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Chapter 148 - 147: The Secret Hidden in the Wilderness

"What was that sound just now?" Liu Shuyue looked curiously toward the inside of the bar counter. "It sounded like something fallen."

"Uh...let me check." Truth be told, Chen Xuan was startled too, although he didn’t know why Lin Qing was hiding, it seems avoiding an unexpected situation is an instinctive choice. He pretended to look back, "It’s nothing, just my clothes fell."

The clothes did indeed fall... because if they suddenly bulged out, they would be conspicuous.

He bent down cautiously to pick up the clothes, afraid of touching something else, "What’s up, coming to see me at this hour, looking for a midnight snack?"

"It’s still afternoon over here." Liu Shuyue stated earnestly, "We found something strange in the Wanshan Wilderness. I’d like you to come and take a look."

"Wanshan Wilderness?" Chen Xuan immediately turned serious. That place concerns Hot Pepper Village’s survival, there can’t be any mistakes, "Alright, we’ll head there now."

They went upstairs to the second floor, getting ready to go to Hot Pepper Village from Fu Jiaolu’s room 203, when Lin Qing suddenly walked out from her room. She was wearing pajamas as if she’d just crawled out of bed, "Hey, Shuyue’s here, long time no see."

"Hello Miss Lin, sorry for disturbing you at night." Liu Shuyue nodded.

"It’s been just a week, why are you greeting like this again!" Lin Qing protested, "Where are you going, I’ll go with you or our relationship will fade."

"I don’t mind, but what about the shop..."

Chen Xuan scratched his head, "Alright, wait for me a bit, I’ll go close the shop."

Just a second ago Lin Qing wasn’t at the bar counter, how did she get to the second floor in the blink of an eye? Even Liu Shuyue didn’t notice someone passing by.

He couldn’t help but gain more respect for optical stealth technology.

The road to the depths of the mountain wasn’t particularly difficult.

Nowadays Hot Pepper Village has opened several stone-paved paths in the mountains, the weeds and vines on the ground have been cleared completely, even allowing four-wheeled carriages to pass. Although these paths are no more than five li long, they’re much better than the wild mountain when they first arrived.

No wonder Liu Shuyue wanted the excavator.

Having an excavator clear these paths is definitely top efficiency.

Now that matters with the Immortal Alliance have concluded, he decided to inquire about the buying and selling of engineering machinery tomorrow.

Thirty minutes later, they arrived at the destination—the mountain pillar at the edge of the pioneering area. No matter when he saw these mountains, Chen Xuan felt a sense of novelty; they were like stalactites magnified a hundred times, standing under the blue sky and white clouds. Such peculiar terrain is unlike anything found in the other side of the world.

A sign stood at the mountain’s side: Number 99.

There evidently wouldn’t be a path to climb the mountain, judging by the ropes hanging from the cliff. Everyone climbs up and down using the ropes. Liu Shuyue didn’t need to climb, she activated a Wind Riding Talisman, grabbed Chen Xuan with one hand, and linked arms with Lin Qing, instantly ascending thirty-four meters high, entering a seemingly shallow cave.

"Greetings Immortal Master Lord, greetings Shopkeeper Lord."

Several villagers were busy inside the cave, seemingly clearing away the scattering stones. Seeing Liu Shuyue and Chen Xuan, they promptly greeted them.

"Don’t mind us, keep working." Liu Shuyue nodded, and then said to Chen Xuan, "The place I want you to see is just ahead."

In fact, Chen Xuan had already seen it.

A large hole had been blasted open in the wall, revealing a deeper inner space. On the edge of the entrance, broken concrete blocks, steel bars, and metal plate layers could be seen.

How did these things come to be in the remote Wanshan Wilderness?

Chen Xuan immediately realized the reason Liu Shuyue sought him out—she thought he was knowledgeable and might know why this place had turned out like this.

"Two days ago, the pioneering team discovered wonders within and reported to me immediately." Liu Shuyue pointed upwards at the crack, there seemed to be a curved pipe left behind, "I went through a secret path into the mountain for a simple search, confirmed no Demon Fiend existed, and then they used Thunderbolt Talisman to blast open the mountain wall. As I thought... it was not far from the cave entrance, almost within arm’s reach."

Without a doubt, these are signs of a man-made creation.

But the concrete wall is just too far-fetched!

Chen Xuan turned on his phone’s flashlight and walked into the cave entrance.

The next second, goosebumps almost welled up uncontrollably.

Inside was an extremely open area, the smooth concrete walls demonstrated a construction technique that’s solid, far beyond what the Kingdom of Great Qi could achieve. Due to lighting issues, he couldn’t see clearly into the corners of the room, but conservatively estimated this place might be over a thousand square meters large.

"Housing built inside the mountain, is this some lost Kingdom?" Lin Qing murmured.

"I’ll go light up the torches." Liu Shuyue summoned a Thousand Thoughts Sword, took a burning Fire Talisman, circled the cave, and ignited the pre-arranged torch stands. The lighting in the area slightly improved.

Looking up, the ceiling wasn’t a rocky cavern, but a flat surface, indicating there’s likely more than just one layer of similar space.

Like the pioneering team, Chen Xuan’s gaze was caught by the rectangular boxes placed on the ground.

"What are those things?"

"The villagers initially thought they were coffins, but I checked, and they are rectangular iron boxes, not intended for holding dead bodies," Liu Shuyue replied.

"You haven’t opened them?"

"No, there’s no visible latch on the surface, I was afraid of damaging their integrity, so I left them untouched."

Chen Xuan approached with his phone in hand, circled one of the iron boxes. It seemed almost welded to the ground, and the dimensions were quite distinctive, about two meters high, six or seven meters long, and over a meter wide; if used to hold people, a single box could contain four or five persons. Only from afar would it be mistaken for a coffin.

But as for what it specifically is, Chen Xuan couldn’t reach a conclusion immediately, just like Liu Shuyue said, it lacks any noticeable opening mechanism, the upper part being a lid slightly broader than the lower part, visually straight and without handles or anything. If it were truly cast from steel, such a massive size couldn’t possibly be lifted by manpower.

A total of four rows of these iron boxes, paired and arranged quite neatly.

Resorting to brute force to break them? Chen Xuan considered for a moment, but temporarily refrained from acting on the thought—in view of not fully understanding the specifics here, there was no need to rush against an iron object.

"Look, there’s something like a track here!" Lin Qing suddenly discovered something new.

Chen Xuan followed her gaze and indeed found a groove embedded in the floor, though the ground had gathered a heap of dust and soil, easily missed if not paying attention.

"This room surely isn’t as simple as it appears." Chen Xuan said, "What it’s specifically used for needs a thorough inspection before reaching a conclusion. I’ll prepare some lighting equipment for illumination, and you can have the villagers clean the area first."

"Alright," Liu Shuyue agreed.

"Also, there should be more than just this room in the mountain pillar, let’s explore around and see if there are other passageways."

It took only a few minutes for Chen Xuan’s judgment to bear out.

They found a door at the far end of the room. And this door wasn’t the common household kind, it surprisingly considered sealing effects, the door lock was an unmistakable valve.

It’s getting interesting.

The door wasn’t locked, Chen Xuan used some force to push it open, behind the door was a cramped space, with only two paths, one leading to a bottomless dry well, the other connecting to stairways going both up and down.

Chen Xuan couldn’t help but chuckle.

"What’s funny?" Liu Shuyue asked.

"Nothing, it’s just like back home, next to the stairwell is a shaft, it seems civil engineering experts across the multiverse share similar thoughts."

He was already certain, hidden within the mountain was a building!