The Lost Tomb Vol. 7

Chapter 50: Entering the Mechanism

We took the dead pig down and then washed the whole iron plate with water. Soon, we could hear the sounds of the mechanism moving and the chain system shaking in the cave wall. The relief on the wall slowly shrank back and then the iron plate paused a few times and started turning slowly.

Xiao Hua and I repacked some cold fireworks, short-handled shotguns, wine, and other self-defense and lighting items. We then lifted the iron plate and propped it up with some iron bars, revealing the hole.

Xiao Hua's injury from before still left me with a lingering fear. There had to be something tricky down there, so it was very dangerous to go down now. He didn't make any rash moves either, but first cut off one of the pig's feet, tied it with a rope, and threw it down the hole.

We lowered it bit by bit like we were fishing. Once it had reached a place deep in the hole, we left it hanging there, but there was no response.

He put a piece of the iron garment on his chest and back, tested his mobility, and then went through the hole first. He was so fast that I only saw his flashlight quickly go down and disappear once he got to the bottom.

I didn't dare speak. My back was covered in a cold sweat, and I waited for five or six minutes until the flashlight down below lit up again. It flashed twice, signaling that it was safe for me to come down.

I took a deep breath, dropped the equipment bag down first, carefully put my head into the hole, and then tried to fit my body through.

I was "fatter" than Xiao Hua, but I managed to climb down the chains until I reached the bottom. I found that the space below was so cramped that I couldn't even stand up, and my head touched the ceiling even when sitting.

The structure of the "mechanism control space" at the bottom of the iron plate was very complicated and had reached the point where I couldn't even describe it. But when I came down, I could clearly tell how the whole mechanism operated.

There were a lot of iron teeth on the bearing, which could be opened by rotating the iron plate. Countless iron rings were connected to intricate chains, which led to some unknown place on one side of the stone chamber.

I predicted that if the number of rings rotating the iron plate was different, then the iron chain hooked by the open iron teeth would pull a different chain, and the starting mechanism's control would be different.

In the lower part of the stone chamber, a water wheel had been inserted into a wellhead below. I could see that the water coming from the rock vein was turbulent. The rotating water wheel was driven to the bearing through gears and chains, so the iron plate could rotate by itself for years. I didn't see anything that could have cut Xiao Hua at that time, but I could see countless lint-like things hanging on the chains, which seemed to be old grease.

The mechanism's control room was like a well, but slightly larger underneath. There was a strong smell of blood, but no traces that I could see. We also didn't see the troublesome thing that Xiao Hua had mentioned before.

But not seeing it didn't mean it wasn't there. We squatted down carefully, searched everywhere, and found that there really wasn't a living creature hanging around.

Maybe it had been some kind of trap, and both Xiao Hua and I had seen wrong. He also looked puzzled, but we were both relieved.

I gave him a look, silently asking him what to do next, and he pointed to one side with a flashlight. It turned out that the wall of this well had three crevices that were five or six meters high and only one person wide. A single glance showed that they had been cut to look like a very narrow corridor. All the iron chains were divided into three groups, with each leading straight into the three crevices.