Chapter 76: Corpse

Dean stopped at the end of the steps, not truly walking down them. He carefully observed the corridors on both sides, hoping to find some difference between them—however, it was clear that the builder had not left such a flaw for those who came after. The horizontal corridor, split into left and right, was exactly the same.

As for exploring one side first and then returning by the original path?

Dean could be certain that the builder had precautions against such a method.

If possible, he would absolutely not do that.

Because that would only plunge him into greater danger—given the width of this corridor, and those steel-like railings which had gaps but only allowed an arm to pass through; undoubtedly, once one walked in, it became a natural prison. And if a circular falling stone appeared on the wrong path or the return path.

Then, the person inside, aside from being crushed into meat paste, had no other possibility.

As for the existence of a Gold-rank?

Since such falling stones appeared, then the existence of a Gold-rank was naturally taken into consideration.

Dean looked at the slightly tilted angle of the corridor floor, secretly guessing—of course, this angle was fundamentally impossible to distinguish from the outside.

Whether it was the steel railings or the stone base, they all made it look level to you.

If not for the fact that the shadows cast by the Magic Lamp had a slight distortion, Dean would not have discovered something wrong.

However, such a discovery, aside from confirming his guess, was of no real help to Dean. He still needed to make a choice—

“Left, or right?”

Dean deliberated.

This deliberation lasted for several minutes, but in the end, Dean still did not make a choice.

“What would that guy do?”

Unable to reach a convincing answer from his own perspective, Dean began to shift his angle—he placed his perspective on that Goth Prince.

“He would certainly bring quite a few men, but he couldn’t possibly choose to probe both sides separately. He couldn’t even leave men on these steps—because, once the mechanism was triggered, this entire area would be within the range of the traps; so, he passed through here all at once… What was it that made that guy so certain?”

Dean thought, his gaze patrolling back and forth between the left and right corridors.

Then, his gaze looked straight to the left!

No, no, not the left, but the Northland!

The Conqueror King, the only regret in his life, was the expedition against the White Night Kingdom, which ultimately met with an unexpected failure; therefore, until his death, this emperor never forgot it, wanting to lead his knights to flatten the entire White Night Kingdom; he even built his own tomb in this Snowplains Dense Forest, which was closest to White Night.

So, if given a choice between north and south.

For those of the Goth Royal Family who inherited the Conqueror King’s will, there was naturally no need to consider.

Northward, continuing northward, stepping onto the Path of the Ancestor.

As for southward?

Cowering was not the style of the Conqueror King, so dying there would be inevitable.

Clearly, as a Descendant of the Conqueror King, whether or not that Goth Prince had inherited the Conqueror King’s will, he was quite clear about what the Conqueror King wanted.

Therefore, the other party could choose correctly in one go.

“So that is it!”

Dean took a deep breath, stepped down, and walked toward the northern corridor.

Dean was very careful. Although he believed his choice was correct, some worry still made him advance cautiously. After stepping into the corridor for about ten feet, a special Strength began to appear—

[Unknown Strength suppression, initiating judgment…]

[Will judgment failed…]

[Within the range of unknown Strength, all attributes weakened by 50%]

The prompt on the character panel made Dean’s whole body sink. The feeling of having his state weakened almost made Dean, who was already injured, kneel to the ground.

At the same time, Dean also understood the method of dealing with Gold-rank Knights here.

If the weakening was the same, then a Gold-rank Knight weakened by half could clearly no longer be considered Gold-rank. If the material of the falling stone was special as well, crushing one or two Gold-rank Knights was not impossible.

“These patterns…”

With his attributes weakened, Dean did not advance immediately. Instead, he stood still, adapting to his current physical state.

At the same time, his gaze began to look around.

After all, such a ‘force field’ could not have appeared without reason.

Then, Dean discovered some inexplicable patterns on the floor where he stood; not only on the floor where he stood, but the inner wall and ceiling of the entire corridor also had such patterns.

They were magic patterns engraved using the dark engraving method—filled with magic Strength that Dean could not understand.

Undoubtedly, this was the handiwork of one or more Grand Wizards.

Dean did not intend to destroy these patterns.

Since they could be discovered by him in this way, it showed that the builder was not worried about these patterns being destroyed—whether they were indestructible, or intentionally destroying them would trigger other traps, Dean did not want to see either.

Therefore, Dean once again moved forward slowly and cautiously.

However, Dean carefully imprinted these magic patterns in his mind—although he could not understand them now, the extraordinariness of these magic patterns had long made Dean understand their value.

Moreover, him not knowing did not mean others did not. On the Secret Spell Island of the Free Federation, as far as he knew, there were several masters who had deep research on some magic patterns.

And, even if he found nothing on Secret Spell Island, the Sky City would not let him down.

Of course, that was a matter for later!

Now, Dean was just moving forward cautiously while recording.

The distance of a full thousand feet made Dean walk for more than half an hour. Aside from worrying about other traps, the main reason was that Dean needed to record the magic patterns within.

Thanks to the life he once lived as a test subject on Secret Spell Island, Dean had a considerable understanding of some magic and mystical knowledge.

Therefore, even though they were difficult to distinguish, Dean completely memorized these magic patterns.

In fact, aside from some difficulty at the beginning and a little difficulty memorizing the Core-like position later, the rest was easy for Dean.

However, this ease reminded Dean of his days as a test subject.

Such memories made Dean frown—clearly, those were not pleasant memories.

Quickly shaking his head, Dean suppressed this inappropriate memory deep in his heart, and placed all his attention on the things before his eyes—

At this moment, Dean stood at the end of the corridor.

Here was a stone door, as high as three people—much higher than the corridor, so that walking near the stone door, an upward arc appeared on the ceiling.

This arc did not make the stone door look abrupt; on the contrary, it made the whole stone door look even taller.

After cautiously checking once and confirming there were no mechanisms or traps, Dean chose the half of the stone door closest to him and pushed it open with force.

Creeeeak…

Amidst the slightly teeth-grating sound of the door hinges turning, the half of the stone door was completely pushed open by Dean’s palm.

A layer of golden light replaced the originally slightly blue Magic Lamp light. Dean’s vision was completely filled with gold—on a high Gold Throne, fully twenty feet tall, a burly man was sitting there.

His face was like it was carved by knives and axes, bearing endless majesty.

A Crown rested on his head. His hands were folded on his chest, supported by a Longsword. The blade of this Longsword was fully seven feet long, and the width of the blade was longer than an adult’s palm. Even placed in a Sword Sheath, a fierce and vicious aura still made Dean’s heart palpitate.

Undoubtedly, this was a Longsword that had drunk the blood of thousands.

The Conqueror King’s Sword!

Naturally, the man sitting on the Throne with his hands supporting it was naturally the Conqueror King.

Dean stood under the Throne and quietly looked at the other’s appearance—although this emperor had been dead for many years, his Prestige still remained.

Even though Dean was dozens of feet away from him, he still felt a pressure.

It was not only the Prestige of the strong, but also the Prestige of a king.

Dean temporarily put aside his identity and stance, looking up at this man who had once almost unified Goedz. After a moment, a strangeness appeared in his gaze.

That lifelike Corpse was enough to prove the Strength of the other party when he was alive. Even after death for hundreds of years, his Corpse remained undecayed.

Then… was the [Demon Blood Dagger] useful?

Once this thought emerged from the bottom of his heart, Dean could no longer suppress it.

Suddenly, Dean took a deep breath, wanting to relieve the tension in his heart.

However, this breath had no effect at all; on the contrary, it made him even more parched.