Mercenaries and Adventurers

Zhao Ji finished preparations and picked up the last bird that had been kept in the cage. For the past few days, he has been feeding and watering the bird, and the bird has no resistance at all. Zhao Ji will eat whatever he offers, and will not refuse anyone who comes.

It made Zhao Ji want to keep a bird as a pet for a long time.

But the matter of pets will be left behind for a while, and this bird is still needed for exploring the ruins.

After climbing up and down the rope to the bottom of the tree hole, Zhao Ji checked his equipment again.

Weapons, no problem.

Various tools, no problem.

Supplies, no problem.

Explore supplies, no problem.

Armor, no problem.

very good. Bring everything with you. Zhao Ji began to climb the wooden ladder carefully.

Thump, thump, kick, kick.

Because the equipment on his body was very heavy, and the wooden ladder Zhao Ji made was too simple, he could only climb up the wooden ladder carefully step by step.

When he climbed to the top of the wooden ladder, Zhao Ji's hands were just able to hold the solid stones on the edge of the hole in the ruins. The stones at the edge of the cave are all made of dark black hard rocks, and Zhao Ji is not worried that they will become loose and brittle over time.

After Zhao Ji grasped the edge of the hole with both hands, the weight of the whole body was mainly borne by the palms. Using both arms, he put his elbows on the edge of the hole first, and then put his arms on the edge of the hole, putting his head and the upper part of his chest on the edge of the hole.

Both feet kept pedaling on the stone wall below the entrance of the cave, and soon, Zhao Ji rolled over.

up.

As soon as he came up, Zhao Ji quickly got up from the posture lying on the ground, and drew out his long sword to guard against possible danger.

After waiting for a while, nothing came out of the deep and dark cave to attack Zhao Ji, so he relaxed his vigilance a little.

With the long sword at his feet, Zhao Ji took out a small bucket of lamp oil from his backpack, filled a wooden bowl with lamp oil, took out a string and dipped it in the lamp oil, and lit the lamp.

Lamp oil is not cheap, Zhao Ji did not dare to ask the village for more, and the village only prepared a small barrel of lamp oil for him. It is estimated that it is the materials used by the elders themselves. Only in this way can we directly take out so many small buckets. After all, the vast majority of people in ordinary villages are illiterate, and there is no need to use lighting at night. These things are not sold in grocery stores, and most of them belong to the elderly.

The exploration of the ruins needs to be done steadily. Zhao Ji first built the forward camp at the entrance of the ruins.

The hole is a regular hexagonal passage, the bottom is made of dark large stones, and the walls are made of gray stone bricks inside, and the outside is a luxurious wall covered in silver. There are traces of someone prying the silver on many walls at the edge of the hole, but the man was not strong enough to barely lift some of the silver off the edge, leaving many metal scratches.

Zhao Ji guessed that these relatively fresh traces should have been left by the clue provider many years ago, and the young girl probably could only get so much marginal silver.

Zhao Ji found a fixed place on the wall of the cave entrance that should be used for lighting tools. He put the oil lamp here, and the fairly bright light was reflected by the silver wall, shining brilliantly on the long passage at one end.

Zhao Ji looked into the passage and found a stone gate not far from the passage, about fifteen meters away.

Not busy exploring the gate, Zhao Ji put the supplies and some exploration materials on the edge of the cave, and then explored forward after reducing the burden on the backpack.

The 15-meter-long passage is covered with silver-covered walls on the left, right and above the head. Zhao Ji sighed how luxurious the elves in ancient times were. The passages for people to leave are all paved with precious metals.

I touched the wall vigorously with my hand, and the armor's leather glove wiped off a layer of dust stained on the silver wall. Bright reflections were reflected from the silver wall. Zhao Ji carefully looked at the wiped wall and found that the silver wall was very flat and smooth. Ten thousand years of time have only lightly covered a thin layer of dust on its surface, other than that, there are no traces left.

Zhao Ji lamented the craftsmanship of the elves' building walls, and ten thousand years can't damage it. Except for the huge trees outside dying of old age, there is no impact here.

A lighting spot protrudes on the side wall every five meters of the passage, but Zhao Ji did not prepare so many lamp oils and wooden bowls. In order to maximize the lighting, he moved the oil lamp at the entrance of the cave to a wall lighting spot in the middle of the passage. In this way, the entire passage can be barely illuminated.

Lighting a torch and holding a long sword in his left hand, Zhao Ji came to the huge stone gate at the end of the passage.

He knocked **** the stone door with the hilt of his sword, and there was only a dull echo. Zhao Ji could tell from the dull echo that the stone door was quite thick, and it was not something he could easily destroy.

There is a gap in the middle of the stone gate, and Zhao Ji judges that it is a double door.

