"The area is too vast. Even if something is hidden, it won't be easy to find," Zhou You said as he pried a stone slab open with his dagger, revealing a budding shoot beneath. Upon seeing the sunlight, it sprang to life, writhing excitedly.

Taking a handful of soil, Zhou You observed nothing unusual. He asked Shao Qi, "What do you think might be hidden here? If it's not a person, we can just blow it up with a bomb."

"No rush. Later, we'll capture someone from the Zhu family and interrogate them."

"By the way, should we check on the others? I wonder how things are going for them."

"Don't worry. They're just watching over some children. The guards the Zhu family sent are just low-level warriors, and the mutated beasts aren't that formidable. If our team can't handle this, how can they confront the entire Zhu family?"

Zhou You jumped onto a boulder, overlooking the stone forest, musing, "The Zhu family hides its strength well. Did Xu Yintian realize this and went into hiding, leaving you to solve this puzzle?"

"He can't hide for long."

From his vantage point, Zhou You discerned a pattern in the stone pillars' arrangement, "Come up and see this."

Shao Qi leaped up beside him and after observing for a moment, laughed, "Impressive. Who thought of this? Do you know how to break this formation?"

From above, they could see the stone pillars arranged like the Yin-Yang and the Eight Trigrams. The positioning of each pillar seemed intentional. Whoever designed this stone forest was certainly no ordinary person.

"Look closely. See those two stones, one on the left and one on the right? The ones with patterns we touched earlier? When combined, don't they form a whole stone?"

"True, but what's the point? Are we supposed to piece the stones together?" Shao Qi jumped down and pushed one of the stones to no avail. Zhou You tried the same on the other side and then circled the stone, looking for any mechanisms.

"Hey, there's a movable block at the base," Zhou You noted. Soon after, Shao Qi discovered a similar block on his side, shouting, "On the count of three, we'll press them simultaneously."

"Agreed."

As they pressed the blocks following the countdown, a mechanical sound echoed. Both men instinctively jumped back, on guard for potential hidden traps.

But after a minute, nothing drastic happened. On closer inspection, Zhou You realized that where the blocks had been, there was now a keyhole. It seemed this mechanism wasn't entirely automated.

He patted himself down, untwisting a piece of wire from the rope he carried. After fiddling with it for a while, he inserted it into the lock, probing repeatedly until he finally heard the sound of the lock clicking open.

Rushing over to Shao Qi, he noticed that he too was busy manipulating his lock. Shortly after, both locks clicked open, revealing the sound of shifting stones. However, it wasn't their lock but a stone pillar located along the central line of the Bagua that moved, unveiling a passage just wide enough for a person.

Shao Qi tossed down a glow stick; the hole wasn't deep, perhaps three or four meters. The light revealed nothing significant, and there were no sounds or unusual odors, piquing their curiosity.

The two exchanged a glance. One secured a rope to the stone pillar while the other checked their equipment. They then descended into the opening, one after the other.

Upon landing, Shao Qi switched on his flashlight. The strong beam illuminated a vast stone chamber filled with rows of bookshelves, all laden with books.

Zhou You was astounded, "Did the Zhu family plan to open a library here?"

Shao Qi randomly picked a few books, all published before the apocalypse. Though educational content had evolved in the past ten years, many households preserved older books. Cultural heritage remained intact despite the massive catastrophe; however, the once-popular literature now seemed out of favor as survival became paramount.

"What's the Zhu family's intent? To preserve these old books?"

"Unlikely. In the first two years following the catastrophe, all known books were digitized and stored. Why would they go through such trouble just to keep these physical copies?" It didn't seem like a move an ambitious family would make.

Browsing, Zhou You stumbled upon a thin, worn-out book with a barely readable cover. Flipping it open, he discovered it was a martial arts manual. Though not particularly advanced, it was certainly a hidden treasure.

"Could it be that the Zhu family stored all the martial art techniques they collected from the outside world here?" Zhou You quickly scanned a few more book titles and noticed some anomalies. Meanwhile, Shao Qi pulled a famous book only to find martial arts techniques hidden inside.

"Who came up with this idea? Masking martial arts manuals with ordinary covers. But not all these books can be manuals. How do they differentiate?"

"Probably, the Zhu family has a catalog. These books are arranged sequentially; just a list would suffice." Zhou You reached the top shelf and found a box labeled "Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance." Inside were fresh illustrations of a sword technique called the "Eternal Spring Technique."

"Isn't the 'Eternal Spring Technique' something Cheng Suyan mentioned?"

"It's a top-tier sword technique from the Wan Sword Sect. Few know it. The fact that the Zhu family procured it suggests a significant investment. Ever since martial arts resurfaced, conflicts over such manuals have been relentless. And judging by these illustrations, they probably bribed a disciple from the Wan Sword Sect to sketch them out. They only have the swordplay without the corresponding internal techniques; it's not complete."

Zhou You tucked it away, intending to show it to Cheng Suyan.