Absolute Gate

Chapter 81 Divination and Lie Detection
"Sacrificial Well!"

Yang Chunsha's eyes narrowed: "This sinkhole is actually a sacrificial well of the Maya."

“We had considered that the golden statue might be problematic, perhaps even an anomaly, but we never imagined that the lake itself might be the problem.”

“All sorts of strange and unusual objects exist, including regional types.”

"The benefactor deliberately recruited us as sacrifices to achieve some ulterior motives."

"Hiss, so that means the skinny guy's death wasn't an accident. He wasn't actually lost; he was affected by the underground cave itself and died underwater. His life became a sacrifice."

Yang Chunsha made a series of rapid-fire speculations, which were almost obvious conjectures.

However, Wu Zhong pondered and said, "It's hard to say whether it's regional or not. There should be more than one sacrificial well, right?"

Yang Chunsha nodded: "Yes, there's more than one. Theoretically, there are different regions in Yucatan. The information I found says that only one has been excavated so far."

"Is there anything unusual?" Wu Zhong asked.

Yang Chunsha shook her head: "No, at least I can't find anything. If there's a problem, it might be hidden by someone."

Wu Zhong stroked his chin: "If the other sacrificial wells are also problematic, then this is not a calamity, but a byproduct."

"It wasn't the cave itself that had the effect, but something the Maya used to infect the cave."

“If only our well has a problem, while the other sacrificial wells are fine, then this is the ‘ancestral sacrificial well’.”

"The ancient Maya developed a sacrificial well culture because of the effect of this well. They then regarded other large and deep sinkholes and caves found elsewhere as sacrificial wells, but in reality, they were useless."

Yang Chunsha suddenly realized, "Yes, if it's the former situation, it definitely isn't a regional anomaly."

"The latter case is half and half; it could be caused by a regional factor or by an item at the bottom of the well."

Wu Zhong said, "Yes, so the possibility that the entire cave is filled with calamities is very small."

"If there really is a special characteristic, it's most likely caused by some item in the cave."

"However, I went into the water twice and didn't encounter anything unusual."

"The second time, we went even deeper than 400 meters and saw the dead bodies and gold and jade artifacts at the bottom, but it didn't trigger anything."

Yang Chunsha complained, "Maybe your mind is twisted, and you're immune to it, so you didn't feel it."

Wu Zhong was taken aback; it was true, he was a bit blinded by his own involvement.

At that moment, Onion was only concerned about his brother's safety, so he pulled out the tube and rushed upwards, without seeing what was happening below.

Wu Zhong looked down at him and scanned the area twice before he truly discovered the situation below.

It's certainly possible; he had already contracted the virus but had developed immunity.

"Hmm, if that's the case, how did the skinny guy die? He was some distance from the bottom, and we didn't find any of the sacrificial items in the darkness. Since the onion wasn't affected, the skinny guy shouldn't have been either," Wu Zhong asked.

Yang Chunsha tilted her head and then changed her words, saying, "Then... that skinny guy might really have died in an accident."

"Or perhaps it's not a mental distortion, you just haven't triggered the catastrophic effect."

Wu Zhong shook his head slightly: "I swam underwater for so long, saw those things, and came back safely."

"If it's so hard to trigger, then why are the big spenders making us sacrifice ourselves?"

"We can easily escape back; we won't die underwater. Can you call that an accidental death a sacrifice?"

Yang Chunsha was stunned again. Yes, she was conflicted again.

Suddenly, she remembered something and said, "Oh right, you saw that golden statue, didn't you?"

"If there is a disaster or danger underwater, then the patron doesn't need to actually lose the gold. He can just make up a story, pretend it's lost, and make us go underwater to look for it, but we can't find it no matter what we do, until the trigger effect is sacrificed."

"But you actually saw the quest item, which means there's something wrong with that item."

"Is it possible that the ancient Maya distinguished between sacrificial wells and cenotes by whether a statue was placed in them? Whichever cenote the statue was placed in became a sacrificial well, and thus could be used for sacrifices?"

Wu Zhong tilted his head: "So what happens after the sacrifice? Praying for rain? What does the sugar daddy want to pray for rain for?"

Yang Chunsha was stunned again, and said while thinking, "Maybe he just wants us to test the characteristics, or... it has another purpose, not just rainmaking."

Wu Zhong waved his hand and said, "Alright, stop guessing."

"Your speculations based on various imaginations are too easy to go astray."

"The only things we can be sure of are that this is a sacrificial well, that the golden statue is indeed down there... and that I have returned safely."

“Only by expanding upon these three facts can we make sense.”

"As for determining whether the benefactor has any problems, there's no need to guess. The divination I mentioned before about 'the person who is not yet here' can verify it."

Yang Chunsha nodded. Before, they weren't even sure if there was a golden statue.

So even if the test reveals that no one intentionally threw the statue down, it doesn't guarantee that the donor wasn't lying, because the statue itself might not even exist.

But now that Wu Zhong has seen the statue with his own eyes, he can use the tortoise shell to verify whether the statue actually 'collapsed and slid down on its own'.

……

The next morning, Wu practiced his skills all night and gained another year's worth of power.

