With a muffled thud, Arthas's warhammer finally broke through the thick wall. Looking at the stone wall, which was probably two or three meters thick, everyone was almost certain that there was something very wrong with it.
"The magic dust is getting more and more…" Kael'thas once again picked up a handful of glittering dust from the debris on the ground. "This wall has magic patterns embedded in it, but most of them have been damaged by time. Coupled with Arthas's strike, they should be completely ineffective."
"Someone wanted to hide something in this passage that people pass through every day?" Brann illuminated the wall's interlayer with a torch; the color and luster of the bricks inside were clearly different from the other wall surfaces.
"Perhaps he thought the most dangerous place was the safest, and he himself had also provided very strict protection for this secret passage.
Look behind the first layer of bricks; there's an expensive anti-magic material coating used only in alchemy laboratories. This can greatly reduce the escape of magic energy, and used here, it makes magical detection impossible to penetrate a two or three-meter thick wall."
Kael'thas's implication was that even if someone specifically used detection magic to search this passage little by little, they wouldn't find any difference between here and other places.
"So how exactly did you discover that this section of the wall was off?"
Kael'thas asked Brann with some curiosity. When he passed by here, he didn't notice any abnormality, but Brann almost immediately felt something was wrong with the wall after passing it.
"Ah… it's more of an intuition, really," Brann shrugged, appearing quite calm. "Anyway, I can always rely on this feeling to make discoveries in all sorts of ruins and derelict places. But, if I had to say… don't you think the brick color here is a bit darker than other places?"
"A bit darker?" Jaina stepped back a few paces and stared intently at the walls on both sides for a while, still sounding a bit uncertain. "It seems like there might be just a tiny bit?"
"Let's just assume Brann is exceptionally gifted," Arthas said noncommittally, raising a ball of Holy Light in his hand to illuminate the surroundings.
Under the illumination, they finally realized that where they stood should be the true connection point between the secret passage and the main passage, and behind the wall that Arthas had forcibly destroyed, a thick hidden door was concealed.
Those rare magic dusts were the materials the master of the secret room used to reinforce the hidden door. If not for the passage of time causing most of its power to dissipate, they might not have been able to enter so easily.
After walking just a few steps inside, they caught a full view of the entire alchemy laboratory. The dazzling array of alchemy instruments, though covered in a thick layer of dust, would have bewildered any mage, but what truly shocked them were the skeletons scattered throughout the laboratory.
Their size exceeded that of any normal beast, and the prominent dragon horns and sharp bone claws clearly indicated that the owner of these skeletons was a Dragon.
"No wonder that mad mage said those people would definitely not find the missing Dragon," Kael'thas sighed softly. "This fellow probably turned this Dragon into alchemy materials before he was arrested…"
"The Dragon skeletons here are not complete. Part of this Dragon's body should have already been consumed by that elf…" Brann rubbed his eyes, somewhat disbelieving the scene before him. "I thought this guy had captured a Wyrmling… But judging by the size of this skeleton, he probably captured a young Dragon."
Although the strength of a young Dragon is far inferior to that of a true adult Dragon or an ancient Dragon from antiquity, it is by no means something an ordinary mage can handle. The mere ability to capture a young Dragon alive indicates that this mage was no ordinary person, even during the peak of magic in ancient times.
Arthas picked up a skeleton casually placed on the experimental table. Even after such a long time, the Dragon's skeleton still maintained considerable toughness, truly deserving its reputation as the best material for undead creatures…
Ahem, occupational hazard. Since they had found the diary owner's mysterious laboratory, then according to his claims in the diary, his research results should be in this secret room.
As for what exactly it was, he didn't record it in detail in his diary.
"Arthas, come look at this…" Jaina seemed to have discovered something incredible, almost unconsciously calling out Arthas's name. "That mage is a complete lunatic…"
Everyone's gaze fell upon it. A crystal bottle, placed on the table without any protective measures, was covered by thick dust, but when they focused their attention on it, even a blind person could feel the ethereal aura within the bottle.
Although they couldn't see what was inside, the feeling was like watching the hands of a clock move, making one clearly perceive the flow, pause, or even reversal of time.
Jaina flicked her finger, and a gust of cold wind swept through, blowing away the dust on the crystal bottle, revealing the dreamlike, colorful "gas" within the bottle.
Calling it a gas wasn't entirely accurate, because this substance would also transform into a liquid-like state; it was simply in an uncertain phase.
"This is that guy's legacy? Or is this a trap, a fake, where anyone who moves or touches this bottle will explode into the sky with a bang?"
Brann spoke with some disbelief. His expression and voice indicated his strong reluctance to believe that the research results that the mad elf had hidden and protected with his life were placed in such a conspicuous spot, without even a single layer of protection?
"No…"
Arthas's words broke the eerie silence. He was very certain that the contents of this bottle were genuine. Even if it wasn't the mad elf mage's finished research product, it must be an item related to the Bronze Dragon.
He had been dragged into an alternate timeline by that troublemaker Chromie, and Arthas, having personally experienced the power of the Bronze Dragon, was very familiar with it. The power of time controlled by the Bronze Dragon was the same as the energy constantly emanating from the bottle.
Precisely because it was condensed from the essence of the Bronze Dragon, the object in this crystal bottle constantly repeated its state from a certain period of time, like a snake biting its own tail, detached from the time of the real world, forever remaining at the moment it was created.
Therefore, it did not deteriorate with the passage of time like other things in the laboratory, but was preserved forever.
"Kael'thas… do you remember what was written at the end of that diary?"
Kael'thas nodded, then slowly and gravely said, "He succeeded… he found a way to transcend time forever, but before he could fully master this power, the elven enforcement squad found him. He was forced to bury all of his research and achievements deep within this secret chamber. This is also the last will of the elven mage Chronos Moonshadow."