86: Lies and Cages

At the top of the spire, a strange silence fell.

the Captain's and Juan's gazes were both focused on the massive energy sphere emitting a soft white light.

"Lie inside?" Juan's face was written with doubt. "Is it really that simple?"

In his view, the activation method for such a grand creation could never be so trivial. This seemed more like a clumsy trap.

Lin Feng met his gaze, his expression unchanging. "The technology of the Zhuojin Star civilization is beyond your understanding. This is a direct interaction between spirit and energy, requiring no physical medium. Whether you believe it or not is up to you."

His tone was so calm that it instead gave people the illusion that "this is exactly how the facts should be."

the Captain didn't speak; he just stared intently into Lin Feng's eyes, as if trying to find even the slightest flaw in his gaze.

But he failed.

Lin Feng's eyes were as calm as a pool of deep water. That epic Historical Echo had brought him more than just shock; it had instilled a sense of mission to protect the civilization's heritage that transcended personal life and death. In this state of mind, any performance he gave was flawless.

"the Boss will be here soon." the Captain ultimately chose not to take the risk. He reported the situation to a certain presence via his earpiece, then tucked away his greedy expression and regained his cold demeanor. "Until he arrives, you two stay here."

He gave Juan a meaningful look.

Juan understood and used his gun to force Lin Feng and Wang Dalong to retreat in the direction they had come from.

They were escorted out of the spire's top floor, across the central platform, and all the way down to the very bottom of the spire.

The structure here was completely different from the upper levels; there were no shimmering technological creations, only cold walls built of black rock. The air was thick with a damp and musty smell.

Juan pushed open a heavy stone door and roughly shoved the two inside.

"You'd better behave yourselves until the Boss makes a decision," he warned viciously, then slammed the stone door shut with a loud bang.

The sound of the heavy bolt falling echoed through the empty basement, sounding particularly harsh.

Clang!

The stone door was completely locked, and the room instantly plunged into a pitch-black darkness where one couldn't even see their own hand.

"Brother Feng... Brother Feng, are you okay?" Wang Dalong's panicked voice rang out in the dark as he fumbled around and touched Lin Feng's arm.

"I'm fine," Lin Feng's voice remained steady.

"It's over, it's all over. We're sitting ducks now." Wang Dalong slumped onto the cold ground, his voice full of despair. "Once that Osiris guy gets here and sees we lied to him, won't he skin us alive?"

He paused, then couldn't help but ask, "Brother Feng, what you said earlier... about lying in there to gain knowledge, was that real or fake?"

"Fake," Lin Feng's answer was simple and direct.

"I knew it!" Wang Dalong wailed. "Then what would actually happen if someone lay in there?"

"I don't know," Lin Feng told the truth. "They might be instantly decomposed into elementary particles by the energy sphere, or their mind might be crushed by that massive collective consciousness, turning them into an idiot. But it certainly wouldn't be the result they want."

Wang Dalong shuddered, not daring to think further.

"Then what do we do now? Just wait to die?"

"Of course not."

Lin Feng stood up in the darkness. Instead of wallowing in self-pity like Wang Dalong, he immediately began to investigate this temporary cage.

He pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight function.

The faint light illuminated the small basement.

It looked like an abandoned storage room. The four walls were made of that hard obsidian, and the stone door was half a meter thick, locked from the outside. It was impossible to open with human strength alone.

It seemed like a dead end.

Lin Feng, however, didn't think so.

During the previous Historical Echo, he had "seen" the entire construction process of the Golden City. He knew that the architectural philosophy of the Zhuojin Star people was completely different from Earth's. They pursued a perfect, self-circulating ecosystem.

Any enclosed space would inevitably have channels connecting it to the outside for energy transmission, air circulation, or... waste disposal.

His gaze began to search carefully in the corners of the room.

Seeing him shining his phone everywhere, Wang Dalong also curiously leaned over.

"Brother Feng, what are you looking for? These walls look sturdier than a bank vault; there can't be a secret door, right?"

Lin Feng ignored him. His flashlight beam finally settled on an inconspicuous corner.

There, on the floor, was a square stone slab with a slightly different color from the rest of the ground. Along the edge of the slab was an extremely thin crack.

He walked over, crouched down, and tapped the slab with his finger.

Thump, thump.

The sound was hollower than in other places.

It's empty underneath!

"Found something?" Wang Dalong's eyes lit up.

Lin Feng pulled a military dagger from his hiking boot, inserted the tip into the crack of the stone slab, and pried upward with force.

The stone slab didn't budge.

"Let me!"

Wang Dalong volunteered. He took the dagger, gripped the handle with both hands, and pressed his entire body weight onto it. With a low grunt from him, the tightly fitted stone slab finally made a creaking sound and was pried open just enough to leave a gap.

Working together, the two of them completely flipped over the heavy stone slab.

A dark, square opening, just large enough for one person to pass through, appeared before them.

A unique scent, a mixture of water vapor and a metallic tang, wafted out from the hole.

Wang Dalong shone his phone inside and was completely stunned.

Below the opening was a tunnel. A tunnel cast entirely of gold, emitting a dim luster! At the bottom of the tunnel, a shallow stream of water flowed slowly.

"Holy crap..." Wang Dalong's worldview was refreshed once again. "Is... is this... a sewer? They even made their sewers out of pure gold? That's way too extravagant!"

"This isn't a sewer; it's a cooling pipe for energy conduction," Lin Feng corrected, but he didn't have time to explain further.

Because just then, the sound of footsteps approaching from a distance came from outside the door; it seemed someone was coming.

"No time left, jump!"

Lin Feng didn't hesitate for a second. He put away his phone and was the first to jump into that golden pipe.