Cave Refuge

As everyone's minds wandered to matters related to Little Five, Zachary tried to pull the long rod in his hands upward.

Under normal circumstances, since the rod had been easily lowered, and there was nothing obstructing it in the coffin, pulling it up should have been just as effortless.

But what Zachary hadn't anticipated was that the rod in his hands acted like a checkpoint, easy to lower but met with resistance when trying to pull it back up, commonly allowing only for downward movement and not retraction.

After feeling the resistance on lifting, Zachary instinctively glanced at the underwater coffin and saw that apart from supplies, there was nothing visible inside, not even the other end of the rod he had lowered, which seemingly disappeared, failing to appear within the coffin.

Had it not been for the resistance Zachary felt while lifting the rod, he might have thought that the rod had not penetrated into the coffin at all.

In fact, when using the rod to probe the coffin, Zachary had already brought his Divine Sense close to the rod, hoping to enter and investigate the situation inside the coffin.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Zachary's Divine Sense followed the rod into the coffin, it felt like it was transported into another space, and because it was his first try, Zachary initially used only a small amount of Divine Sense.

When Zachary realized that the Divine Sense that entered the coffin with the rod was disconnected from himself, he was already aware of the strangeness of the space inside the coffin.

The others, watching Zachary grasp the rod and seem to pull hard without moving it, were very surprised by his actions, not knowing if Zachary was verifying a thought in his mind.

Some might have suspected that the reason for Zachary's stillness was because he couldn't move the rod, after all, it was assembled from several rods, each two meters in diameter.

Though a single rod wasn't heavier than a Fishing Gull, once assembled, this rod would definitely weigh no less than a hundred pounds.

But for Zachary, let alone a weight of a hundred pounds, even if it weighed a hundred kilograms, Zachary would have been able to use it with one hand freely at this point.

Given the situation, the current inability to pull the rod up was practically impossible.

But since the problem had already arisen, continuing to complain and blame was useless, so when the others saw Zachary switch from holding the rod with one hand to two, they realized something was amiss.

"Zachary, what's wrong?"

"I've been probing for a while and haven't figured out the depth inside the coffin, so I decided to pull this rod back up, but who would've thought, when I lowered the rod just now I didn't encounter any resistance, yet now when I try to retrieve it, I face unprecedented resistance."

Hearing what Zachary said, perhaps due to his disdain for Zachary, Jason Jefferson snatched the rod from Zachary's hands, thinking that Zachary couldn't move it due to his weak Cultivation Level.

In Jason's view, compared to the often absent and idle Zachary, who loafed around doing nothing, he surely had much greater Cultivation Level, and having tested the weight of the rod when it had been assembled on the deck, he had found it somewhat heavy, but not to the extent that he couldn't lift it.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as he wished, for when Jason took the rod from Zachary's hands and initially tried lifting it with one hand, the rod, quite disrespectfully, didn't budge at all.

Realizing there was a problem, Jason immediately reacted just as Zachary had done, gripping the rod with both hands and then pulling hard, but even as Jason's face turned beet red with the effort, the rod still didn't come up even a bit.

The Guard Squad Captain, upon noticing the situation, took the wooden pole from Jason Jefferson's hand in what seemed like a casual manner to help Jason save face. Having learned from the experiences of the two before him, the Captain instinctively lifted the pole as he took it, to confirm the fact.

Of course, the Guard Squad Captain was not a pushover. After probing, he firmly grasped the long pole and with a roar, the sleeves of his shirt instantly burst open, revealing his bronze, muscular physique underneath.

Unfortunately, even though the Guard Squad Captain had flexed his muscles, the long pole stood unmoved, just like the Sword Stone of legend, suggesting that if one was not the destined person, they could not pull it out.

As veins bulged on the Captain's solid muscles, everyone understood that the Guard Squad Captain had applied his full strength. Despite this, the long pole did not budge in the slightest.

'Crack, crack!'

The continuous exertion from the Guard Squad Captain eventually overcame the wooden pole, which snapped into several pieces. Impressively, the breaks were not at the joints where the pole was pieced together.

Sensing the breakage of the pole in his hands, the Captain was expressionless, yet he inwardly sighed in relief. The fact that the other two hadn't been able to lift the pole was not a shameful matter, as neither Jason Jefferson nor Dong Tianyu had the appearance of the frail scholar, but neither did they have the appearance of being particularly robust.

But he was different. Apart from his strong build, his muscles exuded such a powerful presence that one glance was enough for anyone to feel the immense power.

Therefore, with the comparison to the other two, if he had shown the same result, he would have lost much of his prestige.

Luckily, the wooden pole eventually could not withstand the force and exploded apart. If the pole hadn't burst, it would have been a blow to his reputation over time.

Seeing the broken pole, Jason couldn't help but express his curiosity, "Zachary, there's no need to keep us in suspense now. Hurry up and tell us what you've found. We've come this far. Just be direct; there's no need to hide it from us."

Seeing Jason's anxious expression, Dong Tianyu didn't continue to tease him and said directly, "I'm not completely sure yet. Do you have something heavy on your boat that you don't need? Bring it out for me to experiment with."

Jason first asked Dong Tianyu if there were any restrictions on the items, and upon receiving a positive response, he immediately turned to a member of the Guard Squad and said, "Bring over all the trashed trash."

When the Guard Squad member arrived with four buckets in hand, Jason said to Dong Tianyu, "If you can preserve the buckets after you're done, that would be great. If it's really not possible, I'll have someone bring bags over."

Unlike the pre-natural disaster era, when trash cans were generally lined with trash bags for convenience and to ensure cleanliness, the trash cans brought by the Guard Squad now had no such liners; the trash was simply thrown directly into the cans.

The reason for this was simple: compared to the extremely cheap plastic bags before the natural disaster, labor costs were now virtually zero. Although throwing trash directly into the trash cans dirtied them, compared to the now scarce trash bags, it made more sense to assign one or two people to clean the trash cans, as labor was reusable and cost-effective. If it weren't for his innate curiosity, Jason wouldn't have considered the luxury of using new trash bags to collect trash.

After contemplating for a moment, Dong Tianyu decided to play it safe and put the trash into bags. This way, when he used them, he could avoid the awkwardness of garbage flying all over the place and failing to land in the designated spot.

Once everything was ready, Dong Tianyu grabbed two trash bags, fearing any inaccuracies might lead to an accident. So in an instant, he employed the Art of Controlling Objects to fully maneuver the trash bags, ensuring that even if they strayed off course, he could still guide them to the intended location using the Art.