Yes, Madam Prime Minister

"Let it be as Lord Ronan says," the old man Treca, the high priest, decided.

This time, the password was correct.

The door opened automatically to both sides, and the group quickly entered. Unlike the invisible door last time, which couldn't be closed, this time the door closed automatically with a loud bang as soon as people entered.

The entire lobby on the first floor of the tower was plunged into darkness in an instant, making it impossible to see anything. This situation instinctively gave people the feeling that they had fallen into a trap.

Facing the darkness, the Heidil priest leaned back towards the door, reaching out to grope for the keyhole, only to find that there was no keyhole inside the door.

Can't get out.

Agustina raised a hand, preparing to light the fire, but at that moment, the lights on the dark first-floor hall ceiling, identical to the disc-shaped projection lights in the previous underground passage, lit up one after another, illuminating the entire hall.

Just as they breathed a sigh of relief, they realized a fact that was no laughing matter.

Chapter Thirty-Two: No retreat, no advance, it's up to you.

The floors, columns, beams, walls, and ceilings were so clear under the light, and the textures of their surfaces were all exactly the same, a unique texture somewhere between stone and metal, no different from the outer shell of the Fantasy Symphony, those cubes.

There is every reason to believe that this entire tower is constructed of magic stones, so naturally no one can laugh.

The atmosphere suddenly turned freezing; no one knew if the floor here would fly up like the stone pillars in the botanical garden and turn into a bunch of cubes.

Worse still, we are now in a closed indoor space.

“How much do you know about this tower?” Ronan asked Treca while remaining vigilant.

Ronan looked carefully from both sides and found that there was no staircase leading up to the top floor of the tower; there was only a huge pillar in the middle connecting to the upper floors.

"There is a room inside this pillar that can move up and down, and you can go to any floor through this room."

Treka said between breaths, explaining that as a high priest, he had a stronger physique than the average Seapiper, but he was getting old and had exhausted too much energy after experiencing a series of events, making him unable to hold on any longer.

A moving room? This is just an elevator.

Ronan gripped the conch shell hanging around his neck tightly. "Then let's keep going. So many people have already paid the price for this place. We can't just let it go like this. Besides, those black monsters will break through those cubes sooner or later. The gate of this tower can stop us, but it can't stop those monsters."

His words were somewhat risky.

They could have stopped there. The black monsters would have been able to break through the gate and come in, and their target was almost certainly the tower. The tower was of far higher priority than them, the humans. They could have taken the opportunity to escape safely.

However, Ronan was unwilling to let so many people die in vain; he wanted to find out why only he could understand the text here.

Taking other people's sacrifices seriously and pursuing the truth of the matter—as an official, Ronan had already failed at this point.

“Not bad,” Dinia said, then took her first step with her long-handled axe-like wand in hand, heading towards the huge central pillar.

Agustina followed closely behind, and Ronan, sword and shield in hand, joined the fray.

The seven mage musketeers muttered a few curses under their breath and followed.

Ronan and the others went up, and the Seapipe priests, who were the true parties involved, no longer hesitated and stepped forward.

In the spacious and quiet hall, everyone's footsteps could be heard clearly.

The distance from the entrance to the huge central pillar is only twenty meters, but it took the group more than a minute to walk those twenty meters and they still hadn't arrived.

Because with every step we take, we are preparing to deal with any unexpected events that may occur at any time.

Finally, they were only three to five meters away from the giant cylinder. About three meters around the cylinder, there was a red circle. It looked like the red circle was just a decorative pattern on the ground and didn't exist. But after experiencing so many unexpected events, everyone held their breath.

Dinia used her wand to step forward across the red circle, and nothing happened. She didn't sense any unusual power either. Then she stepped past the first one to arrive. Nothing happened during the whole process, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, Agustina, Ronan, and the seven mage musketeers crossed the red circle and arrived in front of the giant pillar.

Just when everyone thought it was just a false alarm and the red circle was merely a ground decoration, the Seapiper priest at the front suddenly let out a painful cry. As he stepped forward, the instant his hand crossed the red circle, it was as if he had touched a red-hot iron plate, and a large chunk of it turned red and rotten.

When the other two Haidi people stepped over, it was the same; it was as if they had kicked a red-hot iron plate. Even though they pulled back instantly, their toes, exposed by their straw sandals, were still burned and ulcerated.

Even a slight crossing of the line has such consequences; once they completely cross it, they will instantly turn into charred corpses.

The reality is truly ironic: this place, so closely connected to the lost civilization of the Haidi people, allows humans to pass through unscathed, yet forbids the Haidi people from passing through.

"Hahaha." Treka laughed, but as he laughed, he began to sob, and in the blink of an eye, tears streamed down his face.

Centuries of waiting, a fleeting moment of hope, a gamble that slammed the future of everyone involved. They had made countless sacrifices along the way, and as priests, each of them was prepared to give their lives, hoping only to bring the treasure back.

Treca had even decided that if they had no hope of survival, they would entrust the item to Ronan after finding it.

