The surrounding crowd temporarily stopped their digging, watching silently as Liang Xiao walked toward the cave entrance.
Liang Xiao stared at the stone door, examining it closely.
On the surface of the stone door, apart from a conspicuous wolf head, not the slightest seam could be found.
Ding Wu Yi had already sent people to inspect it, confirming that there were no mechanisms on the surface of the stone door.
"Young Master Liang Er, can you discern the mechanism?" Ding Wu Yi asked.
Liang Xiao shook his head, "There shouldn't be any hidden compartments or the like on the surface."
The crowd couldn't help but feel a wave of disappointment regarding the stone door.
"Then should we find a way to directly chisel open the stone door, or continue digging from this side of the cave?" Ding Wu Yi asked again.
"Wait a moment!" Liang Xiao waved his hand, picked up a shovel by the door, and tapped the stone door with the end of its wooden handle.
This shovel was a full zhang long, designed to reach inaccessible spots.
"What's the use of knocking?" the crowd wondered.
Liang Xiao called out loudly, "Cease work! Silence!"
Ding Wu Yi immediately ordered everyone to quiet down and wait patiently.
Liang Xiao continued to tap various parts of the stone door with the shovel, each strike with nearly the same force.
Starting from the bottom left corner, he tapped row by row, moving back and forth, raising the height with each pass, as if trying to tap every inch of the stone door. It looked quite tedious.
Liang Xiao was not doing this out of boredom, but rather to explore the cave entrance and see if any special mechanisms were present.
According to historical records left by the Great Heng Kingdom, after Emperor Heluo Fu of the Xiongnu was defeated by the King of the Eastern Sea, his army retreated in haste to the desert.
Therefore, Heluo Fu certainly wouldn't have had enough time to meticulously prepare a treasure site. Choosing a hidden location and hastily setting up some mechanisms was likely the limit of Heluo Fu's capabilities. Unless this cave was already prepared by ancient people before Heluo Fu, and he simply utilized it.
The end of this Fierce Tiger River was indeed sufficiently secluded. For hundreds of years, there had been earthquakes in the Yanzhou region. Perhaps this area had subsided due to an earthquake, turning it into the end of the Fierce Tiger River!
The hearts of the crowd pounded with each tap of Liang Xiao's shovel, and no one dared to utter a sound to disturb him.
Liang Xiao had already tapped the lower half of the stone door, yielding no results.
Just as Ding Wu Yi was considering whether to ask Liang Xiao to break the door open soon, Liang Xiao's wooden handle suddenly stopped at a certain spot on the right side of the stone door, and he repeatedly tapped there.
Ding Wu Yi's expression changed: the sound emanating from this spot seemed less muffled than those from other areas!
"Mark this spot!" Liang Xiao finally spoke.
Shadow Guards immediately stepped forward, drew a circle there with ink, and quickly retreated to their original positions.
Liang Xiao continued to tap other locations in a similar fashion. In a short while, he had the Shadow Guards mark another spot, slightly to the left of the center of the gate.
After Liang Xiao had finished tapping the entire stone door with the wooden handle and marking was complete, the crowd, gazing at the seven marks, was astonished.
The seven marks precisely formed the distribution of the seven stars of the Big Dipper!
"It absolutely cannot be a coincidence..." Ding Wu Yi felt ashamed.
He had already been extremely cautious, even sending someone to invite Liang Xiao for assistance immediately, rather than rushing to break down the door.
Even so, he and the Shadow Guards had not noticed such a detail.
"Young Master Liang Er has truly searched for treasures and robbed tombs, and he's probably a seasoned criminal. Or perhaps he learned tomb-robbing techniques from that miscellaneous book..." Ding Wu Yi became increasingly certain of his unsavory thoughts, planning to learn a trick or two from Liang Xiao later, which might prove useful.
Looking at the seven marks resembling the Big Dipper, Liang Xiao seemed to be muttering to himself, "Tian Shu, Tian Xuan, Tian Ji, Tian Quan, Yu Heng, Kai Yang, Yao Guang. We probably need to tap them in sequence."
"Why?" Ding Wu Yi asked curiously.
