Yes, Madam Prime Minister

It looks a bit small from a distance, but it's quite big up close. It's over 20 meters high from bottom to top and about 40 meters wide.

There is only one way to enter the pyramid, which is a passageway leading in from the front.

According to the plan of the three parties, after Ronan and his group went inside, people who were lying in ambush at a secret stronghold halfway up the mountain would come out and quickly reach the top of the mountain using ladders and baskets that had been set up in advance. They would then rush to the top of the mountain to block the only passage. Then, a few selected natives would detonate explosives to collapse the passage and trap Ronan and his group, along with the other natives, inside.

The selected individuals were people who had a grudge against the colonists and were promised that their families would be well taken care of by the tribe.

Even if Ronan and his group manage to get out, they will be heavily depleted, making them easier to deal with.

But now, the explosives haven't been planted at all, and there are no chosen people in the native team.

Ronan and his group were now just waiting for the ambushers to attack after they went inside, so they could rush out and launch a counterattack.

Soon, Ronan and his party passed through the passageway and entered the pyramid with torches in hand.

"That's it?" Ronan wanted to laugh.

Apart from a dozen or so magic stone blocks piled up in a distant corner, there was nothing inside the pyramid. It didn't look like something built by otherworldly beings or a civilization influenced by them. There was no trace of the advanced technology of an ancient civilization. It was far inferior to the ruins of the Heidi people, and even less comparable to the alternate dimension where Gardener Tyr's botanical garden was located.

Chapter 219 Performance, Prediction, Forced Activation

Since the other side did not propose sending signals in their plan, Ronan and his group believed that the other side possessed some kind of long-distance observation capability.

So, according to the plan, once inside the pyramid, they had to put on a show.

Inside the pyramid, most people were acting very seriously, spreading out to look around. Ronan, Sebastian, and Faith were pretending to argue about how to divide the magic stone cubes later. Elena was also in character, tapping on the inner wall as if she was looking for some kind of mechanism.

Dinia and Noah both stood still and looked around.

Sebastian's lover, the noble lady Olivia, was idly spinning her gun, with six mage musketeers protecting her.

The deputy leader of the Shuangxiong tribe, Xilawusu, and his elite native troops maintained their formation.

While everyone seemed drawn to the ruins, in reality, their attention was focused on the passageway, ready to break out and capture those outside.

One minute, three minutes, ten minutes, half an hour, half an hour, an hour passed, and still no one sensed anyone approaching from outside.

An hour passed and no one came near, which was highly unusual.

Is there a traitor?

With Ronan, Sebastian, and Faith as representatives, among people from three different countries, there couldn't possibly be a traitor. The six mage musketeers that Sebastian brought had no idea what was going on.

Is there a mole among the indigenous people?

The problem is that only Chief Ankara, his most trusted woman Wayara, the old shaman Musouchi, and Sirausu knew about this. These four people had absolutely no reason to be traitors. The elite native soldiers who came with them were also kept in the dark, and even if they wanted to be traitors, they couldn't contact the three masterminds.

Besides these, there were the chief's three sons. All three were indeed filial sons, but the chief did not tell them how to contact the three villains.

Strange, so strange.

Could it be that something unexpected happened to the other party, causing them to give up? The probability of that is far too small.

Ronan realized something was wrong. "Let's go, let's get out of here. No, wait, don't move."

"What's going on?" Sebastian asked. Ronan had called for them to leave, but then suddenly stopped them. What was going on?

Ronan stroked his chin. "If I'm not mistaken, they lied to the chief from the beginning. There was no ambush, no poisoning, no explosives—it's all nonsense. Once we get in here, their plan will be a success."

"It worked?" Olivia asked doubtfully. "Aren't we all fine now? And there's not a single problem with the passageway leading outside."

“Yes, we’re fine, but I don’t think we’ll be able to get out of the tunnel normally,” Ronan said. “Their plan is to trap us here.”

Olivia was somewhat incredulous, her gaze turning to Sirausu, who was leading the elite native soldiers.

Xilawusu understood the nobleman's meaning, so he had no choice but to select one of his subordinates and have him walk out through the passageway.

The native soldiers couldn't understand the conversation between Ronan and the two men, but they understood the deputy commander's order and went directly to their destination.

The passageway was ten meters long and two meters wide and high. The native soldier stepped into the passageway, cautiously probing out step by step. He couldn't understand Ronan and the others' words, but he was still a human being and could sense something from their tone. Slowly, he had already walked more than three meters.

Olivia's lips curled up; she was ready to make a sarcastic remark to Ronan.

Just then, a message appeared on the wall above the passageway: "Warning: Unauthorized intruder detected. Door closure activated."

In an instant, five large stones, each two meters square, fell down at the same time, smashing the native soldiers into a bloody pulp, and completely blocking the passageway.

Olivia was also startled by the sound of the boulder hitting the ground, but she forced a disdainful smile. "That's all?"

