My understanding is incredible: I gained enlightenment and immortality in the Kunlun Demon Kingdom

The chanting abruptly stopped, the silence of the cave almost suffocating. Chen Ze's hand remained on the sword hilt as his gaze searched his surroundings, trying to pinpoint the source of the sound.

“We weren’t the first to come here,” he said in a low voice, his gaze falling on an inconspicuous corner on one side of the altar, where several pieces of damaged adventurer equipment lay.

Qin Miyue walked over to examine the remaining items. "These items bear traces of magic, but they are all low-level spells." She gently touched a broken dagger, her brows furrowed.

“Perhaps our predecessors failed to solve the mystery here, or…” Tian Siyao didn’t finish her sentence, but all three understood the unspoken possibility—our predecessors may have encountered an insurmountable danger.

Chen Ze turned around to face his companion. "We need to be even more careful. We never know when danger might strike."

now.

At the end of the corridor appeared a new passage, much wider than the one they had traversed before. The walls were inlaid with glittering gems, their light dancing across the surface with each step, as if guiding their way.

“Look,” Tian Siyao pointed to a large gemstone on the wall, “these gemstones are arranged in the shape of a constellation, this is… Orion!”

Qin Miyue examined the gemstone carefully, then said softly, "This is not just an ornament; it may be the key to unlocking some mechanism."

The three cautiously looked around, making sure each step was in a safe place. The sword in Chen Ze's hand emitted a faint silvery light, illuminating the path ahead.

"Wait a minute," Qin Miyue suddenly said, her voice making the two of them stop immediately.

On a protruding stone slab, she discovered a nearly invisible pressure mechanism. "Here," she pointed to the mechanism, "we have to go around it."

17 They avoided the stone slab, but suddenly, a stone came loose from the ceiling and landed where they had just passed. "That was almost us," Chen Ze muttered to himself.

At the end of the corridor appeared a huge stone door, carved with mysterious patterns and runes.

"We've arrived," Qin Miyue said.

Chen Ze's gaze slowly moved across the stone gate, his fingers gently touching the runes, as if trying to sense something from them. "Listen," he whispered, his finger pausing on a seemingly ordinary symbol, "this rune is cooler than the others."

Qin Miyue and Tian Siyao leaned closer, their heads almost touching, their breaths mingling in the cold air. Tian Siyao carefully examined the rune, "It's not only cold, but it also vibrates slightly."

“Perhaps it’s a switch,” Qin Miyue added, reaching out and lightly touching the rune with her staff, the tip of which emitted a faint blue light.

The door remained still, but they felt a slight tremor in the ground, like the sound of drums coming from afar. Chen Ze frowned. "This is a signal; we need to hurry."

Tian Siyao responded to Chen Ze's nervousness, "We have made preparations, whether it is guidance or a trap."

Qin Miyue gently pushed the stone door, and it slowly opened, the creaking sound unusually jarring in the deathly silence. As the door opened, a huge, circular basement was revealed. The room was illuminated by candlelight, but the light didn't come from ordinary candles; instead, it was from a bluish-green flame that emitted an eerie glow.

The three entered the room and felt a chill. The air here seemed even colder than outside, and Tian Siyao tightened her cloak. "These flames have no heat."

Chen Ze's hand was already on the sword hilt, his eyes darting around the room, searching for any potential danger. "These bluish-green flames... they might be magic," he said. Qin Miyue walked to one of the flames, gently waving her hand above it to make sure it wouldn't burn her. "They are indeed magical flames, but I'm not sure what their purpose is."

Tian Siyao walked to the center of the room, where there was a stone platform with a thick book on it. "Look here." She carefully opened the book, the pages filled with words she couldn't understand.

"This could be a spellbook, or a journal," Qin Miyue said, leaning over to examine it together.

Suddenly, as Tian Siyao turned to a page with a complex array drawn on it, the color of the flames in the room became even deeper, and a slight tremor came from the air.

“What have we triggered?” she said nervously.

Chen Ze quickly looked around. "This is a protective mechanism. We may have disturbed the guardians here."

Suddenly, small stone tablets began to rise from the ground around the platform, each engraved with different symbols. "This is a maze," Qin Miyue warned. "We can't move around randomly."

"Then what should we do?" Tian Siyao asked, her voice revealing a sense of urgency.

"Finding the pattern on the stone tablet might lead to a solution to the puzzle." Chen Ze gripped his sword hilt, bracing himself for any potential threat. "Stay calm, let's solve this mystery together."

Qin Miyue's staff spun gently beside the emerald flames, as if trying to establish a connection with the mysterious interior. She closed her eyes, her lips moving slightly as she murmured a soft incantation. After a while, she opened her eyes and looked at Chen Ze and Tian Siyao. "These flames are surrounded by an ancient protective spell. They are not only a source of light but also a protective shield for this basement."

Chen Ze nodded, his eyes fixed on the stone tablets that had suddenly risen up around him.

“The symbols on each stone represent different elements and forces, and we must find the correct order to arrange them.”

Tian Siyao walked to a stone tablet and gently stroked the symbols on it. "This looks like a symbol for water. If I remember correctly, it should be the opposite of fire." She turned to Qin Miyue for confirmation.

Qin Miyue walked over, carefully observed the symbols, and nodded in agreement: "Yes, you are right. In the world of elements, water is indeed the opposite of fire."

The three split up and began studying the symbols on the stone tablets, trying to find the connections between them. Chen Ze noticed that some of the symbols on the stone tablets were connected, like constellations, which was exactly the pattern they had seen in the corridor before entering the room.

“It seems there are quite a lot of symbols in this tomb,” Chen Ze said as he pondered, his gaze rapidly shifting between the different stone tablets. “They form a huge star map.”

Tian Siyao crossed her arms and frowned in thought. "Then can we assume that the solution to this maze is related to the stars in the sky?"

Qin Miyue nodded in agreement. "They must be related. Let's try to arrange these symbols according to the shape of Orion." With that, she began to direct everyone to adjust the stone tablet according to the shape of the star map.

Chen Ze carefully pushed a stone tablet engraved with a Leo pattern, but the tablet seemed to be fixed to the ground and did not move at all.

“These stone tablets cannot be moved by force,” he said. “They may require some kind of spell or trigger mechanism.”

Tian Siyao focused on another stone tablet, softly reciting a spell she had glimpsed in a book. The surface of the tablet began to shimmer faintly, then slowly began to move. (End of Chapter)