Chapter 1304: Clue or Trap
This was an opportunity for Xu Huo. Since it was a test left by a senior, whether it was about controlling the instance site or spiritual power, he could learn from it and use it as a reference.
The two of them ate outside before returning to the Zhuang family. The Zhuang brothers had already gone from being anxious and frantic to enduring it as best they could, and now to helpless resignation. They didn’t know what Xu Huo was trying to do, wavering on the edge of danger and safety. They were afraid to act, lest it harm the rest of their family, but also afraid not to act, worried that the little bald man might be hurt or some other accident might occur.
In short, they saw Xu Huo as a bomb that could explode at any moment, but they didn’t dare to set it off prematurely.
Xu Huo stayed at the Zhuang residence for five days. In those five days, he finally managed to use the “Spiritual Gate” to touch the core layout of the instance site.
The instance site had indeed been dismantled, but the method was very clever. It was arranged according to the house’s layout. The rooms where Zhuang Shanbai lived, including the bedroom, living room, and kitchen, formed a single unit, which was also a piece of the instance site. Between this piece and the surrounding houses, there was a very thin partition. To describe it, it was like a layer of thin gauze, but the essence of this gauze was a special kind of metal.
Under this metal partition, manipulating power wouldn’t affect other areas, and the energy required was relatively reduced.
The Zhuang brothers were both gray players, but their evolutionary powers weren’t strong. Zhuang Shanyu was a bit better off, but Zhuang Shanbai had only completed his attack by relying on the layout of the instance site itself.
In a special environment, spiritual power could achieve multiplied effects. When Xu Huo had first evolved and couldn’t yet project his spiritual power outward to interfere with reality, he had been able to simulate a similar effect in the “Seventeenth Hospital.”
Overall, this area had been cut into four pieces. The orchard was one piece, Zhuang Shanbai’s residence was another, and the left and right sides each occupied one piece. However, these areas weren’t completely separated by metal partitions. The area around the orchard was open, and the houses had doors and windows. In such a large space, only a single vertical beam at the very back of the house was completely sealed.
On the surface, it looked like a solid support pillar, but inside, it had a very small gap. If Xu Huo hadn’t also possessed Spatial Super Evolution, he might not have been able to find it.
The site had been split into several pieces. Although each piece retained its special properties, they were no longer connected as a whole. Xu Huo hadn’t yet figured out the significance of the area sealed by metal.
But by extension, Fresh Flower City should also have been cut up. Only in a trait-specific area could one use the “Spiritual Gate” to touch the site. Furthermore, the closer one got to the “core,” the easier it was to sense changes in spiritual power—for now, he would consider the metal-sealed area as a new core.
This metal couldn’t be melted by the “Life Core.”
Using a prop knife could leave marks, but this was the Zhuang residence. Even if Fresh Flower City had such a “core,” it was impossible to know where it was hidden. Finding it would be no easier than entering the door.
So Xu Huo began comparing the layout of the Zhuang family’s instance site with the map of all of Fresh Flower City—and he did all of this right in front of the Zhuang brothers.
When they saw him drawing the hidden layout of the Zhuang residence and comparing it with Fresh Flower City, the Zhuang brothers, despite trying their best to control their emotions, still let a bit of their feelings slip.
Xu Huo frowned. It was abnormal for the Zhuang brothers to know about this. If Old Master Zhuang wanted to protect his descendants, he would at most tell them how to escape. He would never reveal such secrets, because there were too many methods of interrogation. Without much effort, the Zhuang family could be made to spill everything without even realizing it.
Moreover, people like the Han family should also know part of the truth. Even if Old Master Zhuang hadn’t said he was using the instance site to control the vein, Fresh Flower City had so many advanced players. It was impossible that there wasn’t a single Mental Super Evolver. Figuring out the instance site and the Zhuang family’s situation wouldn’t be difficult…
Had the Han family and others failed to break the Super Player’s seal, or had they already completely taken control of the vein?
Resources were something everyone wanted to snatch. If Fresh Flower City had already broken the seal, it wouldn’t be strange for them to still use the seal left by Old Master Zhuang to protect the vein.
Thinking of this, Xu Huo had another idea. Old Master Zhuang’s contributions had been erased, and the Han family had risen to power. This didn’t necessarily mean the two were in a mutually restraining relationship. On the surface, the seal left by Old Master Zhuang ensured the Han family’s mining rights, but it also greatly restricted them. After all, having good things right in front of you but only being able to take them in fixed amounts over time would naturally lead to a change in mentality over the long term. But wasn’t the Zhuang family’s disappearance a bit too smooth? Even if it was to protect the vein’s entrance, they should have been under the Han family’s supervision.
From this perspective, it was hard to say whether the Han family had helped or not.
The Zhuang family members were somewhat unsuitable for evolution. For them, the best choice was to find a safe place to live, not to become players. “Not knowing any inside information” was their best protection. If they knew something, it definitely wasn’t anything important.
“Asking the Zhuang family for a way into the vein” was a basic assumption. After all, Old Master Zhuang had no descendants. What if he had let something slip?
But who could guarantee this wasn’t a trap?
Getting absolutely nothing out of them could easily backfire. Saying a little bit would also make it easier to get away. This fit normal logic.
Xu Huo didn’t stop his comparison work. His thoughts jumped to the trench coat man and the A-rank player who had appeared at the Yongxing Hotel.
The trench coat man had hinted that the entire directly administered district was the entrance to the vein, while the A-rank player had explicitly said that the “Crystal Flower” was the entrance.
Xu Huo didn’t know what a “Crystal Flower” was. He had already searched for the door once before, and nothing seemed to connect to it. For now, he was more inclined to believe that the entire directly administered district was the entrance to the vein.
However, the A-rank player had mentioned another piece of information worth pondering: his goal was to “pollute the vein.” Did this mean the ore could be polluted?
It was hard to say how large a vein was, but it certainly wasn’t limited to the directly administered district. It couldn’t be completely spread out underground either. What method could be used to pollute something so vast?
Xu Huo could only think of one thing: the Primordial Stone that Old Master Zhuang had placed inside—of course, this information was disputed. Some records stated that the vein’s change was because someone from the Han family had brought back a special Primordial Stone.
Regardless of the cause, it at least indicated that there was a Primordial Stone inside that could determine the vein’s fate.
And could this stone be polluted?
Xu Huo hadn’t found any similar content when he was browsing ore information earlier. So, he posted questions on both the Bounty Platform and the Under Dimension.
(End of Chapter)