Chapter 663: The Ancestor's Gift (52)

Every door leads to the unknown, but here, almost every door leads to fear.

Luo Qi withdrew his attention; he was certain there were no minds here that he could perceive, but for the sake of caution, he still had to be on guard against creatures that were too strange.

The strangest creatures currently present were the Battle Mages; they maintained a state of cautious defense for the first three seconds after the gate opened. Luo Qi was now accustomed to the Battle Mages' opening maneuvers; their brains would habitually increase certain physical parameters, heighten their physical instincts, and strengthen themselves to a certain degree, while simultaneously casting some probing Warning Magic characteristic of each individual. This time, everything was as usual during those first three seconds; the Battle Mages all started according to their training habits and personal preferences, but then Luo Qi felt a strong sense of confusion coming from them.

This confusion made Luo Qi quite confused as well.

The lofty enthusiasm of the Lotus Burners was also a bit dampened at this moment, mainly because it was truly too dark behind the door.

Leader Zhao had opened the door of the Progenitor Mage, but it lacked the magnificent aura that was present when the entire space was activated by Du Zhengyi. The space behind the door was as dark as the universe, and as silent as the vacuum of the universe.

"Can't you turn on a light?" Luo Qi asked teasingly.

Leader Zhao was very capable of drawing inferences, so he tried to use the same routine he had just used to open the door to turn on the lights, but unfortunately, he did not succeed.

Luo Qi cast a confused look at Liu Ziyi and took the opportunity to glance at Wusu. The latter's brows furrowed, and Liu Ziyi, realizing it belatedly, suddenly raised her head and let out an "Ah."

"Why is there no energy here at all?" Liu Ziyi said in surprise.

"You didn't have any trouble using Magic here, did you?" Luo Qi could be certain that the Battle Mages who had just used probing and Warning Magic had encountered no difficulties; Magic Energy could be summoned here.

"That is true, we can use Magic," Liu Ziyi said. As she spoke, she rubbed a light orb into existence with her bare hands, which hovered in mid-air like a Crystal ball, illuminating the area around them; the subtle sound of using Magic also dispelled the absolute silence of the place.

Silence—Luo Qi suddenly grasped the key point: it was too quiet here. There were no living creatures, nor were there any subtle sounds of Magic at work.

"I mean, how is this place cut off from the entire Seal Land? The door is indeed connected to the Seal Land, but since this door opened, this room is completely severed; I can be certain that this place is not connected to the Magic of the Seal Land," Liu Ziyi said.

"Independent power supply," Luo Qi rephrased.

"Oh, right, that's the idea," Liu Ziyi said, while guiding the controlled light orb to tentatively and slowly rise continuously. She let the brightness of the light orb increase as its height increased; the light orb continuously illuminated a larger area, and the dark metal floor and walls weakly reflected the light.

Luo Qi tilted his head back, squinting to let his gaze follow the rising light orb. It was too high.

"What is going on? How big is this place?" Liu Ziyi finally exclaimed in surprise; the light orb she had released had already risen to a height of about ten meters, yet the surroundings remained empty, and the darkness overhead still could not be dispelled.

"It's huge," Yan Hao murmured behind Luo Qi, "and very void; there is nothing here."

Luo Qi lost his patience. He followed Liu Ziyi's method and threw a light orb as well, but this light orb burst like a crazed moon, shooting straight up fifty meters. Perhaps more than fifty meters; Luo Qi was always a problem when it came to precision; he was like someone lighting a giant firework. Liu Ziyi cursed at him in annoyance, using the language of the Ancient Mages; Luo Qi could only understand half of it and could not grasp the insults and accusations within it.

The light orb still had not touched the ceiling, but the light it emitted finally illuminated the dome. Luo Qi barely guessed that the supporting material of the dome was the same dull silver-gray alloy as the floor, but he could not see more details. This place was like a giant's living room; looking from here toward the distant ceiling, one could see the huge arched dome extending into the darkness. Beneath the dome was a vast space, the floor smooth as a mirror, without a speck of dust, as if time had never accumulated here.

