Xu Ying's eyes lit up. If he successfully found the source, wouldn't that mean he would have an endless supply of mysterious energy?
Even if he couldn't open the Ni Wan Secret Treasury, he could continuously absorb its vitality, refine the Hidden Scenery, and become a Nu Master!
He immediately entered meditation again, turning his awareness inward and entering the Realm of Serenity within his body.
This time, Xu Ying's divine sense no longer followed the mysterious energy through the Realm of Serenity. Instead, it traveled against the flow of the mysterious energy, and his divine sense emerged from his body!
His consciousness flowed upstream and entered the water.
The various forms of mysterious energy in the water formed torrents, incredibly dangerous. At the slightest mistake, his divine sense would be swept into a torrent and lose its direction.
At that moment, the sound of a bell rang out. "Young man, I'll use my bell chime to steady your divine sense!"
A dong rang beside Xu Ying's ears, long and sonorous. His divine sense became incomparably clear and stable, untouched by outside interference.
Xu Ying seized the opportunity, passing through one torrent after another and drifting deeper into the cave along the source of that thread of mysterious energy.
It was as if he passed through one ancient space after another and entered a world beyond measurement or knowledge. The sound of the Great Bell gradually grew distant as well, as though separated by boundless layers of space.
Xu Ying couldn't help feeling afraid. If his divine sense couldn't return, wouldn't he become a fool?
"My divine sense has followed the mysterious energy through space and time for so long, yet I still haven't found its source. It seems this really is a Blessed Land, not a fake one! Master Zhong must have guessed wrong!"
Xu Ying was just about to turn back the way he came when the bell chime suddenly grew clearer.
He froze.
The clearer the bell chime became, the closer he was getting to his own physical body!
But how was that possible?
His divine sense had clearly followed the mysterious energy through one space and plane after another, as if it had traveled hundreds of millions of li. How was it getting closer to him instead?
Xu Ying's divine sense chased that wisp of mysterious energy into the Ni Wan Palace and arrived before the stone wall behind the palace. The source of the mysterious energy was inside the stone wall.
Xu Ying withdrew his divine sense, leaped out of the water, and hurriedly put on his tattered clothes.
He went to check on Yuan Qi, only to see that the Snake Demon was still transforming, so he went alone to the stone wall behind the palace.
The stone wall was covered in moss and looked no different from the walls elsewhere. Xu Ying examined it from every angle. The mysterious energy had seeped into this wall and then vanished.
He gently knocked on the wall. It was incredibly solid.
Xu Ying thought for a moment and said, "Master Zhong, come out for a moment."
The Great Bell flew out of his mind. "What is it?"
Xu Ying grabbed the bell's nose, swung it in a full circle, and smashed it viciously against the stone wall. The Great Bell shrieked, "What are you doing? Put me down! Dong! You little bastard, dong! Damn your grandfather, I'll fight you to the death! Dong! A bell may be killed, but never humiliated! Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong!"
The Great Bell trembled, but the stone wall didn't move an inch.
Xu Ying set down the Great Bell, stepped forward, and stroked the wall as he pondered. "There really is something wrong. The Great Bell can even shatter the City God's golden body. Ordinary stone can't possibly be harder than the City God."
The Great Bell hurriedly moved farther away from Xu Ying, still shaken. "This brat has violent tendencies!"
At that moment, Xu Ying noticed a faint mark on the stone wall. It looked like the imprint of a left palm, blurred and indistinct.
His heart stirred. He extended his left hand and placed it over the palmprint.
The stone wall trembled slightly. Suddenly, it began to crack and split apart, revealing a narrow passage. Xu Ying stepped inside, only to see the wall retreating as blocks of square stone withdrew into the mountain. The Great Bell hurriedly followed.
Xu Ying walked forward, and the stone wall kept retreating. After traveling dozens of zhang, he arrived at a stone chamber inside the mountain.
The stone chamber wasn't large, measuring four zhang in length and width. It was extremely crude, containing only a meditation cushion and a jade couch. A skeleton still sat on the cushion, dressed in blue robes so thin they were like cicada wings, allowing its bones to be seen through the fabric. Its skull hung low, and its skeletal hands seemed to be holding something, though there was nothing in them.
Rows of bookshelves stood around the skeleton, but all the books were gone. There was also a pile of ashes in the corner.
"The mysterious energy in Qin Yan Cave comes from the skull of this skeleton!"
Xu Ying's heart trembled. Just as he was about to step forward, he suddenly saw a coiled-silk glove and a Snake-Shocking Rod beside the skeleton. He couldn't help freezing. "Those look like a Snake Catcher's belongings! A Snake Catcher came here before us!"
Snake Catchers used coiled-silk gloves to seize a snake by the seven inches beneath its head, and Snake-Shocking Rods to frighten venomous snakes out of the grass. Xu Ying himself had been a Snake Catcher, so he was naturally familiar with both tools. However, after his cultivation had advanced, he rarely used them anymore.
