News of the disaster spread like wildfire. Although the great Qin Empire was on the brink of collapse, it did not mean that every corner of this land was in a state of turmoil. In areas unaffected by severe natural disasters and war, people's peaceful lives continued as usual.

  A small village appeared in front of Lin Xu, still immersed in this idyllic and peaceful life. Under a ancient ginkgo tree at the entrance of the village that needed four or five people to hug it, farmers who had been busy in the fields all day were gathering under the tree to cool off and listening to the old men in the village telling stories.

  "Do you know that on a night three hundred years ago, stars fell from the sky like rain?"

  The old man with only three teeth left in his mouth, although he spoke unclearly due to the gaps, still managed to captivate the simple folk who listened with relish.

  In an era when illiteracy accounted for a large proportion of the population, ordinary people's access to knowledge was limited to oral transmission, and the elderly were the ones who passed on the nation's history and culture. The so-called "rites lost in the wilderness" refers to the fact that even if all the classics and records were burned by fire, as long as those rural elders were still alive, through visits and collections, most of the lost knowledge could be sorted out and restored, so in ancient agricultural society, respecting and revering the elderly was a very common social atmosphere.

  The people in the small village did not notice a strange figure quietly appearing around them. At this time, a voice suddenly sounded and said:

  "Excuse me, sir, are you talking about three hundred years ago?"

  At the sound, the old man opened his dim and aged eyes and looked at this unfamiliar young man. He asked in puzzlement:

  "Hey young man, you want to hear me tell a story?"

  To avoid suspicion and change his appearance, Lin Xu's incarnation chuckled and followed the surrounding villagers to squat down and said:

  "Haha, I'm the kind of person who's naturally fond of listening to strange and unusual stories. Just now, as I was passing by the village entrance, I heard you speaking so wonderfully that my legs can't even move!"

  Upon hearing this, an old man with a childish temperament couldn't help but slap his thigh with his wrinkled hands that resembled the skin of a jujube tree and burst out laughing. Then he said:

  "Haha, oh my! I say, you young fellow, your mouth is as sweet as if it's been smeared with honey. It seems you're even more eloquent than this old man. Well, come and listen together then!"

  As he spoke, the old man casually picked up a gourd of water from the millstone behind him and took two sips to moisten his throat. He then continued what he had been saying earlier:

  "It's said that over 300 years ago, on the night before, many temples and palaces had strange occurrences. Some people even claimed to have seen a dragon emerging from rivers and lakes, and strange beasts appearing in mountains. That night, the sky showed abnormal signs! At midnight, the sun rose from the west, the moon rose from the east, and the stars shone brightly across the sky. The simultaneous appearance of the sun, moon, and stars was truly a rare event that had never been seen before in thousands of years!"

  No matter when and where, young people's rebellious psychology is inevitable. A young man who was less than ten years old said with a smile:

  "Uncle, you're talking nonsense again! How can such a thing exist in this world? Besides, none of us have ever seen it before, right?"

  At the sound, the old man was so angry that he puffed out his beard and glared with his eyes. He used the cane in his hand to poke the ground forcefully and said angrily:

  "Shut up, you stinky little brat! How dare you spout nonsense? This is clearly written in black and white on our Zhao family genealogy by our ancestors. Can it be fake?"

  Ancestor worship is the core value of Chinese civilization. If you accuse someone else's ancestors of lying, it's even more insulting. If things go wrong, a large-scale fight between the two clans may not be able to resolve the conflict, and many long-standing feuds start from such trivial matters. Therefore, when this old man Zhao, who loves to talk about ancient times, openly brought out the Zhao family tree revised by his ancestors to discuss the matter, no one dared to argue with him on the spot again. It's not that everyone was completely convinced, but rather that no one thought it was worth fighting over for the sake of this small matter.

  Old kid! Old kid! If he wants to brag a bit, we can just humor him and that's it. Why bother arguing with him?!

  Having suppressed the dissenting voices on the scene, Old Zhao cleared his throat and continued:

  "...there are meteorites everywhere! Just in our Jibei County, there were several thousand pieces of fallen stones. According to the genealogy, at that time, the imperial court sent a high-ranking official to collect them, and all the stones that could be found on the ground were taken away. If any family dared to hide and not hand over, they would be implicated for nine generations!"

  Always quietly listening to the story by his side, Lin Xu, who had inserted halfway, was on his way from Dong County to Licheng. When he heard this three-hundred-year-old story, he immediately sensed that there was something fishy about it. First of all, the timing was too coincidental. The battle more than 300 years ago was a shocking and bloody war where all the elites in the entire Pian Jie had come out to fight. It's likely that during the fierce fighting, the residual power of the battle would have affected the interior of Pian Jie. It's not impossible for ordinary people to see some strange phenomena, but this meteor shower seemed to be more than just a simple natural phenomenon!

  In the words of the elderly, the imperial court sent officials to collect the meteorite, not hesitating to use extreme high-pressure tactics to intimidate local people. For a great Qin Empire that values the rule of law, this is too abnormal.

  When all these doubts are analyzed together, all the clues seem to point to one fact: those meteorites have an unusual origin.

  It's easy to imagine that the meteorites that fell on the plain and were easily discovered by people had long been taken away by imperial officials, so Lin Xu didn't have to hope to get any leftovers after more than 300 years. Calculating this way, only in those extremely dangerous places where not only ordinary people but also extraordinary beings with special abilities could hardly guarantee their safety, might the meteorites that fell on that night over 300 years ago be preserved.

