Chapter 1384 — Each Takes What He Needs
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
In his eyes, Wei Zhao was a cautious and careful man, and if Wei Zhao was certain there was nothing to be found, then looking again would be pointless. Besides, he did not understand these antiques very well, and he reckoned Male Thief was rather more expert than he was.
"There's a stone door ahead. Once it opens, that should be the way to the main burial chamber - though there may be danger inside." Lao Hei shone his flashlight at the spot not far in front of them. "These things at the doorway were plainly prepared for ordinary tomb robbers."
"Prepared for what? They were prepared for the dead, weren't they?" Wei Zhao said flatly. "Just now the Swallow Heroine nearly got crushed to death, and this tomb's entrance goes down but never up. Even if ordinary tomb robbers took those things, how would they get out?"
Lao Hei was startled for a moment, then nodded. Wei Zhao had a point: any tomb robber who could make it this far was surely no ordinary sort - where were the ordinary tomb robbers to speak of? The things at the doorway were merely what triggered the mechanism, and none of them were especially valuable. Even if they were smashed to pieces, it was no great loss.
"The stone door is the same as before - still a coded lock. But my tools were all smashed to bits earlier, so opening this door will be a difficult business, I expect." Lao Hei glanced at the stone door in the distance. "Old Yu, do you have any bright ideas?"
"What bright idea could I have?" Old Yu said. "I don't understand any of this either."
"You tagged along and you're useless, yet you want this and that." Wei Zhao said flatly. "If I'm not mistaken, this stone door's code should be the same as the last door's. Any tomb robber who got this far is an expert; a common mechanism like this is only a matter of time for such people - even without equipment, patience alone would see it through. So the designer would not have wasted much thought on this part."
What Wei Zhao said was in fact what Liu Bojia's materials had predicted: in his view, if there were coded stone doors in the tomb, then the codes should all be identical.
"Oh?" Lao Hei was slightly taken aback. "I'll go and try."
It was Lao Hei who had cracked the previous code, so his memory of it was the sharpest. Following the same sets of numbers, he turned the dials on the stone door one after another, and soon there came a crisp "click" - the stone door opened at once.
Lao Hei shot Wei Zhao an admiring look. "Male Thief's experience really is the richest."
"Enough talk. Everyone be careful - there may be more traps in here." Wei Zhao glanced at the corridor beyond the stone door.
For some reason, Wei Zhao kept sensing a faint, barely-there aura of danger in there - and yet the jade pendant gave no warning. Which meant that if nothing was done, the danger would not manifest; but if some great mechanism were triggered, there might be grave peril.
Wei Zhao's words made Old Yu, who had been about to stride in first, pull his foot back. He eyed the others warily. "You go first!"
Wei Zhao could no longer be bothered to scorn Old Yu for his cowardice. Never in his life had he seen a cultivator so afraid of dying.
Wei Zhao did not mind; he walked straight in. This long corridor was clearly different from the last: on both its left and right sides there were no more treasure chests or display cabinets. Instead, at regular intervals, a door stood in the stone wall on either side.
"This is the main burial chamber. These rooms on either side should be the accompanying burial vaults and such. The master of this tomb was clearly a scholar, so the tomb prized practicality. A few vaults would be enough for the tomb's master to rest in peace after death; there was no need for the grand luxury of an imperial mausoleum." Lao Hei spoke to Old Yu as he walked. "What we're after should be in one of these vaults."
"Good. Open it and let's have a look!" Old Yu nodded, pointing at the door of the first vault.