At this moment, Old Hou interjected with a calming tone, "The higher-ups have noticed the situation; they will certainly take measures and exert significant effort to rectify it."

"I hope so."

Professor Wen shook his head, not intending to dwell on the topic further. He stood up immediately. "Let's not delay. Since Brother Hou says he can crack the mechanism door, let him try. If that doesn't work, we proceed with my plan: direct cutting and welding."

"Alright."

Old Hou nodded hesitantly, then turned his gaze to Wang Guan, his eyes brimming with expectation and encouragement. "Wang Guan, it's up to you now."

"Old Hou, haven't you overestimated me a bit?"

Wang Guan offered a wry smile at this. Truthfully, he knew next to nothing about mechanisms. Even the little knowledge he possessed was rudimentary, taught by Old Hou. How had he suddenly become an expert capable of cracking such locks?

Undoubtedly, since cracking the mechanism door immediately seemed impossible, Old Hou had seized upon Wang Guan's recent miraculous performance, deciding to try anything—to treat a dying horse as if it were still alive—and brought him here to try his luck. Despite this being the reality, Old Hou clapped him heartily on the shoulder, full of confidence. "I believe you can do it."

At that moment, Wang Guan could only manage a bitter smile; he had no other suitable reaction. Since Old Hou had clearly called him in to save the day, perhaps even as an excuse to buy time, Wang Guan felt it would be inappropriate to expose the charade.

Indeed, it was about stalling. Perhaps Old Hou didn't truly believe Wang Guan could solve the mechanism door; he simply hoped this pretense would delay things by two or three days. Within that window, he might manage to devise the correct solution. In any case, he was determined not to let Professor Wen immediately destroy the mechanism door.

Perhaps Professor Wen understood Old Hou’s intentions as well, which is why he acted so decisively, leading Wang Guan straight to the mechanism door. It was likely that once Wang Guan admitted he couldn't open the entrance to the underground palace, the two elders would inevitably engage in another sharp exchange of words.

More talk was useless, and Yu Feibai, for one, wasn't interested in circling around the issue. Hearing they were going to inspect the site, he responded immediately, stepping out briskly.

At the same time, Wang Guan and the others exited the tent. Led by Professor Wen, they moved quickly toward the high ground on the slope. As they neared the excavation site, Wang Guan noticed with some surprise that the pit entrance was filled with a significant amount of soil and stone, which struck him as odd.

"If it weren't for this debris, the great tomb on this mountain would have been unearthed long ago," Professor Wen explained. "If I'm not mistaken, there should have been an even higher peak next to this slope a long time ago. After long exposure to wind and rain, that peak suddenly collapsed, and the resulting mud and stones rolled down, burying the great tomb."

"If people had driven survey rods here, there would have been a high probability of hitting stone. Tomb robbers discovering this situation would naturally assume there was no mausoleum underneath and give up, refusing to waste effort on something futile."

As he spoke, Professor Wen expressed his relief. "We encountered the same situation a few days ago when we drove rods here. At first, we thought we'd chosen the wrong spot. It was only thanks to Brother Hou's persistence. After driving dozens of rods, we finally found a clue. Then we gathered people to excavate, and only then did we see the deeply buried underground palace."

"I see."

Wang Guan and Yu Feibai also had a moment of realization. No wonder Professor Wen had mentioned earlier that this great tomb remained untouched by robbers thanks, in part, to a mountain. Perhaps no one could have imagined that the extremely destructive force of a mudslide could, at times, serve as a natural layer of protection.

Chatting as they walked, the group slowly made their way up the mountain. Wang Guan observed carefully. The loose stones within the mountain had been cleared away and neatly stacked around the perimeter, forming a kind of barrier that prevented an easy view of the situation within the central pit.

There were also some cautionary tapes surrounding the area, wrapped around like marking off territory. While this action carried a whiff of covering one's ears while stealing a bell, an outsider seeing it would at most realize an ancient tomb was here; the specific nature of that tomb would remain completely unknown.

Of course, under Professor Wen’s guidance, Wang Guan and the others passed through the layered security without hindrance, quickly reaching the excavated deep pit. The pit was truly deep, at least five or six meters, requiring a ladder for easy ascent and descent. Looking down, Wang Guan spotted another tunnel at the bottom of the pit; perhaps the stone door of the underground palace lay at the tunnel's end.

Wang Guan’s guess proved correct. After climbing down the ladder to the bottom of the pit, Professor Wen immediately beckoned. "Everyone come down now. Be careful; don't slip... The entrance to the underground palace is in there. Follow closely..."

In a short while, everyone had successfully entered the tunnel, walking slowly and taking in their surroundings. The tunnel wasn't overly wide or cramped; two or three people could walk side-by-side, but they couldn't stand upright and had to stoop, moving forward in a hunched posture. Fortunately, the tunnel was equipped with electric lights, so they didn't have to worry about bumping into each other like beads on a string.

After walking about twenty or thirty paces, the view suddenly opened up into a space of about ten square meters.

"Professor Wen, Director Hou, you've arrived."

There were already people waiting in this space—not only strangers but also familiar faces. Wang Guan spotted Xiao Qin, a staff member from the Hanzhong Mechanism Research Institute.

"What's the status?" Old Hou inquired.

