242: Oh no, it's going to fall.

After listening to Professor Chen's interpretation, Cynthia's deep blue eyes flashed with a sharp light as she added:

"Wisdom and persuasion, knowing the characteristics of all things... this sounds almost like a description of 'Bai Ze' itself.

The legendary Divine Beast Bai Ze is famous for knowing the nature of all ghosts, gods, and Essence Spirits in the world, and for teaching humanity the Dao of seeking good fortune and avoiding evil.

It told the Yellow Emperor the appearances, names, and weaknesses of those Essence Spirits, which is essentially the bestowing of supreme 'wisdom' and 'information'."

Shen Mingyuan's deep red goggles flashed slightly:

"Is it really just a metaphor? Or... was this King, in later times, or in the hearts of his followers, already equated with 'Bai Ze'?

Just as in many ancient legends where outstanding leaders or inventors were eventually deified and merged with a certain totem or Divine Beast. Was he, or the legends about him, one of the sources of the 'Bai Ze' myth?"

Professor Chen nodded in contemplation:

"That possibility is very high. Ancient rulers linking their own or their ancestors' achievements and traits to mythical creatures, or even directly claiming to be their Incarnation or descendant, was a common method of deifying their rule.

If this King truly was famous for his extraordinary wisdom, then connecting him with Bai Ze, who symbolizes knowing all things, is a logical mythological construction."

Afterward, the group temporarily left the Throne Hall and began exploring the many side halls connected around the main hall.

These side halls had various functions; some looked like meeting places, while others were piled with the decayed remains of artifacts.

When they walked into a side hall at the deepest part with a special layout and exceptionally thick walls, a conspicuous object caught everyone's eye.

In the center of the hall stood a massive stone Pill Furnace.

The Pill Furnace was simple and heavy in design, its body also carved from stone, with dense and varied patterns of strange beasts engraved on its surface. Some could be vaguely identified as exaggerated versions of real animals, while others belonged entirely to the realm of imaginary beasts.

On the floor and walls around the Pill Furnace were new sequential murals.

What was most striking was that the open, massive hearth of the Pill Furnace was not empty, but filled with many boxes of various sizes.

These boxes were made of different materials; some were stone, while others were of wood that appeared heavy but had severely decayed. They were piled haphazardly inside, as if hastily abandoned or sealed away.

Professor Chen was immediately drawn to the murals. He observed them carefully while calling out to his two students:

"Xiao Wu, Xiao Liu, come here! You can't just listen to me interpret the murals along the way; you have to learn to see for yourselves! Pay attention to the narrative sequence of the images, the changes in the characters' postures, and the appearance of symbolic objects! Look here—"

He pointed to the beginning of the mural:

"Look, it's still that King. But here, his posture has changed. In the first panel, he stands tall, no different from before; in the second, his back has slightly curved lines; in the third, his body is clearly hunched, and he needs to lean on a cane-like object. This very intuitively depicts his gradual aging process."

The mural continued to depict: next to the image of the aging King, scenes appeared of people respectfully offering various items. Those items were painted in strange shapes, some looking like herbs, but combined with the limbs or features of wild beasts, appearing mysterious and extraordinary.

"Look, people began trying to find longevity items for the aging King. They offered various 'Spirit Medicines' or 'Auspicious Omens' that they believed had magical effects." The Professor's voice carried the calm analysis characteristic of a historian.

"This is hardly surprising. Throughout history, figures who hold great power and wisdom often feel an even deeper fear of death and a more intense desire to extend their lives, or even achieve immortality.

Wisdom allowed him to see many things clearly, but it might also have made him less able to accept his own limitations. Emperors seeking immortality are found everywhere in history."

As the mural progressed, scenes of war appeared. The elderly King still appeared in the paintings, sometimes commanding from the rear, sometimes even on the front lines.

The opponents in the war were also depicted as various strange or powerful biological communities.

"In order to obtain possible secret medicines or resources for immortality, war broke out... or, the war itself was given a sacred meaning of seeking longevity for the King."

The Professor sighed, "The more brilliant and extraordinary one is, the easier it is to fall into a deep fear and obsession with 'loss'. It seems to be a paradoxical tragedy."

His finger moved toward the most crucial set of murals next to the Pill Furnace: "And here, the result is revealed. Look, the King consumed the refined 'Medicinal Pill'.

The next panel..."

The Professor paused, carefully identifying the parts where the color was better preserved due to their relatively hidden position. "On his body, thick hair began to grow, and the pigments here show that it was white! This matches the mural we saw on the outermost gate where his image began to change! Consuming the Medicinal Pill caused white hair to grow on his body!"

Finally, his gaze fell on the boxes piled inside the Pill Furnace, and his tone became exceptionally serious:

"These boxes are very likely directly related to the Alchemy activities of that time. They might contain residual drugs, raw materials, or records.

But they have endured an unimaginable amount of time and are extremely fragile. We must be incredibly careful; any improper touch could cause the contents inside to instantly turn to dust."

As he spoke, he looked particularly sternly at Wei Ziqing, who was curiously eyeing the inside of the Pill Furnace with fingers twitching, and at Cynthia, who, though standing straight, was also scanning the boxes with a sharp gaze:

"I'm talking about the two of you, Wei Ziqing and Cynthia! Both of you stay back, or look but don't touch! If you want to inspect them, you must use the most professional and gentle methods. Do you understand?"

The two who were named immediately reined themselves in. Wei Ziqing put his hands behind his back and gave a dry chuckle: "Understood, Professor. I definitely won't touch!"

Cynthia nodded slightly and took half a step back to show her cooperation, but her gaze still didn't leave those mysterious boxes, as if she were evaluating something.

