It's undeniable—the underground scene is truly somewhat horrifying.

A pitch-black skeleton stands silently opposed to a crystal-clear ice coffin, the entire scene has an indescribable eerie feeling.

It's as if Kun is dancing "Ji Ni is so beautiful" on one side, while your waifu Bingbing is quietly reading a book on the other side, creating discord.

Following this, Zhang Yaqing zoomed in, fully revealing the appearance of the person inside the ice coffin.

It was a girl of eleven or twelve years old, slightly older than Hua Xiaomo, with exquisite features and knee-length hair enveloping her body like a flower bud.

Although the infrared camera couldn't distinguish the hair color and some other details, from the rising and falling of the chest of the person in the ice coffin, it can be preliminarily judged that this young girl shows relatively clear signs of life.

Simultaneously, with the unfolding scene, a strong sense of doubt arises among everyone present:

What exactly is the origin of this ice coffin and the girl?

Who is the skeleton beside her?

Why did she and it appear deep in the underground of the Mo family's location?

The skeleton lacking life signs is somewhat understandable, such cases of seclusive mishaps occurring in the Damo Realm are not considered too bizarre.

But how is the girl in the ice coffin maintaining vital signs in a low oxygen environment?

The current situation has already surpassed the scope that Zhang Yaqing can control and handle, so he quickly reported this to the Longxing River, who then passed it on to the command center.

Half an hour later, the reply from the command center reached Longxing River:

"A medium-sized rotational press set from the Life Experiment Base has been urgently dispatched by the vehicle company towards Sheepback City, expected to arrive in two and a half to three hours.

During the wait, please immediately conduct interrogations of the Mo family members with Patriarch Wei's assistance, allowing the use of truth-telling magic under certain circumstances!"

The response from the command center was undeniably decisive.

It was previously mentioned that in the Damo Realm, some soul-controlling or truth-telling magic exists, and the rabbits have long started researching psychic armor regarding this aspect.

Generally, the effect of soul-controlling magic wielded by Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators varies from person to person.

Warriors like Yan Shaohua with firm willpower are hard to fully control, while those with less resistance are much easier.

Truth-telling magic, on the other hand, is much more special; it is easier to perform than soul-controlling magic but comes with the potential cost of causing irreversible permanent brain damage to the victim.

Now, under the resource inclination from the rabbits, Patriarch Wei has fully restored his cultivation before the siege warfare.

He even built anew after destruction and advanced his cultivation slightly, possibly breaking through to the fifth layer of Foundation Establishment soon.

Moreover, Mo Lisen and others' cultivation has been utterly ruined, facing huge psychological impacts, which leaves some room for the use of truth-telling magic.

After all, the Mo family upper echelon isn't limited to Mo Lisen alone; there are elders with high seniority but average cultivation in the family.

Because of various reasons, they have lived long, and their status has naturally elevated.

Saying nicely, they're like living fossils; saying harshly, they're old immortals.

These people may not surpass Mo Lisen in cultivation, but they often possess many secrets.

They might know some information about the ice coffin.

Two hours and ten minutes later, several military trucks arrived twenty minutes earlier than expected outside Sheepback City.

This medium-sized rotational press isn't particularly large, with standard dimensions of 10500X2500X3200mm (referencing Yu Tai Heavy Industry's Jin'gang T50).

Thanks to the drill's ability to be placed horizontally, this equipment didn't need to be dismantled or transported by green courier vehicles; it was effortlessly moved into the Mo Family Manor after unloading.

The person responsible for this drilling task is Company Commander Chu, from an engineering team under construction, module support engineering company.

He is also among the first batch of engineers who came to the Damo Realm, previously participating in the construction of military bases and thermal power plants.

"Greetings, Company Commander Chu, I'm Lin Ziming."

After meeting, Lin Ziming first greeted Chu Jian, then said:

"Let's skip the pleasantries for now, have you comprehended the command center's plan?"

Chu Jian nodded, pointing to the driver's cabin, replied:

"We've already gone over the construction drawings on our way here, it's not too challenging to operate.

As long as we expand the ground entrance to around three meters and then drill a vertical hole with a diameter of 2.2 meters, and depth of thirty-four meters."

Based on prior detection by micro-sense robots, the underground passage isn't vertical but resembles a spoon-like shape.

Meaning the position of the ice coffin is in a hidden compartment 45° diagonally downward, about thirty to forty meters deep.

Furthermore, due to the hidden compartment entrance being only half a meter, the rabbits want to delve underground, for sure needing another passage—after all, the people present aren't Guo XSi, unable to fit through such a narrow entrance.

The military rotary drilling machine dispatched by the command center has a borehole diameter capability of 2200mm and a maximum borehole depth of 39 meters, sufficient to reach the ice coffin's depth.

Simultaneously, considering prudent measures, the command center didn't opt to drill directly above the ice coffin.

Instead, they planned to dig straight down from the hidden compartment entrance to reach the same underground level as the ice coffin before conducting manual lateral excavation.

The specific lateral excavation task is assisted by small hydraulic drilling machines and cultivators like Wei Fan.

The above process is a bit troublesome, but as the saying goes:

This is the Damo Realm; the unstable factors here are too many, who knows if a Nascent Soul Old Monster might suddenly pop up somewhere.

Thus, during such unknown exploration missions, countless weapons tightly target the area.

Not exaggeratedly speaking, this kind of excavation task, once completed, won't incur a machinery loss cost less than 35%.

Returning vision to the attic.

The hydraulic excavator module was directly transferred from the Life Experiment Base, it took only twenty minutes to prepare after reaching, and engages in excavation combat.

Gazing at the demolished attic ruins for ease of excavation, Lin Ziming suddenly recalled the scene, months ago, standing before Wu Fan's milk tea shop ruins.

