From the darkness, an ancient bell chimed, and beneath the calm water, the sound of the bell continuously spread throughout the entire Bronze City.
Archimedes said, 'Give me a fulcrum, and I can move the Earth.' The deceased frogmen also had something to say: 'Give me a lever, and I can activate the entire Bronze City.'
With just a gentle pull of an ordinary person's strength, the complex alchemical structure began to rub thousands upon thousands of times, and the entire colossal mechanical apparatus was awakened in an instant.
The creation cast from bronze a thousand years ago had come to life.
The originally seamless bronze walls suddenly split apart, revealing an endless succession of passages and spaces. The sealed environment abruptly transformed into a honeycomb-like structure, with new paths appearing around Lu Mingfei and Zero every second.
The roar of gears turning was ceaseless in their ears; the path they had taken to arrive was blocked, and a new exit opened elsewhere. In the blink of an eye, the original temple underwent earth-shattering changes.
The snake-human statues they had seen before shifted above their heads, to their right, to their left, and beneath their feet. Each path was like a horizontal line on a chessboard; their trajectories were complex and never intersected. After approaching the bronze walls, they would disappear into them. No one knew their ultimate purpose or what kind of devils they would awaken.
Lu Mingfei protected Zero, warily looking around. He had been calling Lu Mingze since just now, but there was no response. Just as Lu Mingze had said, many people were watching this place, and he was wrestling with characters of his own rank.
So, from now on, he and Zero could only rely on their combined efforts.
The divination indicated that the lowest level was a path where he would face near-certain death, so he absolutely couldn't fall. However, letting him figure it out on his own would waste a lot of effort. Zero's choice was good, but not good enough. Sure enough, 13 was the key. The influence of the divination was about to fully manifest now.
Unfortunately, he couldn't shout, '13, where are you? We won't kill you; let's act together!' underwater.
The roaring sound above his head interrupted Lu Mingfei's thoughts. He looked up and saw the entire bronze dome collapsing, as if the sky had fallen. Thousands of tons of weight were crushing down, threatening to turn this place into nothingness—something absolutely impossible for human strength to stop.
There's no time to find 13. If this hits solidly, forget about a 'middle-upper' divination; even a 'middle' divination would be gone. The 'lowest' divination would immediately come true. "I'll listen to you. Where do we go next?"
Lu Mingfei looked around. The bronze pillars in the hall were slowly sinking, and a bronze wall, appearing from who knew where, was pressing towards them, not only blocking their path back to the front hall but also attempting to crush them, stranded there, into a meat patty.
He could guess with his toes that the thickness of this bronze wall was absolutely beyond human strength to open. Perhaps using the ribbon might offer a chance, but with 100 meters of water pressure, the moment he unzipped his diving suit, his blood vessels would explode. This was genuine 'blood burst.'
The original route had lost its reference value. The entire Bronze City was like a 4x4 Rubik's Cube being rapidly spun by a novice; there was no way to find a fully restored solution.
Countless paths formed and disappeared; they had to make a choice.
But they couldn't just decide on a whim, or else the moment they entered a passage, their heads would be crushed by a bronze wall.
Time was running out. Lu Mingfei looked up at the constantly approaching bronze dome and bronze wall. Their living space had been more than halved in less than half a minute.
"The Dragon Runes photos in the camera, those are the casting inscriptions of the Bronze City. My Rune is Mirror Eye, but I need time to decipher the inscriptions," Zero said. "Open the door. That place hasn't been affected by these mechanisms. I can replicate the Land of No Dust."
"Okay," Lu Mingfei nodded. The two swam swiftly towards the door's location. A low chant echoed as Zero released the Land of No Dust while moving!
Feeling the changes in the surrounding water flow, there was no time to go through the process of taking off the diving suit. Lu Mingfei steeled his heart, and the ribbon extended from between the fingers of his diving suit. The two quickly descended, carrying the not-yet-fully-formed Land of No Dust. The ribbon decisively cut a gash on Lu Mingfei's fingertip, and Lu Mingfei unhesitatingly pressed it onto the living spirit of the great door.
An extremely long tunnel unfolded beneath their feet, making one think of a water park's rapid ride. Their vision immediately plunged into darkness, with the only light coming from Zero's Golden Eyes.
They entered the opening.
Behind them, 13, who had stumbled out safely from various passages, saw Lu Mingfei disappear into that tunnel.
His eyes immediately lit up; he was indeed lucky. He no longer hesitated and leaped into the tunnel before the door closed.
The door closed completely.
After dozens of seconds of spiraling down a slide, Lu Mingfei landed on his butt. Zero was a bit better off, with Lu Mingfei serving as a cushion. Lu Mingfei immediately observed the surroundings. If it was a water park's rapid ride just now, now it might be an amusement park's Ferris wheel, except the cabins of the Ferris wheel were filled with water.
They were now sitting side by side on a gigantic waterwheel.
It was a bronze waterwheel, its surface wrapped in a thick, unknown fabric. Each baffle was a platform large enough to hold five adult men. They continued forward along a dark passage, with the sound of gurgling water on both sides.
Until a flash of white light appeared before them, and Lu Mingfei and Zero leaped out.
This place was completely unaffected by the constantly changing Bronze City; it was entirely like the core axis of a Rubik's Cube, a safe house within the ancient bronze city.
At the end of the passage, Lu Mingfei had expected to see a magnificent and vast palace, perhaps with ancient Greek-style columns or ancient Chinese-style coiled dragon pillars.
Furthermore, there would be an extremely high dome, with bronze cast dragon heads or something in the caissons, a towering platform with a throne on it, and snake-faced human statues standing on all sides. If there were also mercury flowing everywhere and bronze-cast mountains,
And ever-burning lamps fueled by dozens of jars of mermaid oil, it would be even more befitting of a Dragon King's grandeur.
But now they stood in a small room, an ancient bronze-cast dwelling. Aside from its material, it was no different from the ancient Chinese dwellings he had seen in history book illustrations.
There was no accumulated water. Lu Mingfei subconsciously removed his mask to breathe, only to find that there was no oxygen available for humans to breathe. He had no choice but to abandon the idea of saving oxygen and put his mask back on.
He took out an underwater flare stick to provide light. Under the firelight, the bronze bed in the bronze house was illuminated, along with a low bronze cabinet holding a ceramic vase. In the corner, there was also a bronze maid statue kneeling, holding a palace lantern, but the lantern had long since extinguished because no one had added oil.
Lu Mingfei threw the flare stick into the palace lantern, illuminating the entire bronze house.
In the red light, he saw the shadow of a third person.
Almost simultaneously with Zero, the ribbon turned from his wrist and shot straight towards the shadow's position.
"Have mercy, brave sir!"
A plea for mercy also rang out at this moment.