Several stone pillars stood askew in the center of the ruins, their tops carved with intricate patterns that still offered a faint glimpse of their former elegance.
Phoebe squatted down and reached out to gently touch the stone slabs on the ground, her fingertips tracing the cracks.
She then stood up, turned to look at Bai Xuan, and nodded gently.
“Is this the place?” Bai Xuan stepped forward, his tone carrying a hint of confirmation.
Phoebe nodded again. She pointed at the ground, then at herself, indicating that this was indeed where she had been teleported to.
Bai Xuan squatted down and gently tapped the stone slab with the tip of his staff, producing a dull thud.
Clearly, the ground beneath the slab was solid, with no signs of being hollow.
He stood up and looked around, but his status panel showed no traces of any teleportation circle.
He turned to look at Phoebe, only to find her staring blankly at the stone pillars, her brow slightly furrowed as if she were trying to recall something.
“The teleportation circle is probably gone,” Bai Xuan said softly, his tone carrying a hint of speculation.
“Perhaps this was originally a one-way teleportation circle that only allowed travel from the bottom up, meaning we can't return from here.”
Phoebe didn't speak. She just kept staring at the stone pillars, her eyes filled with a touch of confusion and disappointment.
After a long moment, she turned around to face Bai Xuan and slowly reached out, her palm facing upward.
Her golden eyes locked onto him, as if she were waiting for something.
Bai Xuan was taken aback and asked in confusion,
“What do you want?”
Phoebe didn't pull her hand back, and her gaze never wavered.
Bai Xuan pondered for a moment, pulled the Silver-Wrapped Crystal Covenant Pendant from his Space Ring, and gently placed it in her palm, asking tentatively,
“Is it this?”
Phoebe looked down at the pendant in her palm and shook her head gently.
She then handed the pendant back to Bai Xuan, keeping her palm open, the anticipation in her eyes not fading in the slightest.
Seeing this, Bai Xuan had no choice but to take the items out of his Space Ring one by one.
Magic Cores, potions, dry rations, a tent, a sleeping bag, a dagger, a few changes of clothes, as well as the bottle of Echoing Medium, the Broken Compass that Always Points North, the A Chair that Collapses at a Touch card, and a Faded Noble Invitation...
Every time he took something out, Phoebe would examine it closely and then gently shake her head. Clearly, none of them were what she wanted.
Finally, from the deepest corner of his Space Ring, Bai Xuan pulled out a worn-out bag.
It was the supply pack left behind by the original owner of his body when he had first crossed over.
He had never thrown it away, simply stuffing it into the very bottom of his ring, as he had no use for it in his daily life.
Bai Xuan untied the bag and poured everything inside out all at once.
A few rusty copper coins, some crumpled pieces of scrap paper...
And a small, white undergarment with delicate lace trim fell conspicuously onto the gravelly ground.
Bai Xuan's face twitched. In embarrassment, he quickly stuffed the undergarment back into the supply pack.
He then tossed the entire bag back into his Space Ring.
Pretending as if nothing had happened, he cleared his throat and asked a little unnaturally,
“Is what you're looking for not in here either?”
Phoebe looked at him and shook her head gently.
Her face remained expressionless, but Bai Xuan could clearly sense the anticipation in her eyes fading away, replaced by a touch of hard-to-hide disappointment.
Bai Xuan fell silent for a moment, stuffed the Silver-Wrapped Crystal Covenant Pendant back into his Space Ring, and packed away the items he had just taken out one by one.
He pondered silently in his heart.
The item Phoebe was looking for should be part of a set with the Silver-Wrapped Crystal Covenant Pendant, both of which had originally been in the Grand Duke's possession.
Now that the covenant pendant was in his hands, where did the other item go?
Perhaps it was hidden inside the Grand Duke's tomb, or perhaps it was in the ring that Kami had stolen.
At the thought of Kami, Bai Xuan couldn't help but shake his head.
Ever since that woman vanished from the dungeon, she had never appeared again, as if she had evaporated into thin air without a trace.
He suppressed his thoughts and stopped dwelling on it. For now, finding the teleportation circle to take them back was the most important thing.
“Since there was a way to teleport here, there must be a way to teleport back. Let's keep looking,” Bai Xuan said, composing himself as he spoke to Phoebe.
Phoebe nodded gently, suppressing her disappointment. She braced herself and followed behind Bai Xuan.
The two walked on the eighth floor for a long time. Every time they passed a ruin, they would stop to inspect it closely, but they still found no trace of a teleportation circle.
Most of these ruins were so dilapidated they were unrecognizable; some had only scattered foundations left, while others had their foundations completely buried under rubble.
Bai Xuan used his mental strength to sweep across every ruin, but no anomalous notifications ever popped up on his status panel.
“Why isn't there even a single monster on this floor?” Bai Xuan couldn't help but mutter to himself.
He had not let his guard down from start to finish, yet after walking for so long, let alone a powerful monster, they hadn't even seen a common Shadow Rat.
Phoebe didn't reply. She simply kept her head down, silently following Bai Xuan as her gaze continued to sweep over the ruins along the way.
After walking for another half an hour, Bai Xuan's status panel suddenly flashed a notification, indicating a faint spatial fluctuation ahead.
He paused in his tracks and immediately raised his hand to signal Phoebe to stop, lowering his voice to say,
“There's something ahead. Be careful.”
With that, he quickened his pace and walked toward the source of the spatial fluctuation.
Phoebe followed closely behind, taking her battleaxe off her shoulder and gripping it tightly, ready to fight at a moment's notice.
It was a grand ruin, where several crumbling walls formed a semicircle, enclosing a central area.
On the ground, a circular magic circle was carved. Its patterns were intricate and ancient, but most of them had been worn away, making it impossible to see the complete design.
Bai Xuan carefully cleared away the rubble and dust from the magic circle with the tip of his staff, and the blurry carvings finally began to show.
Just as he squatted down, preparing to inspect the patterns of the magic circle closely, the ground suddenly shook violently.
The carvings in the center of the magic circle instantly lit up with a dark red glow, which slowly spread along the lines.
Right after, a stone statue slowly rose from the ground.
It was a guardian clad in heavy armor, holding a long spear, its body covered in cracks of varying depths.
Eerie green lights flickered within its hollow eye sockets.
【Ancient Guardian Lv. 4】
【Status: Active】
【HP: 650/650】
The moment the stone statue fully emerged, it raised its long spear and charged fiercely at Bai Xuan, the tip of the spear carrying a fierce gust of wind.
Phoebe reacted with lightning speed. She lunged forward from the side to intercept it, her battleaxe hacking heavily into the stone statue's chest, sending stone chips flying instantly.
The stone statue was forced back two steps by the strike but sustained no major damage. It immediately stabilized its stance and swept its long spear horizontally, aiming straight for Phoebe's flank.
Phoebe nimbly dodged to the side, swinging her battleaxe in a backhand strike against the shaft of the spear. With a sharp crack, the stone spear snapped in two.
Tossing aside the broken spear, the stone statue raised a massive stone fist and smashed it toward Phoebe.
Instead of retreating, Phoebe charged straight toward the incoming stone fist.
She hacked her battleaxe into the stone statue's shoulder, forcefully shearing off one of its arms.
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