But at the last moment, they couldn't get through.

The "roots" of this Haidi civilization do not allow them, the Haidi people, to get close.

The belief that had sustained them all collapsed, and more than a dozen priests collapsed to the ground as if their bones had been removed, staring blankly at the floor.

At this moment, Ronan was speechless; it would be useless to say anything now.

Just then, the old man Treca tossed the key and the resonance stone to Ronan, who caught the key and a resonance stone.

"It's up to you, Ronan. Place it in the recessed area by the door, hold the resonance stone, and I'll teach you a melody. Just blow the conch shell to this melody and keep repeating it, and the door to the moving room will open. I don't know exactly which floor it's on."

Old man Treca said that they could go no further and could only place all their hopes on Ronan.

“Okay, I’ll take care of it,” Ronan replied.

Treka started the chant, and the other Seapiper priests followed suit, humming along. As expected of Seapiper priests, everyone was in tune, and their voices were very clear and distinct.

It's a very simple melody, just a few notes, but when Ronan played it, it didn't sound right.

"Don't rush, take your time," the old man Treka comforted her, then repeated himself.

Ronan nodded. He felt he had deeply imprinted the melody in his mind, but when he tried to play it, it didn't go right.

Although he is tone-deaf, he shouldn't be so tone-deaf that he can't even remember such a simple melody. It's just that the pitch of a wind instrument like the conch shell is too difficult to control.

"Give it to me, I'll do it."

Dinia snatched the conch shell and the resonating stone, ignoring Ronan's saliva on it, and started blowing it.

She got it right the first time, and the mechanism door of the giant cylinder opened instantly like an elevator door.

"Madam, you are truly amazing," Ronan said with a dry laugh, retrieving his keys as he did so.

Dinia glared at Ronan. "I should say you're the one who's really something. You still have the mood to flatter at a time like this. Let's go."

Dinia, Ronan, and Tina, along with seven mage musketeers, entered the "elevator," and the door immediately closed.

Like the elevator, the floor buttons are on the right. Surprisingly, there are no positive floors, only negative ones, which are the ground floor.

There are nine floors in total, from -1 to -9.

Chapter Thirty-Three: Underground, Mystery, Not Found

For Dinia and her companions, who had only ever ridden slow elevators before, the sudden drop was a completely new experience. For Ronan, it was a feeling he hadn't experienced in a long time, since he used to live on the eighteenth floor.

In the blink of an eye, the door opened, and we arrived at the basement level.

The structure here is almost indistinguishable from the lobby on the first floor. The walls are sloping, the floor is several times larger than the ceiling, there are disc lights on the ceiling, and the exterior still has that magic stone texture. There is a huge cylindrical pillar in the middle, but apart from that, there is nothing else on the entire basement level.

Continue downwards to the second basement level.

Compared to the first basement level, the second basement level has a significantly larger space, but the overall structure remains the same.

By this time, Ronan had a basic understanding of what kind of building it was: a massive, pyramidal structure. The obelisk-like tower standing on the ground was merely the pointed end of this enormous conical building; the true main body of the building was underground, and the space grew larger the deeper one went.

There was still nothing on the second basement level.

On the third basement level, as soon as the door opened, a sense of oppression rushed out, because in the front circle of this level, three layers of magical mechs, the Illusionary Melody, stood silently and motionless, numbering at least two hundred.

However, upon closer inspection, these Phantom Movements are different from those piloted by the Seapipers before. First, they are smaller in size. The previous Phantom Movements, when standing upright, could be five meters tall from the feet to the head, while these Phantom Movements are at most four meters tall. Moreover, these Phantom Movements do not have hands; the hand parts are empty, but the interfaces can be seen, suggesting that they have not yet been attached.

Apart from these illusory musical pieces, there was nothing else to be seen on the entire third basement level.

There's no point in paying attention to these illusory melodies. Although Ronan has a resonance stone, he doesn't know resonance magic, so he can't possibly try to pilot one.

The group arrived at the fourth basement level.

The fourth basement level is much larger than the third basement level. There are many huge boxes here, most of which are labeled "Prosthetic Hand," clearly containing replaceable hand parts for the Phantom Symphony.

As for the other boxes, they were labeled with parts for various parts, so it was clear that the entire fourth basement level was filled with spare replacement parts for the Phantom Melody from the third level.

There was nothing else on the fourth basement level besides these, and there was still nothing worth exploring.

Ding-dong, the arrival bell rang again. We've arrived at basement level five. The door opened, and before anyone could step out, a bone-chilling cold suddenly rushed into the room. Only Dinia, who was practically inhuman, and Agustina, who was furious, didn't react. Even Ronan instinctively shivered.

Stepping out of the "elevator," the chilling feeling intensified, and the atmosphere of the entire fifth basement level suddenly changed.

The lights were not the white light from the previous four floors, but a dim yellow light. Moreover, these lights were not widely distributed on the ceiling, but were arranged in a row along the surrounding walls, resulting in the central area of ​​the entire fifth basement level being almost completely dark.

