Li frowned as he circled around within the ring. A magic array could never escape the eyes of a master mage, much less Li, whose attainments in this field were quite impressive.
After pondering for a while, he walked straight to the edge of the ring, reached out, removed one of the magic crystals, and swapped its position with another. Sure enough, when Li removed the crystal, the light above dimmed. But when he placed another crystal back, the light overhead returned to normal.
However, the moment Li moved the magic crystal, a series of clacking sounds like turning gears rang out.
Timaria looked equally tense, gripping the sword in her hand tightly. In truth, she had no idea what to do either. This was the first time she had encountered such a situation, so she could only trust Li now.
Listening to the clacking sounds, Li immediately realized that the passage had to be underground. He shifted the crystals again, changing their arrangement once more. After trying dozens of different configurations, everyone felt the ground beneath their feet shake. Then intense clacking erupted, and, centered on the ring, the stone slabs sank downward one by one. Just as he had thought, Li rose to his feet. This magic array was not a fixed, unified structure.
As long as the crystals were arranged in a particular way, they could trigger the switch beneath the floor. Amid the clacking, the ring began rotating on its own. The magic crystals overhead dimmed one after another, while the changes in the ground became increasingly dramatic. At last, a massive stairwell appeared before the three of them.
This opening leading underground was nearly twenty meters wide. It looked more than large enough for those enormous creatures to enter this hall.
Timaria took a deep