Through the conversation between Chen Benzhong and Liu Cong, who had eavesdropped on him before, Chen Ziyang knew that the Du family was all extraordinary, and they were all leaders among the feng shui masters.

After a person like this enters this burial chamber, he should be able to tell at a glance that this is only a main burial chamber, and there must be other rooms in the underground palace. And from the scale of the tomb, it is not difficult to judge that the scale of this underground palace is very large.

It is definitely not a coincidence that this kind of talented feng shui master appeared here, he could not have been captured by the Japanese as an ordinary person to be a strong man, but should have been specially invited by the Japanese, or captured to explore the tomb.

Whatever the reason, this Du family will definitely help the Japanese.

The reason is also very simple, if this person is very backbone and does not want to be a traitor, or a lackey of the Japanese, he can run away before coming here, or refuse the request of the Japanese and be killed.

If that were the case, the Du family's compass wouldn't have appeared here. The compass that appeared in the tomb just proves that the Du family agreed to help the Japanese explore the tomb.

Whether it was coerced or tempted by interests, in short, this Du family came. Since he came, there was no reason not to want to go to other places in the underground palace. Thinking of this, Chen Ziyang turned his head to look at the road where everyone came in, wanting to think about why the Du family didn't find this organ.

Looking at the location of the Yongdao in his memory, Chen Ziyang only saw a wall. After a moment's pause, he looked around the room, but he didn't see any passage other than the wide crack in the mountain.

"I ...... Your sister, where is Yongdao? Chen Ziyang, who thought he was dazzled, rubbed his eyes and looked around again, not to mention the Yongdao in the whole room, not even a stone seam was seen.

"You ...... Who noticed when the aisle we came in was closed? ”

After this sentence was asked, everyone who was packing up put down the things in their hands, and all of them looked at the four walls of this room several times like Chen Ziyang had done before, but no one saw the existence of Yongdao.

In fact, it was not a big deal for the corridor to close on its own, and everyone had no intention of returning the same way. But this thing is too weird, there was a loud rumbling sound when the corridor was opened, but the corridor was silent when it was closed.

Because of this incident, Liu Cong postponed the withdrawal of the team, he didn't want to miss any clues, maybe there would be clues to the iron book hidden somewhere, so he also wanted to figure out this matter.

Chen Ziyang stared at the wall that existed in the previous Yongdao and looked carefully. There isn't even a single joint in this wall. Remembering the way the corridor was opened, he remembered that when the corridor was opened, the walls on both sides moved to both sides as a whole, and the same should be true when it was closed. But the wall is so cleverly designed that it is so integrated that it is impossible to see that the wall can be divided in half.

There were sporadic pieces of clotted blood on this wall, which had turned black due to age. Sweeping his gaze over every drop of coagulated blood, Chen Ziyang did not let go of any detail, and at a glance, he really made a discovery.

There were a few drops of blood that left a small horizontal gap in them, and it looked as if a knife had slashed through them. Although this location was not the location where Yongdao existed before, Chen Ziyang still walked over to check it carefully.

After touching the marks on these few drops of blood with his fingers, Chen Ziyang felt that there should be a separate stone slab between these gaps, which looked as if they could be opened.

After tapping the area a few times with the hilt of the Xuanming Ancient Sword, he could hear a slight difference in the echo, and it seemed that there was indeed something hidden behind this stone slab.

After trying for a long time and not finding a way to pry open or open the stone slab, Chen Ziyang took a few steps back and carefully stared at the area from a slightly farther position.

The slate was located in a fresco with a dozen women carved on it, and judging by their clothing, they were supposed to be maids.

More than a dozen maids lined up in a row, dancing in a garden, the dance posture is very beautiful, around these dozen maids are a lot of flowers, these flowers are either a single plant, or clusters together. There are so many varieties of flowers that it looks like it's dizzying.