Such déjà vu.....

However, speaking of Wu Fan, who knows how that young man is doing now?

Are you still alive?

According to local laws and regulations, one can be declared dead if they have been missing for two years due to an accidental event.

I hope this little brother has luck on his side...

Just as Lin Ziming's thoughts were wandering, Patriarch Wei suddenly descended from the sky, his single-armed sword control quite reminiscent of an elderly Yang Guo:

"Colonel Lin, Director Du and I have already interrogated Mo Lisen and others; none of them know the origin of this secret compartment."

Hearing this, Lin Ziming frowned and asked:

"Patriarch Wei, how accurate is this result?"

Patriarch Wei pondered for a moment and explained:

"The accuracy should be quite high. I used some... uh, special methods, and Director Du also had some equipment from the homeland assisting. All the results show they know nothing."

He then paused and continued:

"Additionally, according to the testimony of an elder of the Mo Family, this pavilion is one of the Mo Family's ancestral buildings, belonging to the residence of the Mo Family's third ancestor over two hundred years ago.

This third ancestor of the Mo Family was also a formidable figure, possessing the mutated dual spiritual roots of gold and earth, having once reached the Fifth-Layer Core Formation Realm, which was far more powerful than the Mo Family's founding ancestor.

Unlike the founding ancestor and the second ancestor of the Mo Family who liked lavish splendor, the third ancestor preferred a simple and ancient environment, so he built this small pavilion here.

In fact, just by looking at the location of this pavilion, you can tell: in the east, which is considered noble. Buildings situated to the east of the manor are generally of some significance."

"The cultivation reached the Fifth-Layer Core Formation Realm?"

Upon hearing this, Lin Ziming looked at Patriarch Wei with some surprise.

Currently, he is a Qi Cultivation Second Layer cultivator, ranking third in the camp, a rarity among the locals.

Hence, he deeply understands the concept of the Core Formation Realm, knowing how high a threshold it represents in the field of cultivation.

Like the first batch of transmigrators, Wei Siming, whose circumstances are considered exceptional among locals, only managed to reach the Ninth-Layer Foundation Establishment Perfection after all.

Although the time of the Mo Family's third ancestor predates Wei Siming by more than a hundred years, and there might be differences in the spiritual energy reserves between the two periods in the Damo Realm, this is enough to illustrate the extraordinary nature of the Mo Family's third ancestor.

At the same time, in the command center over seventy kilometers away in Sheepback City, Ma Ning suddenly frowned:

"That's not right... If there were a Fifth-Layer Core Formation Realm cultivator in Sheepback City, how could its size remain so small?"

Lin Li, reminded by Ma Ning's words, also suddenly sensed something amiss.

Apart from small towns in the Qi Cultivation Stage, the cities with scales in the Damo Realm can generally be divided into the following categories:

First, cities established by Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators, with populations ranging from ten to fifty thousand.

Second, cities with Core Formation Realm cultivators overseeing them. The population in these fluctuates greatly, but the minimum is generally seventy to eighty thousand. Cities like Ziqiong City, which have a Nascent Soul great cultivator in their ancestry, can reach a population of even two million.

Third, there are the super large cities overseen by Nascent Soul Realm cultivators. Currently, most Nascent Souls reside in demon bastions, and cities with living Nascent Soul great cultivators are scarce, with the closest one being tens of thousands of miles away in Chixian City.

Therefore, possessing the Fifth-Layer Core Formation Realm capability, one can surely dominate a considerable area.

After a while, Ma Ning gestured for Lin Li to hand over the communicator:

"Colonel Lin, could you please ask Patriarch Wei if the Mo Family's third ancestor ever encountered any trouble?"

Inside Sheepback City, Lin Ziming reiterated Ma Ning's question.

Patriarch Wei nodded upon hearing this and said:

"Indeed, according to the Mo Family elder's account and the examination of their genealogy, we discovered that the third ancestor disappeared during a journey in his eighties.

As a result, this pavilion was left abandoned. Initially, it was maintained periodically, but by Mo Lisen's generation, it was only cleaned during the annual ancestral ceremonies, and even then, they were too lazy to place a Dust Avoidance Talisman—after all, it's been over two hundred years; expecting them to clean it daily is impossible."

Lin Ziming nodded upon hearing this; the Mo Family was indeed capable of such things—an opportunistic family that would never truly respect or cherish kinship.

Then Patriarch Wei paused and continued:

"Colonel Lin, based on this information, Director Du has also made a conjecture."

"Oh? A conjecture?"

Patriarch Wei nodded and explained:

"Since this pavilion originally belonged to the Mo Family's third ancestor... could the skeleton be related to the third ancestor, or might it even be him?"

"?!"

Hearing Patriarch Wei's words, Lin Ziming's breath caught immediately.

He opened his mouth, wanting to refute, but didn't know where to start.

Then he thought of something and quickly said:

"Wait... if those are indeed the remains of the Mo Family's third ancestor, then what about the ice coffin? How did it come to be?"

Patriarch Wei looked at him, speaking each word deliberately:

"If that skeleton is truly the Mo Family's third ancestor, then the origin of the ice coffin has only two possibilities:

Either someone entered the passage at a later time and placed the ice coffin beside the skeleton.

Or it indicates that the ice coffin has been stored underground for at least...

two hundred years!"

...

Note:

Yesterday, I struggled for a while over whether to eat Japanese cuisine or cake, and then I realized I was being a bit silly. Why couldn't I just eat both in two meals...

So, I had Japanese cuisine for lunch and ordered a cake for dinner... Surely, writing books is taxing on the brain; see, the kid is almost turning silly. How about some monthly tickets?

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