CHAPTER 659: CHAPTER 656 GEMSTONE

"Grady?"

"Hello—!"

This sudden event clearly exceeded everyone’s expectations.

Watching a living person vanish right before their eyes, even Ronald stopped his translation work, as several people immediately gathered around the spot where Grady had disappeared.

"..."

The air of curiosity that had filled the room during the translation was instantly replaced by a heavy, oppressive silence.

The reason was simple—

The truth of what had happened to Grady became evident before their eyes.

Firstly, there was a huge pit underneath the ice here. And over the surface of this pit, there was a layer of thin ice with poor transparency but not particularly sturdy.

Once someone with excess weight, or a heavy item, stepped on it, the layer would instantly shatter like glass, and they would plummet below.

As for Grady...

His weight was indeed sufficient to break through the ice.

And such an obvious trap naturally left no chance for Grady to survive.

After falling through into the pit, his body was immediately impaled by the sharp ice spikes below. His blood didn’t flow far along the cold ice surface before it quickly froze along with the ice blocks at the bottom of this horrifying hole.

"..."

"Grady..."

Watching another companion die right in front of her, Ai Wei ’plopped’ down to the ground, her eyes becoming vacant.

For this team doctor,

Witnessing so many companions’ deaths in just an hour, without being able to see any hope, this feeling of helplessness had left her unable to continue.

"Tsk—"

Airen’s expression was also atrocious, his eyes showing a bit of unwillingness.

He lay on the ground at the edge of the ice pit, took off the flashlight mounted on his helmet, and tried to illuminate around Grady’s body.

"..."

Such acts couldn’t reverse the cold reality.

Grady, who had already died from the trap, had no chance of survival, and even retrieving his body was impossible.

"I really am... hmm?"

Airen was about to curse out loud, driven by his emotions.

But as he was retracting his flashlight, the bright light from the flashlight hit the ice wall of the pit, and something fleeting seemed to shimmer across the blue shadow cast on the ice!

In the midst of this grim situation, they couldn’t afford to give up any hope.

Seeing something that looked like it existed within the ice wall, Airen immediately adjusted the angle of the flashlight’s beam, casting light from different positions.

Then, an astonishing discovery appeared before their eyes.

Embedded in the ice wall Airen was illuminating, there was a beautifully shaped gemstone!

Even deeply encased in ice, it still radiated a strange glow. It was this very glow that allowed Airen to spot its location when he shone the flashlight.

"This..."

"Yang, Yanni, can you two come take a look?"

New confusion arose before them.

Without much hesitation, Airen immediately turned to the two professionals beside him:

"What is this, can you recognize it?"

"..."

It was all too recognizable!

When Ronald saw the gemstone, his gaze quickly shifted to the mural he had been translating before.

The story recorded in the mural—

The gemstone brought back by the Prophet from the ice lake—

Isn’t it exactly the same in shape as the one frozen in the ice wall right before our eyes?

Such a high degree of similarity naturally didn’t escape the notice of the others, and once everyone realized this, the already small team of four underwent yet another change in atmosphere.

Humans are such miraculous beings.

They’re clearly facing danger.

But if something of immense value appears before them, they still choose to selectively forget the dangers they face.

The team fell silent for several seconds.

It was then that Airen continued to tentatively speak to Ronald,

"Mr. Yang, shall we continue the translation?"

"..."

Ronald’s expression was quite hesitant.

If he thought this was a normal expedition team, he would naturally not mind continuing his work at this time.

But the private corporate nature of this team, the absolutely abnormal ice crystal creatures they had just encountered, and the undoubtedly dangerous ancient trial itself.

All of this made Ronald extremely cautious.

Should he really continue translating?

"Yang, let’s continue translating. We’ve got nothing left to hesitate about at this point."

Just then, it was Jani, standing behind Ronald, who actively offered her opinion.

"Alright..."

Ronald nodded slightly.

The remaining four-person team could really be described as being in dire straits.

In the current situation, breaking the jar and letting it shatter, trying to seek out possibilities, was also a choice.

Ronald continued to look back at the mural on the wall.

However, the content in the fourth painting on the ice wall was startling.

A person holding a gemstone stood on a high platform, surrounded by several people tied to ice pillars, and the environment around him resembled a sacrificial altar.

Ronald, from years of work habit, translated the text above:

"The lives of four despicable thieves, offered by the king to the goddess. The subsequent gemstone bestowed upon him a healthier body and..."

Ronald’s translation came to an abrupt halt.

He suddenly looked up across the way and immediately noticed a huge change in Airen’s expression.

The mercenary, who had been pondering how to protect the team, decisively took several steps back upon hearing the translation. Facing the direction of the ice pit, he sprinted and leaped with all his might, jumping to the opposite side of the sunken ice pit.

Taking the experience of Grady’s dreadful death as a lesson,

Airen cautiously shone his flashlight on the ice beneath his feet, making sure of the exact situation below, before aiming and kicking it.

Crack—

Another thin sheet of ice shattered.

Airen indeed did not fall into a trap like Grady.

Below the ice he stepped on was actually a hidden staircase leading downward, and the mercenary stepped on this staircase to reach below, then took out a ring-shaped gemstone from a sculpture shaped like a palm, hidden within an ice block.

"A healthier body. The immortality promised by the goddess..."

While muttering to himself, Airen was making calculations in his heart.

He followed the ladder back up, and before even reemerging, he took the initiative to shout loudly,

"Everyone, if we can successfully bring this thing back, all the losses from this expedition will be recovered. The people at the company will surely understand its value, I..."

At this moment, Airen’s gaze passed through the ice layer.

The look on his face turned ice-cold in an instant, and the shout in his mouth faded away.

Just a few minutes had passed.

The situation above the ice layer had completely changed from when he descended.

Ronald and Jani had both disappeared, not even a shadow was left. Only Ai Wei was still slumped there, her face a blank expression of utter immobility.