Luo Feng, Enchantress, and Iceberg were dressed quite similarly. They all wore combat uniforms over their Black God Suits. The only difference was that Enchantress and Iceberg also wore golden masks. Luo Feng had put on the combat uniform, boots, and the rest after watching Hong’s battle with the Beast Emperor and returning to the intelligent fighter.
The three of them flew side by side above the lake.
“We’ll search separately,” Enchantress, one of the bodyguards, said.
“Fine.” Iceberg’s voice was as cold as ever.
“Alright.”
Luo Feng nodded as well.
The Mist Island lake covered more than a hundred li in every direction, an enormous area. Moreover, the Beast Emperor had once occupied a position three thousand five hundred metres underground, while the lake itself averaged only three hundred metres in depth. The treasure could very well be hidden beneath the lake bed, buried somewhere in the mud, soil, or rock layers. It would be extremely difficult to locate.
Searching separately was something Luo Feng fully agreed with.
“Compared to the much larger underground rock layers, I’ll search the lake first.” Luo Feng glanced into the distance, where, several thousand metres away, another figure dived into the lake. Clearly another Council Member level expert. “The true treasure of Mist Island really is irresistible.”
Splash!
Water sprayed into the air as Luo Feng dived straight into the lake.
He wore a combat uniform over his Black God Suit, stood on the Soaring Sky Shuttle, and had eighteen blades circling protectively around him, ready to strike at any moment.
Luo Feng was armed to the teeth.
“The treasure. I have no idea what it even is, or how to find it.” Luo Feng frowned. At present, none of the major factions knew what the treasure actually was or how many there were. They could only search blindly. “Fortunately, I’m a Spirit Reader. My spiritual force can spread across a two hundred metre radius. Search.”
A spiritual scan was even more effective than radar.
…
Thus began Luo Feng’s bloody treasure hunt.
The last time he had come to Mist Island, he had nearly lost his life. This time, however, so called high level lord monsters could be killed with a single thought. One mental command was enough for his blades to slice them apart with ease.
After thirty two minutes.
Luo Feng had scanned more than eighty percent of the lake at astonishing speed. Along the way, he had killed over a thousand monsters, including thirteen lord level monsters. The materials from two high level lord monsters had been casually collected with his spiritual force and stored inside the backpack formed by his Black God Suit.
“A Planetary level Spirit Reader really does make money easily on Earth.” Looking at the two sets of materials while ignoring the rest, Luo Feng sighed inwardly.
“Luo Feng, have you found anything in the lake?” Enchantress’s voice came through the communications watch. “I’ve already searched over thirty six percent of the lake and found nothing.”
“Nothing at all,” Luo Feng replied quietly. “I’ve covered eighty percent.”
When it came to search capabilities.
Planetary level experts were naturally superior to War Gods. Even Planetary level martial artists could release their genetic energy beyond their bodies. Councillor Fal, for example, was surrounded by flames. Lan Ran of Jiangnan Base City had once frozen an entire fountain in an instant while stopping Luo Feng from killing Li Yao, causing the surrounding air temperature to plummet.
Planetary level martial artists could control the energy within a certain area around them and use it to search for treasures.
Of course.
Planetary level Spirit Readers had the strongest search ability, followed by Planetary level martial artists, then War God level Spirit Readers, and finally War God martial artists. War God martial artists could only rely on their own eyes, making them by far the least efficient.
“You’ve searched eighty percent, I’ve searched thirty six percent, and Iceberg has searched forty one percent. Altogether we’ve probably covered over ninety five percent. I think we should start searching underground,” Enchantress transmitted.
“I agree,” Luo Feng replied.
Whoosh!
At the same moment, Enchantress, Iceberg, and Luo Feng shot out of the water, broke through the surface, and flew towards the centre of the lake, where the Mist Island ruins lay.
Splash. Splash.
Luo Feng saw one War God after another jumping from aircraft into the lake.
“Even War Gods have come to search for the treasure.” Luo Feng shook his head. “At least they’re not foolish enough to search underwater. They’re heading into the island’s soil instead.”
A War God encountering a lord monster underwater was practically throwing away their life. The area where those War Gods had entered had once been the central island of the lake.
However, after the great battle, much of the island’s surface had been shaved away, leaving the remainder submerged beneath the water, invisible to the naked eye.
The War Gods could quickly burrow into the soil.
They would search through the soil and rock layers for treasure. Underground rock layers rarely contained monsters, and even when they did, they were usually quite weak.
“The underground soil and rock layers cover an even greater area, and searching them is much harder than searching the water,” Enchantress said coldly. “Same plan. We split up.”
“I’m heading off first.”
Luo Feng acted without hesitation, diving straight into the lake. After descending only a few dozen metres, he plunged into the soil and rock. Head first, feet upwards, his feet automatically transformed into sharp cones that pierced effortlessly through the earth and stone as he descended.
Underground, everything was pitch black.
“Searching for treasure underground would be extremely difficult for anyone else.”
Luo Feng spread out his spiritual force. Since nobody knew what the treasure looked like, whether it was a plant, a mineral, a living creature, or even the remains of an ancient civilisation, every possibility had to be examined. Without a clear target, the search progressed very slowly.
