Chapter 133 Wisdom's Eye

The team moved forward in the darkness, the faint spirit fire forming a path, outlining the traces left by their deep descent into the cavern. The light of the lanterns and spirit fire illuminated the path ahead, allowing them to barely discern their surroundings.

And along the way, the thing Duncan and his party saw most of was boileld gold.

High-purity boiled gold formed every part of the cavern's terrain. Layers upon layers of dense rock formed a solid spherical structure, and a large amount of loose ore was scattered at the bottom of the pit, in quantities that were difficult to estimate.

These ores were the foundation of modern industry, the lifeblood of Frost—yet their presence here only made the atmosphere feel more and more bizarre.

However, Duncan didn't care about the bizarre atmosphere—he was a pragmatist. The Ancient Gods came second. Boiled gold that could be used was good, even if these were truly the "products" of the Lord of the Deep, he wouldn't mind using them.

One could even say that if he were the city-state's executive governor, the only thing he would be considering right now would probably be the feasibility of opening a branch mine in the Deep Sea, and formulating a sustainable mining plan for the Lord of the Deep.

But he didn't voice these thoughts.

After all, to ordinary people like Agatha, this kind of development concept might be a bit extreme.

Duncan was turning all sorts of thoughts over in his mind, but at that moment, a hazy shadow at the end of his vision suddenly made him stop.

Immediately afterwards, the others stopped as well. Morris seemed to have seen something too, as he raised his lantern to illuminate their surroundings, saying, "There seems to be something ahead."

In the limited light released by the lanterns and spirit fire, a huge shadow vaguely emerged from the boundless darkness of the cave. It seemed to be a pillar standing in the distance, or the trunk of a towering tree, the upper part of which diffused vaguely, as if some branching structure extended into the darkness.

Although she couldn't see it clearly, even with just that hazy silhouette, Agatha could feel the enormity of the thing—like a giant pillar that could support an entire mountain, constantly exuding an extremely oppressive aura even from a distance.

Vanna tightened her grip on her greatsword, reminding everyone, "Proceed with caution."

The group continued to advance in the darkness, and as the distance continued to close, the vague shadow gradually became clearer in everyone's eyes.

A huge "pillar", like a cathedral tower, stood in the center of the large cavern, presenting a shocking appearance under the light of the lanterns!

"The Eye of Wisdom..."

Morris exclaimed subconsciously, the lantern in his hand shaking. He stared at the pillar, seeing its black surface rough and uneven, like some deep-sea creature's tentacle magnified countless times. The lower half was deeply buried in the ground, surrounded by a large amount of wrinkled, broken rock, as if this thing had grown out of the seawater beneath the city-state, brazenly piercing through the island's base. The upper part extended all the way into the endless darkness above, and in the darkness, it branched out into some small, hazy forks, like a bizarre giant tree, winding and growing in this unknown darkness, then quietly dying.

Its scale was so great that the light of the lanterns could not possibly illuminate the entire pillar—it was difficult even to illuminate a small part of its front. All Morris could see clearly was a portion of the rough surface within the reach of the lantern light. The larger, more hazy structures were illuminated by the surrounding spreading green fire, as for the parts that even the green fire could not illuminate... he could only rely on his imagination, barely distinguishing them in those extremely vague shadows.

This scene deeply shocked even the habitually careless doll lady.

Alice looked up, then grabbed her head with both hands and pulled it down hard. With a "pop", she pulled her head off, held it up, and looked up hard, discovering that she still couldn't see clearly. So she threw it up hard—throwing it several times in a row, before fumbling to put her head back on her neck, continuing to look up in a daze: "Wow..."

Vanna turned her head to look at Alice: "...Wow."

"What is this thing?" All of Morris's attention was on the spectacular yet terrifying giant pillar. He couldn't help but take two steps forward, cautiously touching the latter's pitted surface—a cold, rough, rock-like sensation came from his fingertips. "It feels like stone, but it looks like some kind of..."

"Some kind of giant limb," Duncan said, looking up at the upper part of the pillar. After a few seconds, he spoke softly, "It seems to be supporting the entire cavern."

