I can see experience bars after being transported to another world.

Lu Yuan finally understood his last remaining concern.

The gray and white text had long ago told him that fate and prophecy could no longer control him, and nothing could make decisions for him. His own destiny would be completely in his own hands, so he might as well use this characteristic. Instead of being afraid of this and that, he should use it as a trump card.

Grand Knight Commander Pan Shi looked at Lu Yuan, who had suddenly fallen silent, and waited for a few seconds.

The boy's gaze never wavered from beginning to end, so the Grand Knight Commander of Rock swallowed all the remaining words of persuasion he had prepared.

He sighed softly, "Everyone has their own path to walk. Since you know what you're doing and why you're moving forward, that's enough. After all, who can guarantee they'll survive to the end on the path of exploring the extraordinary? Since you've made your decision, let's sign the contract."

The Great Knight Commander of Rock took out a contract from his pocket and pushed it in front of Lu Yuan.

"This mission is too important, concerning the safety of the Empire's northern border, so it must be signed."

"understand."

Lu Yuan picked up the contract and read it clause by clause.

Also concerning matters in the North, this contract was significantly stricter than the one the Knight of the Lantern had made him sign. The terms were so complex they were almost harsh, ranging from the scope of confidentiality to the consequences of breach, one clause after another, leaving virtually no loopholes.

"Oden," Lu Yuan called out in his mind.

"I've finished reading it," Oden nodded. "The restrictions are indeed much heavier, but they mainly revolve around confidentiality. There aren't any other hidden clauses. Just sign it."

Without further hesitation, Lu Yuan picked up the pen and signed his name.

Grand Knight Commander Rock examined the contract, then put it in his robes and stood up from his seat.

"You can't understand the danger of this mission just by looking from the outside and listening to me talk," he said, looking down at Lu Yuan. His serious face returned to its usual expressionless stiffness. "Since the contract has been signed, there's nothing more to say. Come on."

After saying that, he walked out of the lounge, and Lu Yuan immediately turned around and followed.

Leaving the potion area, the Grand Knight of Rock led him deeper to the right. The suspended tower was built at the very back of the mountain, much deeper than Lu Yuan had imagined. The passages were crisscrossed, and the further in they went, the more branching paths there were.

Following the winding road on the right, after walking quite a distance, the roads began to increase, and a circular hall even appeared in front of us. The edge of each hall was divided into three roads, each leading in a different direction.

Lu Yuan followed the winding path, getting a little dizzy, until he was finally led to the end of a road where a small, square room stood with only a metal door.

As the door opened, a very small room came into Lu Yuan's view.

Is this thing definitely not an elevator? Lu Yuan wondered to himself.

As Grand Knight Commander Pan Shi and Lu Yuan approached, the sound of gears meshing gradually rose, and the entire room began to move.

At first, Lu Yuan thought he was going up, but he quickly realized that he was wrong. He was going down, and he was going down faster and faster.

After the machine stopped completely, Lu Yuan made a preliminary estimate that he was at least thirty or forty meters underground. The Knight Academy had completely hollowed out the underground of the entire mountain. However, if something really happened, it would be much safer underground than above ground.

The metal door slid open to both sides, revealing a series of regularly pieced-together passageways. The passageways were brightly lit but deserted, eerily quiet.

Lu Yuan glanced down and saw that the stones under his feet were carefully pieced together. The marks were clearly arranged according to some special inscription method, and judging from the aura emanating from them, they were of a high standard.

In other words, the underground is covered with inscriptions.

"Go, it's just ahead."

Grand Knight Commander Pan Shi showed no sign of stopping, so Lu Yuan withdrew his gaze and followed.

The passageway suddenly opened up, and the originally cramped space became incredibly spacious. A huge circular hall had been dug out underground, and in terms of area alone, it was definitely larger than the circular hall where he had been received that afternoon.

The rotunda was surrounded by numerous passageways, much like the path he had taken to get here. Clearly, there were many more ways to descend to this place than the one the Grand Knight Commander of Rock had led him down.

"How did he dig this out?" Auden murmured to Lu Yuan, then muttered to himself, "This kind of building doesn't seem to have been dug out recently. It's more like it was dug out a long time ago by someone before, a subterranean space specifically used to avoid eeriness and disaster."

Lu Yuan calmly surveyed his surroundings. The marks on the rock wall were indeed quite old, and there were also signs of reinforcement.

The ceiling above was covered with a dense network of pipes, from which steam was constantly seeping out.

Grand Knight Commander Pan Shi took a few steps, glanced back at Lu Yuan who was looking around, and a smile appeared on his serious face. "I also found it incredible when I first came here," Grand Knight Commander Pan Shi continued, "because this space was not excavated by us, but left by our predecessors. We just reinforced and renovated it."

"Oh." Lu Yuan nodded, without saying anything more.

Afterwards, Grand Knight Commander Rock led Lu Yuan to the center of the rotunda, where someone was on duty. The person took Lu Yuan's badge, made a simple registration, and after confirming that everything was correct, walked towards the side and rear of the rotunda.

Lu Yuan then noticed that there were seven or eight passageways of varying sizes distributed around the round hall, and next to these passageways were two or three much wider passageways.

The smaller passageway is clearly for getting down, while the larger passageway leads to the deeper parts.

The Grand Knight Commander of Rock led him into one of the main passages. The space here had its own unique features. The ground was covered with patterned stone bricks, and the stones were arranged according to a special pattern. The further they went in, the more obvious this pattern became. The steam pipes overhead had completely disappeared at some point.

At the end of the passage was a somewhat empty room.

On the floor of the room lay a huge pattern made of inscriptions. The entire pattern was interwoven with green, red and black, exuding a strong sense of life on one side and a strong sense of death and blood on the other. The two completely different auras were twisted together by a special arrangement.

This must be the strange inscription that the Great Knight Commander of Rock mentioned.

Besides the half of the inscription on the ground, the room was filled with a large number of books, stacked very high, almost reaching the ceiling.

Beside the pattern, there were two or three figures busy with their heads down, who looked like people who were doing intermediate inscription.

The inscription is incomplete; it is only about half left, while the other half is empty and filled with white stone bricks. The remaining half is filled with stone bricks of various colors with inscribed patterns, and the boundaries on both sides are clearly defined.

The arrival of the Grand Knight Commander of Rock startled a few people. They looked up at him, said nothing, and then lowered their heads to continue with their work. The Grand Knight Commander of Rock didn't seem to care.