The Main Burial Chamber

As for Matthew, he followed quietly a short distance behind.

On the surface, he was no different from the others—equally alert, equally cautious, his eyes scanning back and forth through the darkness. But in reality, the lines of the map in his mind were overlapping with the path of this passage with an almost uncanny precision.

Every turn.

Every fork.

Every flight of stone steps that sloped downward and gave off a dull echo when stepped upon.

They were all exactly consistent with the records in the map, without the slightest error.

This feeling of constant verification allowed him to breathe a secret sigh of relief, while also making him increasingly aware of the staggering value behind that map. It wasn’t just a piece of paper for directions; it was more like a key forged by someone who deeply understood the secrets of this place, and he was one of the few fortunate enough to hold it in his hands.

The passage was not flat the whole way.

Occasional forks and corners caused the rhythm of their progress to halt abruptly time and again, while the faint, strange noises served as a form of torture designed specifically for strained nerves. The sounds were extremely blurred, sometimes sounding like a cold wind being forced through narrow cracks in the stone, and at other times like the low hum rising from the depths of an ancient mechanism still slowly operating after ages of erosion.

Several times, the sounds even closely resembled whispers coming from deep within the stone walls—unintelligible, yet carrying a sense of will that was impossible to ignore. It made one instinctively tighten their muscles and shallow their breathing.

Every turn made the atmosphere within the team a few degrees heavier. Silence spread among them like a tide, slowly rising over their ankles, past their knees, and finally making their entire chests feel stifled.

However, to everyone’s surprise—the expected danger never truly arrived.

There were no sudden collapsing traps, no monsters lurking in the dark corners waiting for an opportunity, and none of the most dreaded illusionary erosions that could swallow a person whole without a sound. Aside from a few natural debris obstacles caused by age that required some effort to clear, the entire journey was exceptionally... smooth.

It was so smooth that it was almost eerie.

It was as if this long underground passage hadn't been designed to block those who could actually reach this point from the start—it simply lay quietly in the darkness, open to certain people with an almost generous silence.

It was precisely this unhindered progress that caused everyone’s nerves to tighten further. They all knew perfectly well that in an ancient tomb that had survived for countless years and sealed away things of incalculable value, "smooth" was never a word that brought peace of mind.

Finally.

After crossing the last stretch of downward-sloping stone steps, a thick stone wall covered in blurred ancient runes stood silently before them.

Those runes were already incomplete due to the ruthless erosion of time, with strokes peeling off and edges becoming indistinct, yet they stubbornly retained faint mana fluctuations. The fluctuations weren't flamboyant, but like a massive boulder resting at the bottom of deep water, they exerted an unspeakable pressure on everyone who approached with a silent yet tangible weight, as if warning in silence: This is no ordinary place.

Herbert and Sutton exchanged a glance and then stepped forward together.

Accompanied by a low and heavy rumbling, the three of them worked together to slowly push open the stone wall that had been silent for who knows how many years. The dust accumulated over the long ages immediately fell like a late, silent collapse. Next, a blast of cold air mixed with dust, ancient spices, and a dense scent of solidified mana rushed toward them—the breath was icy, heavy, and carried a sense of decay as if it had been reopened after crossing a long time tunnel, like a forgotten door in the depths of history finally letting out a long-overdue sigh.

In the next moment, the scene before them suddenly opened up.

A massive space, far more magnificent and solemn than any previous hall, slowly revealed itself to everyone in the darkness.

Upon the high, vaulted ceiling, a large number of unknown glowing crystals were embedded. Those crystals emitted a cold and steady radiance, floating silently overhead like forgotten stars in the night sky, illuminating the entire burial chamber in a hazy and mysterious light, casting a deep and hallucinatory hue over every stone texture and shadow. Massive stone pillars stood all around, each carved with complex ancient totems and inscriptions. The patterns overlapped in layers, revealing a primal aura and an indescribable mystery that had long since perished in the river of history. The floor was paved with black stone slabs polished to an extreme smoothness, fitting together so perfectly that there was almost no gap at all, as if some obsessive craftsman had carved his lifelong fixation into this subterranean land.

And in the center of the burial chamber—

Stood a massive sarcophagus carved from a single piece of dark stone.

The sarcophagus silently occupied the visual core of the entire space, its surface rippling with a mana radiance that was extremely faint yet deep as an abyss. The light was almost negligible, yet it would catch the eye unintentionally—as if it contained some massive and terrifying existence that had been slumbering until now, using this flickering aura to issue a final, silent warning to any living being that dared to approach. Just a single glance was enough to trigger an instinctive sense of oppression and awe; that feeling didn't stem from rational judgment, but from a shudder issued when something deeper and more ancient was touched.

In the niches of the surrounding walls, the outlines of items sealed in transparent crystals or special containers could be vaguely seen. Those outlines flickered in the cold radiance, and even from a considerable distance, one could clearly feel the extraordinary fluctuations radiating from them—it wasn't the scent of ordinary wealth, but the residue of power that remained intense and undispersed even after countless years of settling.

There was no doubt.

This was the true core of the entire tomb.

The Main Burial Chamber.

After a brief, almost suffocating silence, long-suppressed emotions finally burst forth in the team like water breaking through a dam.

“We... we actually made it through?”

A lean grave digger was the first who couldn't help but exclaim in a low voice, his tone carrying a survivor's tremble. He instinctively raised his hand to wipe his forehead, and though there was no sweat there, the movement itself clearly exposed the lingering fear and relief deep within him.

“Back at the fork, my heart was in my throat the whole time. The left side looked ominous, and I had no idea what to expect from the right... I just gritted my teeth and followed, with my heart practically jumping out of my chest. I didn't expect... I didn't expect we actually chose correctly!”

Another companion responsible for tracking traces couldn't help but chime in, his tone filled with uncontrollable emotion.

“Yeah, the way here was too quiet, so quiet it was unnerving. I was prepared for the worst, thinking we’d have to trigger at least a few traps and lose a few men before we could even touch this place...” He said this with a hint of disbelief, as if he still hadn't completely recovered from the surprise. “And we actually just ‘walked’ all the way in?”

“It’s like we hit the jackpot!”

A third person agreed in a low voice, his eyes already greedily scanning the surroundings of the burial chamber, especially the various outlines of the sealed items in the niches. Once his gaze landed on them, he couldn't look away, his tone full of suppressed excitement and avarice. “Look at the scale, the grandeur... this is the real treasure trove! That little bit of stuff we fought the stone monster for outside probably isn't even enough to fill the gaps between our teeth compared to the treasures here!”

However, compared to these subordinates who could hardly hide their excitement and had their emotions written all over their faces, Sutton, as the core of the five-man group, appeared exceptionally calm.

...