Chapter 628: Ancient Stone Tablet
The towering fifteen-meter-tall dark red giant door didn’t open to the sides, nor did it lift upward; rather, it began to slowly and steadily rotate inward as if pushed by an invisible giant hand.
The sound of the door axis turning was as muffled as thunder, grinding past the dust of ages.
As the door continued to rotate, a scent a hundred times richer than before, mixed with rock dust, ancient spices, the stagnation of time, and an indescribable aura of majesty, surged forth like a vintage that has been accumulating for thousands of years from the deep darkness behind the door, flooding the entire vestibule. Even the metallic sand currents surrounding Duke trembled slightly, emitting a low hum.
Duke held his breath and focused, enhancing all his senses and detection methods to their extreme, tightly locking onto the gradually widening crack of the door.
There was no energy fluctuation from triggered traps yet, nor was there any murderous intent from guards springing out, only the thick and almost tangible ancient aura and the absolute darkness beyond the door that seemed to absorb all light.
Finally, the giant door rotated approximately forty-five degrees, forming a deep triangular entrance wide enough for several people to walk through side by side.
The light on the door gradually subsided, leaving only a faint dark red glow illuminating the edges of the entrance.
Duke did not immediately step in; instead, he patiently waited for a moment, confirming there were no further changes, before taking a step forward. The sand currents around him swirled quietly into the tightest protective stance, as he stepped into the darkness that seemed capable of swallowing everything.
After a brief period of visual adjustment, Duke saw the scene inside clearly.
It was an almost perfect circular hall, its scale far exceeding that of ordinary human halls.
The dome towered upwards as if it had no end, merging into a deep darkness that mimicked the starry sky, with only dots of cold light, faintly flickering, as if ancient stars.
The diameter of the hall exceeded one thousand meters at a rough estimate; the floor was paved with massive slabs of deep green stone, smooth as jade yet remarkably hard, each slab was astonishingly large, its surface smooth as a mirror, reflecting the faint light from the dome.
Supporting this vast space were twelve gigantic stone pillars, requiring dozens of people to encircle them.
These pillars were not simple cylindrical columns, but rather carved into towering, armored giant warrior figures.
They kneeled on one knee, shoulders and backs supporting the dome, their expressions solemn, gazes piercing through time, fixating on the center of the hall.
Each carved warrior on the pillars was meticulously detailed, the armor’s patterns, the muscle contours, even the directional flow of hair intricate and visible, filled with awe-inspiring strength and beauty, silently narrating the civilization’s former strength and the brilliance of its artistry.
The circular walls of the hall were entirely covered in grand frescoes and deep reliefs.
The frescoes evidently used special mineral pigments and techniques; despite the passage of time, most areas remained vivid and lifelike.
With epic strokes, they detailed the rise of the giant race from ignorance, the establishment of a vast empire, the development of a unique and flourishing civilization, to the eventual facing of a sweeping catastrophe, their collective resistance, and tragic demise.
The images were grand and sorrowful, filled with a monumental aura, engulfing those present in a sense of awe as if hearing the horns of ancient battlefields and the lament of the civilization’s collapse.
The air was saturated with a profound quiet, not a dead silence but a deep stillness that had settled over countless ages, witnessing the rise and fall of civilizations, even the drifting dust seemed to carry a rhythm.
The pervasive ancient pressure here reached its peak, but strangely did not suffocate, instead evoking a solemn feeling of standing at the source of the historical river, facing the monumental testament of civilization.
The focal point of the entire hall lay at the precise center of the circular floor, where there was a slab.
It was a trapezoidal slab distinctly different in color from the green stone floor, presenting a heavy dark golden hue, standing nearly a hundred meters tall, narrower at the top and wider at the bottom, steadily placed on a slightly elevated circular base.
The surface of the slab wasn’t smooth but filled with countless, varying depths and sizes of engravings.
These engravings were by no means randomly crafted; they formed an extremely complex, dimensional energy circuit and a runic array.
Some engravings were as deep as several inches, with sharp edges as if carved by a giant axe, while others were as fine as hair, spiraling around like naturally formed veins.
Within every engraving, there subtly flowed a dark golden liquid light, dense as mercury yet seemingly alive, gently pulsing.
Merely gazing from afar, one could feel the terrifying amount of information contained within and the heavy, ancient, and blunt impression of power directly reaching the source of rules.
Duke approached slowly, gazing up at this giant dark golden slab, observing carefully.
His figure seemed so small in front of this massive slab.
"Ancient Stone Tablet Magic..." Duke noticed some details after observing for a long time.
He had seen similar records in some extremely ancient tomes.
In the long river of civilization development across the Endless Plane, the carriers of knowledge were not fixed.
Parchment, memory crystals, spirit imprints... were suitable for most knowledge, but for high-level magic, forbidden knowledge, and even racial heritage that touched upon the deep rules of the world with extremely violent energy or special nature, ordinary carriers could not bear the rules and energy they contained.
Even slightly more complex Level 1 Magic could not be recorded with simple paper; a carrier akin to demon skin was required.
Thus, the ancestors of the Endless Plane devised various special ways of carrying knowledge.
Among them, the rune stone tablet was one of the most ancient and powerful.
They chose special stone materials that naturally carried large amounts of energy and were extremely stable in nature. Often, these stones were special materials or had been infused with divine blood, crafted by strong individuals whose spiritual power and skills had reached their peak, using their understanding of rules as a carving knife to imprint the magic’s model, principles, and everything it encompassed directly into the material structure of the tablet.
The dark golden slab before him was undoubtedly such an existence.
It itself was the embodiment of a core inheritance magic of the giant civilization.
Observing and understanding it was not reading text but directly resonating spiritually with the imprinted magic within the slab.
Duke suppressed the urge to immediately step forward and perceive it; first, he circled the hall, scanning every inch of the floor, walls, and giant pillars with meticulous spiritual power to confirm that there were no hidden guard mechanisms or traps.
Then, he returned to the front of the slab, adjusting his breathing, reaching his optimal state.
Duke cautiously extended his spiritual power, slowly making contact with the slab.
As the spiritual power met the energy flow on the surface of the slab, vast visions of strength, earth, and immortality exploded directly in his mind.