Lin Yue braced himself against the wall as he stood up, feeling a strange emptiness below.
Although it wasn't his first time transforming into a woman—three months ago, he had transformed into the beautiful pianist at the Wind Lotus Compound to get close to Xia Lie and set a trap for him.
But looking at the remains of the beauty, he hadn't noticed before that she was quite tall, probably around 175 centimeters.
Without further thought, Lin Yue, holding the Long Bright Pearl, re-entered the depths of the cave.
When he neared the rusty iron sword—
"Buzz—"
A clear, vibrant sound of a sword singing emerged, much louder than before, even carrying a jubilant emotion, like a child seeing its mother after a long separation.
Magic Treasures recognize their owner.
In theory, they would naturally not attack their own owner.
A smile flickered across Lin Yue's lips, but he did not dare to grab the rusty sword right away; instead, he cautiously poked it with a twig.
The twig remained intact.
This time, there was no attack from the Sword Qi.
Lin Yue breathed a sigh of relief, but he still didn't dare to grab the sword.
Who knows if this sword had some unique way of recognition, and upon touch, if the Sword Intent entered his body and recognized him as not the true owner, it might just split him, the impostor owner, in half.
Therefore, it was better to be cautious.
Being a mortal who had never cultivated, even if he gained a Divine Weapon, he wouldn't be able to use it; it would only make him more suspicious.
Even if he wanted the sword, it could wait until later.
Immediately, Lin Yue slowly lifted his foot, carefully stepping over without touching the sword.
—Luckily this sword only had simple intelligence and no wisdom; it couldn't even move, otherwise wouldn't it have lunged at him, its master, already?
"Phew, finally made it."
After Lin Yue stood inside the barrier formed by the two corpses and the sword, he let out a long sigh of relief.
That wasn't easy.
Then, he picked up the Long Bright Pearl and looked towards the stone wall at the end of the cave.
The end of the cave was quite spacious, the stone wall about fifteen feet high and fourteen feet wide, overall quite flat, and it looked completely ordinary, not at all revealing that it was a secret door.
"To open the door, you need to tap the stone wall in nine specific positions according to the numbers of the Luoshu from the Cave Mansion's original owner."
Lin Yue looked up at the wall, frowning slightly, "But where precisely? Is it the entire wall or just a part?"
The stone wall covered an area of more than ten square meters; who knew which nine positions constituted the grid.
He thought for a moment, set down the Long Bright Pearl, which illuminated his pack, and took out a charcoal pencil he had prepared in advance, intending to draw a grid on the wall.
It was just a matter of trying slowly.
Just then—
"Eh?"
Lin Yue suddenly noticed, after the light from the Long Bright Pearl no longer shone on the wall, faint lines of light appeared crisscrossing the wall.
But these lines quickly disappeared.
"It couldn't be an illusion; could it be..."
An idea flashed through Lin Yue's mind, and he immediately shone the light from the Long Bright Pearl on the wall again, but didn't act.
After a moment, he put the Long Bright Pearl back into its case.
The cave returned to darkness.
At this moment, lines again emerged on the wall in front of him—two vertical and two horizontal, perfectly outlining a grid.
"So it's fluorescent material."
Looking at the glowing lines, Lin Yue couldn't help but smile.
Most fluorescent materials need to absorb light before they can glow.
After he had shone the Long Bright Pearl's light on the wall, the fluorescent material there absorbed the light, which is why they could light up in the dark.
"Very good."
Lin Yue then took the charcoal pencil and traced the faintly glowing lines, drawing two vertical and two horizontal lines to form a grid.
Then, he took out the Long Bright Pearl again and wrote the numbers 1 to 9 in Arabic numerals on the grid.
The numbers of the Luoshu, from one to nine, can be added vertically, horizontally, and diagonally to always total fifteen, based on the grid's structure.
"Done."
Lin Yue looked at the grid he had drawn with satisfaction; now he won't tap the wrong spots.
"Although this Cave Mansion's secret door has to be tapped according to the grid numbers by the original owner, the variation in the appearance of all beings is nearly perfect; theoretically, it should work."
Lin Yue looked at the wall, took a deep breath, "it's just unknown whether this beautiful lady I transformed into is really the original owner of this Cave Mansion..."
He took another deep breath and, following the numerical order on the grid, began to tap each position on the wall one by one.