Mysterious Source

"Master Zhong folded beautifully! After all, he's a several-thousand-year-old bell who's lived long enough to see through everything!"

Xu Ying secretly praised the Great Bell's open-mindedness and thought, The Female Ghost knows the master of Qin Yan Cave? Then she didn't come to Qin Yan Cave this time to kill us, but to mourn an old friend.

He blinked. "The Female Ghost said this is a place of ascension. What does that mean? And what are the Cangwu Abyss and the Ageless Immortal?"

From within the palace came the Maiden's voice, ethereal as though it drifted down from the clouds. "Are you alive or dead? If you're alive, where did you go? I searched the whole of Divine Land. Why can't I find any trace of you?"

She walked into the Black Coffin. The lid closed, and the coffin flew out of the White Jade Palace with its chains howling, heading beyond Qin Yan Cave. Only a resentful voice remained, echoing through the cave abode.

"Did you ascend, or did you die? Why, after waking three thousand years later, am I the only one left in this world..."

Xu Ying breathed a sigh of relief. If the Maiden in the Coffin had been a little more careful, she might have noticed the Great Bell sunk at the bottom of the water. In a fit of rage, she might even have wiped out Demon King Xu and the Ox Demon King together.

Suddenly, Xu Ying remembered the Great Bell and hurriedly fished it out.

However, the Great Bell seemed to have taken offense. With a gurgle, it sank into the water and stubbornly refused to come back up.

After several unsuccessful attempts to retrieve it, Xu Ying grew angry and shouted, "If you've got the guts, go fight the Female Ghost! What kind of ability is it to bully me?"

The Great Bell was a coward too. Not daring to fight the Maiden in the Coffin, it flew out of the water and dumped the water inside itself over Xu Ying's head with a splash.

The move seemed to exhaust all the strength it had saved up. It fell back down and clanged along behind Xu Ying.

Xu Ying didn't hold it against the bell. He circulated his qi and blood to dry his clothes, then followed Yuan Qi toward the White Jade Palace.

In front of the palace, Xu Ying stopped and looked up.

Words were carved into the lintel of the White Jade Palace. They differed from every script in the world today, looking like traces left by tadpoles crawling wildly through mud, or claw marks left by birds trampling across snow after a snowfall.

Yuan Qi said, "Stop looking. My grandparents and I can't recognize the characters on this lintel. I don't know what this place is called either."

Xu Ying's expression turned strange. "It says 'Ni Wan Palace Cave Heaven.'"

Yuan Qi asked in confusion, "You recognize these characters?"

He was utterly astonished. The three generations of the Old Niu Family had been well versed in books and possessed vast knowledge, yet they had never deciphered the characters on the lintel. Xu Ying was merely a commoner—how could he recognize such writing?

Xu Ying's gaze was peculiar. "I've never seen these characters before, but strangely enough, after seeing them, I naturally knew what they meant. I knew how to read them and how to pronounce them. It was as if..."

He frowned. It was as if these characters had long been carved into his mind!

Yet he desperately racked his memory. He had absolutely never studied or seen this script before!

Yuan Qi was deeply puzzled. Recalling Xu Ying's many strange behaviors, he asked, "A Ying, have you ever lost your memory?"

Xu Ying burst out laughing. "I've definitely never lost my memory! How could I possibly have lost it? I've been clever since I was young, and my memory is exceptionally clear. I can even remember things from when I was ten months old!"

His heart ached faintly. He could remember every detail of the fire in Xu Family Village, even the sight of his parents perishing in the flames!

He wanted to forget that memory, but no matter what he did, he couldn't.

Yuan Qi blinked and thought, You even got your parents' names wrong. Clearly, your memory isn't reliable. Did someone smash your head in before?

The Great Bell rolled across the ground once, clearly filled with doubt about Xu Ying's memory as well.

Xu Ying examined the strange characters on the lintel. Suddenly, his heart stirred. He took out the Ni Wan Hidden Scenery Qi Refining Method, then looked up at the characters again and asked in confusion, "The Ni Wan Palace Cave Heaven and the Ni Wan Hidden Scenery Qi Refining Method both contain the words 'Ni Wan.' Could there be some connection between them?"

