touchnovel Chapter 112 The Hell Tunnel Forcibly Opened!
Chapter 112 The Hell Tunnel Forcibly Opened!
Chapter 112 The Hell Tunnel Forcibly Opened!
The group descended one by one.
The fissure was steep and narrow, but fortunately it wasn't long.
After sliding down about seven or eight meters, my feet touched solid ground, and I entered an irregular natural cave of about twenty square meters.
The cave was very hot, and the walls, made of dark red rock, emitted a faint glow, barely providing any illumination.
In one corner of the cave, there were some rotten wooden frames and metal fragments scattered around, clearly man-made remains.
But the most striking feature is a circular magic circle, about two meters in diameter, that is severely worn and incomplete, carved on the floor in the center of the cave.
The runes of the magic circle are ancient in style, and you can vaguely see structures related to fire and space, but they are clearly different from the rune system used by the Ash Ring, and are closer to the ancient style described in the log.
"Found it!"
"This is very likely that ancient observation point, or at least a related secondary site!"
Soria excitedly squatted down beside the magic circle, took out the imprinting tools and recording crystal, and began to study them carefully.
Shi En sensed the surrounding rock walls and ground again.
"The cave itself was natural, but it has been altered."
"The magic circle is the core, and the surrounding rock walls were covered with stabilizing and energy-guiding runes. Although most of them have failed, the traces are still there."
"Moreover—I sense that there seems to be an even finer, deeper energy line connected beneath the magic circle, pointing—to the direction of the Scorched Rift Lord's ruins."
"Very faint, almost broken."
Rowling was also observing carefully.
He walked around the magic circle once, and the echo unit in his mental sea did indeed transmit an extremely faint response.
It is not direct, scorching hell energy, but rather a residual fluctuation that has been transformed and guided, carrying the attribute of order, seemingly related to the magic array itself.
At the same time, he also tried to sense signs of the possible existence of the star core embers mentioned by Soria, as well as the special mineral fluctuations related to star power.
Suddenly, his gaze fell on a fist-sized rock at the edge of the magic circle, its color slightly darker than the other rocks, appearing as a dark blue-purple.
The stone is half-embedded in the ground, with a smooth surface, as if it has been saturated with energy over a long period of time.
By carefully probing the star power sensing module of the echo unit, a faint, extremely restrained yet unusually stable energy fluctuation emanated from inside the stone, carrying a faint star aura, which was completely out of place with the surrounding violent fire element environment.
"Ms. Soria, look at this stone."
Rowling pointed to the dark blue-purple stone.
Soria and Shi En both came closer. Soria scanned it with the analytical instrument, and her eyes gradually widened.
"This is—a star-scorched stone!"
"An extremely rare variant mineral that can only slowly form under extremely high temperatures and high concentrations of stellar energy!"
"Although it's not pure stellar core embers, it's a byproduct of the stellar core ember formation process, or rather, a degraded, incomplete version!"
"It contains stellar energy properties tempered by high temperatures, making it extremely stable and possessing strong resistance and neutralizing effects against flames and chaotic energy!"
"This is sufficient proof that ancient explorers did indeed come into contact with, and even use, substances related to the embers of a star's core!"
"This piece of star-scorched stone is also an excellent research sample and material!"
Soria excitedly took notes.
Carefully dig it out and store it properly.
This is the first substantial gain since the exploration began.
Next, Soria focused all his efforts on copying and analyzing the incomplete ancient magic circle.
Rolin, along with Stoneheart and Stoneclaw, carefully searched the other corners of the cave and discovered several fragments of metal plates with indistinct inscriptions and a rune core that had long since lost its energy.
The text is fragmented, but combined with Soria's translation, it seems to mention terms such as "observational records," "energy tidal cycles," and "anchor point stability."
"The main function of this magic array seems to be to monitor the energy state of the main seal and the fluctuation patterns of the weak points in space. It may also have the auxiliary function of transmitting information or energy to the main seal."
"Unfortunately, it is too badly damaged to be used directly, but its structure and rune arrangement are of great reference value for our understanding of ancient sealing techniques."
Soria initially judged that the harvest was quite fruitful, but the main target, a complete diagram of the sealing structure, or a clear clue about the star core remnants, had not yet been found.
Just as Soria finished the last rubbing and everyone was preparing to leave the sweltering cave, a sudden change occurred!
The entire cave began to shake violently without warning!
Gravel and dust rained down from the rock wall overhead, and a faint, intermittent dark red light once again shone from the center of the broken ancient magic circle on the ground!
At the same time, a surge of otherworldly energy, far stronger than before and carrying a sense of frenzied destruction, came like a tidal wave from the direction of the almost severed energy line below the magic array!
It wasn't leaked from here; a major change occurred at the Lord's relics!
"Oh no! There's a problem with the main seal!"
"The energy fluctuations are unusually violent!"
Shi En's expression changed drastically. He could clearly sense the heart-palpitating chaos and heat emanating from the underground energy veins.
"The Ring of Ashes—they may have forcibly broken some kind of restriction, or the ritual went out of control!"
Soria turned pale.
The tremors lasted for more than ten seconds before gradually stopping, but the surging otherworldly energy fluctuations did not subside. Instead, they slowly intensified, like an opened valve, continuously seeping the aura of the scorching hell into this world.
"We must leave immediately and return to report!"
Shizhua made a decisive move.
Without further delay, the group quickly climbed out of the crevice along the original path.
Back on the ground, one could clearly feel that in addition to the scorching heat in the air, there was an unsettling frenzy.
On the distant horizon, in the direction of the scorching rift valley, the sky is faintly illuminated by an abnormal dark red hue.
The squad retreated out of the wasteland as quickly as possible.
Along the way, through the echo unit, Rolin clearly sensed that the chaotic, scorching energy from the Scorching Hell was slowly spreading across the wasteland, just like a spreading pollution.
Many wilderness creatures have become unusually agitated and their aggression has increased significantly.
Two days later, the team returned to the outpost in a disheveled but safe state and immediately reported the situation via emergency communication.
The news spread like wildfire, quickly reaching the upper echelons of Shadowraven Tower.
Almost simultaneously, through various intelligence channels, it was confirmed that an accident had occurred during the ritual of the Ring of Ashes in the Scorched Rift.
They seem to have found a way to briefly bypass the core restrictions of the ancient seal, but this also caused part of the seal to go out of control, and an unstable spatial passage leading to the fragments of the Scorching Hell was forcibly torn open!
Although the passage is small in scale and extremely unstable, opening and closing intermittently, otherworldly energy and a small number of low-level fire elemental creatures have already begun to seep in through the passage!