Chapter 1056: Not a Big Problem
Ice Storm cursed in a low voice.
“You don’t know how to crack this mechanism?”
Meng Chao said, “I thought that as one of the four trump cards of the Blood Skull Arena, Casanova must have brought you to the Blood Skull temple, so you’ve probably seen all kinds of mechanisms.”
“I did come here a few times, but Casanova made me wear a special mask each time. After wearing it, not only were my five senses cut off, even the concept of time was blurred. By the time I took off the mask, I was already at the core of the temple.”
Ice Storm explained, “Since I didn’t receive Casanova’s blood and I’m not an official member of the Blood Hoof Clan, I’m not qualified to know the secrets of the temple.”
After thinking for a while, she spread out her fingers, and blue palm lines appeared on her palm, which looked like a small whirlpool. It absorbed a lot of water from the air and condensed into a few frost flowers on her palm.
She curled her fingers and flicked them lightly. The Frost Flowers flew toward the corridor formed by two rows of statues at different speeds.
When the first frost flower touched the arm of one of the statues.
With a few light cracking sounds, crisscrossing and shining patterns appeared on all the statues.
It was as if the nerves and blood vessels that had been blocked for thousands of years had been reopened, and all the statues had been “Resurrected”!
Whoosh!
The statue of the Minotaur warrior waved its huge sword and swept across the entire corridor, slashing out dazzling sword rays.
Boom!
The statue of the wild boar warrior smashed its heavy war hammer down, causing Meng Chao and Ice Storm, who were outside the corridor, to feel their legs go numb.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!
The statue of the Centaur warrior controlled the genuine longbow and shot out three arrows in a row like a cannonball. The arrows were continuously nailed into the gaps between the sword rays. There were only a few places where they landed.
The largest statue of the barbarian elephant warrior pounced forward and almost blocked the entire pa.s.sage.
Guided by the mechanism, the hundreds of statues hacked crazily for more than half a minute before returning to their original state. The shining patterns on their bodies gradually dimmed.
At first glance, nothing had happened.
However, there were traces of sabers, swords, axes, and hammers on the ground.
Furthermore, Meng Chao narrowed his eyes and observed the ground. He discovered that there were actually thousands of densely packed traces on the ground.
However, other than the hundreds of traces created by Ice Storm’s frost flower, most of the traces had been left over from thousands of years ago. After repeated friction and erosion, they were as thin as hair strands. In the beginning, they did not notice it.
The two looked at each other and saw the shock and solemnity in each other’s eyes.
“These statues seem to be made of very special metals and rock materials. Maybe they even used a lot of materials to cast their totem armor, which contained violent totem power.”
Ice Storm frowned deeply and said, “The gallery is so long. Once the mechanism is triggered, even if we can force our way through, we will have to pay a huge price.”
Meng Chao fell into deep thought.
He realized that when the statues were hacking crazily, the mechanism that was operating and controlling the statues seemed to make a strange sound.
“Use the method you just used and try again,” he said to Ice Storm.
Seeing his serious expression, Ice Storm did not say anything else. He spread out his hands, condensed dozens of frost flowers, and shot them out at the same time.
When the hundreds of statues began to work again, Meng Chao closed his eyes.
However, he focused all his spirit energy and attention on his ears, stimulating his eardrums, cochlea, and auditory nerves to the point that they were extremely sensitive. It was as if they could pierce through the earth and sketch out what was underneath the statues through the feedback of the sound waves, the details of the traps.
This time, when the statues calmed down again, he had a good idea.
“The mechanisms in these statues are a little awkward and slow to operate.”
Meng Chao opened his bright eyes and said to Ice Storm, “It should be because after thousands of years of erosion, the gears, bearings, and engines inside have more or less been damaged. In short, if I’m not wrong, the sensitivity of these mechanisms must have been greatly reduced. As long as our movements are gentle enough, it’s possible to walk straight over without triggering any of the statues.”
“Engine…”
Ice Storm was used to hearing strange words from Meng Chao’s mouth.
Nevertheless, she still understood the meaning of the second half of the sentence.
“Are you sure you want to walk straight over there?” Ice Storm asked suspiciously.
“Basically, yes,” Meng Chao answered.
He had seen similar mechanisms in Ruins No. 1 at the center of Dragon City and Ruins No. 2 in the Hidden Mist Domain.
In Ruins No. 1, he had stayed as a “tester” for half a year. He had figured out a large number of ancient era mechanisms and unlocked the riddles within.
At the same time, he had also learned a lot of knowledge about mechanisms, mazes, and riddles from the predecessors of the ancient ruins research center.
He knew that most of the mechanisms left behind by the ancient civilization were almost flawless when they were first deployed.
At the very least, it was impossible for the Earthlings to crack them with their current technological level.
But time was still the most powerful force in the universe.
Even the Ancients or mother could not resist time.