On the upper part of the stone gate, there is a simple and solemn engraving of a long paragraph of words that may be in Elvish script. Zhao Ji did not know Elven script, so he had to take out a small book from his backpack, with a torch under his arm, and carefully and accurately put the text on it with a charcoal pen. The elven text was copied accordingly.

In the middle of the stone gate are several elf figures with erect ears, both men and women, who are gathering together to chat and chat. The elves on the stone carvings all look happy, and one of the elves in women's clothing is the happiest, as can be seen from the crooked eyes of hers.

The craftsman who sculpted this stone sculpture must be a master stonemason, who preserved the clothing, movements and expressions of each elf on this stone gate forever.

In the stone sculpture, the background of the elves' conversation is several huge trees. From the positions of those trees, Zhao Ji judged that they should be the four stumps outside the ruins.

Looking at it this way, the stone sculpture carved on the stone gate may be an event that happened outside thousands of years ago.

But why is it just a simple conversation carved on the stone gate of the only passage in the ruins? Unless these elves seem to be talking happily is a very important thing, or there is any elf with a different status among the elves on the stone carvings.

Thinking of this, Zhao Ji brought the torch closer and carefully observed the positions and costumes of the elves on the stone carvings. Sure enough, as expected by Zhao Ji, among the four elves on the stone carving, the three elves, men and women, all smiled happily facing the other elf man, and unlike the three elves on the left who smiled happily, the one on the right Although the elf is also smiling, but his expression is just a smile, he can see the smile, but he is very restrained.

At the same time, Zhao Ji also saw a slight difference in the clothes of the four elves, because they were colorless stone carvings, so Zhao Ji could only judge by their clothes. The clothes of the three elves and men on the left are all robes, but the sleeves of the robes are all tight sleeves, with a hood behind the collar, and the hem of the robes only reaches the calf, and it can be seen that they are wearing different shoes on their feet.

The elf on the right is also a robe, but without a hood, and the sleeves are also wide sleeves. The hem of the robe directly reaches the footsteps, covering most of the shoes. Zhao Ji could only see that the elf was wearing a pair of thin-soled shoes with curled toes.

The elf's status should be different from the other three.

The elves on the stone carvings are all smiling, they must have done something here, so what happened at that time was carefully carved on the door.

Does what they do happily have anything to do with the ruins behind the stone gate?

This Zhao Ji can't make a judgment. The current clues are still very small, and he can only confirm the situation after he explores the Shimen.

There are some decorative patterns on the lower part of the stone gate. Zhao Ji looked carefully and found nothing special.

Now, it depends on how he opens the stone gate.

---

Zhao Ji put the torch on the lighting position closest to the stone gate, came to the stone gate, stretched out his hands to support the stone gate, and stepped firmly on the ground with his thick leather boots.

He took a deep breath for a while, accumulated enough strength for his body, and then slowly exerted force with his arms, pushing!

No effect.

Shimen didn't even make a sound, facing Zhao Ji's forceful push, he didn't move at all.

Taking a deep breath, Zhao Ji not only exerted strength with his arms this time, but his legs also began to exert strength after standing firmly.

push!

Push hard!

Zhao Ji smiled, but had no reaction at all.

He doesn't believe in evil, this time, his whole body trembled, and he moved for a while to relax his muscles.

Then, mustering all the strength of the whole body, like a strong plowing ox, he roared and pushed against the stone gate.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"

Zhao Ji continued to push the stone gate, big beads of sweat dripped from his hair, and some beads of sweat slid down his cheeks all the way to his chin, and then dripped and shattered on the dark hard stone ground. His feet rubbed forcefully against the ground behind him due to exertion, and the thick leather boots rubbed against the hard and rough rocky ground, making a sound.

"Haw Chi, Ho Chi." After Zhao Ji exhausted all his strength, he finally sat down on the ground, and he gave up. This stone gate is not something he can push open.

Panting for a while, Zhao Ji even wondered whether this stone gate needs inhuman knight-level strength like Knight Crowe to open the gate. The more Zhao Ji thought about it, the more he felt that there was such a possibility. The ancient elves were so powerful, maybe they all had the physical strength of a human knight now.

This possibility made Zhao Ji very disappointed. Was it difficult for this Shimen to stop him like this?

He may have knight-level power in the future, which he believes is very possible, and he may even be one of the magicians in the story. But that's all in the future, at least he doesn't have these powers at this moment.

Could it be that you can only give up? The ancient elf ruins behind this stone gate can only be opened at some point in the future?

Zhao Ji was quite reconciled, sweating a lot, returned to the entrance of the cave, took out a jug of drinking water from the supplies, and gulped down half the bottle.

Just when Zhao Ji was leaning against the silver wall with his head down and depressed, he suddenly saw the iron shovel hanging from his waist.

Inspiration flashed in my mind, yes.

