Craftsman's Aura Concealed

The aftershocks of Zhangtai Palace silently spread through the Xianyang Palace corridors. Cheng Xi's childish words, "a fierce tiger opening a small gate," were transformed by Ying Zheng's remark, "How can we guard just one gate?" into a strategy that King Zhuangxiang repeatedly pondered over his desk. Lu Buwei's gentle mask finally cracked, and the look he cast at Cheng Xi as he left court was as cold as a poisoned dagger.

"Lord Chang'an has impressive methods," Zhao Gao said, his voice slippery as a snake slithering over bluestone, as he followed half a step behind Cheng Xi on the way back to his palace. "But... it's like a tree that stands out in the forest."

Cheng Xi's footsteps didn't falter, his young profile illuminated by the harsh shadows cast by the palace walls. Zhao Gao's "advice" was both a warning and a probe. He suddenly tilted his head back, forcing a smile free of any gloom. "Does the Director of the Central Chariot Bureau mean those new Luban Locks they sent over? They're certainly more 'outstanding' than the Nine-Linked Rings!" He deliberately stressed the word "outstanding" and skipped toward the palace doors, playing the part of a child delighted with a new toy flawlessly.

The palace doors closed, shutting out Zhao Gao's thoughtful gaze. Cheng Xi leaned against the cold door panel, his palms slick with cold sweat. Acting was a thousand times more exhausting than solving a Nine-Linked Ring.

[Energy recovery 0.12%... Passive perception module operating intermittently... Source of gaze locked: Zhangtai Palace direction... Attribute fluctuation: Order → Chaos... Associated target: King Zhuangxiang... Zzzzz...]

The System's static sharpened for a moment before falling silent again. Cheng Xi's heart sank. That "gaze" was indeed related to King Zhuangxiang! The fluctuation from Order to Chaos... was it a sign of King Zhuangxiang's declining health? Or was something external eroding him? He shook his head, forcing himself to focus on the immediate crisis—Ying Xi.

The veteran of the imperial clan who was thwarted at Zhangtai Palace would not let this matter rest. As expected, the next morning, a troop of armored guards placed several heavy camphor wood chests before Cheng Xi's palace with a loud thud. When the lids were opened, they revealed not gold or jade, but a mountain of ingenious objects: nested bronze spheres, interlocking wooden pagodas, and beast-shaped locks filled with intricate mechanisms... They gleamed coldly in the sunlight.

Ying Xi stood with his hand on his sword, his armor clanking like a thunderous bell. "I hear Lord Chang'an is peerless in wisdom, especially skilled at deconstructing intricate puzzles! These are the treasures of my lifetime, the essence of craftsmanship from the six states! Since you spoke of needing to 'open a small gate' for the eastern expedition, surely such 'minor skills' are child's play for you! Three days is the deadline to solve all these items. Let us old fogies witness firsthand what 'heaven-sent wisdom' truly is!"

The four words "heaven-sent wisdom" landed on the ground with a resounding thud, filled with mockery. This was an open scheme! If he couldn't solve them, it would confirm his childish pronouncements; if he could, it would solidify him as "demonic"! The palace attendants held their breath, while Zhao Gao stood respectfully with his hands clasped, a hint of amusement playing at the corner of his lips as he watched the unfolding drama.

Cheng Xi walked to the chests and picked up a bronze sphere the size of a quail's egg, covered in honeycomb-like holes. It was cold and heavy to the touch, the holes deep, with what seemed like even more complex spring mechanisms inside. With the methods of this era alone, it would take a lifetime to even begin to understand it.

[Analyzing target: Mohist Non-Aggression Mechanism Ball (damaged)... Structure modeling in progress... Core power source: Geomagnetic resonance... Energy pathway: 71.3% blocked... Optimal solution deduction: Requires resonance frequency of 17.8 Hz...]

