Chapter 135: The Temple’s Underground Chamber

Magic crystals and elemental crystals are essentially the same type of substance—energy crystals that contain energy for mages to absorb and utilize. Unlike elemental crystals, which store elemental energy, magic crystals can be either naturally formed or artificially created. In either case, they contain pure, impurity-free magic energy that mages can absorb directly without the need for purification or conversion. Compared to restoration potions, a single magic crystal far exceeds them in both absorption speed and energy content. They were the favorite supplies of ancient mages.

Since naturally formed magic crystals were extremely rare, mages devised methods to artificially create them by simulating natural conditions. This was one of humanity’s greatest inventions during the Age of the Mage Empires, second only to plane transfer technology and the core arcane energy of the Sky City.

The magic crystals in this box were uniformly shaped, clearly manufactured by mages. Protected by metal boxes, they had retained their energy for thousands of years, remaining as intact as if newly created.

However, after Donald and Mesel eagerly inspected the equipment in this alchemy factory, they were disappointed to find that these machines were only used to produce those metal boxes containing magic crystals, along with hidden magical fluctuations and energy storage properties—not devices for creating artificial magic crystals as they had imagined.

Though they both knew such devices were unlikely to exist in ordinary mage cities, with only the Sky City rumored to have the capability to produce artificial magic crystals, the master and apprentice still felt disappointed.

“How shall we divide these items?” Edwina asked the other two silver mages.

More than a dozen metal boxes had already been opened. To their disappointment, only three contained supplies, with the rest being empty. And even those three boxes did not all hold magic crystals—one contained another type of crystal material.

Phase crystals, essential materials for creating spatial magic items and teleportation arrays, were extremely precious and rare.

Seeing the others eyeing the three metal boxes greedily, Mesel discussed it with his disciple before turning to Edwina and saying, “We want all the alchemy equipment here, along with at least two-thirds of the phase crystals. We don’t need a single magic crystal!”

The other two silver mages were somewhat reluctant to hear this, but it wasn’t surprising. Magic crystals could be used directly by them and could even save their lives in critical moments. In contrast, phase crystals, though precious, could only be used to exchange with other mages, as their alchemy skills weren’t advanced enough to utilize such valuable materials. After some thought, Edwina agreed, but Horton looked displeased. According to their prior agreement, they were only allowed to take what the first two left behind. Now that Messel was taking so much, little would remain for him, yet he didn’t have the right to complain. So he could only say, “Phase crystals are extremely valuable. After all, magic crystals might still be found, but phase crystals are likely extinct in the main material world. Mage Messel, you’re taking most of the loot, along with those valuable alchemy devices. Don’t you think that’s a bit greedy?” In terms of actual value, phase crystals were far more precious than magic crystals, and they were scarce with no other way to obtain them. On the other hand, there were still some rare natural deposits of magic crystals in the main material world. Horton seemed to be defending Edwina, but in reality, he was thinking of himself. At that moment, Donald said, “Old man Horton, your words are inappropriate. Exploring this ruin is extremely dangerous. I already agreed with the members of the Ansel family that once treasures are found, everyone can take what they need. Although phase crystals and these alchemy devices are precious, their usefulness to you is far less than to me and our teacher. Especially this set of equipment for producing, storing, and manipulating energy—even if you take it back, it won’t be of much use to you. We, on the other hand, want to study its structure in order to replicate other types of alchemy devices!” As Donald spoke, Edwina and her son nodded repeatedly. Horton had nothing to say. Then Donald changed his tone and continued, “What old man Horton is worried about is that after the two families divide the loot, nothing will be left for you. But although that was our original agreement, I believe the members of the Ansel family won’t be so stingy!”