"This was the home of Yuan Qi's grandparents and parents. They lived here for more than three hundred years. How could a Snake Catcher have entered Qin Yan Cave and found this place?"
At this thought, Xu Ying suddenly remembered the book he had read the previous night. It was a travelogue written by Yuan Qi's grandfather. Because it was so dreadfully dull, Xu Ying had fallen asleep while reading it.
"I remember the book saying that Yuan Qi's grandfather was pursued by a Snake Catcher and fled to Qin Yan Cave, where he discovered a cave within the cave and found this Ni Wan Palace Cave Heaven."
Xu Ying fell into thought. "Could it be that he never managed to shake off that Snake Catcher? That Snake Catcher followed him and found the Ni Wan Palace Cave Heaven as well. He must have been extremely clever—perhaps he even noticed the mysterious energy in Qin Yan Cave and traced it here! If so, the books on these shelves must have been taken away by him."
He studied the pile of ashes in the corner. That Snake Catcher could only carry so many books. The ones he couldn't take had been burned in a single fire!
Xu Ying sighed regretfully. "The master of this stone chamber was most likely the Master of Ni Wan Palace whom the Maiden in the Coffin was searching for. He died here, leaving behind his inheritance. That Snake Catcher came here by chance and obtained the inheritance of this senior. Worried that someone else might find this place, he burned the senior's life's work to ashes!"
The Great Bell flew a circle around the skeleton, carefully sensing it. "The mysterious energy truly originates from this person's skull. I imagine that before his death, he used the energy he left behind to aid someone in Dragon Seeking Positioning and finding the Ni Wan Secret Treasury."
Xu Ying came to the ashes in the corner and brushed through them with his hand. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he pulled a book more than half burned away from the ashes.
That Snake Catcher had burned too many books. This one had been pressed beneath the others, beyond the reach of the flames, and a few pages remained. The words on them could still be made out faintly.
Xu Ying carefully deciphered them. His heart pounded wildly, and he blurted out, "This describes the method for opening the Ni Wan Secret Treasury!"
The Great Bell flew over. "The method for opening the Ni Wan Secret Treasury? That can't be right. The demoness I suppressed was a Qi Refiner. She knew the master of this place, so the master must have been a Qi Refiner as well! In their era, Nuo Art and Nuo techniques hadn't appeared yet. How could there have been a method for opening a secret treasury?"
Xu Ying was also quite puzzled. "Could this skeleton not be the person the Maiden in the Coffin was searching for? Wait a moment. Who was that Snake Catcher?"
He stared blankly into space, then suddenly said, "The Zhou Family of Lingling also began rising more than three hundred years ago and later moved to the Capital City. The Zhou Family's secret never passed to outsiders was the Ni Wan Secret Treasury. Could that Snake Catcher who followed Yuan Qi's grandfather into Qin Yan Cave have been the ancestor of the Zhou Family?"
The Great Bell was also somewhat stunned. "Three hundred years ago, one person and one snake entered Qin Yan Cave. Three hundred years later, one person and one snake entered Qin Yan Cave again. The two Snake Demons only discovered the White Jade Palace outside, yet failed to discover the stone chamber inside the wall. Both Snake Catchers found the stone chamber. What are the odds?"
Xu Ying looked around. When the Zhou Family Ancestor entered this place, the stone chamber must have contained an enormous number of books, piled as high as ox-carts—every kind of Nuo Art and Nuo technique practiced by the master of this place.
The Zhou Family Ancestor memorized the most crucial Nuo Arts and Nuo techniques, then burned everything he couldn't take. The books he carried away eventually allowed the Zhou Family to soar to prominence, transforming it from a tiny family of Snake Catchers in Lingling into a mighty Aristocratic Clan!
"The Elephant Strength Bull Demon Fist that Yuan Qi's grandfather obtained was probably just a low-grade Demonic Art that the Zhou Family Ancestor tossed to him out of pity," Xu Ying thought.
He carefully unfolded the ancient book's remaining pages and read them. The text was incomplete, so he could only fill in the missing parts himself.
The book said that the human body had Six Secrets, with the Ni Wan as the foremost. The chaos egg was the Ni Wan Secret Treasury, but the power contained within was truly immense, so one first had to chisel open the chaos.
One had to chisel open a Cave Heaven within the chaos and fish out the vitality of the Ni Wan. Once one's cultivation reached a certain level, one could open another Cave Heaven, delve deeper into the Ni Wan, and fish out more of its vitality.
By repeating this process and opening nine layers of Cave Heavens, one could fish out all the power of the Ni Wan Secret Treasury.
The method for chiseling open the Ni Wan Secret Treasury was extremely simple as well: strike the chaos egg with all one's might!
"This really does require a Great Nuo to help."
Xu Ying put away the remaining pages and pondered. "The Ni Wan Secret Treasury is inside the brain. The slightest mistake would directly open a hole in the skull and end with one's brains splattered everywhere. Even with a Great Nuo's help, it would still be extremely dangerous."
"I can help you."
