But just when the two were at their lowest, humm! A soft echo reached Wang Chong’s ears.
It was an extremely weak echo, and if Wang Chong hadn’t been entirely focused on listening, he would have never picked it up.
“Wait… This sound!”
Wang Chong trembled in shock, his eyes flying open.
Echoes would only occur when encountering a different substance. In other words, the density of the metal had changed in the area the echo had come from.
The metal ore vein was extremely dense, and he and the Lone Silence Ancestor were located at the bottom of the ore vein, where it should have been the thickest. It was normally impossible for such a situation to have occurred, unless…
The echo had originated from the underground palace.
Boom!
Suddenly energized, Wang Chong thrust out with a palm.
A vast wave of Stellar Energy slammed into the ceiling of the underground river, thirty meters above Wang Chong.
There was a thunderous explosion, and amidst a shower of debris, a hole half a meter wide appeared above the river.
Wang Chong turned to the Lone Silence Ancestor and said, “Senior, I’ll need your help for this. Break through the rock layer along this hole. The passage we’re looking for is probably within.”
“What?! Young Master Wang, you mean…!?”
The Lone Silence Ancestor trembled in excitement.
Wang Chong smiled and nodded.
“How… how could this be!?”
The Lone Silence Ancestor was struck dumb.
Although he had also hoped to find a secret passage into the Origin Immortal Treasury through the underground river, the chances were minuscule. Thus, when Wang Chong told him that this passage really existed, the Lone Silence Ancestor found it rather hard to believe.
“Although I don’t know the specifics, I really did hear an echo from the ore vein. Based on the time and place of the echo, this ore vein is ten-some meters thick. If we’re lucky, we might be able to enter the heart of the treasury through this spot,” Wang Chong said.
Wang Chong and the Lone Silence Ancestor stopped talking and began to dig upward through the hole.
The rock layer here was seven to eight hundred meters thick, and the rock was exceptionally tough. But Wang Chong and the Lone Silence Ancestor were not ordinary experts.
This was particularly the case for the Lone Silence Ancestor. While he might have been lacking compared to Wang Chong in other aspects, when it came to water, particularly when it came to digging a hole through the rock layer using the underground river, he was far superior to Wang Chong.
Rumble! The Lone Silence Ancestor stood in the river like a god, summoning raging torrents of water to slam into the hole.
A passage was quickly bored through the rock layer.
Around ten minutes later, Wang Chong and the Lone Silence Ancestor had finally bored a passage through the rock layer to the ore vein.
“We finally hit it!”
The pair appeared rather pale as they gazed at the ore vein. While excavating this passage, they had consumed a significant amount of Stellar Energy and yet another green leaf.
“This is our last leaf. We probably have about ten minutes. After ten minutes, whether or not we can break through, we have to leave. Otherwise, we won’t have enough air to return.”
Wang Chong passed over one of the last two leaves, placing the other in his mouth.
With this, all the leaves had been used up.
“Mm!”
The Lone Silence Ancestor solemnly nodded.
After placing the leaf in his mouth, the Lone Silence Ancestor looked up at the ore vein.
Bang!
He flicked a finger, sending a bolt of Stellar Energy blasting into the vein.
A few moments later, there was a loud echo.
“Yes, this is the place!”
The Lone Silence Ancestor had initially been rather dubious about Wang Chong’s conclusion, but his suspicions were gone now. There truly was a secret passage here.
“I truly didn’t think that there would be a secret passage left in the middle of this thick ore vein. It’s said that the Origin Immortal Lord could predict the future, but did he make a mistake in his predictions?” the Lone Silence Ancestor muttered to himself.
Chapter 1492 - Fighting for Every Second!
Chapter 1492: Fighting for Every Second!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Wang Chong said nothing, but his eyes shone with the same doubt.
Even without foresight of the future, an ordinary person wouldn’t have left some secret passage accessed through the underground river, and the Origin Immortal Lord was a powerful figure with knowledge of divination arts. Something like this was far too suspicious.
“Leave the next task to me!”
Wang Chong took out his Wootz Steel dagger and stabbed it into the ore vein.
Clang!
There was a flash of sparks, and Wang Chong clearly sensed a massive resistance meeting the tip of his dagger.
“What tough metal!”
Even though the Lone Silence Ancestor had already mentioned it, allowing Wang Chong to prepare himself, he was still stunned by its toughness.
Wootz Steel was sharp enough to cut through well-tempered refined steel, and Wang Chong had never before encountered a metal that was this hard to cut through.
The toughness of the metal before him far surpassed his expectations. Wang Chong finally understood why the Origin Immortal Lord had set up his palace here.
Fortunately, although this metal was tough, it was still no match for Wang Chong’s Wootz Steel dagger.
As Wang Chong energetically hacked away, large chunks of ore began to drop down.
Wang Chong’s progress was slow, but he advanced steadily and the ore vein itself was not very thick.
But mining through the metal ore was very damaging to the Wootz Steel dagger.
Every time he swung the dagger, there would be a shrill scraping sound. This tough and unknown metal left many scratches on the dagger as it was cut down.
