Chapter 423: The Marmot Army

“Damn it! Old man, you ruined my plan!”

Shui Miao immediately applied what he had just learned, quickly channeling spiritual energy into the Formation of the Meditation Stone Array, unleashing a magical force into the tomb. Under the effect of this magical force, the black-robed shaman in front of the old man, who had originally been chanting a spell, began to sing and dance instead. He was singing “A Fire in Winter,” and dancing—of all things—like Michael Jackson!

“…”

The old man was stunned, feeling as if struck by five thunderbolts at once!

The magical force also created incredible illusions for the shaman. As he watched, the old man before him transformed into a sexy young girl, winking and blowing him kisses. The black-robed shaman could no longer continue chanting. His mind was a mess, unable to comprehend what was happening.

The array was incredibly magical, capable of transforming in all sorts of wondrous ways depending on Shui Miao’s imagination.

In short, there was nothing the array couldn’t become—only things Shui Miao hadn’t thought of.

“Is he having an epileptic fit?!”

Frowning at the black-robed shaman, the old man took a few steps back in fear. Suddenly, he saw a beam of white light descend from the sky. Shui Miao, dressed like an angel with large flapping wings, stretched out his hand toward the old man and solemnly declared, “I am the celestial guide sent from the Immortal Realm, here by the decree of the Eternal Heaven to lead you there. Time is precious. No need for unnecessary words. Let’s go.”

“Okay, okay! Thank you, thank you so much!”

Although Shui Miao’s words were a bit crude, the old man believed him without doubt, quickly crawling out of the tomb and reaching the surface…

Indeed, what the old man saw was merely an illusion.

His soul emerged from underground and was immediately bathed in sunlight. But under the influence of the magical force, he felt particularly comfortable. His entire body was transforming, turning into a large white eagle. He soared straight toward the Immortal Realm with Shui Miao, until his consciousness vanished.

Under the sunlight, the old man’s soul dissipated.

With the old man easily dealt with, Shui Miao turned his attention to the black-robed shaman.

“Whoosh!”

The scene before the shaman shifted, and suddenly he found himself back on the grasslands, surrounded by thousands of soldiers and horses. On the high jade platform above, his loyal master, Genghis Khan, was smiling at him!

“Khan!”

Seeing his beloved Khan, the shaman immediately knelt down.

The Khan smiled warmly and personally helped the black-robed shaman to his feet. Then he gestured to a young man and said, “My most loyal great shaman, what you saw just now was merely an illusion I created to test you. I wanted to see if you would be swayed by beauty. Now that you’ve passed the test, I have an extremely honorable mission for you. Come, this young man is my great benefactor. He helped me escape from the cursed stone and ascend to the Immortal Realm. Please pass on all your shamanic arts to him, and then ascend with me to the Immortal Realm.”

“…”

The old shaman was full of suspicion. He noticed many inconsistencies. First, the Khan’s fluent Mandarin was suspicious. Also, the scene changed too quickly, obviously fake—any fool could see that. After a pause, the old shaman shook his head and shouted, “This isn’t real! This is an illusion! Who are you? Who dares mock me!”

Not fun!

Sensing the black-robed shaman’s reaction, Shui Miao knew he couldn’t continue to mess with him.

Indeed, gaining the trust of a stranger was no easy task. The old man had only been easy to fool because of his memory loss.

But Shui Miao had other ways to deal with him—his Soul Devouring Power.

So, after about ten minutes, the black-robed shaman’s soul dissipated. Shui Miao withdrew his Soul Devouring Power and absorbed some of the shaman’s memories.

What exactly was a shaman? This question had always puzzled Shui Miao.

Previously, he had thought shamans were just masked frauds dancing around and deceiving people.

But after absorbing the old shaman’s memories, Shui Miao realized that shamans were indeed a powerful group. They could use secret incantations to channel and manipulate spiritual energy, control souls, and even divine people’s intentions and predict fortune or misfortune. In short, they were a group of people who could activate spiritual energy through incantations.

Shui Miao naturally gained access to these incantations.

As for other memories, they were meaningless to him, so he didn’t bother retaining them.

Opening his eyes, Shui Miao looked at the three beauties beside him, who were eagerly waiting.

Shui Miao took a long breath. “Alright, now that the evil spirits in the tomb have been eliminated, how about I think of a way to dig up some treasures?”

“Hehe…”

Xiao Shuang and Lin Zhiling exchanged knowing smiles.

Lin Xue, ever bold, spoke up, “Of course! We’ve been waiting this long! We don’t need you to do it yourself. Just point us in the right direction, and we’ll dig it up ourselves.”

Lin Xue looked positively eager.

Shui Miao stood up, patted the dust off his pants, and while scanning the surroundings, said, “I’m afraid that won’t work. The tomb is dozens of meters underground, and there’s a rock layer more than ten meters thick on top of it. You simply can’t dig through it. Even if you tried from the entrance, there are countless deadly traps and an enormous stone blocking the way. It would take at least a year or more just to reach the innermost chamber.”

