Dwayne picked up a candlestick. After a moment's thought, he also took down a weapon hanging on the wall. Considering his current weakened state, he opted for a short sword. Dwayne then grabbed a few new candles and tucked them into his pocket.
He then took a step into the secret chamber hidden within the wall.
The dim candlelight could only illuminate a space of about two or three steps ahead and behind. Fortunately, Dwayne had slightly stronger mental abilities than the average person, which enhanced his perception of the surroundings.
This was a secret passage embedded in a massive stone wall, with cold and hard stones on both sides. It was impossible to tell how many years it had been since it was built. The passage was filled with dust, and despite Dwayne's efforts to move quietly, he still stirred up dust, causing him to sneeze repeatedly.
Occasionally, he stepped on some small stones, and amidst the flickering candlelight, Dwayne could only cautiously advance.
Luckily, it seemed that this place had some ventilation, as the candlelight flickered but did not extinguish due to lack of oxygen.
After walking for a while, a flight of stairs appeared in front of him. The winding stairs led straight down underground. The steps were narrow and crudely constructed from stacked stones, but sturdy enough. After descending what Dwayne estimated to be over thirty layers of stairs, he finally saw a small door.
The metal door handle was already rusted. Dwayne grabbed the handle and tried to turn it twice, only to find that the door was locked. He sighed and suddenly remembered the inscription on the bookshelf...
"Spoon is the key..."
Dwayne thought for a moment, then raised the candle and looked around the door. Finally, he spotted a pattern on the ceiling above the door.
It was a carved pattern, and based on it, Dwayne could barely make out what seemed to be a star chart. Although he wasn't very knowledgeable about astronomy, he remembered the question about the "spoon" and quickly identified the shape resembling the "Big Dipper" on the star chart.
"Spoon is the key..." Dwayne muttered. The ceiling was too high for him at thirteen years old, even if he stood on tiptoes, he couldn't reach it. In the dim candlelight, Dwayne carefully studied the pattern.
As one candle almost burned out, Dwayne lit the second one. Suddenly, a thought struck him. He remembered an important question!
A key?
What a joke!
If someone discovered this secret passage, wouldn't they find tools to pry open this door, even if they didn't have a key? Without a key, they could still forcibly break down this door using brute force.
In that case, the key wasn't so important. However, the fact that the hint was so special about the "key" meant that it definitely had a deeper meaning!
In other words, if there was no key, trying to use brute force or other methods to open the door would be ineffective.
This "key" probably couldn't be interpreted literally.
Dwayne sat down for a while, pondering. When he stood up again, he jumped as high as he could, raised the short sword in his hand, and tapped it against the pattern of the Big Dipper on the ceiling.
Thud!
Dwayne's eyes lit up! The sound seemed somewhat hollow.
He abandoned his attempt to focus on the door and instead bent down, found a gap in the floor, and firmly inserted the short sword into it, making the sword stand upright on the ground. Then, Dwayne braced himself against the wall, stepped onto the sword, raising himself slightly higher. Although he still swayed a bit, he could just reach the ceiling with his hand.
There was a thick layer of dust on the ceiling. Dwayne felt around for a while and noticed that the star pattern of the Big Dipper had a distinct texture compared to other places. He tried various methods, tapping, twisting, turning, and so on.
Finally, he didn't know what he touched, but with a forceful twist, he managed to move a piece of the star chart, causing a corner of the wall to suddenly collapse downward!
On the ground appeared a black passage, with steps leading down all the way!
Success!
Dwayne exclaimed softly and jumped down from the hilt of the short sword with a smile.
Indeed, it was a trick! Dwayne was confident that his guess was correct.
The nearby rusty door was just an illusion! The real secret lay not on this door at all! Even if someone who came here tried to open that door by force without paying attention to the hint of the "Big Dipper," they wouldn't find the real secret here!
Dwayne was sure that the real secret of this place lay in the black passage that had sunk into the ground!
He walked to the side of the passage. The entrance was very narrow, just enough for one person to squeeze through. It was dark inside. Dwayne lit a candle and threw it down. By the falling candlelight, he could see that the steps below weren't deep, about two to three meters high. It seemed to be a hidden room.
Dwayne didn't immediately go down but sat at the entrance of the passage for a while. Seeing nothing unusual below, he carefully descended the steps.
It was a room enclosed on all sides by stone walls. Iron cabinets were arranged on both sides of the walls, many of which were sealed, and the locks were all rusted. In the middle was a large stone platform.
The stone platform was about waist-high for Dwayne. Many inscrutable patterns were carved on the tabletop, with a large arc in the middle surrounded by the positions of stars.
After looking at it for a while, Dwayne felt clueless and simply gave up studying the patterns on the table, focusing on searching the iron cabinets next to it.
All the iron cabinets here were locked. Due to their age, the locks were probably all rusted. After trying hard for a while, just when Dwayne felt a little frustrated, he finally cheered, discovering a drawer that wasn't locked!
It was the only drawer on the entire iron cabinet that wasn't locked!
After opening it, a stone box lay quietly inside.
On the lid of the stone box was engraved with the emblem of the Roland family!
Dwayne struggled to lift the box and then sat down on the ground, carefully opening it. Inside the box was a scroll of parchment.
The parchment was densely covered with writing. When he unfolded it, a hexagonal-shaped green crystal, like a gem, fell out of the scroll.
Dwayne patiently lit his third candle and then quietly read the text on the parchment...
"To the esteemed recipient:
Dear reader, you must surely be a descendant of the Roland family. Firstly, you must know that this is a letter left by your ancestors. I am Saimel, the wife of the seventh-generation family chief of the Roland family, and an astrologer."
Seeing the first two sentences, Dwayne couldn't help but be surprised.
An astrologer, Saimel?
