Chapter 41: An Unspeakable Secret (2)
The items were definitely not on Flowing Flame Oriole’s body. After she was captured, she had been thoroughly searched, but no special items had been found.
It was possible that those treasures were still hidden in the Rong Clan!
Su Chen immediately came to that conclusion.
He hurriedly left the research workstation and went looking for Zhu Xianyao. “Did you guys find anything special when you searched the Rong Clan?”
Now that the Rong Clan was finished, the Zhu Clan had taken over their businesses, and all of the Rong Clan’s treasures belonged to them as well.
“Are you referring to treasures? Or resources?” Zhu Xianyao asked.
“Neither. I’m talking about items that might not have belonged to a human, that may have been related to the Rong Clan’s betrayal,” Su Chen replied.
Upon hearing that it might have been related to the Harpies, Zhu Xianyao’s expression became serious. “Let me go take a look.”
Very quickly, Zhu Xianyao returned. “No one discovered anything particularly unique.”
“No hidden stashes either?”
“Definitely not,” Zhu Xianyao replied with conviction.
As she gazed at her lover’s thoughtful expression, Zhu Xianyao asked, “Could Rong Guluo have taken it away?”
Su Chen shook his head. “There is that possibility, but we cannot let any clues get away. I feel like there is something big hiding behind their actions.
Zhu Xianyao nodded. “I feel the same way, but we have already searched the entire Rong Clan. Though we did find many treasures, none of them came from the Harpies.
Su Chen could only sigh when he heard that. Just as he was about to concede that Rong Guluo had indeed taken them with him, he suddenly heard Zhu Xianyao say, “In addition to the Rong Clan itself, all of their a.s.sociated businesses have also been searched with the exception of the Moonstone Mine. We really didn’t find anything.”
“Moonstone Mine?” Su Chen felt his heart jolt for a moment. “Why didn’t we search there?”
“Because it’s completely empty,” Zhu Xianyao replied. “The mine is depleted, so no one paid any attention to it. Weren’t you the one who discovered that in the first place?”
Su Chen seemed to have received a serious shock. He fell into deep thought.
Zhu Xianyao waved her hand in front of Su Chen’s face. “Hey, what are you thinking about?”
Su Chen’s gaze, however, was extremely serious. “I was indeed the one who found out about this. I also remember that the Moonstone Mine was depleted just about half a month ago.”
“What?” Zhu Xianyao was also stunned.
Zhu Xianyao also realized that there were far too many coincidences at play. “Is there some kind of problem here?”
“A big one,” Su Chen replied. “Do you remember what I told you? The Rong Clan invited the Qian Clan over to help deal with the Zhu Clan, agreeing to hand everything over. Of course, in actuality there was one thing that they had reserved for themselves.”
“What was it?”
“The Stargold Mine!” su Chen replied.
Stargold Mine was a mine under the control of the Zhu Clan. It was incredibly vital, just like the Moonstone Mine was to the Rong Clan.
Even though the Rong Clan had promised to hand over all of the benefits from the Zhu Clan over to the Qian Clan, they had kept this mine for themselves. However, they had agreed to pay the Qian Clan a large sum of money in exchange.
Because it was just a single mine, and the additional price the Rong Clan had offered to pay, Su Chen had ignored it at that time. However, he suddenly understood what was happening.
Zhu Xianyao also realized something. She stared at Su Chen in shock. “Could they have really been after the mine itself?”
Su Chen and Zhu Xianyao had always believed that the mine alone wasn’t enough to bring the two clans to blows, but now it seemed like the mine was incredibly valuable to the Rong Clan, valuable enough that they would pick a fight with another Demonic Emperor Bloodline clan and even invite another Demonic Emperor Bloodline clan to partic.i.p.ate.
Both Su Chen and Zhu Xianyao felt their hearts jolt.
They knew that they had finally managed to figure out part of what the Harpies had been after.
“Let’s go and take a look at the mine!” Su Chen and Zhu Xianyao said simultaneously.
The Moonstone Mine was located in the southwestern region of Flat Sky City, not far from where Su Chen and his entourage had landed back then.
Because this had been the Rong Clan’s main mine, tens of thousands of workers had once worked this place over. Even if the mine was depleted, the workers hadn’t dispersed. They had all continued to stay in the area in order to conceal the fact that the mine was completely empty.
After the Rong Clan was toppled, this place finally quieted down, and the place was rapidly deserted. The mining crews that had covered the place had disappeared without a trace, only leaving behind many holes in the mountain - relics of a bygone era.
Su Chen and the others found an old man standing guard when they arrived. He was responsible for watching over all of the abandoned tools and equipment kept here.
Zhu Xianyao pointed up as she stood in front of the pockmarked mountain. “This is where the Moonstone Mine is. The biggest hole up there is Hole Number One, which once produced enough ore to sustain hundreds of miners at once.
Su Chen glanced up at the pitch-black entrance and said, “Let’s go in and take a look.”
The cave was extremely dark. Due to many years of excavation, the tunnels were incredibly long and complicated. The further they went, the more paths there were to take.
The difficulty of finding something in this kind of a place when they didn’t even really know what they were looking for was quite apparent.
Thankfully, they were just fis.h.i.+ng around carelessly, so everyone was extremely relaxed.
The whole way, no one was able to find anything. For the most part, it felt as though they were merely taking a leisurely stroll through the mineshaft.
A Sword Servant named Li Xi walked around, tapping on the walls. The knocking sounds echoed clearly through the dark pa.s.sageways.
