It doesn't matter if your souls are scattered, as long as you die.

"Captain, are you sure this is the mechanism to activate?"

Wu Jianguo said doubtfully, "You can't ask that. You should ask if there really is a passage behind this?"

Everyone agreed that it made sense.

"Captain, could this map have been deliberately left behind to trick us?"

Zhao Tao opened the map, and someone next to him shone a flashlight on it.

He carefully examined every part of the map, which was not drawn in great detail and was rather hasty.

However, considering that the person who saved them was probably not deliberately playing a trick on them.

He put away the map, looked at the stone wall, and said, "Let's try again."

He chose to believe that ambiguous little guy.

With the captain speaking, the others naturally had no objections, since it was just pressing hard and wouldn't cause any damage.

Several more people tried to press the button, but it didn't work.

This time, when Dr. Liu stepped forward, he didn't press the button immediately, but instead used a flashlight to examine the area.

Suddenly, he noticed a groove at the bottom edge of the circular protrusion.

"Captain, come and see."

Is this a new discovery?

Zhao Tao was overjoyed and stepped forward to look down at the spot that Doctor Liu was pointing to.

"This is……"

"If I'm not mistaken, this mechanism isn't meant to be pressed, but rather turned."

"I'm guessing," said Dr. Liu.

Zhao Tao agreed, reaching in and squeezing tightly with his thumb and forefinger into the groove.

Then slowly turn it toward your chest.

Suddenly, his expression changed.

Moved!

With joy, it continued to spin.

click!

A sound.

"Captain, there's a crack in the rock wall here!" someone exclaimed in surprise.

Zhao Tao turned his head and glanced at it. The gap was too small for a person to fit through. He continued to turn, but he couldn't turn any further.

"Captain, this door can be pried open."

Zhao Tao turned his head and saw Sun Hongjun grabbing the stone door and forcefully prying it outwards. As he pried, the gap in the door gradually widened until it was completely open.

Everyone spontaneously shone their flashlights into the passageway.

Zhao Tao came over from the side, and everyone automatically made way for him.

"Old Liu, come and check if there's anything in here that might make you uncomfortable."

The uncomfortable thing refers to the toxic gas produced in a long-term enclosed environment.

Dr. Liu immediately stepped forward into the passage and came out after about a minute. "There is no toxic gas here, so you can go in without worry."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Tao immediately gave the order.

"Jianguo, you take Wenjun and Weimin and guard the entrance. The rest of you come in with me."

Upon entering the passage, Dabing ran ahead to scout the way, with Zhao Tao and the others following behind.

The group was filled with surprise as they walked.

Surprisingly, this stone passage was no easy feat to dig out.

Zheng Hongjun: "Do you think this passage might have been dug by the missing villagers and treasure hunters?"

Sun Shengnian: "Fool! Even someone who doesn't know anything about this knows that this passage has existed for at least a hundred years, it couldn't have been dug in recent years."

Zhao Tao: "This passage has a history of at least nearly a thousand years."

The smoothness of this stone wall is not achieved through polishing, but rather through natural growth over time.

"Woof woof..."

The soldier who was running ahead rushed back, grabbed Wang Weidong's clothes, and dragged him away.

"Soldier, no, don't pull me, I'll go with you."

The soldier loosened his grip and ran ahead again, clearly indicating that he had made a discovery and that it was urgent.

Wang Weidong and his group jogged to catch up.

After running for less than a minute, I saw the soldier squatting next to a person whose fate was unknown.

When it saw them following, it barked twice.

Shining the flashlight over, I could see the man's face clearly; he was incredibly thin, like a skeleton wrapped in skin.

He was shirtless, wearing only a pair of shorts on his lower body, and barefoot.

Doctor Liu squatted down and checked the pulse in the neck, then lifted the eyelids to look at it by the light of the flashlight, and finally felt the wrist.

A minute later, he turned around and said, "Quickly take him out and cook some rice porridge for him, otherwise he will really starve to death."

Upon hearing this, Chen Zhiqiang, the strongest among them, took a step forward and carefully picked the person up.

"I'm taking him out now."

Zhao Tao looked at Doctor Liu and said, "Old Liu, you go with him to see him out. It'll be good to have someone to look after him if anything happens."

Doctor Liu nodded and followed Chen Zhiqiang out.

Zhao Tao and his group continued walking in, with Da Bing still running ahead. Soon, they heard the sound of "woof woof" again.

The group quickened their pace and arrived at a relatively large stone cave.

Shining the flashlight, they saw five people lying on the ground, all like the person they had found in the passage earlier: shirtless, wearing only shorts, and barefoot.

"Captain, could these people be villagers?"

"They could also be treasure hunters."

"Stop discussing it, let's quickly check if they're still alive." Zhao Tao walked up to someone, squatted down, and touched the person's wrist.

Originally, I wanted to check if he still had a pulse, but the moment I touched his skin, I found that his body was already stiff.

He's been dead for quite some time.

It was only because it was too dark here that he didn't notice the deceased's bluish-purple face; otherwise, he would have been able to tell at a glance that it was a dead person.

The others also checked on each other.

"Captain, this one's dead."

"This one is dead too."

"Quick, this one's still breathing."

There were five people in total; four died, and one was still breathing.

Zhao Tao went to the person who was still breathing, took the water bottle hanging from his waist, and fed him some water.

"This person must be hungry. We need to take him out and feed him quickly, otherwise things might not go well..."

"Woof woof woof..."

Zhao Tao, who was about to take his men out, heard the soldier's shout and handed them over to He Sankai.

"Dachun, you and Sankai take him out together."

The two responded, and He Sankai carried the man on his back and walked back the way they came.

Zhao Tao led the remaining men in the direction the soldier had called out, and they found themselves in another passageway.

After walking for only ten seconds, I saw the soldier sitting in the passage looking at the stone chamber opposite.

Upon seeing Zhao Tao and the others, it got up and ran over, wagging its tail and looking very happy.

"What good stuff has the soldier found?"

"Woof!"

When the three flashlights shone into the stone chamber, they were all shocked.

A room full of treasure.

……

Yun Li returned to Turtle Peak at 10 PM and used his spiritual power to scan the interior of the peak.

Not finding the phantom I saw last night, I figured it might be due to the wrong time, so I entered the space.

Around the same time as last night, Yun Li exited the space again and scanned it with his spiritual power...

Huh, why aren't those ghostly figures here today?

Did I misread it that day?

Thinking about it, she shook her head again; her mental power couldn't possibly be wrong.

But if I'm not mistaken, what exactly is going on here?

Could it be that, as some books describe, certain special phenomena only appear under specific conditions?

So, in this specific environment...

She recalled the details of what she had seen last night.

The temperature is about the same as it is now.

The time is right now.

The only difference is...