Chapter 142 Trench Exploration (1) A familiar feeling of revisiting an old place...
Excluding the out-of-control Xuan Chi, Si Ling hasn't encountered any ghosts that could pose a threat to her in nearly 20,000 years. Therefore, even if there are ghosts in the deep sea, it doesn't matter to her.
However, considering that she was about to go look for the heavenly soldiers and the matter was of great importance, she did not want to cause any trouble, so she still tried to look for any traces of the deep-sea ghosts.
About twenty minutes later, she found them at about 4,000 meters underwater.
It was an underwater town. The ghosts used various luminous marine creatures as lamps to illuminate the town, so it was not difficult to find.
Si Ling hid his figure and walked into the town to take a look - there were many buildings in the town, all made of local materials, mostly fish bones, shells and the like. Occasionally, some metal plates could be seen, which should be parts dropped from human ships.
She passed by a bar and the bustle inside attracted her attention. She walked into the bar and listened to the customers' gossip. After spending several hours, she basically got to know the ins and outs of this small town.
...It turned out to be a small town spontaneously formed by marginalized people.
Yes, just like in the human world, there are "marginalized people" in Hell. Some of these ghosts are being hunted or expelled, while others have committed serious crimes and escaped, forcing them to find new homes.
Therefore, the deep sea is undoubtedly the most suitable place.
Although the ocean is mentioned in myths of all countries, the deep sea where few people go is also a place that the gods are too lazy to take a second look. The gods of the underworld in various myths find it difficult to effectively govern the ocean, and marine species such as mermaids rarely reach such depths. Therefore, this place has become a natural "gray area", which is perfect for these ghosts to hide.
After figuring out this basic information, Si Ling took a rough walk around the town and preliminarily judged that the number of ghosts here did not exceed three thousand, and the oldest was only three or four thousand years old, so it was difficult for them to pose a threat to her. Then she set off again for the Puerto Rico Trench.
Continuing to dive more than 2,000 meters, Si Ling found the trench that the Atlanteans called "remains." In the dark depths of the sea, it lay there quietly like a rugged old wound with no end in sight.
Finding the Cangming Palace in this trench was no easy task. For one thing, the Puerto Rico Trench itself was over 800 kilometers long. On the other hand, while its narrowest point was 3.5 kilometers wide and its widest point was over ten kilometers wide, wide enough for a palace, Si Ling didn't believe the Cangming Palace would be out in the open.
The reason is simple. If it were in such an easy-to-find place, humans who have been persistently exploring the ocean in recent years would have found it using detection equipment long ago.
Therefore, Si Ling guessed that it might have a hidden entrance or crack leading to a deeper place on the seabed.
But she had no information to support her guess, and if so, where the entrance was, so she could only try to find it herself. Fortunately, as a 30,000-year-old ghost, she had a strong sense of spiritual power. If a building like Cangming Palace, which contained the magical power of the Heavenly Emperor, existed nearby, she should be able to sense its existence.
Si Ling took a deep breath and started to dive further into the trench.
This was almost the western end of the Puerto Rico Trench. Her plan was to use several paper figures to conduct a blanket search, covering the 800 kilometers in a few days. If nothing came of it at the other end... then she would find another way.
On the first day, Si Ling gained nothing.
The next day, they found a secret cave hidden behind some water plants. This cave didn't excite Si Ling at all, but out of caution she went in to take a look. However, after walking a few dozen meters she hit a dead end and had to turn back.
On the third day, nothing was found. Si Ling began to admire the ghosts living in the deep sea town, because the endless dark deep sea made her feel extremely depressed. She couldn't imagine what it would feel like to live here for a long time.
On the fourth day, they found another cave hidden behind the water plants.
Si Ling walked into the cave as she had done last time, but after a few dozen meters, she hit a dead end again. She turned back outside, but the moment she stepped out, she felt something strange.
She looked around and confirmed, again and again, that this was definitely not the cave she'd seen a few days ago. She clearly remembered that the entrance to that cave was on the south side of the trench, while this one was on the north. Furthermore, the trench where that cave was located was narrower. She had been on the other side of the trench when the paper figure came looking for her, but it still took her ten minutes to reach it. This time, it took nearly half an hour to get from the center of the trench.
Si Ling pondered for a moment, silently chanting a spell, then raised his hand and used his fingernails to draw a talisman on the side of the cave. The golden pattern of the talisman flashed and then disappeared without a trace.
On the fifth day, as expected, nothing was found. Si Ling used spells to mark some places along the way.
On the sixth day, the first wave of paper men were scrapped, and Si Ling released a few new ones. After searching for several hours, one of the paper men said he had found a cave.
