Chapter 445: Chapter 413: Stone-Carved Array Map

Li Qian heard a familiar voice and immediately turned his head, his gaze meeting a cold, beautiful face.

Seeing Li Qian turn around, a smile like a blooming hibiscus instantly blossomed on her beautiful face.

"Bai Bingbing." He was a little surprised to see her here.

"Don’t call me Bai Bingbing. We’ve been through life and death together, after all. You can just call me Bingbing," Bai Bingbing said warmly, walking over quickly.

"Bingbing."

Li Qian happily obliged and then immediately asked, "What’s going on? Why are you all here?"

"A deep-layer Dimensional Rift appeared within Feihua City’s jurisdiction, leading to this place... Luoying City."

Bai Bingbing explained, "This is a very significant research project. It will help us uncover the secrets of dimensional civilizations. So, our mentor took the lead, collaborating with the university and several archaeologists from Shazhou City to form an excavation team."

"According to our mentor, Teacher Liang Huaizhen, this area of buildings is likely a sacrificial site for the Luoying City civilization, something like an Ancestral Temple."

"Teacher Liang is an expert in this field. She’s excavated ruins from a similar era and believes there’s likely a secret hidden beneath this area."

Li Qian’s expression shifted to one of sudden understanding. ’No wonder this area is cordoned off,’ he thought. ’So they’re conducting an archaeological excavation.’

"I’m here to assist my teacher." As she said this, a rare look of embarrassment appeared on Bai Bingbing’s face. "Basically, I’m just here to help out with odd jobs."

"For such an important archaeological project, just being able to assist is already very impressive." Although he didn’t know what her assistance specifically entailed, Li Qian knew a compliment couldn’t hurt, so he offered one generously.

Hearing this, the smile on Bai Bingbing’s face instantly grew even wider.

Li Qian seized the opportunity to ask, "Bingbing, do you think we could go in and have a look?"

Bai Bingbing pondered for a moment upon hearing his words, not giving a direct answer. "I’ll go ask. It should be fine."

She couldn’t make any guarantees about something like this; after all, she was only an assistant.

With that, Bai Bingbing walked back quickly. About two or three minutes later, she returned with a smile on her face.

Seeing this, Li Qian had a pretty good idea of the outcome.

"Li Qian, Teacher Liang said it’s fine, but you’re not allowed to enter the passageway without permission," Bai Bingbing said.

Li Qian nodded. He was just curious and wanted to take a look. As for the passageway—a dark place with unknown dangers—he wasn’t particularly interested.

With Teacher Liang’s approval, the two young investigators no longer blocked their path.

Li Qian and Irina smoothly entered the building complex.

Once inside, Li Qian looked around and quickly identified the place as a temple complex.

The temples stood in dense, orderly rows. Within an area of about two square kilometers, roughly a hundred temples were packed together.

In the very center of the temple complex stood a Stone Tower. From the outside, it appeared to be relatively well-preserved.

The entire Stone Tower was cordoned off with barrier tape. Clearly, that must be the location of the underground passageway.

Li Qian didn’t head in that direction, choosing instead to wander randomly through the temple complex.

Unlike the many cat-type Pet Beast statues found in the city, the statues in this temple complex were predominantly of humanoids.

Li Qian provisionally called these statues "human," but strictly speaking, they were only human-like; there were distinct differences.

The biggest difference was their foreheads.

The statues had a single horn growing from their foreheads, about ten centimeters long, pointing straight up toward the sky.

Their builds were also different from humans. They were powerfully built, most standing over two meters tall.

As Li Qian continued to wander, he discovered that there were also statues of cat-type Pet Beasts in the temples. However, unlike in the city, the statues here seemed to occupy secondary or supporting roles.

They looked like subordinates to these horned humanoids.

The relationship between the two was somewhat similar to that between humans and Pet Beasts.

Wandering through the temples, immersed in the atmosphere, Li Qian felt the immense weight of time, of ages past.

After about half an hour, just as Li Qian was preparing to head back, a temple stone carving he happened to glimpse caught his attention.

It was a stone mural set into the side wall of a temple. Most of its patterns were mottled and had flaked away, leaving very few complete parts visible—only two figures remained.

And it was these two figures that piqued Li Qian’s interest—or more precisely, triggered a response from his Golden Finger.

[Task 2: Evolution method for a Five-tailed Cat to a Six-tailed Cat. Inspiration Value +2. Current task Progress Value: 100%!]

The sudden rush of inspiration and the task’s Progress Value jumping to one hundred percent left Li Qian a bit stunned.

Once he recovered, he immediately focused his gaze on the two stone-carved patterns. Closing his eyes to recall the moment, he quickly confirmed that it was one of the carvings, which resembled an Array Map, that had triggered his Golden Finger.

After confirming this, Li Qian stared at the carved pattern with rapt attention.

"It should be an Array Map." After observing for about ten minutes, Li Qian nodded slightly and muttered to himself.

"What Array Map?" Irina asked, puzzled by Li Qian’s strange, preoccupied behavior.

Li Qian pointed to one of the two carvings, his expression excited. "This image is almost certainly an Array Map. This Array is very important to me. It should be able to give a huge push to a Pet Beast evolution task I’m researching."

"That’s incredible!" Irina said, finding it hard to believe.

’Is this what a breeding genius is like?’

’Why can’t I see anything in it? In fact, staring at it for too long just makes me dizzy.’

’Looks like I’m really not cut out for this sort of thing.’

Li Qian didn’t submit the task right away. His thoughts raced, and he immediately created a new task.

[Task 3: Establish the second evolution method for the Four-tailed Cat. Current task Progress Value: 75%]

A Progress Value of seventy-five percent was neither high nor low, but it was enough to reveal a lot.

First, it meant that the second path in the evolution hypothesis for the Five-tailed Cat to Six-tailed Cat, which the university had provided, was almost certainly connected to the second evolution method for the Four-tailed Cat.

Second, it meant that clues for this evolutionary path could likely be found within this temple complex.

This was precisely why Li Qian had decided to create this task, even if it meant occupying all his task slots.

After creating Task 3, Li Qian wasted no more time. He picked up his pace and began power-touring the area like a soldier on a mission.

Over the next hour or so, Li Qian surveyed every building in the area, except for the tall tower in the center.

After his survey, he opened his task panel again. The Progress Value for Task 3 had already reached eighty percent.

Seeing this, Li Qian couldn’t help but mutter to himself, ’Looks like my idea was right.’

’The information recorded here really can advance the evolution progress of cat-type Pet Beasts.’

"Sigh." Li Qian let out a breath, a look of helpless regret on his face. The vast majority of the stone carvings here were damaged; not even one in ten remained intact.

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