"What lay beyond these cracks?"
Meng Chao thought about it. The reason these sewage pipes had been abandoned in the first place was that, after hundreds or thousands of years of use, filth and groundwater had seeped through them for so long that their structure had weakened. Parts had collapsed, blocking all the pipes.
But apart from this collapsed stretch, the pipes farther below should still have been intact.
The secondary collapse he had caused had very likely reopened the blocked pipes.
At the very least, it had opened several cracks the width of a palm.
"If so, the secrets hidden deep underground, at the ends of these pipes, might have been exposed.
"That was why the Great Horned Rat God's messenger had people plaster over the cracks."
With that thought, Meng Chao raised the Iron Crowbar and gently inserted it into a crack that had just been patched up between the broken walls and rubble.
These cracks had merely been casually smeared shut with rotten mud. Even after it hardened, it was hardly solid.
Moreover, Meng Chao sent a stream of Spiritual Energy into the Iron Crowbar and made his arm muscles vibrate at high frequency.
The crowbar became like an extraordinarily long impact drill bit, easily piercing two or three meters deep.
Not only the crowbar, but half of Meng Chao's arm sank into the crack.
When he pulled out the Iron Crowbar, a hole appeared between the cracks.
Meng Chao pressed his ear to the hole, channeling Spiritual Energy into his eardrum and cochlea as he held his breath and gathered every trace of movement underground.
Sure enough, he heard something.
Besides the sounds of countless Garbage Worms laboring heavily in the depths of the sewage pipes, there came an exceedingly faint, highly rhythmic vibration.
Ding ding