Xin Jia and Gu Xiechen peered out from behind a large boulder, just in time to see two middle-aged men, the supervisors of the Juzhao site, running over in a panic.

"It's here, but it has nothing to do with us! You must take responsibility for all injuries sustained by the workers, and for all losses caused by the work stoppage!"

The special agent leader looked helplessly at the two middle-aged men, repeatedly assuring them, "Rest assured, rest assured! We promised that all workers would receive a substantial compensation package, and we will cover all losses resulting from your construction delays. Furthermore, we swear that the delay will not harm your company's reputation in any way!"

The two site supervisors pressed on, unwilling to let up, harassing the special agent leader about the promised compensation not being delivered as agreed. The leader, exasperated, pulled out a checkbook, signed a figure, and handed it over. Only then did the two men smile and turn to leave.

Two multi-purpose construction machines slowly approached, using gravel, lead sheets, and cement to seal the opening. The nearby floodlights, blowers, and various monitoring equipment were hastily gathered and carried away by the agents.

Gu Xiechen smiled, recorded everything with his camera, and then clapped Xin Jia on the shoulder. Xin Jia snatched Gu Xiechen up and vanished underground once more.

Seconds later, the pair found themselves inside the sealed passage. Gu Xiechen pulled out a palm-sized detector and swept the surroundings. Finding no surveillance equipment left by the agents, he let Xin Jia lead him out of the ground with relief. Following the incident on Paradise Star, Gu Xiechen had acquired many precious jewels. He produced two fist-sized, cyan-white orbs, said to be solidified Dragon Eye Stones formed from the eyes of a Flood Dragon. They emitted a brilliant light, illuminating the area for several hundred meters with crystalline clarity, revealing every minute detail.

This was clearly a tunnel excavated by hand—a narrow passage sloping downward at thirty degrees, extending straight into the earth. The walls were adorned with countless ancient rock paintings rendered in various natural pigments, depicting scenes of ancient African natives hunting, fishing, battling, and sacrificing to celestial gods. The tunnel floor was littered with tangled power lines, clearly abandoned by the Special Affairs Bureau agents. Gu Xiechen touched some; a few were still faintly warm.

They descended along the passage for nearly three hundred meters until they reached a massive, hemispherical stone cavern ahead. A stone wall blocked their path, but a huge hole, several meters in diameter, had been blasted open in it. As they neared the opening, the Geiger counter in Gu Xiechen's hand immediately began to emit a sharp shriek. Just meters from the breach, there was a "crackling" sound as the counter was pierced by intense radiation energy. Simultaneously, a gentle radiance emanated from Gu Xiechen’s body, his Daoist robes and crane cloak actively shielding him.

Amidst a series of sharp reports—"Crack! Crack! Crack!"—the halo radiating from the robes, now shifted into the form of a swallowtail coat, saw countless tiny ripples spread across its surface. As the light diffused, through the hazy blue glow, they could see streams of extremely fine light shooting out from the hole in the stone wall, violently spraying outward and rushing upward along the passage toward the surface.

"Damn it, the Special Affairs Bureau must have sanitized this place, yet there is still such intense radiation! What was this place like when they blasted the wall open just now?"

Staring in astonishment at the shattered counter in his hand, Gu Xiechen tucked it back into his brocade pouch and cautiously approached the hole in the stone wall, tossing one of the Dragon Eye Stones into the breach.

With a few muffled "thuds," the Dragon Eye Stone rolled nearly a hundred meters into the space beyond the wall, illuminating the area behind the stone sheer wall with dazzling light. Inside was a vast circular hall, easily three hundred meters across. In the center of the hall was a sunken, cylindrical pit, the bottom of which was constructed from black stones shining like molten black glaze, forming a hemispherical structure. The otherwise perfect hemisphere had a fissure somewhere, through which copious amounts of blinding radiation energy were erupting, visible through the blue halo projected by the Daoist robes.

Directly opposite Gu Xiechen, on the far side of the circular hall, stood a silver portal more than five meters high. The silver door, made of some unknown material, refracted the intense light of the Dragon Eye Stone into a spectrum of colors. Lined up before the door were three of the Federation's newest model photon supercomputers, their long data cables connected to a head-sized metal plate beside the door. A massive stream of data scrolled rapidly across the screens of the supercomputers.

"Brute-force cracking?" Gu Xiechen laughed in surprise.

Since the agents had already withdrawn, Gu Xiechen, in his disguised form, swaggered up to the silver door with Xin Jia. He glanced at the metal plate beside the door, which was etched with exactly one hundred and forty-four small squares. Each square bore a different symbol—some looked like a sun, others like a simple seed. As the supercomputer screens flickered, the small squares on the metal plate continuously emitted various colored lights.

"One hundred and forty-four. Input keys? Base twelve? Trying to brute-force crack the system of a completely alien civilization—this isn't easy! Why not just blow the door open?"

Looking puzzledly at the three photon supercomputers behind him, Gu Xiechen quietly commanded Xin Jia, "Break the door!"

Xin Jia let out a low roar. He raised his right fist and slammed it hard against the silver portal.

