Cloud Thinking

According to the direction pointed by Avril and the appearance described by her, Helia didn't take too long to find the entrance to the underground ruins - a naturally formed large pit. After jumping in, she could see a hole that was artificially opened.

Squeezing through the narrow entrance, the exit is in the upper-middle section of the downward spiral staircase. In the middle of the stairs there is a stone pillar that seems to support the sky and the earth. There are some murals carved on it, but due to human destruction and natural weathering, it is no longer clear what the content is.

Continuing down the stairs, Helia saw the place where Avril and the others were attacked. The originally intact stairs were broken into several sections. Looking down from the broken parts, she saw the underground floor, which was also the most magnificent display floor of the temple.

Until the three of them arrived at the first floor, they didn't meet anyone on the way. They didn't see any of the strange creatures or black magicians that Avril had mentioned.

Britney remained alert at all times, detecting the magical fluctuations around her, but based on what she detected, this temple was clearly a lifeless tomb, with no sign of living people at all.

Because Britney needed to be alert to the surroundings, it was Helia who was tracking Drummond and Kalzer with the tracking stone. As she expected, the two were now in this huge temple.

Following the guidance of the tracking magic, the three came to a stone door that seemed to be built for the giants. This should be the main hall where the statues were enshrined as Avril mentioned. It seemed that after they left, the black magician opened this door.

"Do you want to go in?" Beavis asked quietly.

What the black magician wants must be behind the door. If they have already got the things and left, that would be perfect. But if they haven't left yet, if the three of them go in now, they will be walking into a trap.

"Did you notice anything?" Helia looked at Britney and asked.

Britney looked serious and shook her head. "There is a power inside that blocks my view. It must be the remaining will of the ancient god. It is beyond our ability to break it."

This was troublesome. Now in this temple, there were not only strange creatures that appeared out of nowhere, but also dark magicians hiding in the dark. Now there was also the will of an ancient god. No matter which one it was, they were now unable to resist.

The light beam extended by the traceable magic is now pointing towards the main hall. There may be two situations: one is that Drummond and his companions were captured and are now locked up inside, but this possibility is relatively small, and it is more likely that their bodies are inside; the other is that there are no dark magicians inside, and Drummond and his companions entered the main hall to avoid being hunted down and hid inside.

But no matter which possibility it was, they had to enter the main hall, but Helia's intuition told her that if they went in now, they might not be able to get out.

"Let's go take a look around first, maybe we can find some helpers." Helia whispered.

Avril and Crazy Connie worked together, a total of ten people, all of them were strong, they couldn't all die in there, there should be survivors. Whether out of kindness or to get information from the temple, they had to find someone first.

It better be Crazy Connie... Helia thought.

The entire temple is roughly circular when viewed from above, with the main hall located at the top and five side halls on each side. Opposite the main hall is a downward spiral staircase leading to the second floor.

The three of them first walked to the left. The first side hall was not big. There was a sarcophagus inside. The lid of the coffin had been lifted to the side. Apart from that, there were some pottery jars piled in the corner of the room. Most of them were broken into pieces, with only one or two left intact.

The sarcophagus was as high as Helia's chin. She stood on tiptoe and looked inside. She found a strange corpse lying inside. The shape looked like a human, but when she looked closely, something was wrong.

"It's the winged people. Legend has it that in ancient times, ancient gods walked the world and would bestow their power on their believers and transform them. The winged people are the believers of Adalasi, the ancient god who controls the sky in the legend." Britney explained.

"Don't they say that the names of the ancient gods cannot be spoken directly? If they are heard, there will be divine punishment, right?" Beavis said worriedly when he heard Britney directly read out the name of the ancient god.

"Adalasis has fallen, so there is no need to worry about offending His name," Britney replied.

Helia looked at the extra broken bones next to the human shoulder blade. Those should be the wings of the winged man. She actually wanted to touch them, but the desire to survive suppressed her curiosity and made her hand stay still.

"So this is the temple dedicated to this ancient god?" she asked.

"It's not clear yet. Maybe this is the temple of Adalaisi's mortal enemy, and his followers hunted the winged people as sacrifices in order to please the gods." Britney replied.

Beavis originally intended to check the two relatively intact pottery jars, but was stopped by Helia. Who knows if there are monsters hidden inside that can dig out people's eyes in one go? Without knowing the situation, it is better not to get close.

There is nothing valuable in this side hall. Of course, if the remains of the winged man can be taken away, it would definitely be a rare item if sold outside.

The second side hall is much more interesting. A high chair made of gold is located in the middle of the hall with a crown on it. Next to the chair are a long sword and a scepter. These elements combined together can only represent the word "power" or "authority".

"Everything in each side hall has its own specific meaning." Helia confirmed.

