Reincarnation Paradise Park-Chapter 826 - 57: Preparations

’Palace of the Dusk Dynasty’ seventh floor.

On the golden throne, the former king sits solemnly, though now a skeleton, his majesty remains.

Bubu Wang circled around the throne a few times. Finding nothing unusual, his courage grew.

Looking at the throne made of pure gold, Bubu Wang’s tail wagged as if he was thinking of some mischief. He walked to the side of the throne and lifted a hind leg.

Hiss~

A stream of liquid sprayed onto the throne. Yes, this rascal Bubu Wang was taking revenge on the skeletal remains.

Just as Bubu Wang was enjoying relieving himself, a current suddenly surged from below the throne.

Buzz, buzz, buzz...

Bubu Wang began to twitch.

"Awooo!"

Bubu Wang howled in pain, tucked his tail between his legs, and hobbled awkwardly to the lower floor, his hind legs trembling.

Su Xiao leapt down from the top of the palace, jumping into the seventh floor through the window.

"Bubu?"

Due to the suppression of some unknown energy, Su Xiao couldn’t pinpoint Bubu Wang’s location.

Bubu Wang was peeking from the stairway, his hind legs still shaking.

"What happened just now?"

Upon hearing Su Xiao’s question, Bubu Wang looked skyward with an expression that said, "Nothing at all."

"What’s this weird smell?"

Su Xiao sniffed around, as a faint acrid odor spread through the seventh floor. At the stairway, Bubu Wang gazed outside, as if saying, "The weather’s nice today."

Su Xiao examined his surroundings but found nothing unusual.

Currently, Su Xiao was the only one in the ’Palace of the Dusk Dynasty.’ The Contractors from Reincarnation Paradise would arrive in about 10-20 hours. As for the Contractors from Apocalypse Paradise, they might be slower, or even if they arrived early at the ’Alterac’ Relics, they couldn’t enter. That’s the price of not obtaining the World Core.

Su Xiao started wandering inside the ’Dusk Palace,’ intending to memorize its layout completely.

If a battle broke out in the ancient ruins, the main battlefield would be the ’Dusk Palace’ and the surrounding District 2.

The internal structure of the ’Dusk Palace’ is complex, accommodating hundreds of Contractors for a melee if needed. District 2, on the other hand, has an even more complicated terrain, forming a natural labyrinth with numerous ruins and collapsed stone buildings.

The Reincarnation Paradise side is the defending side, tasked with guarding the World Core, while the Apocalypse Paradise side is the attacking side, aiming to seize the World Source.

...

Three hours later, Su Xiao sketched a draft map of the interior of the ’Dusk Palace.’

From the first to the third floor, there are many rooms, interconnected by multiple doors, making it a potential challenge to navigate them unscathed.

The fourth to the sixth floors contain numerous corridors and passageways, far more complex than the first three floors.

If the Contractors from Apocalypse Paradise manage to break into the ’Dusk Palace,’ Su Xiao planned to block them from accessing the seventh floor.

There are two routes to the seventh floor in the ’Dusk Palace’: one is the central spiral stone staircase, and the other is the stairways connecting each floor.

Looking at the situation now, it seems easier for the Contractors from Apocalypse Paradise to reach the seventh floor, whether by climbing the spiral staircase in the palace’s center or scaling the palace’s outer walls. As for taking the stairways between floors, it’s the hardest route since each stairway is positioned differently.

Su Xiao opened the simulated map of the ancient ruins, enlarging the central ’Dusk Palace.’

"Supreme Hall, Hiding Room, Central Control Mechanism Room?"

Su Xiao noticed a seemingly insignificant room on the sixth floor, which was the Central Control Mechanism Room. Following the map’s guidance, he quickly headed towards it.

Before long, after feeling quite dizzy from navigating the palace, he reached the Central Control Mechanism Room.

Entering the Central Control Mechanism Room, which was about a dozen square meters, Su Xiao saw an old-fashioned control panel with dozens of metal levers. Ancient script was inscribed below each lever.

Using the temporary skill Universal Language Level 40, Su Xiao could read these inscriptions, which included terms like: Mechanism Defense, Holy Temple Descent, Passage Blocking, Bridge Raising, and many other functions.

Su Xiao rubbed his chin and tried pulling the metal lever labeled ’Mechanism Defense.’

Clack.

The lever was pulled down, yet nothing happened. The palace is too ancient, its lethal mechanisms long corroded by time.

Avoiding the ’Holy Temple Descent’ lever, Su Xiao tried activating defensible mechanisms. When he pulled down the lever labeled ’Passage Blocking,’ the entire palace shook.

Rumble, rumble.

The stone floor started to tremble, and Su Xiao rushed out of the Central Control Mechanism Room. As he headed to inspect the seventh floor, a stone wall suddenly blocked his path. He was sure this stone wall didn’t previously exist.

Su Xiao began to explore the changes in the Dusk Palace. After about an hour of observation, a smile appeared on his face.

By activating the ’Passage Blocking’ mechanism, both the palace windows and the central spiral stone staircase were sealed with layers of stone slabs. Now, to reach the seventh floor from the first, the only accessible path was through the stairways between floors.

Now, if the Contractors from Apocalypse Paradise want to reach the seventh floor, they have to fight their way up floor by floor, with no shortcuts, unless someone can penetrate walls.

As for forcing their way in, don’t be ridiculous. Even using Apollo wouldn’t necessarily cut it. Even detonating a nuclear bomb inside the Dusk Palace would merely break through a few walls; forcibly breaking in is nearly impossible.

Su Xiao returned to the Central Control Mechanism Room and attempted to destroy the control panel. However, the console was extremely difficult to damage. Despite delivering a powerful slash, he merely knocked off some debris, as the unknown energy’s protection made it extremely hard to destroy anything there.

Su Xiao wasn’t entirely without options; by activating Blue Steel Shadow while slashing, the unknown energy in the palace would swiftly be depleted, as Blue Steel Shadow is an energy assassin.

However, doing so would be more harmful than beneficial. As the defending side, the more fortified the Dusk Palace, the more advantageous it is for the Reincarnation Paradise side. If Su Xiao consumed too much of the unknown energy, the palace’s solidity would decrease.

Although destroying the control panel was impractical, Su Xiao had other ideas. He first gathered a large amount of fine sand outside the palace, mixing it with several kinds of alchemy reagents, then poured this blend into the crevices around the metal levers.

After pouring nearly half a ton of sand into the console, Su Xiao waited half an hour for the alchemy reagents mixed in with the sand to react.

Once thirty minutes passed, the originally loose sand solidified. Su Xiao then attempted to move the metal levers.

Clunk, clunk...

A harsh grinding sound echoed, veins bulging on Su Xiao’s arm as the levers remained immovable, as if welded in place.

After completing all this, Su Xiao found some time to relax. Gathering several steel wires, a few pounds of iron balls, and three alchemy bombs, he made additional preparations.

Twenty minutes later, Su Xiao carefully exited the Central Control Mechanism Room, which appeared innocuous but was, in fact, a deadly trap. Anyone daring to enter would barely escape with half a life.

Having arranged everything, Su Xiao chose a room to wait. Surprisingly, Bubu Wang seemed much more behaved, no longer wandering ancient ruins but instead lying beside Su Xiao, sleeping. Su Xiao found it puzzling that Bubu Wang kept his hind legs tightly closed, as if he had a nightmare, occasionally emitting whimpering sounds from his throat.