Chapter 227: Oriole
“If you keep being so mushy, I’ll kill you first!” Mei Yu clenched her fist tightly and threatened Wei Yang viciously.
Wei Yang had no choice but to retreat helplessly, yet he still refused to stay too far from Mei Yu.
Lu Xian thought for a moment and did not leave this domed tomb chamber either, but watched coldly as everyone searched inch by inch.
“Master,” Lu Yun said softly behind him: “Aren’t we going to help?”
“I don’t know mechanisms anyway, I’d only make things worse.” Lu Xian said indifferently, then continued to watch from the sidelines with hands clasped behind his back. Since Lu Xian did not move, Lu Yun had no choice but to stay still as well.
Sun Yuanlang also stood by with hands clasped behind his back, and everyone was very wary of him, hoping he would not get involved. The Saintess thus stood behind Sun Yuanlang as well, her eyes occasionally glancing at Lu Yun, not knowing what she was thinking.
In fact, the other several Grandmasters were merely wandering around in the tomb chamber. The ones truly bending down to search were those dozen Investigative Bureau Officials.
After the time it takes to eat a meal, they still found nothing. An Investigative Bureau Official reported to Zuo Yanqing: “Old Ancestor, we’ve searched everywhere, no mechanisms at all, only these few coffins inside haven’t been checked yet.”
“Then search them.” Zuo Yanqing frowned tightly; he had a bad premonition.
“Hold on,” Wei Yang spoke up to stop them: “The mechanisms in a tomb are most important for preventing grave robbers from disturbing the tomb owner’s eternal rest; touching these coffins is probably not appropriate!”
“With so many coffins, maybe one of them is fake.” Zuo Yanqing said resolutely: “Open the coffins!” Whether there were any or not, they needed to check quickly and leave this ghostly place.
The Investigative Bureau Officials naturally obeyed Zuo Yanqing. Although Sun Yuanlang’s words made their hearts crawl with fear, they still hurriedly selected a sarcophagus and fumbled to open it.
But those sarcophagi were made of sunken wood, extremely sturdy. The Investigative Bureau Officials exerted all their strength, snapping the weapons in their hands, yet still could not damage the sarcophagi in the slightest.
“Move aside!” Mei Yu could not stand it anymore, walked over and shouted coldly. The Investigative Bureau Officials quickly made way upon hearing her.
Mei Yu walked to a sarcophagus, observed it briefly, then raised her white, jade-like right hand and lightly slapped the lid.
The extremely heavy coffin lid, which could not be pried open no matter what, was snapped by dozens of thick wooden wedges with one palm, crashing to the ground with a boom, immediately exposing the coffin interior to everyone’s view.
“…” Those Investigative Bureau Officials stared at Mei Yu dumbfounded. Although they knew she had Heavenly Rank strength, they inevitably felt some contempt because she was a woman, at least not as reverent as toward the other Grandmasters…
Now they finally knew they were gravely mistaken.
The Saintess’s beautiful eyes sparkled with admiration as she looked at Mei Yu, thinking to herself: ‘Who says women are inferior to men? In the future, I must become even more powerful than this Mei Yu to live up to this life!’
Lu Yun, however, looked at Wei Yang with some admiration. To chase after such a female martial god, he was truly fearless…
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Meanwhile, Xiahou Bubai and the other three searched for a long time in the tunnel and came upon a fork in the road. Xiahou Bubai said in a deep voice to Cui Xie and the other: “Searching like this is too slow; let’s split up.” He pointed in one direction and said: “We’ll go this way.”
Cui Xie and the other naturally had no objection and nodded: “Then we’ll go that way.”
Thus the four split into two groups and disappeared in different directions. Once out of Cui Xie and the other’s sight, Xiahou Bubai said in a deep voice: “Hurry!” Then he sped through the tunnel, showing no sign of searching for mechanisms.
Xiahou Bumie closely followed behind his brother, frowning: “Second Brother, the Military Advisor told us to bring them out together; why did you send them away?”
“If I didn’t send them away, would I let them watch us tamper?” Xiahou Bubai was somewhat helpless; his brother seemed to have nothing but muscles in his head from practicing martial arts, unable to understand such a simple thing.