A stream of pale blue light outlined a precise three-dimensional cross-section in his mind, the blocked energy pathways like rusted blood vessels. Cheng Xi's fingertips brushed over the holes, feeling the faint, almost imperceptible magnetic tremor. He suddenly looked up and smiled at Ying Xi, full of childish innocence. "Uncle-King, this toy is really interesting! Much more fun than that jade ring from yesterday!"

Before Ying Xi could react, his small hands snatched an inconspicuous bronze rod from the side of the chest—it was the handle of a detached component—and brought it to his lips. Puffing out his cheeks, he blew hard!

"Woo--Bzzzz--!"

A low, almost infrasonic hum, yet with a strange penetrating power, suddenly erupted! The air vibrated with it! The dust on the black pottery floor tiles beneath Cheng Xi's feet visibly danced!

Inside the dormant bronze sphere, a rapid series of cracking sounds, like popping beans, suddenly echoed! Immediately after, before Ying Xi's rapidly widening pupils and Zhao Gao's frozen smile, the bronze sphere, riddled with holes, as if a mechanical beast dormant for millennia had been awakened, began to slowly uncoil, extend, and transform from its core!

Bronze scales flipped and assembled, intricate gears and levers glinting in the sunlight. In just three breaths, a perfectly round bronze sphere had transformed into a Bronze Black Bird, poised as if to take flight! Its beak slightly parted, and a tiny jade bead in its throat emitted a soft, lustrous glow, pulsing with the continuous hum!

Silence fell over the entire assembly. Only the low hum and the faint glow from the Black Bird's throat burned into everyone's gaze.

Cheng Xi put down the bronze rod. The Black Bird immediately stopped humming, then coiled itself back up, returning to its unassuming spherical form. He gently placed it back in the chest, clapped his hands, as if he had merely blown a clay whistle. "Uncle-King, look, does it make a sound?"

Ying Xi's face turned from red to green, then from green to white. The veins on the back of his hand, resting on his sword hilt, bulged. A guttural sound came from his throat, but he couldn't utter a single word. That bronze sphere was a secret transmission of the Mohists; he had possessed it for thirty years, kept it locked away, treating it like a sacred text! This child... had broken it by simply blowing air?!

"Director of the Central Chariot Bureau," Cheng Xi turned to Zhao Gao, his face a mask of innocent purity, "I'm hungry. Has breakfast been prepared?"

Zhao Gao bowed his head deeply, concealing the surging waves of shock in his eyes. "...Yes."

That night, as the dew grew heavy, Cheng Xi dismissed his attendants and sat alone under the lamp, his fingertips tracing a black wooden chip, the size of a fingernail, that had fallen from a hidden compartment in a wooden artifact. The chip was neither metal nor jade, warm to the touch, one side smooth as a mirror, while the other was inlaid with extremely fine silver threads forming a fragmented, twisted, snake-like symbol.

During the day, when he had used the bronze rod to blow the specific resonant frequency and forcibly opened the blocked energy pathways of the mechanism ball, this wooden chip had emitted a faint, synchronized tremor from deep within a mortise joint!

[Unknown energy imprint detected... Structure analysis... Zzz... Insufficient energy... Preliminary determination: Fragment of ancient Witch Script... Attribute: Spatial anchor / Weak... Associated direction: East of Mount Xiao... Zzz...]

Witch Script? Spatial anchor? East of Mount Xiao... That was beyond Hangu Pass, in the lands of Han and Wei! How did this object get mixed into Ying Xi's "collection"? Was it a coincidence? Or... did someone deliberately use Ying Xi to deliver this "key" to him?

"Woo--woo--"

Outside the window, the early spring night wind suddenly turned mournful, violently striking the carved window lattices and emitting a weeping, wailing sound.

The candlelight inside the hall flickered violently, suppressed by the wind.

Cheng Xi's head snapped up!

Through a gap in the tightly closed window lattice, without a sound, a vibrant red... peach blossom petal had been embedded!