“Is it really that big? Maybe we should just give up.”

Xiao Shuang wasn’t particularly interested in antiques. Having already received ten percent of the company’s shares, she was more than satisfied.

Since the tomb’s evil spirits had been destroyed and she now knew its location, Lin Zhiling suddenly had an idea. She quickly added, “Yes, Shui Miao, you really scared us just now. You must have used up a lot of your magic power and must be exhausted. Let’s just give it up. The treasures here won’t go anywhere. We can come back later.”

With Xiao Shuang and Lin Zhiling saying this, Lin Xue seemed somewhat insensitive by comparison.

Lin Xue blinked her eyes, suddenly realizing that their words were contradictory. They had both been eager for the antiques before, but now they were indifferent. Could there be some hidden agenda? With her police background, Lin Xue suddenly suspected that they might be planning to come back later and secretly take all the treasures for themselves.

Thinking this, Lin Xue decided to keep her suspicions to herself for now.

Shui Miao carefully examined the surroundings and quietly sensed the area. Then he suddenly smiled. “I have a way. I promised you something, and I will keep my word. You can rest assured.”

“How will you do it?” Lin Xue asked quickly.

“Just wait and see. I’ll show you a great show. But don’t speak loudly later, or you might scare away my friends.”

Shui Miao rolled up his sleeves, channeled his spiritual energy, and suddenly began chanting the shaman’s incantation.

This incantation was powered by spiritual energy. Its voice was low and a bit hoarse, yet incredibly penetrating.

Shui Miao chanted continuously for five or six minutes without stopping.

Just as Lin Xue and the others were about to lose patience, suddenly, many marmots appeared in their field of vision. These marmots gathered from all directions, countless in number—easily over five hundred small and large! Seeing so many marmots, the girls were stunned. The little marmots were so cute and adorable that they were both surprised and thrilled.

And from farther away, even more marmots were on their way.

Slowly sitting down, Shui Miao stopped chanting. He closed his mouth, spread his spiritual senses, and communicated with the marmots using his spiritual energy, asking them to dig a tunnel into the tomb and bring out some treasures. Then, he would give the underground cave system to them as a home.

Receiving Shui Miao’s mental command, the marmots began to chatter excitedly.

The large marmots, as big as dogs, were experts at digging holes.

In fact, even without any reward, the marmots would come to help when they heard the incantation.

Of course, offering them some incentives would make them even more enthusiastic.

Humans are like this, and animals are no different.

Soon, the marmots followed Shui Miao’s instructions and began digging at the designated location.

In total, over 800 marmots arrived, including more than 300 large ones.

They were digging experts, so Shui Miao didn’t have to worry too much.

However, since they lived in family groups, when so many gathered together, the organization was quite chaotic—some clumped here, some crowded there. Under Shui Miao’s guidance, they were quickly dispersed, some digging, others pushing earth, each busy with their own task, like a production line, maximizing efficiency.

The top layer was about ten meters of soft soil, very easy to dig.

About half an hour later, they had dug about seven or eight meters deep when water started seeping into the hole!

Normally, marmot burrows were only about three meters deep. This depth was just right—neither too dry nor too wet. Never in their history had marmots dug as deep as seven or eight meters unless it was a natural cave.

The digging and earth-pushing marmots quickly became soaked.

As the water kept rising, the marmots underground had no choice but to rush out.

Seeing this, Shui Miao immediately channeled his spiritual energy to control the groundwater, preventing it from seeping into the tunnel. But this was very exhausting. Considering that more water would eventually flood the tomb, ruining the home he had promised to the marmots, Shui Miao used his earth-element spiritual energy to compress and densify the surrounding soft soil, trying to stop the water seepage. However, after working hard for a while, he realized that water could penetrate even the densest soil.

So, Shui Miao thought of fire.

Immediately, he and Lin Xue fetched half a bucket of gasoline, poured it into the tunnel, and lit it up.

At the same time, Shui Miao used spiritual energy to control the fire, compressing the surrounding soil while burning it.

Although marmots feared fire, because of Shui Miao’s presence, they weren’t too scared. They stood around, staring intently at the tunnel entrance.

After a while, the fire died out. The soil around the tunnel became dry and hard. Due to the spiritual energy, some parts even resembled porcelain, smooth and completely dry.

With a wave of Shui Miao’s hand, the marmots rushed forward. One brave one darted in first. A few seconds later, it darted back out, chattering excitedly. The other marmots became excited too, many rushing into the tunnel, just like humans, eager to see the spectacle.

Fortunately, Shui Miao quickly restored order among the marmots.

The digging production line resumed.

Following Shui Miao’s mental guidance, they dug through a crack in the rock wall into the tomb. With a loud “Crack!” a stone fell into the tomb, landing on the throne atop the high platform. They had successfully breached the tomb’s passage.