Lin Ming paid no heed to Dragon Battle Palace's discussion about how to break open the gate.
He slowly withdrew his gaze and walked toward the Bronze Giant Gate, stopping some distance away. His eyes carefully examined the mottled dark-red stains upon its surface.
He studied them intently, as though he meant to imprint the pattern of every bloodstain into his mind.
At first glance, the bloodstains appeared to be nothing more than chaotic, irregular blotches. Yet as he observed them more closely, he gradually discovered that the dark-red marks were slowly writhing, like tiny blood snakes slithering across the gate.
From afar, those writhing bloodstains vaguely formed a series of savage beast locks.
The beast locks looked exceptionally vicious, as though they had been shaped after some incomparably ferocious beast totems, sealing the entire bronze gate shut.
There were exactly eight such beast locks.
Lin Ming stared at the eight savage locks, his gaze narrowing slightly. After a moment, he murmured, "The Eight-Gate Fierce Lock Formation?"
As Lin Ming's words fell, he slowly raised his eyes toward the ceiling of the great hall.
The vaulted ceiling was so high that it nearly vanished into the darkness. Thick pillars stood like a forest, while eight enormous gates could clearly be seen high above in the dim hall.
The eight gates hung in the eight directions of the hall, arranged in a ring like eight silent eyes looking down upon the ancient hall below.
Upon each of those eight gates crouched a massive statue of a fierce beast.
The statues came in all shapes. Some resembled tigers and leopards, some snakes and pythons, some apes and ghosts. Yet they all shared one trait: human bodies with beastly faces. Their expressions were savage and terrifying, their fangs bared, and their stone eyes