The piercing wind pulled Chen Ke back to reality; whatever the stone gate concealed, if Si's consortium had gone there in person, it must have held value.
Furthermore, Brother Discouraged had said that in order to access the next area, they must "repeat the cycle" to open the gate. Could the team from the consortium be searching for a crucial item needed to repeat this cycle?
Standing here musing was useless, so he turned back, retracing his steps along the stone corridor to the hall, and headed down another staircase they hadn't taken before.
This staircase led down to an even larger hall.
This hall, likely built into the deeper part of the mountain, was much more spacious than the one above, extending into the mountain with a long corridor ending in a vast door.
There were no other paths from the hall; it seemed the only way to get to lower levels of the cathedral was through the door in the central hall, blocked by an air wall.
