Receiving Bei Ya Si's signal, Xia De pulled the two ladies in front and behind him, then lit the 【Bordeaux Candle】.
The voices, heat, and figures of the three disappeared, and the candlelight illuminated the surroundings.
The three almost rushed out of the tunnel, but when they raised their hands, preparing to face attacks from all directions, they saw no menacing figures waiting for them outside.
As the candlelight illuminated the surroundings, they finally relaxed.
The passage connected to an underground space similar in size to Xia De's bedroom, roughly a cubical space.
Opposite the wall dug out by Mercury Blood was a closed stone door.
Other than the stone door, the place was empty.
This was the formal entrance to the relic, and the word “modest” probably fit it perfectly.
It wasn't the huge complex of buildings in an underground cavern that they had imagined, nor was it the legendary tomb of the Ancient Magic Witches Emperor from stories; it was merely a place like a buried underground darkroom.
“If this was truly built by the last followers of The Innocent Creator, they must have been almost at their end back then.”
Bei Ya Si commented, feeling a bit emotional, as the other party were also followers of a benevolent god who had persisted for a thousand years after their deity's departure.
Without immediately pushing the door, the three spread out to observe their surroundings.
Xia De raised his finger and carefully examined the rock walls around them.
Except for the wall with the stone door, the other three walls were actually inscribed with text.
Although the relic was established in the early sixth epoch (Chapter 172), the script used was not from this epoch.
Fortunately, no matter what era those texts belonged to, it made no difference to Xia De, and he began to translate them:
“In the common era 532 of the sixth epoch, Joel Ord Callis, Scarlett Cade Guzman, and Gina Angela Servell jointly sealed the relic.
Our Lord has departed, and we are also about to enter eternal slumber.
The glory of the cult has shone for a thousand years, but all things must eventually end.
May our Lord, 'The Innocent Creator', grant glory again on the day of His revival.”
As he read, the two ladies looked over.
“Do you recognize these characters?”
Xia De paused his translation and asked them.
“No.”
The brown-haired girls shook their heads in unison.
“No, I'm not asking if you recognize these characters, but whether you know what kind of script this is?”
Xia De asked again, and Bei Ya Si blushed slightly:
“My ancient language grades... the Holy See almost didn't let me pass the test.”
“No, I don't recognize it. This should be some very rare ancient script.
Cults that inherited from ancient times like to use rare ancient scripts as a means of internal communication, partly to show the ancientness of their organization and partly for security.”
Annette said, knowing that Xia De understood all scripts, so she didn't ask further:
“Mercury Blood probably couldn't translate this content.
Let's see if there's any valuable information; we need to move forward quickly.
Detective, give me the Demonic Eye first; I'll go ahead in a moment.”
Xia De handed her the small jar he was carrying, then raised his finger to continue looking at the texts.
The information conveyed by the words in this script was extremely sparse, requiring long passages to describe simple matters, so there wasn't much content left:
“If our Lord revives, divine prophecy will surely guide later generations to excavate the cult's relic.
Our Lord's final creation, transformed into a sage-level relic artifact by the Orthodox Church, lies deep within the relic...”
“Artifact?”
Bei Ya Si interrupted Xia De in surprise:
“Is god's gift box a creation of the Old God 'The Innocent Creator'? Or is there an even more powerful relic inside the relic?”
“Xia De, keep translating.”
Annette also frowned.
All three were sweating profusely; although there was sufficient oxygen underground, it was incredibly stuffy here:
“Later generations must not blasphemy our Lord's artifact; it must be taken away according to the cult's rituals.”
“What are the rituals?”
Bei Ya Si asked again.
Xia De quickly scanned the next few paragraphs:
“It doesn't say; it seems they assume later generations will know the etiquette.”
“Detective, keep translating.
Besides the so-called Old God's creation, what else is in the relic?”
“The cult's thousand years of accumulation, before sealing the relic, were all donated through the Orthodox Church...”
“Ah?”
The young girl instinctively exclaimed in surprise, then awkwardly covered her mouth, signaling Xia De to continue.
“Aside from our Lord's creation, several relics form a defensive system to warn thieves.
Additionally...”
The traces were a bit blurry, but still barely discernible:
“Additionally, the cult's doctrine, 'The Ignorant's Textbook,' is preserved on eighteen pure gold engraved plates;”
“Additionally, our Lord's holy emblem statue rests with the three of us in slumber;”
“Additionally, a defiled relic sealed by the cult is suppressed here;”
Xia De suddenly coughed, instinctively covering his mouth, and looking down, he saw blood in his palm.
Bei Ya Si and Annette nearby both saw the blood at the corner of his mouth and immediately stopped him:
“Don't look anymore, Detective, stop quickly.”
