The internal Shrine entrance was a behemoth of concrete and metal ores that resonated with the blood qi in his system. It sizzled, sending tremors along the smooth surface of Mo Lin's skin. Shattered skulls were slotted into various dents. This was not through design but some brutal massacre. It looked like someone had caught a person by the face and slammed him into the door. Time did the rest, eating the flesh and whatever remained of the person except the bone.
With little focus, Mo Lin noted tiny jagged lines swirling and connecting at random intervals. He had seen something similar before on the rings of a split tree. They looked like little interlocking veins.
Were the doors made from a type of gemstone?
Purple Steel ore had a similar structure when split in the middle. It showed a series of lines in differing shades of purple that told stories of its lengthy growth underground.
Lui Gang, Su Ying, and Meng Zhang brought about ten men each to the site. Each held a scroll that pressed Mo Lin into a tiny ant before a true being. None of his internal thoughts left a mark on his face. He remained the epitome of control.
He waved, signaling the Mo scouts to gather the two scrolls they had. Lui Gang and Su Ying did the same, and their own scouts burst from the gathering of combatants that hung around the exterior.
Earlier, the strike team had found the grooves they were looking for. Without foreknowledge, finding them would have been impossible. Cow, the Mo Clan's strike team leader, held the two scrolls and came to the gates. He traced his fingers along the gate until he reached a skull randomly placed off-center of the large doors. He then slid the scroll into the skull's agape mouth. It fit perfectly.
"To be truthful, we had already checked for any hidden openings or compartments the moment we came but could not find any until we received your message, Young Lord," Cow said. "We doubled our efforts and started checking through everything for any sort of clue. Eagle saw what none of us did. The perfectly circular mouth openings. Granted, they were all perfect except for a few that had minor problems."
"Well done," Mo Lin said. "Continue."
Cow then traced his fingers again at an odd angle that seemed way too specific to be random. He followed a predetermined path along the walls until he reached another skull, this one scattered amongst a series of saddened bones.
Skulls held no capacity for emotion. Yet the fear and sadness hovering over their deep ridges tugged at Mo Lin's heartstrings. It chilled him.
Cow slotted the other scroll into the skull's mouth. The gigantic doors vibrated. Soot and sand rained from the cavern above.
"The other two," Cow said in his ghostly voice, stretching his hand for the remaining scrolls.
The Lui and Su Clan scouts hesitated, unsure of what to do. Mo Lin turned his gaze to Lui Gang and Su Ying. No words were exchanged. The silence of authority cut through the air. With a sigh, they gave the signal.
Promptly, Cow traced another two sets of paths, slotting each scroll into skulls at random positions that held no significant or geometric meaning. It was a sort of true randomness that Mo Lin had failed to account for.
Once all the pieces were in place, they waited. Aside from the constant shaking and gravel falling into the air, nothing special occurred.
A terrible silence settled.
"I thought you had it figured out," Mo Lin said.
"I do not understand either. Maybe I utilized the incorrect sequence," Cow said.
"Share how you arrived at the sequence then. I noticed you are tracing paths along a predetermined line. Is this Eagle's work?" Mo Lin asked.
"Eagle can explain it better," Cow said, sending a series of hand signals.
Shortly after, a gaunt man wrapped in the Mo Clan's signature black silk robes descended. No one heard him until he deliberately made a sound.
"Young Lord," Eagle greeted. His voice grated on the backs of Su Ying and Lui Gang. Meng Zhang remained unaffected.
They tried hiding it, but his sudden appearance tensed them. Mo Lin caught the tightening of their shoulders and the flashes of red that spread across their cheeks before receding. A comment was not necessary.
The throat leading to the external entrance was long and jagged with precarious stone steps slammed into the sides of the tunnel. How Eagle got to their position without them noticing surely raised their guard. *All as intended,* Mo Lin thought. He needed them all on their feet and too focused on immediate dangers. Every gap in their attention needed to be allocated to something other than what lay before them or within them.
Eagle walked to the stone gates that made him seem more like a toddler than a grown adult. He adjusted his throat and began explaining.
"While each skull seems to be at a random position, the truth is they are not. With the level of enhanced sight, I can see beyond what is meant to be seen," Eagle said.
His figure blurred to the first scroll Cow had placed. He placed a finger two inches down the chin of the skull. Turning to the crowd of four heirs, he smiled.
"This is the major artery going through the neck. It leads to the heart, and from there we find the heart vein connected to the ring finger," Eagle said.
He traced the path from the neck and heart all the way to the end of the artery, a distance of about two meters. If Eagle's deduction stood correct, that meant the human slammed into those walls was at least four meters tall. Yet their skull size was no different from an average man.
Tall, thin humanoids? An ancient clan or tribe?
From the edge of the heart vein, Eagle pivoted and followed through until he reached another skull.
"At the edge of each heart vein begins the edge of the other. Following through leads you to the next skull. Whatever did this ensured that the vein path was soldered into the wall," Eagle said after passing through the skulls.
"The meeting point of each heart vein. When connected, it creates a perfect square," Lui Gang saw the connection once Eagle finished.
His words sent everyone into thought. Mo Lin scanned the area once more to ensure he had not missed anything. First, he counted the skulls randomly placed on the doors. They numbered twenty. The rest were too fragmented to count.
Was there a connection there?
Out of twenty skulls, only four had interlocking heart veins. Some ritual, perhaps?
"Veins. Blood Qi travels through the same pathways. What if we need to channel qi through it?" Su Ying stepped forth.
The Shrine felt less like an altar of a godly being and more like that of a devil. A thick, heavy, and damp smell began clotting the air. Heat rose from the sides of the cut cavern walls. The little light that seeped through from the inclined tunnel behind them became less and less.
Su Ying pressed a palm in front of one of the scrolls. Bright red glowed on her skin. Her blood qi was not thick. It was light. Its aura brought to mind dainty floating clouds that begged for purity while their lower ends darkened to birth a storm. It was danger in plain innocence.
The scroll sucked the qi and glowed equally bright. Its hue was golden. It was the kind of gold that invited warmth. It looked sacred and beautiful amongst the wretched souls that died creating the sinister gate. Mo Lin found it beautiful. It left a bitter taste in his mouth that he did.
After a while, Su Ying stopped. Her breath hitched even though she tried keeping a normal rhythm. Meng Zhang and Lui Gang spotted similar blemishes on their own skin too. He knew why, at least for them.
"Maybe we should do it simultaneously?" Meng Zhang posed a thought.
"That is a good suggestion," Lui Gang added.
Mo Lin's silence cut the enthusiasm. It returned a moment later when he finally nodded. He went into place. Lui Gang and Meng Zhang chose their own scrolls to channel qi into.
"On the count of three," Su Ying said.
"One... Two... Three!" they said in unison.
Simultaneously, their hands glowed bright red. The combined aura of their qi pulsing out forced Eagle and Cow to step back. The scrolls reacted immediately. Mo Lin kept tabs on his own qi expenditure and ensured he clocked the expenditures of the other heirs. Once the doors opened, he held no guarantee on what would happen. Certainly, he had his insurance, but he would be a fool to assume such measures were foolproof.
A blinding gold light erupted. Pain nibbled his fingertips as more qi than he was prepared to give flowed out in gallons. The doors rumbled. A gap, small and inconsequential, opened on the doors.