Chapter 45: The End of the Mechanism

“Senior Sister, could you share a bit of your luck with me?” Ye Tian’s lips twitched.

He matched the location of this cave entrance on the map and was now almost certain: the entrance before them was the second passage leading to the treasure chamber.

It was easy to explain—the three-axis coordinates of this entrance were on the same horizontal plane as the one on the other side!

No wonder his rather scatterbrained senior sister had made so many enemies everywhere yet had survived until now. It turned out her survival had little to do with her strength.

This woman was simply favored by fate, blessed with extraordinary luck!

If time weren’t of the essence, Ye Tian would have loved to divine her fortune, to see if she truly was the daughter of the Immortal Lord of Auspicious Luck.

“Anyway, let’s go in and take a look first.”

“Hehe, see? Bringing me along was clearly the right choice~” Gu Qingcheng smiled sweetly and quickly followed Ye Tian, bowing her head as she entered the cave.

“Hold my hand, don’t get lost.”

Ye Tian pulled a powerful flashlight from his backpack, illuminating the path ahead with one hand while grasping Gu Qingcheng’s hand with the other.

The cave was neither too wide nor too narrow—just enough for a person to walk upright. The stone walls on both sides were unnaturally smooth, bearing obvious marks of human carving.

When the flashlight swept over them, one could still make out ancient inscriptions, though most had been blurred by water erosion.

But Ye Tian had no energy to decipher them now.

Finding the treasure’s location as quickly as possible was the top priority!

As they ventured deeper, the temperature inside plummeted rapidly. From the initial coolness at the entrance, it became bone-chillingly cold after only ten minutes or so.

“Are you cold, Senior Sister?” Ye Tian asked.

“A high-level martial artist like me, afraid of a bit of cold? If you want to hug me, just say so—I don’t mind,” she teased.

Well then.

Ye Tian had to admit his concern was unnecessary.

After a short distance, the passage suddenly widened. In the darkness ahead, faint spots of light appeared. Thanks to this glow, even without the flashlight, they could see the cave’s interior with ease.

“How exquisite,” Ye Tian couldn’t help but marvel.

The dome and floor of the cavern were constructed from special fluorite, polished smooth by hand. Every so often, supporting stone pillars had been placed to prevent collapse over time.

“And so spacious,” Gu Qingcheng remarked.

Even just imagining it, Ye Tian could sense how much labor and resources must have gone into building this place so long ago.

“I heard this immortal always liked to be alone. Do you think he could have built this cave all by himself?” Gu Qingcheng mused.

Ye Tian shook his head gently, saying nothing.

He couldn’t be sure. If the immortal had truly built it alone, his patience would have been extraordinary—the construction alone might have taken years, and with all the carvings and the sheer size, it would have taken at least a decade.

Suddenly, a gusting sound echoed through the cave.

“Wait, listen.” Ye Tian stopped, straining to hear.

“Hear what?” Gu Qingcheng’s nerves tightened at his sudden seriousness, and she glanced around anxiously.

“The wind!”

With his prompt, Gu Qingcheng quieted herself and also heard the faint whistling of wind, threading its way through the narrow stone walls in sharp, eerie notes.

In a completely sealed cave, there shouldn’t be any wind. If there was wind, the cave couldn’t be fully sealed.

There had to be gaps, or perhaps other passages.

“This cave won’t be easy to traverse!”

“There are traps,” Ye Tian said gravely. The deeper they went, the more likely it seemed that the place was riddled with mechanisms.

After all, a moving trap always left gaps!

Without hesitation, he opened his backpack, pulled out an apple, and tossed it toward the area where the wind was strongest.

A crisp crack!

Suddenly, without warning, a chunk of the fluorite “ceiling” came crashing down, shattering to pieces on the ground.

Ye Tian frowned. He noticed sharp spikes had been carved into the fallen stone.

An ordinary person—or even a martial artist of average skill—would likely have been killed instantly, sent to meet the immortal in the afterlife.

“That was close!” Gu Qingcheng complained. “Why don’t we just tear the place apart and be done with it?”

“Senior Sister, are you here to help or to make jokes?”

Ye Tian couldn’t help but retort, but then he smiled.

“Don’t worry, I have a way around this.”

With that, he avoided the main path and began probing along the very edge of the wall—this area was unlit, a stretch of utter darkness.

As he felt his way forward, Ye Tian noticed there was no sound of wind.

“Come here!”

He smiled with confidence and proceeded, turning on his flashlight.

Soon, they came to a stone tunnel just wide enough for a person to crawl through.

“Think about it: the immortal set so many traps to keep outsiders out, but he himself had to come and go. He wouldn’t want to play the trap game every time.”

“That would be a pain,” Gu Qingcheng agreed.

Ye Tian nodded. “So, he must have his own secret passage.”

With that, he dove headfirst into the tunnel!

“Have you lost your mind, Junior Brother?!” Gu Qingcheng exclaimed, startled, reaching out to grab his ankle but missing. She could only watch as he quickly vanished from sight.

In a panic, she squeezed her eyes shut and crawled in after him.

“If I die, so be it!”

A strong sense of falling overcame her. Gu Qingcheng kept her eyes tightly closed, but after a short descent, she suddenly felt solid ground beneath her feet.

Opening her eyes, she was stunned.

She was, indeed, standing firmly on the ground!

“This must be a marvelous use of mechanical traps,” Ye Tian explained cheerfully, already standing nearby. “As you passed through the tunnel, you were redirected several times, but the moment you entered, the mechanism activated and shifted the stone walls, changing the space itself.”

“If you paid attention, there was a loud noise during the fall.”

Gu Qingcheng suddenly understood. “So that’s it!”

“No need to be surprised. You should be delighted now!”

Ye Tian pointed into the distance.

On a vast platform ahead, a row of green-leafed plants bearing vermillion fruit grew, each one tall and robust.

Seven in total!

Above them, clear spring water dripped from the stone wall, trickling through hand-carved channels and nourishing every plant.

“Wild ginseng, at least a thousand years old!” Ye Tian exclaimed, thrilled.