The Ni Wan Secret Treasury was one of the Six Secrets of the Human Body. Opening any one of them could make someone a Nu Master. And the secret treasury controlled by the Nu Master Aristocratic Clan, the Zhou Family, was the Ni Wan Secret Treasury!

The Ni Wan Secret Treasury's attraction for Xu Ying was simply too great. It was almost becoming an obsession!

Yuan Qi called to him from ahead, telling him to enter the palace. Xu Ying put his distracting thoughts in order and walked inside. He saw that the White Jade Palace was filled with bookshelves, with rows upon rows of neatly arranged books.

Yuan Qi had said that he came from a family steeped in learning, with knowledge passed down through generations. It seemed he hadn't been exaggerating!

"My Ox Family has lived here for more than three hundred years across three generations, collecting countless ancient books." Yuan Qi was quite proud. "Every ancient book that could be found in Lingling is here. I've read them all."

Xu Ying felt both admiration and shame. Compared with this Snake Demon, he truly was ignorant and unlearned.

Suddenly, Yuan Qi's expression changed drastically. He shouted, "A Ying, I suddenly feel my qi and blood transforming into the power of creation. I think I'm about to transform into human form!"

His vision had grown blurry. Dead skin hung over his pupils, making his eyes appear pale. This was precisely a sign of metamorphosis.

Yuan Qi hurriedly burrowed into one of the rooms in the White Jade Palace and shouted, "While I'm cultivating in seclusion, don't wander around. Mount Wu Wang has become Mount Wu Wang, and I'm not familiar with the geography of the present-day Mount Wu Wang!"

He had to find a safe place to shed his original hide before he could transform. If he delayed, he might suffocate inside his old skin!

Xu Ying came beneath the jade wall and looked up.

The woman from the coffin had stood in this very spot, facing the jade wall as she mourned an old friend.

Carved into the jade wall was a strange mountain. Its slopes were steep and majestic, soaring into the clouds with a grandeur that seemed to tower above every mountain beneath heaven!

As a Snake Catcher, Xu Ying traveled east and west every day to capture Strange Snakes. What mountain had he not seen? Yet he had never seen the mountain carved into the jade wall!

The mountain was tall and perilous, rising into the clouds. There was no mountain this high in Lingling!

Let alone Lingling—even across all of Divine Land, there might not be such a magnificent and wondrous mountain!

Xu Ying's heart stirred. He softly recited, "South of Xiaoxiang, the Cangwu Abyss. Below Mount Jiuyi, the Ageless Immortal. Could the mountain in this carving be Mount Jiuyi?"

"But Mount Jiuyi isn't nearly this tall!"

Xu Ying was full of doubts. He had visited Mount Jiuyi several times. Though it was as beautiful as a painting, its peaks were not high. It couldn't possibly be the mountain in the carving!

However, if Mount Wu Wang could become Mount Wu Wang, then could the true appearance of Mount Jiuyi be this wondrous mountain in the carving?

"It's a pity Yuan Qi is cultivating in seclusion. Otherwise, I could go take a look at Mount Jiuyi."

Xu Ying was somewhat tired as well. He chose a room and settled in. He had been fleeing for his life these past few days and was truly exhausted, yet his spirit was still highly agitated. Unable to fall asleep for a while, he simply took a book from the shelf and began reading.

He had read only two or three pages when his head tilted to one side and he fell asleep with a snore.

He slept for a long time. When Xu Ying opened his bleary eyes and awoke from his dream, he felt his qi and blood surging with vitality. Qin Yan Cave contained a strange life-force activity that continuously enhanced his qi and blood cultivation. After merely sleeping here for one night, he felt that his cultivation had improved considerably!

"What a Blessed Land!"

Xu Ying suddenly smelled an odd odor on himself. It was probably the rotten stench of the netherworld that had clung to him when he passed through it.

Yuan Qi was still cultivating in seclusion and had yet to awaken.

