Chapter 3288: Sending Away the Plague God

Lin Wanner suggested going to take a look at the Four Directions Treasure Pillar, and Ye Chen's heart was immediately moved.

Although he had not noticed any connection between this matter and the Four Directions Treasure Pillar, under the aurora in the Arctic Circle that day, the Buddhist swastika truly appeared in the sky, and those hand seals were indeed from the Buddhist sect, no doubt.

Ye Chen had little contact with the Buddhist sect, except for being blocked by a fake nun at a nunnery outside the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, and had almost no contact with the Buddhist sect, so the Four Directions Treasure Pillar became the most suspect.

Moreover, the Four Directions Treasure Pillar is indeed a thousand-year-old, comprehensive magical artifact, and it might truly be related to his own situation.

Besides this, there is another matter Ye Chen did not tell Lin Wanner.

Although he cannot determine whether his massive loss of spiritual energy is related to the Four Directions Treasure Pillar, one thing is certain: that thing is definitely in his sea of consciousness.

If it merely absorbed spiritual energy like that ring, he would not be too anxious—worst case, he would not be fooled again next time.

But this thing is different.

Through the other party controlling the aurora to send him a message and digging a big pit for him, he could guess that this thing must be conscious.

If a conscious thing is hidden in his sea of consciousness, just thinking about it is terrifying beyond measure, and moreover, if Ye Chen spoke his thoughts, he feared the other party would notice and take countermeasures.

Actually, his true thought is: if that thing really came from the Four Directions Treasure Pillar, then he would try to send it back.

So, he did not want to delay even a minute, and said to Lin Wanner: "Miss Lin, contact Grandfather Sun. If there's no problem on his end, we'll go directly."

Lin Wanner nodded and immediately called Sun Zhidong.

Ye Chen only realized at this moment that it was already past midnight, and calling Sun Zhidong now would surely disturb his rest—after all, he is an elder, and Ye Chen felt somewhat offended in his heart.

But Lin Wanner felt no such hesitation.

These elders are people who raised her from childhood; they have called her Young Lady all their lives and always regarded themselves as her servants. Although Lin Wanner did not truly treat them as servants, when she needed them, she was never polite.

Soon, the voice on the other end of the phone came: Sun Zhidong's respectful tone: "Young Lady, it's so late—do you have some urgent matter?"

Lin Wanner hummed and said: "Young Master Ye wishes to see the Four Directions Treasure Pillar again, the sooner the better—is it convenient?"

Sun Zhidong pondered for a moment and said: "Convenient. The Four Directions Treasure Pillar is currently in the highest department related to cultural relics. They have invited some feng shui masters to secretly study it, hoping to see if it can continue to function. This matter is currently top secret, but for Mr. Ye, it's not really a secrecy issue, after all, this item was brought back by him and presented to the state."

After saying that, Sun Zhidong said: "Here's what we'll do, Young Lady—let Mr. Ye come to Yanjing first. Tell me when and where you arrive, and I'll arrange someone to pick him up and take him directly there."

Lin Wanner then said: "Alright, we'll arrange a flight now and try to arrive within three hours."

After hanging up, Lin Wanner asked Ye Chen: "Young Master, would you like me to arrange the flight?"

"No need," Ye Chen said. "The Ye family has a plane on standby in Jin Ling."

Saying this, he struggled to rise, returned to the safe, and took out another Yuan-Nourishing Pill, carefully swallowing it.

Logically, one pill would not be enough to replenish his spiritual energy, but Ye Chen was reluctant to invest more—now, seeing the Yuan-Nourishing Pill, he felt a pang of pain.

After taking one pill, his condition improved considerably. Ye Chen deliberately muttered: "This time I was really ruined by that hand seal—I will never touch it again."

Lin Wanner asked: "Young Master, do you think the problem lies with the hand seal?"

Ye Chen said: "I'm not sure, but the hand seal is definitely a bait. The urgent priority now is to figure out who is controlling this bait."

Besides this, Ye Chen also hopes to find an opportunity to send away the plague god within him that madly drains his spiritual energy.

Afterwards, Ye Chen called to arrange the flight, then together with Lin Wanner, hurriedly left the hillside villa.

Fortunately, there were backup vehicles here, so Ye Chen did not let Hong Wu send him off; instead, he and Lin Wanner drove together to the airport, and then took off in the night, heading straight for Yanjing.

After a one-and-a-half-hour flight, the plane landed at Yanjing Airport.

