A dainty woman figure came closer, her steps were smooth and light. Jinshui and the others didn't hear clearly which passage she came from. Their gazes fixed on her, and no one could not help but feel astonished.
Among the limited dimness of the torchlight, it seemed that the one present was a girl, maybe in her teens, maybe even more, no one could say for sure. She had a pair of perfectly beautiful eyebrows and eyes, half of her face was still covered by a light veil, but it was clearly an extraordinarily beautiful face. She was dressed all in white, her body was tall and slender, her appearance was rather mysterious.
"You... who are you?" Lin Jixuan asked the incoming figure. Inside a cave in the bowels of the mountain, the tomb of Bai Family, that figure was more like a ghost than someone who was still breathing.
"Which one of you is Hua Jinshui, Hua Gongzi?" the figure did not answer his question. She asked in a soft and low voice, but very clearly heard by all of them, a voice that was melodious and intoxicating, but also sounded eerie.
Jinshui tried to stand up, Li Qian supported him. The veiled woman glanced at him briefly, then seemed to look the other way. Her expression didn't change in the slightest, none of them could guess what was on her mind.
"Zaixia Hua Jinshui," Jinshui replied as necessary. "Is Guniang here on behalf of the great master of Baiyu Shan?"
"You are Hua Jinshui?" the woman asked him, once again glancing but also not looking.
Jinshui showed her the Yumen leader's command plate to the girl. "I am Hua Jinshui, son of the late Wu Jiaozhu of Yumen Jiao, today came to Baiyu Shan with my fellow descendants, hope that Miss can take us to meet our Jiaozhu Furen Gu Chenhui, Wu Furen."
The woman suddenly flashed, her movements were graceful and slow but didn't give anyone a chance to block her. Suddenly she was right in front of Jinshui, and her right palm pointed straight ahead.
Jinshui's right hand was still gripping the command plate and was also supported by Li Qian. He had to stretch out his left hand, welcoming the woman's palm with the sixth-level wuqing xue energy that he had mastered.
Lin Jixuan was about to step forward to get rid of the woman, but Huang Yu held him back, knowing that the woman only wanted to test Jinshui, also because the four young Yumen descendants couldn't fight on a woman at once.
Jinshui felt that the energy that flowed from the woman's palm was cold, but as soon as it entered his body there was a kind of warmth that seemed to be able to unite with his wuqing xue energy. He didn't resist it. Quickly he withdrew his hand, worried that it would suck up the woman's inner energy and injure her.
"How did you get in all the way here?" the woman didn't attack further, she asked in the same tone of voice. "Who told you the way to this place?"
"An elder gave us the map," Huang Yu replied, showing her the map given by Zhang Zheliang.
The woman easily snatched the map sheet from his hand, her movements couldn't be called fast, but even Huang Yu didn't know how a young woman could just snatch an object from him before he repel a resistance.
"Bai Family Tomb is a sacred place in Baiyu Shan, no Yumen members are not allowed to enter this place without permission," the woman also said, "you dare to come here, it is considered lucky to still be left alive. Three days from now, if Hua Jinshui still can't walk, then all of you are just as useless. You are not allowed to leave this place forever."
It was such a cold and ruthless tone that should not have come out of a beautiful woman, making those present all fall silent, even Lin Jixuan didn't want to argue with her.
"We came to Baiyu Shan to meet our former jiaozhu furen, was forced to pass by this place due to my current condition and in order to avoid some enemies," Jinshui told the woman. "Please convey to the great master Baiyu Shan. Jinshui be the one to receive any punishment."
"I'm the one responsible to bring them here," Huang Yu said, "I wouldn't let Jinshui take the punishment alone."
"It's great you still have a sense of loyalty," the woman replied, her tone didn't change, "my words still apply, three days later you can leave this place."
The woman left them, passing through the passageways that could lead to nowhere, carrying the map she snatched from Huang Yu's hand. Lin Jixuan and Huang Lian quickly tried to catch up, but the woman's movements were very strange. They soon lost track and were forced to return to the large cave room because they didn't want to get lost in the bowels of the mountain.
