Chapter 276 Another Stone Statue

The iron cable was slowly pulled out of the sea, and a shadow rose from beneath the water.

"This was salvaged by ship number three. We were using steel hooks to retrieve beast corpses when we felt something was off as we reeled in the cable, so we dragged it back to port," a Pioneer said.

Li Tianran stared intently at the shadow rising from beneath the water. He had a bad feeling, a sharp, stinging sensation all over his body, and he felt short of breath.

He wasn't the only one. The Pioneer warriors standing at the port felt the same way, as if an invisible pressure in the air was descending with the shadow beneath the water.

As for Qin Yiming, a regular person, he felt a surge of fear and retreated hundreds of meters away.

Splash!

As the chain tightened, a huge splash echoed as a behemoth emerged from the water.

"It really is another stone statue!"

The instant he saw the object, Li Tianran felt his heart skip a beat. It was a strangely shaped stone statue, identical in material and feel to the one seized from the beast nest, but with a vastly different appearance.

The stone statue from the beast nest was a beast, while the one being salvaged was humanoid.

Although humanoid, it wasn't human. Its body was covered in black and gold stripes, and a third eye grew between its eyebrows. Lion-like mane cascaded down its back, and rough, lizard-like scales grew on its neck and wrists.

"What the hell is that thing?" A Pioneer couldn't help but curse when he saw the stone statue.

Scales, mane, a third eye, a humanoid form—these characteristics would never appear on the same creature in modern human biology. Although some strange gods in ancient Indian religious worship had many animal features, he couldn't find any deity image that corresponded to the appearance of the stone statue in front of him, even after searching through his memories!

Moreover, idols only evoked feelings of compassion and gentleness, but this stone statue was filled with an aura of fear, oppression, and awe.

"There's a base under this stone statue..." Soon, Li Tianran noticed something. Beneath the statue was something like a lotus pedestal under a Buddha statue, engraved with strange characters, densely packed. Li Tianran squatted down and stared at the characters, but he found that they didn't match any known writing. Moreover, these characters didn't resemble the "oracle bone script, the initial pictographs" from before the invention of formal writing in ancient times. These characters looked more regular, standardized, and grand than oracle bone script!

Li Tianran couldn't recognize these characters, and the Eye of Data didn't provide any information about their meaning.

"Haul it back," Li Tianran said. "Put it with the broken stone statue from last time!"

Li Tianran's eyebrows furrowed. He vaguely guessed that these stone statues might be related to the Fourth Age of Destruction, but he didn't know where to start analyzing them.

He could only drag them back to the warehouse for slow analysis. If he still couldn't extract any useful information before the Fourth Age of Destruction arrived, he would have to throw the stone statues back into the sea.

Rumble!

The crane dragged the stone statue, rumbling across the ground towards the farm warehouse.

"Notify Professor Nan, tell him to stop being all lovey-dovey with Nan Nan, and have him and Bai Jingyan analyze the fragments of the destroyed stone statue from last time to see if they're fossils of some super-evolved being!" Li Tianran picked up the walkie-talkie and said in a deep voice.

Since Nan Nan and Bai Jingyan returned to Crazy Breath Island, Professor Nan's work had been on hold, and Li Tianran didn't plan to let Bai Jingyan leave. The outside world was too chaotic, and a bloody showdown could happen at any time. Bai Jingyan and Nan Nan were too small to survive the great storms outside.

As for the semi-collapsed Mofila, the Human Alliance had decided to accept its remnants and incorporate them into the human defense forces.

Bai Jingyan's mission was complete. Mofila's resource transportation successfully helped Li Tianran gain a foothold in this chaotic world, and it played a vital role in the early construction of Crazy Breath Island. For safety reasons, and also for Professor Nan's sake, Li Tianran arranged for them all to work at the research institute.

After much deliberation, Bai Jingyan agreed with this decision.

...

"Why is there another stone statue?" Tang Su looked at the stone statue that had just been lowered by the crane, her expression somewhat unnatural. Even from dozens of meters away, she couldn't help but take two steps back. "The last time I saw this thing, I had nightmares for two nights straight."

"The pressure it gives me is even stronger than the beast statue last time." Tang Su rolled up her sleeves and found that her delicate arm skin was covered in goosebumps. She couldn't help but shiver. "It's really creepy!"

"Where's Hanhan?" Li Tianran asked. After the last stone statue shattered, he discovered that Hanhan wasn't afraid of these stone statues at all. Perhaps Hanhan could tell him something about these mysterious stone statues.

Of course, the information didn't just refer to insights spoken out loud. Li Tianran didn't think Hanhan could tell him what these stone statues were. He just wanted to deduce something from Hanhan's behavior when facing the stone statue, as well as the subtle changes that the stone statue might produce...

"Playing with Xiao Hei and Da Bai, I'll call her over..." Yuan Wen quickly walked into the castle. Soon, Xiao Hei and the white cat jumped out of the castle first. The moment they saw the stone statue, Xiao Hei's fur stood on end!

The white cat was even worse, immediately prostrating on the ground, unmoving!

"Big brother, what's wrong?" Hanhan walked out.

"Go take a look at that stone statue," Li Tianran pointed and said, "And tell me what you feel."