108 Maidens of Destiny Chapter 58

The door was created from an entire immense piece of black rock. Heavy and st.u.r.dy, even if Su Xing used all his strength, he was incapable of opening it even a fraction. This door mechanism seemed to have also stumped many people. Spread all across the door were intersecting slash marks, having been hacked and chopped at by countless people venting their anger. Even so, this door was as before, high and mighty, motionless.

The Thief Star Shi Qian was also frustrated to death by this door. Using her light movements body techniques, breaking away from those Mechanical Beasts was not very troublesome. The problem was that she could not feel out its underlying principles. With no alternative, she could only draw away those Mechanical Beasts so that she could have enough time to slowly solve this door mechanism. However, seeing the Knowledge Star, the Resourceful Star, right now, Shi Yuan just placed all her hopes on Wu Yong.

Su Xing exerted all his strength to try to push it a bit, but exerting all his strength moved nothing. Su Xing then searched once more across the door. Besides the scratches hacked and chopped out of it, the stone door made from basalt had no other marks. Seeing him search so carefully, Shi Yuan dampened his enthusiasm: "This Young Lady is indeed a specialized robber. The things that should have been inspected have already been inspected. The door has concealed a secret compartment inside, but opening this secret compartment needs to be done from the exterior. In other words, this door is hiding a mechanism to open the door."

Su Xing nodded his head. Since the Thief Star said as such, this mechanism was clearly not that easy to find

Looking at this door filled with cracks, Su Xing surmised that the mechanism to open the door perhaps had something to do with these cracks.

"Sister Xinjie, have you figured it out?" Shi Yuan blinked her eyes as she watched.

"Can't you see Young Master is thinking?" The Knowledge Star smiled but did not speak.

Su Xing turned his head and saw Wu Xinjie seemed to have a card up her sleeve. Smiling, he said: "Xinjie, if you have solved this mechanism, don't keep up the suspense."

"Knowledge Star, you solved it this quickly??"

"Is that true?"

Lin Yingmei and An Suwen showed their surprise.

Seeing Shi Yuan being so impatient, Wu Xinjie did not keep the others in suspense. Shrugging her shoulders: "This mechanism is right before us. To claim that you're The Best Thief Under Heaven and not perceive even this minor thing!"

Shi Yuan stuck out her lip. She had stared at this door everyday to the point she was about to become blind, and she still could not make out the reason why.

Wu Xinjie stood in front of the door, ama.s.sing Star Energy at her fingertips. Then, she made strokes in the empty s.p.a.ce opposite the door, and those ugly cracks on the door suddenly had several of the hack marks flash several strokes of white light.

"Ah???"

The rest showed amazed expressions.

An "Open"¹ character appeared on the door. It was right after this appeared that the stone door slowly opened with a rumbling boom.

Shi Yuan slapped her head with an "ah": "Sister Xinjie is indeed sharp, seeing through this mechanism with just a glance." The Thief Star greatly admired her endlessly. It seemed that among the slash marks on the door, putting together a few would form an "Open" character, and along with Star Energy, these crammed cracks would immediately trigger the mechanism behind the door. Afterwards, this stone door opened.

How could she not think of this!

"The Mo Clan mechanism is too clever. If the Knowledge Star wasn't here, who could solve this." Shi Yuan slapped her stomach, glad.

"My Young Master is definitely far smarter than Xinjie." Wu Xinjie stuck out her tongue.

Shi Yuan just took it as she being modest, saying: "Sister is truly considerate of her own young master."

"Certain arts have their specialists. I, too, did not think of this." Su Xing shook his head.

Entering the ruins' interior, the Thief Star activated a Daoist Light Talisman. This ruin was constructed downwards, so everyone descended along the flight of stairs with the Thief Star at the front. The Flea on a Drum's excellent perception of traps and the like could avert the greatest level of encountering danger.

They were more scared than hurt as they walked for approximately several incense sticks when everyone then saw a pitch-black cave mouth, a tunnel entrance that pa.s.sed an unfathomable chill. Unable to see even her fingers, the Thief Star threw out a Daoist Light Talisman. Its script fell into the darkness, engulfed without so much as giving a response. Apparently, this cave mouth had been granted an odd forbiddance that made light talismans useless here. Luckily, the Thief Star had prepared torches.

After lighting a few bundles, An Suwen suddenly glanced upon an inscription on the wall.

"The Great Corridor!" ²

"Inside is the Great Corridor?" Shi Qian cried out in surprise.

"This place unexpectedly has the Great Corridor. Looks like the Mo Attack Treasure Box really is hidden here." Shi Yuan rubbed her palms in expectation.