"Ershaoye, we have water here but there is no food source," Xiaoshan reported to Huang Yu. "Apparently, we have indeed become the prisoners of the Baiyu Shan people."
Natural water from the ceiling of the cave dripped and was accommodated in a rock basin, enough for all of them.
"We can leave whenever we want," Xiaohu added, "we can go back to the shrine and get out from the main door. We still have the key."
"We have to stay here for three days, helping Jinshui to walk again," Huang Yu said. "That woman is the envoy of the great master of Baiyu Shan. Her word was tantamount to an order. If we break it and get out of this place before the set time, then it would be against the rules here."
"We still have dry food, not much but at least in these three days we won't starve to death," Xu Qiao said.
"That woman took our map," Huang Lian reminded, "three days later if she doesn't return it, it's the same as we have to go out again through the tomb and have to go through the front road and meet dage and the people with him."
"I'm sure Jinshui Gege and Huang Erge have already memorized the map," Xu Qiao said in a half whisper to her, "don't forget they are Yumen descendants, and the guardians didn't pick them randomly."
"Who is that woman?" Lin Jixuan asked. "Does she come on behalf of the great master Baiyu Shan? Apparently, she's not too pleased with our arrival."
"This place is the territory of the great master of Baiyu Shan, and taiyang feng should be not far away." Huang Yu said, "Besides the great master, there should also be a number of disciples. They are waiting for us, but they also don't know us, naturally, they won't accept us easily. It's just that simple."
"Who is her name again?" Lin Jixuan asked curiously.
"She didn't tell us," replied Huang Lian.
"Jinshui, she was testing your energy, how do you think her ability is?" Li Qian asked Jinshui.
"Her energy was different from ours, and judging by her every move it seems like she doesn't master any special moves, but her inner energy is very strong," Jinshui replied, "only, this inner energy is not the inner energy to injure the opponent."
"Does her internal energy feel warm when it meets your wuqing xue energy, then it seems like they are about to unite?" Huang Yu asked.
"Yes," said Jinshui.
"She is a shengnu (sacred maiden), a girl who was specially trained since childhood by jiaozhu furen and groomed for the next generation of Yumen Leader," Huang Yu said. "The inner energy she trained is named yun xia shen gong (red cloud art), a kind of skill that focused on pure energy, can only be trained by female and must be trained since a young age."
"Shengnu?" the others asked. Yumen was a teaching, a cult, and it was normal for a cult to have a shengnu or a sacred maiden. It was just that the position of the shengnu for one certain sect was possibly different from the shengnu of another sect. They didn't know what Yumen had this position of shengnu for.
"Prepared for the next generation of Yumen Leader?" asked Xu Qiao, "you mean she is prepared for Jinshui Gege? She… she's Jinshui Gege's future wife?"
"Shengnu is not prepared to accompany the next generation of leader, only being prepared to help the new leader to attain the eighth level wuqing xue," Huang Yu said. "Chailang Master once told me about this, not much, and I also didn't know that in this generation there is still a shengnu."
Xu Qiao hid her blushing checks from Jinshui, just now she was worried. If there really was such a beautiful woman in Baiyu Shan already being groomed as Jinshui's future wife, then she didn't know how to deal with her.
"She's not Jinshui's future wife," Lin Jixuan teased her, "shaofuren no need to worry your position will be taken by someone else."
"The highest position in the Yumen is held by the main leader, below him are the two deputy chiefs," Huang Yu continued. "The other positions namely eight guardians, seven descendants, six division elders, five elemental leaders, and four hall masters respectively can be said to be the same level, no one had a higher or lower range of command. One more rank, namely the three sacred maidens, was a top-secret, all below the two deputy chiefs only knew that the three sacred maidens were special attendants for jiaozhu furen."
"She will be your special attendant," Lin Jixuan teased Xu Qiao again. "You will have to live in harmony with her."
