The four of them ate dozens of grilled shellfish while ignoring the angry stares of the crowd, and then sat down to rest, satisfied.
Although the spiritual energy was somewhat lacking, since these shellfish weren't very powerful, the taste was truly excellent.
A day later, a creaking sound stirred everyone's emotions.
The door opened!
No one said anything more, and everyone rushed to be the first to enter the room.
"Let's go too!" Qi Zhiheng stood up, and the four of them entered the crowd together.
The scene inside was nothing new, much like what was seen outside, covered in algae. The rows of rooms inside seemed to have been assimilated by nature.
Qi Zhiheng randomly picked a room, pushed open the door, and went inside.
The room was damp and had an unpleasant fishy smell that made you want to cover your nose.
"It stinks!" Yang Yitian covered his nose and frowned.
"It's normal for it to smell fishy after just coming out of the sea. Just hold your breath," Qi Zhiheng said.
Upon hearing this, Yang Yitian understood that he could survive without breathing! He could rely entirely on the spiritual energy in the air to survive temporarily.
The group searched the room, but apart from some stone furniture, everything else had probably rotted from being submerged in water. In short, they didn't find anything else there.
"It's so empty, there's nothing here!" Bai Hongming said, somewhat disappointed.
Xu Honghao patted his head and said, "It's okay, let's look in other rooms."
Seeing that there was nothing in the room, the group left.
Upon reaching the entrance, Xu Honghao said, "Brother Zhiheng, I see there are so many rooms here, why don't we search the graves for any clues?"
Qi Zhiheng understood what he meant and agreed, saying, "That will definitely be faster."
After they finished speaking, the four of them split into two groups, and Qi Zhiheng left with Yang Yitian.
Only after Xu Honghao and Buhao were out of sight did Yang Yi finally say, "Are you afraid that if you find something good, there won't be enough to go around?"
"That's only one of the reasons," Qi Zhiheng explained. "If there really is something good, it wouldn't be good if we all got into a fight over it. Besides, have you forgotten what the information said? The most likely place to hide treasure is the place where the Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable died. If we really find that place, it's dangerous inside, and it would be very inconvenient if we needed to expose some of our methods."
After all, the four of them had only known each other for less than a day. Although they got along well, it was hard to say whether there was any lingering trust between them. Qi Zhiheng had experienced his previous life, and it was impossible for him to trust them so quickly, especially when there might be a conflict of interest.
Yang Yitian naturally listened to him. Looking around at the similar houses, he said, "These shouldn't be the houses of a Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable, right? After all, a Spirit Venerable should live in the most luxurious place."
Qi Zhiheng spread his soul power, trying to see if there were any clues: "The furnishings in the rooms here seem to be the same, but unfortunately my soul power can only explore a range of about one or two hundred meters. The situation of houses further away is not very clear."
"Ugh! Why does my soul power always cause trouble when I need to use it?" Yang Yitian's soul power was also suppressed quite a bit. There are so many houses here. If he wanted to search them all, he didn't know when it would take.
Qi Zhiheng choked, but what Yang Yitian said was indeed true. Soul power always seemed to be restricted when it was needed. However, Qi Zhiheng could understand: "If there were no restrictions in places like secret realms, then strong people could easily find and kill weak people. Even the weak should be given a chance to live, right? But places like this weren't originally designed for people to search for treasures. Naturally, the owners don't want outsiders like us to pry into their privacy."
Qi Zhiheng and Yang Yitian walked into the house and came to a small courtyard. The layout here was completely different from the previous one. The previous one was more like a uniform house for servants, but this one was like a small courtyard.
After walking around for a while, Yang Yitian looked around and said, "Didn't the information say that there were many people buried alive in Xundao City? How come we haven't seen a single skeleton along the way? Could it be that they fell into the sea and were eaten by sea monsters?"
Qi Zhiheng shook his head and said, "It shouldn't be. Even if the strange beasts in the sea are capable of eating humans, it's impossible for them to have eaten them all. There must be some other reason."
The two discussed the situation inside the house and searched several courtyards, but found nothing.
Qi Zhiheng couldn't help but wonder where the burial place of the Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable was. He even suspected that the Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable's corpse had also vanished without a trace, just like everyone else's.
They did find some not-too-valuable items in these courtyards, presumably furniture, jewelry, and other belongings of the disciples or family members of the Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable. Although they looked rather shabby, they were better than nothing.
