212: Ruins, Cult of the Summoning God

Two days later, Arthur and his group gradually arrived at the central region of the Desert of Death!

At this point, they still hadn't gained much.

Yes, they hadn't gained much—meaning no major gains, but they did have some minor ones!

Conflicts often broke out among the countless people who came here to explore. As Arthur and his companions searched carefully, they found some space rings and equipment left behind by those who had died earlier.

Although they didn't find many pieces in total, it still counted as a gain, didn't it?

Having arrived at the center of the Desert of Death, Arthur and his group prepared to casually scan the underground area as they usually did.

Just as he was about to start probing, Arthur sensed something was wrong; he felt the nearby desert shaking without cause!

It was as if someone underground was continuously attacking something!

Before Arthur could investigate further, Olivia and the others also noticed the abnormality:

"The ground seems to be shaking. Is someone down there?"

"They might be treasure hunters like us. Let's sense the situation!"

Following this, Arthur and the others immediately crouched down, carefully sensing the conditions beneath the ground.

This investigation immediately revealed that the surrounding situation was unusual.

There was actually a passage nearby leading straight down to a depth of about eight hundred meters. The entire passage was constructed from exceptionally sturdy purple-veined crystal stones, enduring for ten thousand years!

Furthermore, mysterious magic runes were inscribed on the purple-veined crystal stones. Arthur could vaguely discern that these runes had a concealing effect.

Now, for some unknown reason, they had failed. Presumably, this was why the passage had been discovered!

Otherwise, over the past ten thousand years, the countless searchers—regardless of what was underground—might have completely dismantled this purple-veined crystal stones passage alone.

Below the passage, at eight hundred meters, there were four black-robed Sky Knights and one Life Element Grand Magus, along with a massive gate, ten zhang high, entirely cast from purple-veined Divine Stone.

Purple-veined Divine Stone is a higher-grade material than purple-veined crystal stones. Compared to the latter, which Legendary Experts can break, the purple-veined Divine Stone can withstand attacks even from Demigod Experts.

It is an exceptionally rare construction material!

Moreover, both Materials possess excellent Magical Conductivity, allowing Magic Runes to be carved upon them to set up a Magic Array.

Thus, both are excellent Materials for setting up arrays, leading to the extreme scarcity of purple-veined crystal stones and purple-veined Divine Stone on the current Continent of Gods.

Especially the purple-veined Divine Stone—its characteristic of being difficult for Demigod Experts to destroy makes it more than adequate even for forging demi-divine artifacts!

A piece the size of a human head is worth hundreds of millions of gold coins!

Yet, this place used purple-veined Divine Stone to cast a gate thirty zhang high. It must mean that what lies inside is extraordinary.

Even if there's nothing inside, moving these two types of stones back home would be an unimaginable fortune!

Thinking of this, Arthur's breathing quickened!

He quickly took several deep breaths to calm his emotions, then focused his attention back on the eight hundred meters underground.

He discovered that the five people underground were currently strenuously attacking the gate cast from purple-veined Divine Stone.

Since purple-veined Divine Stone is difficult for even Demigod Experts to destroy, given the strength of the five below—four Sky Knights and one Grand Magus—

Logically speaking, their attacks should be completely ineffective.

And the reality was exactly as Arthur had predicted: the five people underground attacked for a long time, yet the gate cast from purple-veined Divine Stone remained completely unchanged!

Seeing this, Arthur immediately relaxed and said to Karona and the others beside him:

"You must have also discovered the ruin underground!

The entire ruin is constructed from precious Materials like purple-veined crystal stones and purple-veined Divine Stone; what's inside must be extraordinary!"

"Indeed, we are incredibly lucky. We just don't know which power the five people who got here before us belong to."

Karona and the others were also knowledgeable; they recognized the two types of Materials and had no doubt about Arthur's assessment.

They were just worried about the people underground. If those five belonged to a major power, things would be difficult to handle!

Arthur's approach to this was:

"Let's wait and see. Conceal all our auras. We will observe them secretly from underground before making a decision."

He then glanced at Sunny, who had broken through from an ordinary person to a Silver Knight during the twenty days they had spent traveling.

Sunny was being trained as Karona's personal maid, so Arthur and the others were not stingy with her, immediately giving her a dragon blood bath.

As for Instillation, Arthur felt the time was not yet right.

However, the strength level of a Silver Knight was still too low.

Moreover, Sunny had spent almost the entire month focusing on improving her strength, and she hadn't even Cultivated the Aura Concealment Technique for hiding her presence.

Thinking of this, Arthur took out a ring:

"Sunny, this is a ring that can conceal aura. It should have no problem fooling a Sky Knight's perception. Wear it for now!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Sunny knew she was slowing them down, so she quickly accepted the ring with a look of guilt.

With everything ready, the group quickly arrived at a nearby sand dune!

The five people below were quite cautious; after descending, they had actually filled the passage entrance with sand!

This way, even if someone flew overhead hundreds of meters up, they wouldn't notice anything unusual!

Unfortunately, they encountered Arthur and his seven treasure-hunting companions, rendering all their arrangements useless!

In order not to cause a commotion and alert the people below, Arthur did not casually sweep away the ten-meter-deep sand covering the passage entrance!

Instead, he had Victor use Dou Qi to condense a giant hand, which slowly dug out the sand covering the hole.

Only then did the group unhurriedly proceed down the passage toward the underground.

As they walked down, Arthur carefully examined the purple-veined crystal stones surrounding the passage and found that they truly lived up to their name.

Piece by piece, they resembled crystals, yet they contained complex purple patterns, making them look both mysterious and beautiful!

After about ten minutes, they reached the eight hundred-meter depth underground.

At this point, the five people underground had stopped attacking the gate cast from purple-veined Divine Stone, likely realizing that it was ineffective!

When they were still one corner turn away from the five individuals, less than a hundred meters, Arthur and his group stopped.

Given their strength, they could clearly hear the five people talking from this distance, making it unnecessary to approach further and needlessly increase the risk.

"This purple-veined Divine Stone is indeed as hard as the rumors say. We've been attacking for half an hour, yet we haven't caused even the slightest damage. It looks like we'll have to find another way!"

"There is an inscription on the Stone Tablet next to the gate. It seems to be from the Ancient Era, a completely different writing system from the current one.

If only we could decipher the meaning of this inscription. It must contain the method to open the gate!"

"I also think the information on the Stone Tablet is the clue to opening the gate!"

"It's truly frustrating. Over the past ten thousand years, countless people have come to the Desert of Death searching for treasure. Even our God-Summoning Cult has sent dozens of groups, yet all came up empty.

Now that we've finally found the location, we can't get inside.

Do we really have to return to the organization, report this matter, and only receive the reward for discovering the ruin?"