916: Chapter 911 What kind of cult ritual?

Shen Yan casually replied, his gaze sweeping over the instruments next to their vehicle, finally landing on a drill bit discarded on the ground.

It was broken.

It seemed this group had gotten some advance notice and tried to dig for something here, only to come up empty-handed.

"Strolling to the restricted zone for leisure, Mr. Shen has quite the elegant taste."

Zhang Debiao snorted coldly, pointing toward the road ahead.

"Don't bother, the road ahead is blocked by a collapse, and the magnetic field in this cursed place is so chaotic that all our instruments have malfunctioned. We can't detect anything."

"Take this old brother's advice and turn back quickly. This broken place only has dirt and rocks; there isn't even a strand of hair here."

What Zhang Debiao said was half-true and half-false. They were indeed blocked by a landslide, and after two days of fruitless searching, they were currently full of frustration.

Naturally, he didn't want Shen Yan to come over and pick up any potential scraps, although he firmly believed there were no scraps to be found here.

Shen Yan ignored his sarcasm and pushed the door open, stepping out of the car.

The ground beneath his feet was as hard as iron, a characteristic formed by millions of years of wind erosion and sedimentation.

He looked up at the pile of rubble in front of him, then glanced at the flashing golden dot in his system vision.

That dot wasn't at the end of the road but inside an inconspicuous crack halfway up the mountain.

"Liu Xing, grab the gear."

Shen Yan turned around and beckoned to Liu Xing, who had just climbed out of the car and was leaning against the door, dry heaving.

Liu Xing pushed his glasses up his nose, his face as pale as paper, but upon hearing his boss call, he gritted his teeth and lifted the silver case.

"Zaxi, watch the vehicle."

Shen Yan instructed, then glanced at Chen Guangke.

"Can you still walk?"

Chen Guangke took a deep breath of oxygen, tucked the tank under his armpit, and pulled out an entrenching shovel from his waist.

"I must be able to. As long as I don't have to run a kilometer, I can do anything."

The four of them ignored Zhang Debiao's group and headed directly to climb the earthen wall beside them.

Zhang Debiao watched the backs of Shen Yan's group and couldn't help but sneer.

"Are they crazy? That's a dead end. The top is all weathered surface layer; one step and you can sink half a leg in."

An assistant next to him asked in a low voice, "Mr. Zhang, should we follow them to see what they're up to?"

"See what? I'll wait to see how they fall down."

Zhang Debiao spat. He truly didn't believe that a group of software developers could know more than geologists like them.

Shen Yan walked at the very front. His steps were steady, each one seeming precisely calculated.

The system hadn't just provided coordinates; it had thoughtfully marked the safe path.

The weathered surface layer that looked ready to collapse in Zhang Debiao's eyes turned out to be a solid path under Shen Yan's feet.

Twenty minutes later, they stood before a cave entrance obscured by bushes.

The location of this entrance was extremely tricky. Seen from below, it was completely hidden from view by an overhanging rock, making it difficult to capture even with a drone.

"Holy crap, Brother Yan, did you get your eyes upgraded? How did you find this?"

Chen Guangke sat down heavily on the ground, gasping for breath, staring at the dark cave entrance with an expression of utter disbelief.

Shen Yan didn't explain. He took out a high-powered flashlight from his bag and shone it inside.

The beam of light seemed to be swallowed; it couldn't illuminate the bottom.

A dry, ancient scent, carrying a specific herbal aroma, drifted out of the cave.

"Liu Xing, test the air composition."

Liu Xing frantically opened the instrument in his hand and extended the probe into the cave entrance.

A few seconds later, the instrument emitted a light 'beep.'

"Oxygen content is low, but there are no toxic gases, and..."

Liu Xing stared at the data on the screen, his brow furrowed.

"And the spore content in this air is extremely high. It's not mold; it's an active bacterial colony in a... dormant state."

Shen Yan's lips curved slightly upward.

He found the right place.

"Put on your gas masks and go in."

Shen Yan was the first to fasten his mask and slip into the entrance, which was only wide enough for one person.

The space inside the cave was larger than expected, widening the further they went in.

Faint murals began to appear on the walls, painted with red ochre and mineral pigments, depicting strange religious rituals.

After walking about five hundred meters, they encountered a stone door ahead.

The stone door was not large; it lacked complex mechanisms, having only a groove in the center.

Shen Yan stopped. The system prompt indicated they needed to halt here.

[The target object is just ahead; activation requires a specific bio-enzyme.]

No key, no password—this door relied on biometric recognition?

The ancient Guge people from thousands of years ago actually created a biological lock?

"Liu Xing, cut your finger and drip a drop of blood in."

Shen Yan suddenly spoke.

Liu Xing jumped, pulling his hand back. "Boss, this... is this some kind of cult ritual?"

"Stop talking nonsense. Your blood type is RH-negative; the bacteria here are sensitive to rare blood types."

Shen Yan fabricated a reason. In reality, because Liu Xing spent so much time immersed among those bottles and jars, he carried a specific reagent smell, which the system indicated was the 'catalyst.'

Of course, the main reason was that the system prompted the need for a 'fresh blood sample to activate the dormant bacterial colony.'

Although Liu Xing was scared, for a science fanatic, curiosity always overcame fear.

He took out a blood collection needle, pricked his fingertip, and let the drop of blood fall into the groove.

Silence.

A deathly silence.

Just as Chen Guangke thought Shen Yan was messing with them, a faint rustling sound suddenly came from inside the stone door.

It was the sound of some liquid flowing through pipes.

Immediately after, the bloodstain in the groove vanished instantly, as if absorbed by the stone.

Rumble—

The heavy stone door slowly slid open to both sides, and an even richer herbal scent rushed out.

Several flashlight beams shone inside simultaneously.

Everyone held their breath.

This was not some magnificent treasure vault, nor were there piles of gold and silver.

It was just a stone chamber about a few dozen square meters in size. In the center sat an ancient-looking ceramic jar, and the surroundings were filled with scrolls that had long since weathered into ash.

The ceramic jar was tightly sealed, inscribed all over with dense Tibetan mantras.

"That's it."

Shen Yan strode over but didn't rush to touch the jar. Instead, he signaled An Ran to take out a specially made vacuum-sealed bag.

"What is this thing? An urn for ashes?"

Chen Guangke leaned over, looking disgusted.

"This is worth more than all the assets of the Shenyan Group combined."

Shen Yan put on gloves and carefully lifted the ceramic jar.

It felt heavy in his hand, and shaking it slightly produced a viscous sound from inside.

Several lines of golden text popped up on the system interface.

[Guge · Bio-based Active Repair Fluid (Native Strain)]

[Integrity: 92%]

[Activation Status: Dormant]

Shen Yan placed the ceramic jar into the sealed bag, vacuumed it, and sealed it—his movements fluid and practiced.

"Liu Xing, can you run a preliminary test now?"