Rice Ball hugged its owner's neck, expecting a reward.
As expected, He Zhiran didn't disappoint the little guy. After giving it a kiss on its little head, he sent it back to the space.
At the same time, all the necessary food, like milk, tender bamboo shoots, small apples, and carrots, were not missing.
Watching Rice Ball excitedly running towards the food, He Zhiran regained his consciousness.
What followed was Mo Jiuye's sigh.
"I didn't expect Rice Ball to have such great abilities."
"Yeah, this little guy is clever." He Zhiran felt that Rice Ball's abilities were like a gift from a divine being who had sent her across time and space. Otherwise, how could one explain Rice Ball's extraordinary talents?
The two of them smoothly passed through the floral sea, thinking that there might be some difficult obstacles ahead. But to their surprise, they encountered no trouble until they saw the shadow of a house.
Si Meng Mountain Villa was right in front of them, and Mo Jiuye's heart became heavy.
If Mr. Si Meng was truly responsible for the demise of his Mo family, then his missing parents and siblings might have been here at some point.
It was still early in the day, and they couldn't determine the specific situation inside the villa. To avoid alerting anyone, they decided to sneak in after nightfall.
Even after nightfall, they remained cautious.
He Zhiran took out a drone and controlled it to hover around the villa to get a sense of the terrain.
As the drone observed, it was just as Third Brother had described. The place seemed like an abandoned manor on the surface, with nothing particularly noteworthy and no signs of human presence.
In other words, their first task was to investigate the specific situation inside the dry well based on the information obtained from Third Brother's interrogation.
He Zhiran stored the drone in the space.
Although the drone was advanced, it couldn't detect someone intentionally hiding. Therefore, they didn't take entering the villa lightly.
Mo Jiuye had formidable martial arts skills, and his senses of sight and hearing were beyond ordinary. He remained vigilant, carefully observing any movement around them.
And so, the two of them arrived at the edge of the dry well.
He Zhiran took out a flashlight from the space, intending to observe the bottom of the well. But Mo Jiuye immediately hugged her and swiftly rotated.
"Be careful."
As he spoke, several arrows shot out from the well, but thanks to their quick reflexes, the arrows missed.
"I didn't expect there to be traps in this dry well." He Zhiran's voice still trembled slightly. Thankfully, Mo Jiuye was quick-witted; otherwise, it wouldn't have been easy for her to evade those arrows with their speed.
Mo Jiuye's expression turned serious. "Where did you touch just now?"
According to the information obtained from Third Brother's interrogation, this was the entrance to the hidden chamber. It wouldn't be easy to enter the chamber without knowing how to avoid these traps.
He Zhiran tried hard to recall where she might have touched just now.
"I didn't touch the well's opening. If there's a trap, it must be under our feet."
When she mentioned that the trap might be under their feet, Mo Jiuye quickly pulled her behind him and cautiously approached to examine.
Mo Jiuye crouched not far from where He Zhiran had just stood, cautiously probing the ground with his fingers, gradually increasing the pressure.
After a while, his movements suddenly stopped.
He Zhiran asked, "Have you found something?"
Mo Jiuye whispered, "I feel like something's not right here."
He Zhiran carefully crouched down beside Mo Jiuye and reached out to gently touch the spot he mentioned.
Sure enough, the soil there was slightly softer than elsewhere.
Mo Jiuye gently scraped away the dirt and revealed an iron mechanism underneath.
He Zhiran didn't understand ancient mechanisms very well.
"What do you think? Can you disable it?"
If this mechanism only controlled the arrows, then they would be fine as long as they didn't step on it. He Zhiran was worried that the mechanism might have other purposes, so she thought it would be best to disable it before figuring out a way to enter the bottom of the well.
Mo Jiuye frowned and pondered for a moment before continuing to dig, trying to expose the entire control mechanism.
He was extremely cautious, every move made with great care.
After about ten minutes or so, Mo Jiuye finally managed to completely uncover the mechanism.
"This is indeed a control device. When I led my troops into the Southern Frontier Palace, their treasury was equipped with a similar mechanism."
"Is there a way to dismantle it?" He Zhiran was clearly anxious, not knowing if her touching the mechanism earlier would alert the people below the well.
Mo Jiuye didn't answer but asked her to use a flashlight to illuminate the area.
He opened the cover of the controller and examined it for a long time.
"Ranran, I need a pair of sharper scissors."
He Zhiran saw it too. Inside the controller, there were many copper wires extending in various directions, and in addition, there were several spring-like objects.
It was estimated that the principle of this mechanism was that the copper wires pulled a certain switch, while the springs were used to trigger contact reactions.
Although this mechanism was somewhat rudimentary in design, the wisdom of the ancients was truly admirable.
Without much thought, He Zhiran's consciousness entered the space and quickly purchased a pair of specialized iron-cutting scissors from Taobao, handing them to Mo Jiuye.
Mo Jiuye took the scissors and cut all the copper wires inside.
As a result, a sound of metal collision came from the bottom of the well, and under the light of the flashlight, several unidentified insects could be seen flying out from the well.
Mo Jiuye swiftly held He Zhiran and quickly retreated, reminding her, "Be careful."
He Zhiran also reacted quickly, suspecting that these flying insects might be poisonous, so she immediately took out a bottle of insecticide from the space and held it in her hand.
Once Mo Jiuye's body steadied, she also raised the insecticide and sprayed it towards the insects.
The insects struggled for a moment in front of the two before falling to the ground.
After observing for a while and seeing no more insects flying out of the well, Mo Jiuye and He Zhiran returned to their original position.
Now that the mechanism was disabled, the two could finally examine the bottom of the well openly and boldly.
He Zhiran held a flashlight and shone it into the bottom of the well. Judging by sight, the well was at least five meters deep, with several protruding stones embedded on the walls on both sides.
At the bottom of the well, there were dozens of arrows and several sharp daggers.
These should be all the hidden weapons controlled by the mechanism.
In addition to that, there were a few disgusting-looking toads.
He Zhiran could only judge them as toads based on their appearance because these creatures were larger than the bullfrogs she had seen in her previous life, and their bodies were adorned with patterns of various colors.
"Do you recognize this thing?"
Mo Jiuye furrowed his brows tightly and said in a deep voice, "This should be the Seven-Colored Toad. It is said to be highly poisonous, and many poisons used by people in the Southern Region come from the blood of the Seven-Colored Toad."
