A full half month later than the originally scheduled two months, Zhou Heng's group finally reached the central region of this snowfield—the entrance to the ancient tomb.
Many people had already arrived, but every one of them looked rather bedraggled. Some still had bloodstains on their bodies that had not been cleaned away, radiating a frightening killing intent. Clearly, they too had encountered the frenzied bombardment of the bird flocks, and some might even have died.
Those birds were indeed terrifying. Aside from powerful Celestial River Realm teams like Zhou Heng's, there had to be Comet Realm experts holding the line. Otherwise, there would inevitably be grievous casualties.
What surprised Zhou Heng was that the nine Black Hole Kings had yet to enter the ancient tomb. Instead, they were studying seven pitch-black iron rings.
Jin Haochen, as usual, knew more. After all, his father was one of those great figures. "Those are Thundercloud Rings—the keys to opening the tomb chamber!"
Keys to open the tomb chamber?
Why would a tomb chamber need keys? Shouldn't it be sealed away forever? Or had Thundercloud Emperor's descendants planned to become tomb raiders themselves someday?
Zhou Heng suddenly understood. No wonder it was the rulers of seven nations who had come together this time, rather than eight or six. There were only seven Thundercloud Rings, each held by one of those seven nations.
Every nation that possessed a Thundercloud Ring effectively held a ticket, which was why its ruler could bring the nation's prodigies into the ancient tomb to claim a share of the benefits.
However, the nine Black Hole Kings should have flown here on the very first day. Yet nearly three months had passed, and the gates of the ancient tomb still had not opened. That showed just how complicated the method