“Will we have time to take them out later?” Xiahou Bumie still asked worriedly.
“Relax…” Xiahou Bubai said impatiently: “After flipping the mechanism, it takes ninety breaths for the mechanisms to activate. That’s enough time for us to find them and take them out.”
“Mm.” Xiahou Bumie finally stopped asking.
While speaking, the brothers arrived at a hidden corner where there was a wall brick that could be pressed down—that was the mechanism to open the central control hub door.
“Eh?!” Xiahou Bubai was searching for that wall brick according to the location given by Zhu Xiuyi when he heard Xiahou Bumie exclaim lightly.
Following the direction Xiahou Bumie pointed, Xiahou Bubai looked closely and saw a wall brick there, sunken three inches into the wall. After a quick calculation in his mind, Xiahou Bubai’s expression changed drastically, and he shouted sternly: “That’s the mechanism location!”
“Why is it sunken?” Xiahou Bumie asked strangely: “It’s too obvious.”
“Idiot! Someone pressed it down!” Xiahou Bubai angrily tossed out the words, then turned into a dark shadow and frenziedly ran toward the central control hub.
While frenziedly running, Xiahou Bubai growled lowly: “Damn it, truly damn it—who dares scheme against the Xiahou Clan! They must be torn to pieces!”
In the blink of an eye, Xiahou Bubai turned seven or eight corners and arrived before a stone door. That previously tightly shut stone door was now wide open.
Xiahou Bubai’s eyes nearly burst with rage, his whole body burning with fury as he charged toward the stone door.
At that moment, two figures suddenly darted out from inside the stone door.
Without thinking, Xiahou Bubai unleashed the Sun Seal of the Dragon Elephant Great Hand Seal, which he had been charging, turning it into a dazzling red sun that slapped toward the two intruders!
Unexpectedly, the two did not dodge or evade. One person’s right arm muscles bulged like a turtle shell, smashing a heavy fist toward that red sun! The other also punched out, like a divine general charging into battle, unstoppable by thousands of soldiers!
Under their combined strike, Xiahou Bubai’s red sun was immediately scattered, and he staggered back two steps before barely steadying himself.
“Second Brother, are you alright?” At this time, Xiahou Bumie arrived and, seeing Xiahou Bubai repelled, hurriedly came forward to assist.
“Spirit Turtle Divine Fist, Thousands of Soldiers Repelled!” Xiahou Bubai’s pupils suddenly contracted as he recognized their identities: “Zhou Huang, Huan Daoji, you two Southern Dynasties remnants actually dare to cause trouble in Luodu!”
The two ignored him completely and, taking advantage of the opening while Xiahou Bubai retreated and Xiahou Bumie blocked the path, frenziedly ran toward the cave entrance.
“Chase them quickly!” Xiahou Bubai sternly instructed Xiahou Bumie.
“Got it!” Xiahou Bumie acknowledged and went. Xiahou Bubai himself had no time to chase and flashed into the stone door.
Inside the stone door was a room about three zhang square, densely packed with over a hundred winches of various sizes. Each winch had iron chains of differing quantities and thicknesses coiled on it. The iron chains passed through hundreds of openings in the room’s four walls, leading to various positions in the tomb.
At present, dozens of iron chains leading toward the cave entrance were rumbling and slowly turning. The several winches connected to those iron locks had their mechanisms completely destroyed and could no longer be stopped!
Xiahou Bubai’s scalp tingled repeatedly; this was exactly what he had come to do—flip the mechanisms on those winches and then destroy them completely. Yet Zhou Huang and Huan Daoji had done it flawlessly. How could these two departed souls know such top secrets so well?!
Glancing at the remaining chains on the winch, Xiahou Bubai shuddered in realization that only forty breaths remained until the mechanisms activated!
With this little time, even escaping himself was a problem!
Xiahou Bubai’s soul nearly fled his body. He flew out in escape, frenziedly running toward the cave entrance for a stretch before suddenly remembering Cui Xie and the other were still inside. But it was too late to go back for them now, so Xiahou Bubai gathered his qi in his dantian and roared toward the tunnel behind: “We’ve been schemed against—escape quickly!”
The sound wave rolled forth, surging through the tunnel! Xiahou Bubai raced toward the cave entrance without looking back…