Saying that, Bei Ya Si was about to pull Xia De.
“It's okay, there's only one last sentence left.”
Xia De shook his head, his eyes slightly moving away from the stone wall, and only then did he feel dizzy.
This ancient script itself was a source of power, and he hadn't realized it at all just now.
If this had been a longer text, he might have died silently.
“Did you forget about me? If there's real danger, I'll remind you.”
“I didn't forget.”
He replied in his mind, continuing to look up, but Annette grabbed his hand, her purple eyes looking at him:
“Be careful.”
The female Diviner reminded softly.
“The cult's glory lasted a thousand years, finally ending in the hands of us three.
Slumbering here, the spir...”
The Destiny Ring in his soul trembled violently, and the spirit within him was actually stirred by the words, bringing the loss of control incident with the darkness box to mind.
Having learned his lesson, Xia De immediately closed his eyes, forcing himself to forget the shapes of the dozens of engravings that followed, and after a long while, he said:
“No, that last sentence seems like a spell.
There are still defensive measures here.”
Fortunately, he only read the beginning, so he didn't cause any trouble.
And through the engravings on the three walls, they also knew that besides god's gift box, there were actually other valuable things in the relic.
However, even if Mercury Blood couldn't translate these texts, having occupied this place for so long, they had very likely already plundered the interior of the relic.
So, aside from the immovable sage-level relic god's gift box, there was probably nothing worth taking from the relic.
Next, they would formally enter beyond that door.
Although Annette had only divined three dangerous relics along the way, it was clear that there couldn't be only these three relics blocking their path in the relic.
Perhaps, at the entrance, there might even be a Silver-Eyed One, just waiting for the three to open the door and finish them off with one move.
Since they had already come this far, there was no need to talk about retreating.
Xia De put on his golden necklace and lit the candle to make himself and Bei Ya Si disappear.
Annette, on the other hand, held two jars containing Demonic Eyes in her left hand and bumped the stone door with her right arm.
The stone door opened, and seemingly endless darkness drifted out from behind it.
The only thing visible behind the door were two enormous red light sources, which reminded Xia De of Mia, his Mia, peeking at him from the crack in the door in the darkness.
But what was behind the door was clearly not a harmless creature like Mia.
Even standing behind Annette, Xia De still felt the terror and distortion coming from the door behind the stone door.
Biological instinct feared the unknown existence behind the door, and the two red light sources seemed to warn of danger.
Ice spread from the door crack, and a biting wind, mixed with a foul odor, was like a current of air from a lonely grave in the mountains.
A strange feeling warned Xia De not to move forward at all.
In the moment, he suddenly realized that the two enormous red spheres should be eyes, and the size of the eyes' owner, calculated from this, would be... Xia De had never had megalophobia, but thinking of this, he still felt a tingling sensation on his scalp.
The wind was violently stirring, and something in the darkness behind the door was rushing towards them.
Annette was as stunned as Xia De, but at that moment, she reacted without thinking, directly throwing the two jars she was holding forward.
The candle in his hand could only illuminate a very small space inside the stone door.
The three of them watched as the two glass jars containing Demonic Eyes, thrown into the door, were grasped by a giant hand reaching out from the darkness.
Then the giant hand retracted into the darkness that the candle's light had not yet reached.
The ice spreading from inside the door stopped, and the foul-smelling wind also ceased.
All three were breathing heavily; that moment truly felt like impending doom.
Only after the giant stone hand retreated did they dare to fully enter beyond the door.
Xia De held his finger high, and Bei Ya Si summoned several bright yellow orbs of light that flew upwards.
Although the space outside the door was so narrow it was smaller than a normal bedroom, the space behind the first door truly resembled an ancient underground relic from stories.
The space behind the door was still very vast, roughly the same size as Saint Delan Square, and its height exceeded four stories.
A gigantic stone statue stood in the center of this vast space, its feet on the ground and its head touching the sky, its head almost directly against the highest stone wall.
The stone statue had two legs, four hands, and three heads.
Semicircular stone rings connected its shoulders on both sides, tracing an arc above its head.
The enormous red eyes they had just seen were located on the central head, and besides that, the entire statue, from top to bottom, was almost everywhere densely covered with other eyes.
The stone statue stood motionless like a dead object, but the thousands of eyes constantly opened and closed under the silver and yellow light, their pupils looking at the “tiny” three, and each eye clearly revealed a hint of wisdom.
“Is this a gargoyle?”
Even though this thing was motionless, its inherent oppressive presence was enough to drive mentally fragile people mad.
At the same time, this could also be considered the largest relic Xia De had ever seen in terms of volume.