Dwayne knew, of course, that in the history of the Roland family, there was once a peculiar family chief who was very interested in astrology and even married a female astrologer. The castle where Dwayne was now located, with its highest building, a tall white tower, was specifically constructed by that family chief so that his astrologer wife could better observe the night sky from the high tower at night!
What Dwayne didn't expect was that this letter was actually written by the wife of that family chief, the female astrologer!
He continued reading.
"...As you read this letter, I hope you understand that what you are about to face will be a risky adventure. You may open a door that has been forbidden for countless ages, because behind this door may lie a forbidden realm beyond human reach.
At the same time, this is also the result of my lifelong research.
If you are ready for the adventure, you can take the gemstone included with this letter. Then, carefully search the stone platform in the room. You will find an insertion point. After inserting the gemstone, you will obtain the most complete information I left behind. To ensure that the information is not passed on to outsiders, the activation of the information requires the fresh blood of a descendant of the Roland family. Please drop your blood on the gemstone, and the bloodline of the Roland family will guide you to obtain the information I left behind."
At the end of this letter, there was another line of text:
"May the great Roland family prosper, for I deeply love this family because of my husband!
Your ancestor; Roland."
Dwayne finished reading in one breath, feeling a few more shocks in his heart!
According to the family history he had read, he had a deep impression of Saimel Chiara; Roland (her original name was Saimel Chiara. It was only after marrying into the Roland family that she adopted the Roland family name).
This woman was the wife of the seventh-generation family chief, a famous female astrologer. In the field of astrology, she was worthy of admiration! Dwayne's mentor, the old scholar Roshiat, was also an astrologer. During the year and a half he taught Dwayne, whenever he mentioned this ancestor's wife, he was full of respect. He even inadvertently mentioned that this woman named Saimel, was perhaps the most outstanding astrologer in the empire for nearly two hundred years!
What made Dwayne impressed with this name was not because Saimel was a great astrologer, but for another reason.
Because, in the records of the Roland family he had read, this female astrologer was also a woman deeply in love with her husband.
The seventh-generation chief of the Roland family who married her did not live long, passing away at about fifty years old. Saimel, the female astrologer, was evidently a woman of deep affection. Three days after her husband's death, she committed suicide by throwing herself off the high white tower her husband had built for her during his lifetime.
Before her death, the female astrologer inscribed a sentence on her tower:
"For love, we shall live forever."
It was this epitaph that made Dwayne remember the illustrious woman in the family history.
Without hesitation, Dwayne immediately crouched down and began to search beneath the stone platform, soon finding the insertion point mentioned in the letter.
The size of the insertion point was just about the same as the shape of the gemstone. Without hesitation, Dwayne cut his finger and let a drop of blood fall onto the gemstone.
As the gemstone was inserted into the slot, Dwayne instinctively took two steps back...
In the dimly lit secret chamber, suddenly, the intricate patterns on the square stone platform in front burst into a bright light, illuminating the entire room as if it were daytime! The intense light was even too much for Dwayne to open his eyes!
Then, these rays of light gradually converged, finally forming a pillar of light on the stone platform, and in the center of the light pillar, a figure appeared!
This figure was not a real person but a very lifelike illusion created by these rays of light!
The size of this illusion was no different from that of a real person, and Dwayne couldn't help but widen his eyes!
He suddenly realized something very important!
This Saimel, this legendary female astrologer, was probably also an excellent magician! Because everything that had just happened, along with the illusion in front of him, was clearly a kind of magic!!
The brightness of the illusion gradually dimmed until it was just enough for the human eye to bear.
Finally, Dwayne could see clearly the figure standing within the column of light.
A woman dressed in a red robe from head to toe, with long silver hair as white as snow. Her entire body was enveloped in the crimson robe, and her face was exceptionally beautiful, with eyes that seemed to carry gentleness. However, those black eyes gave Dwayne a hint of strangeness.
"Bearer of the information, I am your ancestor, Saimel Chiara Roland," the illusion spoke slowly. "This is the last magic message I left before my death. The magic array I left behind requires the magic crystal infused with my own magic, combined with the bloodline of the Roland family, to open. Since you can see this message, it means you are a descendant of the Roland family, and therefore, you can receive all of my secrets without reservation."
Dwayne looked at the lifelike and beautiful woman in front of him, feeling a sense of awe in his heart!
To be able to preserve a message for centuries using a magic array! Such magical prowess was already that of a top-tier mage!! This Saimel actually possessed such abilities!
"I cannot know how many years have passed since you activated this message, nor do I know how much of my magic remains within the magic crystal," said the illusion of Saimel slowly. "So, please listen carefully to every word I say, for there may not be enough magic left to activate this magic array a second time."
Although Dwayne knew that the Saimel before him was not a real person, only a projected illusion, he couldn't help but nod.
"Firstly, I must explain: what I have left for you may bring endless benefits, but it may also bring endless troubles. Because my lifelong research findings, aside from my husband, are known to no one. Since you have reached this point, you must have some understanding of astrology, at least of astrology. Therefore, the first and most important thing I want to tell you is: all the astrologers in the world are wrong! Every single one of them is wrong!
Because astrology is not merely about predicting the future through changes in celestial bodies. Although everyone now believes that astrology is nothing more than a form of prophecy. However, I must tell you... astrology is, in fact, a powerful and profound form of magic.
An astrologer should not only be seen as a scholar of celestial bodies, nor should they be seen as a shallow and mystifying prophet.
A true astrologer should possess powers that can rival all mages!
Since mages can summon the power of the wind, harness rain, storms, flames, and all the forces of nature, why can't astrologers harness the power of the stars?
Furthermore, we astrologers can go even further! Because I have discovered a power that mages cannot, and may never, master... and that is... the Law!"