Four Split Personalities

Until the two followed the spiral staircase to the next level, Motan finally successfully diverted Ji Xiaoge’s attention away from the thought of possibly getting a ’dragon egg for cooking’.

"Um, there doesn’t seem to be much difference from the level above, just an additional door."

Motan, who was the first to jump off the steps, quickly looked around and confirmed that the area they were currently in was no different in size, specifications, decoration, or degree of ruin from the level above, before looking towards that distant door. Since the spiral staircase didn’t continue downward, the vintage-looking door made seemingly of some kind of jade stone must be the only way through.

"It’s quite pretty but not maintained well."

Ordered to stay behind Motan, Ji Xiaoge bounced in place a few times, peering over the shoulder of the former at the highly conspicuous door and muttered, "But it’s already a lot better compared to the stone walls next to it."

Motan nodded slightly, frowning, "I’ve found it odd since a while ago; you can probably see it too. The sense of antiquity here is more severe than A Sang’s [Timing Tower]. If that tower looks like it has a history of at least a few hundred years, then this Dragon King’s Tomb is genuinely a relic of a thousand years."

Ji Xiaoge blinked, tilting her head curiously, "Is it strange? I think these cool ancient tombs looking older than the Mage Tower seems pretty normal."

"No, it’s actually not that normal."

While walking slowly towards the huge jade stone door, Motan pondered, "Regardless of how we see it, A Sang’s [Timing Tower] is just a simplified version of a Mage Tower, but this place is the tomb of the Dragon Kings who have historically sat at Sacred Dragon Peak, its history extending even before the Holy Calendar by thousands of years. Not only does it sleep several generations of Dragon Kings, but also many high-ranking members of the Dragon Clan rest here. Both in specifications and heritage, it far exceeds the [Timing Tower] – it shouldn’t suffer such severe erosion by time."

Ji Xiaoge quickly showed a thoughtful expression upon hearing this, "Do you mean there’s something wrong with this Dragon King’s Tomb? That it shouldn’t be like this? So, your task..."

"Only a guess. As for the ’test’ in the task, it likely won’t be affected, otherwise the requirements of the task wouldn’t be so straightforward."

Motan turned to face the girl who looked deeply troubled, smiled, shrugged, and said, "Besides, considering how long this place has been abandoned, there shouldn’t be too much to worry about safety-wise. Of course, we still need to be cau—Hey!"

Just as Motan uttered ’don’t need to worry too much’, Ji Xiaoge immediately flew off toward that door like a caged bird set free, cheering as she dashed toward it.

"Finish listening to what others say..."

With a bitter smile, Motan shook his head and then hurriedly rushed forward. However, the disparity in their speeds was too much; by the time he reached the door, Ji Xiaoge was already floating there, studying it for a while.

Seeing that the girl didn’t trigger any mechanisms or traps, Motan didn’t say much. He just continuously stared at the now blurred bas-reliefs on the door and without raising his head asked, "Did you figure anything out?"

"I’m wearing safety shorts."

Ji Xiaoge floated down next to Motan, whose face stiffened. She said a particularly sharp phrase and slightly furrowed her brows, "Nothing figured out. The decorations above are mostly worn beyond recognition. Didn’t find anything like a doorbell or a keyhole. I tried pushing it too, um, didn’t budge."

The last statement was somewhat redundant. Knowing that the door was over twenty meters tall and wide enough to accommodate two slender dragons walking side-by-side, it looked extremely solid. With the little strength Ji Xiaoge had, it’d be a wonder if she could budge it.

"This is a bit troublesome."

Motan narrowed his eyes slightly, then placed his hands on the door that was supposedly the only passageway and pushed hard a couple of times. As expected, it didn’t budge.

Ji Xiaoge took out a small hammer of indeterminate material from her pack and tapped on the door, shaking her head, "Shouldn’t be any common material. At least it’s not mentioned in the [Middle Rank Materials Science] book given to me by teacher Luwei, but I flashed my engineering hammer just now for half a second, which indicates that the door’s magic conductivity should be very good, um, wait a moment..."

She then fluttered up, hitting several other parts of the door and the surrounding walls with the小hammer, before returning to the ground, spreading her hands, "No magical flow, it seems any mechanisms that might have existed are now disabled."

Motan immediately understood Ji Xiaoge’s implication. The so-called ’mechanisms’ weren’t just referring to traps, but also included things like access control mechanisms, such as anti-gravity designs that could lighten the mass of the door, or automated door-openers that would activate under certain checks—similar to high-tech electronic access controls in the real world.