I was racking my brains when I heard Feng Ruohang call out, "The room is ready. You two can come in!"

I walked into the room with a smile. "It's good to bring a girl along! Someone to clean up. If it was just Leng Gou and me, we'd probably be sleeping on the floor."

"That's you, not Ye Yang!" Feng Ruohang couldn't help but show a look of disdain. "Do you need a cup of warm wine to help you sleep?"

"That's not necessary..." I stopped halfway through my sentence.

I saw that a leaf had been added to the "Pine and Crane Longevity" painting on the wall.

I quickly took two steps to stand in front of the painting. "Has anyone touched this painting?"

"No!" Feng Ruohang also came over. "Is there something wrong with this painting? Why is there a leaf on the pine tree? Is it a mistake?"

"That's not right!" Feng Ruohang also reacted. "This is a New Year's painting; it shouldn't be hung up."

In the Northeast, there's a tradition of putting up New Year's paintings, partly for the festive atmosphere and partly to make the walls look less bare. The content of the paintings is mostly about joy and good fortune, and "Pine and Crane Longevity" is one of them.

New Year's paintings are always pasted on the wall, and they're replaced every year. Some families don't even bother replacing them, simply sticking the new painting on top of the old one.

But there's never been a tradition of framing New Year's paintings and hanging them on the wall.

This New Year's painting was not only in the wrong place, but it also had an extra leaf on the pine tree, which was obviously abnormal.

I narrowed my eyes and said, "This is a secret mark of the Thieves' Sect. Only people from the Thieves' Sect can understand it."

Although none of my masters were from the Thieves' Sect, they were all notorious bandits, and they knew everything that circulated among thieves. That's why I could recognize the Thieves' Sect's secret mark at a glance.

Thieves' Sect secret marks are usually secret codes used by master thieves to contact their comrades. Of course, there are also marks left by master thieves to help their descendants or companions find the treasures they left behind.

Could it be that one of the Eight Great Thieves left some secret here?

I raised my hand to point at the leaf, then immediately turned around, broke off a small piece of wood from the table, and flicked it towards the roof with my fingertip.

The piece of wood, like a bullet, immediately shattered the roof tiles, and the white moonlight condensed into a beam of light, shining diagonally from the roof onto the green leaf.

In an instant, the leaf glowed with a faint green light, which shone diagonally onto the table again.

I kicked the table aside, and the flickering light fell to the ground, revealing four large characters on the blue bricks: "Open with Leaf!"

I couldn't help but gasp and looked at Ye Yang in shock. "Is it talking about you?"

Ye Yang's eyes were also fixed on the flickering light on the ground. "This is a light and shadow mechanism. There should be something like a lock hidden under those four blue bricks. You guys go out first; I'll see if I can open the lock."

Cang Tianji said, "There are traps all over the blue bricks, and they extend for a hundred steps. If we move now, the mechanism will be activated immediately, and we won't be able to get out."

Ye Yang took a few steps forward and pried open the blue bricks on the ground with his sword. Underneath, there was indeed a three-foot square mechanism, like a Huarong Road puzzle, but the largest tile didn't have Cao Cao on it, but the character "Ye."

Ye Yang stared at the tiles on the mechanism and said, "There are words on each tile. The other party wants us to spell out a sentence. It could be a poem or a secret code."

"I only have one chance. If I make a mistake, we might all be crushed to pieces. Let me think."

Cang Tianji spoke again at this moment. "I calculated that Feng Ruohang and I will face a tribulation today at noon."

"I think if Ye Yang can't open the lock before noon, the underground mechanism will activate on its own."

I sat down directly. "There are still a few hours until noon. If you're tired, go to sleep. Whether we live or die isn't something we can influence by watching Ye Yang move the mechanism. Let him play with it himself!"

Cang Tianji sat down silently opposite me, but Feng Ruohang never left Ye Yang's side.

I wasn't watching Ye Yang to let him focus.

Feng Ruohang was watching Ye Yang to let him focus.

It was just that our methods were a little different.

After sitting for a while, I simply transmitted my voice to Cang Tianji. "Cang Tianji, why did I get the feeling at the beginning that you didn't want me to clash with the Reincarnation Division?"

Cang Tianji said, "I don't want you to become enemies with the Reincarnation Division!"

"When I first agreed to serve as a guest consultant for the Reincarnation Division's Tianji Hall, I performed a divination for the Reincarnation Division to show my sincerity."

"The divination showed that the Reincarnation Division would face a great calamity. The Reincarnation Division's fatal calamity is a person without fate."

I looked at Cang Tianji and said, "Did the Reincarnation Division believe it?"

"Half believed it, and half didn't! At least some of the higher-ups were very dismissive." Cang Tianji said, "In the Reincarnation Division's view, Huangquan stowaways can also be considered people without fate. How could the people they've been arresting become a fatal calamity?"

"But some people believe that divination doesn't lie and that the person of fatal calamity will definitely appear."

"So, the Reincarnation Division has been arresting people without fate all these years. You're quite famous, so the people from the Reincarnation Division's Tianji Hall should already be keeping an eye on you."