musicians of old

Chapter 851 is left here.

"Pfft."

Bright red blood flowed from his mouth and nose.

Nancy tried to keep smiling, but the physical pain and spasms made her frown slightly.

My heart was pounding helplessly and violently, gradually becoming erratic. My vision was blurred, but my hearing and the pain became unusually clearer.

As Nancy collapsed to the ground, she managed to maintain the last sliver of a smile on her lips.

She finished her declaration.

In the final moments, her heightened hearing allowed her to hear an even more terrifying cracking sound from below!
"Crack!!"

The peacock candlestick from India in South Asia, the penultimate target.

Fanning's gavel continued to arc through the air, striking the peacock's proud head and the gray, murky gemstone.

"Wow—!"

Then a sharp, inhuman screech burst forth from the void, and the peacock's head snapped off at an angle. The gray gemstone did not shatter; instead, like a disturbed nest, countless swirling, mirror-like cloud phantoms suddenly emerged from within!
Avalanches, fires, floods, wars—all sorts of catastrophic scenes collided wildly inside the enclosure for a moment, then collapsed along with the gem itself, shrinking into a tiny black dot before finally disappearing.

The candlestick that fell to the ground and broke into several pieces rusted and weathered at a speed visible to the naked eye!
"Crunch, crunch." Under the onslaught of various weapons from the guards below the stage, the security shield was finally about to break down. The teeth-grinding sound kept coming, and spider web-like cracks had spread all over the crystal panels!
At this moment.

In the lower-level collection restoration room, another group of guards had also surrounded the entrance.

Someone took out a spare key from the warehouse, inserted it, and turned it several times, but they still couldn't open the cast iron explosion-proof door.

"The main valve is blocked! It's the same reason why the safety shield on the platform can't be opened!" The guard chief's eyes flashed coldly. "Ignore this door! Use poison! Someone needs to stand on the platform continuously to keep the bellows rod pulled down to maintain air and water pressure!"

Now that Curator Leridge has given the order to "resolve the matter immediately," this group no longer needs to worry about "leaving survivors" or whether there will be any accidental injuries!

The guards, having received their orders, put on masks and quickly made their way to another room, the collection transfer room where Fanning had previously conducted a preliminary examination of the "phantom object".

It is also the only place that is separated from the collection restoration room by a glass partition.

"Get out of the way! This is the curator's emergency dispatch! If you don't want to die, get out!"

The guards loudly and roughly drove away the personnel on duty. Before they had completely left, they pushed a tube of colorless, oily, transparent nerve agent into the fragrance vaporizer and then inserted it into the sound transmission port!
"Bang!" The guards, having done all this, quickly retreated and slammed the door to the handover room shut.

The poison gas spread rapidly.

Inside the restoration room, in another small compartment, Miss McAdam was standing on a peculiar raised relief, her left hand on top of her right, firmly pressing a wooden rod in front of her at a slightly downward angle, just as Fanning had taught her.

"If the plan proceeds as scheduled, we're probably at the final stage now."

"I just don't know if anything will change. In any case, I need to stay here as long as possible to give them ample opportunities."

Miss McAdam was pondering this when suddenly she caught a faint, strange smell.

The smell is somewhat similar to the sweet scent of apples, but also has a slightly pungent odor!
She suddenly felt a tingling or itchy sensation in her hands and feet, and then realized that she seemed to be experiencing similar numbness and twitching sensations from her nasal cavity to her throat and then to her lungs!
"Oh no! Someone has poisoned us!!"

The female reporter's ankles and knees buckled, and she fell off the relief platform. The lever of the main valve then slowly rose back up.

She felt dizzy after falling to the ground and almost couldn't get up for a moment, but somehow she struggled to get up and stepped back onto the relief platform.

"Click-clack-clack." Amidst the blurring of afterimages, Miss McAdam used her last bit of strength to try and keep herself from falling off the platform, putting all her weight on the arm that was pressing down on the lever!

"What is this platform?"

Nancy, soaked to the bone with water droplets dripping from her hair, saw Fanning standing on a platform covered with strange reliefs and asked in surprise.

Fan Ning stood on the platform, his back pressed against the cold, slippery cave wall, coughing violently and panting heavily:

"Phew, finally we're out of that section of the 'Black Monk Tunnel.' The 'Black Monk Tunnel' was the hardest, but after that, it's actually the easiest. As long as you follow the principle of 'not making any sharp turns that are more than perpendicular,' you'll be able to escape along the main road."

This is a relatively open cave, with a faint light shining from all sides. Countless strange, root-like crystals hang from the cave ceiling, some of which extend into the water and some of which have pores, making a soft sound as the water ripples.

The previous clear, bell-like "auditory hallucinations" and the faint white light that diffused everywhere were due to the presence of these crystals.

They illuminate the underground world as a bizarre and fantastical realm, like an inverted sea of ​​stars.

Nancy felt uneasy at the implication in Fan Ning's words. She wiped the water droplets from her face and said, "No, Mr. Fan Ning, I don't quite understand what you mean. How do we distinguish the forks in the road? Aren't you going to lead the way?"

"I've thought about it, and I think I'll stay here."

"Why!?"

"Things have actually failed a bit. Listen to this noise, it doesn't seem like it's going to end anytime soon." Fan Ning smiled wryly and pointed to the top of his head.

As he gasped and coughed violently, the muffled explosions and the rumble of collapsing buildings continued to echo overhead, causing the entire stone wall to tremble slightly. Occasionally, a wisp of dust would fall, creating ripples on the surface of the underground river.

“I find it strange too,” Nancy said. “Today’s public trial… I know you must have used some theological means to divert the sun’s rays and flames, but why… did it burn to this extent? Why did it explode like this?”

“It’s Squiabben.”

"That former old priest of the monastery?"

"Yes."

After catching his breath, Fan Ning turned around and fiddled with something in the crack of the stone wall, which triggered some kind of mechanism and opened a rough control panel-like object.

“I don’t know what kind of heterogeneous pursuit drove him. Perhaps I just followed my heart and said what I should say and did what I should do, but he misled me into adjusting a key mural hub!”

"There was a violent and strange energy inside. The beam of light went completely out of control, causing a fire. The fire then ignited some kind of foul gas in the monastery's water prison, which was probably the accumulated filth and excrement of people over the years."

“That’s why things are like this now.” Fanning’s voice was broken by cold and weakness. “Think about it, if this continues, before long, all these documents, archives, and musical scores in the monastery will be…”

"My God, then all the sacred music from all those years is gone?" Nancy's eyes widened, her mind a jumble of thoughts. "And now? This platform?...This lever??"

“It’s also a hub.” Fanning sighed. “The main control station for the ancient Roman aqueduct is located in the cave next to the exit of the ‘Black Monk Tunnel’ in this part of the monastery.”

This was precisely the last thing he decided to do after staying here!

As he spoke, Fan Ning placed his left hand on top of his right and forcefully pressed down on the stone barrier that was as thick as his thigh!
A dull, dry voice rang out.

"Splash splash splash!!!!!"

The gear lever had only moved down a few centimeters when a deafening roar of water suddenly filled the space, threatening to shatter eardrums. Nancy's legs trembled, and she took a deep breath before looking around.

There was no obvious drainage, but the water level underfoot began to rise rapidly!
In just a few breaths, the water had submerged the not-so-high relief platform that Fanning had stepped onto!
(End of this chapter)