sbdcsierra Chapter 78 [The Wall of Puzzles]
Chapter 78 [The Wall of Puzzles]
Twentieth day after parting ways.
A damp mist hangs in the air, making the forests of the East always seem quiet and mysterious.
A group of more than thirty people arrived at the elven ruins covered in vines.
The leader was Terra.
Unlike their hasty escape last time, this time they came prepared.
"Stop and set up camp right here," Terra ordered.
The tribe’s twelve most elite hunters immediately spread out, skillfully clearing the bushes around the camp and setting up simple tripwires and traps.
This is the technique that Kahn left them.
Several apprentice craftsmen took out their tools and quickly built a semi-permanent outpost using the tough animal hides and wood they had brought.
Their method came from Mason's teachings.
Led by Anya, the scholars meticulously inventoried the carefully wrapped supplies and stone tablets, displaying a unique rigor and attention to detail.
Skills, martial prowess, and knowledge.
The initial outlines of the three paths were truly integrated within this small team.
In just one afternoon, a sturdy defensive outpost rose up on the outskirts of the ruins.
Terra nodded in satisfaction and looked at the quiet girl beside him.
"Lia, are you ready?"
She nodded heavily, holding a smooth stone slab engraved with the flame symbol she knew by heart.
After a night's rest, the team ventured deeper into the ruins.
Lia, along with seven other scholars, arrived at the wall where the stone slab had been found last time.
It was just an ordinary stone wall.
Anya reached out and gently grasped Lia's slightly cold hand, giving her an encouraging look.
Lia extended her index finger, concentrating her mental energy to draw in the air.
She drew a completely new composite pattern made up of multiple basic symbols that were deconstructed and recombined.
At the heart of the design is an eye symbol representing "seeing" and a curtain symbol representing "concealment," connected by opposite logic.
"Appearance." As the last stroke was made, the symbol glowed slightly.
The ordinary stone wall in front of everyone's eyes became transparent and distorted, and finally dissipated like a thin veil.
A colossal stone gate, carved from a single block of white rock, emerged from nothingness.
The door is carved with intricate patterns that are dizzying, exuding an ancient and sacred aura.
"We succeeded!" a young scholar exclaimed excitedly.
"My God... there really is a door behind this!"
This was the first time that knowledge revealed to them a power far exceeding that of skill.
Terra was also deeply moved by what he saw, but he quickly calmed down and waved his hand, signaling the vigilant hunters to guard the surroundings.
"It's not over yet," Anya whispered a reminder.
The scholars immediately fell silent, turning their gaze to the magnificent stone gate.
There was a large, empty circular groove on the door, which was clearly some kind of keyhole.
"Bring those stone slabs over here," Lia said.
The scholars immediately pieced the core stone slabs together.
Above is a composite symbol composed of "opening" and "energy flow," which they named "key."
This time, it wasn't just Lia alone.
She stood in a row with seven scholars, and under Anya's unified command, the eight of them simultaneously extended their fingers and used their mental power to draw the "key" symbol.
Each person's strength is very weak.
But when the eight spiritual forces converged in the air and jointly depicted that complex symbol, a power far exceeding that of Lia alone was born.
"Buzz—"
A golden key symbol made of pure light took shape in mid-air.
It flew automatically toward the stone gate and precisely embedded itself in the circular groove.
Perfectly fitted.
"Click...click click click..."
The sound of ancient mechanisms came from inside the stone door, and the incredibly heavy stone door slowly opened inward.
A brand new area, never before set foot in by anyone, was laid out before them.
A strong sense of accomplishment and joy radiated from everyone's face.
They used their wisdom to unlock the treasure trove of the past!
"Go in," Terra whispered the order.
The group cautiously stepped through the door.
..
A magical aura, far more intense than that of the outside world, rushed towards us.
This was a more magnificent hall than they had imagined, with a dome that seemed to stretch endlessly, dotted with soft, star-like lights.
The ground was paved with smooth, mirror-like black stone slabs, spotless.
As the last person stepped into the hall, the stone door behind them slowly closed.
"Clatter".
The crisp snap of fingers broke the silence.
Around the hall, ancient magical lights that had been dormant were awakened, their soft glow illuminating the entire space.
Amidst the astonished gazes of the crowd, several translucent humanoid silhouettes made of pure energy slowly coalesced in the center of the hall.
They have no facial features, no physical form, they simply float there quietly, emanating an ancient aura of absolute neutrality, devoid of any emotion.
They are the guardians.
The guardian showed no hostility and did not even move.
The next moment, an irresistible and incomprehensible vast will, like a cold tsunami, surged into the minds of everyone present.
A perfectly clear image simultaneously appeared in their minds.
Two basic magic symbols are arranged side by side.
The first symbol represents water.
The second symbol is formed by superimposing two symbols representing "extreme" and "cold".
After the two symbols is a huge question mark.
Water + extreme cold = ?
This will is both a puzzle and a cold, insurmountable wall.
After a brief period of mental shock, the scholars were the first to react.
"It's a test! Just as we guessed!"
"Too simple! Water and cold, the answer is simply 'ice,' right?"
The excitement of discovering a new area filled everyone with confidence.
They immediately began a heated discussion and experimentation on the portable slate they had brought.
"Ice is hard water. Let's try combining the symbol for 'hard' with the symbol for 'water'!" one scholar suggested.
Lia immediately drew the newly created compound symbol in the air with her finger.
The symbol forms in the air and then disappears.
There was no response in the center of the hall; it was a failure.
"No, no! That's the wrong way of thinking!" another scholar countered. "'Ice' is a state; we should create a completely new symbol to define it!"
They then tried to draw a new symbol for "water" that looked like clumps of water that didn't flow.
The result was still a failure.
"Could it be related to the season? The cold comes from winter!"
They also drew seasonal symbols representing winter.
Stone sinks into the sea.
An hour has passed.
They tried more than a dozen different combinations and drew every symbol they could imagine related to "ice".
Hard, still, white, cold...
Every attempt was met with absolute silence from the guardians.
The atmosphere in the hall gradually shifted from initial excitement and confidence to anxiety and confusion.
"Why not? The answer is clearly 'ice'!"
"Could it be that we created the wrong symbols? But we've already tried everything!"
"There's no solution! They're playing us!" A young scholar finally couldn't take it anymore and slammed the stone slab in his hand to the ground in frustration.
The immense joy of initially opening the magnificent stone gate was gradually worn away by repeated failures.
A sense of frustration remains.
They seemed to be standing in front of a transparent wall, with the treasure on the other side. They could see what the treasure looked like and even knew the name of the key to open the door.
But no matter what method they used, they couldn't turn the lock.