With a deep breath, Richard turned his head and scanned the surroundings of the palace hall. He waved his hand and called out to the soul of the Black Spirit King which he wasn’t sure was present or not, "Thank you, thank you for leaving these things here. They’ve been a great help to me. And now, well... goodbye. Uh, goodbye!"
As he spoke, Richard left the depths of the hall and walked to the side. He intended to look at as many Knowledge Scrolls as he could in the last remaining time, then leave quickly, taking Pandora with him to the Main Continent—he had already learned the way to get there during his previous conversation with Sherlock. If he moved swiftly enough, he might just happen to travel alongside Sherlock who was taking numerous goods.
Richard was thinking this when he had just turned over a scroll on the Stone Table, suddenly a "boom" rang out, and the entire great hall shook violently.
Richard abruptly looked up, sensing clearly that the vibration was not caused by the aftermath of a distant battlefield but by a Spell cast directly above him.
Before he had time to think about what was happening, "boom" rang out again, and the whole hall shook violently once more.
Visible to the naked eye, the hall’s four walls were impacted, quickly developing several finger-thick cracks.
This, all at once, seemed to trigger the treasure’s defense mechanism—a measure to prevent unauthorized access and forced opening of the treasure to obtain its inheritance. "Crack, crack," large sections of the Stone Tables in the hall crumbled, and the scrolls on top "rustled and rustled" as they rapidly turned into piles of dust.
Richard couldn’t help but widen his eyes, but he had no time for regret since he had long given up on taking all the Knowledge Scrolls. He turned sharply and ran towards the exit of the great hall and the ground floor.
The reason for this haste was partly due to the ground attack Spell impacting him; as he suspected, the whole treasure was on the verge of collapsing, and he did not want to be buried alive.
On the other hand, he was worried.
You see, to avoid being buried alive, he had specifically positioned people on the ground to communicate and send warnings. Now, with this situation unfolding and no message from his lookouts, could it mean...
Richard whispered urgently, his face etched with great concern, as he sped toward the passage exit. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
Time rewinds slightly.
In the north, "rumble, rumble" sounds echoed, with faint vibrations coming in succession.
Nearby, beside the Screaming Forest, Pandora squatted in front of a slab of rock, where a scroll with written problems lay, quietly working with a Quill in hand. Occasionally, she looked towards the north, then swiftly scanned the surroundings to ensure no uninvited guest had arrived, and lowered her head to continue working on the problems intently.
"Scratch, scratch, scratch," the sound of writing continued, occasionally stopping when she was stumped by a problem.
Pandora couldn’t help scratching her head, beginning to bite on the tip of the Quill, a clearly bad habit—when she finally figured out the difficult problem and began to write, the saliva-soaked marks blurred on the scroll, her mouth blackened.
Pandora was unconcerned, wiping her mouth with her hand carelessly, leaving a black streak across her fair face as she continued to write.
After such a session, Pandora’s face was crisscrossed with lines, resembling a chessboard.
Without noticing, Pandora wiped her face once more, preparing to tackle the final few problems when suddenly a loud explosion from the north rang out. On hearing it, she jerked her head up, her eyes flickered with alertness as she looked towards the direction of the noise.
She had heard such explosions many times already, almost becoming numb to them, but this time was clearly different—the greatest difference being it was extremely loud.
Pandora looked intently and clearly saw numerous black dots flying from the north, each dot representing a person; some seemed to be fleeing, while others appeared to be in pursuit.
After looking, Pandora’s body tensed up instinctively as she remembered the strong sense of danger in her heart when she had agreed to Richard’s task. She turned to look at the nearby tunnel entrance, ready to run in and report.
But at that moment, the many black dots flying toward her suddenly scattered; some veered east, some west, with the chasers forcing them farther away, until the trees, hillocks, and small mountains concealed them from sight.
Pandora couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief, then felt played and stuck out her tongue in dissatisfaction, it was pitch black.
After a while, just as she calmed down and was ready to continue writing her exam, suddenly "boom boom boom boom boom," a series of loud and continuous explosions came from the north, followed by a swarm of black dots fleeing toward her under pursuit.
However... without exception, none of the black dots even covered half the distance before veering off with their pursuers to places out of sight.
For quite some time, Pandora watched the north without blinking once, but not a single person came her way, as if the place she was at was blessed by the Luck Goddess.
For Pandora, there was no joy in this, instead, there was frustration and urgency.
She was very keen to go underground to notify Richard right away, but the situation did not match what Richard had described earlier, and in order to not interfere with the underground matters that were very important to Richard, she could only continue to wait.
Pandora, with patience, waited for a good while until she saw several black dots flying from the north, with one dot trailing behind them—the pursuer.
This group of people kept drawing nearer, quickly crossing the middle distance, almost reaching the nearby area, and Pandora had already stood up to run toward the tunnel entrance.
But after only a few steps, Pandora stopped in her tracks, watching the person about to arrive nearby as if playing a joke on her, suddenly turned sharply and darted eastwards—behind a small hillock and out of sight.
Pandora furrowed her brows tightly and slowly walked back to the stone, with no heart to do her test anymore, her eyes fixed on the distant hillock as if staring down a sworn enemy, and she couldn’t help but utter a soft "Scare!"
As if in response to her, faint screams came from the direction of the hillock.
First one, then another, followed by a third, and a fourth...
The sounds eventually faded to silence, peace returned, and Pandora, somewhat gloomy, squatted beside the bluestone, looking northward, and muttered to herself, "Will they come or not, will they come or not! Really, scare!"
"Come? Who are you waiting for, lovely little girl?"
Just then, suddenly a chilling voice arose behind Pandora.
Like a black train with its whistle blowing and thick smoke billowing, it burst abruptly into a snow-covered, pristine white plain, so unexpected, so startling.
In an instant, the whole scene changed.
A dangerous and overpowering atmosphere descended suddenly, causing Pandora’s expression to turn.