At the bottom of a densely vegetated valley, the team proceeded along a cave at the corner of the mountain wall.

Sura led the way, because she was the smallest and could easily squeeze into narrow places. Additionally, as an Iron Core Species, she could set down iron supports along the path to reinforce the passage and prevent collapse.

Following her were Flan, Sherry, Guy, and Hexia. Flan had a considerable understanding of ancient knowledge related to ruins and could distinguish many facilities along the way and help with common issues. Sherry, being quite strong, was responsible for battle duties, while Guy provided rear support, and Hexia was the last insurance, responsible for medical aid.

The first half of the passage was very damp, with a lot of rotting material. Some of it resulted from rainwater seeping in, and there were traces of animals nesting, with visible remains and bones of small dead animals, creating an unpleasant odor.

The passage for further progression had collapsed halfway through, so the team dug for a while and made it stable enough to continue forward.

The air in this area was quite stuffy, so the five had to pause temporarily to allow for ventilation before they continued onward.

"Did you see the chisel marks on this stone wall? These should have been left by previous excavators," Flan pointed to the obvious scratches on the side of the passage.

"They must have used some kind of mechanical cutters to make these stone incisions," Sura speculated, after touching the marks.

"With such technology and strength, no wonder you mentioned earlier that it could have been excavated before," Guy said as he joined them. The place where the five stood was quite spacious, with two massive rocks above supporting each other.

"We can take a brief rest here, and also determine the direction onward," Flan suggested.

After stopping, Flan took out a portable metal detector and activated it. Based on the feedback from the gauge, he quickly sketched the general situation on a nearby clipboard.

"There's a significant reaction to the southeast, and also reactions in the northern and southwestern corners, but not as strong."

"Judging by the passage ahead, the previous excavation team also advanced towards the southeast," Flan marked on the paper.

"Let's head southwest," Hexia suggested. In her perception, the north was dead silent, partially submerged in water, and while there were a lot of structural remains in the southeast, most of them had been emptied, left broken and desolate.

"This..." Flan wasn't insistent on going southeast, but was curious as to why Hexia was so confident.

"I can sense some different responses from the southwest," Hexia explained.

"Telepathy?" Sura guessed, resting her head.

"Many Newborn Races possess similar abilities, especially certain Upper Species," she speculated that Hexia and Ores must be some rare Upper Species of the Newborn Races.

Unlike ordinary Newborn Races, Upper Species often shoulder certain management responsibilities and act as nodes in constructing a Conscious Resonance network, akin to roles like Song Festival. They have sharper and stronger mental awareness and express genes differently from ordinary Newborn Races. If ordinary Newborn Races were likened to mass-produced automated assembly lines, then Upper Species were like carefully tuned and cultivated creations by the creator, some even painstakingly crafted by the Black Sun, with considerable effort and emotion invested, akin to one's own children.

"Since Hexia says so, let's dig in that direction," Guy agreed without any objections.

"I don't care where we go, as long as the pay isn't cut," Sherry, with a purely work-focused mindset, didn't care about the direction.

"Though the southeast has strong reactions, it might have already been explored by others. Let's go southwest," Flan agreed with Hexia's pointed direction after thinking it over.

"But where do we start digging in this direction, since we don't have as good tools as our predecessors?" Sura looked at the monolithic stone wall on one side.

"From this side," Hexia reluctantly exposed some of her abilities to reach the room in her senses.

"Digging diagonally from the side not only allows us to utilize the support of the side stones but also avoids obstructions during excavation." She placed a hand on the stone wall, a faint glow spreading from the rock surface and seeping underground.

"This?" The others looked at the young girl in astonishment, unsure where she got such perception and detection abilities, but it wasn't the time to ask in detail.

What followed was a somewhat monotonous digging process. Apart from Hexia and Sura, Guy, Flan, and Sherry took turns to slowly excavate the passage, consuming several hours.

"We can only go this far today," Flan said, planting his shovel in the ground and wiping his sweat, as the passage still didn't reveal an exit.

"Thank you all for your hard work," Hexia comforted the group. Then the five returned from the underground passage to the camp on the surface to rest.

After dinner made by Hexia and Sura, the three of them lay down to rest, while Hexia and Sura took turns keeping watch.

The next day, after replenishing their water and food, the five set off again, heading down the passage they dug yesterday to continue the unfinished project from the previous day.

Like this, another day and night went by, and by the third evening, with a rumble of falling debris, the passage was finally cleared, connecting to a room within the ruins.

"Let's not rush down, wait for ventilation first," Flan reminded them, so the five simply went out early to have dinner.

After eating, the excited group couldn't wait to sleep and returned to the underground passage, jumping into the room inside the ruins through the opened hole.

This room was about 30 square meters, not very large, with corroded metal frameworks inside, likely used in the past for storing miscellaneous items and parts. Some old fan blade components were visible.