It's just a rock; firearms and grenades are useless against it. If she were trapped here alone, it might be quite troublesome, but with so many mages inside, they can take turns using condensed magic to break the rock bit by bit, while others help clear away the rubble. It will be completely broken in half a day at most.

“I hope that’s all,” Ronan said casually. He was more concerned about the text he had just read: illegal intruders? This shouldn’t refer to them, because they had been inside for over an hour, and the pyramids hadn’t reacted at all.

Within seconds, Ronan's guess came true.

The entire pyramid began to tremble violently. The inner walls, engraved with various patterns, began to crack and collapse wildly. The ground also began to crack. In the blink of an eye, these stone walls, which had existed here for who knows how many years, fell to the ground and broke apart one after another with a series of bangs. The entire interior of the pyramid was filled with flying rubble, and dust rose several meters high.

Dinia simply erected a giant mushroom-shaped umbrella, and everyone gathered around to hide under it. Then, Dinia transformed the umbrella into a completely enclosed hemisphere, sheltering everyone inside without any obstruction.

After a long while, the sound of stones hitting the mushroom shield finally stopped.

The collapse stopped.

Dinia opened the protective shield. By this time, a thick layer of rubble had accumulated around the area, and the dust that had been swirling inside the pyramid had not yet completely settled. But no one cared about that; everyone's attention was drawn to the same sight.

That is, the inner walls of the pyramid at this time have become smooth and neat, without a single seam, gray-black, and with a texture somewhere between metal and stone.

That's right, the entire pyramid is not actually a single giant magical stone, but rather a structure built from massive stones.

In the distance, the outer layer of the giant rock that could be seen in the passageway had cracked, revealing its inner core. The giant rock blocking the passageway was also a magic stone.

"This is troublesome." Ronan frowned.

Magic stones possess extremely high magic resistance, making it difficult to inflict significant damage with magic.

The only way now is to find a relatively weak point and make a breakthrough. Even with Dinia there, it will probably take two days to break through a gap.

But then another problem arises: a person can survive two days without food or water, so a magician is even less likely to die.

Is this the end?

"Don't make any rash moves, don't relax, the big one is coming," Ronan said.

Olivia, who had previously questioned Ronan, remained silent this time, instead focusing intently on her guard. She disliked being led by others, and the fact that the group subtly sided with Ronan along the way made her uncomfortable. But now, in this perilous situation, she understood one thing: of everyone present, Ronan was the one with the most foresight.

Now, we can only trust him.

Olivia even pulled Sebastian closer to Ronan.

Faith then walked over to Dinia's side.

Less than a minute after Ronan finished speaking, the ground began to stir.

Huge patterns appeared on the four slanted trapezoidal walls. To others, they were patterns, but to Ronan, they quickly transformed into words.

"The succession ceremony is initiating..." The same sentence appeared on all four walls.

Chapter 220 Cracked, Sealed, Trial

An inheritance ceremony? What is that?

Not knowing what was coming next, Ronan became even more vigilant.

Just then, a straight crack suddenly appeared in the middle of the ground, and the floorboards split in two and opened downwards, just like a double door.

The thick layer of gravel and dust that had accumulated on the ground quickly poured down.

No one expected that there was a hollow space beneath the pyramid's floor, with another layer of space below.

If everyone had been standing on the edges, the slide might have been slower, but since everyone was in the middle, it was as if they were standing in the middle of a valley and then encountered a mudslide or landslide on both sides, and were instantly swept into it.

The crisis came suddenly.

Fortunately, Ronan was on guard and remained highly focused. He instantly conjured a shield into the air with his magic, flipped over, and jumped onto the shield. Dinia also leaped onto the shield, and at the same time used chains made of mushroom twists and contortions to bind Elena and Noah, preventing them from being swept into the debris flow and falling down.

In those split-second reaction times, even though Dinia's spells are instantaneous, she can't precisely target everyone; she can only save the people she's been focusing on.

Almost simultaneously, countless fine yet resilient threads sprouted from Faith's hands, one end attaching to the bottom of Ronan's levitation shield, the other connected to the coffin she carried on her back. Essentially, she suspended the coffin from Ronan's shield, standing on it herself, and simultaneously reaching out to pull Olivia and Sabistian back, saving them from danger as well.

Others weren't so lucky and could only struggle.

After a long time, when everything stopped, many of the native soldiers had been buried in the rubble, their bodies no longer visible. Only five or six lucky ones survived because they were in the middle of the crowd.

Xilausu was still alive, but he was covered in dirt and blood, squatting in the mound of earth, panting heavily. Beside him, there was a loud bang, and the bald, burly Ragman who had been with Faith burst out of the ground, but he was completely unharmed.

The six mage musketeers who followed Sebastian barely survived thanks to their superhuman physiques, but they also had to climb upwards to avoid falling due to the constant erosion from the falling rocks, leaving them with bleeding wounds on their hands and legs.

