"Woo! Why aren't there cats? Don't Orientals like cats? -- Obviously rats are all mythical beasts! After running through the entire hall to confirm, the disappointed little Luca picked up the pet black cat with an inexplicable expression in distress, "Woo Cat Bell said pitifully!" ”

...... "Look at Nabal, he's just as helpless as I am." Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

It's just that cats don't belong to the twelve divine beasts, is it necessary to be disappointed like this? Monkey business! - Nabal's expression told me that he wanted to say this to little Luca, but after all, he liked little Luca's words very much, so Nabal's lips only moved slightly, and he didn't say it.

As for little Luca, who sat down in disappointment, little Luca holding the cat bell was so sad that she was about to cry, and kept muttering, "Why are all rats beasts?" Catbell isn't? Why...... Why...... What is the point where a cat bell is not as good as a mouse? Where can't it compare? Not even a mural? Do Orientals look down on Cat Bell so much? - Nasty Orientals! ”

"This ......," I carefully worded, "that...... Little Luca, maybe my sister is not right! - After all, my sister doesn't know much about Dongfang, maybe ...... Maybe the cats of the East have a higher godhead? ”

"A higher godhead? …… Are you sure? The little guy was still listless, "Sister Sakura, you won't lie to me, will you?" Is there a godhead higher than the twelve divine beasts? -- You don't even know ...... yourself."

"Let my sister think about it...... After all, there are a lot of myths and stories in the East, and I remember that the cat is the master of the tiger in the Oriental mythology! - You see, one of the four sacred beasts of the East is the White Tiger...... Other words. Other words...... Kindness...... Kindness...... Kindness...... As the cat of the Tiger Master, the status should be higher than that of the Four Great Holy Beasts, right? - Those twelve divine beasts are ranked below the four holy beasts! "After a long day of nonsense, I finally found a breakthrough.

"Really? I'll just say it! Little Luca looked happy. How is it possible for Catbell to rank lower than the mouse in the Oriental Godhead? ――Obviously the cat bell is so smart! ”

Belch! This one...... Little guy, does she think that the mythical cat and the real-life cat bell are the same?

Kindness...... Forget it, no matter what! Just be happy.

"Sakura, what you said is true?!" Nabal asked, confused.

I hurriedly raised my index finger and made a quiet gesture in front of my mouth. "Lie to her!" I whispered.

It's really! I admired myself - in fact, some of the nonsense just now was an Oriental mythological story, and some were an Oriental fairy tale told to me by my mother when I was a child! Giggle! I'm sorry I can make them up temporarily!

"Oh—that Patronus Beast must be real, right?" Nabal walked slowly to the mural, "Sakura, didn't you say that the murals in the East have special meanings?" ――What do the murals of these guardian beasts mean?! ”

"It should be the same as the sigils of the four holy beasts on the Dao Talisman - it is used to protect something, right?" I also leaned in to one of the dragon murals. "In general, the direction of the eye—"

"Where are the eyes?!" Nabal didn't understand, "Isn't it supposed to be in the middle of the hall?!" ”

"What determines the direction is the meeting point of the divine beast's line of sight! - But most of the time it's in the middle of the 12 beasts! I explained as I pressed my finger to the dragon's eye on the mural. Mr. Nabal, my eyes here seem to be a little ahead of the middle pool, where are you? ”

"Huh? Wait a minute! "Nabal also followed the same posture as I did, and pressed his hand to the eyes of the ox on the mural—

"Giggles!" Suddenly, there was a loud bang, and the mural in front of Mr. Nabal suddenly rose vertically. A small secret room is revealed.

"Sakura! Press that eye hard! "Surprised. Nabal hurriedly shouted.

The hand involuntarily used some force in response to the sound - in the same way, at the same time as the dragon's eye was pressed into the depression, the mural of the dragon in front of him also rose vertically, and a small secret room also appeared.

In the center of the empty chamber was an open gray sarcophagus.

"Little Luca! Cherry! Go and press the other eyes! Fast! Nabal hurriedly pressed the eyes of the rat to the side—

。。。。。。。。。

Twelve secret rooms.

Inside are twelve sarcophagi.

And the same twelve empty sarcophagi that were opened.

"There must have been corpses in there!" Nabal touched the inside of the sarcophagus with his hand, then leaned over to his nose and sniffed slightly, "There's still a bit of a corpse smell - Sakura, little Luca." Did you find out?! ”

"Well, there are some remnants of Dao magic...... It's very faint though. I don't know what kind of Taoism it is. ”

"Elise didn't find anything - Uncle Nabal, Sister Sakura, does what you found say anything?" Little Luca put away the spear and asked curiously.

"It should be ......," I replied hesitantly, "the twelve people in the sarcophagus represent the twelve divine beasts, and together they are guarding something—just as the loyal guards of the king will be buried with him when he is dead, Mr. Nabal, are you right?" ”

"That's right—but the point is, where did the corpses go?"

"Well...... Maybe I have a clue. "At this point, I can't help but hesitate.

"What do you have in mind?!" "Sister Sakura, say it quickly!" Together, they urged me.

"I always feel unlikely...... But...... I don't know why, but these empty sarcophagi just now reminded me of the masked man......"

"Masked Man?!"

