As he spoke, he quickly moved the stone slabs on the ground, which could indeed slide up, down, left, and right.
“...Left Azure Dragon Mengzhang Jiayin, Right White Tiger Jianbing Jiashen, Above the head Vermilion Bird Lingguang Jiawu, Below the feet Black Tortoise Zhiming Jiazi, Moon as Nobleman Entering the Center…” He recalled the incantation he had seen on the stone tablet before and gradually pieced together the stone slabs into the corresponding shapes.
As the last stone slab was pieced together, a clear, crisp sound of a mechanism could be heard, and the entire slab and even the ground shook.
Everyone looked around, but after the shaking, nothing else changed.
He Li chuckled and said, "Lord Zu, is this what you meant by knowing how to break this mechanism?"
Zhao Ruizhi's gaze toward Zuan also sharpened.
Zuan ignored them and carefully observed the stone slabs on the ground. His gaze suddenly fell on the round pits on many of the stone slabs.
Suddenly, an idea struck him, and he took out the eighty-one luminous pearls he had found in the giant tortoise shell earlier.
When these beads were placed into those round pits, they fit perfectly.
At this moment, a cracking sound came from underground, and the stone slabs began to undulate continuously. Then, some stone slabs sank down, while others slowly stood up, eventually forming several square stone pillars.
Each stone pillar is engraved with different patterns on its four sides, resembling mythical beasts or symbols of the starry sky.
Eventually, the underground rumbling subsided, and everything returned to silence.
Zuan frowned. Had the mechanism not been solved yet?
He tried moving the stone pillars and found that they could not be moved, but they could be rotated. Moreover, when they were rotated, they would cause several other stone pillars to rotate accordingly.
“I see…” Zu An suddenly realized, but then frowned. Although he knew the general solution, he didn’t know what conditions these stone pillar patterns had to meet. Many of the inscriptions on the stone tablet he found in the temple were missing.
Just then, Zhao Ruizhi laughed and said, "So that's how it is. It really is destiny on my side. Zu, you are no longer of any use to me."
After speaking, he looked at him with an unfriendly expression, as if he was about to attack at any moment. In any case, he had not really made a vow, so there was no need to worry about him going back on his word.
Zuan remained calm, as if all of this was within his expectations: "Don't be so quick to abandon me. Without me, even if you know the correct incantation, you won't be able to solve this puzzle."
He had realized that since he had obtained key secrets along the way, how could the other side not have gained anything? They must have obtained some secrets as well.
Zhao Ruizhi indeed hesitated and did not rush to make a move. Instead, he gestured to He Li: "Go and match the patterns with the inscriptions we found in the ancient city ruins."
He had already made up his mind that after He Li unlocked the mechanism, he would castrate Zu An first.
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