Lu Zhe nodded: "We don't know if they're brave or foolish, bringing along their concubine, eunuchs, and daughter. They could have lived well here, but they had to dig their own graves."
Shen Bing sighed: "Going from having everything to having nothing at all, they definitely can't accept it."
Lu Zhe asked in return: "Aren't we the same?"
Shen Bing pondered, then nodded: "That's true. Although we couldn't compare to the Emperor before, we grew up under the red flag, basking in the sunshine with bright futures ahead. Then suddenly, we had nothing."
At this, Shen Bing smiled again: "But there are gains and losses. We lost our jobs, promotions, social circles, but we met all of you and fell in love. The only pity is that we can't go on dates to the movies, missing out on some romance."
"Hmm..." Lu Zhe looked around: "Is watching movies that interesting? Playing a naked escape room would be truly romantic!"
"That's not romantic, it's cringe!" Shen Bing said with a reddened face.
Lu Zhe continued: "But really! They have knives, tools, cattle and sheep. They probably even have spare clothes. If they had brought some seeds, they could really live well on this island."
"You think everyone is like you?" Shen Bing sighed deeply: "From what I see now, this island is resource-rich with diverse species. But when I first arrived, I almost broke my arms just to get a bit of coconut water. The Emperor, his concubine, and eunuchs who barely left the palace wouldn't know a thing about finding food in these wild mountains."
Lu Zhe nodded: "That makes sense!"
At this moment, Lu Zhe noticed that the soil near the opening was more damp than elsewhere.
He pinched some soil, smelled it, and detected a faint scent of sulfur on his fingertips.
Lu Zhe's heart stirred: "Could it be connected to a sulfur spring?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I'm not very sure! But it's very possible that this place is connected to some sulfur spring."
"Is it the one from the volcanic vent we went into?"
"Maybe, or maybe not. I'm not clear on that! But if the steam can permeate through the soil to reach here, I guess this hole can't be too deep. Perhaps we could dig through to another passage."
Shen Bing pointed at the "trumpet opening": "What about that direction?"
Lu Zhe adjusted his tone slightly: "Bing, we now have two choices. One is to continue stacking the gold and silver blocks, trying to go back up. Two is to dig here and see if we can find another passage."
"What do you think?"
"Going up is safer - it's definitely the way back. But at our current pace, just building that gold mountain would take two to three days. Going down is likely a through path, but we don't know where it leads."
Shen Bing looked at Lu Zhe and shook her head gently: "I don't know, but I trust your judgement. You decide!"
Lu Zhe pondered for a moment: "Since we have tools now, let's dig this path and see. We can also try to get some freshwater."
"Isn't sulfur spring water full of minerals and toxins?"
"Definitely not suitable for drinking, but after distilling and filtering, drinking a bit to save your life is better than nothing, at least better than urine."
Shen Bing nodded: "So we'll start digging here?"
Lu Zhe looked at the tools left by the previous inhabitants.
The pickaxe head had a thick layer of rust, but being solid iron, its functionality was unimpaired.
The shovel was in much worse shape, barely usable.
Lu Zhe knelt down and began digging the soil.
His hands gripped the over-twenty-pound pickaxe head like it was a tree branch.
The thick soil felt as soft as potting mix.
Within just an hour, he had dug out a pit.
Then, Lu Zhe pinched soil from different areas of the pit and squeezed it, the soil releasing water when squeezed.
Comparing the moisture levels, he found the soil was wetter towards the east!
"This way..."
He continued digging, the hole getting deeper and wetter, unsure of how much further to go.
"Hey, you're getting yourself all dirty!" Shen Bing reminded him.
Lu Zhe didn't mind: "It'd be weird not to get dirty doing this kind of work."
"Other places being dirty is fine, but not there. You could get an infection."
Lu Zhe looked down, sighed helplessly: "In these harsh conditions, there's no choice."
"Still, you should clean up!"
"No way, we have so little freshwater left. Can't waste it cleaning that."
"Hmm...I've got an idea!"
After some splashing sounds, Lu Zhe was finally clean in that area.
But...another problem arose:
Shen Bing looked at him: "Didn't we agree to restrain each other? How did you end up like this again?"
"Sis, can I help it? Even a celestial being couldn't resist in this situation!"
"Then what should we do? Should you...recite the Dissertation on the Philosopher Zhuang again?"
"What about you?"
"I'll endure it!"
"Forget it, one last time?"
Shen Bing pondered: "Alright, but really the last time!"
Half an hour later, with a "swoosh" sound, the dirt wall suddenly collapsed. In a flash, Lu Zhe quickly shielded Shen Bing as they both tumbled into another place.
For a moment, they were both bewildered.
The pit they had failed to dig through collapsed due to their movements, an unexpected situation neither anticipated.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!"
"Where is this?"
"I don't know either!"
Shen Bing looked around and realized they were now in an underground river passage.
Bioluminescent algae grew on the walls, water rushed past them, and a faint scent of sulfur hung in the air.
They both knew what this meant.
They had really dug through!
But where this path led, they still weren't clear!
Then, she heard Lu Zhe's voice.
"Why don't you get off me first?!"
"Oh!" Shen Bing moved aside tactfully and helped Lu Zhe up.
Lu Zhe rubbed his head and surveyed the situation: "Looks like we really made it through."
"But where does this lead?"
"You stay here and guard, I'll go scout ahead!"
"No!" Shen Bing grabbed his arm.
"What's wrong?"
Shen Bing suddenly said softly: "I...I'm scared!"
Lu Zhe smiled: "Hey, dear! You're the policewoman, I'm just a civilian. You're telling me you're scared?..."
But he couldn't continue with those words.
It was the first time he had seen Shen Bing with such an expression!
Worry and vulnerability were clearly written on her face.
In that moment, she was no longer the poised, confident policewoman he knew. Instead, she resembled a little woman completely reliant on and concerned for her husband.
"If we live, we live together. If we die, we die together. Don't leave me here alone worrying about you."
At this moment, apart from the faint sulfur, the air was filled with romance.
Lu Zhe caressed her hair and nodded emotionally: "Yeah, from tonight onward, we may not be born on the same year, month and day, but we'll strive to die on the same year, month and day!"
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
