Mengman whisked the dust on his body and knocked toward the direction of the tunnel’s opening, which seemed to be a cipher. Qin Yunuan and Leng Changxi heard the intensive sounds immediately. The moment Mengman raised his head to observe the surroundings, he looked at Leng Changxi and Qin Yunuan, who hung in the air. Now Leng Changxi and Qin Yunuan almost reached the opposite, and the handrail with iron chains intertwining was just near Mengman. The standpoints of both sides were very clear now.
Leng Changxi used his split vision to observe Mengman while tried to move to the end with difficulty. Though he saved Mengman, he could not make sure that Mengman would never hurt them. After all, Mengman was from Chen Jingrui and regarded him as a deity always.
Suddenly, another person fell from the tunnel, who had always been the senior follower of Mengman. The moment he saw Leng Changxi, a kind of murderous anger burned in his eyes at once. Looking at the countless black bugs on the ground, he almost knew why Leng Changxi and Qin Yunuan did not choose the path but such a dangerous way. Looking at the iron chains intertwined on the handrail, the follower stepped forward immediately and was about to cut off the lifeline of Leng Changxi and Qin Yunuan by a steel sword.
When he took off the scabbard, he was about to cut off the iron chain without any hesitance. But at such a critical moment, Mengman controlled the follower’s hands tightly, and it was just a finger-wide distance from the sword to the iron chain. The follower was confused and stared at Mengman tightly. He thought his young master would betray the supreme deity of the tribe.
Mengman glanced at Leng Changxi by his split vision and kicked the follower into the central ground where there were countless bugs. In a flash, the black bugs were crawling with black bugs, and the follower twisted like a more giant black bug on the ground painfully. He could not escape at all because there were numerous black bugs on his body.
Qin Yunuan could almost hear the subtle sounds of the flesh’s tearing from a distance. After a while, the bugs dispersed, and there was only a skeleton left here. Mengman glimpsed at Leng Changxi and shouted something in the language of the tribe.
Now Leng Changxi had reached the end safely together with Qin Yunuan in the chaos just now. Leng Changxi massaged his sore arms and turned back to ask Qin Yunuan, “What did he say just now?”
“He said he had paid off the kindness that you saved him. He would be your enemy if you met later.” Qin Yunuan glimpsed at Mengman with complicated eyes.
“So then there is no need to thank him,” Leng Changxi did not turn back and added, “I don’t owe him too.” And then he held the hand of Qin Yunuan walked toward the empty room in the palisades. The people from the tribe fell from the tunnel constantly. The last one was Chen Jingrui, whose legs were disabled. Someone carried him, but his eyes were still intense.
All felt frightened when they saw the skeleton among the bugs, but Mengman just said calmly, “This is your lecture. You should remember that you should never touch the bugs.”
Chen Jingrui glimpsed at Mengman without a word and just ordered, “Try to reach the opposite. The stone room is the core space of the whole weapon factory.”
And Qin Yunuan and Leng Changxi, who had entered the core space, were walking along with the narrow and winding corridor. Finally, they saw a higher stone step. They felt uncomfortable by the soft light when they reached the last step.
They raised their heads and found the stone room’s decoration was just like the hall in wealthy families, and the soft light was from the ceiling lamp hung in the top of the stone room and decorated by a dozen night pearls. Such luxurious decoration had surpassed the royal palace where the emperor lived.
“Here is a stone door.” Qin Yunuan touched a mobile board and glimpsed at the candlestick near the stone door. She understood why there was a candlestick since there were so many night pearls in the hall.
Qin Yunuan moved the candlestick, and then the stone door opened suddenly. It was dark inside, so Leng Changxi jumped to take down the ceiling lamp’s biggest night pearl. He used the night pearl to light up the small space inside.
“Let’s enter the room.” They entered the room, and Leng Changxi followed in the rear. Compared with the luxurious decoration outside, it was more like a personal study here. Drawings heaped upon the long table. There were many bound drawings in the ceramic canister, and some of them were only finished half.
Leng Changxi could not help but open those drawings where there were many inner structures of machines. He guessed that they were the drawings of the competitive weapons at that time.
“Don’t touch them.” Leng Changxi warned in a soft voice, “If they were real drawings of weapons, it would be weird that those drawings were put on the table straightly.”
Leng Changxi agreed and nodded. And then Qin Yunuan added, “Chen Wan is a smart woman. She must have her confidential way to hide and do what she wants. I worry that there is something wrong with these drawings.”