Xu Ying went outside the palace, stripped himself completely, and leaped into the pool outside.

"Eh? I've grown a few hairs here." Xu Ying lowered his head to look, somewhat puzzled, and muttered to himself, "Strange hairs, growing all over the place. I might as well pluck them out."

He vigorously scrubbed the grime from his body. When he touched the places where he had been injured before, he suddenly saw a lingzhi herb on the bank and froze.

"No, no!"

Xu Ying stood dumbfounded. After a long while, he murmured, "Is Qin Yan Cave's life-force healing me, or is my own life-force healing me? Is the strange energy in Qin Yan Cave really life-force?"

He had seen plants grow wildly under the influence of active life-force, yet the lingzhi herb on the bank had not grown wildly.

In other words, the life-force activity emitted by Qin Yan Cave was not true life-force activity. The power healing the scars on Xu Ying and Yuan Qi did not come from Qin Yan Cave, but from within themselves!

"This mysterious power in Qin Yan Cave can stimulate our own life-force and vitality!"

Xu Ying's eyes flickered. Where did the life-force and vitality in the human body come from?

"The Ni Wan Secret Treasury," he said softly.

The Ni Wan Secret Treasury contained the body's vitality, while this White Jade Palace was also called the Ni Wan Palace. Earlier, he had only felt that there seemed to be some connection between the Ni Wan Palace and the Ni Wan Secret Treasury. Now, he suddenly understood.

"The mysterious power in Qin Yan Cave can stimulate the Ni Wan Secret Treasury!"

Xu Ying sat in the water and muttered to himself, "That's right, the Ni Wan Secret Treasury. All I need to do is trace the path taken by Qin Yan Cave's mysterious power after entering the body. Then I can use Dragon Seeking Positioning to find the Ni Wan Secret Treasury within the human body! But I don't have any injuries..."

As soon as he thought of this, he abruptly raised a finger and pierced through his own thigh!

Blood streamed from his thigh. Xu Ying endured the pain and immediately focused his mind. Beneath his eyelids, divine light swirled, and his spiritual sense reappeared!

He pushed open the door and entered the Realm of Serenity within his body.

In his inner world, wisps of faint currents seeped in from the outside world. These weak currents were the mysterious power that had entered his body from the mud pool!

The faint currents were drawn toward a mysterious place somewhere within his body, flowing in the same direction.

"Just as I thought!"

Xu Ying's spiritual sense followed the currents as they rose into the air and traveled onward!

His spiritual sense moved like the wind, rushing and whistling through the air. It climbed higher and higher. Even when it reached the heart and lungs, which were as vast as inverted mountains, it still did not stop!

He followed the currents through the Realm of Serenity, soaring and wandering into regions he had never reached before, discovering even more of the human body's mysteries.

Looking upward, he saw what seemed to be the interior of an incomparably enormous pagoda, its layers orderly and distinct. On either side of him stood the towering mountains of the heart and lungs.

His spiritual sense whistled as it flew over the great mountains of the heart and lungs, tracking the currents through layer after layer of majestic pagodas. Suddenly, a patch of light appeared ahead. When he flew closer, he found a Jade Pool as broad as a lake or sea!

Above the Jade Pool hung a divine bridge!

Xu Ying was dazzled and shaken to the core. Following the currents, he flew over the divine bridge. When he looked up, he saw an impossibly enormous sun hanging in the sky, burning with raging flames!

Beside the sun was a moon vast beyond belief, radiating a cold glow that shone in harmony with the blazing sun!

"There are actually so many places within my body that I've never reached!"

Xu Ying's spiritual sense passed between the sun and moon. Following the currents, it soared into the heavens and arrived at an immeasurably vast region within the Realm of Serenity!

A chaotic region in his brain.

His spiritual sense floated before the chaotic qi in his mind. At the center of the chaotic qi was a mass of chaos, shaped like an enormous, perfectly round egg, floating in the middle of the chaotic qi.

