Chapter 191: Chapter 191: Gu Danchen’s Test
The strength of a joint attack by four Qi Absorption Eight Stage masters is beyond the comprehension of an average person. Shi Xiaole only knew that his body was under intense pressure, feeling like he was going to burst at any moment.
The most terrifying part was that with the impact, Thief Monkey also woke up from the illusion. Realising that he had narrowly escaped disaster, he spread out his fingers and screamed angrily, "Heart-digging Claw, die!"
Due to the proximity, the grey paw shadows struck Shi Xiaole first. Amid the clanging sounds, sparks flew off in all directions, disrupting the Moon Concealing Sword Technique.
The power of the Moon Concealing Sword Technique lay in its technicality. In terms of offensive power, it wasn’t even as strong as the Blood Battle Ten Forms.
Fortunately, Shi Xiaole was prepared. As he drew his sword, his right hand held onto the last seven Thunder Bombs he had obtained from Jiang Zhenglin. His body soared into the air, and he violently threw them at Thief Monkey.
Boom...
The seven Thunder Bombs exploded simultaneously. A massive fireball resembling a miniature mushroom cloud erupted, breaking the land apart, and sending shards of stone hurtling in all directions. The intense heat burned holes through the nearby tree leaves.
"Damn mutt! I swear I will not rest until I kill you!"
Thief Monkey’s clothes were torn and covered in blood. Had he not quickly reacted and evaded, he would not have survived.
The other four men quickly retreated to avoid the impact. However, once the black smoke cleared, Shi Xiaole’s figure was nowhere to be seen.
Creak.
Veins popped out on the bald man’s hand.
"That kid must be looking for something. We just have to keep an eye on the arrow in the aqueduct."
Thief Monkey smiled, revealing bloody yellow teeth. It was quite ghastly.
If he knew beforehand that the kid still had Thunder Bombs, he wouldn’t have acted rashly. Fortunately, there was still an opportunity. As long as he was careful, he was confident he could capture him.
...
"Puh."
Shi Xiaole coughed up blood, his face slightly pale.
Even though he used the Bird Crossing Skill, he was still affected by the impact of the Thunder Bomb, which led to internal injuries. However, it was already fortunate that he was able to evade the joint attack from the five individuals.
The problem was, what would he do next time now that he had used all his Thunder Bombs?
"I cannot allow them to surround me. I should choose more open areas from now on."
Based on intuition, Shi Xiaole temporarily did not want to give up looking for the ’treasure’. Thankfully, with the Bird Crossing Skill at his disposal, as long as there was a gap in any direction, he could easily escape.
Over the next few days, Shi Xiaole focused on recovering from his injuries. Only after a few days did he resume his search, which naturally drew the attention of the bald man and his team. Thus, a scene of pursuit unfolded at Lotus Peak every night.
Having learnt from his previous mistake, Shi Xiaole became extremely cautious, always choosing open areas to observe the arrow and retreating immediately at the slightest sign of movement.
This left the five men out of options, their frustration building to the point of explosion.
What they didn’t expect was that Shi Xiaole made unexpected gains throughout these numerous pursuits.
He discovered that, although Lotus Peak had many aqueducts, he didn’t need to bother with them. As long as he maintained the same reflection angle between the blue and green beads and the moonlight while moving, the arrow in the water wouldn’t change direction randomly.
However, it sounds simple in theory, but how many could notice this in a short period of time? Moreover, to maintain the reflection angle at all times, he needs to have extraordinary perception and control.
In a blink of an eye, Shi Xiaole had spent a month at Lotus Peak.
He did not immediately use this month’s draw opportunity. Instead, he adjusted his state during the moonless nights because he might get a glimpse of the ’treasure’ the next night.
The next day arrived in the blink of an eye.
Once again evading the five bald men, Shi Xiaole followed the arrow and flew across the sky, distancing himself from the people behind, until the arrow disappeared from the five men’s sight.
Lotus Peak was vast and had many splits in the water channels. It wasn’t until half a 2-hour period later that Shi Xiaole arrived at a very secluded water ditch following the arrow’s guidance.
Here, the water channels disappeared and so did the arrow.
But this didn’t daunt Shi Xiaole. Because he quickly noticed that on the left side of the water ditch, there were two inconspicuous hollows on a rock about three yards away.
Inserting the green and blue beads into the hollows, the mountainside above the water ditch cracked open to leave a gap just large enough for one person to pass through. Picking up the green and blue beads, Shi Xiaole flashed into the crack.
The next moment, the crack closed again, and the cliff returned to a whole piece.
...
The moonlight shone through the holes above, illuminating the stone steps below. The surroundings were so quiet that only his footsteps could be heard. Shi Xiaole silently gathered his strength and continued downwards.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, he first came across a stone room about three yards square.
There was nothing in the stone room. Only a few lines of characters were carved on the wall.
As soon as Shi Xiaole’s right foot stepped in, there was a sudden change.
The floor under his right foot suddenly shifted, and the stone under his left foot sprang up. He lost his balance and plunged towards the abyss that appeared in front of him.
Swish, swish, swish.
Like rain, arrows shot up from the bottom of the abyss. The arrowheads glowed blue under the moonlight, clearly coated with a strong poison.
All of this may seem like it took a while, but in reality, it happened in an instant. Had it been anyone else, they wouldn’t have had time to react.
Shi Xiaole’s feet pushed off gently, his body swirled, his sword swung several times, and he easily landed on the other side of the stone room.
The sudden change ended.
"Master the martial art on the wall within three 2-hour periods, or face certain death."
Shi Xiaole stared in shock when his gaze fell on the first line of the carved inscription.