"Yes, the Masked Man...... Because I always feel that those masked people are manipulated, and you remember that Mr. Cokoloa said that when Qingyu met him, there were eight masked people standing behind him, plus the one who attacked Lacey to commit suicide before, and the three who were killed by the demon Ashetaro, isn't it exactly twelve? - Could it be the twelve of the twelve sarcophagi? ”

"Sakura, you mean to ...... Necromancy? - Isn't that right? The zombies manipulated by necromancy are very slow, and those masked people are very fast! Nabal asked.

"Those masked men are zombies?!" Little Luca stuck out her tongue in disgust, "This is very likely! ”

"It doesn't have to be necromancy! ――I once heard Bai Suiyun Gongzi say. There are also methods of manipulating corpses in Eastern Taoism, saying, huh? Little Luca? How do you think it's very likely? "I, who was answering Nabal, thought it was strange to hear little Luca say that.

"Because. Because it's very similar to those Daofu zombies! The little guy reached out and gestured to his chest, "It's those zombies with Dao charms on their hearts!" -- the ones that Brother Lacey and I killed -- they're all very fast! …… It's just not as fast as the masked man......"

"Oh...... That's right! ――That's the secret that the Masked Man wants to stop Sakura from coming here? Apparently Nabal had accepted the possibility that the corpse in the sarcophagus was the Mask Man, and then thought, "The Mask Man went to such great lengths to keep this secret?!" ”

"Sister Sakura, didn't you just say they were guarding something? - What are they guarding?! ”

。。。。。。。。。。。。

Twelve frescoes of mythical beasts, twelve pairs of eyes.

They were staring not at the dark, deep, but empty pool, but at a large, flat slab of stone in front of the pool.

When we tried our best to pry open the slate, we saw a copper disc with twelve beast-like buttons on the surface.

"Sister Sakura, what is this? Is it also related to Taoism? Little Luca looked at me quizzically.

"It's not Taoism, is it? What kind of mechanism does it feel like...... Is it? "Nabal is asking me too.

Nodding, "This is a mechanism!" -- Maybe it's the mechanism that opened the secret room! ”

"Hah! Ordinary organs! Nabal laughed to himself, "I've always come across things I don't understand when it comes to Taoism. Wrap yourself in - how do you open this? ”

"Is it like this?!" As soon as she heard that it had nothing to do with Taoism, little Luka immediately stretched out her hand eagerly.

"Where is it so simple?! Fool! Nabal hurriedly patted the back of her hand, "You forgot those traps in the passage?!" Maybe if you press the wrong button, there will be a trap! ”

"Woo! So what to do?! Little Luca rubbed her sore hand and looked at me pitifully.

"There should be some password, right? And it's related to the twelve mythical beasts on the mural," I said as I approached the mural again.

Woo! I don't understand! Originally, there wasn't much knowledge about these twelve divine beasts. Now even the mural of the mythical beast is in front of you. I don't see any secrets!

"That! That one! Little Luca looked at the mural after looking at the mural for a while, and suddenly said, "Sister Sakura! Sister Sakura! Does that disc require a specific password to open? ”

"Yes? What's wrong? ”

"That...... It's used to open the door to the secret room, right? Little Luca asked the inexplicable question again.

"--Didn't you just say that? …… Is there something wrong? ”

"Well...... In other words, this disc is something like a lock, right? ”

"What do you mean...... "I still don't understand what little Luca is trying to do."

"If it's a lock, then the lockpicking technique should work, right?!" Little Luca asked expectantly, "Can I give it a try?" ――Will it explode if you cast a spell on that disc?! ”

"Sister, I don't know how lockpicking magic works......" I replied hesitantly, "but you can try!" That's a pure metal mechanism, there is no Dao reaction, there should be no problem! ”

"Oh!" The little guy happily ran back to the disc, "Catbell!" Come and help! ”

“…… Need a cat for lockpicking?! Before I could speak, Nabal asked a strange question.

"Don't you need it!?" Little Luca instructed the catbell to sit down in the center of the disc. He turned his head to look at him in the same strange way, "Uncle Nabal, you're so stupid about that!" ”

"Don't you need it to sit on the disc?!"

"Ahh This one! Little Luca happily reached out and scratched the chin of the black cat, who was sitting in the middle of the disc. Hey, hey, there's a cat bell in Luca, I'm more confident! ”

“…… Monkey business! Nabal, who didn't expect this answer, couldn't help but curse, "What if it moves around and touches the mechanism?!" Let it come down! ”

"Don't! Catbell is very well-behaved! It won't move! ”

"-Can you make sure it doesn't get scared when you cast it?! Hurry up! Nabal was getting a little impatient, and his face was starting to darken (if it wasn't the cute little Luca in front of him but the stupid Assa, he would have kicked him right away, right?). ）

"That's it! Mr. Nabal! Let little Luca try it this way," I said, "that cat is very well-behaved!" No problem. ”

"That's it!" Little Luca nodded repeatedly.

"And ......," I had to persuade again, seeing that Nabal's face was still not good, "and maybe there will be a special effect?" After all, don't everyone say that cats have magical powers? Other than that...... Cats don't all like to drill strange holes, and are very interested in those mysterious small spaces - maybe their magic can really be unlocked to unlock secret doors? …… I guess. ”

"Forget it, I don't care!" Looking at me and then at little Luca, and then at the black cat sitting on the disc, Nabal finally gave up and sighed. u