Since the stone gate cannot be pushed open, why not try to use metal tools to find a way to open a small hole for people to walk through the stone gate.

Do whatever comes to mind. Zhao Ji held several metal weapons and tools in his hands, and hurried to the stone gate, picking tools and trying to break through the stone gate.

Zhao Ji originally wanted to use the strongest hunting sword, but after weighing it, let's wait and try other tools first.

Holding the shovel, Zhao Ji aimed at the lower half of the middle of the stone gate, and slammed the tip of the shovel towards the stone gate.

boom! uh buzz buzz-

A long trembling sound came from the shovel, Zhao Jixuan didn't hold the vibrating shovel.

Quickly picked up the torch next to it, Zhao Ji looked carefully at the place where it hit just now.

Where the shovel struck it left only a white scratch.

Uh uh uh.

Zhao Ji spit out some strange sound from his throat.

useless.

It is of no use at all.

After Zhao Ji slowed down for a while, he still didn't believe in evil. He didn't use other ordinary iron tools. He directly picked up the long hunting sword, held the hilt with both hands, put it in his abdomen, and pointed the tip of the sword at the middle downward part of the stone gate .

Zhao Ji, who was about to rush in and stab the sword, was stunned for a moment, and after hesitating for a while, he still didn't dare. He was afraid that if the sword with all his strength couldn't pierce through, the huge power would not be released and would accumulate on the blade. In the middle, the sword body was broken.

This is the only weapon he can handle, and if it is broken, he will have no main battle weapon.

After hesitating, he finally just held the sword in both hands and slashed diagonally from bottom to top.

Clang high and high.

There was a lot of sparks from the place where the long sword collided with the Shimen slash, and Zhao Ji also held the hilt of the sword tightly with both hands to stabilize the trajectory of the slash.

Regardless of the wear and tear of the long sword, Zhao Ji picked up the torch again and approached the stone gate.

This time only a shallow scratch remained.

Heh, Zhao Ji's hand felt weak for a while, and he almost couldn't hold the torch and fell.

The material of this stone gate is harder and tougher than pure iron. Why did the elves use such a strong material for the gate? Sure enough, using this kind of material to make the gate can prevent the latecomers who find this place from breaking in after who knows how long.

Awesome, you elves are awesome.

Zhao Ji's mind was rolling with all kinds of greetings to the elves, and at the same time, he felt that the other party could do well.

It stumped him, at least today.

Zhao Ji leaned against the stone gate weakly, and ignored the torch, letting it burn and roll aside. Holding the long sword in his right hand in front of him, after muttering that it was useless, he threw the long sword that was regarded as a treasure far away.

Kuang Tang, Kuang Tang.

The long sword made a turning point when it hit the silver wall not far away, and then fell to the rocky ground trembling. The sword body collided with the rocky ground, making a low trembling sound, like a small cry of grievance.

Zhao Ji felt powerless. He had enjoyed a lot of exploration and actions in various ruins for a while, but he never expected that he, a well-known warrior in Kendall City and a lone warrior with extraordinary courage in Doral Forest Village, would be killed by a fan from The ancient stone gate was blocked.

Zhao Ji leaned against the stone gate and curled up in a ball. After a long silence, he smashed his fist to the ground vigorously.

There were a few bangs, the ground was fine, and the fist was fine.

The leather gloves on the armor and the metal armor on the gloves helped him resist the impact and buffer ~www.readwn.com~ The fist did not feel pain, which made Zhao Ji even more uncomfortable. He hugged his head and stomped his legs vigorously. .

He stomped on the ground, the air, and the stone gate.

He rubbed against the stone door obliquely, and just as Zhao Ji was furious, there was a dull rubbing sound from the stone door behind him.

throat.

Such a strange voice is very obvious in the quiet passage.

Zhao Ji instinctively froze for a moment, he wondered if his hearing was hallucinating.

After waiting for a while, there was no other sound. Zhao Ji tried to follow the previous movement, and Zhao Ji, who was leaning against the stone gate, kicked his legs randomly in various directions.

Just as he kicked towards the ground and leaned hard against the pattern of the stone gate, a louder and clearer sound came from the stone gate behind him.

squeak.

Zhao Ji's eyes widened, he was stunned for a moment, and immediately rolled forward, his left hand grabbed the torch on the ground, and after rolling, he squatted and looked at the stone gate that he was leaning against.

There was a small crack in the middle of the stone gate.

Surprising!

what happened?

Zhao Ji got up and went to check. The gap is not big, but at least it is enough to insert some thin weapons.

After observing carefully for a while, Zhao Ji tried to push the stone door obliquely. Shimen immediately felt a slight push.

What! What! What!

This stone door is not directly pushed left and right, but two slanted doors?

Does this make sense? Is there a law for this? Elf! I! @#￥%%...&*&.

Zhao Ji jumped and cursed loudly.