Tang Qi hurriedly looked toward the top of the pillar as well. The pane of glass embedded in it was slowly shifting with a clacking sound as he turned the handle, setting the gears and bearings in motion.
Its range of movement was limited to rotating around the stone pillar.
But the knob on the handle could extend or shorten the bracket supporting the glass, as well as tilt the pane up and down.
He realized that these glass mirrors were the key to solving the puzzle:
"We need to bring all four panes out before we can figure out exactly what they do."
With that, he was about to head over to the other four pillars.
Yet the moment he released the handle, the gears began turning on their own, drawing the glass he had just raised back toward its original position.
He quickly grabbed the handle again to stop the glass from rotating back, then looked at the other four:
"Each of you take a pillar and turn the mechanism like I did."
They all nodded, following Tang Qi's example by pushing open the hidden compartments in the pillars and turning the handles—
Only Gravel let out a furious curse:
"Cut off his goatee! No wonder someone smashed that statue. I'd have done exactly the same thing—this is blatant discrimination against our race!"
"What's wrong?"
Tang Qi looked at Gravel in confusion, only to find the dwarf standing on tiptoe beside a pillar, stretching his arms upward. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't reach the hidden compartment overhead:
"It's all because of that rotten fucking mouth of yours! Ever since I met you, I've suffered more humiliation than in the previous two hundred years combined!"
"Aren't you overreacting a little? This is human territory. Why would