I, disguised as a white dragon, was supported by the state.

After Lu Mengdi's analysis, Lei Yao felt his thoughts suddenly became much clearer.

He expressed his sincere gratitude.

“If you really want to thank me, treat me to a meal when you come back,” Lu Mengdi said with a smile. “I heard there’s a good hot pot restaurant there.”

"No...no problem!" Lei Yao's voice was loud, and Lu Mengdi could feel her old classmate's determination even through the phone.

After hanging up the phone, Lei Yao strode towards the pit.

"Team Leader Lei, are you on the phone with your wife?" the subordinate asked with a grin.

Lei Yao waved his hand: "Make way."

He said that and jumped into the pit.

Facing the statue that was much larger than himself, a resolute glint flashed in Lei Yao's eyes.

Since this statue could give him that strange feeling, why not smash it open as his old classmate suggested, and see what kind of demons and monsters were hidden inside!

To the village chief's astonishment, Lei Yao embraced the Dragon King statue and pulled it out of the pit like a radish.

Before he could speak, he saw him punch the Dragon King statue again.

boom!

With a deafening roar, the solid stone statue was actually cracked by his punch!

The village chief almost thought Lei Yao was carrying explosives!

Seeing the other party deliver two more punches to the statue, shattering it into pieces, the village chief forgot to pray to the Dragon King for redemption.

Oh my god!

Is this something a human could do?

Wang Jianqiang, who had been peering closely into the room, suddenly exclaimed, "Team Leader Lei, there's something inside!"

Lei Yao had already seen it.

He reached into the middle of the shattered stone statue and pulled out a stone tablet.

Unlike the stone statue, it was grayish-black, with one side flat and the other parts irregular, as if it had been smashed down from something.

Lei Yao narrowed his eyes when he saw the deep, messy lines on the stone tablet and the runes embedded in the center of those jagged lines.

He was certain that this was one of the ninety-one runes that Bai Lin had taught him, representing the meaning of "spirit".

Is that thing hiding inside?

The others also joined in.

They had also studied those runes and recognized them at a glance.

Upon seeing it clearly, joy appeared on everyone's faces.

"Captain Lei, we've actually made a discovery this time!"

Lei Yao's joy flashed across his face for a moment, and he said, "This is just a good start; there are still many things that need to be determined."

Under the village chief's questioning gaze, Lei Yao, holding the stone tablet, suggested going down the mountain.

Looking at the stone tablet, especially the strange symbol on it, the village chief felt dizzy.

His mind was full of questions, but unfortunately he couldn't get anything useful out of them.

After descending the mountain, Lei Yao immediately contacted Zhang Yu, asking him to help find someone to investigate the county annals and, incidentally, find out the location of those cultural relics.

Zhang Yu was in a good mood as he made progress on his "Dragon Qi Detector". Upon learning that Lei Yao had made a discovery, he happily congratulated him and said that he would take care of the matter.

The information from the county annals and other official records, as well as the location of those cultural relics, was sent to Lei Yao the following day.

Seeing that the two turning points indeed occurred after the collapse of the Dragon King Temple and the excavation of the ruins, Lei Yao was quite excited.

Using the excuse of seeking advice, he dialed Lu Mengdi's number again.

The day before, Lu Mengdi already knew about the stone tablet with runes that he had obtained from the statue, and had even seen the photos. After hearing that the discovery of the ruins coincided with the disappearance of the flood, she helped with the analysis.

"This stone tablet might be part of some kind of formation. See if you can find something similar at that site. If it is, the formation might be near these two."

“If that formation also seals a dragon, and the main body hasn’t been destroyed, you should be able to sense the dragon’s energy when you get close to the core of the formation,” she said. “Even if you can’t find it, if you can find other parts of that formation, you can tell Mr. Bai.”

Both of them knew very well that what they were discussing was definitely not a problem in Bai Long's eyes.

Perhaps it only needs to take one look to identify that old devil and pry the truth out of him.

However, before making a definitive discovery, they tacitly refrained from informing Bai Long, as doing so would make them appear incompetent.

After hanging up the phone, Lei Yao rushed to the museum that housed these artifacts the next day.

Before setting off, he called Liu Chongyu and asked him to coordinate with the museum to take those cultural relics out separately.

The stone tablet in the statue made him realize that the truly valuable things might be hidden among the layers of stone chips.

He saw those artifacts.

He examined each artifact carefully, but he still couldn't find any similar runes.

However, in the corner of a rock no bigger than a palm, he saw a few rough lines.

The lines were very deep, similar to the lines on the stone tablet of the deity.

The material of the stones is also remarkably similar to that of the stone tablet.

Lei Yao returned to the mountain.

Standing beside the ruins of the Dragon King Temple, he gazed into the distance, recalling the words Bai Lin had spoken when he had consulted him.

……

“The incense itself has no meaning; what is meaningful is the faith displayed in this ritual,” Bai Lin said.

Guan Mi pondered: "Some philosophers say that when a person truly dies, no one remembers him anymore. So the existence of incense, which represents faith, means that the person has not truly died and may even have the chance to live forever like a god?"

Bai Lin shook his head: "The power of faith contained in incense is just a catalyst; the extraordinary nature itself is the spark."

"If the person being worshipped is merely a mortal and unable to utilize the power, even if the entire world were his temple, he could never become a god!"

