Riddle

Li Gan took Song Yingying to the Chore Hall to complete her registration and enrollment procedures.

"Cousin, I've been assigned to the Hundred Herb Garden."

Song Yingying said as she came out.

"The Hundred Herb Garden is quite good."

Li Gan said.

Clearly, Song Yingying must have pulled some strings.

Among the many menial duties, the Hundred Herb Garden ranked near the top within the Divine Sword Sect.

"Cousin, if you need anything in the future, you can come find me at the Bell Tower."

Li Gan said.

Song Yingying nodded lightly.

After the Chore Hall people took Song Yingying away, Li Gan also collected last month's stipend supplies and Contribution Points while he was there.

Returning to the Bell Tower, Li Gan began pondering the sentence Elder Song had left in his letter.

When the hourglass atop the Bell Tower ran dry, two rings at Chen Hour were worth ten thousand gold.

He went up to the Bell Tower platform and stared at those hourglasses, pondering for a long while, yet he still could not grasp the meaning behind it.

When Shen Hour arrived, Li Gan rang the Chen Bell six times.

Then he practiced the Sword Piercing Fist.

Although he had entered the Internal Force level, the Sword Piercing Fist could still be cultivated. Though it was among the most basic Martial Arts fist techniques, as long as he continued training, after opening the Twelve Standard Meridians and then the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, his Internal Force could transform once more into Internal Qi.

Once Internal Qi was cultivated, one would become a true Ranked Martial Artist.

Internal Force could only injure people with a shocking force at close range, but Internal Qi could leave the body and wound enemies through the air. The gap between them could not be measured in miles.

Internal Force and Internal Qi were as far apart as heaven and earth.

It was like an ordinary person acquiring a firearm.

Cultivating the Eight Extraordinary Meridians was far more difficult than cultivating the Twelve Standard Meridians.

Many Menial Disciples became stuck at the Eight Extraordinary Meridians and could not become Ranked Martial Artists.

However, with the Treasure Artifact Chen Bell aiding his cultivation, Li Gan was confident that he could open the Eight Extraordinary Meridians within a year or two.

After finishing his practice, Li Gan felt thoroughly refreshed. Cultivating under the stimulation of the Bell Sound was extremely effective.

After You Hour had passed, Li Gan ate dinner and began racking his brains over the meaning of those two lines.

He wandered around the Bell Tower platform for a long time without discovering anything, feeling that he could only wait until Chen Hour tomorrow, when he might perhaps find some clue.

The next morning.

Today was overcast.

When Chen Hour arrived, Li Gan hurriedly struck the Chen Bell.

Two rings in succession.

He did not even bother practicing the Sword Piercing Fist, instead inspecting everything carefully.

Yet in the end, he discovered nothing.

"Ah, Elder Song, why did you leave me such a riddle?"

Li Gan sighed inwardly.

Many days passed like this, and Li Gan still found nothing. However, his Cultivation Base progressed rather well. The first of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, the Yangwei Meridian, had already been partly opened by his Internal Force.

He assessed it. If he continued at his current cultivation speed, he should be able to open the Eight Extraordinary Meridians in a year and a half at most.

"It's a pity. If only I had an Internal Cultivation Technique."

Li Gan felt somewhat regretful.

According to Elder Song, the Sword Piercing Fist played only a passive role in the process of opening meridians.

An Internal Cultivation Technique, on the other hand, served an active role. The efficiency of the two could not be mentioned in the same breath, and it could save ten times the time.

It was said that the geniuses among Official Disciples could gain Qi Sensation the first time they practiced, open the Twelve Standard Meridians in a few weeks, and cultivate Internal Qi in several months.

It was another early morning.

Today, however, a red sun rose into the sky. It was bound to be a bright, clear day.

It swept away the many consecutive days of rainy gloom.

Watching the red sun rise steadily, Li Gan was in an excellent mood.

As for solving the riddle, he treated it only as a pastime.

He would only study it when he had nothing better to do.

His true focus was on cultivation.

The opportunity Elder Song had left behind might be useful to him, but with the system by his side, it actually made little difference whether he found an opportunity or not.

Besides, if the opportunity Elder Song had left behind were truly so good, Elder Song would not have remained a Menial Disciple his entire life, nor would he have died without anyone knowing why.

There was no need for him to force the issue over some supposed opportunity.

When Chen Hour arrived, Li Gan rang the Chen Bell again.

As the two bell rings echoed back and forth through the mountain forest's empty valleys.

Li Gan had already steadied himself after striking the bell, and the Bell Sound still rang endlessly in his mind. Just as he planned to practice the Sword Piercing Fist, his gaze suddenly swept across an hourglass.

At this moment, all the sand in the hourglass had run out.

The reason Li Gan noticed this hourglass was that sunlight slanted in from the side. Part of it was blocked by the Chen Bell, its frame, and the bell striker, and nearly every hourglass was shaded, either completely or mostly.

Only this hourglass was fully bathed in sunlight.

Li Gan's heart stirred. He walked to the hourglass, crouched down, and examined it closely.

"Eh, what is this?"

Li Gan suddenly noticed something unusual.

Under the sunlight, this hourglass actually revealed an extremely faint mark, which looked like a painting.

On an overcast day, or whenever sunlight did not shine directly upon it, it would have been difficult to see.

Or rather, the mark was so faint that it was difficult to notice at all.

He looked at the other hourglasses, but none had such a mark.

He immediately studied the picture on the hourglass carefully.

In the end, he copied the entire picture onto paper.

"This looks like a topographical map of the small mountain where the Bell Tower stands?"

Li Gan's heart stirred. He then stood atop the Bell Tower and compared the map against the surroundings.

In the end, he could confirm that it was indeed a map of the terrain around the Bell Tower.

Because the Bell Tower's location had even been simply marked on it.

"Here?"

He moved his finger and finally let it fall on a point.

On the drawing, aside from the Bell Tower, this was the second marked location.

Perhaps the opportunity Elder Song had mentioned was hidden there.

With that thought, Li Gan left the tower and went to the second marked location.

It was actually quite easy to find.

There was a large rock there, with a Crooked Neck Tree growing from a crack in the stone.

It counted as a very obvious landmark.

He walked beneath the Crooked Neck Tree and examined it, discovering scars on the trunk left by cuts, forming something like an arrow that pointed underground.

"Is this the mark Elder Song left behind?"

Li Gan revealed a surprised expression.

Elder Song certainly knew how to build suspense.

So he looked around. Few people came to this side of the Bell Tower, and Chen Yong usually trained in the afternoons.

Even so, he needed to be cautious.

Since the soil had hardened and grass grew over it, Li Gan chose to return to the Bell Tower and bring out a Small Hoe.

Before long, he dug out a pit.

Clang!

Suddenly, the hoe seemed to strike something hard.

He hurriedly and carefully turned over the surrounding soil.

After a while, he dug out a small box.

Was this the opportunity Elder Song had left behind?

Li Gan's heart stirred. Could it be some Martial Arts manual? Or perhaps Medicinal Pills?

The small box was too tiny, though. It probably could not hold much.

He decided to open it on the spot.

When the box was opened, it revealed a folded sheet of parchment.

"Don't tell me it's a riddle within a riddle?"

Li Gan's heart gave a jolt.