Chapter 1178 Locate the Route

He went deeper into the tunnel.

Fang Qiu walked carefully as he scrutinized the surrounding rock walls. He wanted to see if the ancients had left anything behind on these rock surfaces.

Unfortunately, he didn’t see anything along the way.

He had no idea how far he had gone.

Anyway, when Fang Qiu felt that he had walked a long distance, a big shining ball of light emerged ahead.

“That’s it!”

The moment he saw the light ball, Fang Qiu’s Divine Consciousness reacted. Immediately, he confirmed the fluctuation of the Qi of Heaven and Earth under the lake was from the fluorescent ball in front of him.

This was the site.

Fang Qiu could clearly perceive the special fluctuation of the Qi of Heaven and Earth!

Perhaps because this place was too far away, plus there was a formation that sealed the cave off from the outside world and a lake, it was difficult to detect the fluctuation of the Qi of Heaven and Earth from outside.

“Could the light be coming from the wooden puppets?”

The fluorescent ball before him emitted the same kind of light as the bunch of wooden puppets he had met before, but it was dozens or even hundreds of times stronger than the light from the dozens of wooden puppets.

“Whoosh.”

Fang Qiu shifted slightly and directly picked up his mobile phone and made a sprint for the light ball.

He arrived at the place where the light was.

He then trained his eyes on the site.

To his surprise, he saw a stone cave at the end of the tunnel.

It was like a mine that had been dug open. A tunnel of the same size extended several meters into it. All sides of the stone walls were studded with the same jade stones as those in the wooden puppets!

This cave was a jade stone mine!

Seeing that the jade mine had already been excavated, Fang Qiu was instantly rooted to the spot.

“Oh, my gosh!

“I’m going to be rich!”

Taking a closer look, he saw a rich and thick layer of jade here that stretched far away and only the top few meters had been mined. At present, less than one percent of the mine had been used.

If all these jade stones were excavated, they could weigh hundreds of tons at least!

…

“No matter what, this place is still a relic, isn’t it?”

Those people outside the cave, who had gone to search for John Doe several times, gathered together again in the open space before the pavilion. One of them said, “John Doe, he couldn’t run far away with a wooden puppet, right?”

“There’s nothing here, and there’s only a desert outside without anything to explore. Why would he run out?”

“Could it be that this brat didn’t get out at all?”

Someone made a guess.

Everyone was a little taken aback.

“Didn’t he go out? Then where is he hiding?”

“Just now, we’ve searched all around. There was nothing and nobody in this pavilion, let alone outside. It’s all empty. There’s no place where he can hide from us.”

“No. One place seems to have been left out.”

One of them stepped forward.

As he spoke, he pointed to the lake next to the pavilion.

Immediately, everyone turned to look at the lake.

…

In the depths of the lake, Fang Qiu finally collected his wits after standing in shock at the jade mine for a long time. Feeling the extremely thick Qi of Heaven and Earth floating around him, he sucked in a lungful of air.

He even felt that he had swallowed the Qi of Heaven and Earth straight into his belly.

Inside his body, his internal Qi surged slightly.

The air he sucked into his belly turned into a stream of Qi of Heaven and Earth instantly and integrated into his meridians in no time.

“What the fuck.”

Fang Qiu was in shock.

This place was way too terrifying.

In this place, martial arts practitioners didn’t even need to cultivate. Merely by sitting here, they could feel their strength rising constantly. This cave was nothing less than a martial arts practitioners making machine!

Although astounded, Fang Qiu understood how it worked.

So much Qi of Heaven and Earth converged here because of these jade stones, which could attract the Qi of Heaven and Earth, but did not release any. By taking in the Qi of Heaven and Earth, these jade stones became magically powerful.

The thick Qi of Heaven and Earth was drawn here by those jade stones in the past hundreds or even thousands of years. That was to say, the resources were limited and could be exhausted. The best way to use this mine was to nourish it.

Fang Qiu took out his phone.

He had to call Li Ji.

“Hello?”

The call was connected.

“Can you locate me now?” Fang Qiu asked.

“Yes.”

Li Ji nodded with certainty and said, “I’ve been keeping up with your location and waiting for you to call me.”

“Great.”

Fang Qiu nodded with satisfaction and said, “Remember my precise position at this moment. Take care not to deviate in the slightest.”

“No problem.”

Li Ji nodded in response.

Fang Qiu also nodded.

After a long time of doing business together, their cooperation became even better. Even so, Fang Qiu didn’t expect that Li Ji would be monitoring his position all the time.

Obviously, Li Ji knew it was not a mere coincidence for him to check on Fan Qiu’s location. Therefore, he had been waiting for his call. By doing so, he could provide Fang Qiu with the necessary information and save as much time as possible.

Indeed, Fang Qiu had to work within severe constraints of time.

He needed more time to get out of this deep cave, not to exploit this mine of jade stones!