  With such thoughts in mind, Lin Xu's face also gradually darkened, and he muttered to himself:

  "This is going to be tough. Unless... we ask a local deity for help?"

  "No way!"

  After making up his mind, Lin Xu couldn't find a better solution. He left the big tree at the village entrance and came to a secluded place where no one was around, trying to contact the local earth god near Mount Tai.

  It wasn't until this test that he realized he had grossly underestimated the depth of this pool of muddy water. Lin Xu couldn't help but squeeze out a sentence mixed with amazement and confusion, and he already had a vague premonition of something.

  If we take Mount Tai as the center point and draw a standard circle with a radius of 500 miles on the map, we can immediately discover an astonishing fact. Within the coverage of this circle, it's not just that there are no gods or supernatural beings with slightly higher cultivation levels, but also that there are no demons, ghosts, or monsters to be found. Even if there are a small number of demonic creatures present, their cultivation levels mostly do not exceed 300 years. To put it bluntly, the area centered on Mount Tai is as clean as if it had been thoroughly washed white.

  If saying abnormal is evil, then this phenomenon is really evil reaching a certain realm, even Lin Xu began to feel a chill.

  After spending several days preparing, Lin Xu embarked on a journey of exploration and discovery to find the truth. This road is not particularly long or bumpy, it's just circling around Mount Tai, taking the opportunity to sneak into those places that look extremely dangerous at first glance.

  After many days, after experiencing numerous hardships and paying a terrible price, Lin Xu discovered a hidden pool in the valley behind Mount Tai. The surface of the water was always shrouded in a layer of white mist, and the icy cold water below was bone-chillingly deep and impossible to see to the bottom. If it were any other matter, Lin Xu would have turned around and left immediately, but at this moment, he steeled himself with the desperate thought that even if he lost a clone, it would be worth it. With a tragic heart, Lin Xu jumped into the pool and dove down, swimming deeper and deeper.

  The water temperature in the Shui Tang is too low, ordinary creatures can't adapt to it, and there are hardly any signs of biological activity. Lin Xu dived down nearly fifty meters, and ahead was still a vast expanse of immeasurable darkness.

  At this depth, without the help of divine power, Lin Xu's vision was no longer clear. Weighing the pros and cons, he took out a night pearl and continued to move forward with the faint light emitted by the pearl.

  This small-mouthed, large-bottomed basin-shaped pool is a dark and mysterious water area with a total area of about two or three football fields. After reaching the dark bottom composed of sharp gravel and sand, Lin Xu began to swim slowly in circles, searching for possible meteorites that might be left in his imagination.

  Just as Lin Xu was swimming slowly, a long black shadow suddenly darted out from the gap between the rocks and pounced on Lin Xu head-on.

  "Hah!"

  "Boom——"

  Hardly had time to think, Lin Xu made his move. Under the strong water pressure of up to 100 meters, the dark thunder he released had its explosion range compressed to only about half of what it was normally, but its power increased a lot accordingly.

  "Boom——"

  As the lightning flashed, causing the pool of water to surge violently, the black shadow twisted violently and was immediately struck by Lin Xu's second dark thunderbolt, after which it completely disappeared without a sound.

  With a sweep of his divine sense, Lin Xu confirmed that there was no longer any vital energy left. Only then did he stretch out his hand to pick up the black shadow that resembled a belt. Under the dim greenish-blue glow of the Night Illuminating Pearl in his hand, it could be roughly made out that this was a poisonous snake with distinct scales and a triangular head. Just looking at its eyes, which still retained their sinister glint even after death, Lin Xu dared to bet that this thing had at least two hundred years of cultivation experience. If given more time, it would probably have cultivated into a demon.

  As for what species this snake belongs to, and how it can survive under such enormous water pressure, and endure the extremely low water temperature as a cold-blooded animal, Lin Xu didn't have the mind to study these deeply. Now the only thing he is interested in is finding out the truth about that night 300 years ago, other details are not within his consideration.

  It is often said that the phoenix does not land in a place without treasure. Those rare birds and beasts born of heaven and earth have an acute perception of spiritual energy changes, far surpassing that of humans. They often guard treasures and spiritual medicines from an early age. As a result, many people give up trying to find treasures directly and instead observe whether there are unusual poisonous insects or fierce beasts in a certain area to infer whether there is treasure here.

  If this sign is inferred, in this gloomy and lifeless pond, there is actually a poisonous snake that has cultivated into a weather phenomenon and refuses to leave. The credibility of the existence of special items also increases greatly.

  Lin Xuan took on the role of a scavenger, painstakingly distinguishing each stone at the bottom of the pond to see if it had any special features. After safely killing the poisonous snake that was over 200 years old, the search continued until the fifth day, when Lin Xuan found a dark green glass-like stone at the bottom of the water that was suspected to be a remnant of the meteor shower from back then. Don't look at this stone, which had a black-green glow all over its body and was about the size of a tennis ball, roughly the size of one hand could hold it, but in fact, it was extremely heavy, an ordinary person would dislocate their arm if they stretched out to grab it casually.

  If compared to an equivalent volume of gold, the colorful stone in Lin Xu's hand felt neither like metal nor jade, but its density was at least thirty times that of gold, so dense it was frightening.