Thump... thump... thump...
The slow, ancient pulse resonated through the bone pick, traveling up Yue Qingqian's arm and echoing deep within her soul. It was a hypnotic rhythm, the primal heartbeat of the world itself. For a moment, she almost forgot her mission, her performance, lost in the sheer, raw power contained within that slumbering beat.
Simultaneously, she felt the massive, dormant consciousness of the Blackwater Serpent Demon shift again, a deeper ripple of annoyance this time. It wasn't awake, but its dreams were being disturbed. The pressure in the water intensified slightly.
On the cliff above, the Sect Master's misty form leaned forward almost imperceptibly. He, too, had felt that subtle shift, that faint pulse from the abyss. He hadn't expected the girl's 'listening' to actually provoke a reaction, however minor. This was becoming far more interesting—and dangerous—than he had anticipated.
Elder Liu, however, was oblivious to the subtle undercurrents. He was simply ecstatic. "She hears it! She hears the deep song! My disciple is communing with the very core of the mountain!"
Inside the golden bubble, Yue Qingqian snapped back to reality. The incense stick's time limit burned in her mind. She pushed aside the awe and the fear and focused on the task.
With renewed urgency, she used the bone chisel and wooden mallet, carefully chipping away at the rock surrounding the source of the pulse. The rock here was unnaturally dense, infused with the cold, energy-leeching properties of the pool. Each small chip took considerable effort.
Finally, she revealed it. It wasn't a large vein, but a fist-sized lump of dark, metallic ore embedded within the rock. It didn't gleam or shine. Instead, it seemed to absorb the golden light from her bubble, appearing as a patch of absolute darkness. And from its core, that slow, powerful pulse continued: Thump... thump... thump...
This was the Star-Navigating Iron.
Now came the climax of her performance.
She stopped her work. She lowered her tools. She reached out a trembling hand, her fingers hovering just above the dark ore. Her face, illuminated by the golden light, took on an expression of profound, almost tearful revelation. It was the look of an artist who had finally found the missing piece of their masterpiece.
"Ah..." she breathed, her voice filled with a quiet, sacred awe that carried through the water to the watchers above. "So... this is the final note. The final note of the mountain's slumbering song. The silence... before the dawn."
She gently touched the Star-Navigating Iron. The moment her skin made contact, the pulsing sensation intensified, flowing directly into her, a wave of ancient, spatial resonance that made her very bones hum. It felt... vast. Like touching the fabric of the universe itself.
Keeping one hand on the ore, maintaining her look of profound enlightenment, she used her other hand to retrieve a small, intricately embroidered pouch from her sleeve—the "Harmony-Sealing Pouch," another of Lin Fan's creations, lined with runes designed to completely isolate the ore's unique spatial signature.
Then, with agonizing slowness and precision, she used the bone chisel again, not to strike, but to carefully lever the fist-sized lump of Star-Navigating Iron free from the surrounding rock. It came loose with a soft click.
The moment it was free, the rhythmic pulsing stopped. The connection was broken. The deep song fell silent.
And in the distance, the vast, slumbering consciousness of the Blackwater Serpent Demon seemed to settle back into a deeper, undisturbed sleep, its brief annoyance forgotten.
Holding the lump of impossibly heavy ore, Yue Qingqian bowed her head, as if in prayer. Then, with utmost reverence, she placed it inside the Harmony-Sealing Pouch and drew the runic drawstrings tight.
Her mission was complete.
She looked up, her expression now one of peaceful, post-enlightenment exhaustion. She glanced at the nearly burnt-out incense stick floating inside her bubble. Time was up.
She made a final, gentle gesture towards the now-empty hole in the rock, as if bidding farewell to the song she had found. Then, she allowed her golden bubble, the "Sphere of Absolute Harmony," to slowly begin its ascent, rising from the cold, dead floor of the abyss towards the distant surface.
On the cliff, Elder Liu was beside himself with joy. "She found it! She found her harmony! Did you see her expression, Sect Master? That was the face of true enlightenment!"
The Sect Master remained silent, his misty form unreadable. He had indeed seen everything. He had seen the strange tools, the bizarre ritual, the inexplicable connection she seemed to form with the very rock at the bottom of the pool. He had felt the pulse, felt the serpent stir, and then felt it fall silent again the moment she took... whatever that dark rock was.
He didn't understand it. Not in the slightest. But he could not deny what he had witnessed. It was either the most elaborate and pointless fraud in history, or it was something genuinely profound, operating on principles he had never encountered.
Given the disciple's previous displays, and the sheer impossibility of deception under his direct scrutiny, he found himself leaning, against all logic, towards the latter. This disciple, and her unfathomable Dao, were becoming the single greatest puzzle of his long life. And he was determined to understand it.
As the golden bubble broke the surface of the black water, carrying the serene, seemingly exhausted figure within, the Sect Master made a decision. The observation was over. The investigation, however, had just begun.