These experts outside were not stupid. Fang Qiu knew they would soon reach the bottom of the lake to look for him. Of course, they would try to break the seal formation at the cave’s mouth. So, Fang Qiu had to leave this deep cave before that.

Only in this way could he keep the existence of this jade mine a secret from them!

But Fang Qiu was worried about one thing.

He might not find this place again after he left.

This place was under the lake. Besides, Fang Qiu couldn’t remember the direction and the distance he had taken along the way. That was why he needed Li Ji’s help.

If he fixed the exact location this time, he could return to this place.

No matter how deep he dug, he could get back to this place!

“Did you take note of the location?” Fang Qiu asked.

“Yes, sure.”

Li Ji answered at the other end.

“Okay, I’ll call you later.”

Fang Qiu replied and hung up the phone. Without wasting a second, he zipped through the tunnel as fast as his legs could carry him.

In no time, he reached the intersection.

After making sure no one was outside, Fang Qiu nipped out and coated his phone in some internal Qi. Then he swam to the branch at the intersection that was not sealed by the formation and called Li Ji.

“Hello.”

The phone was connected.

“From now on, follow the real-time position of my phone and note down my route.”

Fang Qiu told him what he should do.

“Okay.”

Li Ji promptly nodded in response.

Fang Qiu put away his phone.

He looked back and found no one from outside had come in yet. Deep down in his heart, he breathed a sigh of relief. Then he got ready and swam into the deep hole that was not sealed by the formation.

He wanted to swim in the hole and see where it led to.

Since there was flowing water, there must be a source!

…

“This lake is nothing special, isn’t it?”

Everyone who had the highest position from the four clans, eight factions, and sixteen sects had gathered at the edge of the lake. Led by Master Numinous, they carefully observed the lake and the water in it.

“The water looks perfectly normal to me. I can feel there’s the Qi of Heaven and Earth under it, but it’s not as much as outside.”

“The Qi of Heaven and Earth in this relic is excessively dense. Since the lake has been surrounded by the thick Qi of Heaven and Earth all year round, it appears strange when the water in the lake does not contain much Qi of Heaven and Earth!”

“But, except for this lake, there is no other place left to search.”

“Is John Doe down there?”

Everyone looked at each other.

At this very moment, they all came out empty-handed, so they had no worries. After all, they had hidden the wooden puppets everyone had fought for.

“I’ll go down and have a look first.”

They stood there, looking at each other. Seeing no one making a move, Lin Qingyi rolled his eyes, jumped into the lake without a word, and dived rapidly into the lake bed.

“I’ll go too.”

As soon as Lin Qingyi sprang into action, another person next to him jumped in as well.

At last, the rest stopped hesitating and plunged into the lake one after another.

After that, all 28 people threw themselves into the water and exerted all their energies to dive into the depths of the lake.

However…

As gurus, the four patriarchs and Master Numinous advanced much faster than others in the water. When the others got to the bottom, the five masters had finished exploring the whole bottom of the lake. Except for the deep hole, they found nothing.

Soon, everyone gathered at the entrance of the deep cave at the bottom of the lake, but no one went down first. They stood silently gazing at each other, just like what they did when they were above the water.

In fact, it was not that they had nothing to say, but they couldn’t speak.

Even the four patriarchs and Master Numinous could only use their internal Qi to push away the water near their mouths. Even so, the others still couldn’t hear what they said.

After all, their voices couldn’t pass through the flow of water.

As they stared helplessly at each other, Master Numinous grinned and swam down first.

The four patriarchs followed closely behind.

One after another, the others hurriedly kept pace with them.

They were willing to wait for someone to take the lead. None of them knew what was in the deep hole at the bottom of the lake, so this group needed a leader of exceptional ability to explore the way ahead.

Undoubtfully, Master Numinous was the one who had the strength.

They went all the way down.

Led by Master Numinous, this group swam non-stop and came to the intersection.

Everyone was exhilarated when they saw two passageways. One had water, and the other was sealed by the formation.

No one had expected that.

There was really a sealed place in the deep hole at the bottom of the lake. In their view, all the treasures of the ancient ruin must be within the hole sealed by the formation.

Because they couldn’t speak, they could only communicate with each other with their eyes.

Everyone exchanged knowing looks.

In great excitement, everyone began to try to crack the formation.

After swimming through another cave for a long time, Fang Qiu finally reached the surface of the water.

“Whew…”

Just as his head emerged from the water, Fang Qiu released his breath in a long exhalation and found that it was an underground river.

Then, he moved along the surging river and soon came to a rock cave located amid the impenetrable darkness.

It was similar to those water-eroded rock caves unearthed in the outside world.

Fang Qiu emerged from the water.

He observed the cave closely.

This rock cave’s position was very high. Judging from the waterline, Fang Qiu learned this place must be much higher than the oasis and lake in the ancient ruin.

He should be inside a mountain!

Otherwise, how could there be such a large karst cave?

However, in this ancient relic, there were no mountains, only a vast Gobi Desert. How could that lake be connected to the inside of a mountain?

So, where was this mountain exactly?

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