The sudden spatial rift began to absorb the surrounding objects.
The first to be sucked in were the surrounding piles of earth and rocks. Like water pouring down, they flowed into the spatial rift.
Meanwhile, Alka and the others, having been warned by Julia, had already moved away and reached the top of the pit.
From here, they could no longer feel the suction of the space, temporarily safe.
"Why did a spatial rift appear here?" Sofia asked, frowning.
During the three days of mapping, they had seen spatial rifts that looked exactly like this.
Julia, having noticed something was amiss, clearly had the answer.
"This spatial rift is caused by the fragmentation of the space we were just in. The rules are chaotic, and the collisions are causing problems."
Julia frowned slightly at this, then said with a hint of resignation, "If the rules of the surrounding space were perfect, this wouldn't be a problem, but... it's too chaotic."
"Will this rift become permanent? Then we'll have added another dangerous area to this place."
Simon thought for a moment, then spoke with a hint of embarrassment.
This statement left everyone silent for a moment.
After all, they would be leaving the island soon, so if this became a dangerous area, it wouldn't be their business.
But it would be hard on the island's residents.
Julia stared silently ahead with her blue eyes, fixed on the spatial rift in the ruins.
She watched as the surrounding soil was sucked in. When all the soil was gone, the mud and debris surrounding the rift were sucked in along with it.
Although the ruins' material was strong enough to withstand such a long period of time, it was completely ineffective against the destructive nature of the spatial rift.
The ruins they had just excavated were already beginning to break down, and the pits were growing deeper and deeper.
Looking at the spatial rift still absorbing the surrounding matter, Julia suddenly said, "Don't worry too much. This spatial rift won't last much longer. It's already unstable."
Julia could accurately sense anything that affected the environment, anything that disrupted the surrounding rules.
Shortly after she finished speaking, purple lightning appeared at the location of the spatial rift, accompanied by a crackling sound.
The crack, originally a long, slit-like rift, began to sway from side to side, then twisted and distorted like rubber.
"Crack!"
A violent shattering sound echoed.
As the sound faded, the spatial rift vanished along with it, transforming into a faint purple glow and vanishing.
Watching the spatial rift completely vanish, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
It wasn't permanent, so that was acceptable.
"It's safe now," Julia said, closing her eyes and taking in her surroundings for a moment.
She looked at the devastation wrought by the spatial rift.
Besides helping to draw in the surrounding soil, it also completely destroyed the ruins they had excavated below.
From the point where the spatial rift appeared upwards, all the ruins extending out to the surface vanished. As the soil and rubble were sucked in, a deeper tunnel appeared at the bottom of the pit.
The ruins, buried even deeper, were revealed.
Arka looked at the deep pit below and the soil that had fallen as the spatial rift vanished. He was certain he hadn't seen correctly. There were several objects with white borders below.
They were clearly ordinary treasures of white value. These were plentiful on the map, densely packed throughout, with white dots surrounding every blue dot.
Once Alka realized the ruins were buried deep underground, he stopped focusing on the white dots.
After all, who knew how deep they lay? Spending so much effort and time on a few white dots of unknown value was clearly not worth it.
But now that a pit had appeared, it was a good idea to take them. With that thought, Alka jumped directly from above the pit.
The others followed suit.
"A lot of the ruins have been destroyed, but deeper ones are now visible," Lucilia said as she inspected the ruins.
Then she looked at the more exposed ruins and began to examine them. "Anything there?" Sofia asked, standing beside Alka, watching him squatting at the bottom of the pit and gently digging.
Alka nodded. "I just saw something down there. I don't know what it is, so I dug it out and took a look."
Watching Alka's movements, the others came up to help with the digging.
The powerful suction generated by the space exercise had made the surrounding soil unusually loose, making it easy to dig.
As they dug, clumps of mud-covered objects were thrown out.
Though these objects looked no different from lumps of mud, Alka could see they were all surrounded by a white border.
Everyone had a rough idea of what Alka was looking for, and they threw everything they had dug into a pile.
Alka looked at the pile of mud. Although most of it lacked a white border, some of it was clearly white.
