Chapter 107: Underground Desert
Translator: Tim Editor: Chrissy
Ye Mo really didn’t want to give up something he had been chasing for a whole day and night. But now, he knew it was hiding underground, and there was nothing he could do.
If only he were in the 3rd Stage Chi Gathering, he wouldn’t hesitate to dart into the desert. In the 3rd stage, he wouldn’t be afraid of being thirsty because he would be able to use the most important magic of all: Water Ball Art.
With the Water Ball Art, he would be able to convert spirit Chi into water, and as such, he would never have to worry about dying of thirst. Furthermore, in the 3rd stage, he wouldn’t die even if he didn’t breathe for a whole month in the desert. Unfortunately, one level difference was huge. This was a milestone.
This black shadow was targeting him. Ye Mo came to the conclusion that it was definitely his Purple Heart Vine that attracted it because other than that, he brought the same thing as everyone else; it was only the Purple Heart Vine that other people didn’t have. However, this thing was quite sneaky. He could think of killing Ye Mo first before taking his stuff.
Then, Ye Mo suddenly thought of something important. He had been chasing this black shadow for a whole day, but why did it only crawl into the depth now? According to its cunningness, it should’ve thought of this idea long ago.
What did this mean? It meant that it could only crawl in at specific locations. Thinking about this, Ye Mo immediately rejoiced. This place looked the same as any other part of the desert, but there were too many mysterious remains buried underneath, including all those ancient cities lost in the flow of time.
Perhaps this place was a tunnel towards an underground city, and maybe, the whirlpool he fell into last time was also a tunnel towards an underground city.
“Sigh...” Thinking about it, Ye Mo felt a little disappointed again for not being in the 3rd Stage yet.
Ye Mo set his gaze on his bag. He still had ten bottles of water, plus the bag of water the yellow-clothed woman gave to him, and all the pills Ye Mo had made.
With these, he would be fine even if he was buried for half a month under the sand.
What was he afraid of? He came for the Purple Heart Vine in the desert. Since that thing also came for it, it meant that it had seen it before. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be so sensitive.
“Let’s go inside!”
As soon as Ye Mo made up his mind, there was no stopping him. He took out a shovel from his bag and started to dig where the black shadow disappeared.
Sand flew as Ye Mo dug deeper, and soon, he was already more than ten meters in. It was already starting to feel suffocating, but something like that was nothing to Ye Mo. He was a cultivator, albeit being only in the 2nd Stage of Chi Gathering, he could still breathe internally with enough water.
Ye Mo’s digging speed was very fast, and three hours later, he had already dug more than 100 meters. His method consisted of digging a big chunk and sending it back before pushing away the two sides. If his bag hadn’t been so large, perhaps he would’ve been 200 meters in by now. At that moment, Ye Mo estimated that the tunnel behind him should have already been blocked completely.
He dug another 200 meters, and his shovel suddenly hit something hard. Ye Mo felt overjoyed. He should have arrived. This hard thing should be a rock, and as Ye Mo scanned with his spirit sense, he discovered that it was indeed a big green rock.
It was very thick, almost a meter in diameter. Ye Mo wasn’t impetuous, he sat down first and took a pill with some water to recover his Chi. He was digging diagonally so this stone was probably around 200 meters underground.
After he had taken an hour to rest, Ye Mo completely recovered his energy. He gathered the Chi into the metal spade and hacked towards the stone. Immediately, rubble flew everywhere. The stone was like mud under Ye Mo’s spade.
In less than half an hour, Ye Mo dug a meter deep hole into the stone.
Just when Ye Mo crawled into the hole, the sand outside fell into the hole and quickly covered it up.
The place Ye Mo landed was very spacious and looked like a street. However, there was a bad odor everywhere that was weird and indescribable, similar yet unlike of a rotten smell.
He followed the street and walked tens of meters while expanding his spirit sense out. Finally, he realized it wasn’t a street, but a road made of stone blocks.
Ye Mo carefully walked forward along this road, keeping his spirit sense on the surrounding because he was sure that black shadow also came here. He just didn’t know where it was. And, Ye Mo was sure that there were entrances other than the one he dug up which perhaps didn’t even need digging.
After walking for a while, Ye Mo hadn’t seen a single house on the side of the road, and instead, thought that it looked a lot more like a valley, so it became obvious that this place wasn’t some underground city.
