The surface of the stone stele was covered with obscure runes, some of which had been eroded by time, leaving only incomplete characters.
"I made a rubbing of the parchment from this stone stele." Du Wei turned to Lynn beside him, "At the same time, this is also the deepest part of the mausoleum we have explored so far, because we couldn’t find a way forward, it seems to end here."
Hillena had never been here before. She looked around the stone chamber with her eyes, and behind the stone stele was a complete stone wall, with no signs of passages or mechanisms.
She received a report from the Grave Digger Team, saying they had tried various methods before, even using a Sealed Object for detection, but to no avail.
Lynn’s eyes slowly swept over the stone wall, and his lips curved slightly into an almost imperceptible smile.
The original work did mention this place.
And the scene matched the description in the original perfectly — the "false endpoint" of the Helius Mausoleum, where many grave diggers and adventurers had been misled by this illusionary wall.
He slowly approached the incomplete stone stele, traced the jagged edge with his fingertip, immediately causing blood to bead out and drip onto the surface of the stele.
Then, something strange happened. The drop of blood transformed into a thin, hair-like red line, slowly flowing along the mystical patterns on the stele, as if filling some ancient ritual.
Lynn’s finger traveled along the fracture lines, and those seemingly chaotic gullies gradually connected into the outline of a star map in his eyes.
Lina suddenly raised her hand and exclaimed, her voice trembling with disbelief.
Everyone looked up sharply and saw that the previously cracked stone chamber ceiling was becoming transparent bit by bit.
Countless phantom stars emerged from the void, coinciding with the star map Lynn saw on the stele.
He looked down at his still bleeding fingertip, then up at the brilliant starry sky on the dome.
Finally, among the vast star maps spanning the heavens and earth, he found a star that didn’t look very conspicuous.
The original work recorded that this star was the key to opening the entrance to the mausoleum’s passage.
"What an enigmatic fellow."
Lynn muttered to himself, finding the star in the star map outline on the stele that only he could see.
Then he gently pressed it.
The next moment, the star map on the dome began to rotate slowly like a giant compass. Meanwhile, the stone wall behind the stele, under the reflection of the star map, gradually turned transparent, revealing the bottomless passage behind it.
At the depths of the passage, a faint golden light flowed, resembling a sleeping galaxy.
The scene in front of them stunned everyone, including Hillena. Du Wei looked at Lynn with eyes full of admiration and disbelief.
God knows how many attempts they made in this stone chamber, yet without any final discovery, Lynn easily opened the passage leading deep into the mausoleum.
"This guy rarely earns Her Highness’s attention; it seems he truly has some abilities."
Du Wei thought to himself.
They hadn’t returned to the Imperial Capital for a long time, so their information was quite limited, making it understandable that they didn’t know about Lynn’s deeds. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn novel~fire~net
Beyond the stone chamber was a corridor that looked bottomless, but in reality, it was only ninety-nine meters long.
As the leader of the Grave Digger Team, Du Wei took the lead without a doubt, with the others close behind.
As the most loyal subordinates of Hillena, they were committed to sacrificing themselves if necessary, ensuring that Her Highness Hillena would never be harmed.
"Crossing this corridor should lead to the forehall."
Lynn thought to himself.
"Yorick, what are you doing?"
Lina suddenly screamed.
Everyone turned around to see Yorick gazing blankly at the holes in the corridor walls, his expression vacant and his mouth curved in a bizarre smile.
At the same time, his dagger had somehow unsheathed itself, slowly raising its blade towards his own throat.
Lynn immediately acted, drawing Hillena’s sword and knocking Yorick’s dagger away.
Another member of the Grave Digger Team, Hayden, who was nearest to Yorick, hurriedly restrained him, fearing he might do something reckless.
Du Wei frowned deeply, looking quite tense.
"He heard the ’voice of temptation’!" Lynn said softly, "The ancient texts say that Echo Corridor amplifies the desires in people’s hearts, and those with weak willpower are lured to self-destruction!"
"What is the Echo Corridor?"
Lina asked in confusion.
"I saw records of it in ancient texts. It existed in ancient times, and I never expected to encounter it here."
Hillena was solemn; she had a premonition that the deeper they ventured into the mausoleum, the more bizarre events would follow one after another.
"No wonder, Yorick is a genius Alchemist, but his mind is somewhat unstable. He has contemplated suicide before, and I stopped him once. But recently, his mental state has improved, and he hasn’t done anything for a long time."
According to Lynn, in the Echo Corridor, everyone’s inner desires would be amplified, testing the strength of their willpower.
Yorick had previously harbored suicidal thoughts, so he was affected just now, raising his dagger to end his life.