The Wootz Steel dagger had been damaged earlier by the threads of the Darkshadow Spider, and there were already many tiny cracks on its edge.
Now that it was excavating through the ore, more and more cracks were appearing. It was truly an unbearable sight, and it was hard to say when the Wootz Steel dagger would completely shatter.
The Lone Silence Ancestor could only stand on the sidelines and worry, as there was nothing he could do.
Wang Chong’s dagger was the only tool they had for mining through the ore vein.
Time flew by, and the green leaves in their mouths were beginning to wear out.
Bang!
Wang Chong’s dagger seemed to encounter an extremely tough barrier, and as the Wootz Steel dagger was forced back, click! Yet another crack appeared on its blade.
Wang Chong and the Lone Silence Ancestor paled.
“How could it be like this!?”
Wang Chong’s brow deeply creased.
Logically speaking, since they had been able to dig into the metal ore initially, they shouldn’t have run into any other barrier.
“We might have run into an ore matrix!” the Lone Silence Ancestor suddenly said, his expression extremely grave.
“If an underground ore vein has been around for a long time—a thousand years, perhaps even longer—ore matrices might form within it. For example, an iron ore vein has a chance of forming an iron matrix while a copper ore vein has a chance of forming a copper matrix.
“It’s rare to encounter such a thing, but not impossible. If this is an ore matrix, then we probably won’t be able to dig through.”
The Lone Silence Ancestor felt his heart sink as he spoke.
He had believed that they had found a secret passage, but he hadn’t expected it to come with a hidden ore matrix.
“Let me try. There’s a chance that we migh
t not have run into an ore matrix,” Wang Chong said after some thought.
He was unwilling to just give up after coming so far.
Clang!
Wang Chong drew Stellar Energy from his dantian and gathered it on the Wootz Steel dagger.
The Wootz Steel dagger was too cracked to take on too much Stellar Energy, which was why Wang Chong hadn’t done this from the start. But at this point, there was no time to worry about such things.
There was a sharp clang as the dagger once more clashed against the tough ore.
Wang Chong swung it a second and third time.
Bolstered by the immense Stellar Energy, the Wootz Steel dagger truly had gotten much more powerful, but the barrier before it remained unshaken.
As Wang Chong swung the dagger more and more, more and more cracks appeared on its surface. No one could say when the dagger might break.
It probably wouldn’t be long until it completely shattered.
Whoosh!
While Wang Chong was completely focused on the metal ore vein, there was a splash of water from the river down below.
The sound had come from some distance away, but it was quite loud in this dark and quiet world.
“Not good!”
As the Lone Silence Ancestor sent out his senses, he paled.
“Someone is coming!”
“Is it the men in black?”
Wang Chong suddenly stopped and turned his head.
Wang Chong had not expected these people to be so crafty. After clearly taking their leave, they had suddenly turned back.
“No! It’s even more troublesome… It’s one of the successors of the Origin Immortal Art.”
The Lone Silence Ancestor looked up at Wang Chong, and Wang Chong could clearly make out the nasty grimace on his face.
Wang Chong also grimaced at these words.
“How could this be?!”
The air was instantly fraught with tension.
“I don’t know what’s going on either. This should have never happened.”
The Lone Silence Ancestor had a similar look of shock in his eyes.
“But based on the direction he’s coming from, it seems he came down from the same passage we did. There’s an extremely high chance that the men in black accidentally drew that Origin Immortal Art successor into the underground river. And our excavating just now made too much noise, drawing him toward us.”
Wang Chong had not expected the sound of their mining to draw over the Origin Immortal Art successor.
The tunnel became so quiet that one could hear a pin drop. The pair sealed off all their pores and retracted all their energy as they became motionless statues.
The splashing got closer and closer. The Origin Immortal Art successor wasn’t swimming very quickly, but this only made the pair more nervous.
No one knew what he would do next. Had he only heard the sounds, or had he actually discovered the two?
Thumpthump!
Everything seemed to stop except for the beating of their hearts.
Even time itself seemed to slow.
It’s the fifth-generation successor!
As the Origin Immortal Art successor slowly made his way into the vicinity of the pair, Wang Chong’s heart chilled. The fifth-generation successor was much stronger than the sixth-generation.
And since Wang Chong had seen him before in the palace, he was extremely familiar with this aura.
And even worse…
“Oh no! It seems like he’s noticed us!”
The Lone Silence Ancestor’s voice rang out in Wang Chong’s mind. The fifth-generation successor had been swimming along the river, but had now stopped and was looking up in the direction of Wang Chong and the Lone Silence Ancestor.
The tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife.
Wang Chong’s face tightened, but at this moment, Wang Chong saw the Lone Silence Ancestor’s palm shake. Rumble! Far away, a fierce explosion occurred in the underground river.
The Gonggong Divine Art!
Wang Chong realized what had happened.
The Lone Silence Ancestor had a sublime control over the flow of water. Not even Wang Chong had been able to tell just how he had been able to control the water into exploding from such a distance. There had been no wave of Psychic Energy or tremor of Stellar Energy. The Lone Silence Ancestor had accomplished the deed without leaving a single trace.