Luo Qi felt a sense of familiarity with this emptiness, some rather unpleasant familiarity. He had also been to an empty, giant space before, only this one was more refined, while that one was more like a giant's unfinished room. It was there that he had been trapped, swapped, nearly caused Du Zhengyi's death, and was then rescued by him. This familiarity caused Luo Qi's emotions to fall into a brief state of unhappiness, depression, loneliness, anger, and panic, which he then decisively suppressed and dispelled himself.

He remembered that some ancient characters had been left there, some sentences that seemed meaningful and yet seemed unintentional. He looked around, wanting to find characters, Spells, or some Crystal patterns. He found nothing on the walls, but just fifty meters ahead on the ground, there was the shadow of a device, circled within a reflective ring.

Further away there were more giant circles; if one looked down from above, perhaps one could discover that these circles were arranged in a regular geometric array.

This place was not connected to the Seal Land, perhaps to ensure that there were no other creatures here. Therefore, a strange stillness permeated the air; there was no ventilation equipment, no echoes, and no response from Magic Energy. Luo Qi realized that this must have been what the Battle Mages felt after stepping in here, which was why they were confused.

Suddenly, between the perceptible and the imperceptible, a dull sound came from the distance irregularly, like a sleeping giant beast moaning in its dreams. Luo Qi felt a chill down his spine at this unfamiliar sound that he also seemed to have heard somewhere before.

As if to answer his confusion, Wusu said in a low voice, "It is the sound of metal contracting from the cold."

Luo Qi glanced at him and saw a trace of sorrow mixed with confusion on his face, as if he were mourning some grave he himself did not even understand.

"Go in and take a look. We must pass through here; this is a shortcut. Judging by the depth of this place, perhaps this shortcut is even more convenient than we previously imagined," Luo Qi said, then stepped forward without hesitation. He had a premonition that something was waiting for him here; perhaps it was not important to others, especially not to Mages, but to him personally, it felt like the end of his confusion and contemplation.

He walked forward quickly, the light source following them overhead, and he soon saw the circle clearly. A slightly recessed reflective ring enclosed a circular area; the material of each ring was different from the metal of the floor, like some kind of base specially embedded in the ground. Compared to this huge ring, the device at the center seemed too small. It did not look like it was tightly fitted into the metal base, but rather like an object the height of a person placed here.

The light shone on its surface, illuminating its smooth yet irregular shape. Perhaps it could not be called smooth; Luo Qi saw from afar that its surface was covered with patterns, those patterns complex, fluid, flowing like a vortex, familiar to the point of being unable to be more familiar at first glance. Luo Qi suddenly turned a step, changed his perspective, and more clearly saw its bird beak, protruding eyes, and the symmetrical feathers on its head. Time had not accumulated in this giant space, but this human creation could not resist time; it had lost its former gold and turned into an archaic green. Luo Qi suddenly realized.

"What is this?" someone screamed and asked, not knowing who.

"Haven't you read any books? This is a bronze vessel," Luo Qi said, suppressing the babble of discussion, screams, and gasps.

"This is, this is... a human bronze vessel?"

Luo Qi leaned over to look at the three legs of the bronze vessel; the three legs were not connected to the ground; it had simply been cast and then placed here.

"Humans once performed sacrifices here," Leader Zhao said something not too stupid, but then added, "Stupid."

Luo Qi looked up, "Then let me ask a question: how did humans walk into the depths of the Seal Land?"

No one could answer; Luo Qi suddenly cast his gaze higher, staring intently at the dark silver metal dome overhead.

"Isn't it funny? Humans could also get in, and even performed sacrifices here according to their own will," Luo Qi said in a low voice, as if talking to himself. He stood up, turned in another direction, and examined this beautiful bronze bird; it conformed to the humans of the Shang dynasty in terms of aesthetics, but if one ignored its patterns and shape, it made Luo Qi feel so familiar.