Chapter 542: Chapter 540: Open the Door to Welco Guests
A line of people filed in; Franklin glanced at the empty courtyard and waved his hand, “Search!”
“Yes!” His subordinates, without any fuss, quickly dashed into every corner and room of the courtyard to start searching.
During the search, everyone acted roughly. The sounds of crashing were incessant, even accompanied by booming noises as an entire room collapsed.
After a short while, the entire courtyard was a ss. A wizard in a green robe approached Franklin and reported, “Captain, we found sothing in the house at the back.”
“Hmm?” Franklin raised his eyebrows and then said, “Lead the way.” As he spoke, he walked over with many of his subordinates.
When they reached the room in question, Franklin saw that the furniture was knocked over, jars and bottles shattered all over the floor. The floor in the corner had been harshly dug up, revealing a downward passage.
The green-robed wizard quickly said to Franklin, “Captain, I took a quick look below. It’s a large hall connected to a corridor; I don’t know where it leads or what’s inside. What should we do now?”
“What do you think we should do?” Franklin countered, “We’ve been busy all day, and you think we should return empty-handed? Hmmph, now that we’re here, no matter what’s in the corridor, I want to search it thoroughly!”
“Yes.” The green-robed subordinate didn’t dare to object and promptly said, “I’ll lead the way.” Then, he stepped into the passage first.
Franklin, Promi, and the others quickly followed.
Before long, they had all reached a large hall beneath the passage. The hall was spacious, over a hundred square ters. In the center was a stone platform, which apparently had sothing placed on it, but it was gone. On one wall of the hall, a corridor about two ters wide and two ters high opened up, pitch-black as if infinitely deep.
The green-robed wizard waved his hand, summoning a ball of white light in his palm, and led the way; the others glanced at Franklin’s expression and hurried to follow, each casting their Lighting Spells.
“Tap, tap, tap…”
Footsteps echoed; Franklin’s group moved very quickly, traveling several hundred ters in the corridor in no ti. Just as they were about to continue, suddenly a loud “bang” sounded from beneath the corridor floor as if sothing buried had been triggered.
A flash of fire passed, and fragnts flew out of the soil like blades slicing towards the group.
Then, a dense smoke appeared, seeming toxic, quickly filling the entire corridor.
This was a trap in the corridor specifically designed to block intruders.
But this barely stopped Franklin and his party; being wizards, they quickly cast spells and managed to blow the flying shards aside before they could reach them, and the poisonous smoke was dispersed as well.
However, this minor incident only worsened the already sour mood of Franklin and his party.
Franklin looked at the deep corridor ahead, pondered for a mont, and then said, “Make way.”
“Huh?” Everyone confusedly moved to the sides of the corridor; then Franklin acted, gathering a clump of earth-yellow energy in his hand before fiercely slamming it onto the ground.
The ground rolled as if alive; many traps hidden underground were triggered, and so were directly destroyed. This phenonon continued for over ten seconds before stopping, with nearly a hundred ters of ground ahead thoroughly scoured clean.
The group then understood what Franklin ant by his comnt.
Franklin glanced at the churned-up ground, but unconsciously frowned because the effect of the spell was weaker than he expected. He had anticipated the ground to turn over for over two hundred ters, but the actual effect was less than half of that, and only a thin layer of soil was affected. The corridor’s walls and ceiling were extrely solid, exaggeratedly so; no cracks appeared even as his spell took effect.
“Was it strengthened with Earth Magic?” This thought flashed through Franklin’s mind, but he didn’t dwell on it and waved his hand for his subordinates to continue forward.
As they progressed, the winding corridor increasingly frustrated the group. Occasionally encountering several especially cunning traps fueled their rage even more. It felt like a tiny ant was continuously provoking them, and they were very eager to catch this ant and crush it.
With this mindset, the group walked for half a day until they reached a fork in the corridor—with paths diverging to the left and right.
Everyone stopped and looked towards Franklin, waiting for his orders.
Franklin’s eyes flickered as he pondered for a mont before issuing commands. He first called out a few nas, instructing them to explore the path on the left, then called out a few more nas, instructing them to explore the path on the right, while he stayed put to await news.
Nobody dared to disobey, and they quickly split up and set out.
Approximately a few minutes later, both groups returned almost simultaneously.
Those who explored the right path reported first: at the end of their exploration, there was a heavy Stone Gate blocked by a keyhole-like feature, indicating it needed a special key to be opened.
Those who searched the left path reported afterwards: they found a secret chamber at the end of their path containing a Stone Table, on which lay a strangely shaped key that seed to be used for unlocking sothing, so they took it out.
Clearly, if nothing went wrong, the key found by the group on the left was intended to open the Stone Gate on the right.
But why was it designed this way? Everyone was puzzled.
Franklin was also puzzled and didn’t bother to guess the thought process of soone about to die. He coldly stated, “No matter what tricks the person hiding here is playing, I will deal with them. I want to see what they are capable of! Can an ant really kill an elephant? Hmph!”
After speaking, Franklin led everyone towards the path on the right.
The path on the right was narrow and elongated. After walking hundreds of ters, they saw the Stone Gate previously described by the explorers.
With a wave of his hand, Franklin signaled the person who had explored the left to step forward and insert the retrieved key into the keyhole, turning it forcefully.
Normally, the Stone Gate should have slid open at this point, but to everyone’s surprise, as soon as the key was turned, the Stone Gate shattered with a crash.
Yes, it shattered.
Initially, everyone thought the Stone Gate was extrely sturdy and difficult to destroy, but they were shocked to find it was hollow and filled with unknown black liquid. As the Stone Gate broke, this black liquid splashed violently towards the group as if throwing down black dog’s blood.
Fortunately, everyone was vigilant and quickly used their Shields to deflect the black liquid, preventing it from staining their clothes. However, as the black liquid flowed onto the ground, it emitted an indescribable and nauseating stench that made everyone feel extrely sick, causing Franklin to involuntarily move to the back.
Frowning heavily and feeling utterly miserable, everyone cursed the person hidden here.
As more and more black liquid accumulated, the ground beca covered, and the stench was overwhelming. Although the group could barely stand it any longer, they were unwilling to leave without further action and decided to completely smash the weakened Stone Gate and continue onward.
After so effort, they destroyed the hollow first layer of the Stone Gate only to discover another Stone Gate behind it.
Yes, another Stone Gate—it turned out the Stone Gate was double-layered.
The one they had destroyed was only the first, fragile layer. The second layer inside was truly sturdy, extrely thick, and nearly indestructible.
Everyone felt almost driven mad by frustration. Soone began chanting spells, preparing to forcefully destroy the sturdy Stone Gate.
Just then, with a “whoosh,” the Stone Gate opened on its own.
It opened on its own.
It opened.
Opened.
Open.
This!
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