The third bamboo hat man paled.
The bamboo hat leader was clearly implying that he had lured everyone to the wrong location.
“You’ve seen the result for yourself. Are you sure that the kid entered this river?” the leading bamboo hat man said.
“Impossible! I saw him go into the passage myself! And the underground palace was guarded by the Origin Immortal Lord’s fifth-generation disciple, so there’s no way he could have forced his way through. There’s no other place besides this he could have escaped to!” the third bamboo hat man said, his voice growing louder in agitation.
“No one can guarantee that there wasn’t some other secret passage in the palace. Since there was this passage leading to the river, there could be some other secret switch as well. What if they discovered a passage left by the Origin Immortal Villagers?” the leading bamboo hat man said.
Buzz!
The argument came to an end, the third bamboo hat man staring at his leader in speechless shock.
Yes! Since this passage to the river existed, there was no telling whether there was another hidden passage.
He could no longer even muster half a word in defense.
“Let’s go! Stop wasting time here!”
The bamboo hat leader immediately shot back the way he had come, stirring up waves along the river.
“Follow the lord!”
The men in black quickly began to follow their leader.
“Bastard! How did it turn out like this!?”
The third bamboo hat man gnashed his teeth and followed the other men in black in vanishing into the darkness of the river.
Boom!
As he left, he flicked his wrist, sending energy howling into the roof, causing large slabs of rock to come down and block the river.
Chapter 1490 - Secret Passage! (I)
Chapter 1490: Secret Passage! (I)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
All fell back into silence, the turbid waters and boulders blocking the way serving as evidence of what had happened.
A long time passed, and then, splash! A large bubble of air emerged from the bottom of the river, and then two figures emerged from the mud.
“They’re gone!”
With a shake of his body, the Lone Silence Ancestor removed the mud covering him.
“We should actually be safe now!”
Any kind of Psychic Energy sensing might easily expose them, but the Lone Silence Ancestor’s Gonggong Divine Art could sense what was going on in the river without being discovered.
“Mm, they’ve probably given up!”
Wang Chong nodded as he shook the mud off his body. His face was slightly pale, his breathing ragged. Although they had weathered the storm, they had both paid a price.
“Heh, Young Master Wang, it was your method that worked. Just a little longer and we might have been discovered,” the Lone Silence Ancestor said, a look of relief on his face.
Only by actually experiencing it would one have realized just how much danger the two had been in.
Wang Chong’s Psychic Seal was useless against Stellar Energy attacks. The pair had been on the verge of being exposed, with a fierce battle soon to follow.
Given the immense power of the three bamboo hat men and all their subordinates, Wang Chong and the Lone Silence Ancestor would have probably been finished.
But at the final moment, Wang Chong had used Psychic Energy to inform the Lone Silence Ancestor to pour Stellar Energy into the rocks they had placed in front to conceal their position.
They used the rocks as shields to resist the attack, successfully deceiving the bamboo hat leader.
The bamboo hat leader might have been powerful, but as his attacks had all landed on the rocks, he had naturally failed to notice anything.
Even so, they had still not been able to escape the impact of the Stellar Energy attacks.
Fortunately, the bamboo hat leader had spread his attacks over the entire one hundred meters of the river section, causing their killing power to plunge.
“We’ve only just survived this single disaster, but now that I think about it, who could have imagined that these men in black would have their own internal problems?” said Wang Chong with a wave of his hand, his mind going back to the quarrel between the two bamboo hat men.
If not for their internal strife, the third bamboo hat man would have used his Stellar Energy to search and already found them.
“But the danger isn’t over. We still have to find a way to leave.” And most importantly, we have to find the Origin Immortal Art!
Wang Chong did not voice the last part.
He gave off the appearance of a farsighted strategist, able to resolve the greatest of dangers, and he could sense that even the Lone Silence Ancestor was brimming with admiration toward him.
But only Wang Chong understood that his internal injuries were getting worse and worse.
While he had fooled the three bamboo hat men, he had worsened his condition to do so. His dantian and various parts of his body were throbbing in pain.
Wang Chong knew that he couldn’t last for long. He needed to find the Origin Immortal Art soon.
“Leave this to me!”
The Lone Silence Ancestor smiled and lightly pushed with his left palm.
The river waters surged with immense strength, and the blockage created by the third bamboo hat man was instantly cleared away.
A massive pillar of water had pushed the boulders and the mud one hundred meters away.
Not only that, a white light emerged on the Lone Silence Ancestor’s left hand, sending an invisible energy through the entire river. With a shake, all the mud and dirt floating in the water sank down, and the river waters became clear once more.
It was as if everything had been restored to the state before the battle.
Wang Chong was shaken by this sight, astonishment plainly written on his face.
The Lone Silence Ancestor’s Gonggong Divine Art had already reached the summit of water control, a level that many martial artists couldn’t even imagine.
Not even Wang Chong was capable of such a feat.
“Young Master, what should we do next?”
After clearing the river, the Lone Silence Ancestor turned to Wang Chong. He had come to place a great deal of trust in this youth.
