174: Chapter 174 The Giant Sundial

The bronze Sundial Giant Gate was right before their eyes.

The ten-meter-tall giant gate was crudely embedded in the black rock wall.

The gate's surface was covered with nine layers of concentric gears.

The outermost ring was fully engraved with solar patterns.

The inner rings were densely packed with star tracks, wind directions, tides, and ancient script.

Each layer of gears was tightly meshed.

If even a single ring was moved incorrectly, the gate's entire defense mechanism would be fully triggered.

Zhao Mengmeng looked up at the giant gate.

“This gate thinks way too highly of our education level.”

Lin Ye stopped by a mummified corpse at the side of the gate.

The skeleton maintained the posture of pulling a wheel, its chest pierced by a long bronze spike, its spine snapped.

A light screen popped up from his right eye.

[Remains of a Lost Pathfinder]

Zhao Mengmeng's gaze shifted to the fragments next to the corpse's hand.

“This predecessor pressed the wrong thing.”

Lin Ye used his horizontal saber to flick open the corpse's tattered cloak.

Several fragmented copper plaques spilled out.

Engraved on them was some sort of deduced gear sequence.

Lin Ye's Left Eye instantly snapped open.

Under True Vision, the edges of the copper plaques glowed with a glaring dark red.

A dead end.

His gaze forced its way through the heavy bronze gears on the gate's surface.

Layers of complex internal mechanisms emerged.

Almost all the slots glowed with a deadly red light.

Only a very few gaps flashed with a faint light green the moment the gears rotated.

The green light wasn't static.

It was shifting frantically along with the refraction angle of the faint light from the top.

Thirty seconds.

This was the final window of opportunity left for the living.

Lin Ye decisively closed his Left Eye.

The tip of his blade pointed to the ground.

“I'll turn the outer three rings, you turn the inner rings.”

Zhao Mengmeng rolled up her sleeves.

“I've got the strength, just make sure your callouts are accurate. Don't make me guess.”

“Left two, stop. Right five, stop. Then left one slot.”

“Got it.”

Inside the Great Xia Live Stream.

[They just finished jumping across the Poison Spike Chessboard, and now they're doing extreme lockpicking?]

[This gate definitely has a chain of traps. That corpse was skewered like a kebab!]

[Isn't Brother Eye from the Archaeology Department? This is right up his alley!]

The overseas livestream rooms quickly followed suit.

[Ancient gates require complete linguistic and logical deduction. It's impossible for the Great Xia people to solve it instantly.]

[If they turn even one notch wrong, they'll be torn to pieces.]

Lin Ye raised his hand and gripped the outermost gear.

The bronze gear was extremely heavy.

The muscles in his arms suddenly bulged as he forced the gear to turn.

Click.

The first sound of the mechanism engaging rang out.

A deep, continuous rumbling chain reaction erupted from inside the gate.

Zhao Mengmeng pressed both hands against the inner wheel.

“Left two.”

She exerted her strength and spun it quickly.

Click! Click!

Two notches in place.

“Stop.”

Zhao Mengmeng stopped, her fingers tightly gripping the bronze gaps.

Lin Ye dug both hands into the second outer ring.

In the residual image on his retina, the position of the green slot had already shifted by half a notch.

“Right five.”

Zhao Mengmeng lowered her center of gravity, using her entire body weight to turn the inner ring.

This part was completely rusted shut.

Just as she forced it past the first notch, a sharp metallic scraping sound erupted from deep within the gap of the gate.

The corpse on the ground trembled from the vibration.

The bronze spike piercing the mummy's chest suddenly protruded outward by half an inch!

Zhao Mengmeng's eyes twitched wildly.

“Keep turning!” Lin Ye barked.

Zhao Mengmeng gritted her teeth, pressing her entire body weight onto the wheel, pushing it through four consecutive notches.

Click!

The fifth notch clicked into place.

The scraping sound stopped abruptly.

The protruding bronze spike stopped mid-air.

The bullet screen of the Great Xia Live Stream scrolled frantically.

[My heart skipped a beat!]

[Sister Mengmeng's grip is so steady! If it were me, my hands would have been shaking long ago.]

[Where are those people on the foreign forums who just said it couldn't be solved instantly?]

Lin Ye took a large step and turned the third outer ring.

The stationary mechanism forced the inner ring to shift along with it.

“Left one notch, hold it down!”

Zhao Mengmeng braced her feet against the door panel, using terrifying counter-force to resist the rotating gear.

“This crappy gate is heavier than a corpse!”

Lin Ye suddenly raised his right arm and flicked the hidden gear ring of the fourth layer.

The solar patterns on the gate's surface burst with brilliant golden light.

A scalding heatwave surged out from the gaps in the gate.

The metal grating beneath their feet was heated to a dull red.

Pungent white smoke began to rise from the edges of Zhao Mengmeng's combat boots.

