Chapter 694: Open the Treasury

The torches were lit again. Little Hong, who was floating nearby, didn't like the smell of fire and deliberately kept a little distance.

Besides, this group was all soldiers, and all men—their killing aura and masculine energy were too heavy, making her very uncomfortable.

So she floated lazily ahead and spoke to Pan Yun through the air: "I just saw them come and touch this wall, seems like they wanted to hide from you, but you already came in, and they didn't find anywhere to hide either."

Pan Yun looked toward the grey-robed man. He was wandering aimlessly inside the cave, just not going near the wall Little Hong had mentioned.

Chen Wen, seeing her look at that wall and then at the grey-robed man, understood at once. He kicked the grey-robed man over with one foot, sending him sprawling flat against that wall.

Chen Wen said darkly: "Open it."

The grey-robed youth hadn't expected them to know even this. His gaze swept over them, but from their attire he truly couldn't make out their origins.

The group had men, women, middle-aged, and a youth—seemingly all mixed together.

But...

He looked at Chen Wen and the people behind him, his eyes narrowing slightly: "You're Han soldiers, aren't you? You're not wearing military robes, but you carry a soldier's bearing..."

Before he could finish, Chen Wen slapped him on the head: "So much nonsense—open the treasury!"

The grey-robed man lowered his eyes: "I can't open it. We're only responsible for guarding the treasury. Only Kikuchi-sama can open it here."

Chen Wen snorted coldly: "At this point and still not being honest."

He ordered the soldiers to drag him away and beat him!

The grey-robed man screamed in terror, shouting loudly: "We really don't know! If we did, we'd have hidden inside before you came in..."

Pan Yun: "You didn't want to hide? You just didn't have time, right?"

Chen Wen waved his hand, and the soldiers immediately dragged him to the cave entrance and beat him soundly.

A quarter of an hour later, the soldiers tossed him back, limp and boneless.

Pan Yun and Seeing Miao Zhen had already tapped this wall all over, confirming it was hollow inside—the echo was different from the other two walls.

But where the mechanism was, the four of them still hadn't found.

Pan Yun walked up to the grey-robed man: "How many years have you been guarding this cave?"

The grey-robed man said weakly: "Five years."

"How often does the big ship come?"

The grey-robed man hesitated. Pan Yun lightly raised her foot and stepped on the back of his hand.

The grey-robed man immediately said: "Half a year! They come once every half year!"

"To take, or to store?"

"Both. Every year in April the big ship comes from Japan to take part of the goods; every year in November it comes to store things."

Afraid they'd hit him again, the grey-robed man rambled on: "Last November they came with two ships, both carrying things in. But this April no one came. We've been waiting, not knowing what's happened outside."

Pan Yun raised an eyebrow: "No one delivers supplies to you?"

The grey-robed man shook his head: "The island has enough food stored for a year. We also grow some vegetables, beans, and rice ourselves. Apart from lacking salt and oil, everything else is fine."

Pan Yun bent down and asked him: "Then let me ask you—every time they come and open the treasury, where do they stand, and what do they touch?"

"I—I don't know," the grey-robed man saw Pan Yun's face darken instantly and hurriedly explained: "I really don't know. Every time Kikuchi-sama opens the treasury, we have to stand outside the cave, we can't get close..."

Chen Wen frowned: "Looks like he really doesn't know. What do we do with this wall? It feels like solid stone all over, and chiseling won't work well. How about we blast it open with gunpowder?"

Pan Yun was curious: "You brought gunpowder too?"

"Brought it." Chen Wen waved his hand, and immediately soldiers came forward carrying two bamboo baskets, covered with black cloth.

Chen Wen said: "Two baskets, enough?"

"Enough—might even be enough to bury all of us." Pan Yun thought, if brute force blasting would work, where would gunpowder be needed? She could just draw in spiritual energy and detonate it with primordial force—wouldn't that have the same effect?

And she could control the location even more precisely.

But no one knew how this mechanism was designed. What if blasting open one crack brought the whole cave down?

Pan Yun drew Chen Wen's blade and poked the grey-robed man with the tip, again and again.

Through the clothing no blood came out, but the man could feel the blade's edge. Every time it landed, his body gave a shudder.

Pan Yun said with a smile: "Why do I find it so hard to believe you don't know anything at all?"

"Five years, mind you—not five months, and certainly not five days," Pan Yun bent down, staring hard into his eyes: "The two of you, spending every day on this broken island, guarding this one treasury—don't you want to know what's inside, and how to open it?"

"I don't want to, I don't!"

Pan Yun smiled softly, bent down, her voice seeming to drill through his skull into his ear: "You don't want to, but surely your companion does? He must have told you where Kikuchi stood when he opened the treasury. Tell me—where is it?"

His eyes swept over involuntarily. He quickly realized something was wrong and snapped them back.

But Pan Yun had already tilted her head, following the direction his gaze had just drifted toward.

She couldn't help but laugh softly: "So that's where it is."

The grey-robed man's body gave a shudder.

Pan Yun straightened up and slid the blade back into Chen Wen's sheath.

Chen Wen said in a low voice: "He's useless now—drag him away and chop him into meat paste!"

The soldiers responded and stepped forward to drag him.

The grey-robed man screamed at the top of his lungs, shrieking: "I know, I know! I even know how he moved, how he opened the treasury! I'll talk, I'll tell you everything!"

The soldiers glanced at Chen Wen and only then let go.

Everyone looked toward the grey-robed man, gazes heavy.

