The entrance to Gabidu's Golden Crown lay on a mountain within Gabidu City.
Several centuries ago, that mountain had been a rock-gold mine in Gabidu. When the miners, following the extending tunnels underground, discovered a cavernous space and the Time Tower within it, the former mine ceased to be a mine. What had once been an unremarkable mountain with three ordinary peaks was ultimately transformed, because of the underground Time Tower, into the headquarters of the Stellan Republic's Ministry of Defense, heavily guarded year-round. After several centuries, the mountain no longer bore any trace of its mining days. It was lush and verdant everywhere, with sentries posted every few steps from the foot of the mountain onward and tight security all around.
Following Bodili, Zhang Tie rode in a special car dispatched by the Stellan Republic Ministry of Defense to the Moonlight Hotel. Accompanied by a colonel, they passed through without obstruction and arrived at the entrance to the Golden Crown.
The entrance was a round alloy door over five meters tall and more than two meters thick, like the entrance to a bank vault, located halfway up the mountain. Only after the accompanying officer presented a document did another officer guarding the entrance order it opened.
Beyond the door was a long, downward-sloping tunnel reinforced with rails and steel plates. Myriad-Year Fluorspar Lamps hung along both sides, bathing the entire tunnel in a dim green glow, making it feel like the secluded chamber where a powerful Knight cultivated in seclusion. As they walked through the tunnel, apart from the footsteps of the few of them, not a single other sound could be heard.
After walking over a thousand meters through the underground tunnel, they reached another identical door. The colonel accompanying Zhang Tie and Bodili presented another document before