Chapter 17: Temple Exploration

The quantum shuttle’s anti-gravity engines emitted a death-rattle whine, casting distorted shadows across the crater-pocked, desolate surface like the final struggles of a dying beast.

As the landing gear touched the ground, a bone-chilling tremor surged through the metal keel, as if the entire planet had suddenly awakened from an eternal slumber and was roaring in fury.

The hatch rose slowly, allowing a thick, pungent scent of sulfur to rush in, carried by a frigid, icy draft. Lin Yu’s tactical visor instantly activated its filtration system, yet he still caught sight of golden particles suspended in the air. They flickered in the gloom like countless fireflies from another realm, silently whispering mysterious tales.

Instinctively, he tightened his grip on the shock pistol at his waist. The anti-slip texture of the metal handle bit into his palm, a sharp reminder of the peril he faced.

A hundred meters away, an ancient temple lay like a dormant prehistoric behemoth that had clawed its way out from the deep crust. Eroded by cosmic radiation, the obsidian walls shimmered with an eerie, ghostly blue light, resembling the scales of a demon.

Cryptic patterns flowed across the structure’s surface. These star-chart-like designs reconfigured every seven seconds as if enacting an ancient legend spanning time and space, or perhaps transmitting cryptic messages from some mysterious force.

Su Yao tremblingly raised her portable scanner; her grip left indentations in the device’s metal casing. Suddenly, it emitted a sharp, piercing alarm, screaming in terror: "Unknown energy field detected! The intensity is one hundred thousand times that of Earth’s magnetic field, and it is pulsating rhythmically!"

Her voice was filled with fear and unease. The red data flickering on the screen was like a ticking countdown to death, chilling to the bone. Chen Mo moved to her side, his mechanical prosthetic eye emitting a faint hum of data streams as he attempted to find patterns in the fluctuating curves.

The team fanned out cautiously. Their tactical boots crunched over the silver-white moss covering the ground, the sound like shattering countless fragile shards of glass.

When stepped upon, the moss exuded a dark green sap that instantly vaporized into wisps of blue smoke upon contact with the air, filling the space with a suffocating, acrid smell of burning.

Lin Yu crouched before a sunken stone slab and gently traced the cuneiform symbols carved into it. Eerily, as the tactical lights hit the markings, they began to writhe like living creatures, as if dancing sprites were trapped within.

His visor suddenly flashed a warning, the red frame stark and alarming: "Neural interference detected. Immediate evacuation recommended!"

Yet, his gaze was held fast by a serpent totem at the end of the inscription—it was identical to the mark discovered at the mysterious organization's base, as if threads of fate had pulled them here. Leaning in, he noticed a faint purple powder remaining in the crevices, shimmering with a pearlescent luster under the light.

"Major discovery over here!" Chen Mo’s excited shout came from the temple’s foundation. The group looked over to see the researcher with the mechanical eye standing before a three-meter-tall statue, his expression a mix of shock and exhilaration.

The statue was carved from translucent purple crystal, depicting a humanoid creature with twelve arms. Each hand held a different artifact: an hourglass symbolizing the passage of time, chains binding freedom, and a model of a shattered planet representing destruction.

Most shocking of all was the diamond-shaped crystal embedded in the statue's chest, which resonated intensely with the samples they had seized from the mine. It emitted a crisp, melodic humming sound, as if a long-lost relative were calling out.

Lin Yu noticed a circle of tiny characters engraved at the statue's feet. Under the magnification of his visor, they revealed the words "Time and Space Gatekeeper," with minute gear patterns carved along the edges that seemed to rotate slowly as his viewing angle shifted.

Without hesitation, Su Yao inserted the crystal sample into the statue’s slot. In an instant, the entire figure erupted in blinding light, like the sudden birth of a new star.

The ground began to vibrate violently, as if the planet’s heart were pounding madly. Countless golden light-veins spread from the statue’s base like living blood vessels, racing toward the temple gates.

Wherever these light-veins touched, the moss turned to ash, and more complex, massive star-chart arrays emerged on the stone floor, as if the mysteries of the universe were unfolding before their eyes.

Lin Yu stared intently at the position of the Big Dipper in the chart. Suddenly recalling a record he had read in the Bureau’s ancient texts, his eyes lit up, and he shouted commands to his team: "Align the remaining crystals along the constellation’s trajectory!"

At that moment, his tactical watch vibrated, displaying an unencrypted message: "Beware the mirror trap." The sender was a string of garbled code.

As the final crystal clicked into the floor slot, the temple gates let out a deafening roar, as if a beast that had slept for a millennium were waking.

The heavy stone doors were pushed open by invisible hands, revealing a bottomless corridor. From the darkness came the grinding of gears, mixed with a low-frequency pulse resembling a heartbeat—a chilling sound, like a summons from hell.

Su Yao activated her helmet’s high-intensity floodlight. The beam pierced the darkness, only to reveal walls ten meters ahead—covered densely with reliefs of bleeding eyes. They seemed to watch the team, filled with resentment and curses.

Ah Jie’s breathing grew rapid, sounding harsh over the comms channel: "Those eyes... their pupils are following us!"

The moment they stepped into the temple, every team member’s communication device emitted a piercing shriek, as if warning of the danger ahead.

Lin Yu’s tactical watch automatically projected a holographic map, but it displayed a constantly twisting and shifting labyrinthine structure, as if the temple itself were a living, mutating monster.

Suddenly, eerie green runes lit up on the floor, forming a circular trap five meters in diameter that radiated a sinister glow.

"Don't step in the green zone!" Lin Yu shouted, pulling a teammate back. At that very instant, the ground split open, and dozens of barbed bronze spears erupted from the earth, their tips dripping with foul-smelling black slime. Like demon fangs, they were ready to devour them.

Mixed in the rubble kicked up by the spears were several human finger bones, gleaming with a ghastly white light.

Continuing forward, they reached a passage composed of floating stone blocks. Each stone was carved with different temporal symbols, like the codes of an ancient civilization.

As a member attempted to step onto a block, it began to spin wildly, emitting a teeth-grinding metallic friction as if resisting their intrusion. Su Yao took out the diamond-shaped crystal from the statue and, after careful observation, realized the patterns on its surface shared a mysterious connection with the symbols on the stones.

With a trembling heart, she aligned the crystal with a specific symbol. Miraculously, the stone stopped spinning and stabilized in the void, as if conquered by her courage.

But just as she prepared to take the first step, a human face appeared on the surface of the block—a face frozen in agony, mouth agape, seemingly letting out a silent scream.

Having cracked three mechanisms, the group arrived in a massive circular hall. The dome was inlaid with countless glowing crystals that formed a shifting star chart, as if the entire universe were compressed into this small space. In the center of the floor stood an altar, upon which rested a bronze box covered in serpent carvings, radiating a mysterious and dangerous aura.

The moment Lin Yu reached out to touch the box, the temperature in the hall plummeted, as if they had fallen into an ice cellar. A transparent energy barrier rose around the altar, trapping them within an invisible cage.

Worse yet, the reliefs on the walls began to come alive. The eyes detached themselves, transforming into swarms of black beetles that rushed toward them. A new crisis was closing in from the darkness.

The vibration of the beetles' wings sounded like a dense drumroll. Lin Yu could feel the fuzz on their wings brushing against his cheeks, bringing a nauseating, itchy sensation.