Chapter 5 - Chapter 5: No Time to Lose

The tunnel at the mine's end had been dug into a "T" shape. This was because the diggers had struck the middle section of a skeleton, then excavated left and right along the creature's recumbent form. The skeleton's tail end had been fully uncovered, and the current excavation focused on unearthing its head.Judging by the skeleton's massive size and the current digging speed, it was estimated to take another half day to finish.At this moment, the din of digging had stopped. A murmur of voices rose from a crowd huddled together, loud enough for Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang to hear as they hurried over, squeezing through the space between the skeleton's rib bones.The skeleton was enormous and elongated, with no sign of claws so far. Judging by its shape, it seemed to belong to a giant serpent—its already-exposed length alone stretched nearly thirty zhang.Its color was also strange: half jet-black, half translucent, resembling dark jade."Look, it's glowing! What on earth is this thing?""Could this glowing stuff be the real target of the dig?""Do you think this thing could be worth a fortune?"The tall and short pair reached the back of the crowd, overhearing these whispered remarks. Some people chatted in curious tones, while others muttered in hushed whispers, clearly hatching schemes of their own.The crowd had completely blocked the view ahead. Some stood on tiptoes, craning their necks; others even jumped up like gibbons, hanging from the skeleton above to get a better look. In any case, latecomers like Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang had no chance of seeing what was going on.Shi Chun immediately started tapping people on the shoulder, pushing his way through. "Make way, please! Excuse me! Let me through..."Some stepped aside willingly; others reacted sluggishly; still, others dawdled, throwing up their hands and complaining that the crowd was too tight to move. A few even sized him up suspiciously, as if to say: Everyone's jostling for a look—why should we let you through?This was a ragtag crew cobbled together at the last minute, so discipline was indeed lacking.Seeing their reaction, Shi Chun refused to indulge their nonsense. He cracked his whip directly at them, lashing out in a whistling arc. A chorus of yelps, groans, and angry shouts erupted. Some demanded to know why he was hitting them.Shi Chun ignored them, focused solely on getting a clear view of what lay ahead.Sometimes, brute force really was more effective than politeness. At the very least, the crowd quickly scrambled to make way for him, squeezing together to form a narrow passage.With that single whip crack, he exuded the unmistakable aura of a man who ruled Dong Jiuyuan as his personal domain.Wu Jinliang, following close behind, felt his heart skip a beat, breaking out in a cold sweat. Sneaking around and killing people in secret was one thing—but doing this in broad daylight was going too far, wasn't it?He realized their leader truly saw himself as the master of this place, acting with no trace of deference or the caution one would expect of a trespasser.When they'd first decided to sneak in, he'd imagined a heart-pounding cat-and-mouse game of evasion and stealth. But now that they were inside, he realized he'd been overthinking it—their leader had completely warped the tone of their mission, and now things had spiraled into outright audacity.The crowd was too dense. Even trailing behind their leader, Wu Jinliang couldn't push his way to the front, blocked by the throng of people being squeezed backward. Fortunately, his height worked to his advantage. From his current position, he could just make out what was happening ahead—and the sight instantly made his eyes bulge out of his head!Shi Chun, of course, had barged all the way to the front. The supervisors standing there heard the commotion of his whip cracking behind them, turned to glance at him, recognized him as one of their own, and then redirected their attention back to the space diagonally above them.Shi Chun followed their gaze upward—and his eyes widened in disbelief as well.Resting atop the rib-like dragon bones was another skeleton, only partially unearthed from the soil. Even half-buried, its exposed, ferocious outline clearly resembled a serpent's head—though no one could tell if it belonged to the giant dragon skeleton beneath it.Whether it did or not was irrelevant. What mattered was that besides the two eye sockets, there seemed to be a third cavity in the center of its forehead—another eye socket, perhaps?What truly captivated everyone's attention, however, was the cluster of shimmering purple mist floating within that supposed third eye socket. It looked like a miniature nebula composed of countless tiny, glimmering purple stars, its form constantly shifting and transforming: sometimes swirling like flowing clouds, sometimes resembling countless eyes staring intently, sometimes fluttering like innumerable enchanting butterflies. It was utterly breathtaking.The purple nebula was roughly the size of a grown man—easily gauged by the figure standing on the serpent's skull, reaching out to tentatively touch it.The man was truly bold, daring to touch the nebula without knowing if it was harmful. Many people held their breath, watching his every move with bated breath.Anyone who could see it knew this nebula was far from ordinary—undoubtedly some kind of rare treasure. This, they all thought, must be the real reason their employer had ordered the excavation.Some people couldn't help but wonder: Their employer was remarkably careless, wasn't he? Leaving such a priceless marvel unguarded, absent from the scene entirely—was he so confident that no one would dare steal it?On either side of the serpent's skull, other workers were still hacking away excitedly at the earth, determined to dig up the entire skull. Soil and rocks cascaded down in a steady stream, but thanks to the heavy moisture deep underground, there was little dust in the air.The supervisor touching the nebula waved his hand back and forth through the mist, stirring it up repeatedly—but his actions seemed to have no effect on it whatsoever. From his mouth came a continuous stream of astonished exclamations: "Huh! Huh! Huh!"Shi Chun felt his curiosity piqued by those annoying "huhs." He silently cursed the man's ancestors—Cut the crap! If you're so surprised, just spit it out and tell us what's going on!Finally, unable to contain himself any longer, Shi Chun hooked his whip at his waist, preparing to leap up and touch the nebula himself.But then, one of the supervisors standing at the front suddenly barked an order: "Everyone down! Stop digging! You—quit touching that thing! All of you, get down here at once! Wait for Mr. Shen to come and make the decision!"The supervisor with his hand in the nebula, along with the miners wielding pickaxes, immediately scrambled down from the