Relying on his powerful physique, Fang Ming climbed to the very top of the fountain in just a few minutes. At the summit was a stone platform about two meters in diameter, with an opening the size of a rugby ball in the center from which all the fountain's water emerged.
"There's no suppressing object here either," Fang Ming searched all around but couldn't find the suppressing object that the Old Well Fiend had mentioned. In his understanding, a suppressing object should be some kind of strange artifact.
When in doubt, consult the diary:
"I've arrived at the grievances pool and climbed to the highest point to search for the suppressing object mentioned by the Old Well Fiend, but I found nothing after searching around. Helpless, I began to examine the fountain thoroughly, hoping to find some clues."
...That's it?
Fang Ming felt a pang in his jaw. It seemed he hadn't found the suppressing object in the next hour. What should he do now? Just wait an hour for the future to appear in the next hour?
That would be such a waste of time. Absolutely not.
"Since I can't find the suppressing object here, I might as well go dig up those three graves first."
Fang Ming knew the location of the suppressing objects at the Three Star Town Fiend Peak. The Old Well Fiend had already given him this information, and all he needed to do was go there, dig them up, and destroy them.
No sooner said than done.
Fang Ming scrambled down and ran towards the three graves to the east.
The three graves were all of average size. Due to disrepair, the tallest was no more than two meters high, while the other two were about a meter and a half. The material used to build the grave mounds was entirely earth, meaning these three grave mounds were essentially piles of dirt.
This made it very easy for Fang Ming to dig. With the sharp tentacle scales on his right arm, he easily cut off a large chunk of soil, then inserted his left hand along the cut to scoop out the dirt.
A few minutes later, Fang Ming shook the dirt off his hands and looked at the half-dug grave mound before him. "I don't know the specific location of the suppressing object, so I'll just have to dig it all up and see."
He continued digging.
Half an hour later.
The first grave mound had been completely emptied by Fang Ming, and the suppressing object buried beneath it appeared in his sight—a stone block covered in runes.
Fang Ming opened his diary to confirm whether destroying it would cause any issues. He was worried that as soon as he destroyed the stone, the Ancient Scholar Fiend would discover it, and that would be disastrous. He wasn't sure if the Ancient Scholar Fiend could sense it after the seals were broken.
"I dug open the first grave mound and found the suppressing object inside. After easily shattering it, out of caution, I continued digging deeper for a while and was surprised to find more suppressing objects underneath! I worked for another half hour until I dug out nine suppressing objects from this grave mound, and only then was this one seal point finally broken."
Looking at this entry, Fang Ming inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. Who would have thought that a single grave mound could contain nine suppressing objects? If he hadn't checked the diary, he might not have even thought of it.
"According to the diary, destroying the suppressing objects won't alert the Ancient Scholar Fiend, so I'm relieved."
Fang Ming brought down his hand like a blade, smashing the stone block and discarding it, then continued digging.
As expected, after digging about a meter down, he found another suppressing object. He casually smashed it and kept digging.
All nine suppressing objects were dug out and destroyed by Fang Ming. He had practically burrowed underground. With the first one and the nine buried beneath it, the depth reached over ten meters, comparable to the depth of some wells.
"Done!" Fang Ming climbed out of the deep pit and glanced at the sun overhead, hoping he had enough time.
Without delay, he ran to the location of the second grave mound. Fang Ming repeated the same process. With the experience of digging the first grave mound, the excavation time for this one was significantly reduced.
About an hour later, all nine suppressing objects beneath the second grave mound were dug up and destroyed.
All that remained was the largest grave mound.
"The diary still has no clues about the suppressing object at the fountain," Fang Ming considered going to the fountain to look for clues about the suppressing object, then opened his diary. It still only stated that he was looking for clues.
"Never mind, I'll dig up the third grave mound first, then go ask the Old Well Fiend."
He could only hope that the Old Well Fiend knew the location of the suppressing object, otherwise, today's efforts would be in vain.
"Heave ho." Fang Ming began to work on the last grave mound. This one was larger, so the workload was greater.
"I'm the donkey from the production team, digging, digging, digging..."
Clods of earth flew everywhere. With the experience from before, digging was much faster now. Fang Ming skipped many areas and went straight to where the suppressing objects were buried.
Half an hour later, the first suppressing object was dug out. Fang Ming's heart leaped with joy, realizing he hadn't dug in the wrong place. He quickly dug deeper.
Two, three... nine.
In just an hour, this largest grave mound was also completely emptied by Fang Ming.
However, out of caution, Fang Ming still flipped through his diary to see if there were any oversights.
"I knew there had to be a catch." Fang Ming said with a wry smile as he read the diary. This large grave mound actually contained twelve suppressing objects!
It took another cup of tea's worth of time to dig out the last three suppressing objects and destroy them all.
