Later, it was stolen by Li Ju, the chief designer of the Great Stone Palace. Because this item was considered the most precious, Li Ju stole the miniature coffin and fled into the underground cave. Although he found an exit, the thousand-meter-deep sinkhole was inescapable. Suffering from radiation poisoning, he died in the cave. Little did he know that his actions would kill his entire descendant, Li Xinyuan's family, and another branch of his family was also trapped at the bottom of the cave, their survival uncertain. The others were confused. Of course, the three enlightened individuals—Lan Gaoling, Zhou Xuan, and Wei Haihong—would not reveal this; doing so would only fuel panic and incite their violent emotions.
The senior executive sighed and said, "Does everyone understand now? This piece of burlap doesn't indicate the exit, meaning there's no other way out except the way we came. Let's discuss what to do."
Brothers and sisters, I've seen your support! I'm only a hair's breadth away from the top six and top five. Regardless of whether I ultimately make it into the top six, I sincerely thank you all. Thank you! I will carefully plan and write to express my gratitude on this last day. Please, if you still have monthly tickets, cast them for me. Thank you!
Volume One: The First Budding Buds, Chapter 109: Human Hearts
There's really no other way. Seeing the votes you guys cast for me today, and the monthly vote rankings soaring, I was so excited my mind went completely blank, I couldn't write anything. I've been staring at the monthly vote rankings all day. Brothers, thank you all! I'll make up for all the words I owe tonight!
"Well," Li Jinlong hesitated for a moment, then said, "Let's divide the treasure first, then look for the exit. Having treasure will always give everyone a bit more peace of mind. Besides..."
Li Jinlong hesitated for a moment before looking at the senior executive in blue before saying, "Besides, this is also a condition you promised us before."
The Blue High-Rankings and Zhou Xuan exchanged glances, somewhat speechless. These people hadn't considered the current situation at all; they were simply indulging in the excitement of finding the treasure. People are willing to risk their lives for money, but have they ever thought about what use treasure is if they don't even have their lives?
If Lan Gaoling were outside, or in the past, he might have dealt with him without any mercy. But suddenly he felt a little indifferent and couldn't muster any energy. Even though he had experienced countless battles and adventures, he had never experienced anything like this before. Thinking about the endless and terrifying corpse worms in the stone chamber below, was there still a chance to escape?
Zhou Xuan wasn't that he disliked treasures and valuables, but he understood all too well how dire his current situation was. Even with his ice-based abilities, he had no guarantee of escape, especially with Fu Ying, Wei Haihong, and Wei Xiaoqing tied to him. He couldn't possibly abandon them and escape alone. While people may be selfish, they still had to consider others! Of the sixteen people who survived, two had died. Li Jinlong divided the spoils fairly, laying them out on the floor and dividing them into fourteen portions. The rest were easy to divide. There were only ten luminous pearls, and after some thought, he decided not to divide them with the two old professors, Fu Ying, and Wei Xiaoxiao—that would be just right.
Yang Guang and Qin Zeng, being cultured men, didn't object to the play. In fact, seeing that Li Jinlong and his group were burly and numerous, and clearly not to be trifled with, they didn't dare voice their opposition.
The Blue High-Rankings were indeed not interested in them. If it came to violence, he, Li Yong, and Fang Jianjun were armed, and Li Jinlong and the others wouldn't dare to fight. Besides, Li Quan was injured, so only he and Wang Dagui were capable of fighting. Either Li Yong or Fang Jianjun could easily handle them. The remaining Wang Qiang and Wang Sheng brothers were not a concern either, as Wang Sheng was also injured, with a rather serious leg injury. The others posed even less of a threat. The two old professors were obviously not a problem, and Zhou Xuan and Wei Haihong would basically not benefit them. The situation was absolutely under control. But look at Li Yong and Fang Jianjun; their expressions couldn't hide their joy!
He sighed. After all, they had worked together and were absolutely loyal to him, but even they couldn't help but be tempted by such a huge amount of treasure. In any case, he would deal with it as soon as he could get out. Humans have emotions and desires, and they are all susceptible to temptations.
Fu Ying and Wei Xiaoxiao, being two girls, naturally wouldn't argue over a pearl; their minds weren't even on these treasures.
After dividing the treasures and valuables, Li Jinlong and the others packed them up and carried them on their backs before dispersing to search for a way out of the great stone palace.
All in vain. Two hours later, everyone returned and gathered together, exhausted and hungry. Zhou Xuan distributed food and water, and each person received only enough for one meal.
After eating the dry, tasteless, and hard-to-swallow compressed biscuits, they had only drunk a little bit of a bottle of mineral water left. Only Fu Ying and Wei Xiaoqing, who ate and drank less, still had half of their bottles left.
After a ten-minute break, the Blue executives divided the people into three groups: Li Jinlong, Wang Dagui, Wang Qiang, and Yang Guang in one group; Zhou Xuan, Wei Xiaoqing, Fu Ying, and Wei Haihong in another group; and himself, Li Yong, Fang Jianjun, and Qin Zeng in yet another group. They divided the area in the Great Stone Palace into three sections, with each group taking one section. Then, they searched the walls and floors in detail, knocking and tapping to find other exits.