"Why is there nothing good here? Even people from the past should have had some decent stuff," Yang Yitian said, somewhat annoyed, after finding another jade pillow that wasn't very valuable.
Qi Zhiheng said, "People in the past should have had some good things on them, but they would keep them in storage containers. Would you keep your good things in your room? There are so many people here, who knows if they will be stolen?"
"That makes sense!" After realizing this, Yang Yitian started to worry about where the people who sank with the island were. Those people must have been carrying storage devices!
The palace has many courtyards of varying sizes. Although one can search one or two books at a time, it will take a lot of effort to search this half of the area completely.
"The information states that the place where Xun Dao last appeared is most likely where the treasure is hidden. Therefore, the place where Xun Dao lived should be the main hall of this palace, but we don't know where the main hall is." The information that Qi Zhiheng bought contained detailed instructions on what to do after arriving at the place where the treasure might be hidden. So, what they need to do now is find the main hall.
"Could the main hall be located at the highest point?" Yang Yitian wondered. Since the palace was built at the highest point on the entire island, the main hall might also be at the highest point.
After listening to Yang Yitian's words, Qi Zhiheng and Yang Yitian both looked towards the highest point of the entire palace.
Qi Zhiheng didn't think the main hall was at the highest point before because the area there was small, basically just a small clock tower.
In his mind, the bell tower should not belong to the main hall.
After considering it for a moment, Qi Zhiheng said, "It would be good if we went to take a look first." Even if it wasn't the main hall, we might still get other information.
So the two of them walked toward the clock tower, searching the houses along the way.
Naturally, this search yielded little result. Yang Yitian kept finding bits and pieces of information, and gradually got used to it.
It took two hours to reach the foot of the bell tower.
At this point, a day and a half had passed since the door opened, and there was only half a day left before the area began to sink again.
After checking the time, Qi Zhiheng hurriedly said, "We need to hurry up."
The two pushed open the door of the clock tower, only to find that there were already people inside.
Qi Zhiheng's lips twitched. He was right; the waiter had said it cost fifty low-grade spirit stones per set of materials. Since it was fifty spirit stones per set, if they could buy it, others could naturally buy it too!
If they could imagine that the final destination of the quest might be in this clock tower, how could others not think of it?
Qi Zhiheng's face darkened as he watched the spiritual cultivators rummaging through the floor. These people weren't looking for anything; they were practically turning the floor upside down!
Qi Zhiheng looked at the stairs leading upwards and said, "Let's go up and take a look."
He pulled Yang Yitian through the crowd and up the stairs. There were already some people on the stairs, so there must be quite a few more at the top...
The clock tower has nine floors. They went up floor by floor, and as he expected, there were dozens of people searching on each floor.
If Qi Zhiheng and Yang Yitian showed any sign of approaching them, they would immediately become alert, as if Qi Zhiheng and Yang Yitian were about to steal their treasure.
Qi Zhiheng was speechless.
The two quickly reached the top floor.
There were fewer people on the top floor because it was an open space, and it was unlikely that Xun Dao would die in a place where wind and rain could reach him. So there were only three or four people up there, looking for something with a sense of indignation.
After Qi Zhiheng and Yang Yitian went up, they didn't try to take over the space. They simply went to the side. The material of this clock tower was probably the best wood available here. There was wood elsewhere, but it had all rotted away. Only the wood in this clock tower hadn't decayed after being soaked in seawater for so long, although the paint had peeled off and a lot of seaweed and shellfish had stuck to it.
Standing here, you can take in the entire scenery of the island.
Yang Yitian looked down and said, "The scenery here is quite nice. I didn't feel anything from down below, but I didn't expect it to be so spectacular from here with the panoramic view." Besides the entire island, you can also see the distant sea. It has to be admitted that the island's scenery is quite beautiful. If this were on Earth, there would definitely be many people eager to come here for tourism.
Qi Zhiheng nodded and said, "That's right." So many people here haven't been able to figure it out. Maybe this bell tower isn't the main hall. Maybe he can look at this island and find the place that best fits the final resting place of the seeker.
He looked around several times but found nothing. Meanwhile, the people on the same floor were searching the floor for clues among the shellfish and moss.
Unfortunately, the moss has a strong adhesion, and if you apply too much force, you might damage the ground, which could destroy the clues.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