"I will not become your new jiaozhu furen, don't need any special attendants," Xu Qiao replied in shyness.
"Jiaozhu, fujiaozhu, eight guardians, and everyone including the original seven descendants were killed thirteen years ago during the attack on our headquarters in Baiyu Shan and after," Li Qian said, "How come there is still a shengnu?"
"Our late jiaozhu had already eradicated the existence of shengnu within the Yumen, in fact there should no longer be anyone mastering yun xia shengong," replied Huang Yu, "but it could have been jiaozhu furen who had secretly maintained the tradition. In the attack on Baiyu Shan thirteen years ago, that woman just now was just a child. She could have been entrusted under the guidance of the great master of Baiyu Shan in taiyang feng"
"Why did the position of shengnu eradicate?" asked Huang Lian. "You said that shengnu was required to help the future leader to attain the highest level of your sect's manual."
"I don't know," said Huang Yu. "Even the guardians didn't know much about this position. I thought about it once, and I assume shengnu was part of why Yumen was called a demonic sect."
"How come you don't really know about your own sect?" asked Huang Lian.
"Jinshui Gege, you are the future Yumen Jiaozhu," Xu Qiao said to Jinshui, "do you think there will be a human sacrifice or any other kinds of demonic activity on your coronation day?"
"Just a wedding," Jinshui replied in a flat tone, "new jiaozhu has to marry a wife on his coronation day."
Xu Qiao was embarrassed to hear his answer. She hid her face behind Huang Lian's back and didn't ask any more questions. She couldn't tell if Jinshui told the truth but she didn't want to respond to it in front of everyone.
"We still have a shengnu because jiaozhu furen wants Jinshui to be able to train the eighth level of wuqing xue and restore the full glory of Yumen," said Li Qian.
"But why did we only meet one of the three sacred maidens? Or are there still two more of them in taiyang feng?" Lin Jixuan asked. "Jinshui, you are really lucky, all the way here, there is even a girl prepared for you. Then staying here for a bit until you can walk again and recover to normal won't hurt anyone."
"Eh, you talk a little less, can you?" Huang Lian nagged him. "What woman has been prepared for Hua Dage?"
"No matter what, Jinshui really needs to recover his legs quickly," Li Qian said. "We are only asked to stay here for three days, not three months or three years. We don't have much time, we have to use it wisely."
--
Jinshui sat on the floor of the cave, looked at the surrounding walls for a few moments, then scribbled something on the ground with the wooden cane Ma Yongtao had given him.
They couldn't tell apart the day and night in the underground cave, and there wasn't much for them to do either. Xiaoshan and Xiaohu tried several times to walk down the existing passageways, hoping to find wild animals or anything as their food. However, in that cave in the bowels of the mountain, there were no other living things, no plants or insects. Likewise, the air inside the cave was still fresh, meaning they didn't have to worry about running out of oxygen.
Li Qian watched the scribbles made by Jinshui on the cave floor, Huang Yu added a few lines. The scribbles were a map given by Liangtian Jian Shen which had been memorized by Jinshui for a long time.
Xiaoshan and Xiaohu noticed that the paths in the bowels of the mountain in the passages leading to the octagonal room were getting steeper and steeper, some of which were narrow passages with man-made steps.
"The stairs here can only be passed by one person at a time," Xiaohu said, "it's quite far up, and also can't stop halfway."
"And then there is also a bridge here," Xiaoshan pointed to another part of the map, "underneath there is a mountain pass which is wide and deep. We surely don't want to fall down there."
"Jinshui, your leg bones are perfectly connected, you can use it to walk, but you still need a walking cane for a while," Li Qian said, "you will still need time to fully recover, but for now it's enough. If needed, you can also your qinggong."
Li Qian, Huang Yu, and Lin Jixuan took turns helping Jinshui strengthen his legs using their inner energy. They were sure it was already the third day when they left that large cave room, passing through long passages within the mountain and climbing hundreds of steps. As mentioned by Xiaoshan, they finally arrived at a bridge.