The mysterious energy from the mud pool had burrowed into this chaotic round egg and vanished without a trace. Then the vitality of his physical body had been stimulated, healing his injuries!

"This chaotic round egg is the Ni Wan Secret Treasury, one of the Six Secrets of the Human Body!"

Xu Ying steadied his mind. The Ni Wan Secret Treasury was right before him. Without relying on another great Nu Master's Dragon Seeking Positioning, he had found this secret treasury himself!

"But finding it is one thing. Opening it is another!"

Just as Xu Ying thought this, the chaotic region in his mind suddenly trembled faintly, sending out ripples.

He looked toward the source of the ripples and was left dumbstruck.

A Great Bell had somehow barged in from nowhere. It swayed unsteadily as though drunk, flew over the chaotic qi, and then stopped beside the chaotic round egg.

The Great Bell pushed hard, trying to shove the chaotic round egg aside. When it found that the egg wouldn't budge, it could only settle down beside it.

A deep palmprint was still visible on the Great Bell's wall. It was the very same bell that had followed behind Xu Ying.

Only then did the Great Bell notice Xu Ying's spiritual sense floating not far away. The Great Bell and Xu Ying's spiritual sense stared at each other. For a moment, not a sound could be heard.

The Great Bell silently rose into the air and flew out of this region of the brain.

Xu Ying waited quietly for a while. The Great Bell slowly flew back. Seeing that Xu Ying's spiritual sense was still there, it finally confirmed that it hadn't been seeing things.

"Young man, you're here too?" The Great Bell's voice rang out like the tolling of a great bell and the peal of a mighty gong.

Xu Ying's spiritual sense leaped with fury. "What do you mean, 'I'm here too'? This is my brain, all right? How did you get in?"

"Through the Jade Pillow acupoint at the back of your head."

The Great Bell answered honestly, "Your qi and blood cultivation improved, and my injuries happened to recover a little as well. When I saw that you weren't carrying me, I came in first to sit for a while."

Ever since Xu Ying entered Qin Yan Cave, his injuries had healed, and the various hidden ailments in his body had been cured. His qi and blood were even more vigorous than before. The Great Bell had taken advantage of the opportunity to absorb more of Xu Ying's qi and blood and restore its ability to move ahead of time.

It had planned to enter Xu Ying's mind and steal more qi and blood to heal itself, but unexpectedly encountered the rightful owner. It couldn't help feeling awkward.

Xu Ying didn't pursue the matter. Instead, he asked, "Why are you near my Ni Wan Secret Treasury?"

"This is the Ni Wan Secret Treasury?" The Great Bell was astonished. It flew several circles around the chaotic round egg and clicked its tongue in wonder. "No wonder I couldn't move it. I entered your mind through your Jade Pillow acupoint. I didn't know this was the Ni Wan Secret Treasury."

Xu Ying explained how he had tracked Qin Yan Cave's mysterious energy and used Dragon Seeking Positioning to find this place. "Once the mysterious energy enters this place, my physical vitality is stimulated. That proves this must be the Ni Wan Secret Treasury."

In the Great Bell's era, there had been no concept of the human body's secret treasuries. It was somewhat puzzled when it heard this. "The Ni Wan Palace Cave Heaven contains mysterious energy that can stimulate the Ni Wan Secret Treasury? How strange."

Xu Ying said, "Isn't it normal for a Blessed Land to possess mysterious spiritual qi and Spiritual Power?"

The Great Bell sneered. "Do you think Blessed Lands are cabbages, growing everywhere? Blessed Lands are few and far between, and each one has a great history. Though this place is an ancient cave abode, it absolutely can't contain a cave heaven! Its master called this place the Ni Wan Palace Cave Heaven merely to put on airs."

Xu Ying pondered. "Since this mysterious energy in Qin Yan Cave isn't spiritual qi or Spiritual Power, then it's strange indeed. This power most likely wasn't formed naturally..."

His eyes suddenly lit up, and he smiled. "If I can follow the direction in which the mysterious energy flows to find the Ni Wan Secret Treasury, then I can also follow the direction it came from to find its source!"