Carrying the giant key, I walked to the bottom of the wolf’s head and slowly placed it into the corresponding place. I heard the sounds of crackling and turning and another “boom” as the mechanisms inside rotated. Holding the heavy steel key in place was almost unbearable; both of my hands were getting numb by the second.
Finally, the key stopped moving but on the outside, nothing seemed to have happened.
“What’s the matter?” Dong Cheng asked, her head tilting as she stared at me. “Xiao Yao, are we missing something that is required to open the door? Do we need to shout out some sort of command to magically open it, like ‘Open sesame or I have come for the princess’?”
I shook my head, “I don’t think that’s it.”
Wan Er piped up with her two cents, “Do we need to turn the key even more? Who else wants to give the key a try?”
“Oh mighty Miss, please give it a try!”
“How about you give it another try?” Wan Er said, her beautiful eyes staring at me.
Even with my full body weight distributed onto the key, my efforts had gone to waste. The key simply would not budge another inch. “God d*mnit, I can’t move it at all! Cang Lei, Old K, Matcha, come here and help me out!
Cang Lei immediately rushed over to help me. Matcha and Old K grabbed the handle of the key and tried pulling on it even Wan Er came over and gave her effort.
“Everyone at the same time!” I barked.
“Okay!”
“ 1, 2, 3, go! 1, 2, 3, go!” I yelled out slowly.
With our combined strength, the key gave a crackling noise, but it still remained motionless. Wan Er flushed red from the exertion, “Nothing is happening still? The key refuses to move even with this many people? How many Lv 40+ people do we need then?”
Dong Cheng picked up her staff, “How are we going to do this then?”
I took a look at the people around us before a sudden thought came to me, “Matcha, what direction were you turning the key?”
She twirled her fingers to show me, “In this direction…”
My face turned green as I realized our mistake, “We have to turn the key clockwise to open the door, not the other way around…Cang Lei, you were making the same mistake as Matcha…”
Cang Lei scratched his head childishly, “Brother Xiao Yao, I don’t know which direction is which…”
Sighing, Dong Cheng Yue explained to her brother, “Brother, you’re so stupid… clockwise is when you turn to the right.”
“Oh…got it…” Dong Cheng Lei nodded his head in understanding.
……
“One more time!” I cried.
This time in unison, we finally turned the giant key. The “kacha” sounds of the key were followed by the earth suddenly trembling. The stone wolf’s mouth opened and looked as if it could snap shut at any time, with us in it!
“Bang!”
We all rode out the trembles as we waited for the statue to stop shaking, though the key in our hands rapidly crumbled away into a pile of steel fragments, never to be used again. To have a key that long, crumble away that quickly–what a strange sight!
The mouth of the giant stone wolf flickered, showing the number 30 on the screen. This was the start of a countdown!
I snapped out of my shock quickly and shouted for the rest to hear, “Come into the mouth! It will close after 30 seconds! Hurry, there’s not much time!”
As I spoke, I held the Frost Rain Sword, took the lead and ran ahead, throwing myself inside the wolf’s mouth. Straightaway, I noticed that the inside had a steep slope that slid downwards. The entire group piled in behind me, but only Wan Er, Dong Cheng Yue, and Wolf readily kept their balance on the abrupt slope. Everyone’s armor flashed different colors as they slid everywhere and bumped into each other. It seemed like all 10 of us had made it into the [Five Barbarians Desolate Tomb] at the very least.
……
“Shashashaaa”
Finally slowing down as we reached the bottom of the slope, we must have traveled at least 100 meters underground from the surface. The map was no longer displaying [Five Barbarian Barren Hill]. Instead, it was showing [Five Barbarians Desolate Tomb – Level 1]!
I stood up and gave myself a pat to clean away all of the excess dirt; the tomb was a pretty large map. The cavern roof tops were all embedded with mysterious soul stones and each emitted a spooky glow as they illuminated the area around us. From where I was standing, the map looked to be in decent condition although there were plants growing everywhere and the stench was almost enough to make me nauseous.
“Sha…”