The tunnel didn’t end in a doorway. It ended in a wall of stone-hard bones.
Three hundred feet tall, the Nine-Fold Nether Vault Gate blocked the entire underground gorge beneath the Black Mountains. It was forged from seamless Nether-black glass banded with cold-forged sky iron, its surface carved with nine huge bas-relief faces of ancient Taoist masters.
Each face was weeping streams of solidified lead.
Surrounding the gate stood nine massive stone boundary pillars of carved black dark rock, arranged in a spotless semi-circle. Each pillar thrummed with a low, bone-shaking hum that shook the air at twelve hertz.
At the center of the gate sat a huge coded lock.
Nine separate keyholes surrounded a black glass scanning array. He waited for the three-sided bronze key Lin Ke had taken from Ghost-Bane.
Lin Ke pushed in the key, twisting it ninety degrees clockwise.
CLACK.