skeleton.This order felt like a bucket of cold water poured over Shi Chun's burning curiosity. He glared at the supervisor who'd given the command, wondering just how much authority the man actually had. If he really was a leader of some sort, openly defying him would be unwise—it would risk exposing his true identity.Yet like everyone else, from the moment he'd laid eyes on that shimmering purple nebula, he'd been certain that this was the real target of the excavation. After all, he'd personally inspected the giant dragon skeleton earlier and found nothing extraordinary about it. He'd been a little confused before—but now he had his answer.True, the exile land was a place of legend, where many formidable figures had met their downfall. He'd heard countless stirring tales of heroism and tragedy. But the spectacular sight of this purple nebula was something he'd never witnessed before. He knew at a glance that this was no ordinary object.The appearance of this nebula led Shi Chun to an inevitable conclusion: His time was running out.Earlier, he'd mistakenly assumed that Shen Youkun's target was the massive dragon skeleton—a cumbersome thing, difficult to transport, leaving plenty of room for maneuver. But if the target was this nebula, taking it away would likely be a simple matter.In other words, once their objective was achieved, the excavation would be brought to an end.And if the excavation ended, the work would stop, and the workers would inevitably be rounded up. With everyone gathered together, his strategy of sneaking around and exploiting gaps would no longer work. The absence of the men he'd killed would be noticed immediately.But these concerns were secondary to him. He'd come here prepared to face the consequences of being discovered. The real problem was that he hadn't accomplished his goal for sneaking in—and now they were going to wrap up the work?He knew Shen Youkun was here to do something shady, but he hadn't managed to get his hands on any solid evidence against him. Without proof, Shen Youkun would never let him off the hook once he left the exile land.So what if he'd found out they were digging for treasure underground? In the exile land, countless people mined the earth to make a living. It was hardly a scandal.Without concrete proof of wrongdoing, he had nothing to use as leverage against Shen Youkun.Did he really think he could blackmail Shen Youkun with the suspiciously sourced supplies? Maybe someone with real power could pull that off—but for a small fry like him to threaten a force that had connections within the city gate checkpoint? It was nothing short of laughable.That's why his gaze kept drifting back to the shimmering purple nebula. If he could figure out what this thing was used for, he might still have a chance.Yet he also knew that even if he got the chance to touch the nebula himself, the odds of understanding its purpose right then and there were slim to none.If push came to shove, he'd have no choice but to steal it—to take it into his own hands first and ask questions later.The problem was, he had no idea if he could even take it. He'd watched the supervisor wave his hand through the mist earlier, and it had shown no signs of being a tangible object.Since Shen Youkun had come all this way for it, he must have a method to claim it. If all else failed, he'd just have to wait for Shen Youkun to take it first—and then steal it from him.Of course, Shen Youkun had the advantage of numbers; a direct confrontation would be extremely risky. But then again, the bodies of the supervisors he'd killed could be put to use. He could spread the word that Shen Youkun planned to silence everyone who knew about the treasure, inciting the crowd to turn against him...In the blink of an eye, he'd cycled through a dozen different plans in his mind. Finally, he made up his mind: He'd try to touch the nebula first and see what happened.When faced with the unknown, it wasn't his style to dismiss something as useless without even trying it.Time was of the essence—he knew he didn't have much left. The supervisor he'd encountered earlier was already on his way to inform Shen Youkun, who would arrive soon.Fortunately, he had a voice—and a quick mind. In an instant, he changed his tactics and suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs: "Mr. Shen will be here any minute! He's given orders—only two people are to stay here and keep watch! Everyone else, retreat to the corner immediately and wait for further instructions!"As he spoke, he unhooked his whip from his waist, strode to the very front, and turned to face the crowd, twirling the whip in his hand in a subtle display of intimidation. He made no effort to hide his disdain for the assembled throng.There were far too many people watching. If by some chance he could actually take the purple nebula, stealing it in front of everyone would be extremely unwise.He had no idea if this bluff would work—but at this point, he was willing to try any method that came to mind.Many people recognized him as the man who'd forced his way through the crowd with a whip, the wound on his arm still visible. Some of those who'd been struck by his whip wore expressions of resentment.Watching this scene unfold, Wu Jinliang felt a sharp pain in his head. Here we go again."Who are you..." the supervisor who'd issued the earlier order asked hesitantly.Seeing the flicker of doubt in the man's eyes, Shi Chun's gaze sharpened. Thinking quickly on his feet, he immediately revised his plan, deciding to quash the man's suspicions first. He raised his whip and pointed it directly at the supervisor, cutting him off mid-sentence. "You—stay here with me to keep watch. Everyone else—move to the corner and wait there!"He then flicked his whip, signaling the other supervisors to comply. "Mr. Shen has business to attend to here. Keep an eye on everyone later—no one is allowed to peek!"The crowd exchanged glances, all thinking the same thing: What business could he possibly have? It was obviously just an excuse to keep them from watching him claim the glowing treasure.When the supervisor who'd given the original order heard that he would be allowed to stay and supervise, a look of relief washed over his face. His doubts faded into the background for the moment. He waved his hand at the crowd and echoed Shi Chun's command. "Everyone do as Mr. Shen ordered! Retreat to the corner and wait!"The other supervisors immediately began shouting orders, herding the crowd backward.Shi Chun, now standing with his hands clasped behind his back, the whip still in his grasp, breathed a silent sigh of relief. It worked.Wu Jinliang, still stuck in the crowd, was dumbfounded. He'd assumed he would be one of the two people allowed to stay—but instead, Shi Chun had chosen someone else. What was he playing at?But then he caught Shi Chun's eye. Though he had no idea what his leader was planning, he turned around and went along with the crowd, playing his part.