Not long after, they encountered another crossroads.
Compared to the previous crossroads, this one had a larger area that was shattered, and the falling stones almost blocked half of the road. Only through the cracks in the walls could they determine that this road branched off to the left and right.
The left path was barely passable, while the right had completely collapsed.
Upon seeing this crossroads, Vay, who had been bickering with Dox along the way, suddenly felt a jolt in his heart.
"Why is there another crossroads?" Vay pondered to himself. Could it be that Dox was right?
The Magical Energy Array had burst at the crossroads, with rocks rolling and chaotic energy, making this area quite unpredictable. Adanis might have truly set the trap at the crossroads.
Remembering Dox’s strong inspiration, Vay’s mental scale slowly began to tilt.
However, after their careful inspection, they did not find anything suspicious on this crossroads.
With doubts lingering, the group continued forward. For the next part of the journey, they did not encounter any more crossroads. Just as Vay began to relax, a weak voice emerged from the Mind Ribbon.
"M-My lord, look at this..."
It was Kaier speaking.
Since leaving the Hall of Wisdom, Kaier had been silent, keeping his head down and holding the Photostone without speaking. At first, Kaier was reading the recorded books from the Hall of Wisdom, looking so engrossed that no one bothered him. Additionally, Angel had dispatched Speedy to protect Kaier, so there was no danger.
However, later on, Kaier seemed to stop reading and was, as before, using the Photostone to record their journey.
These recorded images were very valuable firsthand materials for a wizard like Kaier who was passionate about exploring ruins.
The group turned their gaze to Kaier, and Dox asked in confusion, "What’s wrong?"
Kaier took out the Photostone and displayed the recorded images to the group.
The Photostone recorded their inspections at the previous crossroads.
Their inspections found nothing wrong, and from the Photostone, it appeared that nothing was amiss either.
"What’s the problem in this picture?" Dox just skimmed through it and began asking Kaier, mainly because he didn’t think Kaier could find anything.
Kaier: "I also initially thought there was no problem, but my lord look here."
Kaier continued to play the footage from the Photostone. Shortly after they left the crossroads, the footage began to show 360-degree spins.
This was because Kaier wanted to document every detail of the journey, from the ceiling’s details to the patterns on the ground, scrutinizing all around, causing the footage to spin continuously.
Although watching it all at once made one dizzy, when Kaier analyzed it frame by frame, one wouldn’t feel uncomfortable and could avoid missing any detail.
Not long after playing the footage, Kaier pressed "pause."
As the footage continued, every now and then Kaier would pause it, pressing pause three times consecutively.
Each of the three pauses had the same perspective: facing the crossroads.
From the footage, it appeared they were facing the crossroads. However, recalling the situation at the time, they were actually back-facing the crossroads.
Because of this, they couldn’t observe the changes at the crossroads after they left.
To be precise, the crossroads itself hadn’t changed; the change was due to the different perspective distances, leading to different visible contents.
Here, the said "contents" were the cracks on the walls.
Moreover, the cracks involved more than one wall—not just one, but three walls at the corner. They were perpendicular to each other, forming a corner.
Previously, when viewed up close, they were observing cracks on different walls, which at first glance appeared unremarkable.
But when Kaier put the "panorama" before them, the cracks on the three walls merged like a plane, forming a "pattern."
It was precisely this pattern that Kaier noticed, prompting him to speak up.
"I feel like this pattern doesn’t seem naturally formed... but I really can’t tell what it is, which is why I wanted to ask my lord." Kaier said.
This so-called "pattern," at first glance, indeed seemed perplexing.
It resembled a teardrop, with a long sharp tip at the top and an oval at the bottom. However, the "sharp" part at the top seemed excessively curved... or rather "alluring."
Looking at it upside down, it resembled a tadpole.
Although currently, it’s unclear what the pattern represents, the smoothness and coherence of the lines suggest it’s definitely not naturally formed. Kaier, who discovered the pattern, did so inadvertently, but based on the results, since no one else noticed it, the credit belongs to him.
Dox praised Kaier: "Not bad, although not quite up to my level, you certainly outperform the other apprentices here."
There were only two apprentices present, so Dox was praising one while belittling another. Kaier was unsure how to respond and could only smile awkwardly.
Vay couldn’t be bothered to argue with Dox and instead focused his gaze on Angel: "My lord, have you figured out what this is?"
Angel and the Black Earl had been observing the pattern, and Vay dared not ask his own master, so he asked Angel.
Angel hesitated for a moment, then stretched out his hand and pointed, causing the pattern from the Photostone to suspend in front of the group.
The pattern on the Photostone was fairly fixed. Although one could see some anomalies, it clearly wasn’t as clear as Angel’s illusion.
Angel adjusted the illusion several times, finally orienting it to a very special angle, where the top was a semicircle and the bottom was a long, alluring curve.
Upon seeing this angle, Angel pointed a dot on the semicircle.
At this moment, when the group looked at the pattern again, they started to see something emerge.
"This looks like a creature with a tail?" Vay questioned.
The top circular part was the head, and the lower part was the body and tail. When Angel pointed to the circular part, it was like adding the finishing touch, directing the pattern towards a "creature" transformation.