MMORPG: The Almighty Ring Chapter 3019

A fissure suddenly split open in the cliff wall, unveiling a profound passageway.

“Let’s go!” the elder leader shouted to the group. He ignited his torch and strode inside. The other elders trailed right behind him.

Noticing that every elder had entered and the cliff crack was beginning to seal, Jiang Fei dashed forward and slipped in after them. He kept his distance from the elders while navigating the shadowy tunnel. Lacking any light source, Jiang Fei relied on his sharp night vision to clearly make out the path ahead.

Tailing the elders for around ten minutes brought Jiang Fei into a spacious hall. The elders then clustered before a stone pillar, turning their backs to it and facing outward. This setup forced Jiang Fei to seek cover in a nearby corner. Even though he remained stealthed, he had no desire to chance it.

Jiang Fei watched as one elder pivoted, pressed a unique spot on the stone pillar, then returned to his original stance with back to the pillar. The second elder replicated the first’s actions, followed by the third, the fourth, and onward.

Quickly, every elder had activated their specific position on the pillar. Soon after, the familiar rumble of mechanical gears filled the air once more.

“Damn! A password lock? And each one controls a part separately?” Jiang Fei stood stunned. Weren’t these elders excessively wary?

Yet, on second thought, it all checked out. The elder council’s sole mission was to prevent anyone from accessing the sealed tech vault. Their forebears had fixated on this duty alone, passing down that unyielding vigilance.

Accompanied by the mechanical grinding, a section of the hall’s stone wall rotated open. Revealed on its reverse side was a small platform holding a wooden brocade box.

Upon spotting the brocade box, the elders hurried over. They gingerly lifted the lid and inspected the contents.

“Phew... Good thing it’s still here...” the elders sighed in relief.

“I told you it was safe, didn’t I? This spot is so well concealed. How could anyone have swiped the key?”

“Humph! That’s not what you claimed earlier!”

“Alright, alright. We’ve verified the key’s security. Let’s head out.”

“Mm! Let’s go! Better not hang around here too long or we might get spotted!”

“Do you think they lured us here on purpose?” an elder suddenly questioned.

“Ah?!” The other elders froze in shock.

“Think about it: we stashed the key so perfectly that outsiders couldn’t possibly know. But they boasted about having it, drawing us here to check. If someone tailed us in secret, wouldn’t they now know this location?” the elder explained.

“Makes sense!”

“Sigh! We acted too rashly...”

The other elders buzzed with discussion.

“This isn’t the moment for regrets. What we need now is a plan: what do we do next?” the elder pressed.

“Why not just take the key with us?” one elder proposed.

“What if those guys are waiting outside to ambush us the moment we carry it out? That’d be falling right into their trap!”

“Even without an ambush, where do we stash it afterward? No one’s hands are truly secure, right? We can’t whip up a hideout this safe anytime soon!”

“Yeah!”

“So, what now...”

The elders found themselves at an impasse once more.

“Actually, we don’t have to carry the key out!” a younger elder chimed in at that point.

“Huh?” All eyes turned to the young elder.

“See, if we lock it back up, the mechanism secures it perfectly—they won’t locate the hiding spot. Even if they spot the stone pillar, so long as one of us resists threats and temptations and keeps the password secret, the key stays safe!” the young elder argued.

“That makes sense!” The others nodded in agreement.

The key’s enclosing stone wall was immensely thick and weighty, crafted from exceptionally tough stone that defied brute-force entry. While the pillar and code might slip if some elders buckled under duress or allure, the password was shared among all. A single refuser rendered the mechanism unbreakable, making the key’s secrecy relatively simple to maintain.

“No better option right now. Let’s go with this!” The other elders consented to the idea.

Next, they returned the key to the wooden box. They then reversed the mechanism, concealing the box behind the stone wall again.

“Let’s go, time to leave!” the lead elder commanded.

“Okay!” The others nodded eagerly. With that, the group departed the mountain’s hidden chamber.

Upon exiting the secret chamber, the elders reclaimed their keepsakes. They then slipped back to the capital in silence. To the elders' shock, no capture awaited them. Nobody intercepted them, as Su Zhe and Su Rui had no intentions of striking.

While the elders stewed in worry, Jiang Fei lingered inside the secret chamber.

“Password? No need for all that trouble!” Jiang Fei grinned. With a wave of his hand, he summoned the Chengying sword.

“Buzz!” Metal-type spiritual energy enveloped the Chengying sword. Jiang Fei then flicked his wrist sharply.

“Slash!” he roared loudly. The Chengying sword crashed against the stone wall, igniting a shower of sparks.

“Hiss! What power!” Jiang Fei drew in a sharp breath. Instead of splitting apart like he anticipated, the stone wall bore only a faint scratch.

“Swish!” Noticing the Chengying sword failed to breach the stone wall, Jiang Fei recalled it swiftly. Still, he stayed calm without much concern.

Advancing two steps, Jiang Fei pressed his palms to the stone wall. Simultaneously, his spiritual energy cycled rapidly through the five elements.

Jiang Fei experimented carefully. He sought to align his spiritual energy with the stone wall’s properties. By matching their vibration frequencies, he aimed to trigger resonance within it.

Soon enough, Jiang Fei’s spiritual power attuned to the metal attribute. He fine-tuned its frequency next. Meanwhile, he activated his Eye of Violets, scrutinizing the stone wall’s properties closely and hunting for its vibration rhythm.

Beneath the Eye of Violets, the stone wall shrank to microscopic scale, dissolving into particles. In the end, it revealed strands of energy strings.

These energy strings vibrated without pause, assembling into distinct particles. Those particles in turn built the sturdy stone wall.

“Clang!” Jiang Fei started manipulating the energy strings using his spiritual power. He had wielded spiritual power externally before. But unable to project it now, he resorted to his dense spiritual power for this precise operation.