No matter how precise, perfect, or terrifying the traps were when they were deployed, they would inevitably be eroded, worn, weathered, and deformed after being activated and used countless times over tens of millions of years.
The energy source used to drive the mechanism might also be annihilated, or the change of the planet’s magnetic field would cause the output of spirit energy to be unstable, eventually damaging the power core.
That was especially so when Dragon City crossed over to the Other World.
It had triggered a large-scale phenomenon of spirit magnetic interference inside and outside Monster Mountain Range.
It was like throwing a ten-thousand-ton boulder into a calm lake.
The waves it created were enough to tear apart the duckweed that was originally floating on the surface of the lake.
Therefore, when the Earthlings explored the ancient ruins, they discovered that many dense structures, profound principles, and powerful mechanisms had all been destroyed from the inside.
It was easy for the Earthlings to obtain the power of the Ancients that was contained within. With it as a foundation, they developed the unique spirit martial arts, genetic technology, and runic technology of the Dragon City’s civilization.
Picturesque Orchid Lake was so close to Monster Mountain Range.
It was impossible for it to not be affected by the same thing.
Meng Chao had just used the acute hearing that Lu Siya had imparted to him, which made him resemble a Spirit Sensor. He could hear the strange sounds coming from within the mechanism in front of him. It was similar to the strange sounds coming from Ruins No. 1 in Dragon City, where many heavily worn mechanisms were emitting strange sounds.
Hence, he judged that this mechanism was not as terrifying as it appeared to be.
As long as he found a suitable method, he should be able to walk past it effortlessly.
“Of course we can’t just walk past it.”
Meng Chao thought for a moment and said to Ice Storm, “However, the reason why the ice-cold statue can sense intruders is because it can detect our breathing, heartbeat, body temperature, and footsteps.
“Since the mechanisms inside the statue have been seriously worn out, its perception and reaction speed have slowed down a lot.
“Therefore, as long as we can lower our breathing and heartbeat to the maximum, and our body temperature to the same level as the surrounding temperature, we should be able to walk through it without making any noise.”
Ice Storm frowned.
She looked at the serious Meng Chao, at the sculptures that were full of killing intent, and all the way to the corridor that led to the depths of the darkness.
She had an expression that said, “Are you f*cking lying to me?”
“Trust me.”
Meng Chao continued. “With your strength, controlling your breathing and heartbeat shouldn’t be too much of a problem. As for you, who has the bloodline of a panther, walking around stealthily is simply a racial talent. As for your body temperature, it’s even less of a problem. After all, you’re already as cold as an ice mountain, and your entire body is cold. There’s no need to continue cooling down. Instead, you should slightly raise your temperature, and it’ll be fine as long as it’s the same as the air.
“Also, don’t be nervous when you walk over. Try to empty your mind and relax. Don’t worry about how strong and fierce the statues are. Just take it as if you are strolling on the gra.s.s.
“Otherwise, the disturbance of the brainwaves and the spirit magnetic field may trigger the statues.
“Basically, it’s all routine operations. It shouldn’t be a big problem for you, right?”
Ice Storm continued to glare at Meng Chao.
Her face was filled with an expression that said, “Not a problem? Give it a try then!”
However, Meng Chao did not notice her expression.
That was because he had already walked towards the corridor that was made up of hundreds of statues.
Before Ice Storm let out a cry of surprise, Meng Chao had already steadied himself and quietly stepped into the corridor.
No, the word “step” was not precise enough.
In fact, Meng Chao had “slipped” into the gallery.
With each step, when the soles of his feet were about to touch the ground, as the muscles around his body surged like waves, the tip of his feet made a slight movement forward.
When they connected, it was as if he did not move his legs at all. Instead, he stepped on the invisible banana skin and slid forward.
At the same time, Ice Storm was surprised to find that she could not find Meng Chao.
A living person would have breathing sounds, heartbeat sounds, blood flow sounds, body temperature, and body odor even if they were stuck on the ground.
An expert like Ice Storm did not even need to open her eyes to firmly lock onto her target with these extremely minute information.
Now, Ice Storm could clearly see Meng Chao there.
Yet, she could not sense any information coming from Meng Chao’s body.
It was as if a mere shadow or an illusion was gliding through the corridor!
And the mechanism that could be triggered by a little frost flower that had almost no weight was indeed not triggered by Meng Chao.
Seeing that Meng Chao had already glided through half of the corridor, all the terrifying statues holding knives, spears, swords, halberds, battle axes, and battle hammers remained motionless and ignored him.
In a moment, Meng Chao had really pa.s.sed through the entire corridor without any effort, just as he had said!
Ice Storm was dumbfounded and in disbelief.
“Look, I was right. The mechanisms here are indeed seriously worn out.”
Meng Chao waved at Ice Storm from the other side of the corridor. “Hold your breath and heartbeat. Control your body temperature and voice, then walk over casually!”