CHAPTER 414: CHAPTER 279: DIVINE TEMPLE, TOWER!

Chapter 279

Inside the main hall, Wei Feng and the others walked through an incredibly luxurious palace when suddenly they saw that every window had been resealed. The hall abruptly lost all sunlight and was plunged into darkness. Soon, their flashlights and spotlights shone brightly. Old Goat Monster and Wei Feng and his companions stopped fighting and just exchanged glances.

Old Goat Monster chuckled sinisterly, "It seems the lamb is also getting angry, time to fight back."

Wei Feng was very aloof and said, "I told you, underestimating that girl would have a price."

"But it doesn’t matter... The dust has not settled yet."

——————

"Divine Temple?" Ye Changan murmured softly, as if he saw his parents uncovering a magnificent temple on this secluded and long path.

It was mysterious, noble, unpredictable.

Now, he was about to see this Divine Temple.

"Call nine people... let’s see if the third command can make the Divine Temple appear!" Professor Ye’s aged voice carried an extremely strong excitement. At his instruction, Xiao Yu selected nine military personnel and placed them in their positions.

Professor Ye seemed to regard Miss Sui particularly highly, and at that moment he asked her, "Miss Sui, see if this is how it should be."

Though his calculations were absolutely precise, such geometric arrangements were quite easy for him.

"Mmm, it’s like this," Sui Yi’s approval made Xiao Yu nod and then ordered, "Press down."

The third command, down!

Clang, clang...

Nine sunken squares, the rotating Heavenly Plate...

This was completely different from the original command, as if...

The entire Heavenly Plate was sinking!

"No good, jump out!"

Professor Ye shouted urgently, and only seven people managed to jump out in time. The two closest to the inside were unable to dodge in time, and they were about to fall!

Whoosh!

Jing Hong’s twin shadows flashed past, and Sui Yi and Xiao Yu each grabbed a person from either side and flew up, landing on the edge of the Heavenly Plate in a blink of an eye. Turning around, they saw that sunken... giant hole.

"The Divine Temple is underground?"

Instinctively, the four of them looked downward, but they could only see densely packed gears... those gears were turning!

And it seemed that the ground under their feet was also...

"Retreat!" Sui Yi called softly, prompting the other three to quickly back away.

Professor Ye and the others couldn’t avoid it, each retreating from the steps of this Heavenly Plate...

As they retreated... the ground cracked!

Solid stone slabs sank down like puppet mechanics, just as if a giant Rubik’s cube was being manipulated by a command~~

In such uneven, twisting sinking, just like stepping on mines, it was all too easy to fall into a pit below...

The people each displayed their Divine Skills, hastily fleeing until they were five meters away, finally escaping from this terrifying area.

With hearts still racing, they looked up to see the doubled circular area, the sunken stone slabs had already disappeared, leaving only a large circular pit about ten meters in diameter. They hadn’t even had time to look down.

Rumble!

The ground trembled!

The sound of gears turning chilled everyone’s hearts, as if a colossal beast was being hoisted up...

"Look, what is that!" Gong Jiu, who was bolder, bent down to look below and suddenly shouted as if he saw something.

"What?"

Professor Ye leaned his head forward and his eyes widened incredulously as he followed a certain rhythm, lifting his head from bottom to top until a Divine Temple rose from the ground!

Emerging from the pit, it resembled a bamboo shoot breaking through the earth in spring...

"Divinely ingenious! Absolutely divinely ingenious!" Professor Ye murmured non-stop, while the others were also caught in fluctuating emotions.

In a moment, the Divine Temple’s tower, ten meters in diameter and twenty meters tall, stood before everyone.

Its tower body was black, the tiles red, and at the top was a strange sculpture, like a totem from some ancient cultural ritual, while above the tower body were sequentially smaller totems.

Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Gluttony, and more, all lifelike, as if they were alive, making everyone who saw them tremble with fear.

But the interior was completely invisible

—unless they opened The Gate.

Creak, creak! Ye Changan had already swiftly taken photos, his face wearing an expression similar to his grandfather’s.

That was the greatest happiness of an archaeological enthusiast.

But Sui Yi and the others reacted differently.

Gong Jiu: "Treasure, treasure, it’s all mine, mine! And Sui Yi’s!"

Flower Demon sneered, "Shallow! Showy! Vulgar!"

After a pause, her beautiful fingers flirtatiously flicked her wavy hair and said, "Is there an elixir for immortality and eternal youth?"

Brother Ma: Clear some space in the backpack, folks, it’s time to load up on treasure.

Han Gao: Is there anything to eat? I’m so hungry.

Xiao Yu and the others: Are these people really here just to joke around?

Each reacted differently, but Sui Yi still looked towards Xiao Yu and Professor Ye without speaking, just giving a faint look.

But it seemed to remind both Xiao Yu and Professor Ye, who were capable of making decisions, of something important.

When tripartite or quadruple crises were present, alliances were possible, but now only two parties remained, with the Divine Temple right in front of them. What next?