Edwina also agreed with Donald, saying, “Indeed, given the vastness of this ruin, the treasures we’ll find will far exceed our imagination. By then, Mr. Horton, even if you try your best to take as much as you can, you probably won’t be able to carry much back. There’s no need for us to argue here. Let’s follow Messer’s suggestion—there are probably about ten more phase crystals left, making up one-third of the total. Mr. Horton, you can take two of them, and you can also get one-tenth of those two boxes of magic crystals. How does that sound?”
Horton nodded in agreement. These gains were within his expectations. Combined with what he had obtained earlier, the total value had already exceeded 200,000 gold sols. Moreover, such gains couldn’t be fully measured in money, as many things simply couldn’t be bought even with wealth.
The two opposing sides were close allies, and together they posed a threat he couldn’t match. He might end up with nothing at all. So, Horton decided to stop at a good profit and split the treasures from the temple with Donald and the others. Watching Donald wave his hand and take away entire sets of alchemical tools and equipment, even including the tables, the others had grown numb to it.
They had already guessed that Donald likely possessed a legendary-level spatial device, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to store so much stuff. Spatial devices were always the most precious among all types of magical equipment, their value far exceeding that of other equipment of the same class. The value of a legendary spatial device was probably close to that of a legendary artifact.
A legendary artifact generally referred to an item that possessed some qualities of a divine artifact but lacked its true power. Depending on their origin, legendary artifacts could be divided into two categories. One type was created by master craftsmen from the mortal world—humans, elves, etc.—who, through extraordinary breakthroughs in certain areas or by using rare materials, achieved a quality that surpassed legendary devices and approached that of divine artifacts. These were legendary artifacts made by mortals.
The other type were legendary artifacts bestowed by gods upon their mortal followers for protection or to aid in the development of their religions. Sometimes, due to certain reasons, divine artifacts couldn’t be fully created, resulting in them becoming legendary artifacts instead. Usually, these types of legendary artifacts were the most precious and could even exert power greater than that of true divine artifacts. Some true gods still used such legendary artifacts, so their value was unimaginable.

It would be false to say one wouldn’t be tempted by a legendary spatial artifact whose value might be comparable to that of a sub-divine weapon. Yet Donald’s various mysterious behaviors have prevented outsiders from understanding his true nature. With another powerful teacher as a backing, even if others might have had other thoughts, in these dangerous ruins, everyone was in the same boat and had to suppress them.

After everything in the temple hall was removed, the surroundings became clearly visible. Ferdinand suddenly pointed at the center of the temple, behind a large stone platform that should have been used to hold a statue, and said, “Everyone, look here!”

The crowd hurried over to look in that direction and saw a dark, deep entrance behind the stone platform. There was another layer behind this temple?

From the outside, the temple already appeared quite vast, its size comparable to half of Giantstone City. But that was only the first layer of the temple. From here onward, there were even more vast spaces—a subterranean palace-style temple.

Donald sent the Shield Guardians ahead to explore. The Shield Guardians he had obtained were in their most ordinary form, with combat strength at the bronze level, but their defensive capabilities were beyond even those of the Golden Sword Sage. After all, their bodies were made of cold metal and rock, not flesh and blood. Enhanced and solidified by magic, ordinary swords couldn’t leave any marks on them. Thus, even if there were dangers below, they could react immediately.

After safely passing through the thousands of feet wide stone stairs that descended hundreds of steps, the group reached the second layer of the temple.

When spells of light appeared above the heads of the mages present, light instantly filled the entire lower part of the temple. Seeing what was inside, everyone was amazed.

It was an underground palace twice as large as the temple above, built entirely of the same type of rock, capable of accommodating thousands of people for gatherings.

On both sides of the palace were rows of weapon racks, filled with batches of weapons and equipment—numbering at least ten thousand. In the corners, there were also many overturned stone statues, likely the statues of the gods in the temple. The mages were too lazy to clean them up, so they simply pushed them aside.

“It seems the original temple’s underground palace has been transformed by the mages into a weapons storage warehouse.”

Edwina said excitedly, “The weapons stored by the mages are at least high-grade enchanted equipment. Look at all this gear here—it’s enough to arm two elite armies the size of kingdoms.”
Emily, the young lady from the Thorne family, was the first to can’t help but step forward, intending to pick up a beautifully crafted long sword in elven style. But as soon as she touched it, there was a loud crash, and dust filled the air as an entire row of weapon racks shattered, with all the weapons falling to the ground, creating an echoing resonance in the dungeon.
“What happened?”
Facing everyone’s gazes, Emily widened her eyes innocently and said, “I didn’t do anything! It just collapsed!”
Donald stepped forward, picked up one of the weapons, examined it carefully, and sighed. “It’s not Miss Thorne’s fault. These weapon racks have been here for too long. They’re made of ordinary wood, and their protective spells have long since expired. They’ve rotted away, and even the slightest touch can turn them to dust.”
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. Then Donald added, “Although these weapons are made of excellent materials, over thousands of years, their enchantments have mostly faded, turning them from magical equipment into ordinary weapons. I guess only legendary-grade equipment might still retain some of its power. What a pity!”
Hearing this bad news, everyone was deeply disappointed.
“How could this happen?”
Horton, unwilling to believe it, reached out to touch another row of weapon racks, only to find them just as rotten and unusable as before.
The others also tried touching other racks, resulting in dust filling the entire temple dungeon. Once the dust settled and things calmed down, only one weapon rack in front of the altar across from them remained standing.
Instantly, everyone’s attention focused there.