McGill also had all the equipment delivered early in the morning.

There were salvage tools standing on the shore, as well as more than a dozen diving suits and accessories, all of the right size for them.

Hundreds of gas cylinders are fully inflated and can be refilled on shore at any time.

Of course, Wu Zhongyao's live cattle were also delivered, totaling more than a dozen.

Wu Zhong and Yang Chunsha exchanged a glance.

The latter understood immediately: "Dragon-Subduing Wood! I want to eat beef!"

"Okay," Wu Zhong replied, preparing to go to the backyard to slaughter the cow.

As everyone knows, the two of them didn't eat anything yesterday. Yang Chunsha said that she only eats food made by Jianglongmu.

However, Perrin said, "Then we'll wait for you, Miss Yang Chunsha. After you've eaten and drunk your fill, we'll go into the water together."

"I've been looking forward to seeing your skills. It's an honor to work with a Silver-ranked senior like you."

Yang Chunsha frowned; this guy had been fawning over her ever since yesterday.

But it was clearly not just vulgar flattery; it was about using words to pressure her and force her to do her work.

She had also accepted the task, and she couldn't just do nothing; otherwise, even if the task was successful, she wouldn't get a single penny.

So she laughed and said, "What's the rush? We haven't even found the golden statue yet. Letting the Dragon-Subduing Wood handle such trivial matters is more than enough."

"Once it's found, when it's time to salvage it, I'll naturally go into the water with you."

Perrin was about to say something more.

Wu Zhong waved his hand and said, "Leave this little matter to me, Sister."

"What, Perrin? I'll go down with you, okay? Last night I went down to 400 meters and brought people back with me. You don't think I'm some kind of slacker, do you?"

Perrin had nothing to say; Wu had already demonstrated remarkable skill last night.

They pulled two people out of the water; the fat man was lying on the ground convulsing, while Wu Zhong was completely unharmed.

This skill, while not exceptionally strong, is certainly very powerful for a Bronze-level player and is capable of reaching Silver.

If even a Black Iron is like this, then how powerful must Yang Chunsha, the team leader who 'trained' him, be?
Seeing this, McGonagall eased the awkwardness: "We'll leave it to Miss Yang Chunsha to arrange."

"Please go down and search first. Once we find it, we'll all work together to retrieve it."

Wu nodded at the end: "Let's eat first."

He went to the backyard alone and quickly butchered a cow; he was now quite adept at it.

"Where is the person who deliberately sent the golden statue into the cave at the bottom of the lake?"

As he pondered this, he twirled his hand in his bag, and a sudden inspiration struck him.

"No."

Wu Zhong's brows relaxed; there really wasn't any.

The patron wasn't lying; the golden statue did indeed collapse on its own without anyone interfering.

Wu Zhong smiled; the sugar daddy was right. "According to the sugar daddy, this is their family's lake, and they had no idea there was a sinkhole underneath."

"It was probably filled in earlier, so the surface became a lake several meters deep. However, the filling was not very stable, and over time the limestone covering it continued to peel away."

"Later, the Havel family moved here and built a manor, hiding the gold at the bottom of the lake. Over the years, the layer of silt and thin limestone at the bottom of the lake collapsed, allowing this ancient sinkhole to see the light of day again."

"In other words, they have no idea what's down there. Even if I discovered it was a sacrificial well, they wouldn't know; it's purely a coincidence."

Wu Zhong chuckled and shook his head. Everything matched up; he was just scaring himself.

Who told him to play the 'black money master' trick with Xia Heng before, plus Yang Chunsha's experience with the cowardly style.

As a result, Wu Zhong often suspected his sugar daddy, but in reality, there aren't that many shady sugar daddies; that's a low-probability event.

If there are so many shady clients, where do all those missions that are successfully completed around the world come from?

The rest is simple. He already knows the location of the golden statue; he just needs to go down and retrieve it.

While slicing beef, Wu Zhong, with a leaf in his mouth, told Yang Chunsha the good news.

Yangchunsha is in an awkward position. After analyzing it yesterday, it turned out to be completely fictitious.

Since the donors are not the problem, the sacrificial wells are not the problem either; it's just an ancient cultural belief.

We can't just discover any ruins and claim they contain calamities; that would make calamities far too common.

Yang Chunsha said, "Ahem, it's alright then, haha, it was just a regular lost and found."

"It seems to be a coincidence that we just happened to fall into the ancient Mayan sacrificial well. However, ordinary people cannot dive to a depth of 400 meters. So, we are the first people to discover this ruin after the Mayan civilization was destroyed."

"When we go down there, we can sneak some gold artifacts and sell them for money."

Wu Zhong laughed and said, "We'll see. We definitely can't take it in front of them; this is their private territory."

"Hmm, but what you said does remind me. Theoretically... we were the first to discover it, and no third party knew that this was a sacrificial well."

Yang Chunsha asked, "So what?"

Wu Zhong said somewhat awkwardly, "It's nothing, just consider it overthinking. To be on the safe side, I'll test it again."

As he spoke, he picked out another cow, touched its head, stunned it with his internal force, and then killed it with a single blow.

