After Being Blackened All Over the Internet, I Ruled the Military Variety Shows
Chapter 494 - 485: Underground Passage, Petrified Tree

Chapter 494: Chapter 485: Underground Passage, Petrified Tree

"There are patterns!"

Yun Yi exclaimed, drawing the attention of everyone to look at him.

The patterns on the ground are so obvious that anyone with eyes can see them!

Yun Yi felt a bit embarrassed about his startled reaction; after all, this was his first time personally experiencing the exploration of the Ancient Capital Ruins in the desert, which was even more thrilling than desert adventures. It was inevitable to feel a bit excited.

"But, what are these patterns engraved with?"

The platform they were on wasn’t small at all. About fifty people had fallen down at once, like dumplings falling into a pot. Only a few unluckily clashed into others due to panic, among them. The rest landed quite a distance away from each other.

Yet on this spacious platform, it was filled with patterns that were so dizzyingly complex at a glance.

And the lines of the patterns were so fine that anything falling might get stuck, but the fine sand that had just fallen passed through unimpeded.

Xu Zhao adjusted the focus of his flashlight to the minimum and shone it on a section with denser lines.

"It’s solid beneath, the light penetrated less than ten centimeters before hitting the bottom."

Yun Yi lay on the ground to look, "Then how did so much sand seep down just now? This is less than ten centimeters deep; even if all the gaps were filled, they couldn’t hold it!"

Xu Zhao replied with three words: "I don’t know."

Yun Yi: "..."

He was about to say more when Changning tapped him on the arm, "Calm down."

After Yun Yi obediently shut up, she continued, "These patterns, do you think they resemble a tree?"

"A tree?"

Several flashlights immediately began to flicker over the ground.

"I have to admit, the intersecting lines, when you look long enough, really do resemble branches. If it’s a tree, then it’s really lush, but there are no leaves."

Jiang Lingxi quietly listened to the group’s discoveries on the side and suddenly called out, "Huzi."

"Huzi, go check the ropes left by the Changcang Sect over at the cliff."

Huzi was a bit confused but ran over nonetheless.

He roughly remembered the position, but when he got there, he found the cliff face bare. Not a single rope was in sight, and even the marks where the rope had been fixed were gone.

Having no time to run back, he turned his head and shouted loudly, "Sister Xi, the rope is gone!"

As soon as these words fell, several others ran over.

Yun Yi shouted while running, "Could you have remembered the location wrong?"

"Impossible."

When Huzi didn’t find the ropes, he doubted himself for a moment but quickly dismissed the doubt.

"I remember very clearly that the Changcang Sect fixed the ropes directly above the Ancient Capital Ruins, allowing one to directly descend to the location of the city gate." Saying this, he shone his flashlight downwards, "Look, beneath my feet is the city gate. The reference point couldn’t have shifted position, right?"

"Such a large ruin surely hasn’t moved, so the position that moved..."

A dozen pairs of eyes instantly looked at the platform beneath their feet.

Yun Yi’s voice quivered slightly, "Is it us who moved? But I didn’t feel a thing!"

"I didn’t feel anything either."

"Look elsewhere for ropes, then we’ll know."

Everyone came to their senses and took action.

This time, with a larger group, a discovery was made quickly.

"The rope is here!"

This new location was quite different from where Huzi initially found it, not quite north and south but almost.

Jiang Lingxi set her flashlight on the ground to stabilize it, "If we had stayed on the edge, we would have noticed that we were following the platform slowly rotating. But earlier, we were almost in the center of the platform, all focused on the patterns on the ground, ignoring this point."

Yun Yi couldn’t hold back, "How did you discover this, Sister Xi?"

"Like I said, with so much sand, it couldn’t just disappear into thin air," Jiang Lingxi said, tapping her foot on the ground, "It’s definitely beneath our feet. Have you seen a millstone?"

"I know, it’s for grinding grain," Yun Yi replied and felt a sudden enlightenment, "So this time, it’s the sand being ground!"

"You could say that."

Much like Xu Zhao earlier, the flashlight focused on a gap in the pattern’s lines and stayed a while this time.

After waiting nearly a minute, a new discovery was made.

"The light went through!"

"This means, below is hollow, so maybe we can go down from the inside?"

"If Yunqing and the others went down from inside this platform, then there must be a passage leading down."

"Passage, such a big area... Finding it could take forever, wouldn’t it be better just to rappel down?"

"The patterns; we probably still need to focus on the patterns."

Jiang Lingxi waited as everyone dispersed to look for a breakthrough among the ground patterns. As they searched, she silently pondered.

If Shen Yunqing anticipated her coming after she finished filming, he would have left her some clue.

With the Changcang Sect members around, this clue should be hidden well.

It might be something only she could recognize.

The flashlight’s brightness was turned up to the max, and holding it for so long, it even started to feel slightly warm. The lines on the ground crisscrossed, extremely complex, and watching for long made one’s eyes ache a bit.

An impatient atmosphere began to spread quietly.

"Changning, do you really think we can find any clues in these lines? I think they’re just random scribbles."

Changning elbowed Yun Yi who had approached, "Stay focused."

"If I keep looking, I think I’m going to get nearsighted."

Xu Zhao looked back at Jiang Lingxi.

"I

think doing this isn’t—"

Before he could say "the way", Jiang Lingxi, not far in front of him, suddenly crouched down.

He hesitated for a moment before quickly walking over.

"Did you find something?"

When Jiang Lingxi raised her head, she saw that everyone had gathered around.

"This section seems to have the most chaotic lines of all the patterns."

"Situated close to the middle."

"So, what is this drawing?"

"The trunk."

Facing the curious gazes, Jiang Lingxi reached out and gently traced two shallow lines amongst many, "If you view the whole pattern as a large tree from above looking down, this section has the most lines because it includes the trunk. The trunk anchors in the soil, if there’s a path downwards, it’s most likely located here."

This discovery immediately uplifted the group’s spirits.

"Quick, see if there’s a gap or mechanism around this section."

While everyone was busy searching for a mechanism, Jiang Lingxi stood up, stepped between the two lines just discovered, and cautiously tapped twice.

The ground below suddenly sank several centimeters.

Before Xu Zhao could react and reach out to grab her, Jiang Lingxi had already leaped out in an instant.

Turning back, she saw the sunken piece of ground shifting sideways, revealing a dark, gaping hole.

"There’s really a passage!"

As she spoke, several flashlights illuminated downward.

In the strong light, the scene within the passage immediately became clear to everyone.

The stairs winding downward seemed directly carved out.

"We can go in, I’ll lead,"

Xu Zhao said, jumping down first but didn’t rush downward. Instead, he touched the sidewall of the non-stone, non-wood staircase.

"Hey, this really seems to be a tree trunk!"

"How is that possible, how could a tree be buried down here?"

"It’s a tree, a petrified tree."