With a dull thud, an extremely strong purple ray shot out from the portal, striking Xin Jia's right fist. Xin Jia cried out in pain, clutching his scorched right fist, which revealed bone, and stumbled backward repeatedly. Pale golden blood slowly dripped onto the ground. Xin Jia stared at the door, exclaiming in astonishment, "Exalted One, the restrictions within this portal are incredibly potent!"

Restrictions?

Gu Xiechen paused, looking at Xin Jia's burnt fist, and frowning, summoned Zhao Yi.

Zhao Yi only glanced at the portal, focusing all his attention on the metal plate beside the door. He stared at the plate for a long moment, then suddenly laughed, "Hahaha, making things overly complicated. Carving all those symbols on it, but deep down, isn't it still the method of the Twelve Earthly Branches and the Twelve Cyclical Changes? Hmm, Piao Huo shifts to Da Huo, Da Huo shifts to Da Liang, Da Liang shifts to Jiao Kang, Jiao Kang shifts to Jing Gui... Heavens, who taught them the 'Lesser Zodiac Locking Star Secret Array'? It's incomplete!"

Xin Jia looked blankly at Gu Xiechen, pitifully hugging his charred right fist.

Gu Xiechen comforted Xin Jia with a look, then took out a jade-carved pill bottle from his brocade pouch. He carefully extracted a pigeon-egg-sized golden pill.

"Xin Jia, don't waste it! Zhao Yi worked hard to secretly hoard these spirit medicines. We have the formulas, but we lack the ingredients. One pill... one less pill!" Gu Xiechen watched with a pang of reluctance as Xin Jia snatched the pill, named 'Purple Ginseng Fire Return Elixir,' and swallowed it in three large gulps, like Zhu Bajie eating a Ginseng Fruit.

In just a short while, a purple mist enveloped Xin Jia’s fist, and the destroyed muscle rapidly regenerated. Large amounts of purple energy surged out from Xin Jia’s pores.

Xin Jia was momentarily stunned, then urgently stated, "Exalted One, this general must respectfully withdraw for a time. The power of this elixir is immense! This general absolutely will not waste a single trace of its medicinal power!"

Before Gu Xiechen could reply, Xin Jia hastily transformed into a streak of purple energy and merged into Gu Xiechen's Sea of Consciousness. Zhao Yi, who had been pondering by the silver metal plate, looked at the purple energy that Xin Jia had become with a hint of envy. Without a word, Gu Xiechen took another pill from the bottle and handed it to Zhao Yi, "Don't be polite. These pills were hoarded by your hard work; it's time you had one too!"

Zhao Yi gratefully accepted the pill and murmured in a low voice, "I am willing to serve the Exalted One unto death!" He then began tapping the metal plate with incredible speed, striking it thirty-six times.

With a 'hummm,' tides of silver shockwaves surged around the silver portal simultaneously. The ground trembled slightly, and the portal began to slowly rise upward. Large masses of white mist, solidified cold air, poured out from within. The mist was bone-chilling upon contact; the frigid air was so intense that even Gu Xiechen, who practiced the Snow Soul Divine Aegis and grasped ice-elemental powers, could not withstand it. He shivered violently, shuddered several times, and involuntarily retreated a few steps.

Cold. Extremely cold. A cold that was unbearable. Sharp, blade-like chill penetrated Gu Xiechen's extraordinary meridians through his pores, almost freezing him solid. If the flames emanating from his robes and cloak had not blocked over eighty percent of the cold, Gu Xiechen would have already been turned into an ice sculpture.

Zhao Yi also trembled violently, exclaiming in shock, "Exalted One, this general—this general cannot bear it!"

With a 'crack,' thin sheets of ice began to bloom on Zhao Yi’s body, rapidly spreading across him. Gu Xiechen dared not delay; he immediately shot a beam of purple light from his brow to envelop Zhao Yi and quickly retracted him into his Sea of Consciousness. Gritting his teeth, Gu Xiechen glanced back at the ancient nuclear reactor constructed of massive black stone, muttering lowly, "I must see what is inside this place! Do I not even have the courage to take a single look?"

After only ten seconds of contemplation, Gu Xiechen, holding a Dragon Eye Stone in each hand, strode into the portal. Upon entering, he looked back mockingly at the line of three photon supercomputers: "Idiots. This is clearly the art of ancient formations and mechanical manipulation. Using supercomputers to brute-force crack the door password—what genius came up with that brilliant idea?"

Inside the portal was a hall shaped like a round top over a square bottom. The walls and ceiling were covered with ancient, robust sculptures, depicting everything from celestial movement charts to phenomena like raging winds, tsunamis, thunder and lightning storms, and great floods. Gu Xiechen, stepping inside, found himself standing atop a sculpture of an erupting volcano. The sculpting technique was divine; after examining the vivid volcano for a moment, Gu Xiechen felt as if he were truly standing before an erupting volcano, witnessing it spew countless lava stones.

(Intermission reminder: After subscribing, remember to vote with your monthly tickets! The end of the month is approaching—only these few monthly tickets are missing from your hand.) (To be continued)