Chapter 146: The Breach in the Emperor's Tomb, Three Unique Gates!

Beside the Tomb of the Human Emperor.

Yi Shen walked effortlessly up to the fractured opening.

Though called a fracture, the only visible features were three peculiar grand gates.

The gates were colored red, blue, and black respectively. Embedded within the soil, they appeared to originate from a distant, ancient era. Strange symbols and characters were carved upon the surfaces of the gates, though their meanings remained incomprehensible.

It was not until Yi Shen attempted to step closer that he felt a certain pressure.

Yet this pressure did not stem from the surrounding aura.

Rather, it came from a special force field enveloping the entire Tomb of the Human Emperor. As Yi Shen tried to advance further, this force field grew increasingly repellent. At a certain fraction of a second, Yi Shen felt the collective pressure of the entire Tomb of the Human Emperor converge directly upon him. He swiftly withdrew, thereby avoiding any backlash from the tomb.

"A self-protection mechanism? Or is the time simply not right?"

Yi Shen muttered thoughtfully, abandoning any attempt at forced intervention.

Although the aura of the Tomb of the Human Emperor was not overwhelmingly fierce, if all its concentrated might were unleashed, it would still pose a measurable hazard to him.

Now that Yi Shen had identified the energy critical time threshold of the tomb, there was no need to take unnecessary risks.

He promptly retreated and returned to the side of Shen Shimao.

"How was it?"

Shen Shimao asked, still harboring profound astonishment in his heart. He had not anticipated the Black Mage's power to be so immense, moving back and forth without the slightest sense of strain.

One had to realize that anyone else venturing inside would require a lengthy period of recovery afterward, having been contaminated by the lingering malevolent auras.

Not only did the Black Mage suffer zero side effects, but he actually appeared somewhat more vigorous than before.

Naturally, Shen Shimao kept his expression neutral. Possessing his own pride and strength, he refused to show any cowardice before Yi Shen, while also hoping to glean more intelligence from him.

"The Tomb of the Human Emperor appears to be connected to those mythological beasts of mountains and seas; the aura within bears a striking resemblance to the primordial essence of the Xuan Gui."

"However, this region possesses a consciousness of its own. We will likely have to wait a few days to see if the mystic realm opens." Yi Shen stated.

"Mm." Shen Shimao nodded. In truth, he had harbored the exact same judgment all along, yet he still asked with lingering curiosity, "Did you encounter anything unusual down there? Within that breach?"

"There are three gates, but they cannot be approached. They should be secondary entrances," Yi Shen replied without holding back any information.

The main hall entrance of this Tomb of the Human Emperor had already been discovered, and that specific zone held the highest concentration of stationed explorers.

Their current area of exploration was merely one of several specialized sectors.

Once the tomb officially opened, the vast majority of people would undoubtedly head straight for the main hall.

Yi Shen needed to conduct further reconnaissance on the other sectors to formulate a more accurate assessment.

Shortly thereafter, accompanied by Shen Shimao, Yi Shen inspected several other breaches.

Much like the first opening, virtually every damaged location emitted crimson wisps of aura, which Yi Shen absorbed.

Yet, upon approaching deeper levels, Yi Shen once again felt the will of the Tomb of the Human Emperor lock onto him, preventing any forcible intrusion.

To call it a will might be inaccurate; it was more precisely the "rules" governing this unique mystic realm.

The only lingering doubt in Yi Shen's mind was whether these rules applied inherently to the tomb itself or if this region had been influenced by the digitization of the world.

Beyond that, Yi Shen formed a new hypothesis regarding the trio of gates he had seen earlier.

For among the six minor breaches discovered so far, four of them featured these exact three grand gates, uniformly arranged in the precise sequence of dark red, dark blue, and black.

Initially, Yi Shen had dismissed this as a mere coincidence, but now it appeared these three colored portals held distinct significance within the Tomb of the Human Emperor.

As for anything else, no further remarkable intelligence was uncovered.

Upon drawing close to the Tomb of the Human Emperor, the Mountain and Sea bloodline within Yi Shen grew significantly more active and experienced a measure of enhancement. In truth, he already harbored a faint hypothesis, but because Shen Shimao was still lingering nearby, he temporarily set aside his experiments and explorations.

After all, although both he and Shen Shimao belonged to the Special Investigation Bureau, their relationship was merely that of casual acquaintances. Some matters were best handled when he was completely alone.

Unnoticeably, night had fallen once again.

Yi Shen had originally planned to visit his final target destination, the Rune Land, but ultimately decided to remain near the Tomb of the Human Emperor for the time being.

Part of this was due to Shen Shimao's warm and persistent invitation; another reason was that the bulk of documented data concerning the tomb was preferentially held by the guilds that had already arrived on-site.

Under the current directives of the Special Investigation Bureau, the Tomb of the Human Emperor was treated merely as a special mystic realm, without yet being elevated to a status linked directly to the beasts of mountains and seas. After all, those beasts were tied to too many variables and manifested across all directions, making it difficult to definitively claim a direct connection between this modest tomb and them.

Shen Shimao led Yi Shen to the temporary command post here, which had already been placed under official jurisdiction.

Unlike the security zone of Jingmen back then, the further north one traveled, the tighter the official grip on various safety zones became—especially given the government's deliberate intent in recent years to consolidate control over major security zones.

Consequently, large-scale mystic realms whose locations had been verified were frequently developed under official leadership, with the Special Investigation Bureau serving as one of the principal operating departments.

The situation in the Jingmen security zone had been quite exceptional, and initially, no one anticipated the crisis to escalate to such severity. By the time reinforcements were dispatched, the vast majority of the crisis had already been resolved single-handedly by Yi Shen, which explained why the outside world reacted with such shock toward the Black Mage.

The command post here had been established for over a month, practically since the initial discovery of the tomb when government personnel first moved in.

Shen Shimao escorted Yi Shen inward, greeting various guild members along the way. Familiar faces were introduced by Shen Shimao, while others, recognizing the identity of the Black Mage, proactively stepped forward to offer greetings.

Yi Shen was additionally presented with a special access token, officially acknowledging his status as an authorized official. This was the primary reason why Yi Shen could not simply walk away on a whim.

The peak energy period of the Tomb of the Human Emperor was expected within the next few days, with occasional eruptions of even denser crimson aura. Everyone was frantically gathering intelligence to secure priority advantages the moment the mystic realm opened.

However, the moment Yi Shen stepped into the core command area, his brow furrowed instantly.

While outside, he had not perceived it very clearly, but upon entering the main command room, he instantly detected an intensely acute aura of the kindred!