Following the guidance of the task, when Fang Er arrived at the destination, he was stunned.
The area was a mess, with traces of fire everywhere and piles of wood and stones. It looked like it was about to be rebuilt.
Wang Xuance scanned the surroundings and then whispered to Fang Er, "Master, this seems to be the Qianyang Hall that was burned down when the Emperor started his uprising."
Fang Er looked at him curiously, "How do you know? It seems like you were still catching birds when the Emperor started his uprising?"
It was the ninth year of Wude, the fifth year of Zhenguan, only fourteen years ago, and Wang Xuance was less than ten years old then.
Wang Xuance scratched his head and said uncertainly, "I heard it from the elders."
Fang Er was speechless. Burning it down with fire and then rebuilding it with his own money, was Li Shimin's brain really...?
Never mind, the leader's thoughts naturally had his reasons, and it had nothing to do with him.
The mission indicated that the Imperial Seal was nearby, within a hundred meters.
After distributing flashlights to everyone, Fang Er said, "Two people stand guard, and the rest spread out to look for places where things could be hidden!"
"Be careful not to be seen by the patrolling soldiers!"
Wang Xuance grinned and tore off a strip of cloth from his body to cover the flashlight. He tried turning it on, and the light indeed became much dimmer.
"Don't worry, Master, these patrolling soldiers are still far from catching us!"
The others, following suit, tore off strips of cloth, covered their flashlights, and searched in different directions.
Within a hundred meters, it didn't take long to find hiding places, less than an hour, and everyone returned to Fang Er's side.
"Nothing on my side!"
"Nothing on my side either!"
~~~~
Just as Fang Er was greatly disappointed, he heard someone point to the left and say, "There's a well on my side."
"Let's go check it out!"
It was highly possible that the Imperial Seal was hidden in a well since it had survived from the fall of the Sui Dynasty until now.
Following the soldier, they walked dozens of meters and saw the well he mentioned. The flashlight shone into the well, and the water inside reflected the light.
"Let's see how deep it is!" Fang Er pointed to the well water.
One person stepped forward, untied a bundle of rope from his waist, tied a stone to the end, and slowly lowered the rope.
The rope was only ten meters long. Just as the stone touched the water surface, the soldier had only a small piece of rope left in his hand.
"Get more rope and keep going."
When they attached the second rope, the soldier's face lit up, "Master, we've reached the bottom!"
Looking at the remaining rope, the well was about twenty-five to twenty-six meters deep.
Fang Er nodded, then excused himself to pee and went behind a pile of wood, taking out the three oxygen tanks he had used for diving earlier.
Upon returning, in Wang Xuance's confused gaze, he put one of them on him.
"This thing will allow you to breathe underwater."
"Go down and see if there's anything."
"Yes, Master!"
The soldier holding the rope quickly reeled it in, removed the stone, and tied the rope around Wang Xuance's waist.
The descent was smooth. The three people pulled the rope and slowly lowered him. The others voluntarily spread out to keep watch. Soon, Wang Xuance's flashlight signal came from underwater.
A few minutes later, the three pulling the rope felt the slack rope tighten and quickly began to pull it up.
Soon, Wang Xuance was pulled up. After wiping the well water from his face, he said to Fang Er, "Master, there's a secret passage down there!"
"And the water flow below isn't like that of a normal well; it seems to be connected to the river outside."
"After I opened the stone door in the secret passage, I felt like I couldn't breathe, so I had to come back to report to you first."
Hearing this, Fang Er's spirits lifted. With a secret passage, the possibility of the Imperial Seal being below was even greater!
"Get the oxygen tanks. I'll go down with you to check!"
The remaining two oxygen tanks were just enough for two people to dive simultaneously. After preparing, Wang Xuance went down first, with Fang Er following closely.
To increase the diving speed, they each held a stone.
The well wall was very thick, at least over a meter. They didn't scrape the wall during the descent.
After stepping on solid ground, Fang Er shone his flashlight. The bottom of the well was indeed a different world!
On both sides of the well wall at the bottom, besides water permeability holes, there were arched stone doors. Wang Xuance had already pushed open the stone doors.
Sensing the direction of the water flow, Fang Er signaled Wang Xuance to swim upstream, while he himself swam downstream.
After swimming about a hundred meters with the current, he came to a corner and saw a shocking scene.
At the corner, countless skeletons were piled together, blocking more than half of the secret passage!
One of the skeletons particularly caught Fang Er's attention.
He quickly stepped forward to examine it closely. Although the clothes had been soaked in water for an unknown period, and the patterns were incomplete, he could still see some traces of the imperial prince's attire from the former Sui Dynasty!
While searching, his hand touched something, and his heart skipped a beat. He quickly dug out the object.
It was a jade seal, white and smooth all over!
Four inches square, with a five-dragon hilt, and inscribed with clerical script on both sides.
"Great Wei, Receiver of Heaven's Mandate, Imperial Seal!"
"Heaven's Will, Shi Shi!"
Even though Fang Er couldn't fully understand the inscription at the bottom, he knew this was the Imperial Seal.
Looking at the skeletons, he couldn't help but feel pity for the prince who had escaped with the seal.
If he guessed correctly, this secret passage must have been built by the emperor's men, who were then killed in the passage upon completion to keep the secret. The dismembered skeletons were proof of this.
However, when the former Sui emperor was killing these craftsmen, he never expected that when the secret passage was truly needed, the skeletons of these craftsmen would block the way!
The escaping prince had no oxygen tanks and could only drown in this secret passage.
Looking at the remaining oxygen, Fang Er had less than two minutes of air left. He quickly communicated with the system.
"Submit task!"
"Ding! Imperial Seal detected, ancient inheritance task four, submitting!"
"Ding! Task submitted, rewards being distributed!"
"Congratulations to the host for obtaining a bottle of Mingren Soda!"
After waiting for a long time without any further prompts, Fang Er was completely bewildered.
He had gone to such great lengths to find the Imperial Seal, and all he got was a bottle of soda?
Was this a joke?
He was literally soaking in water, what was the point of a bottle of water?
"System Sister, do you want to try what it feels like to fill you up with something??"
"I don't know what it feels like to fill me up, but I know you'll suffocate if you don't get out soon!"
"Oh, and by the way, that way you can get a new title, True ~ Suffocated Grandson!"
Fang Er: ..........
He quickly checked the remaining oxygen and, forgetting to argue with the system, hurried back.
Just as the oxygen ran out and he was about to suffocate, he finally saw the rope hanging from the wellhead. He tugged a few times, and the soldiers above began to pull him up.
"Ding! Congratulations to the host for completing the ancient inheritance quadrilogy!"
"Ding! Task rewards being distributed!"
Huh? Could it be that what he received earlier was just the reward for the Imperial Seal, and there was a grand prize for completing all four tasks??
PS: Guess what the reward will be??