Under Professor Chen's stern instructions, everyone moved back a distance, leaving only the Professor and his two students, Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu, by the Pill Furnace. They put on thinner professional gloves and took out fine brushes, small trowels, soft pads, and specimen boxes. Like performing a delicate surgical operation, they began trying to make contact with the boxes that had been piled there for untold ages.

Their movements were extremely slow and gentle. The brushes first carefully flicked away the surface dust, revealing the material of the boxes themselves and the possible existence of locks or binding marks. The stone boxes were relatively sturdy, but the mortise and tenon joints or the gaps in the lids might be stuck due to material changes; the wooden boxes were even more dangerous, as every slight touch could cause the already carbonized boxes to shatter. The air was filled with tension and caution, with only the rustling of the brushes and the occasional extremely light sound of tools touching.

On the other side, Wei Ziqing retreated to a pillar not far away and huddled with several GUPA armed personnel who had come down with them. He glanced at the breath-holding archaeological work over there, then looked at the magnificent ruins that had been silent for eons, and couldn't help but whisper to the teammate beside him: "Hey, honestly, I was letting my imagination run wild before we came down. I thought it would be like those tomb-robbing novels and movies, where rows of crossbow bolts fly out 'whoosh whoosh' as soon as the door opens, or a pitfall trap snaps open on the floor, or some guarding stone monster or thousand-year-old zombie pounces from a dark corner... how exciting would that be!"

The teammate beside him seemed a bit speechless behind his mask and didn't respond.

Wei Ziqing sighed to himself: "And the result? Besides the darkness, it's just empty rooms and stairs that grow by themselves... although it's also quite amazing, it's not quite the 'adventure' I imagined."

Shen Mingyuan, who had been quietly observing the surroundings while also keeping an eye on the Professor's progress, heard his whispering. His deep red goggles turned toward him, and a calm voice came through the armor: "How could such things exist?"

He raised a hand and pointed to the empty, deathly silent hall accompanied only by dust, and the silent city outside: "Time.

Time is the greatest 'Scavenger' here. Even if that King really did place guards driven by machinery or biology in his mausoleum... or rather, in this temple, after thousands of years, what machine wouldn't rust and decay?

What organism doesn't need to eat, reproduce, and metabolize? Aside from those two plants that reacted because of their special structure or our triggering, have we seen any signs of life all the way down? No."

His logic was cold and direct: "Without energy replenishment and ecosystem support, any guard mechanism that relies on being 'alive' or 'moving' to exist cannot survive across such a vast span of time. All that can remain are these stones and jade that don't breathe, and a story sealed in dust."

Hearing Shen Mingyuan's analysis, Wei Ziqing gave a somewhat sheepish smile: "Aiya, I'm just... a little disappointed. I feel like it's missing that 'legendary adventure' flavor."

Lu Jianchuan glanced at him, his tone flat but carrying an unquestionable pragmatism: "Peace and safety are the best results. Being a little disappointed is better than encountering danger you can't handle."

"Well, alright..." Wei Ziqing accepted this explanation, but the young man's interest in exploration remained. His eyes darted around, looking toward where Professor Chen was still carefully handling the boxes, and he raised his voice slightly to ask:

"Professor, it won't be finished over there for a while, right? I promise I definitely won't touch anything! Can I just look around near this main hall, like in those side hall rooms? I promise to only use my eyes!"

Professor Chen didn't even look up, all his concentration focused on the incredibly fragile boxes under his hands. Hearing this, he just quickly replied:

"We indeed haven't discovered any active defensive traps or biological threats yet... If you can strictly follow the 'look but don't touch' principle, there's no harm in taking a look. Watch your step and overhead, and don't go anywhere too dark or where the structure looks unstable."

"OK! I promise to follow the rules!" Wei Ziqing immediately perked up. He greeted Lu Jianchuan and Shen Mingyuan, then excitedly left the Pill Furnace side hall, returned to the vast main hall, and randomly chose a connected corridor to walk into.

He walked through the silent chambers. Some rooms were large, looking like sleeping quarters, where the outlines of 'bedsteads' roughly carved from single pieces of jade could still be seen, though any bedding on them had long since turned to dust, leaving only bare jade platforms.

Some rooms had mural remains on the walls, mostly depicting life scenes or decorative patterns, which were not as narrative as those in the main hall and the Pill Furnace room.

He kept his promise, truly only looking and not even touching the walls. He just slowly swept his flashlight beam over those dust-covered corners, imagining the life scenes that might have taken place here thousands of years ago.

As he walked, he entered a medium-sized room that didn't seem to have any special furniture. At the end of the room was a wall with some painted traces that were already too blurred to identify. Wei Ziqing walked closer and shone his light on it, but seeing nothing of interest, he felt it was dull.

"Looks like it's just an ordinary room..." he muttered, turning around and preparing to head back the way he came.

Just as he turned and instinctively took a step forward, the moment the sole of his foot hit the ground—

Crack!

A crisp and heart-pounding sound of shattering rang out beneath his feet without any warning!

Wei Ziqing's whole body stiffened, his movements instantly freezing, and he even held his breath. He very slowly, bit by bit, lowered his head.

Under the flashlight's circle of light, the greyish-white jade floor tile he was stepping on, which had originally looked perfectly intact, was now like a surface of struck ice, covered in dense, crisscrossing radial cracks! The cracks looked exceptionally piercing under the light.

The jade slab didn't immediately collapse or shatter, but its cracked state clearly announced that its structural integrity had been broken by his unintentional step.

Wei Ziqing's weight was pressing right at the center of this 'cracked spiderweb' that could completely collapse at any moment.

He didn't dare move; even the slightest shift in weight could be the last straw that broke this ancient floor.