Chapter 134: Campfire, Parting (End)

Under Lao Gui's guidance, in less than half an hour, Niu Dingtian emerged from the water's surface.

But the surroundings were dim, and apart from the gurgling water, there was no other sound. When he expanded his thoughts, he found that the passage ahead seemed to have no perceivable end.

"Could it be the Ancient Tomb Sect's underwater secret passage?" Niu Dingtian muttered to himself.

He recalled that Wang Chongyang had built the Ancient Tomb Sect's underground storage beside a small stream at the foot of the mountain, diverting a modest amount of stream water into the tomb for the people of the Ancient Tomb Sect to drink, cook, and wash.

Since the stream flowed downhill, the used wastewater would also be carried away, and the water source in the Ancient Tomb Sect would become clear again.

Now it seemed that the path ahead curved long and stretched upward, most likely indeed a secret passage leading to the Ancient Tomb Sect.

Thinking this, Niu Dingtian rose from the water, used his inner energy to dry his clothes, and began to walk forward in the dark.

Niu Dingtian smiled and nodded, whispering, "Which stone chamber does your master usually seclude in? Lead me there quietly."

She had already discovered the patterned sigils above and had asked her master, but the master only said they were Wang Chongyang's martial arts essentials, without being able to explain further.

Recalling the mural he had seen in the tomb chamber last night, a baseless contempt rose in his heart: If I had been born fifty years earlier, there would be no room for you!

Half an hour slipped by silently,

Niu Dingtian advanced holding a firefold; after entering, he found another stone chamber, whose layout was a mirror image of the outside yet opposite in every way, with a narrow back and wide front, a western round and an eastern corner.

Niu Dingtian looked up and examined the characters on the ceiling; as he stared, he suddenly found Wang Chongyang's remaining inscriptions glaringly conspicuous.

In his view, those beneath the Grand Master would find it hard to grasp its meaning.

He had thought there was no hope, but after a brief nap, a sudden joy descended from the heavens.

"Big brother, what are you looking at?" Li Mochou whispered.

"Oh~"

Niu Dingtian couldn't hold back and spat a large mouthful onto the back of Wang Chongyang's portrait.

The fourth step is a special cultivation method; during practice, one sometimes needs to be in an open, uninhabited place, with all clothing open to radiate heat, because cultivation emits body heat.

A more than three-thousand-word Nine Yin Classic, along with his personal insights and signature, has been neatly etched onto the stone wall, facing the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra on the opposite side.

By the end, perhaps thinking the girl's martial arts would embarrass her later, Niu Dingtian transferred a considerable amount of internal energy to her.

If it weren't for his perception ability foreseeing the trial and avoiding many dead ends, he would have been trapped here long ago.

Arriving at the passage of the stone chamber, he turned a corner and found a row of stone steps beneath his feet.

"Show off, ho~tui~"

"When you, Sister Li Mochou, are able to understand it someday, you'll naturally understand it," Niu Dingtian smiled, offering no further explanation.

On the western wall's portrait were two young women.

One, about twenty‑five or six, was combing her hair in front of a mirror; the other, a fourteen‑ or fifteen‑year‑old maid, held a washbasin in her hands, standing nearby to attend.

Li Mochou hadn't slept all night, and being at a moment of parting, her eyes were slightly reddened and her complexion very haggard.

After weeping at the tomb, while inspecting the stone tomb she had built earlier, she discovered the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra etched on the ceiling of the stone chamber.

Li Mochou reluctantly returned to the back hall to continue kneeling, while Niu Dingtian slipped out through the underwater secret passage.

Practitioners who follow these steps can gradually grasp the essence of the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra and attain an advanced martial arts realm.

Thinking of this,

"Could Xiao Long'er practice this thing in the future? With whom?" Niu Dingtian suddenly felt a bit disdainful, his heart also somewhat repulsed; he could not imagine how Sister Lin had been intimate with her little maid back then.

The fifth step is mental preparation; the most important thing is to suppress the seven emotions and six desires, achieving a mind free of distractions.

"Big... big brother?"

Just as he reached near the back hall, he sensed a faint aura emanating from within; based on the few people present in the Ancient Tomb Sect tonight, only Li Mochou seemed to match.

After scanning a few times, Niu Dingtian understood clearly: the profundities of Wang Chongyang's martial arts lay right here!

"Shh~" Niu Dingtian signaled silence, whispering, "Having slipped in secretly, don't let your master find out. Big brother will leave the Ancient Tomb Sect tomorrow; I'm coming tonight to pass you some martial arts."

The second step requires learning and mastering Quanzhen Sect's martial arts; this is a prerequisite for further cultivating the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra.

He wasn't trying to fool a child; this was a promise already made, but since he would leave the Ancient Tomb Sect tomorrow, he simply used the opportunity of revealing the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra to fulfill it.