The bridge was built over a wide and deep ravine. It was made of old wood that had been weathered after a long time, only the width of a human foot. There were no handrails on either side nor would the old logs be enough to support the weight of all of them even though each one had qinggong skill.
Lin Jixuan threw a pebble over to the side of the bridge, trying to find how deep the mountain pass was. But the pebble was soon swallowed up by the darkness, not a sound reaching the bottom of the abyss was heard.
"You two had not tried to cross this bridge?" he asked Xiaoshan and Xiaohu.
"This bridge looks fragile, I'm also not sure if all nine of us can pass it safely," Li Qian said.
"Is the exit of this place across the bridge there?" Huang Lian asked Jinshui.
"The octagonal room is across this bridge, not far, only going through two intersections, first take the right, then the left," Jinshui said confidently. "As long as we reach that place, it remains only to find the exit. It's just that, to unlock it maybe we have to solve some small puzzles."
"It should already be the third day now, that shengnu lady will definitely appear there soon too," Lin Jixuan said, "just wait for her to come, then there's no need to bother solving puzzles."
"Yu, you go first with Lin Guniang," Jinshui said to Huang Yu.
"Wait," Xu Qiao said, then held out her shawl weapon to Lin Jixuan. "Lin Gongzi, I'm sure this wooden bridge won't be difficult for you. When you get there, I'll hold out this shawl to you and it will at least be able to help some of us to cross. It will be less likely we will fall down there should the fragile bridge collapse."
Lin Jixuan understood what she meant, so he didn't need to ask. He preceded the others and took a leap through the bridge. He set his feet only three times on the old wood, then did one flip for showing off his own style before reaching the other side of the bridge.
The descendant of Xiezhang had relatively good mastery in qinggong. This way of crossing would at least reduce the pressure on the bridge's beams.
"Lian-er, my shawl is not enough, give me yours too," Xu Qiao said to Huang Lian. The two shawls were then tied together. Xu Qiao then asked Jinshui to throw one end at Lin Jixuan.
"I'll do it," said Huang Yu, then took the end of the shawl and flicked it the way he shot his chess piece as a secret weapon. The end of the shawl shot across, still barely hitting the cave wall before Lin Jixuan caught it.
"Qiao-er, you can't use your inner energy?" Jinshui asked, not knowing why Xu Qiao didn't toss the end of the shawl herself.
"Lin Jixuan has already shown off his qinggong skills, I'm sure the others will also want to show off a bit," Xu Qiao said. "Huang Erge, you may go now."
Li Qian took over the other end of the shawl and let Huang Yu carry Lin Xiaoyan on his back, crossing the bridge while holding onto the shawl. Huang Yu alone can use his qinggong, but he must bring his wife who was like a living doll, he knew he can't be careless.
Xu Qiao and Huang Lian took turns crossing, followed by Xiaoshan and Xiaohu, all of them reached the other side safely, but the condition of the bridge was not good, the sound of wood creaking was heard several times.
"Jinshui Gege, be careful," Xu Qiao called out to Jinshui as he started to stamp his walking cane on the bridge's beams.
The wooden bridge creaked loudly as Jinshui was in the middle, the shawls held by Lin Jixuan and Li Qian were still stronger than the old wood, and for a moment Jinshui held back, trying to calculate the possibility of jumping straight across there. There was still Li Qian behind him, the bridge still had to be able to hold one more person.
"Don't worry about me," Li Qian said, "I can jump there if I have to."
Jinshui continued walking again, holding on so the wooden bridge would not break. However, the wood was too old, and holding the weight of eight people one after another was not an easy job. The bridge was broken when Jinshui set foot on the other side, nearly too late and he almost fell into the earth's belly.
Li Qian was still left on the other side, only able to watch the rest of the bridge disappear into the darkness. Huang Lian screamed, but then he saw Li Qian wrapping the shawl around his body, at the same time Huang Yu also helped Lin Jixuan hold the other end, he knew they had a way, so he also held the shawl tightly.