"This is where I come in."

As Agustina spoke, she opened her palm and a small fireball appeared. The fireball then rose higher and higher, growing larger and larger until it became a large fireball with a diameter of nearly half a meter. Finally, it stopped rising at a height of about three meters, and the large fireball moved in sync with Agustina.

With her at the center, the group began to explore the edges.

Along the wall in the distance were cylindrical containers filled with an unidentified green solution, in which something was soaking, but the light was too dim to see clearly at first glance.

As they approached, a strange stench, a mixture of disinfectant and the smell of corpses, assaulted Ronan's nostrils. The others also covered their noses as they continued to get closer. Finally, the group could see what was inside the transparent container.

These containers contain embryos that are not yet fully developed, different internal organs such as the heart, liver, stomach, and limbs, hands, feet, and even human heads and eyeballs. In addition to these, there are people with missing limbs, as well as a large number of complete Heidi people, including children, women, men, and the elderly.

Yes, the Haidi people. You can't tell the organs just by looking at the embryo, but once you see the complete one, you can recognize it as a Haidi person at a glance.

Ronan had seen similar scenes in many movies and games, and he never reacted to them. But when he saw it with his own eyes, he was immediately overcome with nausea. His stomach cramped, and acid refluxed from his stomach to his throat. He almost vomited.

The seven grown men, all veterans of war, immediately covered their mouths and noses, afraid of vomiting.

Even Dinia and Agustina felt a strong sense of unease. The feeling of seeing organs and limbs up close and clearly was completely incomparable to the scenes of blood and flesh flying on the battlefield. This kind of scene was disgusting.

Agustina, who had just been chatting and laughing, turned around and said, "Let's go, there's nothing to see."

“Let’s go,” Ronan said.

The group quickly returned to the "elevator" and continued downwards.

The sixth underground level took the group a lot of time. This level was filled with a large number of completely incomprehensible mechanical equipment. Some of them looked dilapidated, while others looked new. In short, this should have been a place where production was originally carried out.

According to what High Priest Treca told Ronan on the way here, the so-called basic teaching materials were, according to records, five spheres the size of a bull's head, with an appearance and texture somewhere between metal and stone.

Given the sheer number of devices placed here, creating numerous blind spots and providing easy hiding places, the group had no choice but to begin their search.

However, to avoid accidents, the search results cannot be separated too much, which also reduces search efficiency.

I searched for over an hour, looking everywhere, but couldn't find anything.

We continued descending, arriving at the seventh basement level.

This floor was much more spacious, but there were still quite a few things placed there. Dinia and the others couldn't understand these things. Although Ronan wasn't 100% sure either, judging from the appearance of these things, they should be the control panels of their respective devices.

Most of the seventh floor was open space, and we quickly searched all the possible hiding places, but still found nothing.

The eighth floor.

This floor is completely different from the previous one. It's like a small sun, with warm light filling the space. It's also planted with a large variety of different plants, making it almost like a replica of the botanical garden on the ground that's shrouded in a huge transparent dome.

The difference is that there are no "stone pillars" here.

In a sea of ​​green, if those "balls" that preserve the basic teaching materials were here, they would be almost impossible to miss.

But even after searching the entire eighth floor, the group still couldn't find it.

If the basic textbooks are still there, and are indeed here, then they must be on the ninth floor at the very bottom.

At this moment, Dinia suddenly spoke up, "I feel something's wrong with this floor below. Don't follow me. Ronan and I will go down together."

After saying this, Dinia conjured up a bunch of mushrooms. "Don't eat the fruits and crops here casually. These mushrooms should last you for a while."

With a sigh of relief, Dinia glanced at Ronan and said, "Let's go."

“Yes, ma’am,” Ronan replied.

Chapter Thirty-Four, Ninth Floor, Gardener, Kill Her

Nine underground floors, the moment I opened the door, I realized that this place was completely different from before.

The floor and walls here no longer had that texture somewhere between metal and stone, but a pure white, a white that is hard to describe directly, but one that Ronan was extremely familiar with.

It's that kind of white color inside a huge cabin of a giant spaceship in science fiction.

Moreover, previously, after exiting the "cylindrical elevator" on each floor, one would arrive at the middle of the corresponding floor. However, this was not the case on the ninth floor. Ronan and Dinia had just emerged from the starting point of the ninth floor, and the ground on the ninth floor was not a flat surface, but a downward sloping surface.

The two continued forward and downward. As they moved forward, the cool blue lights lit up in sync, and the ceiling became higher and higher, making them appear increasingly small.

Finally, the two arrived at a flat surface. In front of them was a white barrier more than 100 meters wide and more than 30 meters high, completely blocking their way. However, in the very center of this white barrier, there was a regular hexagonal door, each side ten meters long.

Ronan and Dinia approached, but before they could get a good look at the door, it opened automatically.

The two exchanged a glance, entered through the door, and arrived at a huge cabin.