Pei Ye watched in silence for a while. "So, if this lock hadn't been opened, the scaled monster couldn't possibly have had the strength to break out of its cage."
"Exactly." Xing Zhi clapped her hands and leaned back against the vat, both hands resting on its rim. "That's what I thought too. Nothing went wrong with the Southern Golden Wind itself. With this lock in place, the scaled monster couldn't actually have broken its restraints. Something unexpected simply happened."
Pei Ye slowly raised the little lock, frowning as he looked inside. It was gleaming and pristine, with no sign of damage whatsoever. In other words, this lock had simply come off.
"Someone sneaked in and opened it?" Pei Ye frowned, then rejected the idea. "That would be too strange. If they wanted to release the scaled monster, why not just take it out? If they wanted to cause trouble in the Secret Cabin, they should have released more, and done a more thorough job. What sense would it make to undo just an inner latch?"
He looked at the lock again. Its delicate, densely packed Lock Springs meshed together. Even after all those violent impacts-the vat breaking, the explosion, the fall through the hold-its fastening remained intact. It was far sturdier than he had imagined.
Xing Zhi looked at him. "So I think it opened the lock itself."
"..."
"Perhaps what they were transporting wasn't a 'stable' creature. During the journey, this scaled monster abruptly underwent a change they hadn't anticipated-perhaps something very rare indeed," Xing Zhi said slowly. "And so it suddenly acquired some ability that could open this fastening."
"What kind of lock is this?" Pei Ye immediately seized on the key point.
"It isn't a fastening you can buy, but its principle is nothing unusual-Spirit Patterns