"Xiao Qi, has anyone opened this door before?"

Why do you ask that?

"If this is the final destination, then the original owner's parents must be inside. I don't need to explain how they got in, do I?"

"Impressive, my host. But you guessed wrong. Someone did go in, but it wasn't that couple."

"So, is there anything I don't know?"

"The original owner followed Liu Zijue and the others, and by chance, reached the finish line, allowing those two to reap the rewards. However, without the help of other things, even if you obtain the most important thing, you will eventually have to give it back."

Xiang Wan didn't ask any more questions; she understood that many things couldn't be understood simply by asking a few questions. While the system was calculating the code to unlock the totem's mechanism, Xiang Wan began to observe the totem itself.

Legend has it that ancient Egypt had nine principal gods. Ra, the sun god, was the father of these nine gods. He created the Ennead from his own body, who later became the gods who controlled wind, rain, heaven, earth, and the cycle of life and death. Atum was the chief of the nine gods. He had the appearance of a snake, lizard, beetle, lion, bull, and ichneumon wasp, and sometimes a phoenix. He was symbolized by a golden disc. This totem has a golden disc as its base, with various creatures evenly distributed around it. In the very center is a snake's head, with its mouth wide open and sharp teeth gleaming coldly. The snake's eyes are closed, and its forked tongue is retracted deep into its throat.

The lizard is directly above the snake's head. Moving clockwise, next to it are a bull, beetle, lion, winged bee, bat, phoenix, crocodile, and antelope. Further inward, there's a human with outstretched wings, a donkey, a spider, and a hippopotamus. The entire totem is centered on the snake, with only an empty space below its head, as if something is missing.

"It's not that something is missing, it's just something you can use to fill in the gaps."

It seems the system has already figured out the totem of this door, and its voice at this moment perfectly connects with Xiang Wan's train of thought.

"So, arranging these animals in a certain order will open the door?"

“That’s right. But you must know the correct order. If you move one step wrong, all the animals’ positions will change. You only have three chances. If you make a mistake all three times, it will attract something terrible.”

"Three times? No problem. With you here, Xiao Qi, I'm not afraid."

The system could only chuckle. The host trusted it so much, yet it suddenly felt immense pressure. What should it do?

"Listen carefully, follow the steps one by one, and don't let your hands shake, or you'll be in big trouble."

"knew."

Xiang Wan took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, and then began to do as 007 had instructed.

"The crocodiles moved away, the antelopes came down, the hippos moved on, the people moved away, the lizards came down..."

Moving step by step, she suddenly realized that the winged bee pattern wouldn't budge. With a sudden effort, the entire totem began to move, dazzling her. After about ten minutes, the patterns finally stopped moving again. Then, the snake's head in the center seemed to have changed; its eyes appeared to open a crack, revealing the bottom part of its deep blue vertical eye, and its forked tongue protruded significantly.

"Holy crap, what's wrong with Xiao Qi?"

"Didn't I tell you that bad things would happen if you moved it by the wrong way?"

"I didn't move anything; I followed your instructions exactly."

"You're still pushing even though you can't move it?"

"Can it be moved without effort?"

"You've really defeated me. I've lost one opportunity. Let this system calm down and try to crack it again later."

"Okay, I'll take a break too."

Xiang Wan dared not say another word, afraid of disturbing the system's analysis. She had been thinking that since the totem hadn't been touched for so long, it might be rusted or blocked by something, which was why she had tried to pry it so forcefully. Now she knew she had clearly misunderstood and been tricked. Fortunately, she still had two more chances. She needed to calm down and compose herself after her first failed attempt.

A breeze began to blow through the cracks in the ground, seemingly growing stronger. The previously silent chains started rattling and swaying, sending chills down Xiang Wan's spine. She stared intently at the other side of the chains, swallowed hard, and cautiously called upon the system to speed things up.

007 replied irritably, "Don't rush me, the more you rush me, the slower it will be."

Xiang Wan could only sit quietly by the door, making no further movement. The clanking of the chains was sometimes loud, sometimes soft, like someone knocking on the other side. Her headlamp, after being used for so long, had dimmed, allowing her to see only about two meters ahead. The surrounding darkness felt like thick, sticky liquid, pressing in on her. Xiang Wan felt like she couldn't breathe, and even heavy breathing couldn't alleviate the oppressive feeling.

"alright."

The word "system" was like a lifeline for Xiang Wan, instantly drawing her attention. She quickly stood up, turned around, and listened intently to 007's instructions, forgetting even the oppressive feeling from before.

"Be careful this time. Don't use too much force. If you encounter something you can't handle, just give up. Don't be nervous, we have a third chance."

"good."

Xiang Wan's answer was somewhat reluctant. In her mind, if there were two chances, she only had one. If she failed the first time, she considered it a complete failure. It wasn't because of pressure or a lack of mental fortitude, but rather her consistent approach. Focusing intently and exhaustively on solving a problem was far more meaningful than hoping for a second chance. Human energy is finite; before truly solving a problem, one can try many times with plenty of energy. But once that energy is depleted and the problem remains unsolved, it's a matter of luck, not a lack of ability. In that case, failure is understandable.

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