AZI Volume 3 Chapter 32

Having reached the bottom of the crater, the two groups entered the temple.

As members of the two groups, take six or eight steps forward—

"…?"

"…!"

Despite still being inside the temple's interior, the entrance had seemingly been flipped around.

Not only that, but the scenery—outside of the temple, has also been changed.

It was no longer the scenery of the crater's bowl surface, and is instead—

"A desert?"

(Seems like Lao Bai was right.)

Feeling the hot desert wind, along with grains of sand brushing against the surface of his palm, Long Hua confirms that this isn't an illusion, while thinking—

(Did the native people of this world's past construct this place? If so, their tech isn't inferior to practitioners.)

"Let's go."

Regaining his composure, Ye Chen is the first to take another step forward, and the others follow.

The scenery outside of the stone temple can only be described as blue skies and yellow sand—for as far as the eyes can see.

"Is this for real?"

"Quite."

The one to answer Li Xue's question is Shao Tianming, who is standing off to the side with Li Zi Xiang and Chen Lan.

Clearing his throat, Shao Tianming adds—

"This is at least a grade four ruin. Hard to tell its exact grade—when we've yet to map out its exact size."

"You know, I was expecting more…- I don't know? Caverns and brick walls when you mentioned excavating an ancient ruin…?"

Shrugging his shoulders in response to Ye Chen's remark, Chen Lan says—

"You'd best get used to this, since you'll be seeing more of this stuff later on."

"In the meantime, get yourselves comfortable. We still got to wait for the others."

Having said this, Li Zi Xiang is the first to turn away, and leave. Rather quickly, the other two followed.

"Hmm."

Distancing himself from the group, Long Hua spreads his divine senses outwards.

(Damn, this place is huge. It's no different from a secret realm…)

Reaching the maximum range of his divine senses' detection radius—only to find out, that it isn't even able to cover a quarter of this realm, Long Hua can't help but heave a heavy sigh.

(How long would it even take to map this place out? Weeks? Months? A year? On foot, this may as well be impossible…)

...…

Eventually, the other participants of this excavation group, along with additional supplies, arrived.

Upon having accounted for everyone, Shao Tianming holds up a megaphone, and raising his voice, he shouts—

"Alright, all of you listen up! I don't care what that military asswipe said to you before, just know this, at this point, you cannot hope to return to the outside world—until we find a teleportation magic array!"

"Uh?"

Immediately, everyone begins to look to one another.

Those who were quicker to process the information would run back into the stone temple only to find out—

"No good."

"Yeah, we're stuck here…"

Although these individuals had run to the ends of the temple's interior, and had even checked its upper floors, there were no signs of abrupt teleportation—like the one they had experienced before.

Soon, panic begins to settle in, to which, Shao Tianming says—

"Scared, are you? Well, all of you have no one else to blame but the military men, who threw you all into this hellhole. I'll say this right now, but this ruin is at least grade four. If its size turns out to be even greater than our initial estimations, expect it to move up to grade five. In my world, five is considered the highest recorded difficulty—where every step you take is accompanied by life and death. The worst part of it all is… We're still only in these ruins' outer area. It's the least dangerous area to be in, so you can expect its inner area to be worse."

Inciting further chaos into the crowd, Shao Tianming explains the situation in the bluntest way possible.

"…"

"…"

Seeing the expected reactions on the Sinners' faces, Shao Tianming goes on to ask—

"Let me ask you all this, how much supplies did you all bring? And how long do you think those supplies will last you—in this barren desert, under the scorching sun? A day? A week? Hate to break it to you all, but if you only have such a meager amount of supplies to work with, expect yourselves to get buried under the sand eventually."

"What did you bring?"

"Water and some crackers…"

"…"

Seeing how riled up the crowd is, Ye Chen feels a bad premonition in his heart, as he frowns.

As soon as a few individuals turn to the supply crates with eyes of hope, Shao Tianming says—

"Some of you are probably thinking, "I can just stay here, and wait it out with these supplies," aren't you? Like I said, if we don't find a teleportation magic array—we're stuck here until we die. Instead of waiting for your deaths, I'd suggest you all—to put your backs into mapping this place out fast. Besides, no one will come back here—to pick up some worthless dogs, even if the teleportation magic array is eventually found."

Frowns bloom like flowers across a field, as many form them on their faces—in response to the final remark.

(In this situation, as soon as an exit is found, people will only think to rush through it. They wouldn't care about others.)

Thinking of this, Long Hua can't help but feel a sense of nostalgia welling up in his heart.

Danger at every corner, not wanting to be dragged down by others, wanting to trample over others to get ahead; these are all feelings that would accompany a practitioner in a secret realm.

"Being able to carry a lot of supplies is the key to successfully excavating a ruin. But the amount an individual can carry is limited, hence-"

Reaching into his pocket, Shao Tianming tosses out an orb of light.

As the orb of light lands, a vehicle that is perfect for traversing through the desert appears.

"What did he just do?"

"A truck just appeared out of nowhere…"

(A storage device?)

Realizing what had happened, Long Hua widens his eyes, but then—

(No, this isn't that surprising. This is the most common type of tech there is in the practitioners' circle.)

"Each and every one of us in the Ashen River Hall is equipped with this thing called a storage device. Inside of it, we got plenty of equipment and food supplies. This is the most basic equipment you need—if you want to take an excavation trip seriously."

As dejection looms over the air of the masses, Shao Tianming continues to smile, as he looks over the crowd, and asks—

"Hey, don't you think this situation is seriously unfair to you all?"

"…"

"…"

Towards Shao Tianming's question, which is being directed at everyone, the frown on Ye Chen's face deepens.

In the same instance, Long Hua thought—

(This surnamed Shao is quite capable. Drop the entire crowd into despair, then leverage hope right in front of them.)

Realizing what Shao Tianming's aim is, Long Hua smiles faintly.