Chapter 896: Big Door
The Mithril Alliance in particular was in a terrible predicament, unlike the members of the other teams who were all in high spirits. Even though the wounded had all been treated, they were still pale, and had no idea if they could continue walking.
After looking at the situation of the members of his own team, Joseph was incredibly distressed. Given their current predicament, they would probably face a terrible end during the expedition, even if the President of the Tower of Dusk did not attack them. It seemed that he really couldn’t hesitate any longer.
In fact, at this time, the several patriarchs of the Mithril Alliance, including the elders of Joseph’s family, were already looking at Joseph in a somewhat hostile manner. If Joseph still refused to do anything, they would probably rush to suck up to Lin Li. By that time, they would naturally push all the blame to Joseph.
“Master Felic!” Seeing that Lin Li had put away his team’s tents, and was ready to give instructions to set off, Joseph finally decided to go all out. Hence, he strode towards him quickly, and said with a respectful expression, “Master Felic, when we saw that you had successfully stepped into the Sanctuary-realm, the magnificent scene that resembled the arrival of the G.o.ds made our hearts palpitate so much that we couldn’t congratulate you immediately. Please forgive us.”
Everyone who heard Joseph’s flattering words was filled with surprise and shock. However, after thinking about Lin Li’s current ident.i.ty of a Sanctuary powerhouse, those compliments and flattering words would not be overboard. However, most of them showed disdain for Joseph’s change in att.i.tude because he was previously arrogant and hostile towards Lin Li.
“Oh, Patriarch Joseph, are you preparing to withdraw?” Having gained some experience, Lin Li knew that regardless of whether his words were affirmative or negative, as long as he replied with one sentence, the other party would have a whole chunk of things to say afterwards. He didn’t have the time to listen to those pleasantries. Hence, he s.h.i.+fted the subject to the following plan for the exploration.
Lin Li asked a neutral question; in fact, he even sounded rather casual. However, after hearing his words, Joseph immediately got a chill. What did those words mean? Is he going to attack the Mithril Alliance? Joseph wondered. He was even sure that as soon as he mentioned his intention to withdraw, he and his team would definitely die and never see the light of day again.
“No, no, no!” Joseph exclaimed as he quickly reacted and shook his head profusely. He continued in a shaky voice, “Master Felic, please don’t get the wrong idea. It’s our greatest honor to be able to explore with you in this life…” Eh? Why does it feel like I’m saying my last words?
“Well, since you’re not going to withdraw, get your team to get ready to set off. We don’t have much time.” Seeing that Joseph was rattling on and on about meaningless things, Lin Li decided not to listen any further, though he did not show his impatience.
As soon as he heard Lin Li’s words, Joseph panicked even further as anxiety filled his heart. If that was the end of the conversation, it wouldn’t change the situation that the Mithril Alliance was in. He quickly forced an even more polite smile and even bowed forward to speak in a humble manner. “Master Felic, as you know, we were lucky enough to obtain a copy of Prince Brahere’s diary, but we only took out a few pages of it previously. I feel so ashamed of our selfishness when I think about it now. So, we would like to give it to you now. I hope that it will be of some help during our following exploration. Please don’t decline.” He then took out a diary that looked rather old but was still beautiful and even opulent.
When the Mithril Alliance took out those pages of the diary and suggested to cooperate with the two forces in exploring Prince Brahere’s mausoleum, Lin Li knew that they had to have more than just those pages of the diary. However, when looking at the diary, Lin Li didn’t grab it immediately. Instead, he said, “Since it’s Prince Brahere’s diary, it should contain many of his secrets. Even if you don’t continue to explore this ruin, you can still find other valuable things from the diary, can’t you?”
“Don’t make fun of us, Master Felic, but after experiencing these things in the mausoleum, we are now very clear that we’re not competent enough to covet any of his secrets. You, a n.o.ble Sanctuary powerhouse, are the only one who has the power to unlock Prince Brahere’s secrets,” said Joseph, who had already stopped restraining himself, and the expression on his face made it seem like he wished he could wors.h.i.+p Lin Li like a G.o.d.