Su Xing and his group felt suspicious about her shock and even some of her excited expressions. "What's the matter? Is this Great Corridor very famous?" Su Xing asked Wu Xinjie.

The Knowledge Star thought for a moment. "It seems I've heard of this before, the Ten Great Mechanisms?"

"Sister Xinjie is truly versatile and able, even knowing this. Not going and being a perfect robber is truly a waste." Shi Yuan smiled lightly. In order to learn this Mechanical Art, she worked her heart out researching the Divine Machine Clan for quite some time. The Ten Great Mechanisms were the Divine Machine Clan's most formidable peak.

Among them was the "Great Corridor."

Su Xing knew of the Great Wall, but he did not know what this Great Corridor was about.

"The Great Corridor, as the name implies, is this ten thousand li corridor. No, it could even be millions of li." Shi Yuan explained pompously.³

"Hmph, what a joke." Lin Yingmei sneered: "Constructing a million li corridor underground, even if it was an Annihilation Stage Star Cultivator, they could not possibly accomplish that."

"Right, this engineering is indeed far more frightening than the 'Shining Moon Longevity Palace.'" An Suwen firmly believed this was correct.

The Bright Moon Long Life Palace⁴ was Liangshan Continent's legendary palace. Reportedly, it was established above the Nine Firmaments. Even so, the corridor was not as vast as a million li.

"Legend has it that during the Hundred Deviances' Great War,⁵ the Divine Machine Clan already used the ‘Great Corridor’ to trap a Transforming Star of Annihilation cultivator for nine days and nine nights. In the end, this cultivator fully used all of his Star Energy to wreck the Great Corridor until practically nothing was left in order to escape."

A Transforming Star of Annihilation cultivator that was, in an instant the cream of the crop, unable to leave for nine days and nine nights made everyone shiver from the bottom of their hearts.

"Isn't that equivalent to the Strength⁶ Astral Treasure, ‘Row of Portraits Upon the Memorial Riverbend’?⁷ Could Mechanical Arts be this powerful?" Wu Xinjie scoffed. The Divine Machine Clan that seemed truly able to manufacture this sort of mechanism could not have died out.

"This Young Lady has also heard of that." Shi Yuan said.

"Or perhaps it's only a pretense." Lin Yingmei said. There was definitely this possibility.

Shi Yuan was still a bit uneasy: "But I heard the Great Corridor for sure is in a state of lacking light."

"Then are you prepared to enter further?" Su Xing asked.

Shi Yuan patted her full chest: "Acting as a professional and virtuous robber, it's only natural that this Young Lady cannot miss such an obviously straightforward mechanism."

"Tsk, then go inside." Su Xing interrupted her lengthy introduction.

"Do you guys really want to enter? If we're trapped inside, this Young Lady will definitely not be responsible. The Great Corridor, the Annihilation cultivator's difficult escape, we definitely differ from that big brother by a length." Shi Yuan very kindly warned: "This Young Lady is fine with being trapped to death, but you have two Star Generals. In Liangshan Continent, you are actually a rare genius."

"Have you decided?" Su Xing asked the two girls.

"As the Young Master wishes." Lin Yingmei said resolutely.

"Hmph, Xinjie does not believe a Mechanical Art has this sort of amazing power." Wu Xinjie implied she was very interested.

Su Xing naturally would not shrink back.

Finally, they fixed their gazes onto An Suwen: "Suwen, how about you wait for us here?"

"Suwen is better off following together with the young master. If the inside has poisonous miasma, Suwen can promptly neutralize it." An Suwen reflected for a moment, and she was not opposed.

"Ha, ha, you are indeed a fascinating Star Master."⁸ Shi Yuan patted Su Xing's shoulders, laughing heartily, clear and bright.

She proceeded to enter the Great Corridor.

The rest subsequently also entered, and right after they entered, with a loud bang, the entrance door was immediately sealed completely!!

Author’s Note:

I'm terribly sorry, but I had a guest over. The computer was taken over, and only this late could I make an addition.

This week, every day will have at the very least two additions.

1. 開, all it took to open the door was write, “open.” How imaginative… ↩
2. 萬里長廊, literally the "Thousand li Long Corridor," this is a reference to the name of the Great Wall. ↩
3. 有模有樣 Trying to be an expert on something she isn't, basically ↩
4. 明月長生宮 ↩
5. 百異大戰 ↩
6. 天罡級 ↩
7. 清明上河圖 ↩
8. Then sign here for a contract to see more amazing things! ↩