Under everyone's gaze, the grey-robed man shrank back, then with trembling fingers pointed at the wall section he'd accidentally glanced at: "Around the five-foot mark, there are several mechanisms. We—we only peeked once. His back was facing us, blocking the view completely—no one could see."

Pan Yun and Seeing Miao Zhen curiously leaned in to look. On closer inspection, the wall was indeed a little different—similar in color, but with slight unevenness.

Seeing Miao Zhen pressed along it inch by inch. A soft click—Pan Yun felt the sound was familiar. She instinctively grabbed Seeing Miao Zhen, leaned back, and retreated rapidly...

Pfft-pfft—over a dozen sounds, as more than a dozen needles, thin as ox hair, shot out and embedded in the wall.

Pan Yun let go of Seeing Miao Zhen and reached out to grab the grey-robed man by the throat.

The gray-robed man shouted: "I didn't know there was a trap, we never touched it..."

Pan Yun gripped his throat and said: "You'd better be telling the truth, otherwise I wouldn't mind letting you try every trap mechanism in this cave, just like your companion."

The gray-robed man's face went deathly pale, and he could only mutter nonstop: "I don't know, I really don't know, we never touched it, the master never mentioned it either..."

Pan Yun tightened her five fingers, and once she had choked him back to his senses, asked: "Did he move his right hand first or his left?"

The gray-robed man was stunned for a moment, then after carefully recalling, said: "R-right, it seems to be the right side."

Pan Yun's lips curled up slightly, dragged him to the wall, grabbed his hand and pressed it from the right.

She whispered: "I can absolutely avoid the traps, but you're a different story."

Cold sweat poured down the gray-robed man's face, and only then did he shout loudly: "From the left, he started from the left, and ended with the middle, but we didn't see the middle step..."

He cried until tears streamed down his face: "I'm not lying this time, really!"

Pan Yun snorted coldly, tossed him aside, and only then carefully looked at the wall.

After staring for a while, she slowly found the differences.

She searched in her own space, and took out a large writing brush from her sleeve.

She loosened the brush tip and gently swept it across the wall. Before long, a layer of mud smeared on the wall fell away, and they finally faintly saw the circles on it.

The edges were very faint, but upon careful inspection one could make them out—four in a row, four rows in total.

Chen Wen, no one knew when, also crowded over, looked for a while, and frowned: "This thing looks a little familiar."

Pan Yun swept it carefully again, and faintly saw that there seemed to be characters carved on it.

Seeing Miao Zhen leaned in to look carefully: "Looks like Chinese chess."

Pan Yun, who only had a half-baked knowledge of Chinese chess: "Are you sick? Setting a password with Chinese chess? If you've got the guts, use Go!"

Seeing Miao Zhen rubbed her nose and tried hard to identify the marks on it: "This should be the chariot, this is the elephant..."

Pan Yun stared at these four rows of circles thoughtfully, turned her head and asked the gray-robed man again: "You never touched this mechanism's password?"

The gray-robed man shook his head: "Never touched it, because there was once a rumor that everyone who tried to secretly open the treasure vault ended up dead. Besides, we don't have a boat, even if we got the treasure we couldn't get away. You can't find a single tree five feet tall on this island. If the masters don't come, this place of ours is just a wild island."

Pan Yun withdrew her gaze and stared intently at the circles above.

Seeing Miao Zhen muttered: "Opening cannon, but there are two cannons..."

Pan Yun, quick of eye and deft of hand, directly pressed the cannon on the upper left.

Chen Wen's pupils shrank suddenly, startled, almost turning to run, but after she pressed it down, nothing happened—and that circle really had been pressed down.

Chen Wen was stunned, and Seeing Miao Zhen was also stunned.

Chen Wen: "Y-you-you, how did you know it wasn't the lower-left one?"

Pan Yun said calmly: "Look at the marks—it's more worn down."

Pan Yun's gaze swept across: "I already know which circles he's pressed, the only trouble is I don't know the order."

Seeing Miao Zhen said: "The next one is the horse."

Pan Yun heard this and in a flash pressed down a circle, stabbing hard.

Nothing happened, but they heard a crisp click from inside the wall.

Pan Yun raised an eyebrow and asked her: "What's the next step?"

Everyone's spirits lifted, and they all stared excitedly at Seeing Miao Zhen.

Chen Wen also stared at Seeing Miao Zhen with bright, eager eyes.

Seeing Miao Zhen thought for a moment: "Pawn, I guess."

"Don't say pawn, there are five pawns..."

Pan Yun had already pressed down a pawn.

A one-in-five chance—no, the one-in-five premise was that Seeing Miao Zhen had guessed the order correctly.

Everyone's hearts leapt into their throats, waiting tensely, and they only heard a click from inside the wall—nothing happened.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Pan Yun's eyes lit up slightly, and pointing at the remaining three chess pieces with marks, she said: "There's still the general, the advisor, and the chariot. Which first, which last?"

Seeing Miao Zhen's confidence grew, her gaze sliding back and forth among the remaining three chess pieces, and she said: "This person wasn't very clever—the password he set follows the most basic opening principles, and he plays offensively, so the next one is the chariot, the advisor is the escape route he left for himself."

Pan Yun raised an eyebrow, reached out to press the right chariot, then the front advisor, and with one finger pressed down the only general in the middle!

The speed was too fast—Chen Wen didn't even have a chance to run—then several clicks rang out, followed by a rumble, and an entire wall beside them swung inward open before them...

The tremor was so great that dust and small stones from the wall and the cave roof came sifting down, and only after a long while did it quiet down.

Everyone looked toward the treasure vault together, and at one glance, they were nearly blinded by the golden light and the gleam of pearls inside. (End of chapter)