"It should be a grand sacrificial ceremony," Britney said.

Helia stared at the throne for a long time, and she always felt that the chair seemed to be talking, tempting her to step forward, pick up the crown, put it on her head, and sit on the throne that belonged to her, holding a sword in one hand, representing absolute force; holding a scepter in the other hand, representing supreme power.

She is the king.

The pain in her arm pulled her out of this almost insane fantasy. Beavis clamped her hand tightly, as if pinching her flesh. She felt a burning pain somewhere in her forearm. At this moment, she had already stood in front of the throne without knowing when. She only needed to raise her hand to touch it.

"There is a secret magic of illusion here that will lure us forward. We'd better leave quickly." Britney warned, turning sideways and not looking at the throne.

The third side hall was just as Helia expected, filled with gold, silver and jewelry as high as a hill, which represented "wealth".

No one can resist the temptation of treasure. In the past, Helia couldn't help but take a look at the gold shop when she passed by. Although she became a princess in this life and was used to seeing expensive gems and gold in the palace, she still couldn't help wanting to touch the real gold and silver when she saw this scene.

But just as she took a step forward, she stopped when she felt a strange sensation under her feet. She lowered her head and saw, wow, it was a human bone.

She retracted her foot, raised her head and looked carefully, and found that hidden under the gold, silver and jewels were white bones that could hardly be covered up. There were so many people who coveted treasure that even the treasure could not cover them up, and they rolled down from the mountain of gold to all directions.

"This isn't a mountain of gold at all; it's clearly a mountain of human bones..." Helia complained.

The fourth side hall is filled with portraits of beauties, from young children to old ladies, from humans to animals, anything that can be called beautiful is presented here in the form of portraits.

The portraits were not made of fragile paper, but leather of a certain thickness. As for what kind of leather it was, Helia didn't know. But even so, many of the portraits were corroded to varying degrees, making the room full of beautiful people and objects look eerie and strange.

This side hall represents "beauty".

Helia couldn't help but wonder, what does the last side hall on the left represent?

When they saw the room full of bones piled up to the point where they could hardly contain them, the three of them were stunned. Helia then realized that this might be the place where Converse's severed arm was found as Avril had mentioned, because the bones that were supposed to be piled up like a mountain had a dent in the middle, causing the excess bones to rush out of the door and scatter everywhere.

"Crazy..." Beavis muttered. How many people must have been killed and how many lives must have been lost to have so many corpses here...

And this side hall represents - "fame".

How can it not be considered a kind of fame when so many people are willing to die for it?

Power, wealth, sex, and fame represent the four most common desires in the world, and the priests arranged the four side halls according to these four desires. The only thing that is unclear is the sarcophagus closest to the main hall. It seems to have a great significance, otherwise it would not be placed in that position, even surpassing the status of "power". However, Helia is unable to connect them together due to lack of relevant knowledge.

The three of them stopped at the entrance of the stairs leading to the second floor. Because it was a spiral staircase, they could not see clearly what was at the end of the stairs. They stood there for a long time, and after confirming that they did not hear any sound coming from downstairs, they decided to continue exploring.

So far, they haven't encountered any strange things. It is unclear whether they have not appeared or have been destroyed by people who have gone ahead.

At first, Helia thought that the layout of the side halls on both sides should be the same, after all, symmetry is important. But to her surprise, the five side halls on the right were all empty.

It cannot be said to be completely empty. The five side halls were arranged like cells. Iron chains for binding were still left in some of the rooms, and large sharp iron hooks were hung on the ceiling - they could pierce through a person's shoulder blades and hang him up. The doors were heavy stone doors, nearly as thick as a finger, and extremely difficult to push open.

When Helia and the others went to see, the doors of the five side halls were all open, some were opened normally, and some were violently destroyed.

"Who is this used to imprison?" Helia raised her head and gently touched the huge iron hook. In addition to dust, there was also a layer of blood stains on it.

She put some water on her fingers and touched it. The bloodstains melted in the water on her fingertips. Even though the bloodstains had been exposed to wind and rain for many years and were mixed with a lot of impurities, Helia could still barely tell that the blood on the iron hook was different from the blood of ordinary people.

This blood is golden.

This is divine blood.

These people killed gods as sacrifices.

"Britney, this blood is golden, it's the blood of God..." Helia stretched out her finger to show them, "The one who was imprisoned here was God..."

Britney pinched Helia's bloodstained fingers and examined them carefully, with a worried look on her face. She had some doubts in her heart: "These people...could they want to revive Adalesi..."

Gods are not immortal. Although they possess the power to destroy the heavens and the earth, they still have to abide by the law of iteration of all things in this world. Just as they killed each other in ancient times for power, the law of the jungle has always been the first law followed by gods. The loser will exit the stage of history, and the winner takes everything, including power, strength and believers.

