I loaded the Mysticism panel.

Vincent waited for him, leaning against an iron lamppost at the street corner.

Seeing Richard emerge unharmed, he nodded without asking how he had gotten in.

"Let's go, Number Seven is over here."

Richard followed his pace, sensing his surroundings as they walked.

The ether concentration inside the wall on Huayue Street is a level higher than that outside.

No single point stands out; the entire street is immersed in a denser ethereal environment.

The architecture also differs.

All the fancy shop windows and brightly colored signs outside are gone, and the shops inside are all plain and simple.

The signboard is a small bronze plaque embedded above the door frame, with very small characters that are difficult to read unless you get very close.

As he passed a few shops, Richard deliberately slowed down and glanced at them.

A shop with a bronze sign that read "RT Mineral Identification" was closed, and the windows were dark inside.

Next door was a shop with a sign that read "Griffin Archives Custody," and through the frosted glass, you could see figures moving inside.

Two storefronts away, there was a shop without even a bronze plaque, but a huge man as big as a wardrobe stood at the entrance.

The big man crossed his arms and paused for half a second when his gaze swept over Richard before looking away.

Almost every shop here deals in something related to curtains.

Mineral identification may be used to value occult-related resources, while archival custody may involve the preservation and transfer of encrypted documents.

As for that shop that doesn't even have a sign, and the bodyguards standing at the door... you can tell what they sell in that kind of shop by simply looking at it.

Vincent stopped in front of a dark brown wooden door.

The brass plaque above the door frame was badly oxidized, with green rust covering most of the lettering.

Only upon closer inspection could one clearly see: "Donner Antiquities and Miscellaneous Items, No. 7".

As I pushed open the door, the copper bell jingled.

It sounded almost exactly like the brass bell in Clement's Antique Shop, and Richard felt a sense of familiarity.

On the left side of the entrance, there was a row of bronze candlesticks and old photo frames, just like any other antique shop in the outside world.

As you walk further in, the objects begin to look rather unusual.

Several stone bowls were placed on the middle shelf, next to a stack of leather books, the words on the spines faded into ghostly shadows.

Two walking sticks stood in the corner, one of which was carved with a coiled snake.

The fact that the shop displays the serpent staff of the God of Medicine indicates that this shop follows the rules and is not a shady business.

A short, fat man was sitting behind the counter.

He wore a monocle on the bridge of his nose, which hung around his neck on a thin chain.

His head was bald, comparable to Mr. Holland's, but his head shape was quite different.

Holland's Mediterranean is a uniformly receding type.

This person simply gave up growing hair in the middle area, leaving only a ring of hair around each side of their temples, like a woolen scarf wrapped around a bald hill.

Richard thought to himself, "There are so many bald people here."

Mr. Holland is bald, and so is Mr. Donald.

It is said that the water quality within the empire is generally hard, which is not good for the scalp.

However, despite his father being an engineer in Briston, his hair remained thick even in harder water conditions and harsher working environments.

My maternal grandfather is quite old, but his hair hasn't thinned much.

It's good news that I probably don't have anything to do with the baldness gene.

Donald looked up and recognized Vincent first: "Little Vincent, it's been a long time since you've been here."

"Uncle Donald, I brought my cousin with me today." Vincent patted Richard on the shoulder.

Donald's gaze shifted from Vincent to Richard's face, giving him a once-over.

My gaze lingered on his clothes for a second longer: a shirt and vest, the cuffs rolled up twice, and the shoes showing slight wear.

After looking him over, he smiled faintly, neither particularly attentive nor particularly cold.

"Shopkeeper, my grandfather recommended me here." Richard took the wax-sealed letter out of his bag and placed it on the counter.

Donald picked up the envelope with his short, stubby fingers, his attitude noticeably warmer:

"A letter written in Mr. Gerald's own handwriting is quite rare."

The stool legs were too high, so he simply jumped off the high stool.

"Come on, let's take a look at the back."

Donna led the two through the front shop and toward the innermost wall.

There was an old tapestry on the wall, depicting the phoenix's rebirth, with several loose threads already pulled out.

He lifted the tapestry, revealing that the back room was much smaller than the front room, estimated to be only one-third the size.

Shelves were also nailed to all four walls, but there were significantly fewer items on the shelves, and the spacing between them was wider, leaving ample space between each item.

The moment Richard stepped into the back room, the Sun Palace began to tremble slightly.

The density of ether in this room is much higher than the entire street outside combined.

But each item is sealed.

His gaze swept over the shelves one by one.

First row on the left: A green rusted bronze hand mirror, the surface worn so badly that you can't see your reflection, with scroll patterns and animal totems engraved on the back.

The panel remained completely still.

Second row: Two silver brooches, in the style of early Imperial officer accessories.

The panel is not responding.

Third row: an ancient bronze coin, smaller than his drained silver coin.

The panel rose, but very slowly, much like the Sphinx oil lamp being sealed.

Next to it was a brass incense burner, not large, about the size of a palm, with patterns engraved on the lid.

The panel is also rising, at a rate comparable to that of copper coins, both being extremely small amounts seeping out through the seal.

Both items are in stock, but they are sealed tightly, so it's probably impossible to get them for free by keeping them in your possession.

He continued walking inside.

In the innermost corner of the back room, a half-person-high fragment of a stone pillar leans against the wall.

The remaining pillar is covered with dense reliefs, the theme of which seems to be a continuous band of alternating flames and wings.

He had only walked three steps away from the broken stone pillar when his chest began to burn.

The entire internal circulation was violently compressed by the etheric field of the stone pillar fragments.

The warmth surged wildly from the Sun's Seat, spreading along the blood vessels to the limbs before abruptly receding.

Richard took a step back, and the burning sensation immediately subsided to a tolerable level.

Take another half step back, and it disappears completely.

Donner glanced at him: "Did you run into something unpleasant?"

"That stone pillar..."

"Oh, that." Donner pushed up his monocle on the bridge of his nose with his thumb:

"This is a fragment of a pillar from a Zoroastrian temple from the Sasanian Persian period, and it's the prized possession of my shop."

The ether deposits on it are substantial, and the interior contains a high-density ether field; people with high levels of spiritual awareness will experience a repulsive reaction when they get close.

The Sasanian Persians were also known as the Second Persians. The First Persians were destroyed by Macedon, followed by the Parthian Empire, and then came the Second Persians.

This is considered a medieval dynasty, dating back at least 1,500 years.

Fifteen hundred years ago, Richard quickly compared the data with what he already knew.

The bronze pendant and the divination plate are ancient artifacts from the Eastern Continent, dating back thousands of years, and I provided a small piece of each.

This stone pillar is five hundred years older than them.

Moreover, these were ritual objects used in the temple of the fire god, and the accumulated ether deposits from years of rituals far exceeded those of ordinary artifacts of the same age.

There are at least two things sealed inside, conservatively estimated.