TSIAGBICATMWI Chapter 193

Chapter 193 Abandonment

“Bottomless? How deep is ‘bottomless’? Are the scouts you sent out all vegetarians? How can a vague term like ‘bottomless’ appear in a report?”

Xie YunChuan was being polite. He strongly suspected that the people in Li City were a bunch of good-for-nothings, spoiled by living comfortably in their isolated corner. The good terrain and abundant resources had nurtured a bunch of useless people.

Su Qingshan: “……” Alright! The fact that they haven’t yet figured out the specific depth does mean the people in Li City aren’t very capable.

“The matter is strange. We’ve sent out many people, including experts at levels six and seven, and lost most of them.

The information they brought back is fragmented and inconsistent. Each person gives a different depth, making it difficult to draw a conclusion. What’s even stranger is that many people who went in never came back out. We heard no fighting, and felt no energy fluctuations, whether from ability users or any other creatures.

But those who returned unscathed said they encountered no danger, just that they reached the end and there was no road, so they came back.”

“Didn’t you send people down from the original positions to look for the missing people?” Xie YunChuan knew they must have, but he needed to hear the details from Su Qingshan.

Su Qingshan shook his head helplessly. “It’s useless. No matter which position you start from, everyone’s path is different. The Misty Ravine Mountains are humid, and the fog sinks, so this crevice is constantly shrouded in mist. Even if you go down together from the same spot, you’ll get separated in the blink of an eye. Even if you’re holding onto a rope, the rope will break inexplicably. It’s like a maze that someone is constantly controlling and reshaping, changing in an instant. It can let you return to the surface if it wants you to go back, or bury you in the abyss if it wants you to go deeper.”

“Earth Spirit Jīngpò? A symbiotic beast?”

Xie YunChuan hit the nail on the head. Being able to manipulate the terrain so freely, coupled with the Jīngpò that have already appeared in the world, it wasn’t hard to guess how this anomaly was produced. Moreover, the self-growth of this Jīngpò was clearly developing well; the only question was what level it had reached.

“All signs indicate that it’s highly likely.” The sudden ground fissure, the special material that perfectly concealed its aura, the ever-changing abyss, the ability users who went in and never returned. Although the sophisticated instruments in the base couldn’t detect any energy, the facts were undeniable.

“Even with those guesses, you still can’t detect it? Does that material completely block the detection of your base’s high-precision detectors?”

He didn’t know if the researchers at the base were too useless, or if the thing in the Misty Ravine Mountains was too special. Without knowing the specific situation, Xie YunChuan didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but his increasingly dark eyes revealed his restless heart.

Su Qingshan sighed. “Alas! That material can’t completely block the detection of high-precision instruments, but the magnetic field it emits interferes with the detection sensitivity. And there are countless amounts of that material buried underground in the Misty Ravine Mountains. Once an instrument enters within a few hundred meters of the crack, it malfunctions, and its perception is inferior to even a high-level ability user.”

Xie YunChuan’s frown deepened as he listened, patiently waiting for what came next.

Su Qingshan continued, “We can’t detect the exact location of that thing. Even if we gathered the power of many elite ability users to break open an opening, it would be useless.”

“So you’re giving up?”

“The base is still researching solutions. But besides retrieving materials, no one is continuing to send people to explore deeply. Li City has already lost too many people there. The power of that thing seems to be getting stronger and stronger.”

Of course, the so-called cessation of exploration was just a facade. With such a treasure of nature, how could any family give up? Many things had stopped on the surface, but the wronged souls in that rift hadn’t stopped increasing in the dark.

Xie YunChuan fell into thought. Su Qingshan pushed his shoulder, interrupting him. “Hey, don’t think about it. Go back with your uncle first, and let Qingya open this iron box to take a look.”

Xie YunChuan twisted away, avoiding Su Qingshan’s hand on his shoulder, and said coldly, “No need.”

“Hmm?” Su Qingshan was puzzled, then suddenly realized. “Ah! Are you afraid we’ll snatch this wind-type Jīngpò from you?” Su Qingshan went back to patting Xie YunChuan’s shoulder, cheerfully saying, “Don’t worry, your uncles aren’t such shameless people. This thing was yours to begin with, so it’s yours. You can give it to whoever you want. If you want to use it yourself, we won’t object, ah!”

If it were anyone else, Su Qingshan and the others might have forced the thing away and given it to their own juniors. But who was Xie YunChuan? He was their own nephew, his own younger sister’s son! He was practically family, so why bother going to such lengths?

“No,” Xie YunChuan replied expressionlessly. “I just don’t plan to go back with you.”

“Ah!?” Su Qingshan was truly bewildered this time. “Didn’t you come to Li City to find your mother? Then what are you doing here?”

Anyone who came near here basically wanted to enter Li City for refuge, especially since Xie YunChuan had a powerful researcher for a mother there. Su Qingshan couldn’t figure out what Xie YunChuan could be doing besides seeking shelter with his mother.

If he said he came for the Jīngpò in the Misty Ravine Mountains, he looked like he’d only just found out about it!

The more people knew about a good thing, the more intense the competition would be. The four families were guarding the information tightly to prevent it from spreading. If Xie YunChuan weren’t his own nephew, Su Qingshan wouldn’t have been so candid with him, telling him everything he knew.

Xie YunChuan answered as calmly as before, “No.”

At first, he was. Ever since the end of the world, his biggest goal, besides survival, had been to bring Luo Shuyou to Li City to find a glimmer of hope, but now he had changed his mind.

That great researcher who was dedicated to dedicating her life to science and benefiting humanity in peaceful times, that mother who didn’t hesitate to abandon her child, Xie YunChuan suddenly didn’t dare to gamble. Would such a cold, zealous person who valued the greater good over small affections abandon studying Luo Shuyou, this perfect test subject, because of their relationship? No!

There was no choice back then, but now…

Xie YunChuan looked back at Luo Shuyou, who was chatting lively with Su Nanzhi, so vibrant. This was good enough, it was already enough.

Xie YunChuan didn’t want to gamble on that slim hope. It didn’t matter that Luo Shuyou had a zombie essence and a human skin; he could run and jump, smile when happy, cry when sad, act out when wronged, and sweetly act spoiled in his arms when happy. This was his Luo Shuyou, his lover.

They could simply walk through the world together, accompanying each other until old age.