"So this is the real reason why the cavern hasn't collapsed..." Morris murmured to himself, approaching the pillar and carefully observing its surface with the light of his lantern. "Judging from the texture, it's a bit like boiled gold ore, but it's not quite like any of the ores mentioned in books... It seems to have impurities."

"To make a bold guess, perhaps this is a part of the Lord of the Deep's limbs," Duncan said casually. "It extended into the city-state and was burned into stone here."

The scene fell silent for a moment. After several seconds, Vanna broke the silence, her mouth twitching: "That sounds a bit scary..."

"Scary, but highly likely—the reason I added 'perhaps' just now was to take care of your feelings," Duncan shook his head. "Don't forget, my flames once spread here. Although the situation was chaotic at the time and I didn't have time to perceive it in detail, I remember... the things here are very resistant to burning."

As he spoke, he walked forward and reached out to touch the rough, rock-like surface of the giant pillar.

On the other side, Agatha also groped her way to the vicinity of the "giant pillar".

Everything in her "vision" was still shaking, disturbed by some kind of resonance. The empty cavern appeared to her as a strange place filled with chaotic ripples, but even in this boundless interference, she could clearly "see" the "pillar" in front of her.

A faint attraction was driving her closer.

Agatha carefully reached out and stroked the pillar. Her fingers moved across the cold surface, as if leafing through a book carved from stone, reading the... memories that remained in the stones.

Some indentations caught her attention.

She groped over the indentations, outlining their shapes in her mind. She placed her palm in the indentation, discovering that each of her fingers fit perfectly.

They were handprints.

After a moment of bewilderment, she reached out with her other hand. Following the unprompted guidance in her mind, she groped around and found another handprint.

In the handprint, there seemed to be a little bit of fine ash remaining.

Agatha suddenly stopped, subconsciously wanting to turn her head and tell Duncan about her discovery, but in the next second, she discovered that many complicated, circling lights and shadows had suddenly appeared in her dark, chaotic vision.

Memories surfaced in her heart, thin but real emotions mixed in between. Countless pieces of information flooded into her mind—information that seemed to have been sleeping in Agatha's mind from the beginning, as if they were her own personal experiences. The moment she touched the two handprints, they suddenly awakened in her heart!

The search in the darkness... the encounter with the echoes of Executive Governor Winston... the truth about Project Abyssal Dive... the preparations of successive Executive Governors... the Ancient God's power invading the city-state, the Ancient God's thoughts wandering between illusion and reality, and...

This is a counterfeit.

"Ah—"

Agatha suddenly let out a soft cry, then stumbled and almost fell.

But a hand reached out from the side, supporting her body in time. Duncan's voice sounded in the darkness: "What's wrong?"

Agatha was in a daze for a moment before she woke up, immediately realizing the fragments of information that had been added to her mind. She quickly steadied herself and said quickly, "I touched some memories... left by 'her'!"

"'She' left them?" Duncan frowned, immediately realizing the meaning in her words. "The replica? Her memories are left here?"

"Yes, listen to me, it's very important—she met Executive Governor Winston here, and learned the truth about Project Abyssal Dive..."

Agatha spoke quickly, as if afraid that she would forget the fragments of memory that had suddenly flooded into her mind in the next second. She poured out everything she had just seen and heard almost without stopping, not caring whether the people around her had time to react. From the executive governor's last words to the source of the Frost Queen's obsession, and finally, the most intense idea—the most persistent thought that "she" had left behind before disappearing.

The key information that "she" wanted to pass down—the "Ancient God" that invaded Frost City-State was a counterfeit.

A replica of the Lord of the Deep.

Everyone fell silent, no matter how bizarre and horrifying the content of Agatha's speech was, no one interrupted her.

Until Agatha finished speaking the last word, the scene was silent for another ten seconds before Morris broke the silence.

"...The history in the mist and the mist in the history..."

The old scholar couldn't help but sigh.

And on the side, Duncan's gaze had already fallen on the huge "pillar".

His eyes were heavier than ever before.