Liang Xiao explained, "Because it's hollow inside, the sound I hear when I tap is less muffled than in other places. I estimate that starting from Yao Guang and applying a certain force to tap will vibrate the internal mechanism. Following the sequence of these seven stars, it will eventually fall into the position of Tian Shu."
The crowd looked doubtfully at the "Tian Shu" position, hesitant to believe.
Although "Tian Shu" was the end of the Big Dipper, its position was above the lowest star, "Tian Xuan."
If something were to roll inside and trigger a mechanism, how would it roll upwards to the endpoint of Tian Shu?
The crowd was puzzled but did not speak out to interrupt Liang Xiao's thoughts.
"Perhaps the force of the tapping earlier was not enough, let's try again!"
As Liang Xiao spoke, he grabbed the wooden handle and forcefully struck the "Yao Guang" position.
Inside the stone door, the hollow space corresponding to Yao Guang vibrated. A sliver of wood, as thin as a cicada's wing, embedded on the surface, vibrated slightly. After a moment, it triggered a mechanism beneath, and a fist-sized smooth stone sphere embedded on the surface next to it popped out and rolled into a passage.
It rolled all the way to the end of the passage and fitted into the second position.
Kai Yang!
"Ding—"
A crisp sound came from within the stone door, followed by the sound of rolling stone, which caused everyone present to gasp!
It actually worked?
Liang Xiao frowned, "Setting up mechanisms at the entrance using astronomical knowledge is also a form of wisdom."
Ding Wu Yi and the Shadow Guards couldn't help but blush.
They had been cautious enough, yet they still hadn't noticed this detail.
Only Ding Wu Yi and Liang Xiao were inwardly shocked: Heluo Fu was a Xiongnu, yet he would utilize the astronomical knowledge of the Central Plains!
To avoid further complications, Liang Xiao had already begun to vigorously tap the "Kai Yang" position.
Inside the stone door, the hollow space corresponding to Kai Yang was similarly hollow, and the arrangement was largely the same, but the passage was different. After the sliver of wood vibrated, the smooth stone sphere was again ejected and rolled down a second passage.
However, if viewed horizontally, the directions of the two passages were opposite!
Liang Xiao and the others outside couldn't see the internal mechanism, but that didn't stop Liang Xiao from trying.
Kai Yang, Yu Heng, Tian Quan, Tian Ji, Tian Xuan...
Repeatedly, Liang Xiao finally stopped at the Tian Xuan position.
The crowd held their breath, afraid of disturbing Liang Xiao. Otherwise, they would have already cried out in excitement by now!
Liang Xiao tapped the Tian Xuan position without hesitation, but there was no reaction.
"It really won't work?" Ding Wu Yi thought with a bitter smile.
Water flows downhill; it's a natural phenomenon. Objects don't inexplicably move upwards, only downwards.
"Perhaps the force is insufficient, the vibration is not strong enough." Liang Xiao was not discouraged. Instead, he flipped the shovel over and forcefully struck the Tian Xuan position with the iron shovel head, producing a crisp clanging sound.
Liang Xiao persevered, repeatedly tapping for over a hundred times.
At the Tian Xuan position, three slivers of wood, as thin as cicada wings, finally vibrated simultaneously.
The stone sphere, which had been firmly embedded on the surface, was suddenly ejected with great force and rolled up an ascending passage into the "Tian Shu" position. It finally settled into place, and the mechanism inside the stone door was finally triggered!
The crowd heard a muffled sound from within and were both surprised and delighted.
The large stone door actually began to vibrate!
Ding Wu Yi couldn't help but exclaim in his heart: A genius, even his "tomb-robbing" is so professional...
Just as the crowd was getting excited, the stone wall above the stone door rapidly revealed its surface, exposing a total of ten crossbow mechanisms!
"Swoosh swoosh swoosh!"
Ten sharp crossbow bolts simultaneously shot towards Liang Xiao!
"Danger!" Jian Qin Wan and Ding Wu Yi's hearts trembled, and they quickly rushed towards Liang Xiao.
However, Liang Xiao had already drawn his treasure sword.
Under the astonished gaze of everyone, Liang Xiao swung his sword in a wide sweep, and all ten sharp arrows were deflected...
The entire crowd was dumbfounded!