Tashia followed Xiao Chen's instructions and chose the stone path to the west. Xiao Chen followed their direction. Now one of them was on the ground and the other three were underground. However, Tashia and the others only had to move forward along the stone path, but Xiao Chen had to climb over various obstacles, some of which were houses, some were gardens, and sometimes he had to bypass enemy sentries and even large camps. Xiao Chen always maintained his invisibility and used the flying technique to keep the distance between him and Tashia and the others within a range where they could communicate clearly.
"Wait a minute! We've come across a door here!" said Tasya.
"Door? Is it blocking the stone road?" Xiao Chen asked.
In front of Tasya and the others was a square stone door, which completely blocked the stone path ahead. The door rose from the bottom, and one could see that there were gaps half a finger wide on the ceiling and on both sides, allowing the magic lines that made up the magic circle to pass through, but people could not move forward.
"Let me try the crystal stone I just used." Tashia took out the crystal stone that opened the door before and placed it on the stone door. However, the magic circle on the door flickered for a moment and then dimmed again. "That crystal stone can't open this door."
"This is not surprising. This should be a blocking door to prevent the enemy from running to important places through these magic channels. The stone you stole may just be the key to certain areas. Marquis Baldini should have sent the keys to different areas to the people in charge of the corresponding locations." Xiao Chen said.
"What should we do? Do we need to take a detour? We encountered several forks in the road before, but we kept running west and didn't explore those roads." said Tasya.
"I guess those passages will also have such partitions. I even suspect that this may be the defense of the node. Maybe behind the door is the node we are looking for." Xiao Chen raised his head and looked around carefully. He found that he was not far from the city wall. He walked around a house in front of him and saw a faint light column about 100 meters ahead leading to the sky and shooting directly at the shield in the air. The light column and the shield are connected together, as if it is a pillar supporting the dome of the shield. The color of this light column is very light, and its color is consistent with the shield in the air. If it were not for the darkening sky and Xiao Chen running closer, he would not notice it at all. And the light column seems to be behind a few houses in front.
Xiao Chen said, "I seem to have found a suspected node on the ground. This place is not far from the edge of the city. There is a beam of light connecting the shield from the ground. Maybe under this beam of light is the place you are looking for. By the way, isn't Elaina good at negative energy magic? I remember there is a corrosion spell that has an effect similar to turning fossils into mud. Can it be used on that door?"
Elaina knocked on the door and heard a dull sound. The door didn't seem very thick, so she said, "Let me try."
Elaina's hands danced in the air, and then a dark purple ball of light appeared in her hands. She pressed the ball of light against the door, and the stone made a hissing sound when it encountered the ball of light, as if some internal structure of it was breaking. But a few seconds later, a thin layer of light yellow light curtain suddenly lit up on the door, and the light curtain forcibly pushed out the negative energy released by Elaina, leaving only a one-centimeter-deep dent on the stone door, and then Elaina's magic could no longer hurt the stone door.
"A light yellow energy shield? It can't touch the stone gate behind the shield?" Xiao Chen said after listening to Elena's report, "I suspect this is the same thing as the city's protective shield outside. Once someone damages the stone gate, the shield will be activated to protect it."
"We have tried several spells, but none of them can break this shield. Only dispel magic has some effect, but it can only slightly weaken the shield when the magic is released. I can't cast dispel magic continuously." said Tasya.
Xiao Chen said: "Let Xiaobai give it a try!"
Xiaobai understood what Xiao Chen meant. It flew to the stone gate and flew along it from top to bottom, as if feeling the distribution of magic energy. Finally, it chose to fly to the bottom of the stone gate, coiled itself into a circle, and stuck to the shield.
Tashia and Elena both felt a magical fluctuation. Xiaobai's small body was like a black hole. It not only absorbed the magic power of the shield all over the door, but also cut off the magic power replenished from the ground.
Xiaobai shouted at Elena, meaning to hurry up!
Elaina continued to cast the corrosion magic. It took her about a minute to corrode a fist-sized hole. After cleaning the dust in the small hole, she looked into the hole and saw a short passage behind it. At the end of the passage was a room with a large magic circle on the ground. Perhaps because of the protection of the stone door, there were no people in the room behind the stone door. She said, "I think we found the place."
Elaina continued to use corrosion magic to make holes in the door, and connected the holes to form a circle. However, when she had made four or five holes, Xiaobai flew up from underneath. As soon as it left, the stone door's shield returned and wrapped the entire door again, so Elaina had to stop.
At this time, Xiaobai was like a drunkard, flying unsteadily. It twisted in the air for a while, then burped, and a golden magic crystal popped out of its mouth. Tashia picked up the magic crystal from the ground and found that it was a top-grade magic crystal with very good appearance. After inputting mental power into it, a light golden shield actually opened in front of her, which was exactly the same as the shield on the door at this time.
"Oh my God! Xiaobai actually has this ability to turn the absorbed energy into magic crystals!" said Tasya.
"Master Kona told me that this is Xiaobai's way of dealing with overflowing energy after absorbing it." Xiao Chen said.
"Then isn't it just a magic crystal manufacturing machine?" said Tashia.
"Don't you notice that Xiaobai looks very tired? This must be a very tiring task for him." Elena said.
Xiaobai nodded, and it was obvious that his spirit was not just right. However, after spitting out the magic crystal, he was able to absorb magic power again. He consciously coiled up again and stuck to the door.
Elana and Xiaobai worked together for about half an hour and finally cut a circle with a diameter of less than one meter in the middle of the stone door. Elana and Tasia worked together to push the fallen stone slab in the middle to the ground, and an entrance large enough for people to pass through appeared in front of them.
But just as they were about to get in, a voice came from behind them: "You, who are you!"