It couldn’t be helped, since he had thoroughly offended the Tower of Dusk previously. If he did not swallow his pride, death would be the only thing that awaited him, and the entire Mithril Alliance would perish together with him.
Joseph held the diary high with both hands and bent over low, not daring to look at Lin Li for fear that he would see some ominous signs. His heart was filled with anxiety, and he had no idea if his diary could change Lin Li’s att.i.tude. Even if it was just a bit, it would be good if Lin Li did not want to kill them.
Joseph’s heart only fell back in place and felt a sense of relief when he felt Lin Li taking the diary from him. He frantically raised his head, and said, “Master Felic, it is indeed the Mithril Alliance’s fault for everything that happened previously. It was very despicable and cowardly of us to do so. We will definitely do our best to compensate for the damage that we’ve caused to the Tower of Dusk.”
“Forget about that for now. Take these potions with you and treat your wounded. However, we don’t have time to keep waiting, so just try to recover during the journey.” Lin Li took out some Life Potions and handed them to Joseph. Without saying anything more to him, he turned around and gave out the orders that he had already prepared beforehand to the team. Sindera had only given them three days to explore, and they had already spent half a day resting and adjusting. There were only two and a half days left for the exploration. Lin Li couldn’t possibly give the Mithril Alliance any more time to recover their strength.
After all, Sindera had merely said that there was a relic in the mausoleum and three souls guarding it. However, he did not mention anything else. If everything went well, two and a half days would be enough. However, Prince Brahere was insane, and G.o.d knew if there were any other troublesome traps hidden in the mausoleum.
Of course, even if the strength of the members of the Mithril Alliance was fully recovered, they would still be very insignificant. After all, almost all the demons that they had treated as their trump cards had been wiped; hence, they were much less powerful than they had been in the first place. Lin Li didn’t particularly care about their power. In terms of the strength of the expedition team as a whole, it was still stronger now than it used to be. After all, he had just become a Sanctuary powerhouse.
Joseph finally heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the Life Potions in front of him. Although it did not mean that Lin Li had already accepted him, and it was more likely that they were just going to be treated as cannon fodder, they at least didn’t have to worry about being directly exterminated. As long as they wouldn’t be killed directly, there would still be time for him to continue trying to improve their relations.h.i.+p. He did not dream of being as close to the Tower of Dusk as the Glittergold Trade Union, but he wanted their ties to be like that of the Caesar Family and the Tower of Dusk.
The expedition walked out of the canyon, and soon arrived at the huge tomb where they managed to see clearly the words on the stone tablet in front of the tomb. The team stopped for a while, and Joseph and Claus almost vied to reach Lin Li. They respectfully asked for permission to study the words on the stone tablet.
However, Lin Li was already well aware of the goal of the expedition this time, and they were running out of time as well. Hence, he did not stay in front of the stone tablet for long, and instead ordered the team to walk past the stone tablet to go to the closed gate of the tomb. Angelano walked around the tomb twice, and soon found the contraption used to unlock the gate. The gate that had been sealed for thousands of years finally opened slowly with a loud roar.
There was a wide pa.s.sage behind the gate that could allow about eight people to walk through it side by side. The Caesar Family and the Mithril Alliance were walking at the front as they took the initiative to do so. Of course, Lin Li wouldn’t make them the scapegoats to fall into the trap. With the guidance of Angelano, the Guru of Alchemy, there was basically no danger. It wasn’t that Lin Li was sparing a thought for them, but rather that he felt that making other lives become cannon fodder was too primitive and inefficient, especially since they were in Prince Brahere’s mausoleum. Perhaps all of them might not even be enough for filling the magic traps.