Three hours later.
At a depth of two to three thousand metres underground, a powerful subterranean river surged through a hidden channel. With a loud crash, Luo Feng smashed through the rock and landed in the river.
“This is the place.”
“The last time I ate the thousand year willow heart, it was beside this underground river. Brings back memories.”
“I’m already here anyway. I’ll dig a cave and rest.”
Luo Feng quickly excavated a cave slightly above the river passage, sat down cross legged, and closed his eyes. Three uninterrupted hours of searching, constantly scanning a spherical area with a radius of two hundred metres in every direction around himself, had left even him mentally exhausted, despite having ample spiritual force.
“What smell is that?”
While resting, Luo Feng suddenly twitched his nose.
A faint aroma of cooked rice drifted into his nostrils.
The smell of rice?
Luo Feng’s eyes snapped open.
“A treasure. It could very well be the treasure.”
The scent of rice thousands of metres underground was far too strange. Strange things often pointed towards the hidden treasures of Mist Island.
Luo Feng sniffed carefully and darted into the underground river like a fish, occasionally surfacing to smell the air again.
“It’s this direction. The scent is coming from here.”
Once he confirmed the direction, Luo Feng immediately sped along the underground river.
As he drew closer, the fragrance of rice became increasingly strong.
Rumble.
Following the underground river, Luo Feng eventually reached a much wider subterranean waterway. The river he had been travelling through was merely one branch of this vast underground river.
“There are aquatic monsters.”
A sweep of his spiritual force revealed them.
“There aren’t many, but most of them are quite powerful.”
Luo Feng was not surprised.
Back at the Chinese garrison base, the detection maps had shown that the lake averaged three hundred metres in depth, with its deepest point approaching one thousand metres. However, those maps only showed the main structure. Countless underground passages connected the lake to the depths below. After all, a Beast Emperor of that size had been able to travel from three thousand five hundred metres underground directly into the lake.
Sometimes it entered the lake, sometimes it returned underground.
Its constant movement had created numerous tunnels leading deep underground. Those same detection maps had revealed many aquatic monsters living within those underground channels.
So Luo Feng was not surprised in the slightest.
“The scent is coming from over there.”
He immediately flew forward.
Whoosh!
Hovering just over three metres above the underground river, Luo Feng seemed to teleport over fifty metres in an instant before stopping on the water’s surface and staring ahead.
Above the dark underground lake floated a translucent white crystal, suspended quietly in mid air. Its gentle glow illuminated the otherwise pitch black cavern with a faint white light. Waves of rich rice fragrance continued to emanate from the crystal, making anyone instinctively salivate. Numerous aquatic monsters stared greedily at it from the lake below. Suddenly, one leapt into the air and swallowed it whole.
The moment Luo Feng saw the white crystal, it had already been swallowed by the aquatic monster. It happened in the blink of an eye.
“Something’s wrong.”
Suppressing his disappointment, Luo Feng stared suspiciously.
“Why didn’t the other aquatic monsters fight for it? Many of them are lord monsters with intelligence comparable to humans. They aren’t stupid. There must be a reason.”
Crackle.
The shell covered aquatic monster that had swallowed the crystal suddenly began emitting brilliant white light from every part of its body. Its entire form started swelling as it let out agonised roars.
Bang!
The creature exploded.
Its shattered flesh and blood scattered everywhere, while the irresistibly attractive white crystal simply floated gently above the lake once more.
The aquatic monsters surrounded the crystal.
Every one of them longed for it.
Yet not a single one dared swallow it.
Luo Feng inhaled sharply.
The crystal looked miraculous, and its fragrance alone was enough to make anyone drool. Yet it turned out to be a deadly poison that killed anything that consumed it.
“So many shattered corpses lie at the bottom of this lake.”
A sweep of his spiritual force revealed them.
“It seems many monsters have already died trying to swallow it.”
Just then.
“It’s the treasure.”
“The secret treasure of Mist Island.”
Cries rang out in English as two figures shot towards the crystal from different directions.
“It’s mine.”
Luo Feng’s eyes flashed.
With a thought, his spiritual force formed an invisible giant hand that reached for the crystal. He certainly was not foolish enough to grab such a strange object with his own hand.
Bang!
A giant white hand, as large as a wash basin, suddenly materialised and reached for the crystal as well. It collided with Luo Feng’s spiritual force, and both shattered instantly.
“Luo Feng, this belongs to me, Mo Henderson. Stand aside immediately.”
A heavily accented voice roared in awkward Chinese.
“The Third Speaker, the Ice Emperor Mo Henderson?”
Information about the man immediately flashed through Luo Feng’s mind.
Ice Emperor Mo Henderson was one of Earth’s only two Planetary Level Three martial artists. Born in the United States, he was now the strongest expert of the American government. His mastery over the power of ice and snow had earned him the title Ice Emperor.
He was one of Earth’s greatest experts, second only to Hong and Thunder God.
“This belongs to the Extreme Dojo. You dare steal it? Are you looking for death?”
Luo Feng shouted back.
The Soaring Sky Shuttle immediately floated before him, ready to unleash its ultimate technique at any moment.