Chapter 186: Temple Exploration (Part 1)
Chapter 186: Temple Exploration (Part 1) (Seeking Subscriptions, Favorites, and Recommendations)
It is well known that in the Wizard world, space folding is a fairly common technology. For example, Mr. Weasley's car and Liam's Spatial Bag.
But the builder of this Temple is a true genius. He constructed this massive Temple directly within a folded space, which might explain why the School has never discovered it despite its long existence.
In Liam's perception, this space resembles the Emerald Dream. Perhaps, as Aunt Betty the Centaur mentioned, some powerful Wizards can directly extract a portion of the Emerald Dream and materialize it in the real world. Liam had never before considered that someone could materialize a space as vast as a mountain.
Standing at the entrance of the passage was not a good idea, especially when there was no telling when it might come to life and crush anyone inside. So, Liam and Hermione quickly emerged from the tunnel and arrived at the Temple's plaza.
The plaza, though not as large as the Temple itself, was nearly the size of a standard Quidditch pitch. The entire area was paved with a deep red rock, giving it the appearance of a sea of blood. A path led straight to the entrance of the Pyramid Temple, dividing the plaza into two halves. On either side of the path, totem poles stood densely, each intricately carved with various creatures. Some of these creatures were familiar from their textbooks, while others were entirely new to them. As they walked along the path, Liam could feel the magic power emanating from the totem poles. However, as the memory fragments had shown, the Blood God Cult and the Chimera Society had only discovered this place half a year ago and hadn't yet had the chance to study the totem poles' functions. This allowed Liam and Hermione to pass through the totem pole cluster and reach the pyramid's entrance unimpeded.
As they approached the pyramid, the intricate carvings on its surface became clearer. The entire structure was adorned with totems of various monsters, and at the entrance, a massive monster was carved, its mouth wide open to form the entrance of the Pyramid Temple. The columns supporting the doorframe resembled the monster's sharp teeth, giving the entire entrance a menacing appearance.
"Stay close to me!" Liam took a deep breath and turned to Hermione. Hermione nodded, tightening her grip on her wand.
At this moment, Liam did not walk down the main path leading directly to the entrance. Instead, after passing through the doorway, he turned left and walked a short distance to a monster sculpture. He took out his wand and tapped the monster's claws in a specific rhythm.
After he finished, the monster's claws suddenly lifted, revealing a hole about a meter in diameter. A wooden ladder led down from the hole. This was the most valuable piece of information Liam had found in the memories: the main path led straight to the headquarters of the Blood God Cult, but it was heavily guarded and filled with traps. Liam knew he couldn't force his way through with someone else in tow.
However, the enormous pyramid, as vast as a mountain, had a network of passages like a spider's web. Neither the Blood God Cult nor the Chimera Society had the resources to clear every tunnel. In the memories, the impostor professor had glanced at a map on the stone wall and remembered a passage that had never been cleared, leading directly to the central hall of the Temple where the cult's headquarters were located. This passage was known as the Servant's Passage.
The only problem was that the map itself had some damage. A section of the passage on the stone map was severely eroded and no longer legible. However, compared to the alternative of fighting their way through the main entrance with a cumbersome burden, Liam was willing to take this unknown risk.
After casting a Bubble-Head Charm on both himself and Hermione, Liam and his companion descended the ladder into the passage. As soon as they reached the ground, the monster sculpture above them dropped its claw to cover the entrance, plunging everything into darkness.
Liam first let Little Qing, the small creature in his pocket, crawl ahead to scout the path. Then he heard rapid breathing from behind, indicating that the darkness was causing significant psychological stress.
“Lumos,” Liam lit his wand and handed it to his left hand, while he took Krinvi's Fang in his right. Given his Viking Heritage, Krinvi's Fang, a magical weapon, was more suitable for casting the various spells from his lineage than a wand.
“Don’t worry, as far as I know, this is the safest path in the Temple. As long as you follow me, everything should be fine,” Liam whispered to reassure the anxious Hermione behind him.
The confidence that gave him this assurance came from the Eagle Eye he had obtained during the summer vacation last year. Since he had chosen the Magic-Enhanced version of Eagle Eye, after gaining a natural understanding of magic and some knowledge of magic runes, Liam spent some time improving his Eagle Eye. Now, when he activated it, he could sense the subtle magic in the environment, allowing him to detect magic-related traps or treasures.
This made him grateful that he had chosen the magic version, even though it was slightly inferior, rather than genetic modification, which he had no understanding of. The magic version allowed him to study and improve it himself, and its effectiveness could grow with his overall strength and knowledge.
With the help of Eagle Eye, Liam could see that although the path he was on was just a side passage in the Temple, it was still equipped with numerous magic traps. The residual magic energy indicated that some of these traps were still active today.
However, since this path was originally used by low-ranking servants, the traps were not very high-level and were easily detected and avoided by Liam. The main challenge was that, as a Servant’s Passage, it was built with the lowest priority. As a result, the entire passage twisted and turned, sometimes ascending and descending, and at times requiring them to crawl through narrow tunnels. After all, the original users of this passage were the lowest-ranking individuals in the Temple, and their path had to yield to almost all other passages.
During their journey, Little Qing proved invaluable, scouting ahead and confirming the safety of many areas before Liam and Hermione proceeded.
Along the way, Liam discovered several rooms, but the remnants inside indicated that they were either storage warehouses or servants' quarters. They contained only severely eroded, broken furniture and completely blackened corn stalks, which would likely make even rats cry and run away in despair.
After about ten minutes of walking, just as Liam and Hermione were about to be driven mad by the narrow, dark, and stifling passages, Liam received a message from Little Qing: it had reached a relatively spacious area but could not find a path forward.
It seemed that this was the section of the map that had eroded away. At least they could finally leave this tunnel. Liam quickened his pace.
(End of Chapter)
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