Wang Chong’s breaking of the Origin Immortal Formation, the gathering of the treasure maps and search for the real treasury, his way of addressing the danger of the sixth-generation successor, his method of hiding from the three bamboo hat men…
The abilities Wang Chong had displayed throughout could leave a deep impression on anyone’s mind and make others believe in him. The Lone Silence Ancestor had also been influenced, and he had come to forget Wang Chong’s age and treat him like an equal whose opinion should be sought.
Wang Chong turned contemplative. They had to either continue or retreat. The obstacle to the way back had already been cleared, and going back on their original route was also the safest choice.
A few moments later, Wang Chong firmly declared, “Let’s continue up the river!
“Many martial artists have gathered up above: the men in black, the Origin Immortal Villagers, the Five Ancestor Alliance, the Righteous Alliance, and other martial artists who might have rushed over after hearing the ruckus, and there’s also the successors of the Origin Immortal Art. Let alone the others, we definitely can’t deal with those walking corpses.
“By going back, not only won’t we be able to enter the core, we’ll be swept up in the fighting. In contrast, the river is the safest place to be. We just need to find the places where the river intersects with the ore vein above, and then locate the place where the vein is the thinnest. In this way, we can get back to the top while avoiding some of the walking corpses and avoiding some dangerous battles.
“It’s best if we avoid as many of these walking corpses as we can.”
Wang Chong and the Lone S
ilence Ancestor both felt their hearts sink at the thought of those generations of walking corpse.
Rumble!
As the two fell silent, the surrounding earth suddenly quaked once more.
That ore vein that stretched for numerous kilometers once more shuddered.
The deafening clanking of gears resounded in their ears.
Wang Chong and the Lone Silence Ancestor raised their heads and listened.
“These Origin Immortal Villagers are truly frightening. In order to protect the Origin Immortal Lord’s treasury, they’ve laid down numerous traps and mechanisms. Given the sound, they must have activated some other powerful mechanism. I suddenly understand why those mysterious men in black are so cautious despite being so powerful, and why they made so many fake treasures maps and baited us here to lead the way for them. The abilities of the Origin Immortal Lord can’t be underestimated!”
A fearful look appeared on the Lone Silence Ancestor’s face. Though he didn’t know the exact situation up above, the powerful vibrations were enough evidence of the battle’s intensity.
Wang Chong said nothing, but his eyes revealed a similar emotion.
At this moment, shaking came from nearby, accompanied by splashing water.
As the pair turned to look, their eyes gleamed.
Ten meters away, that massive boulder blocking the river had shifted due to the shaking from above, opening a crescent moon gap. The pair were elated to see this gap.
“Wonderful!” the Lone Silence Ancestor said excitedly. “We can easily leave now!”
That boulder had been the largest and sturdiest rock blocking the river.
The Lone Silence Ancestor had estimated that he would need more than thirty minutes to clear the passage, but now, the boulder had shifted to reveal a gap. Although this gap wasn’t large, it was enough for the pair to go through.
Rumble! Under the Lone Silence Ancestor’s control, water surged into the crescent moon gap.
The pushing of the water widened the gap, and it was soon large enough for a person to easily pass through.
“Let’s go!”
The Lone Silence Ancestor waved a hand, and the two made their way through the impromptu passage.
“Leave the next task to me!”
Wang Chong and the Lone Silence Ancestor swam side by side like two fish through the pitch-black waters. As Wang Chong spoke, he sent out immense waves of Psychic Energy into the layer of rock above them, probing deep into the metal ore vein.
The deeper Wang Chong probed, the more he sensed how dense, tough, and unshakable this ore vein was. Each particle of metal was so thick that comparing it to ordinary steel would be like comparing steel to a bubble. In these circumstances, trying to get around the successors of the Origin Immortal Art to get at the core of the underground palace through the ore vein did not seem completely impossible. But the engineering effort would take decades, and one also needed to consider the mining tools and lack of oxygen.
Yet the dense metal could not stop the probing of Psychic Energy.
…I probably had the wrong idea before. The Origin Immortal Lord probably laid down this massive Psychic Seal to prevent anyone from digging through the vein into the Origin Immortal Cave. A normal person’s Psychic Energy wouldn’t be able to get very far into the vein, so they wouldn’t be able to determine the actual situation of the ore vein, let alone choose the right place to dig.
If they chose the wrong place, they might spend centuries digging through the ore vein to little effect. This is probably why those men in black, despite all the resources at their command, have been incredibly cautious this entire time.
As Wang Chong swam through the cold and dark waters, he analyzed and pondered the situation.
Chapter 1491 - Secret Passage! (II)
Chapter 1491: Secret Passage! (II)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
After absorbing the power of the Nightmare Beast, Wang Chong’s Psychic Energy was now seven to eight times stronger than before. This kind of Psychic Energy was enough for the vast majority of martial artists, including the titans of the martial arts world, to shiver in fear. This Psychic Energy was also how he was able to gather so much information in this underground world.
