The entire stone pedestal was seamless, with no discernible keyhole.
The four of us searched around it for a long time without finding anything.
"Does this thing really have a keyhole?" Wang Yang asked.
Yang Hanxue replied, "It must, it's just hidden somewhere."
The stone pedestal was covered in dazzling bas-reliefs.
I, too, grew tired of looking and began to feel around it with my hands.
Sometimes, touch is far more reliable than sight.
Seeing me, Wang Yang chuckled and taunted, "In ancient times, there was the blind man feeling the elephant; now we have Xiang Fei feeling the chest... haha..."
"Can you stop your nonsense?" I retorted impatiently. "Don't you see the lights in this stone chamber are almost out? If the oxygen runs out soon, let's see if you can still laugh."
Wang Yang said, "Instead of searching like this, why don't we just try to pry it open?"
"With what?" I asked.
Wang Yang asked Song Bing for the Nepalese military knife, then he inserted it into the gap of the stone pedestal and tried to pry it open.
I have to say, the quality of this knife was excellent; he practically leaned his entire body on the handle, and the knife didn't break.
After a few attempts, he gave up: "I knew we should have brought a bundle of explosives when we came in... tied them up and blasted it open..."
As he was rambling, Yang Hanxue's eyes lit up: "Found it!"
We all quickly gathered around and discovered a small hole on the dragon's mouth in the bas-relief.
"Are you sure that's a keyhole?" Wang Yang asked.
Yang Hanxue ignored him and tried to insert the golden key into it.
To our surprise, it actually fit!
Yang Hanxue gently turned the key, and a "click" sound was heard.
Then he stopped and listened intently for a moment.
He then turned the key back to its original position and asked Wang Yang to hand him the military knife.
Holding the knife, he gently pried it, dislodging the key.
I asked him what he was doing.
He explained, "This uses a Qiankun lock. What I have now is the Yin keyhole. There should be a Yang keyhole as well... these two keyholes must be turned to the same position simultaneously, otherwise, it will trigger a mechanism."
He was an expert at picking locks, and we didn't understand any of it. Seeing him say this, we could only search for the other keyhole again.
At this moment, some doubts in my mind suddenly became clear.
If Sister Ying had really been here, the reason she left the golden key was to wait for Yang Hanxue to come.
After all, lock picking was Yang Hanxue's specialty!
As for why she didn't directly tell Yang Hanxue the address, it was because this stone turtle could move, and without the Jade Seeker, it would be very difficult to pinpoint its location.
Thinking of this, all my doubts were resolved.
It seemed I had a great chance of meeting Sister Ying again!
Because Yang Hanxue would take out whatever was inside and would surely hand it over to Sister Ying. At that time...
"What are you thinking about?" Wang Yang nudged me. "Hurry up and search."
My thoughts were pulled back, and I rolled my eyes at him. "Do you know what I was thinking?"
"What?"
"Our teacher used to scold us without using vulgar language. Once, he said about the worst student in our class, 'Your existence is just to compete with me for oxygen'... I didn't understand what he meant back then, but now I do."
"Xiang Fei, what are you implying?"
I shrugged and grinned, "Nothing specific, just hurry up and search."
"Are you using innuendo?" Wang Yang grumbled.
"Oh, you know what innuendo is?"
As I said this, I continued to feel around the stone pedestal with my hands. This time, I actually found a hole.
I leaned in and saw that it was indeed a keyhole, so I quickly called Yang Hanxue over.
He inserted the golden key and turned it gently. The "click" sound echoed again. Just as he was about to turn it back, the entire stone chamber suddenly shook, as if it had hit something.
This shake was not minor; Yang Hanxue ended up turning it a full circle!
Seeing his expression, I knew something was terribly wrong. I wanted to hide, but I didn't know where to go, so I just stood there blankly.
"Get down!" Yang Hanxue yelled.
Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, I dropped to the ground.
Wang Yang and Song Bing followed suit.
The ground was covered in dust, and the sudden movement of me hitting the ground choked me with dust.
After nearly a minute, there was no sound. I turned my head to look in Yang Hanxue's direction and saw him looking confused as well.
Just as I was about to speak, suddenly!
The entire stone pedestal began to rotate!
Although it wasn't fast, it startled me greatly.
After rotating once, the stone pedestal stopped, and Yang Hanxue then signaled us to get up.
"What kind of mechanism is this? It just spins once and it's over?" Wang Yang asked.
I was also puzzled. If this was the mechanism, what was the point of its design?
To scare us?
Before I could ponder further, Yang Hanxue's pupils dilated. Before he could even utter the word "retreat," countless sharp arrows shot out from all directions of the stone pedestal!
The surroundings were empty with no cover, making us almost like live targets.
I instinctively shielded my head, thinking, "It's over!"
If you walk by the river often, you're bound to get your shoes wet.
It seems I'll have to report to the city of Fengdu today!
Just as I was preparing for certain death, I only felt a few impacts on my body. The force wasn't very strong, rather, it felt a bit itchy.
I lowered my arm that was shielding my head and found that a lot of black liquid had appeared on my body.
So the projectiles were not arrows, but this liquid?
Looking at the other three, they were all the same. Besides the black liquid, they were unharmed.
What is going on?
I was getting more and more confused.
"What is this?"
Just as Wang Yang was about to reach out and touch the liquid on the ground, Yang Hanxue pulled him back: "Don't touch it!"
We all looked at him, puzzled.
"This is ink fluid!"
"Ink fluid?" I asked, confused.
"Once a person comes into contact with ink fluid, they will instantly rot and die..."
Hearing this, I was also startled.
"Then why are we okay?" I asked.
Yang Hanxue pointed to my chest. I still didn't understand, but Wang Yang's eyes lit up: "It's the diving suit!"
So that's what it was. Our diving suits had saved our lives.
The diving suits themselves were waterproof, so the black liquid didn't seep through!
Thinking of this, I saw the black liquid on my body gradually dripping onto the ground along the diving suit.
It seemed that Shen Wansan, no matter how much he calculated, probably never imagined that there would be such a thing as a diving suit in this world!
Looking at the black liquid on the ground, a question popped into my mind: Is this liquid really that potent?
As if sensing my thoughts, Yang Hanxue warned, "Be careful, don't risk your lives."