"So, this means we’re experiencing the same events every day, yet our own time continues to pass. If we can’t break this cycle, we’ll be trapped here until we die."

"Mm."

Ye Langtian nodded and said thoughtfully, "Over the past few days, we’ve scoured all of Ye Family Town, day and night, but we still can’t find the Ancient Well."

"Master, does the Ancient Well even exist?"

"I don’t know."

Xu Qing fell into a thoughtful silence, then said, "Since the first we heard about the Ancient Well was in the tavern, and we’ve found nothing after all these days, let’s start our investigation from the very beginning."

"Yes."

Ye Langtian nodded.

「Night fell.」

Xu Qing and Ye Langtian exchanged a look and entered the tavern once more. They returned to their original table and waited quietly.

Before long, Xu Qing heard the familiar voices again.

"Did you hear? Just this morning, an ancient well suddenly appeared in the main hall of the County Magistrate’s Office. All sorts of sounds keep coming from it—women giggling, men shouting, babies wailing, even cries for help."

"I heard about that! It’s so bizarre. The County Magistrate sent a bunch of people down the Ancient Well to investigate, but none of them ever came back."

"Yeah! That’s right!"

"And get this—the County Magistrate even had his men drop a huge boulder into it, but they never heard it hit the bottom. It’s like the Ancient Well is a bottomless pit."

...

The patrons in the tavern buzzed with discussion.

"Mm."

Xu Qing and Ye Langtian glanced at each other.

Without hesitation, the two of them stood up and walked toward the group that was talking—a nearby table with five people, three men and two women.

"Excuse me,"

Xu Qing and Ye Langtian approached, stopping behind one of the three men—a middle-aged man with a square-shaped face. "We overheard what you were saying and are quite interested. Would you mind telling us more in detail?"

"Who are you?"

The square-faced man’s expression darkened. "What do you want?"

"Nothing much,"

Xu Qing replied calmly. "We just want to know more about the Ancient Well."

"No comment,"

the square-faced man huffed coldly.

BOOM!

The next moment, Xu Qing and Ye Langtian both took a step forward. Xu Qing unleashed his terrifying and powerful First Level Devouring True Intent, while Ye Langtian released his immensely strong First Level Martial Dao True Intent.

!!!

The square-faced man was instantly suppressed by the two First Level True Intents. His eyes went wide, as if two massive mountains had just crashed down on top of him.

"You... You..."

The square-faced man’s face was a mask of terror.

!!!

The other four were similarly crushed into silence, their faces filled with fear and awe for Xu Qing and Ye Langtian. They looked one second away from dropping to their knees.

"Speak."

VMMMM!

Xu Qing and Ye Langtian retracted their True Intents, and the square-faced man could finally gasp for air.

"S-Seniors... p-please, ask away. I... I’ll tell you everything I know, I swear,"

the square-faced man said respectfully.

"We only want to know about the Ancient Well,"

Ye Langtian said.

"Yes, yes, of course."

The square-faced man quickly gathered his thoughts. "Seniors, my brother-in-law is actually the Chief Constable at the County Magistrate’s Office, so I know a bit of inside information."

"In fact,"

"the Ancient Well first appeared a month ago. It only shows up during the day, never at night. Whenever it appears, all kinds of different sounds come from it. These sounds have the power to bewitch people’s minds, causing them to lose their senses and jump right into the Ancient Well."

...

Time passed as the square-faced man told Xu Qing everything he knew. However, none of the information he had about the Ancient Well was particularly valuable.

The Ancient Well’s powers were bizarre, capable of luring people to jump to their deaths. At first, the situation was manageable, but as time went on, the well bewitched and "swallowed" more and more people, and its mouth began to slowly widen.

At first, the mouth of the Ancient Well was only one meter in diameter. But after more than a month, as it consumed more and more people, the opening had expanded to ten meters.

Its diameter had increased tenfold.

Later, even the County Magistrate was nearly bewitched by the Ancient Well’s voices and almost jumped in.

Furthermore, the County Magistrate had actually summoned many experts from Ye Family Town, but none of these masters could do anything about the Ancient Well.

One Qi Refiner, confident in his own formidable strength and resilient mind, even attempted to use a Forbidden Technique called the Demon Sealing Wave Technique to seal the Ancient Well.

In the end, the Qi Refiner failed. Not only did he fail to seal it, but he suffered a backlash from the Demon Sealing Wave Technique. His mind fell into chaos, and he was subsequently bewitched by the Ancient Well and jumped in.

"Do you know how to find the Ancient Well?"

Xu Qing asked in a low voice.

"Huh?!"

The square-faced man’s eyes widened in disbelief. Everyone else was trying to stay as far away from the Ancient Well as possible; he never imagined these two seniors would actually want to seek it out.

"You don’t have to look for the Ancient Well. It appears in the main hall of the County Magistrate’s Office during the day,"

the square-faced man said.

"Is there any other way?"

Xu Qing pressed.

"Huh?"

Xu Qing’s question seemed to confuse the square-faced man. "Another way? Why would you need one? The Ancient Well doesn’t appear at night, but it will be in the main hall of the County Magistrate’s Office during the day."

"I need another way!"

Xu Qing’s tone hardened.

"This... I..."

The square-faced man grew anxious. He didn’t know another way, but seeing the increasingly hostile glares from the two seniors, he had a feeling that if he dared to say he didn’t know, death would be his only path.

"S-Seniors..."

Just as the square-faced man was at a loss, one of the other four—a woman with a delicate, melon-seed-shaped face—spoke up in a small voice.

"What is it?"

Xu Qing looked over.

"I... I actually know of another way,"

the woman with the melon-seed-shaped face said.

"Speak."

A glint appeared in Xu Qing’s eyes.

"Actually, I don’t know if this method will work."

The woman sounded extremely nervous. Facing Xu Qing’s gaze, she could only force herself to continue, "You have to find an ordinary well at 12:45 AM. Then, walk around it nine times to the left, and then nine times to the right, returning to where you started. You cut the tip of your middle finger and let nine drops of blood fall into the well."

"But,"

"the timing for all this must be perfect. You can’t be too fast or too slow. You must have finished everything right at the stroke of midnight."

"Not a second more, not a second less."

"After all that is done, if you look at the ordinary well again, it will be connected to the Ancient Well."

"Where did you learn this method?"

Xu Qing asked.

"A-Actually... I’m one of the people who was bewitched by the Ancient Well. I almost jumped in... I was rescued at the last second."

The woman with the melon-seed-shaped face continued, "After I was saved, because I had been influenced by the Ancient Well, this information just... appeared in my mind out of nowhere. It feels like the method is teaching me how to summon the Ancient Well, to pull me back into it. That’s why I’ve kept it buried inside and never dared to speak of it."