Swoosh!
The fifth-generation successor in the river sensed the explosion and swiftly went to investigate.
“Young Master Wang, let’s go! My Water God Art can only delay him for a while, but not for long. We should use this chance to get out of here!” the Lone Silence Ancestor said in a solemn tone. He immediately headed back down.
“Wait! I still want to try one more time!”
The Lone Silence Ancestor had already gone a hundred-some feet when Wang Chong’s voice stopped him in his tracks.
“Young Master Wang, the fifth-generation successor might come back at any moment, and our leaves are almost used up. We can’t delay more than ten minutes here. Now is not the time to decide things based on emotion!” the Lone Silence Ancestor anxiously said.
“Let me try one more time!” Wang Chong sternly said, looking at the ore vein. “If it’s really no good, I’ll come with you!”
An eerie silence fell over the underground river. After a long while, the Lone Silence Ancestor sighed.
“Fine! I’ll delay him for five minutes at most, but when the time is up, whether you want to leave or not, I will be leaving!”
Chapter 1493 - Master’s Trail!
Chapter 1493: Master’s Trail!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
The Lone Silence Ancestor was already being incredibly generous. As one of the titans of the martial arts world, he was not someone who would easily change his mind for the sake of others.
He had probably made a special exception for Wang Chong.
Time dripped by, and while the Lone Silence Ancestor continued to lure away the walking corpse, Wang Chong wielded the cracked Wootz Steel dagger and fiercely stabbed it into the metal ore vein.
Once, twice, thrice…
More and more cracks appeared on the dagger, but Wang Chong continued to hack at the vein like he couldn’t see them.
The air was tense. Their opponents were not just the fifth-generation successor, but also the lack of oxygen.
“Young Master Wang, we must leave!” the Lone Silence Ancestor urged as he glanced down. Whatever secret art the Origin Immortal Lord had used, it had made it so that these walking corpses were not simply bodies. They actually possessed a certain level of intelligence. The fifth-generation successor had been lured away several thousand meters before turning around and swimming back to the pair.
It wouldn’t be long before he swam back into their vicinity.
“Wait a little longer!” Wang Chong sternly said, his eyes focused on the metal ore vein.
The Wootz Steel dagger stabbing forward sounded like the booming of thunder, and the Lone Silence Ancestor felt each strike thumping at his heart. Meanwhile, the immense energy of the fifth-generation successor was like a beacon in the darkness. This beacon was now no less than four hundred meters from the pair.
A few moments later, he would hear the sounds of mining and shoot toward the pair like a bolt of lightning.
“It’s no good! We have to go!”
The Lone Silence Ancestor clenched his teeth and balled his hands into fists.
Boom! Boom! Wang Chong’s Wootz Steel dagger continued to batter down, once, twice. But just when the Lone Silence Ancestor was about to leave, there was a crisp crack.
The entire world seemed to fall silent, the crack echoing ceaselessly in the Lone Silence Ancestor’s mind, drowning out all other thoughts.
“How could this be?”
The Lone Silence Ancestor trembled in shock as he turned around and stared in disbelief.
Although he still held a sliver of hope, the chances were just too small, not even one in ten thousand. And given the toughness of this metal ore vein, an ore matrix formed in it would be far too tough to break through. But Wang Chong had done it.
And at such a dangerous moment!
“I found the passage!” Wang Chong declared. His expression was cold and collected, and he apparently hadn’t noticed the Lone Silence Ancestor’s reaction.
“This ore vein is too tough to form a large ore matrix. This was just a recently formed ore matrix, so it was only able to hold out a little while before breaking.”
After saying this, Wang Chong removed the final barrier and shot into the newly-created passage.
Splashsplash! The walking corpse was on the verge of finding the passage the pair had created. The Lone Silence Ancestor’s heart trembled, and with no time to think, he followed Wang Chong into the tunnel.
This tunnel was around one meter in diameter and was a bizarre oddity in the middle of this ore vein. After traveling twenty to thirty meters, the two of them spotted a large handle-shaped bronze component.
This bronze component was covered in mysterious inscriptions that seemed to come from an ancient era.
“So there was a mechanism here!”
The sight of this bronze component gave the Lone Silence Ancestor a flash of insight.
While digging the passage, he had always found it strange that the Origin Immortal Lord would make such an obvious mistake. Moreover, this ore vein had been exceptionally tough and thick. There was no reason for it to suddenly thin out at this place.
But when he saw this bronze component, he understood.
This was not a flaw that the Origin Immortal Lord had unintentionally left, but one that he had been compelled to make. He had set up many important mechanisms in the heart of the ore vein. The two had earlier heard three enormous clanks coming from above, their power so great that they caused the entire ore vein to shake.
This sort of activity was not something any ordinary trap or mechanism could achieve.
Besides that, the Origin Immortal Lord had also laid down many formations. Peak Saint Martial experts were capable of flying for short periods of time, but no one could fly here, and even birds would be drawn into the earth.
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