Chapter 1390 — The Robbery, Part One: "Don't know? What do you mean? Why not just open them both and see?" Elder Yu frowned and asked.
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"Elder Yu... once this Death Door and Life Door are opened, they're no different in themselves, but where they lead is another matter. One leads out of the tomb; the other leads to the place where the coffins are kept. One is life, one is death. Step through the wrong one and you're not coming back." Old Hei said with a rueful smile.
"Is that so?" Elder Yu started. "Then what are you waiting for? Why haven't you cracked it yet?"
"Well... cracking it takes some thinking too..." Old Hei turned, a touch awkwardly, to Yu Xiaoke and Wei Zhao. "Male Thief, Heroine Yan, have you either of you a bright idea? What I've just told you is only my own account - it isn't certain that these really are the Life Door and the Death Door, is it?"
"These should be the Life Door and the Death Door." Yu Xiaoke looked at the two doors before her, weighed the matter a moment, and said: "We have to work out which of the two is the Life Door and which is the Death Door."
"But how? They look more or less the same, the pair of them." Old Hei nodded and asked.
"My guess is that the key secret lies in the two jigsaws set above these doors. The two jigsaws are two pictures, and different pictures stand for life or death." Yu Xiaoke ventured.
"Meaning that once we've put the jigsaws together, we'll know which door is the Life Door and which is the Death Door?" Old Hei asked.
"In theory, yes. But I think the mechanism that opens both doors is those same two jigsaws. I can't guarantee that assembling them right there won't set off some danger, or that the jigsaws follow any pattern at all." Yu Xiaoke said: "If the pictures have to be put together in a certain order, then breaking that order rashly could bring very serious consequences. It might stir up some unforeseen disaster, or wreck the mechanism for good!"
"That serious!" Old Hei did not altogether take to what Yu Xiaoke said, but in this ancient tomb anything might happen and nothing went by the book - and that left his heart hammering.
"Perhaps. It's only a guess," Yu Xiaoke said.
"So what do we do now?" Old Hei stared at the two stone doors ahead, frowned, and said.
"First find a way to copy these two pictures down, then put them together on paper and decide which door is the Life Door and which is the Death Door. We can think of something else after that." Yu Xiaoke said after a moment's thought.
"Fair enough - let's do it that way." Old Hei too thought Yu Xiaoke's plan the steadier one: copy the two pictures onto paper first, make out what they meant, and telling Life Door from Death Door would be the far easier part.
Elder Yu understood nothing of this and offered no opinion. But having heard Yu Xiaoke, and learned how perilous the mechanism was, he too shut his mouth. A respectable Earth Grade expert, all but invincible out in the world, yet in this ancient tomb he did not dare stir, hardly dared draw a breath, and had taken wound upon wound. It left him sour with frustration - and no longer daring to press them recklessly.
Wei Zhao troubled himself not at all with Yu Xiaoke and Old Hei. He simply sat himself down cross-legged - not to cultivate this time, but pulled out Zhang Lifeng's medical practice notes and started leafing through them.
Wei Zhao was not sure whether, once they were out, he could get the better of Elder Yu; nor was he sure Elder Yu would have the patience to let him copy the medical practice notes. The book ran to several hundred pages - copying it would not be done in a trice, and even photocopying would take time. With a man as hot-tempered as Elder Yu, Wei Zhao had to keep his wits about him and prepare ahead of time! He had already made up his mind to risk his life - but if he could find a clue to the Fire Spirit Holy Fruit in the book first, what would be the point of risking it?