At this time, Chen Ziyang saw a small pond in this garden, and a lotus flower in full bloom grew in the pond. Although this lotus flower stretched out of the pond and was hidden among the other flowers, this lotus flower was very abrupt in his eyes, because the shape of this lotus flower was almost exactly the same as the soul lamp that everyone had seen before.

After taking a closer look around, Chen Ziyang did not see the existence of the second lotus flower on this stone slab, recalling the previous style of the soul lamp, he already had the answer in his heart, this lotus flower should be the key to opening this stone slab.

After a few tentative touches on this lotus flower, Chen Ziyang nodded, and then he increased the force on his fingers and pressed down sharply, and the lotus flower sank into the wall under his pressure.

After a "poof" sound, some dust erupted on the edge of the slate, but the slab did not open. It seems that it is because of the age, and the dust in the cracks of the slate prevents the slab from leaning forward. After slashing along the gap in the stone slab with the Xuanming Ancient Sword a few times, the stone slab completely toppled down.

Looking at the edge of the open stone slab, Chen Ziyang was amazed by the ingenuity of the design of this mechanism. The whole open slate is not of regular shape, and the edges of the slate are uneven, but the edge of the slate is composed of patterns carved on the slate. That's why the slab is perfectly hidden in the wall, because there are no joints to follow.

The space behind the slate is not very large, just a mezzanine in which five gears are placed. The five gears are clearly divided into two parts, four gears in a group, two on the top and two on the bottom, and on the right side of the four gears there is a slightly different shape of the gear.

"Could this be the mechanism that made the road reappear?" Chen Ziyang stretched out his hand, grabbed the rightmost gear and slowly rotated. As he turned, the other four gears also rotated, but nothing happened after a long time.

When rotating this gear, Chen Ziyang felt that the feel was very strange, and it didn't take much effort to turn this gear at all, and even only one finger was needed to move it, as if all the gears were unbuckled.

"Is it because it's been too old that these mechanisms have failed?" Immediately, Chen Ziyang denied his own idea. The fact that the tunnel can be opened by the soul lamp and close silently is enough to show that the mechanism hidden in this wall has not failed, but why are these gears unable to exert their strength?

Liu Cong, who had been staring at the side for a long time, came over, and after thinking for a while, he said beside Chen Ziyang: "I have seen this kind of mechanism, it is not opened like this, you need to fix these four gears with something at the same time, so that the gears can eat force." ”

After Liu Cong's reminder, Chen Ziyang kept gesturing in the area between the four gears. Judging by the thickness of this interlayer, if you want to fix these four gears at the same time, you need a square flat thing, and this thing must also be relatively hard, otherwise it may not be able to withstand the rotation of the gears.

After thinking for a while, Chen Ziyang suddenly said, "What about the stone brick engraved with the soul lamp and the Seven Martyrs Tomb Array?" ”

Hearing Chen Ziyang's words, Liu Cong also reacted. Yes, the flat, hard stone bricks are suitable for this place, and they should be about the same size.

Liu Cong hurriedly asked people to bring the broken stone slab. After splicing these stone slabs between the four gears, Chen Ziyang and Liu Cong glanced at each other.

That's right, the slate fits almost perfectly with the four gears, and the thickness fits perfectly. In particular, the four corners of the slate have some traces of wear, and these traces of wear and tear are actually tightly matched with the gears, and it seems that the four corners of the slate were worn by these gears before.

After letting Liu Cong hold the slate with both hands to prevent the broken slate from falling, Chen Ziyang turned the lone gear again. This time the rotation required a lot of force, and he clearly felt that the gear in his hand had been swallowed, and the feeling of turning was obviously different.

As Chen Ziyang turned, the slate made a clicking sound, and there were signs of bulging outward. Liu Cong pressed the slate tightly with both hands to prevent the slate from falling out of the gears.

After a few crisp sounds, the edge of the slate shattered into several small pieces again under the squeeze of the gears, and jumped out of the interlayer, without the edge of the slate fixed, the slate that Liu Cong pressed was useless, and after retracting his hands, these slate fell to the ground.

