The tunnel at the end of the mine shaft had already been excavated into a "T" shape, a result of unearthing the midsection of a skeleton and then digging outwards along the length of its prone form. The tail end of the skeleton had been fully excavated, and the current state of digging was focused on unearthing the head.
Judging by the size and scale of the skeleton, and at the current excavation speed, it was estimated that it would take another half a day.
At this moment, the digging had paused.
A group of people stood crowded together, their voices buzzing with discussion. Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang, approaching quickly, could hear them from afar.
The two walked between the ribs of the skeleton.
The skeleton was very large and long, and no claws or similar features had been found yet.
Its body shape suggested it might be a type of giant serpent, with a length of nearly thirty zhang already excavated.
The color of the skeleton was also a bit strange, half black and half transparent, like black jade.
“It’s even glowing, what exactly is this thing?”
“Don’t tell me what we’re supposed to dig out is this glowing thing?”
“Do you think this thing will be very valuable?”
A tall and a short man arrived behind the crowd, hearing the discussions. Some were conversing curiously, while others were whispering, seemingly harboring some ideas.
In short, the front was completely blocked by onlookers. Some stood on tiptoes, craning their necks, while others even leaped up like gibbons and hung onto the skeleton above, blocking latecomers from seeing what was happening upfront.
Shi Chun immediately began patting shoulders, one by one, “Excuse me, coming through, excuse me…”
Some made way, some reacted slowly, others dawdled and spread their hands, indicating it was hard to move in such a crowd. Some even looked him up and down, as if asking why they should make way for him when everyone else was squeezed together.
For a temporarily assembled group, the rules were indeed less than satisfactory.
Seeing such reactions from the group, Shi Chun didn’t indulge their bad habits.
He directly whipped them, striking with a whistling sound, eliciting cries of pain or strange shouts. Some angrily rebuked him, asking why he hit them.
Shi Chun couldn’t be bothered to answer; he just wanted to see what exactly was happening ahead.
Regardless, sometimes violence was indeed more effective than courtesy.
At least, people quickly made way, even if they had to squeeze out a path for him to pass.
With this whip in hand, he truly displayed the imposing aura of East Nine Plains being his territory.
Wu Jinliang, following behind, felt a slight tremor in his heart, breaking out in a small sweat. It was one thing to act secretly before, but wasn't doing this in public a bit too much?
He realized that this chief truly didn’t treat himself as an outsider; he wasn’t polite at all, and showed no awareness of being a stealthy rogue.
When he first decided to sneak in, he thought the entire process would be full of thrilling evasions. But after getting in, he found he might have overthought it; it felt like the style had been led astray by the chief, and now it was getting ridiculously skewed.
There were indeed too many people crowded together. Even following closely behind the chief, he couldn’t reach the very front, being blocked again by people pushed back from the front.
Fortunately, he was tall enough that from this position, he could roughly see what was happening ahead. A quick glance, and his eyes instantly widened!
Shi Chun naturally pushed his way to the front.
The supervisors standing at the front heard the sounds of whipping from behind and simply glanced back at him. Seeing it was one of their own, their attention returned to the upper-left.
Looking up, Shi Chun’s eyes also widened a bit, filled with disbelief.
On the ribs of the dragon-bone-like skeleton, another skeleton had appeared.
It rested on the dragon bone, not yet fully excavated. Though half-buried in the soil, its partially exposed ferocious outline clearly showed it was a snake head.
It was unclear if this was the head of the dragon bone itself.
Whether it was or not wasn’t important.
What was important was that besides two eye sockets on the snake head, there seemed to be another hollow at the brow, though it was uncertain if it was an eye socket.
What caught everyone’s attention was a mass of purplish-glowing mist, floating within that apparent third eye socket—a concave bone socket.
It resembled a miniature nebula composed of countless tiny purplish-glowing stars, constantly shifting in form internally. Sometimes it drifted like flowing clouds, sometimes it looked like countless eyes staring, and sometimes like countless enchanting butterflies fluttering their wings, incredibly beautiful.
The purplish-glowing nebula was about as tall as a person. There was a person standing on the snake skull, attempting to reach out and touch the nebula, which provided a point of comparison.
Indeed, they were incredibly bold. They didn’t even know if this purplish-glowing nebula was harmful, yet dared to touch it randomly.
Many people held their breath, staring intently.
All who could see knew that this nebula was absolutely not simple.
They didn’t know what kind of treasure it was, but this was likely the main purpose of the employer’s excavation.
Someone secretly wondered, this employer had quite the nerve.
With such a rare treasure, the person actually dared not to be on-site supervising. Were they so confident that no one could snatch it away?
On both sides of the snake skull, people were still excitedly swinging their picks, breaking the earth, intending to dig out the entire snake skull.
Soil and rocks continuously clattered down. Fortunately, the deep underground was very humid, so there wasn’t much dust.
The supervisor touching the nebula waved his hand through it again and again, stirring it various ways, yet it seemed to have no effect on the nebula. From time to time, he let out surprised “Ehh? Ehh?” sounds.
Shi Chun felt an itch in his heart from his “Ehh?”ing, mentally cursing his ancestors. What’s with the “Ehh?” Just tell us what’s going on!
Finally, he couldn’t resist anymore.
He tucked his whip into his waist and was about to leap up to try it himself.
Unexpectedly, a supervisor in the front row suddenly shouted, “Everyone come down, stop digging! You, stop touching it! Everyone come down and wait for Mr.
