The secret chamber of national destiny, the design of the ancestral home, you're building the Z

Park Guk-chang looked at Yamamoto Ichiro's smug face and felt even more envious.

To personally destroy the Great Xia Dynasty—what an exciting opportunity!

South Korea has always lived in the shadow of Great Xia since ancient times. It only began to rise after the emergence of the Mystic God. And the people in South Korea hate Great Xia very much.

If he could personally destroy Great Xia, he would definitely become a great hero of the Korean people.

"Damn it, if only the entire Japanese team had died inside, then the chance to destroy Great Xia might have been ours, South Korea. It's just a pity that even a second or third-rate Japanese team would have no chance of failing in a secret room of this difficulty, let alone a ninja team!" Park Guk-chang said with some regret.

The two of them brazenly mocked the Great Xia, which filled the Great Xia representatives with righteous indignation, yet they were unable to refute them.

An underwater ancient house.

Koei Ichiro and Koei Jiro exchanged a glance, and then floated directly over the courtyard wall.

The "Zhang Family Mansion" is larger than expected, with a strict "口"-shaped layout, a spacious courtyard in the center, and three-story buildings surrounding it.

The building's foundation and exterior walls are constructed of thick bluestone blocks, making it exceptionally sturdy and able to withstand water immersion without collapsing.

Finding a specific "dragon-patterned stone box" in such a vast and complex architectural complex is by no means an easy task.

The two swam to the center of the courtyard, using it as a base, and scanned the surrounding area with the searchlights on their helmets.

The light cut through the dense underwater darkness, outlining a dilapidated yet austere scene: crooked stone tables and benches were scattered on the courtyard floor, covered with slippery sediment.

At each of the four corners of the courtyard stands a massive stone pillar that requires two people to encircle, and on each side of the center stand two more pillars, for a total of twelve giant pillars supporting the corridor and building above.

Inside is a wooden and stone corridor with carved railings and painted beams, but the wood has long been rotten and deformed, covered with a layer of pale calcification and a film of water bacteria, making it look like a haunted house.

Beyond the corridor were rows of closed or half-collapsed rooms, their carved windows broken and dilapidated, like countless empty eyes.

Most of the wooden doors and windows have fallen off or are half-hanging, but judging from their remaining heavy texture and exquisite carvings, the wood used back then was by no means ordinary.

The two chose to enter through a half-collapsed hall door.

The interior was even darker, with the flowing water carrying suspended particles that formed beams of light within the beams. On the wall of the corridor directly opposite the entrance hung a tilted black lacquered plaque, with faint writing still visible on it.

Koeichiro made a gesture, and the two cautiously swam closer.

Koeijiro reached out and wiped away the thick layer of silt and calcification on the surface of the plaque.

Four large, weathered yet still powerfully engraved characters are revealed.

【Fan Tianzi Bao】

Below is a line of smaller characters that reads: Respectfully inscribed by the owner of the Zhang family.

"Fan...Tianzi...Bao?" Koei Ichiro's voice, tinged with confusion, came through the underwater communicator. "What...does this mean?"

The two men looked at each other in bewilderment. With their knowledge of Chinese classics, it was already quite an achievement for them to recognize the four characters, but to understand their deeper meaning was like reading a book written in a foreign language.

【Fan Tianzi Bao? What does that mean? Can someone explain it to me? Is it some kind of important hint?】

[The character "樊" means cage, "天子" likely refers to the emperor, and "包" means to confine. Put together, does it mean even the emperor could be confined inside?]

[They're deliberately being mysterious; I think they're doing this on purpose to make you guess.]

[With just this one old house, finding the dragon-patterned stone box will probably only take some time; everything else, even the mechanisms, are likely already disabled by the water damage!]

[Hahaha, people of Great Xia, are you panicking or not?]

……

Netizens around the world are speculating.

Although everyone felt that the secret room designed by the Great Xia people was flashy but impractical, it was still a nightmare-level secret room, so no one dared to be careless.

Koei Ichiro and Koei Jiro both shook their heads, indicating that they didn't understand, and then prepared to go find the dragon-patterned stone box.

But at that moment, Koejiro suddenly pointed in the distance in terror and took out the gun he had brought with him.

Koeichiro was startled by what he saw and quickly turned his head to look.

But then a green light flashed and disappeared underwater, like a ghost, and disappeared into the back hall opposite the courtyard.

"What the hell?" Koeichiro was also startled.

At that moment, the green light emerged from the decaying carved window, drifting there hazily, making the surrounding dilapidated scenery all the more eerie.

"They're here? Heh, this is supposed to be a nightmare-level escape room. It would be a shame if it weren't dangerous. I'd like to see what else they can design in this themed escape room besides some traps and mechanisms," Koei Ichiro thought to himself.

After all, he was a top-notch explorer, so he wasn't afraid of this strange occurrence.

He gestured a few professional hand signals to Koeijiro: "You stay here and keep watch, keeping a close eye on the courtyard and the way we came. I'll go investigate. Maintain communication."

Koejiro nodded, his gun held high as he warily scanned the dimly lit waters around him.

He immediately swam over.

When Koei Ichiro arrived at the door, he was about to push it open when he saw a very clear handprint imprinted on the damp and rotten wooden door frame!

The handprint has long, slender fingers and a small palm, clearly belonging to a woman.

What's even more chilling is that the wood around the handprint is relatively new, the moss covering it has been rubbed off, and the edges haven't even had time to re-attach water stains. This mark looks like it was just left!

"What?!" Koeichiro's heart pounded. "There...is someone else here? They came down before us? Is it Miss Kazuko? No, impossible, she's still on shore! Could it be...one of those explorers who went missing in the alert? Are they still alive? Hiding here?"

A chill ran up my spine and up to the top of my head.

Unknown living things are far more unsettling than known mechanisms.

"Baka!"

Koei Ichiro cursed inwardly and drew his gun. "I refuse to believe that anything in history can stop a gun. Heh, this Zhang Qilin is an idiot. Providing us with firearms in a historical mystery room is just plain stupid!"

With the truth in his hands, Koei Ichiro's confidence soared.

Although the gun's power is reduced underwater, it's still far beyond what carbon-based life forms could withstand.

Thinking of this, he pushed the door open.

At this moment, everyone became very tense.

Even Yamamoto Ichiro unconsciously sat up straight. Although he felt that Zhang Qilin's secret room design was flashy but impractical, it was still a nightmare-level room nonetheless.

Moreover, the green light emanating from the underwater ancient house, along with a woman's handprint, was indeed unusual. Everyone knew that something was about to happen.

He kept glancing in Zhang Qilin's direction, and the calm and composed expression on Zhang Qilin's face made him feel extremely uneasy.

What do you think it could be?

[Heh, what could possibly happen, bro? Don't forget, this is a historical drama. I bet it's just a bunch of suspense to scare people.]

[Haha, handprints, I bet they're mermaids! Haha, great, perfect for experiencing what it's like to be a mermaid, yay!]

Holy crap, you Sakura girls are such perverts!

……

People were discussing it, but no one thought about anything else because it was a historical subject with too many restrictions, and their thinking had long been limited.

……