Faith released her hands, and Olivia's magic triggered a shockwave at the bottom of the coffin, causing her to land first. She then caught Sebastian steadily as he fell. "My fiancé, you owe me again."

Sebastian was speechless. He was quite helpless with his fiancée. In his eyes, Olivia was undoubtedly a good girl, but she was just too sharp-tongued.

Faith jumped off the coffin and landed on the ground. Then she retracted the silk thread, caught the falling coffin with one hand, and looked at a passage entrance on the left wall.

At this moment, Ronan and the others also noticed a circular hole in the middle of one side wall of the lower space, and they didn't know where it led.

Now Ronan faces two paths. One is the safe, conventional approach: have Dinia use magic to raise a high platform, then gather the power of all the mages to use magic on the platform to carve a hole in the weak spot of the magic stone wall on the first level of the pyramid, and then escape through that hole.

Second, take an unconventional route. Instead of going out, go down to the next floor and enter the passage opened in the wall to explore the other side.

"How do we do it?" Dinia asked.

"Let's go down and take a look," Ronan said.

Immediately afterwards, Ronan, Dinia, Elena, and Noah also landed on the first basement level.

The basement level no longer has the original, mysterious style of the brick and stone interior walls; the interior walls are now made entirely of smooth magic stone.

Above the entrance to the passage, there is a line of text that reads, "Enter the place of the inheritance ceremony here."

“Let’s go in and take a look,” Ronan said.

Ronan entered the passage, followed closely by Dinia and Elena. Noah did not follow. "I won't go first. I have no choice. I'm a doctor who has to save lives."

Noah's magic is based on divine oaths. With each advancement in rank, his oath adds a new condition requiring rescue. Each oath becomes more specific and rigid, unlike the rules of fate magic like Ronan's and Dinia's, which can be arbitrarily defined.

The person before him, severely injured because of someone closely connected to him, is the subject of the second oath.

After Ronan and his group went inside, the people outside saw that nothing had happened. Olivia dragged Sebastian along with them, and Faith followed as well. The bald, muscular Ragman was left behind.

The group arrived at another empty room.

This room is different again. The floor, ceiling, and surrounding walls are full of the style of indigenous religious temples, much like the first level of a pyramid before it collapsed.

Unlike the empty floor, there is something here.

In the middle, there are two cylinders side by side with the door half open, like two upright cabins. The two upright cabins support a base, and on the base stand two statues, a man on the left and a woman on the right. It is impossible to tell who the statues are, but just by looking at their posture and expression, you can tell that they are a couple.

On one side of the base, there are words, but Ronan couldn't understand them at first glance.

This text appears to be in an indigenous script.

Fies went straight out and brought over the injured military deputy commander of the Twin Bears tribe, Sirausu. This deputy commander was one of the few literate people in the tribe, and he recognized the words.

"To give a man and a woman a trial before they inherit the throne," Sirausu translated.

Olivia stepped forward. “I never imagined that your ancestors, the natives, not only built such structures, but also left you with some wonderful things. It’s a pity that some things will never belong to you.”

As she spoke, Olivia looked at Sebastian, "This is clearly aimed at a couple. There's no other couple here besides us, is there?" After saying that, she deliberately glanced at Ronan, Dinia, and Elena.

Elena gripped the sword hilt with both hands; if Ronan hadn't held her hands, she would have stabbed this wretched woman to pieces right now.

Sebastian nodded and then stepped into the cabin he had just walked through. Olivia stepped forward and went to the right.

After the two entered, the entire cabin was filled with a gradually dimming white light, like a breathing light, and then the cabin door slammed shut.

At this moment, the words that only Ronan could read appeared on the base once again: "Remaining number of failures: three."

This statement implies that others have been here, but they are not like them. They came down from the first level of the pyramid, while those who came earlier entered through other passages. Perhaps the first level of the pyramid was not originally empty, but contained some kind of normal mechanism, but it is no longer there.

Perhaps, the first layer originally didn't contain any magic stone blocks; they were simply placed there by someone.

The intruder from before also makes sense. This person had been here before and experienced some things, so he understood the mechanism here better than they did. Therefore, he triggered the mechanism in some way, causing the pyramid's sealing program to start, with the aim of preventing Ronan and his group from leaving temporarily.

only……

Chapter 221 Nobody expected it, it was too bloody, let me handle it.

This person probably didn't expect that the inheritance ceremony would be forcibly activated immediately afterward. The brickwork of the entire first floor collapsed, the ground split in the middle, and they were sent directly to the underground floor.

Ronan made this judgment because the inner walls of the first level of the pyramid were originally intact and had not collapsed before, so they were the first to trigger this mechanism.

"It's estimated that the other party has reached the outside of the pyramid, but unfortunately, we can't confirm this guess at the moment."

Ronan thought to himself.

After the pyramid made of magic stones was sealed and began to operate, the perception of magic was severely interfered with, making it almost impossible to sense whether there were any magicians outside.

Of course, this effect also applies to people outside; they cannot perceive what's inside.