Chapter 201: Treasure Map
Gunther and the trio walked in the direction the signboard pointed. They found a few more signboards and following one after another, they finally reached a place where there was a tombstone that lay fixed in the ground.
The tomb radiated an ancient aura and the inscriptions on it weren't familiar to the four either. They wondered whose tomb this may be that lay here in the middle of nowhere.
"This seems suspicious." Sheng looked at the three and said.
"Why do you say so?" Ojas asked with interest. Sheng rarely spoke and whenever he did, he would always talk about important things only.
"We found traces of some student, then the signboards out of nowhere, and then there's this tomb that is radiating an ancient aura. It seems like someone is intentionally doing it. Don't you think so?" Sheng calmly explained.
"But Sheng, it could be the academy too and he must've followed the signs and reached here. I can feel the remnants of elemental energy around. It's mixed and feels like a small fight took place here. Someone must've surely fought here for the treasure available." Ojas replied to Sheng.
"If that's the case, then why are there no traces of someone doing something to this tombstone here?" Sheng argued.
"No idea. But we've come this far and I don't think that there would be any harm in searching what lay beneath the tombstone." Ojas replied.
"Ojas is right, Sheng. It would be a loss if we go without searching this place properly." Ji put out his thoughts. He was curious about what lay beneath and had his curiosity piqued. He couldn't just leave without searching, could he?
"Do as you please, I'll be away from this area." Sheng said and backed off. This seemed too suspicious to him and he didn't want to get eliminated for a stupid mistake.
Ojas and Ji looked at each other, shrugged, and started digging near the tombstone.
Gunther all this while was quiet. His job was to be a supporter of these people and there wasn't anything that he could help them with currently. He simply stood at a bit of distance from them and let them do whatever they wanted.
A few minutes of digging led Ojas and Ji to find a few boxes. The boxes seemed worn out and ordinary but when they opened them, they found a few dust-covered golden-colored scrolls.
These scrolls did seem ancient to the two and without waiting for Sheng and Gunther, they opened them right away and found them to be a map of some sort. The map was divided into parts and thus there were a few of them there.
Sheng and Ji looked at each other and smiled widely. This was definitely a treasure map!
"Sheng! Sheng! Sheng! We found a treasure map! Hahahahaha!" Ji ran towards Sheng while waving the scroll in his hand.
Ojas walked out of the pit they made and unlike the enthusiastic Ji, he walked normally towards him. The two forgot Gunther was here too in their excitement.
Ojas and Ji showed them the maps and after having a look at them, Sheng said:
"What makes you think this is a treasure map? This could be anything. The other students who were fighting here, why did they not pick these up or dig around the tombstone? It still seems very suspicious to me."
Ji knew Sheng would say something like this. He patted Sheng's shoulder and said:
"I knew you would ask this question. Don't worry, these weren't the only things down there. When we dug up, we found there to be a few extra spaces present and traces of someone's spiritual power. There was someone over here before us and they took the good things and left the dirty boxes. This in no way, is a trap."
Sheng heard it and nodded his head. "Do as you please then."
He knew that changing Ji's and Ojas's opinions would be difficult now and thus asked them to do as they liked. No matter how they saw it, this place was reeking of a trap. The one who lay such a trap, Sheng couldn't tell if the person was stupid or a genius.
This definitely seemed like someone had personally made this trap but on another note, it was simply too obvious. If it were someone normal, they would've at least tried to cover up a few things but here, no such thing was done. This trap looked like someone stupid had laid it here.
But, in the academy, there was no one so stupid to have made such a trap. This got Sheng thinking about whether the person was a genius or something for doing so. Whatever the case, Sheng was confused and very suspicious about all of this. Nevertheless, since he had no solid proof, he couldn't deny Ji and Ojas and ask them to stop whatever they were doing.
Gunther on the sidelines didn't care about any of these as much. He was just patiently waiting for his turn to take action and provide support. He felt bored hanging out with them and questioned himself whether he should've rejected helping them or something.
The trio had a small discussion about the maps and they left the place along with Gunther and moved in the direction opposite the lake, towards the deeper parts of the jungle.
...
A few hours passed.
Lith was out of the dark gloomy region and was flying over some glaciers. He had arrived in an icy and cold region after he left the dark forest.
While flying over the glaciers, Lith was constantly looking for a place similar to the one in the dark forest. A place where he could comprehend laws easily.
He kept flying in the glacier region and finally after two more hours, he felt the same feeling he felt back in the dark forest. He descended down to the ground, sat cross-legged, and started meditating to comprehend the laws.
The laws this time were Water laws. The Water elemental energy revolved around Lith's body and like what happened with Death elemental energy before, the Water elemental energy too got absorbed into his body strand by strand and didn't gush in like a tide.
Slowly and steadily, Lith started comprehending the laws and got absorbed into his own world. Though he was meditating and concentrating fully on comprehending the laws, he still had his guard up and was fully alert and aware of what was happening around his surroundings. He wasn't careless and was very cautious.
Lith continued to meditate and comprehend the laws and finally after two hours...