When they were on the first few floors, Lin Li and Angelano cracked some magic traps, and discovered that many of them were added afterwards. In other words, they did not match the original architectural design, which was a puzzling problem. However, the magic traps in the tomb were different. They could tell that each one of them was highly complement to the architectural design of the mausoleum. That also made it harder for them to crack the magic traps.
There were also some magic traps that even Angelano, the Guru-level Alchemist, couldn’t figure out at the moment. With Sanctuary-level power, Lin Li crushed them and allowed the expedition to eventually pa.s.s through smoothly.
The pa.s.sage was thousands of meters long, and due to the presence of Lin Li and Angelano, the speed of the expedition’s progress remained unaffected, and they soon moved through the long pa.s.sage, arriving in a palace-like hall. In the hall, there were some burial goods, but they were all pieces of art that were like treasures such as paintings made of various magical metals and statues carved from large magical crystals.
To Lin Li, those things had nothing to offer except monetary value, but the Tower of Dusk did not lack money at all. As for the others, they would definitely take all the items if they were in the past circ.u.mstances. However, now, no one dared to pocket the items before Lin Li took the lead to take them.
Seeing that Claus wanted to ask but did not dare to, Lin Li calmly said, “Let’s get to the innermost part of the mausoleum as soon as possible. If you have time when you return, you can take them.”
It was not that he was unkind and inhumane, but rather that they only had two and a half days to explore and leave the mausoleum. In other words, the time that they really had to explore was probably just a little more than a day. However, Lin Li did not know if they had enough time or not. He could merely minimize the time spent traveling.
However, Claus didn’t seem disappointed. Instead, he acted as if he had found a treasure. In fact, even if Lin Li didn’t say anything, Claus wouldn’t feel that there was anything wrong with it. After all, there was no need for a Sanctuary powerhouse to explain his actions to some insignificant figures. Besides, the explanation made Claus feel a little surprised and flattered as he wondered if that meant that he was one step closer to being accepted by Lin Li!
Regardless of how Claus was behaving, Lin Li simply got the expedition to continue advancing forward. Be it the team from the Tower of Dusk or the other three forces, none of them objected to it. It was as if there was no distinction between the forces at this moment as everyone followed Lin Li’s orders.
After pa.s.sing through the hall where the art pieces were displayed, they saw another corridor. However, this time, it turned into a downward spiral, and as the team got deeper, the density of the magic traps increased, while the techniques involved became more and more superior. Comparing the magic traps, the settings in Osric’s mausoleum seemed rather inferior.
Under the obstruction of the powerful and ingenious magic traps, the expedition slowed down. Not only were the magic traps becoming more and more difficult for Angelano to crack, but Lin Li was also unable to force his way through despite having Sanctuary-level strength. Some magic traps could erupt repeatedly, and even if Lin Li forced his way through, the rest would be stuck at the back. Besides, Lin Li could feel that some magic traps could cause damage to him. There would be no issue if his realm was more solid, but it wouldn’t work now.
However, the magic traps were not alive, while they were. Besides, Lin Li already had extremely high attainments in magic gears in the first place. After half a day, Lin Li and Angelano cracked more than 1,000 magic traps, and they finally arrived before a grand and ostentatious gate.
The entire gate was made from the adamantine from the deepest part of the Abyss, and its only advantage was the fact that it was study. It was said that even the power of G.o.ds could not destroy any item made of adamantine, and it was almost impossible to even build something out of adamantine. Besides, it could not fuse with any other metal, either. Hence, it generally had no value.
However, Lin Li knew of a secret solution that could temporarily change the nature of the adamantine. He was probably the only person who knew about it, even in the Endless World. However, Lin Li was already feeling a little numb about it. Even his Endless Labyrinth had appeared in the Sky Castle, and the Whispering G.o.d had also been nurtured in the upper level of the mausoleum. There was no need to make a fuss out of a secret solution.
Angelano carefully inspected outside the gate for a while before helplessly saying, “I’m very sure that there is no opening mechanism for this gate at all. Why don’t we see if we can break the wall and enter from inside?”