He always did this when he performed divination, partly to reduce the cow's pain and partly to prevent the cow from moving around and not properly splitting the cow in half, thus failing to trigger the divination's effect.

Wu Zhong suddenly had a strange idea and did the divination again, but with a different method: "Besides De Biao and me, where are the people who know that the bottom of this lake is the sacrificial well?"

An inspiration struck, and Wu Zhong's smile suddenly froze.

Because he obtained a direction.

"what?"

Wu Zhong felt a chill creep up his spine.

He slightly raised his finger and pointed in a direction, which was clearly the direction of the lake.

Of course, it could be somewhere even further away, but if you go any further in this direction, you'll see forests and distant mountains, and then you'll be right outside the manor.

The divination result basically told him that there were other people in the know among those present.

Because no third person should know about the sacrificial well.

Wu cut several dozen kilograms of beef and carried a cow leg back to the lake.

While grilling the meat, he used plants to convey the verification results to Yang Chunsha.

Yang Chunsha was surprised by the result: "Huh? A third party knew? Isn't that the sugar daddy?"

Wu Zhong nodded slightly, observing everyone by the lake.

Yangchunsha can be ruled out directly, and Peilan and Shichangpu can also most likely be ruled out as well.

As for the onion, is that even possible? Actually, he saw the remains last night and also looked up information in the room, learning that this was a sacrificial well?
No, Onion couldn't possibly have seen it and not said anything. After all, his brother had died, and he was in a state of heightened emotion. If he had seen the altar-like structure at the bottom, he would have immediately questioned the financier.

Therefore, this location can only be McGill...

Of course, they could also be his two subordinates.

But in any case, they were in cahoots. They knew this was a sacrificial well, yet they kept this information a secret. There must be something wrong with this mission.

"Wow, they really are shady business owners."

"Since the sacrificial well was concealed, it must be related to some kind of calamity."

"What could it be? Seriously, this is so unlucky."

Wu Zhong remained expressionless, silently grilling the meat before handing it to Yang Chunsha.

Yang Chunsha lay leisurely on the recliner.

In reality, the two had already brainstormed and were having a frantic discussion in the plant communication system.

Meanwhile, McGur arranged for El and another of his men to put on diving suits, and then used guide ropes to hang six gas cylinders every twenty meters.

A total of 120 gas cylinders were hung on a rope that was 400 meters long.

El dived down and slowly lowered the rope, setting up a gas cylinder resupply point in advance.

Of course, El was just an ordinary person, so he could only ensure that the gas cylinders were fine at depths of over 100 meters.

In deeper areas, ropes and air tanks are simply piled up haphazardly, requiring the divers to lay the ropes themselves.

"Everyone, the preparations are almost complete. The rest is up to you."

“I will arrange for El and the others to go into the water as well, and wait at depths of fifty and one hundred meters in the Dark Hall to provide support for you.”

McGur can be said to have made all the preparations, showing great concern for their safety.

Perrin remarked, "Mr. McGill, you are so thoughtful. Normal cave diving does require these arrangements, but my previous patrons never cared about these things."

McGonagall waved his hand and said, "It's nothing, just a small matter. It's all for the mission."

“My father hired several groups of professionals to work on this statue, so I know about the setup.”

"I originally thought that with your abilities, you might not need these, but yesterday's tragedy made me think that I should prepare them for you."

Everyone felt that the sponsor was very considerate and professional.

However, Wu Zhong and Yang Chunsha felt a chill in their hearts. The scheme was too deep. Who would have thought that such a sugar daddy was a black sugar daddy?
From yesterday to today, McGur is impeccable in every way.

If Wu hadn't used tortoise shell divination and hadn't suddenly had the idea to perform an extra divination, he wouldn't have discovered it.

Even if he hadn't known about the divination performed during the sacrificial well yesterday, he wouldn't have been able to see through it.

"What should we do? Abandon the mission? Or expose him?" Yang Chunsha asked.

Wu Zhong said, "Is there a difference between the two? You have reasons for abandoning the mission, so why should we be unfairly burdened with negative reviews?"

"Then expose him!" Yang Chunsha sat up straight.

Wu Zhong handed her a piece of beef and shoved it back at her: "We have no evidence, and the characteristics of the tortoise shell are just something we can say. If we make baseless accusations against our benefactor, the other mercenaries will stand against us."

“De Biao, we must be the majority.”

With that, he cut off the communication and instead called Onion.

Onion was already planning to leave, and McGonagall said helplessly, "The plane is ready, and I will send a car to take you and Mr. Ginger away."

"I never expected to lose a member before the mission was even completed. It's truly a pity that I couldn't work with your team."

Onion's expression was initially numb, but he suddenly glanced at Wu Zhong, then regained his composure and looked at McGill.

His eyes gradually reddened as he stared intently at McGall.

“Mr. Onion, what’s wrong?” McGonagall asked.

Onion choked up and said, "Mr. McGregor, you've been so kind to us. I've thought it through, and I've decided to stay and complete the mission."

"My brother died for this mission, how can I just leave like this?"

"I must complete your mission and bring peace to my brother."

……

(End of this chapter)