During this eye contact, several military men silently brought out the deeply buried concept of the enemy from their hearts,

At first sight, Gong Jiu and their group were foreign enemies, tomb raiding adventurers.

It was illegal.

At this moment...

Some military men deep in their bones held the notion that national property was sacred and inviolable, but deep inside, they felt that these laws seemed not very applicable in such secret places. Moreover, the other party had saved them multiple times, and this kind of favor was difficult to articulate, coupled with their powerful ability that could disdain most laws...

They all looked towards Xiao Yu.

Xiao Yu lowered her eyes without speaking, and Professor Ye also looked towards Sui Yi.

The scene became cold for a moment.

Gong Jiu sneered coldly, "Hey, military brothers, you don’t mean to point a gun at us and declare that all this stuff is yours, and we aren’t allowed to take anything, do you?"

The only response came from Yueh Xiangnan, "This is national property, not..."

Yueh Xiangnan’s words definitely shattered the previously ambiguous atmosphere, also causing the faces of the more astute people like Xiao Yu and Professor Ye to change.

This is bad!

Before he could finish, Yaofei interrupted with, "Are you out of your mind? Do you know where this is? Are you sure it’s within the national territory? Don’t scare us with the nation every time. I understand the law, and this matter can’t be discussed openly. If you really had the power to bury us all here, then right and wrong would be whatever you say. If not, then play by the old rules."

Yaofei definitely belonged to the more assertive type, Gong Jiu was outwardly assertive, flamboyant, while she was sinisterly cool, a bit like a law unto herself, much more ruthless than Gong Jiu. If necessary, she wouldn’t mind joining forces with Sui Yi’s group to bury these officials here.

Facing this bandit-like assertiveness, Yueh Xiangnan was stumped, probably because there were too few people who dared to defy officials in the past, and they were used to having a military superiority.

But Gong Jiu’s group was different, really different.

Yueh Xiangnan was at a disadvantage; the other military men were indeed no match in terms of verbal firepower. Finally, Xiao Yu spoke.

She glanced at Sui Yi and said, "I think being enemies with each other is the most foolish. Perhaps we can cooperate..."

She paused, then added, "Our military needs your help, and the nation needs your help too."

Her tone was much more tactful than the blunt military types like Yueh Xiangnan, although this was very different from her usual authoritative style.

But the next second...

"Being an enemy of our officials won’t benefit you. If we cooperate... we will compensate."

What lousy teammates, damn!

Professor Ye, always known for his intelligence, along with his grandson, quietly facepalmed, while Xiao Yu’s expression froze, and before she could say anything to remedy...

"Ah, how generous, even offering money~~" Yaofei smiled warmly, then suddenly her expression went blank.

"Do you think we lack money?"

Such sarcastic words...

Another second passed,

Gong Jiu: "We are really short of money, after all, isn’t that why we came here?"

Yaofei: "..."

It seems you aren’t the only ones with lousy teammates.

The conversation was clearly worthless. Xiao Yu looked towards Sui Yi, her expression calm, "Miss Sui, I believe..."

"Mutual benefit, mutual enemies," these words caused the expressions of Xiao Yu and others to drastically change, and both sides quickly became wary of each other, the guns nearly aimed at each other’s heads.

But Sui Yi hadn’t finished speaking, her gaze towards Professor Ye and Xiao Yu was clear and distant, her voice cool.

"Or equal cooperation, still mutual benefit."

Equal cooperation... Xiao Yu and Professor Ye clearly understood the implication in Sui Yi’s words: they wanted official recognition of the legitimacy of their findings in the Ancient City.

This demand was somewhat hard on them, but they were also very aware of the support Sui Yi’s group could offer, with the Divine Temple just in sight. Could there be no danger inside?

After thinking it over, Professor Ye said, "Although I’ve always believed that these artifacts should rightfully be state-owned, that’s only useful if we can actually retrieve them. Besides, Miss Sui has rescued us multiple times, her character is trustworthy..."

This statement was undoubtedly a reminder.

Xiao Yu remained expressionless for a while, then sighed lightly, looking at Sui Yi... she nodded, "Okay."

It was very deliberate, reflecting her character as firm as a rock, once she agreed, she wouldn’t waver.

And with that nod, many soldiers internally breathed a sigh of relief; truth be told, being enemies with Gong Jiu’s group was indeed both a physical and psychological burden.

An agreement was reached, and the mood between the two parties warmed up as they walked together towards the Grand Gate of the Divine Temple,

While moving aside, Yaofei whispered to Sui Yi, "Xiao Yu’s promises aren’t reliable... once too much is involved, the officials might not ease up, and any agreement now is fragile."

"I know,"

"Then why did you bring this up? Did you record it?" Gong Jiu wondered.

"No," Sui Yi shook her head, speaking lightly, "Because when a powerful enemy lurks in the shadows, uniting is the wisest. And the two from the Ye family are very useful..." (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please vote for it on qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)