"Okay, that's enough. Nothing valuable left," Alka said, glancing at the map in his hand. The white dots had vanished from the area they were currently standing at. It seemed as though only three or four nearly overlapping white dots had vanished, but they were actually worth far more. When items are piled together, the white edge only highlights the most valuable item. Jason and Simon were already squatting beside the pile of mud, examining its contents. "What are all these things? They're completely encased in mud." Jason spent a long time cleaning them with water, only to find that all that remained was mud. Simon, standing nearby, took a look at the mud in his hand. "It's been buried for so long, it must be gold." He then picked up a smaller, palm-sized piece of mud nearby, examined it, and said, "This should be some kind of gemstone." Listening to Simon's words, Jason looked at the pile of mud, then at the object in his hand. Silently, he said, "So how did you figure that out?"
Simon said nothing. He raised his right hand in front of everyone, revealing his metal arm and the conspicuous treasure on his index finger.
Magic energy surged in his palm, and the dirt on the mud lumps began to shake and rapidly peeled off.
A variety of golden objects were manipulated and flew out of the mud.
They were piled to the side.
As a mechanic, Simon could precisely manipulate some metals, and gold was no problem.
Some gold artifacts were piled together.
Simon repeated his old trick, peeling off various gemstone objects and piling them together.
Looking at the remaining mud lumps, he waved his hand.
What was revealed were various rotten and dilapidated metal objects that clearly could no longer be called treasure.
"Wait a moment, let me take a look." Lucilia, who was examining the ruins nearby, came over with a few quick hops.
She looked at the pile of gold artifacts and began to examine them carefully.
Most of these gold artifacts had a peculiar appearance, especially with densely inscribed patterns and unknown symbols.
The same was true of the gemstone and crystal artifacts, some even inscribed with arrays resembling spells.
These were clearly not simply decorative items.
Most importantly, the patterns and inscriptions on these valuable items were remarkably well-preserved, far superior to those found in the ruins.
Everyone curiously picked up these valuables and began to examine them.
At that moment, Simon suddenly stood up, and a flickering, spherical structure appeared in his hand.
He looked at the orb in his hand, then glanced up at the sky, reminding everyone, "Sixteen hours of daylight have already passed. Night will soon arrive."
Since arriving in the Infinite Sea, he had calculated every day and night with precision.
The shortest night was eighteen hours, so when he emerged, he set a simple alarm clock to go off every sixteen hours.
Hearing this, Alka said, "Put these finds in your pocket rings. We'll see when we get back. This isn't a good place."
Today's operation had yielded a bountiful harvest.
Everyone stuffed the finds into their pocket rings.
"Hmm...are we just going to leave this pit...here?" Matlisa asked softly.
Hearing this, Alka scratched his forehead in annoyance.
If it had been before, it would have been fine. After all, the soil they had excavated was piled above the pit; they just had to push it in to cover it.
But the spatial rift had not only deepened the pit, but also absorbed the soil they had previously piled nearby.
"Someone's coming," Sofia suddenly said.
Then she closed her eyes, sensed for a moment, and added, "It's Bai Shi's patrol."
Early after she finished speaking, Bai Shi and the others appeared in the dense forest in the distance.
Looking at Alka and the others who had already climbed up the pit, he waved.
When Kuaibude approached, he was immediately drawn to the pit.
He walked over and looked down.
"Wow! Is this the result of your day's work? But I remember there were some exposed ruins there. Was I mistaken?"
Bai Shi exclaimed in amazement, then pointed around the pit.
He remembered that when he had come here before, there should have been some exposed ruins. Why was there only a hole now?
"Yes, you're mistaken," Jason said confidently from the side.
"Really?"
"Yes."
As the two men spoke, the others were already shoveling away the surrounding dirt, covering the hole.
They were preparing to dig up the surrounding dirt to fill it.
Watching this, Bai Shi asked with some confusion, "Are you going to bury it now? You've worked so hard all day digging, aren't you going to continue digging tomorrow?"
After digging all day, it would be a shame to bury such a large hole.
Besides, he saw the exposed ruins below. Aren't these what Alka and the others were after?
"We've seen the ruins. There's nothing useful about them. Naturally, they need to be filled in to prevent them from affecting you," Alka said with a smile.
Hearing this, Bai Shi's eyes widened slightly as he walked over and patted Alka's shoulder solemnly.
"Honestly, my friend, it would be wonderful if all outsiders who come to this island were like you."
