A low rumble carried through every stone tile that was part of the temple and perhaps even further, announcing to any who would lend an ear or two of the opening of the secret passage.
Due to his sharp senses Hao Xuan felt the vibrations much more clearly than any of the others and as a result, woke from his dazed state. The vibrations weren't too strong but he could feel they went very, VERY deep.
Every click and clack went down for what felt like miles until it was too far gone to return.
Princess Helena turned her head halfway to flash a mischievous smile, "Actually, this is the real secret passage," she said before bending down to pick up a candle for herself.
"Everyone please take one each. I will light it as soon as you enter. Just remember to stay close as usual. If you get lost down here then I might never be able to find you again."
Her words of warning did their job as intended, instilling fear in all of them especially the other demihumans. Princess Helena didn't wait long and shortly afterward started her descent into the new secret passage.
Hao Xuan gave one last cursory glance to the four sculptures before following behind the others. He picked up a random candle and walked up to the passageway that looked more like a welcoming mouth of some ancient creature than a staircase.
It was so dark that he couldn't even see any of the others even though they were just a couple of meters ahead of him and he could still hear their footsteps.
But the moment he stepped onto the first step a spark ignited the candle and all the darkness was pushed away. A strange feeling of being watched ran down Hao Xuan's right arm. As if someone or something was watching him from somewhere far away but that wasn't even the most shocking development.
'A law!'
He looked at the flickering flame atop the half-used candle and realized at once that it was a law and quite a high-level one at that. It was a divine law with such profoundness hidden in every atom that he couldn't even tell what mastery level it would fall in.
A bit of Hao Xuan's spirit sense slipped into the flame and he saw himself standing on the edge of a cliff looking down at a sea of boiling lava with tongues of flames dancing atop its surface like dragons. Its depths were not discernable by the naked eye.
It was at least mastery level four or higher. Although there was no definite way of determining what mastery level a law was at, as long as a person had a law of their own they could compare the two and instinctively know the difference.
Hao Xuan's Chaos Law was at mastery level one and he could tell the difference up to three levels higher but that after that, it was a guessing game.
Quickly realizing it was not something he should meddling in, Hao Xuan pulled back his spirit sense at once. And it was only then that he noticed that his entire body was covered in a layer of sweat and the body temperature had gone through the roof, just by attempting to peer into the Law with the spirit sense.
Hao Xuan picked up his pace and ran after the others that had already reached the end of the twisting staircase.
Princess Helena seemed to be waiting for Hao Xuan since only when he reached them did she continue.
"Don't look down, don't speak if you don't have to, and if you see something 'out of ordinary' then just ignore it. Understand?"
A new but not so unfamiliar set of instructions followed to which every agreed. Hao Xuan was at the back so he couldn't see what was ahead of them so he just nodded along.
But when the path opened up so did Hao Xuan's mouth. What he was looking at was nothing short of a miracle.
A labyrinth of interconnected arching walkways and staircases going back and forth in every possible direction imaginable. Thankfully none of them were upside down although there were numerous others either higher or lower than them which made it looked like a dense jungle made of rock and stone.
At first glance Hao Xuan counted at least 400+ pathways just within a radius of hundred meters. He looked behind and saw the place they had come out from. It was just one of the countless identical pillars that were going up and down at the end of every pathway or staircase.
And even though he didn't mean to, Hao Xuan did exactly what Helena warned him not to. He stepped to the side and looked over the edge to see what was below.
Unfortunately, it was much of the same. The same indistinguishable pathways going left, right, up, and down. If one got lost here then there might not be a way to get back.. And thinking up to that point, he got worried that the princess might not know it either.