The Great Bell suddenly said, "I'm extremely powerful. Even after suffering the demoness's heavy blow, a strike unleashed in a short period still wouldn't be inferior to that of a Great Nuo. But I won't do it for free. I'll help you open the Ni Wan Secret Treasury, but you must provide me with more qi and blood to help me heal."
Xu Ying cast it a glance, hesitating.
The Great Bell was naturally incredibly powerful. Even after being gravely injured, it could still withstand the combined might of Zhou Yihang and Xue Chenghuang. While it slept on, Xu Ying had nearly used it to smash Zhou Yihang and the vicious Xue Chenghuang to death.
What Xu Ying worried about was that the Great Bell was too fierce. If it unleashed a full-power strike inside his head, his skull might not merely be opened by a hole. It might explode with a bang.
"Most likely, nothing above my neck would remain," Xu Ying thought.
Seeing him hesitate, the Great Bell asked suspiciously, "Could it be that you don't trust me? Xu, while I was alive, I experienced no fewer than a thousand battles, large and small. You dare not trust me? Who doesn't know that Master Zhong of Little Stone Mountain is steady and reliable, with a reputation above reproach?"
Xu Ying mumbled, "Yes, yes, of course. But how did the Maiden in the Coffin escape?"
The Great Bell flew into a rage. "Someone clearly ambushed me and rescued the demoness in the chaos! Those bastards had been plotting against me for more than a day or two. They even went so far as to slaughter wantonly and force the Nai River to change course, crashing into Little Stone Mountain! Otherwise, how could I have let the demoness escape?"
Xu Ying hesitated. The Great Bell hurriedly said, "Let's leave the cave. I'll show you my accuracy!"
Xu Ying then left the stone chamber and arrived at the Ni Wan Palace, only to see that Yuan Qi still hadn't awakened.
He left Qin Yan Cave and arrived atop Mount Wu Wang. A cool breeze rustled around him. The Great Bell floated up and said, "Do you see that towering tree on the mountain?"
Xu Ying looked into the distance. At the edge of Mount Wu Wang's cliff top stood a towering tree, about thirty zhang tall and exceptionally majestic.
The Great Bell said, "I'm going to show my power and destroy it with my bell chime. Watch closely!"
Xu Ying craned his neck in anticipation. Suddenly, the bell rang once. Dong! Space rippled layer upon layer, and in the next instant, more than a dozen men and women were blasted out of the forest, flailing in midair.
Xu Ying's heart jolted. "The officials of Lingling! They actually found their way here!"
A moment later, the dozen or so officials landed, their falls scattering birds and beasts throughout the forest.
The Great Bell paused, then said, "I sensed that someone had arrived and was hiding in the forest to spy on us, so I changed direction and startled them out. A Ying, I've used up all the power I accumulated over these past two days. The rest is up to you!"
With that, the Great Bell streaked into the back of Xu Ying's head and vanished without a trace.
The sound of hurried footsteps came from the forest. The dozen or so officials, their faces bruised and swollen, emerged from the trees.
Xu Ying stood motionless and said calmly, "My cultivation has advanced greatly. I've become a Demon King. You aren't my match."
The dozen or so officials were each eager to try, but a voice rang out, laughing. "Demon King Xu is a human aberrant who cultivated into a Demon King. Naturally, ordinary Official Nu Masters aren't his match. So this time, there's no need for them to act. I'll personally subdue you."
Xu Ying followed the voice and saw County Magistrate Zhou Yang stride out of the forest in a luxurious black silk robe.
"Set up the swords," Zhou Yang said softly.
Only then did Xu Ying notice that each official carried a sword basket on his back, filled with more than a dozen precious swords. The officials stopped about thirty paces away, drew the treasured swords from their baskets, planted them in the ground, and swiftly retreated.
Zhou Yang stepped forward and took a seed from his sleeve, planting it in the center of the sword formation.
The seed rapidly took root and sprouted. Soon, it grew into a towering tree whose crown covered several mu, its branches hanging down, thin and long, each one both supple and tough.
The great tree seemed demonic. Its branches danced, pulling out the precious swords planted all around it with ringing clangs!
"This tree is called Fenghua. Legend says it's a demon tree that drank phoenix blood. Under my control, it will wield a hundred swords and unleash my Zhou Family's supreme art, the Zhou Tian Demon Slaying Sword."
Zhou Yang smiled faintly. "Xu Ying, as the magistrate of Lingling, I love the people as my own children, so I'll give you a way to live. As long as you're willing to submit, I'll not only clear your name, I'll also make you an official."
"An official? So I can become a corrupt official like you?"
Xu Ying came beneath a willow tree nearby, snapped off a willow branch as thick as his little finger, and smiled. "Corrupt official, let me see how the supreme art your ancestor obtained from Qin Yan Cave compares with the one I comprehended myself!"
—Thanks to Mu Mu Mu Mu and Thirty Eight Lamps, two magnates, for the rewards. I have nothing with which to repay you, so I can only offer myself! Nothing more to say—set the table and serve the feast!
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