stjorthotic Chapter 999 Underground Palace
Chapter 999 Underground Palace
He didn't finish speaking, but everyone present understood.
This grandmaster-level array master encountered an accident while searching for the sixth array eye. He fell from a great height, fracturing both legs, and was trapped in this secluded cave. With his last strength, he poured his life's work into these blood-written words and this map, not to show them to anyone, but simply because his array master instincts prevented him from taking these secrets with him in death.
Mo Yuan silently accepted the note, carefully examining the map on the back cover, his gaze sweeping over the five locations marked with thin lines. After a moment, he closed the note and let out a long breath.
"This senior's last wish has been fulfilled. The value of this intelligence is greater than all the belongings he had on him combined. If we can get out of here alive and bring this intelligence back to the Overwatch Council, we will have accomplished the ultimate goal of this mission."
"Getting out alive is indeed the most important thing," Ajiu said with a wry smile, "but we haven't even found a way out yet, let alone taking a detour to find some sealing array eye."
"No." Mo Yuan shook his head, his gaze falling on the fluorescent blue crystal fragment wrapped in a sealing membrane next to the portrait. "This crystal fragment—is not an ordinary harmonic crystal. The senior mentioned in his notes that the Soul Summoner merges his own soul into the core of the Bone Tower to infiltrate the consciousness of the ancient beast. The color and intensity of this crystal fragment clearly indicate that it was a sample collected from the core area. The senior didn't carry it with him for no reason."
He turned to Mr. Xun: "Can you detect the resonance frequency between this fragment and the core of the bone tower?"
Mr. Xun took the sealed crystal fragment, closed his eyes, and gently traced the sealing membrane with his fingertips, sensing the suppressed energy within the seal that had been dormant for millennia. After a moment, he opened his eyes, a flash of understanding in them: "It's possible. This fragment was detached from the core of the Bone Tower, and there's an extremely stable resonance channel between it and the original body. Although separated by the seal, I can detect the direction of its resonance—if we use it as a compass, we can track the relative location of the Bone Tower's core in real time."
"And the core altar should be near the core of the Bone Tower, or the core of the Bone Tower itself is that altar." Mo Yuan continued, a decisive glint in his eyes. "In other words, if we find the core altar first, shut it down, and sever its resonance connection with the ancient beast's consciousness, the ancient beast's awakening speed will be greatly slowed down, and it may even fall back into slumber."
"What about the seven sealing array eyes?" Ajiu asked.
"Shutting down the core altar is the first priority. If the altar isn't shut down, even if we activate all the array eyes, the remnant soul of the Soul Summoner will continuously reawaken the ancient beast's consciousness. We must cut off the source first, and then reinforce the seal. However—" Mo Yuan paused, "According to the description in the senior's notes, the Soul Summoner is already dead, and there's no one to preside over the altar, so shutting it down shouldn't be too difficult."
"It's probably not that simple."
The three of them turned their heads at the same time to look at Lin Qiye, who had been silent all along.
Lin Qiye looked down at the blood-written note, his brows furrowing slightly: "Since the Soul Summoner was able to use himself as a sacrifice to infiltrate the consciousness of the ancient beasts, ultimately triggering the collective awakening of all the ancient beasts in the entire mountain range—his remaining consciousness is definitely not an ordinary remnant soul. Even if his physical body died and the altar was left unattended, to be able to maintain the infiltration of the ancient beasts' will for so many years with his remaining consciousness is no ordinary person. An existence of this level, even if only a wisp of a soul remains, is not something the four of us can easily contend with."
Mo Yuan remained silent for a moment, offering no rebuttal. He simply took the last specially crafted source energy isolation talisman from his robes and affixed it to his chest. With the double protection in place, he stretched his shoulders and held the narrow sword horizontally in front of him. "You're right. But this is our only way out right now. If the core altar isn't shut down, that giant claw will inevitably strike again sooner or later, and that ancient beast will eventually awaken completely. At that time, those outside the mountain will also be affected. Rather than waiting to die, we might as well take a gamble."
Ajiu pursed her lips, twirled the two daggers in her hands, and then tucked them back into her waistband. Her voice was soft but unusually firm: "Let's fight. We're going to die here anyway, so maybe we can fight our way out."
Lin Qiye remained silent, merely checking his equipment. He gripped the black iron spear, the patterns on the shaft gleaming with a cold, eerie light. The blood demon power within him continued to surge, its resonance with the ancient heart deep within him intermittent. The faint call had temporarily subsided, as if the ancient beast had temporarily turned its attention elsewhere.
He had a vague intuition that the Blood Demon power within him, which could resonate with the ancient beasts, might encounter unexpected variables in the face of this altar.
Whether it's good or bad, he couldn't say for sure.
After quickly tidying up their equipment, the four left the side cave and continued their journey through the underground cavern. Every so often, Mr. Xun would take out the sealed crystal fragment, sensing its resonance and adjusting the group's direction. The crystal fragment's pointing position kept changing, not because it was inherently unstable, but because the energy fluctuations of the Bone Tower's core resembled a constantly beating heart. This fluctuation, causing a shift in direction, actually allowed Mr. Xun to pinpoint the core's location more accurately.
The further one goes, the more bizarre and complex the passage becomes. The once wide cavern gradually narrows, transforming into a winding, pipe-like passage. The inner walls are no longer rough, black rock, but a substance somewhere between bone and keratin, smooth yet hard, covered with fine, ring-like patterns. Stepping on it feels like walking on an extremely dense carapace. The fluorescent blue crystal clusters on both sides of the passage become fewer, replaced by dark red crystals embedded deep within the pipe walls, emitting extremely weak heat radiation, making the temperature of the entire passage significantly higher than outside.
"These red crystals..." A-Jiu reached close to the tube wall, feeling a warmth in her palm. "Are they blood crystals from an ancient beast? Or mineral deposits from its bone marrow cavity?"
"It's possible that it's both," Mr. Xun analyzed in a low voice. "Judging from the distribution of the crystals and the intensity of the thermal radiation, these should be mineral crystals deposited when the ancient beast's bodily functions were active. This indicates that we are gradually approaching a relatively important functional area."
The passage suddenly opened up into a bright and spacious area.
Before them lay a vast space, resembling an underground palace. The entire palace was an irregular circle, several hundred feet in diameter, with its dome suspended tens of feet above the ground. The columnar structures supporting the dome were vaguely visible. These columnar structures were not man-made, but rather enormous skeletons extending from the ground to the dome. The surface of these skeletons was covered with a translucent blue crystalline membrane, enveloping the entire palace in a faint blue light.