After taking a few steps, he saw that Lao Gui behind him hadn't kept up, so he turned and urged, "Old fellow, hurry up!"

Because he hadn't controlled the sound of spitting, after the noise, the kneeling Li Mochou suddenly opened her hazy eyes.

The final step is emotional communication; during the cultivation of the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra, one must use certain special body language to achieve emotional exchange. As for what language, those who understand know.

The maid girl was adorably naive, her face full of youthful innocence, bearing a seventy‑to‑eighty percent resemblance to Lin Shinv.

And the young girl Li Mochou, still wearing a flower crown, faced the western portrait, kneeling on a mat on the ground.

……

He didn't look at the words beneath the coffin lid; he simply leapt out of the stone coffin into the upper stone chamber.

But Lao Gui remained floating on the surface unmoving; after splashing the water a few times, he reluctantly dove into the water and left.

The shape of this stone chamber was very unusual: narrow at the front and wide at the back, forming a trapezoid; the east side was a semicircle, while the west side was triangular.

About a quarter of an hour later,

Niu Dingtian felt his way into a stone chamber.

The narrow front is for practicing palm techniques, the wide back for fist work, the eastern round for sword study, and the western corner for internal skill cultivation.

"Indeed, it completely suppresses Quanzhen Sect's martial arts, but the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra seeks speed and novelty without cruelty; against an opponent it would be rather useless," Niu Dingtian muttered.

Not to mention Li Mochou; without Lin Chaoying's original interpretation, even with Lin Shinv's current strength, it would be difficult to comprehend the scripture on the wall in a short time.

In Niu Dingtian's view, the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra resembles a couples' dual-cultivation technique, created by Lin Chaoying for herself and Wang Chongyang.

Niu Dingtian ascended the steps.

"This must be the place where Wang Chongyang delved into his martial arts," Niu Dingtian thought silently.

Entering the hall, and by the faint firelight, Niu Dingtian saw the hall empty of furnishings, with only a portrait hanging on each of the east and west stone walls.

He knew this map had existed since the original construction, intended as an escape route after the Ancient Tomb Sect was seized by the Jin army, but it was kept from Lin Chaoying for the sake of face.

Looking up again, he saw the stone slabs on the ceiling covered with myriad patterned sigils, all carved with sharp tools, varying in depth, irregular, yet ordinary people could hardly discern their subtleties.

Afterwards, he suppressed any movement and sound and

The calligraphy is vigorous and powerful, yet not lacking in graceful and ethereal charm; between the brushstrokes there also seems to be a special flavor, surpassing the characters left by Wang Chongyang by more than a notch.

Back then, upon learning that Lin Chaoying had died in the Tomb of the Living Dead, Wang Chongyang quietly slipped into the Ancient Tomb Sect through an underwater secret passage.

After reaching the top and feeling around with his hand, he found a depression that could fit a palm, tried turning it left and right, then pushed upward, hearing a crack as the stone lid lifted.

In the painting on the east wall is a middle-aged Daoist, very tall, with a long sword hanging at his waist, his right index finger pointing to the northeast, his back facing outward, yet his facial features cannot be seen.

Meanwhile, the older lady reflected in the mirror within the painting is extremely beautiful, with fine eyebrows reaching her temples, and a faint hint of killing intent lurking at the corners of her eyes.

After walking a while longer, he discovered that the road ahead was extraordinarily steep, with several sections going straight up, and the surface was extremely slippery; an ordinary person would likely have slipped and fallen long ago.

The breath is steady and weak, as if she is asleep—could it be that little girl Li Mochou?

As for the fragment of the Nine Yin Classic, it was left behind to break Lin Chaoying's Jade Maiden Heart Sutra.

Thinking of this, Niu Dingtian, whose mind had long been calm, also began to feel a surge of indignation.

After hesitating for a moment,

He slowly raised his right hand, gathered finger strength, and in Li Mochou's astonished gaze began to write on the opposite wall.

After carefully studying the scriptures several times and gaining insight from the diagrams on the chamber ceiling, he had fully integrated and comprehended them.

More than ten years later, at the Mount Hua Sword Discussion, after seizing the marvelous martial arts manual Nine Yin Classic, he then used its essential points to dispel the martial arts of the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra.

However, being able to fall asleep while kneeling on the ground is certainly not a skill that can be acquired in just one or two attempts.

The stone chamber held nothing special; upon looking up, he saw the ceiling densely covered with written symbols, and at the far right were four large characters: 'Nine Yin Classic'.

"Really?" Li Mochou's eyes widened with delight, her face beaming with joy.

Niu Dingtian had been waiting for a long time.

"That old Daoist used force against force in life, and even after death played the 'golden cicada shedding its shell'; he had mastered the Thirty-Six Stratagems well—no wonder he had led troops and resisted the Jin." Niu Dingtian muttered to himself.