His tone was filled with sighs.
He shook his head helplessly.
From what he said, it was clear that they had dealt with these traces left by outsiders more than once.
After all, anyone who came to this island, anyone who knew anything about it, and was curious, would surely want to see what lay beneath these ruins.
"But if you need to fill it up, remember to do it quickly; night is coming."
As he finished speaking, he saw several white birds flying across the sky and descending towards the dense forest.
"Well, we don't have much time."
He immediately tilted his head and spoke to the hunters behind him.
The hunters immediately came over and, along with Alka and the others, quickly began to fill the hole.
The hole was quickly filled, and the surrounding area had become noticeably lower.
After quickly burying the remains, Bai Shi looked at the small, round pit, which had become half a meter lower than the surrounding area.
‐‐Something seemed off, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
‐‐A team member behind him was saying something, and he immediately pulled his thoughts back.
‐‐"Hurry, hurry, hurry, let's get back. Time's running out."
With that, Bai Shi followed the others, leading his team members as they raced towards the town.
‐‐It didn't take long before they sighted the first watchtower.
‐‐The sky was still bright.
‐‐The sight of the watchtower slowed everyone's pace.
‐‐Arriving here meant they had entered the town's boundaries, no longer fearing the uncertain dangers of the night.
‐‐It wasn't until they reached the town's gate that darkness began to fall.
‐‐At that moment, Bai Shi suddenly remembered something and clenched his right fist into the palm of his left.
"I see!"
"What do you mean?" Alka, standing beside him, looked at him in confusion.
"I was wondering that when we were filling the hole just now, and now I remember where the dirt you dug up went?" Seeing Bai Shi's intelligent eyes, Alka became even more confused.
They hadn't asked Bai Shi this question before, so they assumed he'd encountered it many times before.
So he hadn't noticed it at all?
Alka briefly recounted their encounter.
"You mean you came across a rift that suddenly opened during the day? You're really unlucky.
It's not uncommon for such a situation to happen, but it's rare."
After a brief chat, they parted ways.
Alka and the others had just entered the town and were about to head towards their rented house when they saw a group of people walking towards them.
These people, like them, stood out from the crowd.
Their appearance and skin color were normal humans, and their clothing was completely different from the surroundings.
Alka had seen most of this group before.
Of course, Alka had only seen them once before.
In a dream.
Alka looked at the leader of the merchant fleet approaching the island.
He wore a tight-fitting leather armor, a sailor's longsword at his waist. He was a middle-aged man with ordinary features, but he looked quite imposing.
They also saw Alka and the others.
He glanced past the leader and looked at the towering Pororo, the four-armed Matresha with a human body and a snake's tail, and the puppet girl standing on the shoulders of the others.
These clearly non-human races made him even more concerned.
He then nodded politely to them. Without much exchange, they passed each other.
Until they turned the corner and lost sight of Alka and the others.
A man standing behind the captain took a few steps forward: "Captain."
"Well, find a chance to meet them. Remember to be kind and go to the ship to get some gifts."
"Huh?" This clearly puzzled the man behind him.
Although he wasn't as strong as his captain, he wasn't weak either. He could clearly sense that Alka and the others weren't very strong overall.
At least, none of them could compare to himself and the captain.
So he was a little confused by his captain's words.
"They came from the Four Gods Sea."
They're people from the Four Gods Sea, and they've definitely just arrived. Making some friends wouldn't be a bad idea for us.
After saying this, he muttered to himself, "Damn it! How did this group get together? It's incomprehensible."
The captain's words shocked the first mate behind him.
He didn't see that Alka and the others looked like they were from the Four Gods Sea.
Then he frowned and couldn't help but ask, "Then why aren't we..."
Hearing this, the captain, walking in front, suddenly stopped, and the crew members following them immediately stopped.
The captain turned and stared at him, then leaned his head slightly closer.
He whispered in his ear, "If you're looking for death, don't take us with you. I won't take my crew with me to die."
Without waiting for a reply, he led the others forward.
Hearing this, the first mate's expression changed, and he immediately followed.
"Come on, Captain, that was just a joke." "
Though he didn't know what his captain had noticed, now that the captain had spoken, he immediately dismissed the idea.
He knew his limitations; he couldn't match the captain in either vision or strength.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be the captain.