78: Golden Ship and Guardian's Token

Lin Feng walked quickly to the edge of the pier to observe this Golden Ship up close.

Its craftsmanship was supernatural; the entire ship seemed to be cast as a single piece, with no visible seams or joints. The hull's surface was covered in intricate, strange patterns resembling circuit board traces, sharing the same style as the Sun God Temple—it was full of the technological sense of a super-ancient civilization.

"Brother Feng, this ship... can it move?" Wang Dalong followed him over. He reached out and cautiously touched the cold hull, then retracted his hand like a lightning strike, as if afraid he might break the treasure.

"There are two oars in the ship." Lin Feng pointed toward the interior of the cabin.

Sure enough, two oars lay inside the cabin. Unsurprisingly, those two oars were also made of pure gold, with complex patterns engraved on the blades.

"Let me try!" Wang Dalong volunteered. He flipped himself onto the Golden Ship; the hull only swayed slightly, remaining incredibly stable.

He walked into the cabin, bent down, and grabbed one of the golden oars with both hands. Taking a deep breath, he pulled with all his might!

"Up you go!"

The golden oar didn't budge.

Wang Dalong refused to believe it. His face turned beet red, and the fat on his arms trembled as he exerted every ounce of strength he possessed.

"Get... up... for... me!"

The golden oar continued to lie there quietly, as if mocking his overestimation of his own strength.

"Holy crap, how heavy is this thing?" Exhausted, Wang Dalong plopped down in the ship, panting heavily. "This isn't meant for humans to use, is it? Are the people who sail this ship all Hulks?"

Lin Feng didn't laugh; he knew in his heart that Wang Dalong was right.

These oars weren't meant for rowing at all. They were more like... decorations, or perhaps one of the 'keys' to start the system?

He jumped onto the ship, ignoring the incredibly heavy golden oars, and walked straight to the center of the vessel.

There stood a half-meter-tall, circular Golden Pedestal. The top of the pedestal was a smooth concave surface, and in the very center was a peculiar, irregularly shaped groove.

The shape of the groove... Lin Feng's pupils contracted slightly.

He subconsciously reached into his pocket and felt a cold, hard object.

It was a stone he had pried off a complex rune that had glowed when he touched it before leaving the Sun God Temple. When the system prompt sounded at that time, he instinctively felt the item would be useful and brought it along.

[Item Name: Guardian's Token (Incomplete)]

[Type: Key Quest Item]

[Description: A part of the Sun God Temple's core energy circuit; it seems to be the activation key for a certain device.]

Lin Feng took out the stone.

It was about the size of a palm, made of a material that was neither metal nor stone, jet black all over, with that complex symbol carved on its surface. Its shape fit the groove on the Golden Pedestal... perfectly!

"No way..." Wang Dalong also saw the connection. He leaned in, his eyes wide as saucers. "Brother Feng, you... when did you shoplift this? This thing is the key?"

Lin Feng didn't answer. Holding the 'Guardian's Token,' he aligned it with the groove on the Golden Pedestal and slowly lowered it.

*Click.*

With a soft sound, the token was perfectly embedded into the groove.

The moment it was inserted, a sudden change occurred!

"Buzz—"

A low hum, sounding as if it came from ancient times, echoed from within the Golden Pedestal. Immediately after, starting from the groove, the fine circuit-like patterns on the surface of the Golden Ship lit up section by section!

A pale golden light spread rapidly along the patterns, flowing through every corner of the ship within seconds. The eyes of the Feathered Serpent God at the bow lit up with two points of brilliant red light.

The entire Golden Ship, like a giant beast that had slept for ten thousand years, awakened at this moment!

"It... it moved!" Wang Dalong let out a cry of surprise.

The Golden Ship silently detached from the pier, the bow automatically turning to face a massive, deep cavern opening on the opposite side of the lake. Then, it began to glide forward smoothly and fluidly.

There were no oars, no propellers, and no visible power devices.

It was like a block of ice sliding across a frozen surface—silent, yet moving at high speed.

Wang Dalong was completely stunned by this surreal scene. Sitting on the deck, he muttered to himself, "What... what's the principle behind this? Anti-gravity? Magnetic levitation? Or legendary maya black technology?"

Standing at the bow and feeling the cold, misty wind blowing against his face, Lin Feng was equally shaken internally.

He finally understood why the maya descendants needed to spend generations carving out those crude tunnels. It was because this technology had been lost to them. They only knew the final destination and that the Golden Ship was the only means of transport, but they could no longer replicate a second one.

This ship was the final legacy of their ancestral civilization and the only proof of passage to El Dorado.

The Golden Ship pulled a long tail of golden light across the mirror-black lake and soon entered the massive cave on the opposite side.

Inside the cave was an even wider underground river. The glowing crystal clusters on the rock walls became fewer and fewer, and the light gradually dimmed.

However, the light emitted by the Golden Ship itself was enough to illuminate the area dozens of meters ahead.

"Brother Feng, listen. What's that sound?"

After sailing for about ten minutes, Wang Dalong's ears twitched. He heard a strange, increasingly loud noise.

The sound initially resembled distant thunder, but it quickly turned into a massive roar like ten thousand galloping horses.

"Whoosh—Rumble rumble—"

The entire underground river channel seemed to vibrate slightly amidst this massive roar.

Lin Feng's expression changed as well. He looked up toward the front of the river channel.

At the end of the darkness, he saw a vast expanse of white mist.

The roaring sound was coming from there.

As the Golden Ship drew closer, they finally saw the scene ahead clearly.

It was an... indescribable, underground waterfall so magnificent it inspired despair!

The entire underground river encountered a massive fault here. River water hundreds of meters wide poured off the cliff, plunging into a bottomless, pitch-black abyss!

That thunderous roar was the sound of tens of thousands of tons of river water crashing into the abyss with unstoppable force!

"Holy shit! A... a waterfall!" Wang Dalong's face turned white with fear. He grabbed the gunwale, his voice trembling. "Brother Feng! We're... we're going to fall!!"

The Golden Ship's speed did not decrease in the slightest as it charged straight and resolutely toward that cliff of death!