The Heart-Questioning Stone test continued.
A green-robed youth with a grim, sinister-looking face quickly stepped out of the crowd and stopped before the Heart-Questioning Stone. As instructed, he placed his palm against its warm, smooth surface.
Elder Zhang asked the first question.
Nothing happened.
Then he asked the second.
"Did you come here today at the behest of another sect or faction?"
The youth shook his head again, his answer firm and decisive.
"No—"
Before the word had even left his mouth, the light within the Heart-Questioning Stone visibly dimmed. In the blink of an eye, it went out.
Wisps of black mist began to churn within the stone. Like ink dropped into clear water, they rapidly spread and coiled through it, staining the translucent, milky-white stone with an eerie darkness. Soon, nothing remained but thick black mist roiling deep within.
From a distance, it looked almost like a lifeless black stone.