Fang Ming opened his diary again to confirm. This time, there were finally no more surprises.
"I'll go find the Old Well to ask about the situation."
Fang Ming picked up the severed finger, reverted to his human form, and jogged to the old well.
"Hello! Hello! Are you there, Big Sister? I have some questions for you," Fang Ming called down into the well.
The well water churned in the depths, and a human face materialized.
"From now on, call me Er Niang, not Big Sister!" the Old Well Fiend said angrily, her tone not good. "What is it?"
"I've dug up all three grave mounds at the Three Star Town Fiend Peak, and destroyed all thirty suppressing objects. However, I encountered some problems when I went to break the grievances pool," Fang Ming continued, unconcerned. "I can't find the location of the grievances pool's suppressing object."
The Old Well Fiend pondered for a moment and said, "The severed finger I gave you should be able to detect the approximate location of the suppressing object. When the finger is close to a suppressing object, it will react abnormally."
"Is that so? Alright, I'll go try it now." With that, Fang Ming turned and ran, as if his backside were on fire.
"This kid..." The Old Well Fiend said helplessly. However, she could sense that Fang Ming was indeed trying to save her. The destruction of the three grave mounds was most clearly felt by her, an imprisoned being; the seal's strength had clearly decreased significantly.
Moments later, the well water surged, and the human face of the Old Well Fiend sank down.
Meanwhile, Fang Ming ran all the way to the fountain, preparing to take out the severed finger and meticulously search around the fountain.
"No, isn't it faster to check the diary?"
Fang Ming quickly rummaged through his cloth bag for the diary. Sure enough, the entry describing the grievances pool's suppressing object appeared.
"Following the Old Well Fiend's guidance, I used the severed finger to conduct a carpet search of the fountain and found the first suppressing object—a carving of a water outlet on the tip of a petal. I then inferred that these carvings might be the suppressing objects. Indeed, after probing with the severed finger, I discovered that all the water outlet carvings were suppressing objects."
"So these things are the suppressing objects, and they're placed so brazenly." Fang Ming was astonished. But thinking about it, the grievances pool's water drained through these carvings. Under the wash of immense resentment, what else could withstand it besides a suppressing object?
Fang Ming transformed back into his fiend seed form, climbed onto the fountain, and began to destroy each water outlet.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!..."
The sound of impacts echoed from above the fountain, and stone fragments flew everywhere.
The material of these suppressing objects was nothing more than marble. In Fang Ming's hands, it was no harder than tofu. Coupled with the lack of additional work, their destruction was extremely rapid.
"Bang!"
With the final sound, all seventy-two suppressing objects on the first level were destroyed.
"After the suppressing objects were destroyed, do these runes also lose their effect?" Looking at the now colorless rune patterns, Fang Ming suddenly thought, "Among the runes that cover Bai Mu Village, are there also similar nodal suppressing objects?"
However, this doubt only lingered in his mind for a moment. After all, his goal was not to destroy the runes in Bai Mu Village; those were merely defenses to prevent fiend seeds from entering houses.
After destroying the first level, Fang Ming quickly climbed to the second level. This level had significantly fewer petals, as the fountain's shape dictated that the space decreased as one moved upward, and the number of petals followed suit.
"Bang bang bang..." Accompanied by a series of bangs, in less than five minutes, all the suppressing objects on the second level were destroyed, totaling thirty-six.
Immediately after, Fang Ming moved on to the remaining three levels, destroying them one by one. The entire fountain had a total of one hundred and thirty-six suppressing objects. In terms of quantity, this could be considered very large, also indirectly demonstrating the terrifying power of the Old Well Fiend.
"She seemed pretty weak, but I didn't expect her to be so powerful. One truly cannot judge a book by its cover," Fang Ming clicked his tongue. But thinking that she would soon be beaten up by the Ancient Scholar Fiend, his mood immediately soured.
"Huh? Why hasn't she come out yet? Could it be that not all the suppressing objects were destroyed?" Fang Ming looked in the direction of the old well; there was no movement from there.
Fang Ming opened his diary to see what was going on.
"I destroyed all the carvings, but the Old Well Fiend still couldn't escape. Puzzled, I began to probe the fountain again with the severed finger, but to my surprise, every position the finger touched reacted. The entire fountain was also a suppressing object! Helplessly, I could only destroy the fountain piece by piece until the Old Well Fiend emerged."
"The person who designed this seal is too insidious! No, no, the person who designed this is my father, I can't curse him." Fang Ming was speechless. Who would have thought that after destroying those small suppressing objects, this thing, which wasn't originally a suppressing object, would transform into one?
Without the help of the diary, he didn't know how much time he would have wasted on this.
"Let's get to work." Fang Ming shook his head and sighed, beginning to destroy the giant fountain piece by piece. This was a monumental task.