Lin Ye's Left Eye opened once again.

In True Vision, the remaining six green slots were being rapidly swallowed by the red zones activated by the heatwave.

“Inner ring right three, second ring left one, don't touch the central axis!”

The two of them exerted force at the same time.

Click! Click! Click!

Three consecutive precise engagements.

A dull thud of a lock falling into place sounded from inside the gate.

However, cracks abruptly split open on both sides of the top of the gate.

Densely packed bronze pinholes pointed directly at the crowns of their heads.

Lin Ye pushed his vision to its limit.

The red lines were already approaching the ends of the pinholes.

Two breaths of time.

“Heads down! Turn the smallest wheel at the very bottom, left half a notch!”

Zhao Mengmeng's knees slammed into the ground as she lunged forward.

Hidden in a blind spot of the blood-stained threshold was a black wheel only the size of a palm.

She gripped it with her left hand and twisted it hard by half a turn.

Click.

The sound of the mechanism within the pinholes was instantly cut short.

Several poisoned black needles fell weakly to the ground.

Zhao Mengmeng glanced at the poisoned needles on the ground.

“That predecessor must have been shot to death by these needles, right?”

“Not just that.”

Before Lin Ye's voice could fade.

The stone wall beside them cracked open without warning.

A withered mechanical arm holding a triangular spike stabbed straight toward the back of Zhao Mengmeng's neck!

The light screen gave no biological warning.

It was triggered by an inanimate object.

A flash of blade light burst forth.

Clang!

His horizontal saber slashed violently at the joint of the mechanical arm, sending a shower of sparks flying.

The material was extremely hard.

The blade only cut halfway through before getting stuck.

The triangular spike was knocked off course by the slash.

The blade grazed Zhao Mengmeng's neck, piercing the backpack strap on her shoulder.

Zhao Mengmeng ducked, reaching back to grab the last bronze arrowhead.

She violently shoved it into the gap Lin Ye had chopped open.

“You sneaky bastard!”

Lin Ye used the momentum to press down on his horizontal saber with both arms.

A loud crack of metal snapping resounded.

The joint of the mechanical arm was severed cleanly, slamming heavily onto the scalding floor.

Zhao Mengmeng ripped off the ruined backpack strap.

Lin Ye stood back in front of the gate.

The mechanical arm had wasted a full ten breaths of time.

The stinging in his Left Eye intensified, and the edges of his vision began to darken.

The final three rings were linked; there could not be the slightest error.

Lin Ye gripped the fifth layer of gears with all ten fingers.

“Listen to the rhythm.”

“Speak.”

“I'll turn the outer ring, you follow with the inner ring. At the third click, pause for half a breath, then reverse it by one notch.”

“Understood.”

Lin Ye channeled strength into his shoulders.

The gears turned.

Click.

Zhao Mengmeng pushed the inner ring in sync.

Click.

The heatwave was scorching.

Click.

The third click sounded.

Zhao Mengmeng's arms tensed as she locked the gear in place, then decisively pulled it back by one notch.

The main slot was completely locked.

Lin Ye slapped the sixth ring.

“Right two.”

“In place!”

“Central axis, press down.”

Zhao Mengmeng flipped her elbow, aiming at the protruding rotating shaft in the very center of the gate, and slammed down hard.

Boom!

The entire bronze gate vibrated violently.

The nine layers of gears collapsed inward in unison, as the solar patterns and star tracks lit up simultaneously with dazzling light.

[This execution is insane! It's actually open!]

[Less than thirty seconds! This tests both brainpower and speed!]

[Where are the foreigners? Come out and learn some skills!]

A few overseas bullet comments drifted across the screen filled with exclamations.

[This isn't deduction... He is directly reading the lock.]

[India messed with the wrong person.]

The heavy rumbling continued.

The bronze giant gate slowly parted from the center line.

There was no secret treasure as expected.

There was no new underground corridor.

An exceptionally violent, dry, and cold gale poured through the crack of the gate, instantly blowing the two of them back half a step.

With his horizontal saber held in front of him, Lin Ye stepped into the pitch-black world behind the gate.

Behind the gate was a cliff.

An endless black canyon cut across the end of the Eighth Floor.

The gale swirled straight up from the bottom of the valley, carrying large chunks of gray sand and gravel.

In the eye of the wind in the far distance, several shattered stone platforms floated.

There was no bridge.

Several extremely thick, broken bronze chains were dancing wildly over the abyss along with the howling wind.

Zhao Mengmeng poked her head out to glance at the bottomless abyss.

She quickly pulled her foot back inside the threshold.

Lin Ye stood firm at the edge of the cliff.

His thumb slowly pressed onto the repaired traction mechanism on his right arm.

“Good news, the gate is open,” Zhao Mengmeng said.

The howling wind swallowed most of the canyon.

“Bad news, the path is gone.”