Roland quickly estimated the size of the underground cavern, which was about the size of a football field at the bottom, surrounded by steep mountain walls. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 The fork in the road leading to this point is right in the middle of the mountain wall, and there is a narrow stone staircase next to the entrance of the cave, which leads downward.

"I guess you didn't dig this staircase," he said, crouching down and bringing the torch close to the ground. Under the reflection of the firelight, the traces of axe carving and knife carving on the stone steps are very obvious, and there are also a lot of stone chips and dust accumulated in the carvings.

"Of course not, Your Highness, the stone steps were already there when we found here," Carter shrugged, "I guess this thing has been around for decades. ”

"Or hundreds of years," Anna said suddenly.

"I think so too," Lightning nodded, "It's only been seventy years since the Frontier Town was founded, and it's unlikely that the stone staircase has anything to do with the locals or the kingdom. ”

"Was there anyone in the West hundreds of years ago?" Carter questioned, "The Grey Keep hasn't even been formed yet." ”

Roland patted the knight on the shoulder, "Four hundred and fifty years ago, there was a group of people who were forgotten by history. Then he raised his torch and said, "Let's go, let's go down and have a look." ”

The soldiers of the First Army had already surrounded the bottom of the cave in twos and threes, and he led the knight and the witch straight to the Stone of Divine Punishment, and only when he stood at the foot of the stone pillar could he deeply feel the enormity of the Divine Stone. With his arms outstretched, less than a tenth of it, he had to raise his head to see the top of it, and the tallest purple Divine Punishment Stone was close to thirty meters, almost equivalent to an eight- or nine-story house.

Theoretically, stones that can emit light on their own are either radioactive or fluorescent, but the light of the Stone of Divine Punishment is obviously unrelated to neither - the former's luminescence comes from the ionization of the air caused by the decay of the element itself, and the shorter the half-life, the greater the brightness. At this level of light, the soldiers who entered first would have died of ionizing radiation in less than a few minutes. The latter, on the other hand, needs to be exposed to light before it can emit light, and there is no light source deep underground, which obviously cannot support it to emit a continuous stream of cold light.

Roland also noticed that although the stone was in the form of a prism common to crystals, the surface did not have crystalline lines, but was as smooth as flat glass.

"A thumb-sized stone of punishment in the church can sell for several golden dragons, like this one...... It can almost empty the coffers of the four kingdoms. Carter couldn't help but sigh.

"Sold to a nobleman to kill a witch?" the nightingale glared at him.

"Well, I didn't say that," the chief knight unconsciously looked away.

"It's the first time I've seen a Divine Punishment Stone of this color, shouldn't it be white and transparent," Lightning looked at the pillar curiously, "If I bring one back, won't I need to light a candle at night?"

"I'd rather light a dozen candles in a stuffy room than use it for lighting," said Nightingale with her hands on her breast, "for witches it's a cage, a shackle, an accomplice of the Church! ”

"Well, Sister Nightingale, you won't ...... at night anyway," the little girl licked her lips, picked up a stone, and looked at Roland, "Can I take one back as a trophy for the expedition?"

Roland nodded, "If you don't hate this kind of thing." ”

She picked up the stone in her hand and struck it hard at the corner of the prism, only to hear a crisp "ding" sound, and the stone shattered in response, and there was not even a single scar left on the prism.

The knight couldn't help but sigh, "What's going on...... Aren't all Divine Punishment Stones fragile and fragile?"

"Maybe this glowing piece is different," lightning patted off the stone chips in his hand, and took out a dagger from his waist bag, and tossed around the prism for a while, but even if he used it to scrape and cut, it was still in vain.

Roland sensed something was wrong, and he motioned to the nightingale, "You can try it." ”

The latter nodded, pulled out the revolver, and pulled the trigger directly on the other prism. A loud roar suddenly echoed at the bottom of the cave, and a few sparks erupted from the part where the Divine Punishment Stone was hit. After the smoke cleared, the group walked over, only to see that the bullet had only left a shallow mark on the surface of the sacred stone.

This means that, in terms of strength, it has surpassed homogeneous steel plates.

"Muskets are useless?" Carter frowned, "and how did the church cut it down and polish it?"

No one can answer this question, and it doesn't match everyone's usual impression.

At least Roland had broken the locks of divine punishment with bricks—the one around Anna's neck, for example, that could turn a crystal clear stone into a puddle of white powder in just two or three strokes.

Anna, who had been silent, suddenly spoke, "Your Highness, do you remember the treasure map drawn by Velin Hilt at dawn?"

"Treasure map?" Roland was stunned. He vaguely remembered that a triangle on the drawing took up most of the area, and the three vertices pointed to the holy city of Tachira, the stone tower of the Hidden Forest, and the end of the foot of the northern slope...... Wait, at the foot of the North Slope? Suddenly a lightning bolt flashed through his head, "Is it ......?"

"I don't think that point is to the Northslope Mine, but here-" Anna said slowly, "this underground cavern that contains a lot of Divine Punishment Stones. ”

......

After a careful search, no other valuable finds were found in the cave except for a large pile of indestructible sacred stones.

Not to mention ancient books or remains, there are not even tools left to carve stone ladders, which is very incredible. At the current level of technology, it is definitely a huge and arduous project to carve out a staircase on a steep stone wall. Things like accidental falls, lost tools, and the like should be common. But the scene was nothing but stones, as if they had thoroughly cleaned the cave before evacuating.

Roland returned to his office and summoned the scroll and reproduced the Dawn Knight's drawings on the Book of Transfigration.

Similar to the pattern in memory, the southernmost point does fall at the foot of the northern slope.

If Anna's guess was correct, could it be the map left behind by the Church when they searched for a new Vein of the Divine Punishment Stone? But why did they abandon everything after they had gone to great lengths to dig out a stone staircase to the bottom of the cave? If the Church had built a Frontier Church four hundred and fifty years ago, I'm afraid that the frontier town would be a different place today - judging by the price and use of the Divine Punishment Stone, this mine does not look like a resource that can be discarded at will.

The holy city of Taqira is now an inaccessible off-limits, and perhaps these answers will only be known after going to the Stone Tower...... Or never know. (To be continued.) )