Controlling his staff, Lin Gui carried Elvia as they quietly floated above the heads of Duke Joseph and Prince Charles.
Two pitch-black ravens cleared the way ahead of them.
Led by Duke Joseph, they passed through several winding secret corridors and finally stopped in front of a seemingly ordinary stone wall.
“The treasure vault is right beneath the manor?” Prince Charles was somewhat surprised.
This hiding place... was unexpectedly ordinary.
“Hehe, please be patient, Your Highness.”
Duke Joseph smiled, a hint of smugness on his face.
He stepped forward and began to manipulate several extremely hidden magic mechanisms on the wall that could only be triggered by him.
Following a low, mechanical grinding sound, the stone wall slowly slid open, revealing a dark, descending staircase behind it.
“All of you guard the outside. No one is to enter without my command.”
The Duke dismissed all his guards and stepped onto the hidden descending stone staircase, bringing only Prince Charles with him.
Before activating the final mechanism, Duke Joseph stopped in his tracks.
He turned back to look at Charles, his tone carrying an unprecedented solemnity:
“Charles, what I am about to show you is the greatest reliance of my Joseph family, which has allowed us to stand tall through a thousand years of trials and tribulations!”
With that, he suddenly pressed an inconspicuous stone button in his hand.
Rumble...
The entire stone staircase they were standing on shook violently, then began to descend smoothly like an elevator.
The descent of the stone staircase was unimaginably long.
Even after ten minutes, there was no sign of it slowing down.
The surrounding walls gradually changed from rough rock to a strange metal shimmering with a faint silvery light.
The passage was exceptionally quiet, with only the faint sound of the wind rushing past as the stone staircase descended.
“Is this... Stellar Stone?”
Recognizing the material of the walls, Prince Charles couldn't help but gasp.
This indestructible mineral, which could isolate energy detection, was worth its weight in gold.
It was usually only used to forge Stellar-tier weapons, yet here... it was actually used to pave a passage?!
As the depth continued to increase, the surrounding air began to grow warm.
Prince Charles's forehead began to break out in a light sweat.
Above him, Elvia, clinging to Lin Gui's back, also felt the unusual temperature and whispered, “This depth... is ridiculous. It's almost a thousand meters.”
After an unknown amount of time, the stone staircase finally came to a slow halt.
The view suddenly opened up!
A massive underground space was revealed before them.
The ceiling of this space was so high it seemed endless.
Looking out, its width was easily enough to accommodate several Carter Palaces.
Standing inside, a person felt as minuscule as a speck of dust.
The first thing that caught their eyes was a literal “mountain of gold” in the distance.
It was piled high with countless gold coins.
It emitted a suffocating golden glow in the darkness, its scale comparable to a small hill.
Around the mountain of gold, countless boxes and chests shimmering with various magical glows were placed.
Clearly, they contained even more precious treasures.
Looking at the scene before him, Prince Charles was deeply shocked, even though he had been mentally prepared.
Meanwhile, Elvia's brow furrowed slightly.
She wasn't focused on the treasure, but on the space itself.
“This place... is too big, unreasonably big...”
A strange feeling welled up in her heart.
“The Duke's manor and the Palace are both in the First Ring. To excavate a space of this scale at such a depth without anyone noticing is simply impossible.”
Her eyes locked onto the massive, neat stone bricks on the cavern walls.
They bore obvious marks of manual excavation.
Lin Gui didn't have much interest in the secrets here.
His gaze swept over the mountain of gold and the surrounding magical treasure chests.
He calmly said to Elvia on his back, “Stop dazing off. Hurry up and take the money. Our time is limited.”
His gaze locked onto the mountain of gold coins.
These loosely piled gold coins, unprotected by special magic, were their best target.
As for the other treasures, they were protected by magic and would trigger an alarm if moved.
Lin Gui could disarm them, but they didn't have the luxury of time.
While Duke Joseph had his back turned to the mountain of gold, proudly introducing the various rare treasures to Prince Charles, Lin Gui made his move.
He floated behind the mountain of gold and raised his right hand slightly, silently activating 【Levitation】.
In an instant, a small golden “stream” quietly separated from the base of the gold coin mountain.
It drifted upward soundlessly, merging into the area covered by the 【Shroud of the Gloomy Night】.
One by one, the cold gold coins hovered tightly around Elvia and Lin Gui like homing bees, wrapping them up.
Lin Gui only stopped when he felt they were about to reach the limit of what the 【Shroud of the Gloomy Night】 could perfectly conceal.
Without the slightest hesitation, he controlled his staff and flew rapidly back up along the deep Stellar Stone passage.
At this depth, if they were trapped here, Lin Gui and Elvia would have no way out.
It was virtually impossible to dig a way out through the Stellar Stone bricks.
...
Inside the treasury, Duke Joseph finally finished leading Prince Charles through a general tour of his collection.
Finally, they arrived in front of the most direct and visually striking mountain of gold.
“Look here, Your Highness,” the Duke said, spreading his arms wide, his tone filled with pride.
“The gold coins stored here are roughly estimated to exceed several billion! This is our true backing!”
Looking at the glittering golden hill, Prince Charles couldn't help but feel a spark of greed in his eyes.
However, Duke Joseph's smile suddenly froze.
He instinctively rubbed his eyes and stepped closer.
Does it seem much, much shorter than when I last saw it?
Is it just my imagination?
He frowned, then laughed at himself.
He must have been too tired lately; his eyes were playing tricks on him in his old age.
In this absolutely secure treasury, could the gold coins have grown legs and run away?
He shook his head, brushing aside the absurd thought, and led the Prince to the other side.
Near the cavern walls, many weapon racks and equipment stands were set up.
They displayed magical equipment radiating powerful energy fluctuations.
There were even two demi-artifacts of the same grade as Azure Echo.
However, Prince Charles's gaze was drawn to a mural on the wall.
Unlike the other oil paintings that were meticulously framed and hung, this drawing was painted directly onto the mottled, ancient Stellar Stone.
It carried the indescribable traces of time.
In the picture, a queen wearing a crown of thorns and holding a scepter stood with her head held high, her eyes resolute yet sorrowful.
Beside her, a hero clad in tattered armor knelt on one knee, presenting a broken longsword before her.
Behind them were burning cities and endless darkness.
“Duke, this painting is...” Prince Charles pointed at the mural curiously.
Duke Joseph's pupils shrank suddenly, but he quickly masked it, coughing lightly and waving his hand dismissively.
“Oh, that... It's just some random graffiti by a child in the family.”
“Drawing fairy tales of knights and princesses is nothing worth presenting. I've made a fool of myself before Your Highness.”
He naturally changed the subject, drawing Prince Charles's attention to another Legendary armor crackling with lightning.
But Charles raised an eyebrow in amusement. This was Stellar Stone...
What kind of child could carve a mural into such hard stone?
Were they a Legendary expert?
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