The cave was unusually spacious at two thousand square meters big. The light emitted from the white crystals embedded throughout the walls gave the cave an aura of mystery. The group paused their feet as they stepped into the cave, or more accurately, awed by the mysterious and beautiful scenery.
“It’s beautiful. I had the exact same feeling the first time I entered this place. Haha. Such an astonishing scene right? This light feels like it’s going to suck your soul away.” Jonathan laughed. Then he murmured. “Too bad the crystals are harder than diamond. You shoot a bullet at them and it will get deflected without leaving a mark. Damn it. If I could make them into jewelries, they would worth more than diamonds. Crystals that glow.”
Money, money, money. Jonathan was still crazy toward money as he always had. His conversations rarely diverted from his true nature, even when money was no longer a concern for him, even when he had become a millionair. Jonathan was still going on adventures for money. He and Evelyn were true adventurers, except that one of them pursuited adventures for passion and the other for money.
Zheng was also stunned by the beauty inside the cave. He asked Xuan. “Are these energy stones? Xuan? Are these walls energy stones?”
Xuan shook his head. “I don’t know. The glowing crystals look like radioactive matter, but logically speaking, Cultivators wouldn’t put radioactive matter here… Take one and we will research it when we return.”
Zheng nodded as he carried Tiger’s Soul to the wall. He then channeled refined Qi into the blade and sliced the crystals off a section of the wall. However, before Zheng could even pick up the crystals, Jonathan and Anck-Su-Namun rushed over as they screamed. Anck-Su-Namun picked up the smaller pieces about the size of a finger and Jonathan went for the large pieces. He was going to carry them away but the crystals were unusually heavy. A crystal the size of a fist weighted over twenty kilograms. Jonathan couldn’t help but dropped the large crystals and went for the smaller ones instead.
Zheng shook his head in a sigh. He lifted a crystal about one cubic meter and stuffed it into the storage bag. Jonathan was shocked. He looked at the crystals in his hands then at the large pieces on the ground. “Hey, Zheng. Want to give me a bag? You stuffed such a big piece into that tiny bag and you don’t look like carrying something heavy either. Want to give me one of those bags? We are comrades… how about you give me a bag!”
“Go away.” Zheng put away the storage bag and said. “What are you going to use the storage bag for? To keep your gold and money? Stop mentioning your boring interest to me. And don’t you have enough gold and money already? You should worry about getting crushed to death by gold.”
(Speaking of which… getting crushed by gold might be this dude’s dream.)
The group finally turned their attention to the lotus platform in the center of the cave. Jonathan said their expedition stopped here. The expedition was awed by the crystals at the time and attempted to dig the crystals off the wall. Their Chinese guide judged that the crystals might be similar to luminous pearls and were worth tens of thousands in money. The crystals weren’t the only glowing items. The Buddha statue sitting on a lotus platform also exhibited a glow. The accompanying officers immediately ordered the troops to carry the statue off the platform. However…
“Then the Yellow Turbans appeared. We don’t know where they came from. Their sizes weren’t as big as they are now and they didn’t have the same speed or strength. But they can’t be killed. Neither guns, bombs, nor close range combat could kill them. Fortunately, these monsters feared fire at the time. Everyone died but I managed to burn the last one with fire at the last moment. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have made it out alive.” Jonathan sighed.
(Everyone died. How did you live? Are you gifted in running away?) Zheng thought to himself.
Xuan started to set up the Buddha statue. He had assembled the pieces before they enter the tomb. So he only had to put the statue in the correct position on the lotus platform. There were runewords carved on the feet of the statue which connected with the runewords on the platform. He carefully matched the two parts.
Xuan was quick. It only took a few minutes before the Buddha statue was attached to the lotus platform. He didn’t get up from the ground as he continued to study the platform.
Numerous strings of light surfaced on the Buddha statue. The light strings formed into runewords that flowed on the statue like water. The statue looked like a light source at this moment.
“As I thought.” Xuan brushed over the lotus platform and murmured to himself. He took out several energy stones from the storage bag. Once he placed the energy stones on the lotus platform, a silky light flowed on its surface just like the light on the statue. This light came together then merged with the light on the statue. The Buddha statue and lotus platform grew brighter. The light gradually spread outward onto the ground.
Zheng immediately asked. “What did you do? Careful of breaking the statue.”
“It’s fine.” Xuan said. “Jonathan said the statue glowed since the beginning. Even if we put it back onto the platform, it will only return to its initial state and seal the Yellow Turbans from appearing. That won’t allow us to go deeper into the tomb. This means we missed something. And that something was probably the lotus platform. You know? I inspected the statue when it was still in pieces and found energy stones inside the pieces. The light on its surface must have been maintained by the energy stones. Without the stones, it’s no different from a regular statue. The lotus platform probably has the same mechanic except it didn’t have the energy stones.”
Xuan put away the extra energy stones he took out. “They were weathered. The energy stones on the lotus platform were installed on the surface, different from the Buddha statue where they were embedded inside. Thousands of years has eroded the energy stones… We finally made it to the gate of this bonus mission. The mission has only just begun. We have eleven hours left.”
While Xuan was talking, the light from the Buddha statue and lotus platform had completely drained onto the ground along man made traces. When they looked carefully, the light also formed into a picture composed of runewords. The cave suddenly seemed like a runeword sanctuary. And then it trembled. The ground began to descend at a high speed when the group was still in a surprise. It carried the group down like an elevator.
Two minutes later, the ground stopped descending. No one knew how deep beneath the ground they had arrived. The whole space was pitch black. Not even Zheng could see in this darkness. If it wasn’t for the lack of a light sphere in the center and the ground was more spacious than the platform they knew, it would seem like God’s dimension. People finally recovered from the shock at this time. Jonathan and Anck-Su-Namun cried and then LiuYu followed.
“It’s fine. Calm. There, see? Our destination is ahead… the Sky Tower.”
Zheng was about to have the team bring out the Sky Sticks after the ground stopped. Just then, light emerged from the darkness in the distance. A few seconds later, the light was bright enough for him to see a figure. The silver light took the shape of a tower. He finally confirmed that the ground was bringing them to the Sky Tower and not to the bottom of an abyss.
The rest of the group also noticed the Sky Tower. The ground they were standing on was moving toward the tower. That was when they realized something was off. The Sky Tower was enormous!
In the center of the Sky Tower stood a library. Every other place of this tower was empty, just like the ground they were standing on. However, it was over a thousand times larger. They couldn’t even see the edge of the tower. The Sky Tower was like a continent that floated in this dark void. Underneath them was a field of dim, dark red glow. Thousands of kilometers down there was the core of the Earth where lava resided… This was indeed the Sky Tower!
“So that means… that thing over there couldn’t be the so called prototype god, right? Damn it! How can it be this thing? No wonder it’s named prototype! Fuck you, God!”
Zheng was the second person to see the thing in the Sky Tower thanks to his enhanced body and cursed at once.
In fact, as the only other person to see the thing, Zero also cursed…
This was the prototype god!?