He continued, "There is indeed a method of cultivation that uses incense to become a god, but that requires the cultivator to have already entered the path and possess extraordinary power, and this method of cultivation has many limitations."

Looking at Guan Mi's piercing gaze, Bai Lin explained, "These cultivators progress very quickly in the early stages, but after reaching a certain level of strength, they become bound by the wishes of their followers, gradually losing themselves and falling into the trap of becoming a puppet or monster embodying countless thoughts!"

“No one will take this path unless they are desperate,” he said. “And those who do take this path and want to achieve something will carefully select their followers.”

Guan Mi suddenly realized: "So those gods and Buddhas on Earth might be evil, and we should be careful of them?"

Bai Lin shook his head: "It's normal for mortals to place their desires in the gods. Earth is just a bunch of clumsy imitations."

"There are very few people who actually cultivate this kind of thing?" Guan Mi asked curiously.

Bai Lin thought of Xuzhou and said quietly, "There are always some mountain spirits and monsters who have mastered some Taoist skills and try to use this to deceive the people and pursue the Great Tao."

"It's just that the metropolis has turned into a twisted and insane demon, which then attracts the condemnation of righteous people!"

Seeing that Bai Lin spoke with great conviction, Guan Mi became increasingly suspicious that the other party had lived in another world completely different from Earth.

However, remembering that Bai Lin had said this was his home, she relaxed.

Why bother with his past?

Bai Lin was somewhat lost in thought, recalling the scene when he went down the mountain and fought against that evil spirit with his fellow disciples.

Thinking of his old friends in Xuzhou, he felt a pang of sadness.

When he saw Lu Mengdi standing outside the door, he suddenly remembered the matter of incense becoming a deity, which he had mentioned to Lei Yao before.

……

Chapter 127 There really is a dragon here!

Lei Yao recalled the information Bai Lin had once mentioned about becoming a god through incense offerings.

Staring at the stone tablet in front of him, he felt more and more that the so-called Dragon King must be something like this.

He remembered Bai Lin saying that the mountain spirits and monsters who entered this path were not strong in the early stages. But once they became truly powerful, they would often lose themselves and become monsters controlled by the desires of their believers.

But where do these wandering ghosts come from in this world?

How does it control the floods in a region?

Why did the floods around that site mysteriously disappear after it was excavated?

Moreover, he had read the data compiled by those experts. Although the Yellow River has rarely breached its banks in recent years, several floods have occurred in nearby towns and villages, but this area has never been affected.

He rubbed his head and gazed at the Yellow River in the distance.

The river water is not muddy; it flows down from upstream and becomes relatively calm in this area.

Water birds occasionally skimmed across the water.

He looked at the Longshan Culture site again and suddenly realized that this place was about the same distance from the center of the Yellow River and the site itself, and from this angle...

Lei Yao looked around and, seeing no villagers nearby, simply raised his sleeve and summoned his flying sword.

The black short sword hovered in the air with a whoosh.

The subordinates around him, seeing this, all showed expressions of envy.

Even though it wasn't the first time they had seen it, every time they saw Lei Yao summoning and using flying swords, they felt an indescribable longing in their hearts.

When they saw Lei Yao leap into the air and jump onto the flying sword, his body soaring into the sky with it, their envy almost turned into jealousy.

"Team Leader Lei is so lucky to be so highly regarded by Mr. Bai!" said one of his subordinates.

"I heard that Dr. Zhang has been trying to curry favor with Mr. Bai, but has yet to become a Dragon Guard!" another person said.

"Team Leader Lei said that as long as we work hard, we will have opportunities!"

While everyone was discussing it, Lei Yao had already flown to a height of 100 meters in the air.

Looking down from above, the hills below appear as just a small patch.

To his slight surprise, the three points—the middle of the Yellow River, the ruins, and the hill at his feet—could form an equilateral triangle.

In the center of this triangle is a forked river.

His body plummeted rapidly and fell into the river.

The riverbanks were covered with various plants, and it seemed that no one had been here for a long time.

The river water was slightly cool, and the bottom was covered with a layer of pebbles, with schools of small fish swimming by.

As Lei Yao walked in the river, he vaguely sensed a subtle aura.

The aura was strange, and he couldn't quite describe what it felt like.

He walked upstream along the river, and after only twenty or thirty meters, he discovered a small spring covered with weeds.

Water gurgled out of the spring and slowly flowed into the stream.

As he gazed at the clear water, the strange feeling in his heart grew stronger and stronger, as if something was making his cells tremble.

He seemed to sense something and jumped into the spring.

The spring water was up to his thighs.

He simply turned around, head down, and dug at the bottom of the water with both hands.

The underwater silt was very soft, and he easily dug it away.

The spring water gradually became murky, but Lei Yao didn't notice anything amiss.

He was more at ease in the water than a fish, and his hands were sharper than a seal's claws.

His legs gradually sank into the depths of the spring and disappeared from the surface.

Lei Yao followed his instincts and dug downwards. He encountered some rocks and rock layers, but they did not stop his hands at all.

To his delight, the deeper he dug, the easier it became to excavate.

Until the very end, there was suddenly nothing in front of him.

Lei Yao's body fell directly into a cave.

The cave, located deep underground, was not large and was pitch black all around, but it did not obstruct the Dragon Guard's vision.

He saw the smooth rock formations below, and those familiar lines and runes.