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"It’s just an illusion. It won't break, don’t worry," Wen Qiao reassured him.

It took some time before they finally left the corridor.

As they left, the stone pillars in the corridor returned to normal, lining both sides of the passage, no longer posing a threat.

The group looked back at the stone pillars and suddenly realized the significance of Shi Wuming's earlier words.

Pei Qiyu said, "It seems that here, we should avoid saying those two words."

"Which two? You mean qilin—" Just as Shi Wuming was about to finish the word, the nearest pillar began to stir, so he quickly swallowed the last word.

Sure enough, it was related to the qilin, and merely mentioning the word "qilin" seemed to trigger an attack.

After understanding this, everyone felt a sinking feeling and began to speculate about the place.

At the end of the corridor was a towering palace gate.

As usual, there was an array on the gate. Ning Yuzhou spent another hour deciphering the array, and the group pushed the gate open to enter.

They saw tall humanoid statues.

They stood like loyal guards, dressed in armor, holding weapons, with solemn expressions, standing along the sides of the vast palace, leaving only a long passage for passage.

Though they were lifeless stone statues, they somehow gave the illusion that they might suddenly spring to life and attack.

The group walked past silently, observing their surroundings as they went.

The palace was also very large, with nearly a hundred thousand life-size stone statues neatly arranged.

Ning Yuzhou's gaze fell on the armor of the statues, and he sharply observed something peculiar about it. "It seems this place is indeed the underground palace of Red Sun Villa," he said.

"Hmm?" Everyone looked at him, puzzled as to how he had come to this conclusion.

Although they had some suspicions, until now, they hadn’t found concrete evidence.

Ning Yuzhou pointed to the nearest statue and said, "Look at the inside of their armor. Isn’t there a Red Sun Villa symbol?"

The group gathered around and checked the inner parts of the arms and waist, and indeed they found a subtle mark.

The symbol of Red Sun Villa was a sun trailing streams of fire, which they had discovered earlier while exploring Red Sun Villa. The pattern appeared throughout the villa's buildings and was likely the villa's emblem for the outside world.

This also proved that this place was indeed related to Red Sun Villa. Considering the path they had taken to enter, it was likely that this was the underground palace of Red Sun Villa.

The Red Sun Villa above ground was merely a facade, while this was the true core of Red Sun Villa.

Perhaps before Red Sun Villa sealed its gates years ago, the owner of Red Sun Villa had hidden the most important things here, with the exterior serving only to deceive the world.

At this point, Ning Yuzhou added, "There is indeed a vast array here. With this array in place, no matter what happens outside, Red Sun Villa will not be destroyed."

The restoration array at Red Sun Villa was also managed from here.

The group couldn’t help but murmur in amazement.

Many had suspected that something was off about Red Sun Villa, and both Zuo Yizhai and Wei Qianli had come for this reason, but they were the first to actually find this place.

Feeling a surge of ambition, Shi Wuming said, "It's clear that we are destined to be here! Before others discover this place, let’s quickly explore and uncover the secrets hidden here."

With great enthusiasm, Shi Wuming began to investigate every corner, determined to unearth the secrets Red Sun Villa had kept hidden.

Compared to his enthusiasm, Wen Qiao and the other three remained far more calm and composed.

Su Molan took a step closer to Wen Qiao and whispered, "Miss Wen, Suxing said it sensed the aura of a divine weapon."

Wen Qiao’s heart raced, her voice tinged with surprise. "Really? Where is it?"

"Suxing said it's still quite far from here, and it appears something is guarding the location of the divine weapon, obscuring its presence and making it unable to pinpoint the exact position," Su Molan relayed.

Something is guarding it?

Wen Qiao frowned. Could it be the entity guarding this underground palace?

After a moment's thought, Wen Qiao relayed this information to Ning Yuzhou.

Ning Yuzhou paused for a moment before saying, "It's alright, let's go take a look together."

The group passed through the palace, which was lined with humanoid stone statues.

Afterward, they traversed several more palaces and corridors.

Every door and the end of every corridor were equipped with formations, and there were quite a few statues and images of the qilin, as if the qilin dominated the place.

Shi Wuming stroked his chin, "It's really strange. Could it be that the Red Sun Villa is worshipping a divine beast? Even if they worship a divine beast, did they have to fill this place with its statues and images? Or was this place originally ruled by that thing, making the Red Sun Villa its territory?"

Since they couldn't directly refer to the "qilin," they used "divine beast" or "that thing" to describe it.

This guess had some basis, but there was still no concrete evidence.

After pushing open another door, they were stunned by the environment behind it.

Beyond the large turntable at the entrance was a maze. On each path, a qilin statue sat, as if supervising all who entered the maze.

"A little eerie," Pei Qiyu muttered under his breath, "Do we really need to go?"

Shi Wuming said, "Why not? We've come this far, and this is the only path left."

Since entering the underground palace, they had followed only one path. There were no other options.

Ning Yuzhou said, "Let's go and check out the maze."

They walked up to the large turntable. On the turntable crouched a massive statue of a qilin, majestically sitting there, looking down on the cultivators below. Perhaps because it was a divine beast, everyone felt smaller standing before it.