Two guards and an official from the Ministry of Works were holding torches and looking at the drawings on the wall.
When Ren Baqian and the empress came over, the three of them gave way and said, "Your Majesty, it's here."
Then, they waved the torch forward and said, "It's all the way to the front."
Ren Baqian, the empress, and the rest stopped and looked up. They saw that the drawings on the wall were about half an inch deep and had smooth edges.
Tong Zhengye traced the markings with his finger and said, "It was carved by a finger. The finger is about 30 percent narrower than mine, and it was drawn by someone other than the aboriginals."
This wasn't surprising.
After all, the aboriginals had only left the Hundred Thousand Mountains 70 years ago.
The construction of this place was at least in the early and middle period of the Hao Nation, perhaps even longer than that. However, there was nothing to prove the time. This place had been covered in dust for too long, and it was hard to tell whether it had been 300, 500, or even 1,000 years.
"Continue to look ahead!" After instructing the official from the Ministry of Works and the two guards, he looked up at the mural.
At first glance, it looked like a child's graffiti. There were small holes, arcs, and irregular patterns all over the wall.
A thin line meandered from the beginning all the way to a place that couldn't be seen.
Everything on the wall was messy and irregular. Rather than calling it a mural, it would be better to say that it was scratched by a crazy person.
However, upon closer inspection, it seemed a little different.
The empress frowned for a long time before suddenly relaxing and asking softly, "What does this look like?"
"Nai Zi …" Two voices sounded at the same time.
Thump!
The empress appeared beside Tong Zhengye in an instant and pressed his bald head to the ground. His entire head was pressed into the ground, and the ground was filled with cracks.
"Your Majesty, this white jade is to be used to build a palace." Ren Baqian was a little distressed, mainly because he had spoken the truth just now.
The empress still hadn't vented her anger, so she stepped on Tong Zhengye's head again and said coldly, "If you continue to speak without thinking, I will hang you … on the top of the city wall so that the commoners can pay their respects to the Minister of Works."
She then turned to look at Ren Baqian and realized that his gaze was constantly moving up and down her chest. Her pretty face quickly flushed, but her eyes were flickering with a dangerous glint.
Ren Baqian was already considering taking the initiative to press his head to the ground so that it wouldn't hurt too much.
"There's a door here!"
The voice came just in time.
He felt that they should be given a Dayao Peace Prize.
The empress gave Ren Baqian a look that said, "Just you wait, I'll teach you a lesson later." Then, she walked forward.
A crashing sound came from behind. Tong Zhengye pulled his head out and patted the dust off it. He then looked at Ren Baqian with hidden bitterness.
Ren Baqian responded with a smile that said, "We are different."
After walking along the passageway for more than 40 meters, everyone finally saw the so-called "door".
Its entire body was black, and it was made of some unknown metal. Under the light of the torch, it reflected a cold luster.
On the iron gate was a winged snake with its tail hanging down to the ground. Its head was near the top of the iron gate, and a pair of wings were folded behind its back. Different from the color of the iron door, it appeared to be gray in color.
Ren Baqian subconsciously felt that it looked familiar and immediately asked, "What kind of beast is this?"
Tong Zhenye shook his head to indicate that he did not know.
The empress had no reaction at all.
It seemed that both of them didn't know, but when Ren Baqian saw this picture, he thought of the Chinese legend of the flying serpent.
Ren Baqian always felt that this world was somewhat related to Earth. Although the language was different, Chinese was also spoken in this world. Furthermore, there were dragons, phoenixes, kirins, and even a kirin in the palace.
However, Qi Shui wasn't as powerful as the mythical beast in the legends. It couldn't fly or burrow into the ground. At most, it was at the Cardinal Heaven level, which was a far cry from the legends.
However, there was no doubt that Qi Shui was similar to the kirin in the legends on Earth. They even had the same name.
With these similarities, the appearance of another Soaring Serpent from Huaxia Mythology in this world was not too surprising.
However, Ren Baqian didn't voice out his conjecture.
The empress stretched out her palm to push open the iron gate, but her face changed the moment she touched the flying serpent. She retreated a few meters and stood right in front of Ren Baqian.
"It's true!" The empress's words shocked everyone.
Everyone thought that the beast on the gate was a carving and didn't expect it to be a real beast!
However, when the empress touched the beast on the gate, cracks began to appear on its surface. Following which, pieces of the beast fell to the ground. Only then did everyone realize that the beast had already become an empty shell.
In the blink of an eye, the beast turned into pieces on the ground.
However, the empress's eyes flashed. She went forward and picked up a gray bead that was about the size of a pigeon egg. She casually rubbed it, and the bead began to emit a green luster, but it was very dim.
"What is this?" Everyone was puzzled.
Whether it was this beast or this bead, they had never seen anything like it before.
Ren Baqian reached out and rubbed the bead on the empress's palm. The surface of the bead was still a little elastic.
Ren Baqian immediately imagined that this beast had condensed all of its strength into a bead before its death for its descendants. This was a common plot in wuxia novels.
However, he still had to study this bead carefully to know what it was.
The empress fiddled with it and couldn't figure out what it was used for. She then threw it to Ren Baqian, who quickly caught it and put it away.
Everyone else thought that this was a beast that they had never seen before, but Ren Baqian treated it as a mythical beast from the legends. Whatever it left behind would definitely not be ordinary.
"Is this beast the guard of this gate?" Ren Baqian guessed.
"It's possible!" The Female Empress nodded her head. This passageway was not damaged at all before they came in. This beast was either hung on the metal door or it had been here all along and died later on.
Everyone was more inclined to the latter possibility.
"This beast didn't leave this place until it died. I wonder who the owner of this place is," the empress said softly.
She stepped forward and was about to push the gate open.
If everyone guessed correctly, the guard here was that weathered beast, so there shouldn't be any mechanisms on the gate.
However, just in case, Tong Zhengye stepped forward to stop the empress. "Your Majesty, let me do it!"
Tong Zhengye placed his hand on the gate and increased his strength bit by bit. When he used 80% of his strength, his face began to turn red, and a dull creaking sound came from the gate.
"Open!" Tong Zhengye shouted. He used all his strength and began to push the gate open bit by bit.
Everyone was on guard until Tong Zhengye pushed the main gate open, but there were no mechanisms or anything like that.
However, there was a gust of wind, and the torch in the guard's hand flickered before suddenly extinguishing.
Everyone felt a little stuffy in their chests.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
