The golden Buddha stood ten feet tall atop a lotus pedestal. Though enormous, it seemed people came and went here often, and the method of opening it was not hard to find.
Fan Qinghe circled it briefly. After roughly working out the entrance mechanism, she pointed at the floor.
"There are sliding rails underneath, with a huge stone as a counterweight. It can only be opened by turning a winch from inside. You can't open it from outside-you have to exchange passwords with someone inside."
"..."
Ye Jingtang naturally found this a headache. The usually taciturn Ice Lump was spinning nonsense in every way she could and could barely stall them any longer. He could only step back. After confirming the rails' direction with Qinghe, he raised both hands and inhaled deeply.
"Hiss..."
As air poured into his chest and abdomen, Ye Jingtang's robes visibly swelled. His right foot slid backward to brace his body, and both palms surged forward with the force to topple mountains and overturn seas!
Rumble-
A deafening explosion rang out!
His palms struck the gilded lotus pedestal. Dust burst from the stone base, leaving two palm prints, while a simultaneous crack sounded underneath-the metal locking catches smashing through the wall.
Clatter-
A piercing scraping rang through the Buddha hall. The giant golden Buddha, twice a person's height, slid sideways toward the hall's left side until it struck the end of its rails, revealing a descending staircase beneath his feet.
With a fleeting glance, Ye Jingtang saw a sizable Medicine Workshop below. Eight enormous pillars supported the ceiling, drawers of medicinal ingredients towered around its edges, and a burning bronze furnace stood in the center. More than a dozen Medicine Masters from the Thousand Mechanisms Sect had been moving about inside; all stopped at the explosion.