"Director Hou, this thing is too difficult; we haven't made any headway yet," Xiao Qin said with a worried frown. The men beside him shared a similar look of helplessness.

"...It's not your fault."

Old Hou was naturally somewhat disappointed, but considering he had no solution himself, he certainly wasn't going to take it out on them. Instead, he offered comfort. "This is an incredibly complex Nine Palaces Flying Star Lock. It combines the Bagua chart with the Nine Stars, transforming into the Nine Palaces, then arranged in clockwise and counter-clockwise sequences to form different stellar combinations. Only when the stellar arrangement is correct can the lock be opened."

"The combinations are vast, so it’s understandable that no results have been achieved in such a short time."

Hearing this, Wang Guan took the opportunity to look. He saw a massive door in the space. Undoubtedly, this was the entrance to the underground palace. At first glance, the door was deep black, faintly reflecting a metallic sheen under the lights. It was clearly cast from metal, and remarkably, after such long years, the metal door had not corroded away.

This was also strong evidence that Mount Mang’s soil layer had low water permeability, good binding performance, and was densely compact—truly a prime location for constructing a mausoleum. As is widely known, metal corrosion is generally caused by the oxidation effect of water molecules. If water cannot penetrate the ground, then extremely dry soil certainly cannot eat away at metal.

However, because the metal door was protected too well, it now presented a serious problem for everyone.

While examining it, Wang Guan also noticed a hairline seam running precisely down the middle of the door. Right in the center of this seam was a huge, engraved diagram of the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams, covering nearly one-third of the door's surface. This diagram must be the Nine Palaces Flying Star Lock Old Hou had mentioned.

It was this lock that barred their way into the underground palace.

In ancient times, faced with this metal door and its complex mechanism, many people would surely feel helpless and retreat in the face of difficulty. But in the modern era, a simple metal mechanism door was nothing; they had hundreds of ways to deal with it. Whether through high-temperature welding and cutting or strong acid corrosion, they could easily destroy the mechanism.

Of course, Old Hou could not stand by and let this happen and tried desperately to stop it. Professor Wen, meanwhile, couldn't afford to completely disregard him, as Old Hou had provided the information about the underground tomb. Acting alone would imply biting the hand that feeds him.

So, after discussion, the two compromised. Professor Wen agreed to wait a little longer, but with a time limit. Old Hou, having no better choice, had to call Wang Guan in to help stall for time.

"Brother Wang has arrived! Come take a look at this lock quickly."

At that moment, seeing Wang Guan, Xiao Qin was delighted and quickly waved him over. The main reason was that he still vividly remembered Wang Guan's stunning performance when opening the mechanism lock on the golden casket.

"Brother Qin," Wang Guan nodded lightly and asked curiously, "Is this lock truly that hard to decipher?"

"It's not hard, but extremely tedious and complex," Xiao Qin explained with a wry smile. "It's called the Nine Palaces Bagua, but it actually incorporates the Three Wonders and Six Yi, along with the Eight Gates, Nine Stars, and Eight Deities. It's a comprehensive type of mechanism lock. The passage in the Huangdi Yinfu Jing—'Bagua Jiazi, Divine Machines Hidden by Ghosts'—describes exactly how erratic and changeable this lock is."

"That impressive?"

Yu Feibai gasped, couldn't help but step closer to examine it, and then lightly tapped the metal door with his knuckles, nodding afterward. "There's no sound at all; it must be incredibly thick and heavy."

"This is similar to the main doors of ancient city palaces," Old Hou sighed softly. "There are about thirteen bolts running vertically between the two halves of the door, blocking them from top to bottom. If the mechanism can't be cracked, then we'll have to resort to brute force destruction."

"Brother Hou, you don't need to worry about us destroying the overall structure of the mechanism door," Professor Wen advised. "We would only focus on the edge of the door, severing the connecting bolts..."

"There's no hurry for that. Let Wang Guan look at the situation first," Old Hou sidestepped the contentious topic, a hint of hopeful expectation in his expression. "Wang Guan, take a look at this mechanism lock. Are you confident you can open it?"

"It’s hard to say. I need to study it carefully."

Under everyone's gaze, Wang Guan began his serious examination. After a brief look, he strongly agreed with Xiao Qin’s assessment: this Nine Palaces Flying Star Lock was indeed incredibly intricate. The Nine Palaces formed the framework and foundation of the arrangement, being a combination of the Luo Shu and the Later Heaven Bagua. But this framework was constructed using the arrangement of the Three Wonders and the Six Yi.

The Six Yi are: Wu (Jiazi), Ji (Jiaxu), Geng (Jiashen), Xin (Jiawu), Ren (Jiachen), Gui (Jiayin); plus Yi Qi (Day Wonder), Bing Qi (Month Wonder), Ding Qi (Star Wonder), along with the Eight Gates: Xiu, Sheng, Shang, Du, Jing, Si, Jing, Kai; and further including the Nine Stars: Peng, Ren, Chong, Fu, Ying, Rui, Zhu, Xin, Qin...

In short, looking at the lock dial, Wang Guan felt dizzy, and his head throbbed slightly. Frankly, he recognized every character on the lock plate, but when they were all combined, he was completely lost as to what they meant individually.