Chapter 448: Chapter 416: Stone Chamber

Glancing around, Li Qian found that the space inside the Earth Palace was quite spacious.

The archaeological team had placed illuminating Crystal Stones in various corners, so the entire space wasn’t dim at all.

Upon entering, the three of them unconsciously slowed their steps.

Some excavation and survey work was still underway inside, and many of the archaeological team members were busy.

Li Qian didn’t want to disturb them.

’I’m just here to look around; I can’t interfere with their work.’

The three of them walked lightly. While the Earth Palace was spacious, it wasn’t nearly as vast as the world above. Li Qian was in no hurry, so he started from his left, examining the stone walls and statues one by one.

Li Qian didn’t let a single detail escape his notice, doing his best to commit the images on the stone carvings and the patterns on the murals to memory.

’I don’t know which pieces of information will be useful, so I can only resort to this clumsy method.’

After looking over most of the stone carvings, murals, and statues in the palace, Li Qian’s expression remained unchanged, but a touch of disappointment welled up inside him.

Mission Three, the second evolution method for the Four-tailed Cat, showed no progress. It was still stuck at seventy-five percent.

In other words, he hadn’t gained any Inspiration Value from this entire walkthrough.

Though Li Qian was a little disappointed, he wasn’t discouraged. He shifted his attention to a spot on the northern wall.

Seeing this, Bai Bingbing quickly walked over and continued her explanation. "There are three stone chambers here."

Li Qian nodded and followed her.

Without hesitating, he walked directly into the closest stone chamber, the one on the far right.

Bai Bingbing and Irina followed close behind him.

Inside, Li Qian found that the stone chamber wasn’t large—probably less than a hundred square meters.

The most conspicuous object was a statue standing in the center.

To be precise, it was two statues, but they were connected, giving the impression of a single paired sculpture.

The main figure of the statue was one of the Rong People.

The Rong warrior stood about 2.2 meters tall, his entire body covered in jagged Iron Armor, giving him a majestic and imposing look.

Next to the armored Rong warrior lay a white cat, roughly the size of a full-grown tiger.

This white cat statue was very distinctive. Its most prominent feature was... a vertical eye on its forehead.

It looked quite extraordinary.

"All three stone chambers have a statue like this one," Bai Bingbing continued, clarifying for Li Qian. "These three statues likely depict the most respected and prestigious people of Luoying City."

Li Qian nodded, agreeing with her point.

’Only someone highly respected would be honored with a statue.’

’They were likely the leaders or ancestors of this branch of the Rong People from Luoying City.’

"So the three cat-like Pet Beast statues next to the statues of the Rong People must represent their strongest combatants, right?" Li Qian speculated, connecting her words to his own thoughts.

Bai Bingbing nodded, then asked, "Don’t you find it strange?"

"What’s strange?" Li Qian asked, confused about what she was getting at.

Bai Bingbing looked at the statue in the chamber and pointed out something odd. "The statues here all depict one person and one Pet Beast!"

"It does seem that way..." Li Qian recalled the images he’d seen on the surface level and, connecting them with what was here, fell into thought.

Bai Bingbing slowly walked closer, her focused gaze resting on the statue. "That’s because... although the Extraordinary path of the Rong People in the Fourth Epoch was also Beast Taming, their primary method involved forming a contract with only a single Pet Beast."

After a pause, she continued, "It’s like some of the Unique Contract Secret Techniques in our world. They can maximize a Pet Beast’s growth speed and allow the tamer to focus all their energy on raising that one creature."

Li Qian nodded and offered his own take. "But the limitations are also obvious. It offers poor combat flexibility. If you’re countered, you’ll be in big trouble."

The two of them continued their discussion as they circled the statue, examining it.

A moment later, having found nothing of value, Li Qian shifted his gaze to the stone murals on the chamber’s side walls.

The murals were dense and packed with content.

The events they depicted were also quite complex.

There were battles between Pet Beasts, scenes of the Rong People fighting alongside their pets, depictions of bizarre flowers, and even completely incomprehensible, tadpole-like Runes.

[Mission Three: Second evolution method for the Four-tailed Cat. Inspiration Value +8. Current mission progress: 83%!]

A notification immediately sounded in Li Qian’s mind as his gaze swept over a particular pattern.

"This is a Snake-Eyed Tree Fruit..." Li Qian murmured, observing it intently. He couldn’t help but frown, as if he’d noticed something.

But he quickly shook his head, dismissing his initial thought. "No, that’s not it. This isn’t a Snake-Eyed Tree Fruit, just a fruit that looks very similar."

"What is this? It looks a lot like a Snake-Eyed Tree Fruit," Li Qian asked, pointing at the pattern on the mural.

"It just looks like one. In reality, it isn’t," Bai Bingbing said, trying to recall. "I heard from Teacher Yang that this fruit is apparently called ’Jade Spirit Eyes’."

The very instant the three words "Jade Spirit Eyes" left her lips, Li Qian’s Inspiration Value increased by another two points, bringing the mission progress to eighty-five percent.

’This means that Jade Spirit Eyes is, without a doubt, one of the Extraordinary Materials needed for the evolution.’

Li Qian silently committed the name to memory. Without saying anything more, he continued scanning the mural.

When Li Qian saw densely packed little figures on the mural performing a strange dance, his heart stirred once more.

[Mission Three: Second evolution method for the Four-tailed Cat. Inspiration Value +10. Current mission progress: 95%!]

Suppressing his joy, Li Qian looked back at Bai Bingbing, hoping to get more information out of her.

This time, however, he was out of luck.

She just shook her head helplessly, indicating that she didn’t know what it was either.

’I’ll ask Teacher Liang after we leave the Earth Palace,’ Li Qian decided. ’It’s normal for Bingbing not to know; she’s just a new student, after all.’

’Teacher Liang is different. She’s the leader of this archaeological team and a renowned archaeologist in the Dongxia Federation. She should have some information.’

Soon, Li Qian had finished examining all the murals in the stone chamber.

Without pausing, the three of them moved on to the second stone chamber.

This second stone chamber was also filled with dense murals.

In the center, there was another statue.

This statue, however, was different from the last. Although its main figure was also one of the Rong People, he wasn’t wearing Iron Armor. Instead, he was dressed in a loose-fitting Magic Robe.

The Pet Beast statue beside him was different as well. It had a humanoid form, a pair of pointed ears, and a long tail trailing behind it. It looked a bit like... a cat-person.

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