Gazing at the characters overhead, Niu Dingtian unconsciously raised his hand and gathered internal energy, intending to erase the writing on the ceiling.

After confirming she was not dreaming, Li Mochou hastily sprang to her feet, her face full of joy.

Walking and turning, winding and twisting, one careless misstep and one would sink deep into it.

Chongyang's life was never inferior to anyone's.

Here the steepest slope is nearly vertical, over half a meter high; with that old turtle's short little legs, it could never climb up.

Upon arriving before Lin Chaoying's stone coffin, Niu Dingtian bowed and performed a salute.

"No wonder that old fellow didn't want to come along; it looks like he had already taken a fall." Niu Dingtian couldn't help but laugh.

Evidently, after returning to the Ancient Tomb Sect tonight, Li Mochou still received punishment from her master.

The little girl studied very seriously.

Time also passed quickly,

After two hours, the outside sky was already on the verge of dawn; fearing they might be blocked, neither dared to linger long.

Thereafter, Niu Dingtian wasted no time, following the contents on the stone wall from shallow to deep, explaining bit by bit to Li Mochou.

The third step is the internal cultivation method; after mastering basic martial arts and Quanzhen Sect martial arts, one can begin to train the internal cultivation of the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra—this stage is key to the training and requires a great deal of time and effort.

Big brother, how did you come here?

But only after leaving the stone chamber did he truly feel the complexity of the Ancient Tomb Sect.

These carved patterns and symbols can only be grasped intuitively, not explained in words; the essential martial arts within them must also be truly comprehended by oneself.

Jade Maiden Heart Sutra, aiming to surpass Quanzhen.

Being angry with the woman you love is one thing, but even after death to be angry with a ghost—does this old bull-nosed Daoist have a screw loose, or did he simply never care at all?

The sky had just begun to lighten,

Having received the message, Han Xiao Ying and Miss Huang did not alarm Lin Shinv; under the leadership of Granny Sun and Li Mochou, they quietly left the Ancient Tomb Sect.

Li Mochou walked to the east, pushed at the base of the semicircular arc a few times, and a large stone slowly shifted, revealing a cave door.

This is something meant to be passed down to posterity; he also intended to sign his own name, so naturally he put great care into it.

He raised his head and looked up, seeing that the ceiling was also etched with countless diagrams, while on one side of the wall was carved a lengthy scripture of over a thousand characters.

What shatters one's worldview is that this rascal actually returned to the Tomb of the Living Dead, inscribed the essence of the True Classic on the ceiling of the most hidden underground stone chamber in the whole tomb, and wrote a sixteen-character classic maxim on the underside of an empty coffin lid in the upper chamber.

And the martial arts subtleties and mysteries described therein—each move is a nemesis of Quanzhen martial arts; finding no way to break them, he slunk away in disgrace from the Ancient Tomb Sect.

But after thinking it over,

in the end he still gave up.

Staring intently, he saw that the lid of one stone coffin was tightly sealed, while the lids of the other four were only pushed halfway.

Niu Dingtian couldn't help but laugh.

Looking again at its drooping head and steady breathing, it seemed already asleep.

He then quietly felt his way toward the rear hall.

The first step requires mastering all the martial arts techniques of the Ancient Tomb Sect, which is the foundation for cultivating the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra.

Since he was traveling from outside to inside, the side paths had little effect on him; but if going from inside to outside, without a detailed map it would probably be hard to reach the mountain stream's location.

Long after the figures of several people had vanished, Li Mochou still stared blankly at the distant small path.

Later, unwilling to accept defeat (┗(0﹏0)┛), she alone went deep into the mountains, built a thatched hut, and for three straight years never left the mountains, solely to study the method of breaking the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra.

Seeing this, Niu Dingtian was quite surprised, but the entrance to the tomb was right before him; he paid it no further mind, took out a dried fire striker, lit it, and continued forward.

Anyone there?

Li Mochou did not hesitate, tiptoed and led Niu Dingtian into a stone chamber.

After walking about half an hour, the steep slope underfoot had disappeared, replaced by many side paths extending backward toward the mountain stream.

By the firelight, looking around, he saw only an empty, vast hall with five stone coffins placed side by side.

Time is merciless, the beauty has passed; if he had been born a few decades earlier, he would surely have vied for victory.

After approaching, he discovered that the stone door at the rear hall was open.

After three years, although there were some minor achievements, he still could not assemble a martial art that encompassed both internal and external aspects and integrated them comprehensively.

On the southwest corner of the chamber's ceiling, a map was also drawn, which was precisely the secret passage leading out of the tomb.

Afterwards, he unleashed a powerful sense, quietly feeling his way out of the stone chamber; he intended to go take a look at the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra.

The old lady Sun beside him, seeing this, felt a pang of pity in her eyes and softly said, "Miss, they have gone far away; go back."

Li Mochou then came to her senses, and in a low voice lamented, "Oh~"

(End of chapter)