Before they could find an exit, a deafening boom echoed through the tomb. Serena Feng and the others barely had time to turn around before their torches suddenly went out—even the electric lamps went dark. The entire burial chamber was plunged into pitch-blackness.
"Stay close! Grab whoever’s next to you!" Prince Nolan shouted, but just as he spoke, the ground vanished beneath his feet. Weightless, he plummeted straight down. In that split second, Nolan managed to seize Serena’s arm—gripping her tightly as they fell together…
Everyone else fared no better. Screams rang out as bodies dropped uncontrollably, but their cries were drowned out by the Snow Wolf’s howl.
"Awooo, awooo…" The Snow Wolf’s howls were the loudest. Serena wanted desperately to reach it, but she was helpless—her body completely out of control, with no idea where she was.
She kept falling, surrounded by endless darkness. Serena had no clue where she’d land—only that, just before she blacked out, a flash of golden light flickered before her eyes. Then everything went blank.
When Serena awoke, she found herself in a golden room. The space was dazzlingly bright, though she couldn’t tell what was lighting it. Everywhere she looked, gold shimmered in every corner—and beneath her feet, a flowing sea of golden flowers.
It felt like a layer of glass was laid over the floor. Looking down, Serena saw golden blossoms blooming and closing beneath her feet, then blooming again…
Though everything in sight was gold, it never felt monotonous or harsh. Every inch of the room was extravagantly beautiful—so breathtaking it almost hurt to look at.
But Serena wasn’t one to linger over beauty. She got up, stretched her limbs, and scanned the room for an exit. Before she could act, a wall behind her suddenly shifted—and Prince Nolan stepped out.
"You’re awake."
Serena blinked, making sure she wasn’t seeing things, then let out a small smile. "I thought I was the only one here."
Her tense body finally relaxed a little. With Prince Nolan here, Serena felt safe.
"I found a way out and went to take a look around," Nolan explained, giving the reason for his brief disappearance.
In truth, he’d just accidentally bumped into that wall, walked out, wandered around outside, and then came back.
"Did you find anything? Where are Sean, the Eighteen Riders, and the Snow Wolf? None of them are here?" Serena was a little bothered that Nolan had left her unconscious, but on second thought, she understood.
Everyone’s scattered. Of course Nolan was anxious, and it made sense for him to look for an exit while she was out cold—it saved time. After all, no one could predict how long she’d be unconscious.
"No luck. It’s all rooms in here. Open one door and you’re just in another chamber. Finding anyone is nearly impossible." Worst of all, once inside, they lost all sense of direction—north, south, east, west, it was all a blur.
"Did we fall into a maze?" Serena pulled Nolan over to the wall and gave it a push. Sure enough, it moved aside, revealing a room paved entirely in jade. The flowers blooming and closing underfoot were now a gentle, jade-green.
"The Former Dynasty really was loaded," Serena couldn’t help swallowing hard.
No wonder so many people want to rob the Former Dynasty’s tomb. Even she felt tempted.
"Why do you think the Four Kingdoms are so poor?" Back when the Former Dynasty ruled the Nine Provinces, the best of everything ended up in their imperial palace. The Lan royal clan was the richest family in the realm—no other house, not even the Cui, Wang, or Xie clans combined, could compare.
Before the Former Dynasty fell, they hid all their treasure away. The Four Kingdoms' emperors seized the land but got none of the riches. That’s why any rumor of the hoard drives them mad.
"You can’t eat or drink these things. The Four Kingdoms may not have gotten the treasure, but they did get the land. If they actually managed it well, their nations and people would thrive." People live for food—if the emperors focused on better harvests and feeding the masses, they'd be strong eventually.
Nolan gave a sarcastic smile. "Do you really think the founding emperors rebelled for the people? Under the Former Dynasty, commoners were better off than now—well fed, well clothed. Why would they bother revolting?"
Ordinary folk living in peace wouldn’t risk their necks for rebellion. Only those already in power ever think of it.
"The Four Kingdoms’ emperors seized the throne—do you think they’d let the Former Dynasty’s treasure go? In their eyes, the whole realm is theirs now, so everything that belonged to the Lan clan should be theirs too. The Lan clan lost, so they don’t deserve any of it." Nolan spoke without personal bias; he and those emperors were the same kind—ambitious men who wanted the world.
"Human greed knows no bounds." Serena nodded in understanding. "Right now, we need to focus on finding the others."
"Room by room? We have no idea where we are." Nolan, for once, let out a bitter smile.
Standing in a place cut off from the outside world, he couldn’t tell north from south, east from west—and even if he could, as soon as they entered another room, it would all be lost again.
Even if they figured it out, there was no guarantee they’d find Sean and the Eighteen Riders. Both groups could easily miss each other.
"I can fix our bearings." Serena pulled a compass from her Smart Med-Pack. "The needle points north. Sean and the others must’ve fallen into rooms just like ours. If we mark every room we enter with the cardinal directions and leave a note telling them to head north, they’ll have a path."
Serena then took out a stack of paper and some marker pens. "Every room we pass through, we’ll leave a sheet behind. They’ll be searching for us too—sooner or later, we’ll meet up."
It was a pretty basic plan, but Serena couldn’t think of anything better. The rooms were laid out like a honeycomb, with passages in every direction. The groups might be separated by just one room, but if they kept picking different paths, they’d only drift further apart.
"We’ll number each note. That way, whoever finds one will know exactly where they are. As long as they find any sheet, they can follow the directions north and reach us." It wasn’t just luck—if enough rooms were marked, the odds of Sean and the Eighteen Riders finding their trail went way up.
"Alright." Nolan agreed, picking up a pen and writing: North at the top, South at the bottom, West left, East right—then adding the message: Head north all the way.
Serena handled the numbering and stuck double-sided tape on each sheet.
The two of them crouched on the floor together, making a hundred notes in a row. Only then did Serena and Nolan call it a night. Next, they’d try to cover as many rooms as possible, taping the notes to the north wall each time.
As long as Sean and the Eighteen Riders found even one note, they could follow the trail straight to Serena and Nolan.