Suddenly, noises came from the outside. It was the noise of crowds coming in. If he calculated right, now Chen Jingrui with his followers would quickly arrive. People from the outside would see the whole room, so there was no place for them to hide. Leng Changxi raised his head and saw a raised stone column at the top of the study. He got an idea.
Outside, those slaves got astonished very much when they saw the luxurious ceiling lamp made of night pearls in the hall.
But only Chen Jingrui found that there was a night pearl missing after calm observation.
“Mengman, you lead them to search here. The two people must have come in. They are extremely cunnings, so you should be more careful.” And then Chen Jingrui looked at Wanyan Su, who had always been following him. Wanyan Su looked pale because of his broken arm. After bandaged simply, Wanyan Su still kept pace with the group. He always submitted to Chen Jingrui, but now his eyes were full of resentment and dissatisfaction.
“I know what you are thinking about,” Chen Jingrui seemed to care nothing about the inner pain of Wanyan Su, “You blame me for utilizing your wife’s body to help us go across the bugs. So what? Women should not trap men in their paths to success. Do you remember that you have said that you will be in power when you come back to the capital of North Di? I help you sweep the barriers away. No need to thank me.”
Wanyan Su wanted to say something but stopped. He blushed and got irritated by Chen Jingrui. Chen Jingrui glimpsed at him and smiled, “You go to move the candlestick on the wall. If I were right, the candlestick would be the switch of the secret room.”
Wanyan Su was bearing the insult. Now he was not the high-fed Forth Prince of North Di anymore but a clown as the bottom follower, submitting to Chen Jingrui.
The candlestick was moved again, and the stone door opened. Like Leng Changxi, Chen Jingrui and others were also attracted immediately by the heaping drawings on the table.
Nanny Yu said in a shuddering voice, “Oh my god. We find them. These are the biggest treasure. We find the drawings.”
And then Chen Jingrui ordered a follower near him, “You, fetch the drawings.”
The follower nodded and stepped forward to pick up one of the drawings. Immediately, a plume of smoke erupted toward the eyes of the follower. With a screech that seemed to come from the hell, the follower covered his eyes painfully. The smoke seemed to have stocked to his cheek.
“Fetch pure water! Be quick!” Nanny Yu ordered a slave behind her to pass the ox-horn kettle which only contained half water. She poured the water onto the follower’s face at once, but conversely, the smoke did not disperse but turned to be some boiled liquid. After a while, the face of the follower had been eroded completely.
Nanny Yu thought something wrong. The follower dragged down the drawings on the table one by one unconsciously when he was struggling. When the last one fell on the ground, a thick plume of smoke erupted. The inside of the table was empty, where two things were put to make the toxic smoke. When someone moved the drawings, the gear was triggered and sharply mixed the two things to form the corrosive smoke. The smoke density was heavier than the air, so the smoke floated lower in the floor level, so the toxic smoke did not influence Leng Changxi and Qin Yunuan at all, who were hiding behind the tone column that could keep out of the light.
Leng Changxi held the big night pearl. The bottom of the room was brighter, so the two people above could clearly see the room’s whole scene. They sighed that they were so lucky not to touch the drawings greedily.
The followers behind did not know what happened and only saw constant smoke. Some of them tried to use pure water to damp down the smoke like nanny Yu, but they got more immense hurt. Chen Jingrui not only gained nothing valuable but also had suffered the heavy losses of his slaves.
And even Chen Jingrui should be carried out by someone in a hurry.
Thick smoke spread in the bottom. Qin Yunuan above raised her head unconsciously and saw something surprising at the top of the stone room.
“Changxi, look.” Qin Yunuan pointed at the dim top lighted up by the night pearl. There seemed to be many carven patterns, which were not characters but some patterns with straight and curved lines. The smoke had forced Chen Jingrui and his followers out, so Leng Changxi took out the night pearl to light up the top.
After specific checking for a long time, Qin Yunuan judged, “Right, the carven patterns are the real drawings.”
“But how can we take them out?” Leng Changxi looked at the treasure carved on the stone wall and sighed.
“Chen Wan did not want others to take the patterns out since she carved the drawings on the wall. But don’t you remember your wife has the ability of excellent retentive memory?” Qin Yunuan said while engraving the patterns on her mind one by one.
Qin Yunuan held the night pearl to light up the wall for Qin Yunuan. When he lighted up the wall behind Qin Yunuan, the careful Leng Changxi found that this piece of the stone wall was different from the others.
He reached his fingers to knock it and heard the crisp sounds. Leng Changxi smiled, “Nuan, it is empty behind the stone wall.”