Today, order has been established, and the conflicts of interest among the ancient gods have become so intense that they have to draw their swords against each other. Everyone will acquiesce to the current vested interests and maintain peace in this world with a balance of power.

But now the struggles between gods are often hidden in the dark, and the winner is decided almost at the moment of daylight. The dissipated ancient gods cannot respond to the expectations of believers, and the faith is no longer there, so they are forgotten. When the last person in the world who remembers this god dies, this god is considered to be truly dead.

Look at the layout of this temple. One side represents power, wealth, sex and fame, and the other side is the prison where the gods are imprisoned. The left side is what the gods like, in order to gain their attention, and the right side is what the gods need, in exchange for the opportunity of their incarnation.

"Among the ancient gods that exist today, are there any with wings?" Helia suddenly asked. She suspected that this so-called god resurrection ceremony might have been successful...

When Beavis was touched by her, a name suddenly appeared in his mind. To be precise, it was not a name, but a respectful title given to Him by people in later generations:

"The God of Light."

Outside the competition venue

All the teachers gathered together, anxiously trying to find ways to break through the barrier covering the competition venue. It was this barrier that severed the connection between the two places. They could not get in and the students could not get out.

All the imaging stones and surveillance props that the academy had placed at the competition venue were out of service. They had no idea what had happened in the venue, who had broken into the venue, and whether the students were safe.

Fortunately, Levita used the image stone that Helia had left him before to find out Helia's current situation, but it was one-way, that is, they could only see what Helia was doing and what she was going through, but they could not contact her.

Because the magic props used by Helia are all high-level magic props produced by the Royal Academy of Magic. To describe it vividly, there is a unique communication channel between these props. Even if the black magician isolates the competition venue, it only isolates the communication channel on the academy's side, but cannot disconnect Helia's separate communication channel.

In short, you get what you pay for, expensive things just work!

"It's actually a dark magician... Damn it..." After hearing Britney's judgment, the teachers surrounding the imaging stone felt as if they were facing an icy cave. These pests were chased away with almost no place to hide. I don't know how they had the guts to barge into the competition venue so openly. This was tantamount to challenging Carter's College and the bottom line of the magic world.

But now is not the time to think about revenge. The biggest problem is, what should we do with the students? These are the new generation of the future magic world. They have just grown up and are definitely not opponents of the black magicians. Given the habits of these pests, I think the students of these two classes are in great danger...

"Contact Marshal Hawke and the Magic Association immediately and ask them to send more people for support. Quick!" Dean Philip said sternly.

Contacting the Magic Association was for rescue and capture, and contacting Marshal Hawke was for protection and evacuation. For a town as big as Bellman, if they dared to sneak into the crowd as explosives, the damage caused would definitely not be a small amount.

"Do I need to inform His Majesty Claude?" Mobicius asked. Helia is in there. Even if she is very talented, she is just a novice. If she encounters a vicious and cunning black magician, even she may...

Philip thought for a moment and replied, "Don't do that for now. With Britney by your side, it should be no problem to dodge. Don't cause unnecessary panic."

"Levita! Find a way to contact Helia immediately!"

High-level magicians are now trying to find a way to break through the barrier outside the competition venue, but they don't know what method the other party used, and it will be difficult to break through for the time being. Now the only imaging stone that can be used to view the situation inside the competition venue has become a breakthrough.

"I'm working on it! Don't rush me!" Levita carefully studied the magic engraved on the imaging stone, wanting to add a two-way magic to it, but it was too difficult to start.

The magic on this image stone echoed each other, one nested within another. If he added to it rashly, it would destroy the balance of the entire magic and cause the image stone to be scrapped.

Finally, he found a space that seemed to be able to be inserted into it, and carefully inserted the two-way connection magic into it. The picture disappeared instantly, and after waiting for a long time, it was projected again in the form of a flower screen.

"Damn! How can I see this!" Mobicius tried to make the picture normal by tapping it, but was stopped by Levita's quick eyes and hands.

"Do you think this imaging stone is your broken magic crystal and it can be fixed by tapping it? Wait a while!" Levita cursed loudly.

The channel is unstable now, and we need to wait for the magic to run for several cycles before a stable channel can be slowly established.

After the picture returned to normal, Levita looked at the picture that was different from before and asked in confusion: "Where are they now?"

"It should be in that underground ruins." Mobichues replied.

The two-way communication magic was not working yet, so they could only continue to watch Helia and the others take action. Until Britney mentioned the ancient god's resurrection ceremony, everyone's faces darkened again.

Did the black magician come here to revive an ancient god?