Chapter 126: The Door Was Locked Again

The group followed Qingque, soon finding themselves standing before the main entrance of the Divination Commission.

However, the expected scene of open gates and bustling personnel was nowhere to be found. Instead, the two heavy, ornate doors were shut tight, not even a sliver of a gap between them.

“Eh?” Qingque let out a confused sound, stepping forward to give the doors a push. They didn’t budge an inch. He rapped his knuckles against the heavy door knockers, confirming his suspicion. The main gate was well and truly locked.

“Strange…” he muttered, scratching his head. “At this hour, even if the main gate isn’t wide open, the side doors should be unlocked. Why is everything shut so tightly?”

“Is the gate broken?” March 7th asked, craning his neck to get a better look.

“No, it’s just locked,” Qingque replied, a look of utter confusion spreading across his face as he ran a hand through his messy grey hair. “No one told me to bring a key, either… Lady Fu Xuan’s way of treating guests is a bit… unique. Even if the cafeteria food is terrible, you can’t just serve your guests a ‘locked-door special,’ right?”

March 7th eyed him suspiciously. “Mr. Qingque, are… are you sure you work for the Divination Commission? You can’t even get into your own workplace?”

Chen, standing off to the side with his arms crossed, was thoroughly enjoying the spectacle. He decided to fan the flames, adding a casual jab. “Maybe his work attitude was a little too much ‘leisure’and not enough’work’ today. They probably fired him and revoked his access.”

“Shoo, shoo!” Qingque shot Chen an annoyed glare. “Little brother, don’t jinx me! At most, I’d get demoted to managing the archives. Getting fired is a bit extreme… right?”

His tone wavered with uncertainty for a moment before he shook his head, rallying his spirits. “Forget it, no big deal! If the main gate is blocked, we use the side door. If the side door is closed, we have the secret path! Follow me!”

He confidently led the four of them around the building to a relatively secluded section of the outer wall. It looked perfectly ordinary, but Qingque moved with familiarity, pressing a few seemingly random bricks at the corner of the wall in a specific sequence. A low grinding sound echoed as a portion of the wall slid aside, revealing a narrow passage.

“There. An emergency passage,” Qingque announced, puffing out his chest with pride. “For those in the know.”

He was the first to duck and crawl inside, and Chen and the others followed in single file.

The passage was a quiet, dusty path that led to the back door of a side hall. With a confident grin still plastered on his face, Qingque strode toward the inconspicuous wooden door and gave it a push.

It remained motionless.

Qingque’s smile froze.

He pushed harder, then tried different angles, applying varying amounts of force. The door remained stubbornly, resolutely shut.

“You have got to be kidding me…”

His face fell. He slapped his forehead in frustration, a groan escaping his lips. “This damn Stellaron corrosion! It’s caused defensive seals and energy disturbances everywhere! Even this backup passage has been reinforced and locked down? It’s never been this secure before!”

He turned to look at Ms. Welt and the others, his expression a mask of pure doom. “This is bad. This is really, really bad. The main gate, the side door, and the secret path are all blocked. The task Lady Fu Xuan gave me is about to fail spectacularly… I’m afraid I really will be fired when I get back!”

March 7th was speechless. “Do the doors on the Xianzhou just… not work a lot of the time?”

Ms. Welt, ever the calm one, simply adjusted her glasses. “Mr. Qingque, is there any other way? Or perhaps you can contact Grand Diviner Fu Xuan?”

“I can contact her…” Qingque admitted, pulling out his jade abacus with a miserable look. “But telling the boss, ‘Hey, I’ve brought the guests, but I can’t get through the door’… That feels even more embarrassing than just failing!”

While Qingque stared at his jade abacus, his finger hovering hesitantly over the button to call Fu Xuan, Chen had already approached the tightly sealed door. He leaned in, sizing up the lock mechanism.

“Great,” Chen muttered under his breath, his tone dripping with disdain. “It’s this crappy mechanism again.”

He continued, mostly to himself, “Once the Stellaron’s energy interferes with the network, the original identification circuits get scrambled. It’s a chain reaction that locks down the backup passages, too. The principle isn’t complicated; it’s just a few overloaded nodes causing the physical latch to seize up.”

Hearing this, Qingque looked up from his device, his despair momentarily forgotten. “Little brother, you actually understand this stuff?”

“I know a thing or two,” Chen replied casually, a mischievous smile spreading across his face. “But unlocking it manually is too much trouble. We have a much simpler way.”

As he spoke, he held out his hand, palm up. With a flicker of thought, a faint light flashed.

A crooked little robot, cobbled together from scrap metal and sporting half a gear on its head like a jaunty hat, appeared out of thin air, resting in his palm.

“Beep boop! Creator! Geo-Map, at your service anytime!” the little robot chirped, cheerfully spinning its gear as its single lightbulb eye blinked.

March 7th’s eyes lit up. “Wow! It’s this little guy!”

Even Caelus’s usually stoic gaze was fixed on the tiny mechanical being.

Qingque, on the other hand, was completely dumbfounded. “Th-this is… your follower ingenium? What can it even do?”

“What can it do?” Chen grinned. “You’re about to find out.”

[Elysian’s Note:

Having a good time with the story?

Every single bit helps immensely:

Thanks a ton for making this journey possible!]