Wang Chong’s Psychic Energy was able to probe one thousand meters. This distance wasn’t that far, but it was more than enough to gather information in this underground river.
As Wang Chong swam through the underground river, all kinds of information flowed into his mind.
“How is it?” the Lone Silence Ancestor asked, an expectant look in his eyes. Wang Chong’s immense Psychic Energy was no longer a secret to him.
“The ore vein twists and turns through the earth. While the underground river doesn’t change very much, the ore vein greatly varies in thickness. Those parts of the ore vein thicker than one hundred meters aren’t worth mentioning,” Wang Chong thoughtfully said, his expression extremely calm.
The Lone Silence Ancestor nodded. He trusted in Wang Chong’s ability and judgment.
“…In addition, boring through the ore vein to get past the barriers and into the back of the palace is normally impossible. However, nothing is absolute. Given that the ore vein varies in thickness and considering how the palace is arranged, as long as the course of the vein isn’t completely steady, we should have some opportunities.
“Besides that, while the underground river is very far from the palace within the ore vein, above us is a layer of rock, and only above the rock layer is the ore vein. There are some places where the rock layer is thin and the ore vein is thick, but also places where the rock layer is thick but the ore vein is thin. We can only determine the actual situation through further inspection, and if we find that it’s the latter, then we have a chance.”
Wang Chong looked up, and even amidst the dark and cold river, his eyes seemed to glimmer with a profound light.
As the Lone Silence Ancestor looked at Wang Chong, he couldn’t help but nod in agreement.
He hadn’t completely followed Wang Chong’s train of thought, but the demeanor Wang Chong exuded was rather infectious. In Wang Chong, he saw an extremely precious vigor, the vigor of a youth that would never give up no matter what danger he faced.
He was like a burning candle, never giving up until the last ray of light had been unleashed. He firmly believed in that last sliver of hope.
Such a sight left the Lone Silence Ancestor feeling rather sentimental.
It was very difficult to find this kind of intensity and sharpness amongst those who had been ground down for too long in the martial arts world.
Whoosh!
The two continued to delve deeper into the darkness.
In this period, the ore vein above them shook three more times, each time to the resounding turning of gears and switches. They didn’t know for sure what was happening above, but they were certain that the battle was only getting more intense, more and more people dying with each quake.
Every person was advancing to the core of the Origin Immortal Treasury in their own fashion, and Wang Chong and the Lone Silence Ancestor were no different.
As time passed, their stockpile of leaves began to dwindle.
They had been swimming in the river for a long time now, and the farther they traveled, the more dangerous it became. They needed to ensure that they still had enough air to return to the surface in case the plan didn’t work out.
After some time, just when the river was about to break away from the ore vein, Wang Chong raised his head and trembled in shock, his eyes shining.
“Found it!”
“What’s wrong?” the Lone Silence Ancestor hastily asked. His Gonggong Divine Art was of no use here, so he could only rely on Wang Chong.
“I don’t have a way to be sure, but this is the thickest part of the rock layer I’ve seen. In other words, the ore vein here should be the thinnest, which means we have the highest chance of boring through here and ac
cessing the core of the Origin Immortal Treasury.
“But this is all theory. We have to first confirm the position of the palace within the ore vein. If the palace isn’t here, it means that my method is no good and we should go back.”
Wang Chong looked up and stared at the ceiling.
The thickness of the rock layer had generally been around six hundred meters, but here, the thickness of the rock layer was seven to eight hundred meters. The course of the ore vein had also suddenly smoothed out at this point.
The Lone Silence Ancestor instantly became tense upon hearing Wang Chong’s words.
The Lone Silence Ancestor looked up and worriedly said, “Whether it’s good or not, we’ll just try our best. I hope it won’t turn out as bad as we think!”
Wang Chong merely nodded in reply.
Bang!
A moment later, tangible Psychic Energy burst out of his mind, passing through the hundreds of meters of rock. As it rushed forward, it began to constrict itself into a single point, gathering into a silver needle. Boom! It slammed into the dense metal of the ore vein.
As the two clashed, an invisible sound wave swept into the ore vein.
Buzz!
Wang Chong focused his mind and began to listen. A nervous expression appeared on the Lone Silence Ancestor’s face. His Psychic Energy was not as powerful as Wang Chong’s, but it was still formidable. He wasn’t able to see as deeply and in as much detail as Wang Chong, but he could still determine what was being done through Wang Chong’s actions.
It was obvious that Wang Chong was using sound to verify the palace’s position within the ore vein.
Time slowly passed, the only sound that of the flowing river.
Wang Chong and the Lone Silence Ancestor stood in the cold river, and while their bodies may have been motionless, their hearts were madly thumping.
One second, two seconds, three seconds… Wang Chong continued to carefully listen to the sounds coming from the ore vein.
“Is it still no good?” Wang Chong muttered to himself, disappointment in his eyes.
The Lone Silence Ancestor had been observing Wang Chong’s face this entire time, and when he saw Wang Chong’s reaction, he also became rather dejected. He could already see what the result was.
The Human Emperor c1-2382 Page 928
