The massive thirty-meter double doors of stone-hard World-Tree heartwood and banded sky dragon-jade loomed over the expedition like the gateway to another world. Now that the spiced mushroom broth had warmed their bones and dispelled the deep underground chill, the party gathered at the threshold to examine the ancient barrier.
Directly at the central seam of the two huge leaves sat the locking gearwork.
It wasn’t a keyhole cut for bronze or iron. Instead, an exquisite relief of a sky horned dragon was carved from semi-clear golden jade, coiled in a perfect circle with its jaws clamped tightly around its own tail—the ancient dragon-world-serpent of the First Epoch. Tiny seal-script star-patterns circled along the dragon’s spine. It spun in slow, counter-rotating orbits that hummed with terrifying spiritual pressure. Each tiny star in the carving was an active formation node, anchored to the earth-shaking mass of the surrounding mountain range.
Gu Qingfeng stepped forward, his eyes narrowing as he adjusted the straw cord holding his gray hair. His weathered face was grim, etched with the cautious instincts of a Sword Saint who had explored hundreds of forbidden ruins across his three hundred years.
“Stand back, everyone,” Gu Qingfeng warned. He drew a six-inch sliver of packed green sword intent onto the tip of his index finger. “Ancient seals of this caliber are almost universally backed by defensive rebound wards. In my youth, the Great Qian royal court organized an expedition to the western barrens to open a vault of similar antiquity…
