Free Web NovelChapter 226: Chapter 226: Northwest Broken Ridge
The journey to Northwest Broken Ridge took four days by armored vessel.
This was the closest Qin Yuheng had ever traveled toward the Silent Wastes.
The landscape changed gradually. Forests thinned. Rivers narrowed. The ground became gray and dry. Old battle scars appeared on hillsides: melted stone, broken towers, abandoned beacon posts, and roads that ended suddenly in empty fields.
Qin Mo stood at the vessel window.
"This place feels unfinished."
Yu Qingmei, who led the academy contingent, said, "Many border ruin belts feel that way."
The coalition included:
Heavenly Gate Academy team led by Yu Qingmei and Han Shuren.
Qin Yuheng’s team.
Wei Chen.
Lu Sheng’s military squad.
Central Academy archive team under Bai Yunshen.
Jiang Yuexuan’s observer group.
Merchant Alliance seal logistics.
Central Exchange supervisors.
Duan Xirong was not included.
He complained publicly.
The supervisors denied combat-heavy candidates without relevant resistance tools.
Duan called it cowardice.
Bai Yunshen called it risk control.
Duan disliked that more.
Qin Yuheng did not care.
The excavation camp appeared beneath a broken ridge shaped like a cracked spine. Tents, formation towers, supply barriers, and medical stations surrounded a black stone entrance half-dug into the mountain slope.
Above the entrance was a symbol: a shadow kneeling beneath a red-gold arc.
False road marker.
Qin Yuheng felt the First Shadow Road Memory Fragment tremble.
Not strongly.
But enough.
Qin Mo saw his expression.
"Reaction?"
"Yes. Pattern resonance. Not destination command."
The True Destination Law Compass pointed near the entrance but wavered.
Jiang Yuexuan arrived beside them.
"This is not the true road."
Qin Yuheng nodded. "Substituted or outer layer."
Bai Yunshen joined, holding several archive slips.
"The missing Central Exchange team entered the first underground layer. Their last message mentioned ’shadow toll gates’ and ’sunlit debt.’"
Qin Mo’s face hardened.
"Debt mechanisms?"
"Yes."
Yu Qingmei gave strict orders.
"No one enters without linked formation. Qin Yuheng does not approach sealed gates alone. Jiang team handles moon-shadow recognition. Central Academy handles record classification. Merchant Alliance handles debt law detection. Military handles evacuation."
The entry team moved at dawn.
Inside the ridge, the tunnel was too smooth to be natural. The walls were black stone with red-gold veins. Shadows stretched forward, not backward.
The first obstacle was a toll gate.
It looked like a stone arch with a kneeling shadow carved on each side. Above it was written:
To walk the road, leave proof of loyalty.
A bowl sat beneath the inscription.
Inside were dried blood stains.
Qin Mo immediately said, "No blood."
Merchant Alliance appraiser confirmed debt-law structure.
"Payment creates road claim."
Qin Yuheng used True Road Restoration Stone and Law-Thread Severing Eye.
The gate did not need blood.
It needed acknowledgment.
But false sun corruption changed acknowledgment into payment.
Jiang Yuexuan supplied shadow-road recognition without kneeling.
Qin Yuheng spoke carefully.
"We acknowledge the road was guarded. We do not pay false toll."
The toll gate trembled.
The bowl cracked.
The path opened.
[Shadow Toll Gate bypassed without debt.]
Bai Yunshen looked impressed.
"Pattern-based bypass."
Qin Mo muttered, "Better than blood bowls."
They found the first missing team member beyond the gate.
Alive, but kneeling against the wall, shadow pinned beneath red-gold nails.
He whispered, "I paid. I proved loyalty."
Qin Yuheng’s eyes cooled.
They removed the nails carefully.
The man collapsed.
Rescued.
The tunnel descended to a hall containing seven shadow roads. Six were false. One was unstable but clean.
The True Destination Law Compass, Shadow Discernment Crystal, and Jiang Yuexuan’s perception worked together.
They chose the clean path.
Halfway through, the false roads screamed.
Shadow beasts emerged.
[False Road Hounds]
[Level Equivalent: 48]
The fight was fast and coordinated.
Wei Chen held the center.
Lu Sheng’s squad protected rescued personnel.
Jiang Yuexuan suppressed shadow corruption.
Bai Yunshen identified path shifts.
Qin Yuheng used Chosen Road Banner Field with partial coalition acceptance.
The hounds fell.
They reached the outer shadow road layer.
At its center stood a sealed door.
Not the true center.
But a message was carved into it.
The first shadow remembers the true road.
The false sun remembers the key.
The sleeping seal remembers the mountain.
Below it, fresh writing had been added:
Qin Yuheng, when will you stop waiting?
Mo Cangyan.
Qin Mo cursed openly.
Qin Yuheng looked at the words calmly.
"Not today."
They copied the inscription, sealed the fresh writing, rescued two more missing members, and withdrew.
Mission conditions satisfied.
They did not open the sealed door.
That refusal enraged the hidden mechanism. frёewebnoѵēl.com
The ridge shook.
A false sun pulse began underground.
Qin Yuheng planted the banner.
"Evacuation formation. Now."
The outer layer tried to collapse around them.
The trap had expected curiosity.
It had not expected disciplined withdrawal.
They escaped with all rescued survivors.
Northwest Broken Ridge remained sealed behind them.
But the message had served its purpose.
Mo Cangyan knew Qin Yuheng had stood before one of the outer doors.
And Qin Yuheng had refused.
Again.