"Maybe it's because it's been a long time, this slate has weathered too badly, and it has lost its hardness, and it is very likely that this slate was broken when Zhang Taixu and they opened the road."

"Hmm...... Well? Zhang Taixu? Zhang Taixu! A thought flashed through Chen Ziyang's mind like a thunderbolt from the sky, and after revealing an excited gaze, Chen Ziyang took out the brass compass made by Zhang Taixu from his backpack with a slightly trembling hand.

Seeing this brass compass again, Liu Cong also suddenly woke up, he gasped, and his eyes showed anticipation.

After figuring it out, Chen Ziyang figured it all out.

Why did Zhang Taixu have to make a brass compass? Why is the brass compass with the code hidden next to the codebook? Why is the slab that hints at the correct coffin in the Seven Mourners Tomb Array placed underneath the Soul Lamp? Why did more than 200 civilians die here? Why didn't the Du family open the rest of the dungeon? All these questions were figured out by Chen Ziyang at this moment.

As if to test his idea, Chen Ziyang placed the brass compass in the center of the four gears. Like the previous broken stone slab, the brass compass is a perfect fit for the four gears, and it seems that the size of this brass compass is based on the broken stone slab.

This time, there was no need for Liu Cong to help fix it, as Chen Ziyang turned the fifth gear, the wall in front of him slowly moved to both sides, and the disappeared corridor reappeared.

Chen Ziyang was relieved.

Although according to previous speculation, these more than 200 civilians were captured and came here to excavate the ancient tombs, but there is one place that makes no sense.

The presence of more than 200 civilians is clearly meaningless. To escort them over, more than 100 Japanese soldiers were needed, and with such a large number of soldiers, couldn't they dig the cracks in the mountains that connected to the Taoist holy land?

The physical strength of the more than 100 sturdy Japanese soldiers was much better than that of the more than 200 hungry civilians, and if they did not take civilians with them, the size of the contingent would have been reduced from more than 300 to more than 100, both in terms of food consumption and in terms of the concealment of going deep into non-Japanese occupied areas.

So these more than 200 civilians must have their use, that is, to be cannon fodder.

The Du family helped the Japanese to excavate the Taoist Holy Land, he must have known that there were many mechanisms here, and the Japanese would not let their soldiers risk their lives, so they would rather risk being discovered than escort more than 200 civilians here, just to let them be used as cannon fodder when cracking the mechanisms in the Taoist Holy Land.

The Du family didn't open this secret Yongdao, not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't know how to open the Yongdao at all. Because they came in through a crack in the mountain, they had never seen a lotus-shaped soul lamp, nor had they encountered the square stone slab.

The mechanism that opens the corridor in the main burial chamber is designed to be very hidden, just a small carved lotus flower, and there are countless carvings in the wall carvings of this burial chamber the size of this lotus, and it is not easy to find the right one.

And even if they found the mechanism and opened the hidden slate, there was nothing to put in it to fix the four gears.

Probably in order to leave a chance for the descendants of the Taoist who came here later, Yuan Tiangang carved the stone slab. This stone slab not only allows the holder to skillfully avoid the Seven Dead Guardian Array and know the function of the soul lamp, but also allows people to open the disappearing corridor after entering the main tomb and being trapped by the inexplicably disappearing corridor, otherwise they will be trapped and die here.

When Zhang Taixu and Wang Dingqian used this stone slab to open the disappeared corridor and prepare to evacuate, they left the stone slab under the soul lamp to remind future generations.

However, the slate was broken when they opened the tunnel, so Zhang Taixu made a brass compass the same size as the slate, but even harder, as a substitute for the slate.

Although this mechanism did not play a role in the search for the iron book, it untied Chen Ziyang's heart knot, and also drew a perfect end to the relationship between the old Chen family and the brass compass made by Zhang Taixu for more than 90 years.

(End of chapter)