Free Web NovelChapter 393: Chapter 380: An Unexpected Storm
The seventh day of Cultivation outside the underground cavern.
Director Ruan and the others still hadn’t returned.
Gu Ming had considered that outdoor expeditions carried risks, but he never expected his very first club activity to turn into a "team wipe" fiasco.
He didn’t know whether to call it good luck or bad.
In any case, his caution had kept him from joining the deep exploration.
The few club members who had stayed behind went from being rock-steady to gradually growing anxious.
By the seventh day, before sunset, they took the initiative to contact the university, reporting that Director Ruan’s team had not returned for seven days and might have met with disaster.
It was worth noting something here.
Outdoor expeditions, after all, have uncertain timelines. Being gone for a mere three or four days meant nothing.
Perhaps the path inside was longer than expected, or maybe they had only just found the way within those few days, resulting in zero progress or gains.
Director Ruan had left instructions beforehand: if he didn’t return after seven days, they were to report it to the university and have teachers come to their rescue.
They would leave markers inside the ruins to make it easier for others to find them.
Furthermore, the university had collected a strand of soul aura from its core students, allowing them to track their location. This was Director Ruan’s failsafe.
In less than two hours, Gu Ming saw several powerful Seven- and Eight-star Level Beastmasters appear at the tent encampment outside the cavern.
Counselor Luo and Elder Huo were also among them, but they weren’t part of the rescue team. They were here to take Gu Ming back to the university.
"Gu Ming, let’s head back to the university for now," Counselor Luo said. "Director Ruan and the others have life-saving measures. It’s not so easy for them to perish in there."
Counselor Luo explained that the university’s top students were all equipped with one or two life-saving measures.
For example, the Soul Storage Technique uses a special Spiritual Technique to separate one’s soul from their body and store it within an item possessing powerful Spiritual Power characteristics to wait.
A Beastmaster’s body would usually contain an Elixir capable of preserving life functions.
Before the soul leaves the body, they detonate a hidden pill in their gums, causing it to rupture.
The medicine spreads through the body, placing the soulless form in a state of rest similar to hibernation. It relies on the Elixir’s power to maintain vitality until rescuers arrive.
Some Beastmasters have Pet Beasts skilled in Space arts. They can cut open a spatial rift in a highly dangerous area of the ruins and hide inside a small, safe space they create to await rescue.
Counselor Luo continued, "These are just two of the easiest and most practical life-saving methods. I won’t go into the more obscure ones with you."
Gu Ming knew Teacher Tang had also left him a life-saving measure for emergencies. The wisp of soul from the Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul was inside him.
However, compared to the two methods Counselor Luo mentioned, Teacher Tang’s was more geared toward counter-attacking:
He could detonate the wisp of soul, causing it to instantly possess his hand and grant him the power of a full-force strike from a Six-star Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul.
Alternatively, crushing the wisp of soul would also send a signal to his teacher to come rescue him, though this was less reliable for survival than the first two methods.
Gu Ming nodded. He hadn’t been back to the university for nearly ten days and had fallen behind on a lot of his classes.
While everyone else was studying, he was outside the cavern practicing his Cultivation, which meant he was falling behind.
Even though there were many Masters at the archeological camp here, not all of them were willing to enthusiastically share their knowledge. Returning to the university was the right path.
Before leaving, Gu Ming asked, "Are their Soul Fires still lit?"
"Four of them have had their Soul Fires extinguished. Director Ruan’s and a few other students’ are still burning."
Elder Huo walked over and patted Gu Ming’s shoulder. "Don’t overthink it. They’re still alive; it’s just that some have unfortunately perished."
Outdoor expeditions were always risky, after all.
This was especially true for ancient ruins from a pre-civilization era. With the Spiritual Qi Revival, some hidden, unknown Arrays could suddenly activate and transform into deadly traps in an instant.
That was the truly fatal danger.
Just looking at the various Illusion Techniques outside the Yichuan Ruins, one could already sense the deadly intent lurking within.
「The director has not returned in seven days. You are deeply worried, yet the club members who stayed behind are beaming with joy.」
「The remains of the Primordial Dream Butterfly have still not been found. After more than thirty years of development, the exploration of the Yichuan Ruins has been optimized thousands of times. A trip should take four days at the shortest and six days at the longest.」
「Anyone who hasn’t returned in seven days has made a major discovery and is reluctant to leave.」
「At fifty years old, your strength is insufficient. After learning the truth from the hastily arrived university teachers, you shed tears of envy.」
「You can only choose to withdraw with regret. After all, you still have your studies, and your university journey has just begun.」
「But the director and the others are nearing graduation. The breakthrough opportunity they need most is right now...」
"What is all this..."
Gu Ming read the bullet-screen comments twice, then glanced at Elder Huo and his counselor traveling with him.
’Is seven days the crucial point?’
’But the teachers also said that the Soul Lamps of four important club members have gone out.’
’As for the non-core members, there’s no way of knowing if they’re dead or alive.’
However, what the system said wasn’t entirely without reason.
If the exploration of the Yichuan Ruins had been optimized hundreds or thousands of times, it was indeed possible they’d made a new discovery.
But the problem was, the current club members couldn’t possibly have that much accumulated experience.
Aboard the airborne giant beast, Gu Ming gripped a bone railing and looked back at the wave-battered cliffs behind him.
The underground cavern was hidden below the far side of the cliffs, and he could no longer see any sign of the camp.
This abrupt end reminded him of the midterm exam being canceled due to a Demon Fiend invasion, and the international competition being halted halfway through because the Cloud Country had fallen.
The strange thing was, although the two experiences were different, the feeling they left him with was strikingly similar.
There was always some great risk that would suddenly detonate up ahead, forcing him to stop and turn back.
’What exactly happened in the eye of the storm?’
’No, I don’t want to just leave in ignorance.’
’I have to at least take advantage of the system’s misplaced future intel.’
"Elder Huo, is there a standardized exploration protocol for the Yichuan Ruins?"
"For example, reporting if a team is trapped in a major Illusion Realm for more than seven days?"
Gu Ming asked Elder Huo, basing his question on the snippets of information from the system’s bullet-screen.
Since Elder Huo had come all this way and had nothing else to do on the trip back, he started chatting with Gu Ming.
"There are certainly major trap-like Illusion Realms. We mark all of them on our internal maps."
"Logically, Director Ruan and his team would know about them, so they shouldn’t have deliberately stepped into a trap... Could it be? Did they fall into one of the major Illusion Realm traps we’ve already marked?"
Elder Huo muttered to himself, his eyes suddenly lighting up.
The university’s rescue squad was already inside searching. With their power, they could explore the entire known area of the underground cavern in just two hours.
For the Eight-star masters, this was an easy task.
It was only the deeper, unexplored regions that were nearly impossible to navigate.
The Illusion Realms within were a mix of real and fake. Trying to break through them with brute force was not only ineffective but would also trap one’s Divine Sense in a dream loop. They couldn’t be overcome with raw power; one could only follow the rules of the Illusion Realm.
"The problem is, the university assumes students won’t deliberately walk into a trap unless they’re interfered with and make a mistake... That’s also a possibility."
