Chapter 86: The Crystal Skull of the Maya

Lu Ye extended his own hand and compared it to the handprints on the plank. Among men, his build was not particularly tall or imposing, and his hands were on the smaller side. Yet the prints on the board were even smaller, clearly left by a woman. He thought for a moment, then pressed his palm against the print.

A faint jolt of numbness and dizziness shot from his arm straight to his head. Realizing danger, Lu Ye was about to withdraw his hand, but the stone door groaned and swung inward on its own.

How eerie!

Even Lu Ye, a staunch atheist, felt a chill. How could such a heavy door open by itself?

"Old woman, do you know how this works?"

Su Qianqian was stunned for a moment, then hesitantly replied, "Could it be magnetic levitation?"

Mu Xia cried out in astonishment, "That's exactly it! Look inside!"

She raised her torch and shone it into the chamber, and it was immediately clear they had reached the main burial chamber of the pyramid.

In the very center, a stone coffin hovered silently in midair.

The coffin’s surface was covered with totem-like carvings and ancient, obscure script.

As he stepped into the chamber, Lu Ye felt something was amiss—his footsteps suddenly light as air.

He couldn’t help but jump, and to his shock, he floated upward!

Su Qianqian screamed, “Damn, brat, you can fly now?”

Lu Ye drifted straight toward the stone coffin, shouting in panic, “I have no idea how!”

Thunk!

He crashed headfirst onto the coffin lid, proving just how stubborn he could be. The heavy stone lid flew aside, and Lu Ye took the chance to glance inside. There was no mummy or dried corpse as he had imagined, but instead, a crystal skull lay quietly within...

Gripping the coffin lid, curiosity compelled him to lift the skull out. With a light push from his toes, he floated back to Su Qianqian and Mu Xia.

"Xia Xia, there’s only this thing in the coffin. Take a look—what is it?"

Mu Xia was stunned. "This is a Mayan crystal skull, also known as the Skull of Doom."

"The crystal skull isn’t a real human skull, but is carved from extremely hard fused quartz, modeled after a woman’s skull."

"According to ancient legends, the crystal skull possesses mystical supernatural powers and is a vital artifact for divination in Mayan temples."

Could it be that what Ivanka and the Hong Ying Society had gone to such lengths to seek was precisely this crystal skull?

But how to explain the handprint on the door, clearly left not long ago? Someone had definitely beaten them to this chamber, yet the crystal skull remained untouched. Why hadn’t it been taken?

No matter—the first thing was to take it!

Lu Ye slipped the crystal skull into his backpack. "Xia Xia, I’ll carry this for now. You can study it when we get back."

Mu Xia nodded. "Alright!"

He had barely stepped out of the burial chamber with the skull when the entire pyramid began to tremble violently.

Boom!

The heavy stone coffin crashed to the ground.

"Aiya!" Su Qianqian cried out. Her Thunder God down jacket suddenly flashed with dazzling electricity—she’d forgotten to turn it off earlier.

Lu Ye stepped back into the chamber, and the pyramid immediately stabilized.

The stone coffin slowly rose again, and the lightning on Su Qianqian’s armor faded.

Suddenly, Lu Ye realized the previous visitor hadn’t left the crystal skull behind because they didn’t want it, but because they couldn’t take it!

Once the crystal skull left the chamber, the island’s magnetic field returned to normal.

The pyramid, weighing tens of millions of tons, was hollow underneath, clearly relying on magnetic levitation to stand for millennia. When the magnetic fields collapsed, the chamber’s structure alone couldn’t support the massive pyramid, and in mere seconds it would crumble, burying any intruders alive.

A hint of disappointment flashed in Mu Xia’s eyes as she murmured, "After all our effort to find this place, do we really have to give up?"

Lu Ye clenched his teeth. "You two leave the pyramid first. I’ll try to see if I can rush out with the crystal skull."

Su Qianqian shook her head firmly. "I don’t agree—it’s too dangerous!"

Lu Ye explained, "The crystal skull is what the Hong Ying Society desperately wants. The handprint left on the door proves someone has already been here."

Some supernatural things defy scientific explanation, especially relics from the mysterious Mayan civilization. Lu Ye didn’t know what the crystal skull was for, but perhaps Ivanka did!

"If I don’t take it now, they’ll probably come back even better prepared. If the crystal skull falls into Hong Ying Society’s hands, who knows what they’ll do with it?"

Su Qianqian still looked uneasy. "But I’m worried..."

Lu Ye placed his hand on her shoulder and asked seriously, "Old woman, you’re an expert in architecture."

"Estimate for me—how long would it take for the pyramid to fully collapse?"

Su Qianqian took a deep breath, then carefully inspected the chamber and the passage. The entire underground space had no supporting pillars—only a few stone walls served as load-bearing structures.

She gauged the thickness of the stone walls near the door and said, "I can’t give you an exact figure, but my estimate is no more than eighteen seconds, maybe even less."

Mu Xia frowned and calculated, "From the pyramid gate to the cave entrance is about 120 meters; from the cave entrance to the burial chamber is another 60 meters."

"Eighteen seconds—to run 180 meters and climb a two-meter-high cave entrance. Can Special Envoy Lu do it?"

Lu Ye laughed. "Of course, no problem!"

He first set the crystal skull back in the chamber, then went to the base of the cave and became a human ladder for Su Qianqian to climb onto his shoulders and ascend...

After sending her up, Lu Ye turned to Mu Xia. "Xia Xia, your turn?"

Mu Xia smiled. "I wouldn’t dare step on Special Envoy Lu’s shoulders—I’ll manage myself!"

She took a few running steps, kicked off the stone wall for leverage, leapt high, grabbed the upper floor with both hands, and hauled herself out.

After about a minute, Lu Ye figured the two had gone far enough. He slung his backpack across his chest.

Go!

His running cadence blurred into a streak, and while the magnetic field hadn’t yet reacted, he dashed out of the chamber by several dozen meters.

Then came a violent quake...

His stride faltered, nearly toppling him, but the cave entrance was in sight. He hurled himself forward.

Smack!

His combat boots hammered the stone wall, and with a flip, he vaulted through the cave and landed above, then tore down the passage at breakneck speed...

Thunderous rumbling!

The pyramid’s collapse accelerated, colossal granite rocks crashing down overhead. The stone walls of the passage strained under the weight, lightning-shaped cracks spreading rapidly.

Worst of all, the massive stone door was slowly closing amidst the tremors!

Lu Ye struggled to maintain balance, exhausting every ounce of strength in a few seconds.

Thirty meters, twenty, ten...

With the door closing, the passage grew darker, until only a single shaft of light remained.

Whoosh!

Lu Ye dove through the narrowing gap, tumbling out and rolling a dozen meters along the ground to dodge the flying shards of stone behind him.

At that moment, the pyramid finally crumbled into a heap of ruins.

Lu Ye had barely gotten up, not even dusted himself off...

Whoosh!

A bone-white blade whistled toward him from behind!

As if he had eyes in the back of his head, Lu Ye suddenly ducked, dodging the strike. When he straightened, he was holding a black dagger.

The bone blade twisted and slashed again; Lu Ye raised his dagger and blocked it.

Crack!

The bone blade snapped in two, brittle as paper.

Lu Ye’s razor-sharp dagger had once cleaved through Meng Beauty’s Nepalese knives—what was a mere bone blade to it?

The attacker was a woman from a primitive tribe, unlike the girls of the Mulberry Leaf tribe. She wore a skirt and top made from some nearly black foliage, and strange patterns were painted on both sides of her cheeks.