Only when the sounds of battle receded did Bishop Millet nod and say, "We can go in now."
It was clear that he trusted Roldor, or perhaps, he trusted the sealed artifact in the Captain of the Punishers's hands.
Bishop Millet's confidence infected the others, and even Lex followed them into the cave without hesitation.
Inside the cave was a winding passage that gradually descended, showing signs of artificial excavation, with wooden planks visible on the cave ceiling to reinforce against collapse.
Walking through this mine-like passage, Lex soon saw the monsters: eyeless, noseless, with mouths full of sharp teeth, slender limbs, and large bellies.
They were already corpses, some completely charred, some cut into several pieces, and others with their heads severely smashed and completely blown open.
Walking and stopping, it wasn't long before Lex saw Roldor and a stone door in front of the Enforcers.
The stone door was over ten meters high, with a vaguely outlined human statue carved on each side.
Both statues were seated, and the upper part of one of them, from the waist up, had already collapsed.
In the middle of the two stone statues was a small door, which was open, revealing a pitch-black passage inside.
Bishop Millet motioned for everyone to wait, then walked to the small door, facing the pitch-black passage.
Suddenly, everyone heard a 'whoosh' sound, as if a strong wind had erupted from within the Bishop, his dark blue cassock immediately billowed, and a powerful current of spirituality rushed into the passage, pushing forward.
Several roars echoed in the darkness, followed by the sound of a body hitting a wall.
After the strong wind subsided, Bishop Millet nodded to Roldor, and the thick-lipped Captain of the Punishers, holding a spiritual long blade, entered the passage with two of his team members.
Lex and the others followed, and after a not-too-long passage, they arrived at a spacious area where they saw the corpses of several guards under the lamplight.
Their limbs were deformed from impact, and their bodies were covered in dense, intricate wounds, as if the strong wind Bishop Millet had just unleashed was mixed with invisible blades.
Looking at these wounds, Lex mused, "Being able to command strong winds, Bishop Millet should be a Wind Blessed of the Sailor pathway, Sequence 6, right? I wonder if he can fly."
"There are some torches here, using a special kind of ointment that can be preserved for a long time," Hana, familiar with the temple's situation, pointed to a pillar not far away.
The Enforcers indeed found torches on the pillar, and moments later, the torchlight illuminated the grand hall.
Here, twelve stone pillars supported the dome, adorned with exquisite carvings, and their bases were inlaid with gold flakes, shimmering with an alluring luster under the torchlight.
Some gold flakes had fallen off, but it was unclear whether they had detached naturally or been removed by someone.
Additionally, a sacrificial altar was placed in the hall, piled with various skulls, including human, goat, monkey, and dog skulls.
As Hana had said, there were many gold artifacts in this sacrificial hall, scattered around the hall, quietly stored underground throughout the past years, accompanied only by dust.
On the walls of the hall were enormous murals.
Murals are usually used to tell stories; if it's a tomb or mausoleum, they typically depict the owner's life, but if it's a temple, they are used to praise deities.
Lex walked up to one of the murals and saw that its theme was a river, wide at the front and narrow at the back, winding, using perspective to show its seemingly endless length.
On one section of the riverbank stood a creature with a snake's body, a human face, and a pair of wings on its back.
It held a scepter and stood majestically by the bank, with humans bowing before it in worship.
And by the riverbank were small boats, with people sitting in twos and threes, these boats leisurely drifting down the long river.
"Miss Hana, where is the hall with the coffins?"
Bishop Millet's voice made Lex shift his gaze from the mural, and he saw Hana pointing forward, "It's up ahead. After leaving this hall, there will be a straight passage.
At the end of the passage is the hall where the three coffins are enshrined.
It seems that in the past, people from a primitive tribe offered sacrifices to those three coffins."
"Good."
Bishop Millet turned around and said, "Everyone, we must go."
It was still Roldor and two team members leading the way, but this time, no more guards were found, as if all of them had already been killed.
Entering the passage leading to the main hall of the temple, Lex saw that at regular intervals along both sides of the passage, there was a statue.
These statues were all Feathered Serpents, but unlike the mural he had seen, these statues did not have human faces; instead, they depicted winged pythons.
When the black stone door of the sacrificial hall was pushed open, a hall slightly smaller than the previous one, but filled with gold artifacts, appeared before Lex's eyes.
Inside were various statues carved from gold, gold vases cast from gold, and even golden Path, golden tableware, golden altars, and so on.
Gold dust alone was piled into a small mountain.
This main hall of the temple was practically a treasury! It contained even more gold artifacts than the sacrificial hall!
Bishop Millet said in a deep voice, "Do not touch anything in here; obey my command entirely!"
Aside from these gold artifacts, the most striking features of the entire hall were the three coffins placed upright on golden altars.
They were also made of gold and arranged in a triangular formation.
Of these, the lids of the two foremost coffins were already open, and they were empty, containing none of the companions Hana had mentioned.
"How could this be?"
The girl with two ponytails couldn't believe her eyes.
She called out, "Jolick, Berte, where are you?"
Unfortunately, no matter how she called, there was no response.
In this hall, there were also murals.
Furthermore, this was a circular hall, so the murals on the surrounding walls formed a continuous narrative, as if recording a story that took place in a distant past.
Even Bishop Millet did not immediately inspect the coffins on the high platform, but instead lit a torch, held up a storm lantern, and looked at the murals on the hall walls.
Lex looked around and discovered the viewing order of the murals.
This set of murals, starting from the entrance and viewed in a clockwise direction, would reveal the 'story' the murals intended to convey.
Bishop Millet also noticed this, and then stood side-by-side with Lex in front of the first mural.
In this mural, a man was prominently featured; he was much taller than the other figures, wearing a crown adorned with Feathered Serpent patterns, four gemstones, and elegant vine motifs.
He raised a scepter, while his other hand pointed towards a sailboat, the bow of which bore a bust of a woman holding a bottle.
Before this man were rows of people prostrating in worship; among them, at the very front of the crowd, was a woman kneeling on the ground.
The woman wore an armband with a feather inserted into it.