The only one who could come up with these two formations is probably the one inside the crystal coffin.

The only way to activate the formation is by that lamp!

If someone touches the lamp, the wall will heal, and the formation will begin to release spiritual and demonic energy, starting the first cycle; then the lamp will light up again, and the two types of energy that are circulating will overflow, trapping the person inside.

Could it be that the changes in Han Jiang's appearance and the state of his corpse were also related to that lamp?