He didn’t doubt the truth of this sentence. The traps inside Dongfang Haoran’s mansion had left a deep impression on him. He suspected that the moment his feet touched the ground, the timer started.
The martial art on the wall wasn’t especially advanced. It was a lower-tier, third-rate sword technique. However, even some of the geniuses on the Young Hero Ranking wouldn’t be able to master it in three 2-hour periods.
Serenely concentrating his mind, Shi Xiaole entered a state of self-forgetfulness, commencing his practice.
Half a 2-hour period later.
He pointed his sword at the stone wall.
Bang!
A stone door lifted, revealing an inner passage.
And on both sides of the passage, there were inscriptions left behind.
"Shen Xin’an, 152nd year of the Flying Horse Dynasty."
"Sima Yue, 156th year of the Flying Horse Dynasty."
"Wang Chong, 161st year of the Flying Horse Dynasty."
Among the three names, the one in the middle, Sima Yue, made Shi Xiaole pause for a moment. If he remembered correctly, among the top ten famous swords of today’s Qingxue State, there was one named Sima Yue.
"It seems that the three people who inscribed these names had once passed through this passage and left their marks."
This discovery made Shi Xiaole stop in his tracks.
"Wait, even though I spent half a 2-hour period to reach the initial stage of Transformation Phase, it doesn’t mean I can’t use the remaining time to attain a higher realm. Then the result may be different."
Anyway, with only two and a half 2-hour periods left, Shi Xiaole was in no hurry, so he stayed in place and further delved into this sword technique.
Another two 2-hour periods passed.
This time, when Shi Xiaole swung his sword, it revealed the flair of the completed stage of Transformation Phase. The sword tip pointed at the wall, and somehow a loud noise was emitted.
Instantly, another stone door lifted on the left side of the original passage, revealing an even bigger passage.
A thick layer of accumulated dust assailed his senses. Obviously, it had been many years since anyone had set foot in there.
After some thought, Shi Xiaole ultimately refrained from leaving his inscription on the stone wall. He was not one to seek fame, so such action held no meaning for him.
The passage was lengthy, and after a good two 2-hour periods, he finally reached the end.
At the end, there was only a skeleton. Scrawled in tiny characters before the skeleton were several hundred words.
"To be able to reach this place proves you possess an unparalleled martial arts talent, which greatly comforts this old man."
This was the first sentence.
As Shi Xiaole continued reading, he discovered that this man was called Gu Danchen, who had been renowned in the martial world for his Yangxuan Technique.
After losing to his lover in a martial arts competition, he despondently languished here for thirty years, during which he created a superior second-class martial arts Mind Method, the Yangxuan Heavenly Scripture!
However, when he left this seclusion, ready to have another competition with his lover, he found out she had already passed away. Devastated, Gu Danchen returned here alone, soon succumbing to his grief-stricken memories.
"The second-class superior martial arts skill, the Yangxuan Heavenly Scripture, possesses an extraordinary power and profound mystery. I once consumed a Tianzhu fruit in my early years, making my bones special. As a token to help you comprehend this sooner, I have etched the Yangxuan Heavenly Scripture onto my skeleton through my flesh. You only need to disassemble it to understand."
After finishing reading the words on the ground, Shi Xiaole carefully looked at the skeleton and, sure enough, saw tiny characters inscribed in a dense swarm. However, to read them in their entirety, he would need to disassemble the skeleton.
Shi Xiaole suddenly hesitated.
The Yangxuan Heavenly Scripture, being a superior second-class internal skill, was nearly as valuable as a lower first-class method. If news of this were to reach the outside world, even the top sects of Qingxue State would be filled with burning envy.
But the question was, should he desecrate someone’s skeleton to learn this technique?
After all, if he really learned the Yangxuan Heavenly Scripture, in theory, Gu Danchen could be considered his posthumous master.
Whoosh!
Exhaling, Shi Xiaole chuckled.
With the Grand Wuxia System at his disposal, he was not worried about the lack of secret scripts. Why would he betray his principles for a mere Yangxuan Heavenly Scripture?
It’s not worth it.
Bowing respectfully, he turned around and exited the passage. After taking around ten steps, the entire passage mysteriously began to tremble.
"You are very good, respectful of your teacher, possessing a kind heart; you have passed my test. Go ahead, my gift for you is inside."
A voice echoed into Shi Xiaole’s ears, giving him quite a fright. Turning back to glance, the skeleton remained a skeleton, but the wall against which it leaned had already split apart at the sides.
The first thing that caught his eye was a peculiar transparent stone.
"Sound Recording Stone."
Shi Xiaole had seen such stones in Dark Alley before and understood immediately.
The Sound Recording Stone, as its name suggested, was a kind of stone that could retain voice recordings. It was safe to assume that the voice he had just heard came from this stone.
Regarding how the other person knew he hadn’t disassembled the skeleton, the explanation was simple. Any person truly mesmerized by the Yangxuan Heavenly Scripture would have acted long ago. Under the skeleton, there was probably a weight trigger to make this judgment.
With this fortunate discovery that didn’t betray his principles in sight, Shi Xiaole saw no reason to hesitate and immediately entered the interior of the wall.
Much to his surprise, the wall led to a valley.
The valley wasn’t large. On its grassy lawn sat a stone table with a box atop it. Further off, he glimpsed a green horse grazing.
Yes, a green horse.
The horse looked incredibly majestic, its glossy fur seeming carved from green jade. When its eyes turned towards Shi Xiaole, it surprisingly displayed a human-like excitement.
Whoosh.
The green horse reared up, fast as a gust of wind. Before Shi Xiaole could react, the horse was already in front of him, bowing its head to nuzzle him affectionately.