Li Quan and Wang Sheng, the two injured men, lay down to rest. Next to them was a corpse. Wang Dagui felt uncomfortable looking at it, so he dragged it behind a large stone coffin to block it out, which made him feel better.
The treasures have been divided, and now all these people are thinking about is getting out. If they can't get out, then all the treasures they found will have been for nothing.
Li Jinlong, Wang Qiang, and his nephew-in-law Wang Dagui were all tomb raiders and experts in underground caves and secret passages. They searched carefully, but after a few hours, they ended the search with grim faces.
In their section, there was no way out.
Although the Blue High-Rankings group was not as experienced as Li Jinlong's group in things like digging tunnels, they, along with Li Yong and Fang Jianjun, were all elite soldiers who had undergone extremely rigorous training. After careful inspection, they were not much worse than Li Jinlong and his group.
In their eyes, Zhou Xuan's group was the least experienced. Wei Haihong looked like a pampered person, so what use could the other two girls be?
They were naturally unaware that Zhou Xuan's ice-qi ability was more practical than any of their experience. Although there was some attrition, Zhou Xuan used it to detect a major problem. He simply ran along the wall once and found out. There was no way out. He then tested the stone slabs in this area. Except for the area under the stone chamber, the rest of the area consisted of massive rocks several meters deep, with no gaps or exits.
Zhou Xuan then slowly probed the area where Lan Gaofeng's group was located, and finally went to the area where Li Jinlong's group was located. After several hours, he still found nothing.
When there's plenty of food and drink, you don't feel it. But when there's nothing to eat or drink, all you can think about is food and drink, and you start to feel anxious.
The food was all gone, except for Wei Xiaoqing and Fu Ying, who each had a small portion left. The two girls were very polite, and each had a small portion left over.
Wang Dagui first glanced at Wei Xiaoqing, then at the few people from the Blue High-Level team. Seeing that they were all silent with sullen faces, he couldn't help but walk up to Wei Xiaoqing and reach out his hand, saying, "Give it to me."
Wei Xiaoqing asked, "What?"
"Water, biscuits," Wang Dagui said without any attempt to hide his feelings.
"No way!" Wei Xiaoqing snorted. "Everyone is the same, why should I give it to you?"
Wang Dagui's facial muscles twitched slightly as he said, "You're a girl, you didn't do any work, why should you be treated the same as us? And you too!" He then pointed at Fu Ying and said, "Bring out the food and water!"
Fu Ying said coldly, "Get out of the way."
Wei Haihong and Zhou Xuan were searching for an exit in the area ahead, and although the chances were slim, they were still trying.
Upon hearing Fu Ying's voice, Zhou Xuan glanced over and quickly ran over, with Wei Haihong following behind.
Wang Dagui's expression changed, and he immediately reached out to grab her. Fu Ying pulled Wei Xiaoqing behind her and kicked her. Wang Dagui did not expect Fu Ying to kick so fast. He did not dodge in time and was kicked to the ground and rolled twice.
Wang Dagui scrambled to his feet and rushed towards Fu Ying, cursing as he ran: "You woman, you're asking for it! I've been trying to reason with you, but you won't listen. I'll just go for it!"
He never expected that Fu Ying would kick him over like that. He thought it was just that he wasn't paying attention and lost his footing.
Before Wang Dagui could even reach Fu Ying, Zhou Xuan rushed over, pulled out a stun gun from his waist, and stun Wang Dagui.
Wang Dagui's high-voltage electric shock to Zhou Xuan sent him flying two or three meters backward, rolling to the ground and convulsing.
The voltage was so strong that Wang Dagui was shocked, spitting out saliva and rolling his eyes back. Li Jinlong was startled and quickly ran over to help Wang Dagui up, but Wang Dagui had no strength to sit up at all; his body was too weak to move due to the electric shock.
Zhou Xuan's high-voltage electric gun can knock a person unconscious for at least ten minutes.
Li Jinlong said to Zhou Xuan in a deep voice, "What are you doing?" He still saw that the Lan executives valued Zhou Xuan highly, so he hadn't broken ties with Zhou Xuan yet.
Zhou Xuan replied coldly, "Don't you know what I'm doing? Food and water are distributed equally among everyone, and I won't say anything about that. If Wang Dagui were to come and take it from me, that would be one thing, but how can I let him bully my woman?"
The words "My woman is not to be bullied by him" made Fu Ying, who was behind Zhou Xuan, feel sweet and comfortable, and she couldn't help but smile slightly.
Zhou Xuan wasn't ruthless enough. If he had simply converted any organ in Wang Dagui's body into gold, would Wang Dagui still be alive? He would have died without even knowing why!
At this moment, Wei Xiaoqing suddenly found the rustic Zhou Xuan somewhat adorable; at least he dared to protect his woman in front of someone who looked fierce!
Li Jinlong licked his dry, chapped lips, glanced at the others, and saw that everyone's eyes were on the mineral water bottles in the hands of Fu Ying and Wei Xiaoqing. He suddenly became bolder, after all, a minority could not represent the majority.
Li Jinlong helped Wang Dagui lie down on the stone floor. Then, spreading his hands, he said, "Xiao Zhou, you understand the situation now. Everyone needs to save their lives. Only by staying alive can we have a chance to find a way out. I think you understand that, right?"