"He approached it like a warrior." Luo He crouched before the ancient mechanism while layers of broken stone and dust surrounded the sealed chamber entrance. Then he smiled faintly.
"But this isn't a warrior's puzzle." His fingers brushed lightly across the engraved rotating discs embedded into the old iron door. The symbols carved into them had faded with time yet the mechanism beneath remained astonishingly intact.
"This," Luo He said proudly, "is an engineer's puzzle." Jin Quan frowned slightly while watching the strange lock.
"Engineer?" He asked curiously.
"A person who solves problems with mathematical and aricmatical principles," Luo He replied casually.
Ever one got what he said but didn't at the same time.
They knew maths they knew some basics about arithmetic but how to open a lock with it is a mistary to all butt Luo He.
Then without waiting further thin strands of invisible mental force extended from his fingertips.
The others could not even see the energy properly. Only the results. Tiny metallic sounds echoed softly from inside the lock as ancient pistons shifted one after another deep within the mechanism.
Components originally meant to be manipulated by a physical key began moving independently despite Luo He never touching them directly. Click.
Click. Click.
The sounds echoed sharply through the dusty corridor. Jin Su stared openly now.
Even she looked genuinely stunned.
"You can manually manipulate the lock pins?" she asked slowly.
Luo He nodded while continuing to work.
"If you understand the internal pressure points and pin heights, yes." Luo He said.
Another metallic shift echoed from inside the mechanism. "The lock itself isn't complicated," he added casually. "It's just old." Jin Su blinked.
"How do you even know this?" She asked suprised. Luo He answered without looking up. "I get bored sometimes so I like breaking things."
"That," Jin Su replied immediately, "is not an answer."
"It's a perfectly good answer for him." Jin Mulan intervined. Meanwhile she remained completely silent nearby.
Watching him. Because Luo He looked entirely different while solving problems.
Focused. Sharp. Dangerously intelligent.
Usually he joked constantly. Teased people. Pretended laziness. Acted careless whenever possible. But now there was none of that.
His eyes remained fixed on the mechanism with terrifying concentration while strands of mental force moved through the lock with surgical precision.
It almost felt like watching another person entirely.
Then Clack. The physical lock released.
The sound echoed heavily through the corridor. Dust fell lightly from the ancient doorway. Jin Quan's eyes widened immediately. "It opened…" He said with utter suprise.
But Luo He barely reacted. Because now his attention had shifted toward the second mechanism beneath the handle.
The puzzle lock. At first glance the rotating symbols appeared meaningless.
Rows of engraved numbers.
Ancient characters. Dynasty symbols.
Broken sequences. Most people would have assumed it was random. Luo He immediately shook his head. "These aren't random." He pointed toward one sequence instantly.
"Specific reign periods." He said. Then toward another. "Territorial references."
Then another. "Military unification records." Everyone slowly turned toward him.
Especially Jin Mulan. Because the moment he began speaking he started quoting passages directly from the Jin family texts. Word for word. Perfectly.
Jin Mulan stared openly.
She had spent years studying those records throughout her life. Luo He had casually skimmed through the book for less than few minutes while making jokes the entire time.
Yet now he recited entire passages from memory without hesitation. For a brief moment she genuinely felt proud. And slightly shaken. I truly married a terrifying man.
Of course the reality was slightly less romantic. Unknown to everyone present Luo He had already scanned nearly every page through the visual systems hidden within his ancient armor while passing through them before.
The texts had been copied directly into the relic's internal database through his neural interface. Technically it was not even his own memory anymore. It was archived information. But nobody else knew that.
So from their perspective Luo He simply looked monstrously intelligent. Far more then he actually is. Suddenly he smiled.
"The code isn't numerical," he said calmly. "It's a sentence."
Everyone froze. Luo He's fingers moved rapidly across the rotating discs afterward. Dynasties. Dates. Territories.
Historical reigns.
Combined together according to hidden references buried across multiple sections of the Jin family records.
