153: Starlight in Desperate Circumstances

Wang Dalong's psychological defenses completely collapsed.

He curled up into a ball, shrinking into a corner of the stone platform, wishing he could burrow into the cracks of the rock.

Waist-deep strange rocks surrounded the depression at the mountain's peak, forming a natural shelter. Outside, the mountain wind howled like ghosts, but inside, it was eerily calm, with the temperature still around seven or eight degrees Celsius, not cold enough to freeze a person to death for a while.

But this deathly silence was more terrifying than the cold wind.

Extreme quiet and boundless darkness, like a tide, crashed against him wave after wave, threatening to completely engulf him.

The snow on the distant ridge gleamed with a ghastly white light under the moonlight, sending shivers down one's spine.

"It's over... it's all over..."

Wang Dalong pulled his thick, professional Assault Jacket tighter.

This equipment was of superior performance; not to mention enduring one night, even two or three days, his body functions could handle it.

But now, what was deadly wasn't the equipment, but the loss of morale.

Like a child abandoned by the world, he hugged his knees, repeatedly muttering, "There's no food left... the water's gone... we're going to be trapped here until we die..."

Fire?

That was even more of a fantasy.

In this pitch-black darkness, where you couldn't see your own hand, there was nothing but the blurry outline of the distant snowy mountains and the motionless stars overhead.

However, Lin Feng stood like a nail, straight up in the center of the stone platform.

He was deaf to Wang Dalong's wailing, his back ramrod straight, gazing intently at the night sky studded with billions of stars, right in the center of this eerie, Sheltered Altar.

He didn't look like someone fighting for survival in a desperate situation, but rather like someone admiring an unparalleled beautiful scene.

Wang Dalong laboriously lifted his eyelids, looking at Lin Feng's solitary figure, his voice already tinged with a sob.

"Brother Feng... stop looking, it's useless..."

"Although this place is a bit warmer, we won't freeze to death anytime soon, but there's no way out of this godforsaken place..."

"We'll be buried in Genghis Khan's mausoleum, which is a dignified way to die, so let's accept our fate..."

Lin Feng didn't turn back.

His brain was currently operating at an unprecedented, frantic speed.

No... that's not right... something must be wrong!

He murmured to himself, his voice very soft, almost instantly swallowed by the silence.

"eternal blue sky, observe."

He lowered his head, his gaze falling on the ancient characters beneath his feet.

Genghis Khan died at night.

Mongolians have believed in the eternal blue sky since ancient times; they consider the boundless sky sacred, and the countless stars are the eyes of the eternal blue sky.

That Astronomical Official used the star chart to lead us here... Kublai Khan hid the imperial seal of china here... Observe... The Shuowen Jiezi says that 'observe' means mirror, or illuminate!

Clue fragments, one after another, were forcibly pieced together and reassembled in his brain, which was nearly crashing due to cold and hypoxia, by an incredibly powerful and irrational obsession!

An incredibly insane, yet extremely plausible possibility, scattered all the fog in his mind!

"I understand..."

Lin Feng turned around, moving quickly!

He strode over to Wang Dalong, grabbed his shoulder, and shook him vigorously!

"Dalong! Stop howling! Listen to me!"

His eyes glowed frighteningly in the darkness, revealing a demonic intensity.

"This isn't a dead end! The mechanism of this altar isn't opened by human power! It's opened by the stars in the sky!"

Wang Dalong was shaken until he saw stars, his mind turned to mush, and it took him a long time to react.

"Stars... stars? Brother Feng, you haven't gone crazy, have you? Are you talking nonsense?"

"I'm not crazy!" Lin Feng let go of him, pointing a finger at the sky, "Genghis Khan died on a late summer night! When Kublai Khan hid the imperial seal here, he would absolutely not set up any physical key that could easily be lost or damaged!"

"For Mongolians who believe in the eternal blue sky, what key is most reliable? What key is most sacred?"

"It's the stars in the sky! It's the eternally moving constellations! This is the most supreme, never-failing key in their hearts!"

Lin Feng's voice grew louder and more excited, echoing in the silent valley.

"This altar, it's fundamentally a huge time-lock! It will only unlock automatically at a specific moment, when specific stars move to specific positions!"

Wang Dalong's mouth slowly opened wider, the despair on his face replaced by a great, unbelievable shock.

Using constellations as a key?

Using heaven and earth as a lock?

This... is this something a human could accomplish?

Such a feat was simply inconceivable, beyond the limits of his imagination!

"Then... then when will it open?" Wang Dalong's voice trembled with excitement as he scrambled to his feet.

Lin Feng looked up again, his gaze sweeping rapidly across the vast, boundless sea of stars. The star chart, which he knew by heart, perfectly overlapped with the real night sky before him with unprecedented clarity!

Every constellation, every bright star, found its precise location in his mind.

"Soon..."

His voice was suppressed, like a volcano about to erupt.

He stared intently at the seven bright stars in the northern sky, forming the shape of a giant dipper.

The Big Dipper!

"When the Dipper's handle points due east, which the ancients referred to as 'the Dipper's handle points east, spring comes to all under heaven'—at that very moment..."

"That is when the mechanism will open!"

"If my calculations aren't wrong, that Astronomical Official of the Great Yuan Dynasty, who designed all of this, not only used the star chart to indicate the location of the mausoleum, but also used this method to hint to us that the time to open the mechanism is hidden within the celestial phenomenon corresponding to the 'Gengshen Day' when Genghis Khan passed away!"

Wang Dalong was stunned, and subconsciously asked, "How can you be so sure that this thing was designed by that Astronomical Official? What if it was someone else?"

"High-ranking technical officials like the Astronomical Official were few and far between in the entire Yuan Dynasty, and they all had family inheritances. Even if a group was killed to be buried with Genghis Khan, there were only a few people who could design such a shocking mechanism, and there must be commonalities in their design concepts and methods."

Lin Feng exhaled a puff of white breath, his voice finally carrying a hint of uncertainty.

"...Alright, I admit, I'm also gambling."

"Gambling that my calculations are correct, gambling on the design concept of this mechanism, gambling on this opening time!"

Wang Dalong was silent for a few seconds, then pulled out his phone and glanced at it.

The faint screen light illuminated his dirty, haggard face.

"Okay, let's gamble!" He gritted his teeth, "If we're wrong, we'll call for rescue! We really have to thank China Tower, there are actually two bars of signal in this godforsaken place!"

The two stopped talking, sitting back to back on the cold stone platform.

In this depression surrounded by rocks, even with a faint residual warmth from the earth, they held their breath, staking all their hope, their very lives, on that celestial trajectory spanning over seven hundred years.

Time flowed by, minute by minute, second by second.

Every second felt as long as a century.

The surroundings were terrifyingly quiet.

After an unknown period, Lin Feng's voice, filled with uncontrollable excitement, broke the deadly silence:

"It's time."

"Dalong... look!"

Wang Dalong immediately followed the direction of his finger.

High above in the sky, the giant dipper formed by seven bright stars, after a long celestial journey, finally had its handle pointing directly towards the eastern horizon!

At that very instant!

"Rumble—"

A profoundly muffled, ancient tremor, as if from deep within the earth's core, emanated from beneath their feet!

The entire stone platform, the size of a basketball court, began to tremble violently.