'Click,' the stone wall hanging curtains behind the two cracks open, revealing a pitch-black passage.

Fang Hong and Gita turned around, surprised to see this suddenly appearing secret passage. They had just been observing the painting and had no idea how they triggered the mechanism here.

To say that their earlier action of lifting the curtain caused this change seemed too far-fetched given the time interval.

Gita looked at Fang Hong. "Let's wait first." Fang Hong gazed at the secret passage, not rushing forward. Its appearance was too coincidental, as if someone deliberately wanted them to enter.

He raised his right hand slightly, summoning Clockwork Fairies with his fingers and sending them inside. At the same time, he sent a message to Elisa, informing the three of them about their location and the situation they discovered.

After sending the message, it was like a stone sinking into the sea, with no response. The Ether Magic Power in the valley was so chaotic that Fang Hong was unsure if his Communication Crystal was working correctly. The Clockwork Fairies' exploration was equally poor. The secret passage was winding and devoid of light, and the Clockwork Fairies, not emitting any light themselves, stumbled blindly once beyond the range of the crystal lamp.

He temporarily equipped it with a hook and removed unnecessary load, allowing one of the Clockwork Fairies to carry the crystal lamp forward. After flying twenty to thirty meters, the secret passage only extended downward with step after step, monotonous in its scenery. Further on, the crystal lamp, leaving the maximum range of the Magic Guided Reactor, flickered and then went out.

Fang Hong had no choice but to recall them.

He took out a pocket watch from his chest to check the time and realized that staying here wasn't an option. Since the secret passage wouldn't disappear from here, he decided, out of caution, to first take Gita to find the others and regroup.

However, before leaving, he still had other tasks to handle. Fang Hong ordered the Energy Angel to release the old, disrepaired Activated Armor on the ground and tinkered with it for a while, intending to reverse-engineer the blueprint of the thing.

While the Activated Armor was clunky, the design blueprints were kept within several large Alchemy Families, and even the Colin Ishurian Artisan Association didn't have records. Since he encountered it, he certainly had to give it a try.

This thing truly lived up to the 'old and disrepaired' name, missing limbs to a great extent; rust even welded gears together into sections, making its movement a complete miracle. Fang Hong, mastering the Multiple Parallel skills, was far more efficient than ordinary Alchemists. Still, cautiously maintaining its structural value before it wore out completely, his first disassembly yielded only a 17% progress on the drawing.

After the first disassembly, the remaining structural value was essentially negligible, making reassembly almost impossible. Helpless, Fang Hong could only opt for destructive analysis. Only on the second attempt did he achieve a 30% progress on meaningful drawing, along with a temporary design.

This design allowed him to make three Activated Armors, while the remaining reading progress would transform into knowledge reserves, coming in handy when he maps out similar constructs next time.

Gita, standing by, witnessed the entire process of Fang Hong disassembling the Activated Armor into a pile of parts with bewildering speed, watching him turn the mapping progress into a light map, storing it into the system.

Although it wasn't her first time seeing the captain accomplish this task, each time left her in awe. It seemed this time, the captain was more proficient than before, making her wonder what his limit truly was? Compared to those Invokers of Tabopolis, the latter couldn't hold a candle.

Calling it a grain of light versus the brilliance of the full moon might be an exaggeration. But she didn't forget that the captain was only at level fourteen, with limitless potential ahead.

Fang Hong, finishing his work, stored the Artisan System, exhaling before standing up. He kicked the empty chest plate of the Activated Armor, letting it make a 'clank' sound as it rolled to the wall.

No wonder the originally level eighteen benchmark Activated Armor ended up at level thirteen; it was truly too dilapidated. How long had it been here? He couldn't help but wonder, considering Aimumu Fortress had seen numerous adventurers over a century. That this heap of scrap metal wasn't taken apart by other adventurers before him was itself a marvel.

Fang Hong looked up around him. This place also didn't seem hidden; going up to the north corridor of the second floor directly faced the windowed wall. Anyone who saw such a strange place would come in to investigate, wouldn't they?

Unfortunately, Luo Yu was not here; otherwise, the magician could have used Detection Magic to see if illusions or similar spells were maintained here.

He opened his Communication Crystal, finding it barren, without messages. It seemed the communication was indeed disrupted. Fang Hong then decided to leave with Gita to meet up with Elisa and the others. But just at that moment, he stopped, gazing at a place and softly uttered, "Huh."

With this soft exclamation, Gita naturally saw it too—a chest plate kicked earlier had struck the bottom left corner of a picture frame, dislodging something. It was a small, exquisite silver bracelet, originally buried in dust, now revealed.

She hesitated for a moment, glanced at the captain, then went over to pick it up, compared it, and handed it over. She found that the bracelet fit her perfectly, but if the captain wore it, it would be a bit small.

Its size seemed intended for a child to wear as an ornament.

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