The mechanism shifted faster and faster beneath his hands. Then finally Click.
Silence. Real silence. For several seconds nobody moved at all.
Then deep inside the ancient doorway
massive gears groaned for the first time in decades. Dust rained from above.
The old mechanisms trembled violently as sealed metal slowly shifted inward.
And then the ancient Jin master chamber opened. A wave of cold stale air escaped from the darkness within.
Everyone stared. Even Jin Quan looked completely speechless. Because the room had remained sealed since his childhood.
Then quietly Jin Su lowered her eyes toward the still-open ancestral doorway. Ancient dust still drifted slowly through the air while the heavy mechanisms inside the walls groaned faintly after decades of silence.
Her gaze shifted toward the unlocked numerical discs. The numbers entered still seemed completely random in her eyes.
"What exactly was the statement?" She asked slowly. "And how does it connect to the password?" Luo He leaned casually against the side of the opened mechanism while brushing dust from his sleeves.
"'The heir who opens this chamber shall inherit authority over the Jin household.'" He said aloud.
The ancient corridor fell quiet again for a moment. "It was actually very simple," he explained calmly. "If you knew what you were looking for."
Jin Mulan crossed her arms. "That usually means the explanation is about to become ridiculous." She knew it better than anyone else. Luo He ignored her completely.
"This exact sentence only appears in a few very specific chapters throughout the Jin records. Even though it seems to be mentioned many times." He tapped the metal discs lightly. "Chapter eight. Fifteen. Twenty six. And forty two."
His fingers moved across the seven rotating number slots one by one as he spoke. "Four chapters," he continued. "Seven digits total."
Jin Quan frowned thoughtfully now.
Then suddenly Jin Su's eyes widened slightly. "The chapter numbers." Luo He smiled faintly. "Exactly." He said.
Jin Su stepped forward almost immediately now studying the numerical lock with sharp concentration. "One digit per box." she murmured softly.
Then quickly "Eight. One. Five. Two. Six. Four. Two." Her voice became firmer as realization struck. "The password was 8152642."
Luo He pointed at her proudly. "Exactly."
For a moment nobody spoke. Because suddenly the entire absurdity of the situation became clear. The Jin family had spent decades unable to open the ancestral chamber.
Three generations treated it like some impossible secret inheritance trial crafted by a genius ancestors. Or a complete lunatic. And the answer was literally hidden in the chapter numbers.
Jin Quan slowly covered part of his face with one hand. "Our ancestors really were insane." He said openly. "No," Luo He corrected immediately. "Your ancestors were proud scholars."
Then after a small pause "which is significantly more dangerous." He said. Jin Su actually laughed quietly at that.
A rare enough sight by itself. Meanwhile Jin Mulan simply stared at Luo He silently.
Because the frightening part was not merely that he solved it. It was how quickly he solved it. As if his mind naturally saw patterns other people overlooked entirely.
Luo He finally noticed everyone staring at him. "What?" he asked casually. Jin Mulan narrowed her eyes slightly.
"You figured that out after skimming the book for less than 5 minutes." She asked.
"Well obviously," Luo He replied shamelessly. "Your ancestors practically screamed the answer." Jin Quan looked toward the ancient lock again with deep offense.
"No they did not." He said firmly. "What ever. Now won't this make me the current inheritor of the Jin house hold." Then Luo He pointed toward the opened chamber dramatically.
Her expression shifted slightly as she quietly reread the inheritance line aloud once again. "The heir who opens the chamber shall inherit authority over the Jin household."
Silence. Luo He just started. Then very slowly turned toward Jin Mulan. Jin Mulan stared back at him. Then toward the opened chamber. Then back toward him again.
Jin Quan rubbed his forehead heavily like a man developing a headache in real time. Jin Su meanwhile looked genuinely amused for perhaps the first time that entire night.
And Luo He immediately blamed the ancient book like a betrayed victim. "This stupid thing," he declared in disbelief. "Just promoted me by accident."