Li Xiu was somewhat surprised. After asking Demigod Shana and the Jedi Knight to step aside, he began to dig along the edge of that thing.
He dug about a foot deep when suddenly there was a flash of light beneath, flickering like lightning streaking across the sky in a fleeting blaze.
Upon closer inspection, Li Xiu discovered that beneath the black substance was a transparent crystal, similar to glass, from which the light was emanating.
After a few more digs, there was still more crystal beneath, occasionally showing lightning-like arcs that appeared and disappeared abruptly, as if many lightning bolts were interweaving within it.
Chu Ling noticed the anomaly over there, but he did not rush back to check, choosing instead to maintain his vigil by the sea.
Before long, Demigod Shana and the Jedi Knight had excavated a large pit, fully revealing the thing.
It was a cylindrical object, about fifty to sixty centimeters in diameter and over a meter tall, yet shy of two meters.
Each end was encased in a black substance, resembling two caps enclosing a cylindrical crystal container.
Inside the crystal container, winding lights flickered and intertwined, sometimes one or two, sometimes several, appearing randomly with no apparent cause for these eerie lights.
"What is this thing?" Li Xiu scrutinized it for a long while, unable to determine what it was.
He summoned the Pink Nightmare and the Black Death Demon, instructing all the spirits to push the object down, rolling it like a wheel out of the pit.
The object was exceedingly heavy. Even with the combined efforts of several spirits, they couldn’t lift it, only able to roll it along.
Fortunately, it was a cylinder, so they were able to shove it through the city gate. After searching the beach to ensure nothing else was there, Li Xiu called Chu Ling back and lowered the gate.
"What is this thing?" Chu Ling looked at the strange container in bewilderment, not understanding what it was either.
"I don’t know, but I feel the energy of those lights inside is very strong," Li Xiu mused, observing the lights that appeared and vanished inside the container.
"Maybe it’s something good. Let’s take it back and study it slowly," Chu Ling suggested.
"I’d like to take it back too, but as you know, the items from the Land of Trial must be liftable to be taken out. Even with the combined strength of Demigod Shana and the Jedi Knight, it’s impossible to lift this, so how can we take it out?" Li Xiu replied helplessly.
"Is it that heavy?" Chu Ling was astonished.
Though Demigod Shana and the Jedi Knight were not of high rank, they had considerable strength. The fact that two spirits couldn’t lift it made one wonder just how heavy it was.
"If you don’t believe me, give it a try," Li Xiu offered.
Chu Ling summoned his two Radiant Black Death Demons. Whatever Chu Ling had fed them, they had both advanced to grade C.
The two grade C spirits took positions on either side, grasping the handles on the black caps and exerting all their strength to lift the container. They ended up exhausted and shrouded in black smoke, with no indication that the container would leave the ground.
"It’s so heavy... Bringing it back will indeed be troublesome... If we leave it here, I wonder if it will still be here the next time we come in," Chu Ling was frustrated.
"If we can take it back, it’s best not to risk leaving it," Li Xiu contemplated, "Do you think this thing fell from the ship?"
"It’s quite likely, but with the ship in such disrepair, if there was something shining inside, why didn’t we see anything earlier?" Chu Ling voiced his doubts.
Li Xiu pondered over the issue as well. The lights within the container were as bright as lightning, and with all the cracks in the ship, it was perplexing that they hadn’t noticed it before.
"There are only two possibilities: one, it was covered by something within the ship, so we didn’t see the light, or, two, it wasn’t from the ship at all but had fallen from one of those terrifying spirits in the Black Sea..." Chu Ling analyzed.
Though Chu Ling’s second theory sounded far-fetched, it wasn’t entirely impossible.
"Let’s think about how to bring it back first," Li Xiu suggested to Chu Ling, "Let’s call out all the spirits and see if they can lift it together."
Upon hearing this, Chu Ling summoned all his spirits, which included merely two Black Death Demons and a Deep Blue Knight.
Li Xiu also summoned his spirits. A crowd of spirits encircled the container, some lifting with their hands, others using their heads. Together, they managed to hoist it up, albeit unsteadily.
But judging by the spirits’ appearances, with their fluctuating auras, it was evident they were making a formidable effort.
No sooner had they lifted it than a spirit faltered, and the container crashed down, cracking the black stone ground.
Both individuals jumped back in shock. Fortunately, the crystal-like glass container remained unscathed, prompting both to breathe a sigh of relief.