Shen to decide.”
The supervisor whose hand was waving in the nebula, along with several miners swinging their picks, immediately jumped down one after another.
This act was like pouring cold water on the itching heart of Shi Chun. He stared at the supervisor who had spoken, wondering about the authority of this person.
If he truly was a leader, openly defying orders would be somewhat inappropriate and could easily expose him.
However, he shared the same thought as the crowd: from the first moment he saw this purplish-glowing nebula, he was convinced that this was the main target of this excavation.
After all, he had personally inspected that skeleton before and found nothing special. He had been a bit puzzled earlier, but now the answer was clear.
Although the Land of Exile was a legendary place, with many incredibly powerful figures having fallen to this place, and he had heard many moving legends, this purplish-glowing nebula spectacle was something he had never seen before. One look was enough to know it was extraordinary.
The appearance of this item made Shi Chun naturally assume that his remaining time was likely short.
He had previously mistakenly thought Shen Youkun’s target was the massive Dragon Bone; that thing would be difficult to remove and would take a lot of effort.
But if the target was this nebula, taking it away might not be difficult.
In other words, once the objective was achieved, this excavation would likely end.
The consequence of ending was stopping work and packing up, after which personnel would inevitably be consolidated. Once people were consolidated, his methods of finding openings and causing trouble here and there wouldn’t work.
The disappearance of even a few people would immediately be noticed.
These were secondary concerns for him.
He dared to come, so he had the courage to face being exposed. The real problem was that his purpose for infiltrating had not been achieved, and now they were going to stop work?
He knew Shen Youkun was here to do something illicit, but he hadn't caught Shen Youkun with any leverage during this trip.
After leaving the Land of Exile, Shen Youkun wouldn't let him off the hook.
What kind of leverage was digging up a treasure underground? Many people in the Land of Exile dug for ore to make money.
If he couldn’t articulate the specifics of a situation, there was no way to threaten someone.
Could he really threaten Shen Youkun with those large amounts of questionable supplies? Perhaps it would work if another capable person were handling it, but for a small fry like him facing a power that could reach into the city gates, trying to use this as leverage was simply a joke.
Therefore, his gaze still fell upon the purplish-glowing nebula. If he could figure out its function, there might still be a chance.
However, he also knew that even if he were allowed to touch the nebula, the possibility of understanding its function at the moment was not high.
If there was truly no other way, then he would have to find a way to snatch this thing and get it into his own hands first.
The problem was that he hadn’t even touched it yet, and he didn’t know if he could take this treasure. The scene of the supervisor touching the nebula was still vivid in his mind.
Since Shen Youkun came for this thing, he presumably had a way to take it. If all else failed, he would just have to wait for Shen Youkun to take it, then find a way to snatch it from Shen Youkun’s hands.
However, the other party had a large number of people, and inciting a mob fight would be very troublesome. But, perhaps the bodies of those killed supervisors could be used, saying that Shen Youkun wanted to silence everyone, and using that to incite the crowd…
In a flash, his mind had already twisted through various solutions.
He immediately decided to try interacting with the nebula first.
Facing the unknown, deciding something was useless without even trying wasn't his style of doing things.
There was no time to lose. He knew his time was indeed limited.
The supervisor he encountered on the way had already gone to notify Shen Youkun, and Shen Youkun would arrive soon.
Fortunately, he also had a mouth.
After a thought, he suddenly shouted, “Mr. Shen will be here soon! Mr.
Shen said to leave only two people to watch here. Everyone else, immediately retreat to the corner and wait.”
As he spoke, he took off his whip, walked to the very front, turned to face the crowd, and subtly brandished the whip in his hand, conveying a sense of not really putting anyone in his eyes.
There were too many people gathered.
If he could manage to take the purplish-glowing nebula, stealing in front of so many people didn't seem appropriate.
He didn't know if this bluff would work, but he didn't care for now; he'd just try any method he had.
It was the fellow who had just whipped his way to the front. Many people recognized him by the wound on his arm, and those who had been whipped showed dissatisfaction.
Wu Jinliang, seeing this scene, instantly felt a headache. This guy was at it again.
“You are…” the supervisor who had just given the order asked hesitantly.
Seeing his doubt, Shi Chun’s eyes flashed, and he quickly adapted, instantly modifying his plan.
He decided to quell this man’s suspicions first, then swiftly raised his whip and pointed it at him, interrupting his words: “You and I will stay here to watch. Everyone else, go around the corner and stand by.”
He then waved his whip, gesturing to the other supervisors to follow suit, “Mr. Shen has something to attend to.
You all keep an eye on everyone later. No one is allowed to peek.”
Everyone thought, what else could it be but to collect that dazzling treasure in front of them, not wanting anyone to see the method.
The supervisor who had given the order was instantly relieved to hear he could supervise on-site.
He set aside his doubts for the moment and waved his hand to everyone, saying, “Everyone, follow Mr. Shen’s instructions, stand by!”
The other supervisors immediately began shouting, urging the crowd to retreat.
Shi Chun, who was already holding his whip behind his back, secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Good, it worked.
Wu Jinliang in the crowd was somewhat dumbfounded. He thought that if two people were left behind, he would be one of them.
He hadn’t expected it to be others. What did that mean? After seeing Shi Chun’s knowing glance, though he didn’t know why, he still turned around and cooperated, following the crowd.