The weather in Yanjing today is unusually cold—snow began falling at dusk, and now it is getting heavier. The snow on both sides of the runway has already reached nearly ten centimeters in depth.

Although it is snowing heavily in the sky, Sun Zhidong has already personally waited here. As soon as the two stepped off the plane, they saw him come forward and say: "Young Lady, Mr. Ye, I have already greeted the cultural relics department—we can go now."

Ye Chen respectfully said: "Grandfather Sun, thank you for your trouble!"

Sun Zhidong said: "Mr. Ye is too polite—this is just my duty."

As for Ye Chen, Sun Zhidong is also very grateful—even if Ye Chen did not let Lin Wanner speak and directly asked him for help, he would certainly not refuse.

Immediately afterward, a convoy of three vehicles sped toward the suburbs of Yanjing.

What Ye Chen did not expect was that the Four Directions Treasure Pillar was not stored in the cultural relics department, but in the garrison of the suburban troops.

The main reason for placing it in the troop garrison is that the Four Directions Treasure Pillar is extremely precious—it is, in a sense, of the same rank as Qin Shi Huang's Imperial Jade Seal, and in history, academia, and other fields, it can be called a top-tier cultural relic of the Huaxia nation.

Besides this, there is another highly confidential reason: the relevant departments, holding the attitude of "better to believe it than not," want to verify whether the Four Directions Treasure Pillar can actually bless the nation's fortune.

When Ye Chen and Lin Wanner drove through the camp and arrived in front of the central building, Sun Zhidong lowered his voice and said to them: "The Four Directions Treasure Pillar is stored in the underground bunker, with orders forbidding it from leaving the bunker even half a step—so to see it, one must go down."

Ye Chen nodded and said: "I will follow your arrangements."

Since Sun Zhidong had already greeted them, and the superiors also knew the Four Directions Treasure Pillar was sent back by Ye Chen, the guards on duty did not conduct many checks and let them enter the building interior.

At this moment, a military representative came over, saluted Sun Zhidong respectfully, and said: "Elder Sun, I have been assigned by superiors to accompany you and the two guests throughout."

Sun Zhidong nodded and asked him: "Is anyone down there?"

"Yes," the representative said: "We have soldiers guarding below in 24-hour shifts. Usually, some cultural relic experts and metaphysics masters come to do research, but they have already left for now and will not return until seven o'clock in the morning."

Saying this, the person opened the only elevator leading into the underground bunker and invited them to enter.

After Ye Chen entered the elevator, he discovered that besides the first-floor button, there were also buttons for B3, B2, and B1.

It seems the underground bunker should have three levels.

The representative pressed B3 on the elevator, and the elevator quickly and smoothly descended until it stopped steadily at the bottom.

After exiting the elevator, the military representative led the three to a completely sealed room with only a single vault door. The entire room was wrapped in a hard steel shell. To ensure absolute safety, there were no ventilation pipes inside—only two vents, one intake and one exhaust, on the vault door. These vents were deliberately made as a cluster of holes less than one centimeter thick in the heavy metal door—only mosquitoes could crawl through.

Outside the door, several fully armed soldiers stood guard. Their duty was to stare intently at the Four Directions Treasure Pillar whenever someone was inside, and when no one was present, to strictly guard the door to ensure no unauthorized person entered.

Moreover, these guards themselves had no keys or passwords—the keys and passwords were kept by the representative. If he came to open the door and enter, these soldiers would have to follow him inside to strictly protect the Four Directions Treasure Pillar.

Even before the door was opened, Ye Chen closely monitored his sea of consciousness. Earlier, a large amount of spiritual energy had vanished from his sea of consciousness out of nowhere, making him suspect that the thing draining his spiritual energy was likely hidden in his sea of consciousness, though he could not perceive it.

He felt that if something in his sea of consciousness was truly related to the Four Directions Treasure Pillar, then when he returned to its side, that thing would surely produce some connection with it.

As the verification sound rang out, the heavy metal door slowly pushed outward. At this moment, the Four Directions Treasure Pillar stood quietly in the center of the vault on a pedestal about 1.2 meters high.

As Ye Chen stepped toward the Four Directions Treasure Pillar, he felt his sea of consciousness suddenly stir with a hidden undulation, as if a great fish were slowly swimming and turning beneath a calm surface.

At this moment, Ye Chen firmly believed that there was indeed an unknown entity in his sea of consciousness, and that it must be related to the Four Directions Treasure Pillar!