Chapter 418 Chapter416-A Disappointing End
Ethan's response was impressively quick as he dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the collapsing Stone General.
Had he been struck, the impact would have certainly been severe enough to cause significant harm.
In the next moment, Ethan seized the opportunity to leap onto the Stone General.
Sensing Ethan on his back, the Stone General, in a fury of embarrassment and rage, swung a punch back at him.
Ethan, with impeccable timing, dodged at the very instant the fist was about to make contact, springing into the air.
The Stone General, unable to react in time, landed its heavy, forceful punch onto its own body.
A thunderous sound of stone colliding echoed throughout the chamber as the General's punch hit with such power that it shattered its own body into fragments.
Ethan, still cautious, watched for a while before he was certain that the Stone General was indeed motionless.
Given the previous surprise, where the General had continued to move even after losing its head, Ethan was not about to take any chances.
He waited, watching intently until he was sure that the Stone General could no longer rise.
Only then did he allow himself to relax.
In this battle, Ethan had demonstrated remarkable cleverness.
In the end, he had ingeniously maneuvered the Stone General into striking itself, effectively ending the fight.
It had to be admitted that the Stone General was an exceptionally formidable adversary.
After the battle, even Ethan felt weary.
In previous encounters with stone men and various creatures, he had never felt such fatigue.
But this time, he truly felt drained and decided to sit down and rest for a while.
Although the stone case he was seeking was not far from him, Ethan chose not to act hastily.
He decided to rest and recuperate before approaching it, uncertain if the stone chamber harbored other traps or mechanisms.
The chamber, now seemingly empty except for the shattered stone fragments left in Ethan's wake, might still hold unforeseen dangers.
Ethan couldn't be sure.
The Stone General had sprung from the ground unexpectedly, nearly catching him off guard, so Ethan was not about to make any rash moves.
He resolved to rest adequately first.
If something else were to emerge unexpectedly, he would be better prepared to face it after resting.
After all, the treasure, as enticing as it was, could wait a little longer.
A well-rested Ethan would be more capable of handling any further challenges that might arise.
After a while, feeling sufficiently refreshed, Ethan rose and cautiously made his way towards the stone case.
He moved with extra care, vividly recalling the previous incident where a stone man had suddenly emerged from a hidden door in the ground.
He was keenly aware that another surprise could be lurking, ready to confront him.
Fortunately, this time Ethan encountered no traps or mechanisms on his way to the stone case.
As he approached it, however, the scene before him took him by surprise.
To his astonishment, the stone case was utterly empty.
There was nothing on it – a revelation that shocked Ethan deeply.
He had expended so much effort in search of this treasure, only to find nothing at the end of his journey.
Not even a shadow of the treasure he had sought was to be found.
This outcome was beyond Ethan's expectations and left him feeling a profound sense of loss.
He could hardly believe that after such a long search, after braving so many dangers, his quest would culminate in such a way.
Refusing to accept this anticlimax, Ethan began to inspect the stone case meticulously.
His scrutiny was rewarded with a discovery.
He noticed a circular indentation on the case, as if something had once been placed there.
But now, the recess was empty, the object it once held long gone, leaving behind only the hollow stone case.
It seemed that the rumors of a treasure in this place were indeed true, but someone had beaten Ethan to it.
The treasure that once lay here had been taken, leaving nothing but an empty stone chamber.
Ethan hadn't expected to be a step too late, to miss out on the treasure.
This realization brought a sense of disappointment, but there was nothing he could do at this point.
He consoled himself with the thought that perhaps it just wasn't his fate to find this treasure.
The thought of coming so close to the treasure only to miss it inevitably left Ethan with a sense of regret.
After all, it's natural for anyone to feel disheartened when a treasure so nearly within grasp slips away.
Ethan tried to console himself, accepting that if it wasn't meant to be, then it was futile to linger on it.
Ethan was someone who deeply believed in fate.
He felt that everything in the world hinged on destiny.
If something wasn't meant for him, no amount of striving would make it his.
Perhaps, he mused, when the time was right, he might find another treasure meant for him.
Despite these philosophical musings, Ethan's curiosity about the nature of the treasure lingered.
Even if it was unattainable, just knowing what it was, catching a glimpse of it, would have been more satisfying than this state of unknowing.
As he cast a lingering look at the indentation on the stone case, a strange sense of familiarity swept over him.
Ethan felt as though he had seen the shape of this recess somewhere before, but he couldn't quite place where or when.
This feeling left Ethan perplexed.
Where had he seen it before?
He wondered. His mind raced with thoughts, but no clear answer emerged.
A new question then arose in Ethan's mind:
How had the previous visitor managed to take the treasure? What method did they use to remove it from its well-guarded place?
Ethan recalled the numerous difficulties he had encountered upon entering.
Apart from the formidable Stone General, the neatly arranged rows of stone men and stone animals had also presented significant challenges.
But when Ethan arrived, these stone guardians were perfectly intact and orderly, showing no signs of prior disturbance.
How, then, had someone else managed to enter before him?
It seemed implausible that these guardians would selectively attack only Ethan and spare other intruders.
This notion was simply out of the question, deepening Ethan's perplexity.
From what Ethan had observed earlier, the chamber's mechanisms were triggered by any intruder's presence.
The stone men and animals would spring to life, moving to attack the intruder.
Unless the trespasser was repelled or killed, these guardians would persist in their assault.
Moreover, if these stone creatures failed to eliminate the intruder, a second layer of defense would activate: the Stone General would emerge to continue the attack.
This meant that if someone had indeed come to take the treasure, these guardians would have certainly reacted.
However, when Ethan entered, there was no evidence of damage or disturbance; it was as if no one had been there before him.
This discrepancy was baffling. Could it be that the stone case had always been empty, that there never was a treasure to begin with?
Ethan pondered over the situation, concluding that the possibility of a fabricated treasure being placed here just to deceive others was highly unlikely.
No one would go through such lengths for mere amusement.
There had to be more to the story, some hidden truth behind this puzzle.
This conundrum weighed heavily on Ethan's mind, leaving him momentarily stumped.
Shifting his line of thought, Ethan considered that if there indeed had been a treasure here, which was now gone, then there was only one plausible explanation: someone had managed to remove it without triggering the intricate traps and mechanisms in place.
This seemed to be the only reasonable explanation for the current scenario.
However, the idea itself was quite extraordinary.
If someone had indeed been here before, how did they manage to take the treasure without activating the traps?
Ethan had firsthand experience with the stone guardians in this place.
Merely passing by them had triggered their attack, indicating the high sensitivity of the security mechanisms.
So, how had the previous visitor successfully navigated this challenge?
Following this train of thought, Ethan felt that this was probably the only logical explanation.
There seemed to be no other reason that could satisfactorily account for the situation at hand.
With this in mind, Ethan began to scrutinize the stone chamber carefully, looking around for any clue that might have been overlooked.
Finally, his search yielded something noteworthy.
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