As if he had just sensed something, Ye Mo stopped his footsteps, and even though he was a cultivator, he felt the atmosphere around became eerie.
A row of Hu Yang Tree Roots was lined up at the two sides, and what gave Ye Mo goosebumps was one of the Hu Yang tree roots. He could clearly see with his spirit sense that the root had a metal nail on it, one that had been marked with his spirit sense.
His nail had really hit a Hu Yang Tree Root, and even if Ye Mo didn’t want to believe it, the facts were in front of him, so he had no choice. There weren’t such eerie feelings even in the cultivation realm, but here it had occurred right in front of his face.
Ye Mo definitely wouldn’t believe that such a Hu Yang Tree Root could avoid his tracking for a day and night and still move so fast. Besides, that Hu Yang Tree Root appeared to be anchored there and wouldn’t be able to move from this position.
Ye Mo was on full alert as he walked beside the Hu Yang Tree Root; he studied it carefully with his spirit sense and realized that his speculations appeared to be right. It seemed that it was really the metal nail that he had thrown, but in order to confirm it, Ye Mo took out his torch and saw with his own eyes that the metal nail on it really belonged to him. His spirit sense was right.
It made Ye Mo wonder how a Hu Yang Tree Root could move so fast... He didn’t touch that nail and instead went into contemplation.
Suddenly, Ye Mo remembered that two days ago, he had hit the black shadow around its shoulder, but this Hu Yang Tree Root had the metal nail on its upper body. The position wasn’t right. Then, Ye Mo found another problem. He saw that this nail had been exposed a bit on the outside.
Ye Mo thought that, with his power, if he were the one to have shot this nail at the root, there was no way that the nail wouldn’t be completely lodged inside. All these signs showed that Ye Mo wasn’t the one that inserted the nail there, but it was done later by someone or something else.
Who could put a nail in the Hu Yang Tree Root? Ye Mo frowned and carefully pulled the nail out. Soon, he found some blood and even a long strand of hair.
This nail really was put there by something. He could tell by looking at the hair that the thing that had been hit was probably a monkey-like animal. Ye Mo found it very strange that there was such animal in the desert; however, he knew that monkeys and apes were very smart, so it was natural that they could think of such ways.
When Ye Mo thought the problem clearly and knew what sort of animal he was chasing, everything became so clear. This animal was not only very smart but also good at running away.
There was only one road underneath the desert, and other than the Hu Yang Tree Roots, there were sand and stone boards. It seemed that a long time ago, someone made this stone block road leading to somewhere, and even specially planted the Hu Yang Tree Root at the side.
Ye Mo increased his speed and walked along the stone road. He knew that since the shadow could escape here, it meant that it had already run inside. As long as he followed this road, he could chase up to it.
However, what made Ye Mo disappointed was that he had walked here for half a day, but not only did he not see the shadow, he also didn’t even know if there was an end to this road. If it wasn’t a one-way road, Ye Mo would have thought that he was lost again.
After so long, Ye Mo estimated that he probably wouldn’t be able to catch up to the shadow and felt helpless. The place this thing had escaped to was too absurd, and besides, it was too smart.
Ye Mo didn’t bother tracking the shadow anymore and didn’t even look at what was on the side. He simply started to rush forward.
After another half a day’s time and a few turns on the road, there was finally a stairway leading up. However, it wasn’t long—only 20-30 meters or so. Ye Mo walked up to it and scanned out with his spirit sense, then he understood that he came to another open space, however, a huge stone was blocking the entrance.
He ran for an entire day around on the stone block road and had no idea which hairy animal had tricked him.
This road was probably more than 10 km long but was a bit curly, giving enough time for Ye Mo to think more thoroughly about this place. “Who planted this with Hu Yang Trees at the side? Why is that road so long?” This was a hefty project.
“Could a Hu Yang Tree grow underground?” Ye Mo wasn’t sure if it had grown above the ground before and then sank down.
Since Ye Mo wasn’t able to know for sure, he shook his head and walked to the end of the stairway. He moved the stone block, however, no sand fell, which implied that it wasn’t covered by the desert. He walked through the entrance and discovered an immense underground desert.
However, when Ye Mo scanned with his spirit sense again, he couldn’t help but be immediately shocked.