“What are you hitting the walls for?” Lin Xiao asked.
“I’m searching for some kind of secret pa.s.sageway. Isn’t that what Sect Master was asking us to do?” Li Xi replied.
“You idiot,” another Sword Servant named Liu Siye chuckled. “This place is a mine, where miners work. What kind of secret mechanisms could there possibly be?”
Li Xi shrugged. “Since we aren’t really doing much, why not knock it around a bit?”
“I think knocking your head is a bit more interesting.” Liu Siye smacked Li Xi on the back of the head.
“Get out of here!” Li Xi retaliated, but Liu Siye managed to dodge.
Li Xi wasn’t willing to stop there, and he continued to give chase. The two of them began to fight, one attacking and one dodging, right then and there.
The Sword Servants had followed Su Chen for a long time, so their relations.h.i.+p was quite deep. Su Chen had never viewed them as servants, so Su Chen didn’t mind if they messed around from time to time as long as no one else was present.
As Li Xi attacked, Liu Siye dodged, and the fist slammed into the walls of the tunnel, the sound of the collision rumbling through the tunnel.
Su Chen suddenly frowned. “What was that noise? Did you hear it?”
Everyone was taken aback. Li Xi stammered, “It was...... I hit the wall......”
“Not that. It sounded like a shriek,” Su Chen said.
He tilted his head to listen more intently, but the noise that he had heard seemed to have disappeared.
After thinking for a moment, Su Chen began to walk forwards quickly.
Everyone hurried to catch up.
Along the way, everyone did their best to listen intently, but none of them heard anything strange.
Zhu Xianyao gazed at Su Chen quizzically. “Su Chen, did you really hear a strange noise?”
“Hm? I can still sense it right now. It’s like some kind of shrill whine constantly buzzing next to my ear. The deeper we go, the clearer this sound is,” Su Chen replied calmly.
“But I can’t hear anything. Death’s Shadow, can you hear anything?” Zhu Xianyao asked.
“Apologies, my female master, I cannot hear anything either,” Death’s Shadow of a Youth responded from the air.
“Then it’s not a normal sound. It’s probably some kind of consciousness transmission or alarm,” Su Chen muttered. “It sounds like the lamenting of a vengeful spirit.”
Everyone’s expressions changed when they heard that.
Was there an Astral around here?
Su Chen, however, fell silent and continued to walk forwards.
After walking past another long hallway, Su Chen stood still.
He waved his hand behind him, motioning for the people behind him to retreat.
He didn’t say anything about being careful, but apprehension was clearly written on everyone’s faces.
Su Chen stood there silently, tilting his ear to get a better feel for where the sound was coming from. Even though the others could hear nothing, Su Chen’s consciousness power was at three thousand units with all the equipment, and this shrill screech was incredibly clear to him.
He turned to look at the wall next to him.
The wall was completely empty, with nothing on it.
At that moment, however, Su Chen suddenly clenched his fist and unleashed a punch at the wall.
Bang!
The stone wall crumbled as Su Chen’s hand pushed right into the mountain.
HISSS!!!
The sharp hiss penetrated into everyone’s consciousness, stimulating it.
Yes, this hiss was effective on the consciousness level, but this time everyone was able to sense it.
At the same time, Su Chen pulled back his arm. Everyone saw that he was holding a strange bug in his hand.
This bug had no eyes, but it did have a ma.s.sive mouth which was lined with razor-sharp teeth. Since it was being threatened, it had opened its mouth wider than its entire head, causing its head to basically turn into its mouth. Unfortunately, it couldn’t bite Su Chen no matter how had it tried because Su Chen had already grabbed it by its neck. Its eighteen equally sharp legs thrashed through the air like little knives as it tried its best to escape, causing sparks to fly off of Su Chen’s skin.
Even though it couldn’t bite Su Chen, the strange shriek continued to come from its ma.s.sive mouth, and those nearby felt like their consciousnesses were about to be torn apart. It was an incredibly difficult feeling to endure.
“What a strange bug.” Su Chen clenched his hand with some force, and the bug immediately froze in place, unable to move. However, its shrieking only grew stronger because of this.
Su Chen’s eyes glittered. “I have never seen such a strange bug before. It has lots of research value.”
As he spoke, a consciousness wave surged from him right at the strange bug.
Even though he had never officially learned any offensive consciousness-type Origin Skills, his boundless consciousness power was more than enough to let him suppress most of his enemies. This was just like how a strong individual could rely on pure strength alone to defeat most of his opponents.
Even though the strange bug had a powerful consciousness, it was completely unable to withstand Su Chen’s attack. With one final shriek, it seized and froze, dying on the spot.
“Oh...... I used to much force.” Su Chen was speechless.
Three thousand units of consciousness power wasn’t something this bug could withstand no matter how simple Su Chen’s means of attack was.
Su Chen stowed the bug’s corpse away.
“You even want that thing?” Zhu Xianyao rolled her eyes.
Girls possessed an innate hatred of bugs.
“These bugs could be extremely rare. Perhaps there is only one of them, in which case this single bug would be very valuable,” Su Chen replied seriously.
Most of the time, Su Chen’s words were very logical and could be predicted.
But occasionally, even the main character would have their face slapped.
He had only just finished speaking when a shrill hiss began to echo throughout the hallways.
This time, everyone heard it.
“What’s going on?”
While everyone was still confused, however, Su Chen’s expression had already changed.
He yelled, “Not good! There’s a horde of bugs running towards us right now!”
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