Si Ling turned on the timer on the Tongming Plate and followed him to the cave entrance. This time it took a quarter of an hour.
She thought to herself that she would measure the time to pass the entire width later, but when she raised her hand and touched the side of the cave, the familiar golden pattern appeared.
…Okay, no need to measure the distance this time.
The evil ghost encountered a ghost wall.
This kind of black humor made Si Ling feel a little complicated. When she thought that this spell was most likely cast by "herself" in the past, her mood became even more complicated.
She then walked into the cave again, found a clean place to sit cross-legged, closed her eyes and chanted a spell, trying to dispel the spell.
Just as he finished reciting a sentence, a strong force invaded his whole body. A layer of golden light emerged out of thin air in the deep sea and quickly gathered towards the cave.
Si Ling felt every limb tense, every strand of her mind struggling against this powerful force. She dared not slack off in her resistance against this powerful spell, but even so, she narrowly escaped its clutches several times... It tried to pull her into an illusion, and Si Ling knew that with the power of this spell, once she was trapped, she would likely never escape. After nearly being breached once more, she steeled herself, regulating her breathing and channeling her Yuan Soul.
The soul surrounded by black mist slowly floated out of her mouth like a small pill.
Si Ling admitted that she was taking a gamble - using her Yuanhun to directly fight against the barrier here. If it succeeded, it would be great. If it failed, her life would be in danger, but perhaps she could activate the "Youku Wanxiang" again.
…Admittedly, it’s also possible that I could die right here.
"Now that I'm here," she jokingly muttered to herself, raising her eyes to stare at the Yuanhun floating in front of her, her thin lips moving as she silently chanted a spell.
As the last word of the spell fell, the Yuanhun made a short muffled sound.
The black fog suddenly spread out with this muffled sound, and the golden light lingering around was forced back several meters, and then it approached again with relentless perseverance.
Si Ling continued to chant the spell. Every time he chanted the spell, a noise would be heard, and the black fog would force back the golden light. Then the golden light would come again and force back the black fog.
This went on for more than twenty rounds. The range of the black fog seemed to be slightly larger, but the effect was so weak that Si Ling became discouraged.
However, after persisting for five or six more rounds, the diffuse golden light seemed to have exhausted its strength and suddenly collapsed, disappearing in a few seconds.
"?" Si Ling maintained his meditation posture and almost didn't react.
She had clearly felt the power of the magic just now, but she didn't expect that the barrier could be resolved so quickly... She was ready to bet her soul.
Thinking about the importance of Cangming Palace, she felt that this arrangement seemed a bit too careless... Or was it that she was indeed not powerful enough as the Emperor of Heaven back then?
Si Ling didn't waste any more time on such doubts. He immediately set off and continued looking for a possible entrance.
On the seventh day, the paper man discovered a crack on the side wall near the south side of the trench.
Si Ling stepped forward and pushed aside the algae that blocked his view. He could tell at a glance that the crack was definitely not naturally formed - it was a rectangle about half a meter long and thirty to forty centimeters wide, and looked very much like the common vents in human buildings.
Closing her eyes and feeling it carefully, she felt some indescribable feelings.
She immediately moved forward and entered the cave. The rectangular passage extended inward like a huge pipe deeply inserted into the earth's crust.
Si Ling didn't know how long she had walked inside or how many turns she had made. When she suspected that she was encountering a new trap, a golden light appeared at the end.
Si Ling held her breath and quickened her pace to rush towards the golden light. Although the golden light seemed not far away, it actually took her nearly an hour to finally reach it.
She cautiously probed the golden light with her dagger. The sword body sank into the light and there seemed to be nothing unusual. She then reached her hand in to try, but still felt nothing.
Si Ling calmed himself down, transformed himself into a fierce ghost that could fight at any time, took a deep breath, and walked into the golden light.
For a few seconds, the dazzling light completely occupied her mind, then the light began to dissipate, and her eyes fell into endless darkness again. Then, her vision adjusted to the darkness again, and her vision became clearer. She gradually saw the huge underground space in front of her.
The stone wall surrounding this space was dozens of meters high, and the cave entrance behind her was located in the upper middle position.
Looking down, the sleeping divine weapons were like the Terracotta Warriors in the Qin Mausoleum, densely packed yet neatly arranged at the feet.
There is an open space in the center of the divine army formation, in which stands a palace, which looks like an ancient Chinese building.
Thirty thousand years of sea erosion has made its surface rough and uneven, the decorations have peeled off, and the original color is no longer visible.
Si Ling looked at it quietly. It was actually different from any building she had ever seen, and it was also different from the buildings in heaven in her dreams, but it gave her a strange sense of familiarity.
...a familiar feeling of revisiting an old place.
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