Almost a second after Ma Qian’s scream, the others heard Lin Yang’s voice.
“It’s okay here, you guys can dive in.”
Hearing Lin Yang’s voice gave them a sense of assurance. They dove into the tube one after another. When everyone landed, all they could see in front of them was a land of desert again, but this one had an oasis within the visible distance. There was still a sky, the sun, some living beasts, the ecosystem looked just like the outside world.
“Is this some type of dimension that we went into, ” Ye Tian asked.
“No, if we were in it, I should be able to sense some type of spirit formation. We’re still in the real world,” Ma Qian quickly countered.
“How about we go to the oasis. We might find some clues.”
All nodded and walked towards the oasis. Once they arrived, all they could see was a regular oasis. They couldn’t find any clues on the treasure they were looking for. Was this bad information? It couldn’t be since there was a tube sending them here. That was at least the first clue that there was something here.
“Wait, I sense another spirit formation.” Ma Qian quickly warned. He closed his eyes while trying to sense where the spirit formation came from. He suddenly opened his eyes, and said, “It’s below this oasis…..I don’t know what’s below there, but you all need to guard me while I try to open the formation.”
Everyone agreed. They dove inside until they have reached the lowest ground. Ye Tian and the others created a a triangle formation to guard Ma Qian. There were five boulders in a straight line, which was the place Ma Qian sensed the formation. He started forming his own formation to find the access core, because he believed these boulders was actually a huge gate that would lead them closer to the treasure.
This took a lot longer than Ma Qian thought, but he was finally able to break through after three hours of intense focus. He’s been doing the heavy work ever since they’ve arrived at the this so called ruin.
BRRRRRRRRR. Boom.
A whirlpool was formed that sucked away all the water surrounding them. The boulders split in half and continued separating away from each other. An entrance was opening up while a flash of light went into Ma Qian. His body shook a bit until he opened his eyes again. He went inside the gate, in which the others followed one after another.
It was multiple tubes that were sending them further down. Once they got out, it was a whole completely environment than before. Now, they were surrounded by lush forest with the same sky and sun that they would see in the outside world.
“This ruin is incredible. It’s almost like a huge underground fortress that’s 50 levels deep and the area is almost as big as a city. Such a massive structure. It would’ve taken several generations to build something like this,” Ma Qian explained. That flash of light that entered him was actually an outlay of the whole fortress. It wasn’t detailed but it explained the different levels available inside this fortress. Some levels were residential areas, other levels were a marketplace or a farm, another level was a military base, and one of the deepest level was actually the government center.
In order to find the treasure, they had to search every level one by one. Fortunately, the tube to send them below was easily accessible without needing to create additional spirit formation. The first 5 levels were military bases, sects, or martial schools surrounded by mountains and lakes. They encountered some wild beasts but they were only at the master or great dao realm, which never put the crew in any danger. They were able to find some really powerful weapons and armors that could withstand supreme or infinite dao attacks. They’ve also collected several martial scrolls and potion scrolls where a few of them didn’t exist in the outside world, at least probably since the ancient times. Ye Tian and the others were very happy at this point in time, they could at least sell some of the ones they don’t need for a pretty good price in the market.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
They proceeded to the lower levels where they saw commercial buildings and marketplaces filled most of the area. However, there was nothing they could find of value.
“I think this fortress used to be an ancient civilization. I’ve read many books on some of the ancient civilizations that existed, but I’ve never heard of this one,” Lin Yang said to the others.
“But why did they build their civilization underground? It doesn’t make sense even if the outside is a desert. They could always build canals to create multiple channels of water. They could also create some powerful spirit formation to create a much more livable environment, just like they did here,” Ma Qian replied with great curiosity.
“War,” Ye Tian simply replied.
Everyone thought about it deeper.
“How they built this fortress, it gave them some form of protection if some other power were to attack them without notice. Also the military bases and the sects were the first form of defense,” Ye Tian continued explaining his theory.
“That makes some sense…..but which power would be bold enough to attack them with so many layers of defense?” Lin Yang whispered.
Ye Tian and the others proceeded to the lower levels, this time the place is much more serene filled with gardens, manors, ponds, lakes, and other residential houses. One of the level was filled with a slum neighborhood, the other levels were filled with middle-class neighborhoods, and there was one other level that was filled with mansions and palaces. After they checked out the slum neighborhoods, they explored the mid-class residences separately because they didn’t find any monsters or any dangers from this level.
Ma Qian found a house he found quite unique than others. It was slightly bigger than the rest, but the walls and columns were exquisitely designed with colorful sparrows. He inspected the hall, then suddenly a transparent figure passed by the hall into another room.
“Who’s there?” Ma Qian nervously said.
There was no response, but he knew he saw something passing by in the corner of his eye. Whether it was just his imagination or not, he was on full alert. He checked another room, and again a transparent figure passed by to another room. This time he was able to see a bit more clearly, then started chasing after the figure. From one room to the next, Ma Qian was chasing after the transparent figure until he came into another room. The past tenant of this room was obviously a woman. He could still smell the remaining sweet fragrance inside the room, evidence of withered flowers lying on the table, and jewelries hanging on the wall. The most shocking thing was there was a small but beautiful white sparrow with spotted crimson wings. The sparrow was looking at Ma Qian until it flew away outside. Ma Qian followed suit until he saw the sparrow transformed into the transparent figure, landing on top of the floating flower that in the middle of the pond.
Ma Qian stopped right outside the pond, but he was able to see the transparent figure very clearly. It was a beautiful young woman who seemed to be the same age as Ma Qian. Ma Qian has seen many beautiful women in his life, but this one made his heart beat faster than ever. She wasn’t the most beautiful or elegant, but to Ma Qian the young woman in front of her was the most breathtaking woman he has seen. She was was wearing a nicely fit silky white robe that outlined her slightly curvy body with a ribbon on her waist. Her gradient colored crimson sleeves had small sparrow embroidered designs. Her platinum white hair were flowing all the way to her waist area. There was a red symbol on her forehead that says, “Sparrow.”
Ma Qian was currently in a world of his own. He was totally stunned by this woman in front of her that seemed to be so real, and yet not real. Ma Qian noticed the eyes of the woman expressed a mixture of sadness and surprise. Nevertheless, he curled one of his fist and placed it on his chest, and then bowed to the young woman. This was a gentleman’s way to introduce oneself to a woman. The woman covered her mouth with both of her little hands, then spread her hands like she was blowing a kiss.
Ma Qian did not know what her actions meant. Usually, the woman would cross her arms between her shoulders, then bow to respond a man’s bow. Was her action hold the same meaning as Ma Qian’s bow or did it have a different meaning? Regardless of the meaning, why was the woman living here alone? Or are there more people living in this fortress that Ye Tian and the others did not know about?