Chapter 12: The Heretic's Disruption

Yang Rui and Su Jin hurried straight to the “Triangular Bronze Flow Well” in the backyard. The stone slab covering the well had split open with a wide crack, from which thin wisps of visible white cold air continuously seeped out. The surrounding grass and trees were coated with a thin layer of frost. Su Jin’s monitoring instrument had already sounded the alarm. On the screen, the curves representing the static magnetic field and the 18Hz subsonic energy surged wildly like untamed horses, reaching unprecedented peaks—surpassing even the levels at the initial outbreak. The entire estate’s energy field was in a state of violent turbulence.

“The energy is rebounding! Even stronger than before!” Su Jin’s face was pale as she rapidly operated the instrument. “The guiding stakes haven’t been deployed yet. The old ‘Bronze Flow Well’ simply cannot withstand such a powerful energy impact! It’s been ‘burst open’!”

“It’s deliberate!” Yang Rui squatted beside the cracked stone slab, his gaze sharp as an eagle’s. He wiped away the frost around the fissure with his hand and found a few dark red traces on the damp earth—still not fully coagulated, emitting a faint metallic stench: blood. But not human blood. It carried an indescribably chilling aura, as if it were a sinister, corrupted blood mixed with cinnabar and some special substance.

“Someone has polluted the ‘Energy Vent’ with filth!” Yang Rui’s voice was icy and piercing. “This corrupted blood contains negative energy and chaotic information, like pouring a ladle of cold water into a boiling pot of oil. It has utterly enraged the underground energy that had just been redirected and not yet calmed! It triggered an even more violent backlash! Qi Ming’s symptoms worsening, the glass shattering, and the flickering lights are all results of this ferocious energy assault!”

“Who?!” Chen Bojun’s eyes blazed with fury as he immediately thought of a person. “Chen Zhonghao! And that old Taoist charlatan! Only they came yesterday! And with ill intent!”

At that moment, the steward came running, out of breath, holding a crushed phone. “Master! Found it by the back wall! It belongs to… the attendant beside the second young master! There’s a bit of red paint-like substance on it!”

The evidence was irrefutable. Chen Bojun’s anger surged, and he was about to call for reinforcements.

“Boss Chen! Wait!” Yang Rui stopped him, his expression grave. “Catching them isn’t the priority now! The urgent matter is to save lives and quell the energy! Qi Ming and the matriarch’s conditions are critical. We must immediately suppress this violent energy field! Otherwise, the consequences will be unimaginable!”

He took a deep breath, as if resolving to do something momentous. From the bottom of his tool bag, he pulled out a long object wrapped in thick yellow silk. Layer by layer, he unveiled the ancestral bronze compass.

The ancient compass reacted violently within the turbulent energy field. The needle inside the celestial pool spun wildly like a windmill, humming sharply. The entire bronze dial trembled subtly, as if struggling to break free from Yang Rui’s grip.

“Yang Rui, what are you going to do?” Su Jin asked, her heart filled with unease as she watched the compass’s fierce reaction.

“Use it.” Yang Rui’s gaze was resolute, even tinged with a hint of determination. “This compass isn’t merely a measuring tool. It is the true heirloom of the Yang family’s geomantic school! Its core materials and engraved talismans inherently possess strong ‘field stabilization’ and ‘guiding anchoring’ properties. When my grandfather held it before he died, it was not just for remembrance—it was a warning about its true purpose and... the cost.”

Clutching the humming, trembling compass, he strode toward the violent energy core in the backyard—the split Bronze Flow Well. The raging magnetic field made his hair stand on end, and the biting cold and low-frequency hum assaulted his senses.

“Yang Rui! Danger!” Su Jin shouted. The instruments showed energy intensity near the well’s mouth had reached levels that could cause instant unconsciousness or even death.

Yang Rui seemed not to hear. He stopped three steps from the fissure, closed his eyes, and muttered words—an awkward, cryptic incantation his grandfather had repeated before passing, which Yang Rui had once thought mere delirium. At the same time, his hands moved in a complex, rhythmic pattern above the compass, tracing invisible talismanic signs.

With his gestures, the wildly spinning compass needle began to slow—though still trembling fiercely, its rotation became orderly, as if restrained by an unseen force. More astonishingly, the compass started to emit a soft, stable pale golden glow—barely visible to the naked eye but detectable by instruments.

This pale golden radiance spread like an invisible dome, smoothing out the wildly surging magnetic field curves as if touched by a giant hand. The piercing 18Hz subsonic spike rapidly attenuated on the spectrogram. The cold air gushing from the cracked Bronze Flow Well noticeably weakened.

The estate’s raging energy field was forcibly suppressed and calmed by this small compass. The flickering lights ceased, the biting cold faded, and the terrifying peak energy curves on the instruments fell back into safe ranges.

The roaring in Chen Qiming’s room gradually subsided into weak moans.

Everyone was stunned, including Su Jin. She stared at the instrument’s incredible data changes and at Yang Rui, holding the compass with closed eyes as if communicating with some grand force. Her heart surged with overwhelming emotions. This was far beyond the explanation of known scientific principles. What exactly was this compass?

When the energy field was finally stabilized within a controllable range, Yang Rui slowly opened his eyes. His face was as pale as paper, his forehead covered in fine cold sweat, his body slightly swaying as if drained of great strength. The compass in his hands stopped humming and trembling, its needle steadily pointing north, but the ancient bronze surface seemed darker than before—more somber.

“Temporarily… stabilized,” Yang Rui’s voice was hoarse, tinged with exhaustion. He looked at the astonished Chen Bojun and Su Jin, his eyes complex. “But this is only a temporary measure. The compass’s power must not be overused and won’t hold for long. We must immediately deploy our optimized ‘guiding stakes’! Unless the true source is eliminated, the next outbreak... even the compass may not suppress it.”

He lowered his gaze to the compass bearing the family’s secrets and his grandfather’s legacy, then recalled the greedy glance of the Taoist Xuan Zhen when he left. The crisis was temporarily averted, but a greater storm seemed to be quietly descending, following the true power revealed by this compass. Chen Zhonghao and that corrupted Taoist would never relent. And the secrets hidden within this compass were likely even more terrifying than the earth demons beneath the old mansion.