Li Qian flipped once, used his internal energy to push himself up, and firmly planted his foot to jump across. Huang Yu and Lin Jixuan tugged at him, giving him more chances, and he arrived at the other side safely. Huang Lian immediately hugged him.
They found some more underground passageways. The road was still uphill, but it was not long until they find a closed door. It didn't seem like there was any riddle. Lin Jixuan tried to push the door, but the stone door didn't move an inch. Jinshui calmly felt around the side of the door, found a gap there, then pulled. The door opened.
They went inside and found another door not far away, Jinshui opened it in the same way and they entered another part of the underground cave chamber. It was the octagonal stone chamber drawn in the map Zhang Zheliang had given them.
The room was quite spacious. In the middle of the room, there was a stone table. The eight sides of the room were all stone walls, including the side they entered just now. The exit should be on the opposite side, but they didn't find a secret tool like the one Jinshui just encountered.
The round table in the middle of the octagonal room was not simply a dinner table. It contained puzzle that had never been encountered before. Jinshui and the others circled around the table, and noticing that on the table was some kind of secret tool that opened their way out of this place.
The surface of the table was composed of four layers of circles with different diameters, and each circle was divided into eight equal parts. There was a number at the center of all the circles and each end of each part, none of them was larger than thirty-three. The number in the center of the circle was the number nine. The four circles could be rotated around, obviously asking anyone who came in here to line up the numbers in the four circles until they found a set that matched.
"What kind of game is this?" Huang Lian was the laziest to deal with letters and numbers. She did not want to play any riddles. "Guessing and calculating?"
"I've never seen anything like it," Xu Qiao replied. Her father had taught her various kinds of riddles and calculations, but she didn't recognize the circle of numbers. "These circles have something to do with the way out of the octagonal room?"
"Chailang Master has told and taught me about various figures and knowledge in the world of martial arts, including about their places of residence, but never taught about riddles and calculations," Huang Yu said.
"The doors of the eight sides of this octagonal room might be controlled by this table and there is a secret behind every door, the secrets that many people are currently craving," said Jinshui. "We're not here to find the secret, we just need to get out alive."
"Did Zhang Laoqianbei tell you anything about this riddle and how to solve itu?" asked Lin Jixuan.
"There are four circles with eight sections each here, just as there are hundreds of possibilities we can put them in the right order," Huang Yu said. "But there should be one number that can be used as a benchmark. It seems, we have to arrange up to eight diameters that if added up the numbers will form the same number."
"What number?" Li Qian was intelligent, but couldn't think that far ahead. There were no clues at all at the tables. "Jinshui, did Zhang Laoqianbei give you any hints?"
"Nothing, but I don't think this puzzle is that difficult." Jinshui thought for a while, touching the biggest number there was, which was the number thirty-three. "The number of numbers in each circle is one hundred and forty-seven, minus the nine in the middle, then dividing by two, you get sixty-nine. Each radius of the circle, the four numbers without the center nine, should add up to sixty-nine."
"How do you know?" Huang Lian didn't understand at all.
Jinshui didn't answer her question, his was brain spinning violently. He worked out the outermost thirty-three, then nine, then three and twenty-four, for a total of sixty-nine.
As expected, one of the other doors in the octagonal room was open, but the door they had entered earlier closed and was immediately locked. The circles on the table were indeed the mechanical riddle to open the doors in that octagonal room.
"Jinshui, you did great," Lin Jixuan immediately exclaimed in praise. Jinshui didn't answer, he felt something was not right. This puzzle can't be that easy. Only one door was open, not necessarily the door was the exit.
They all didn't have time to go any further, from behind the door of the room that had just opened shot out dozens of secret weapons, which was clearly enough to startle them all. One scratched Xiaohu's arm and the other almost dug into Lin Xiaoyan's leg. Jinshui and the others still had time to hide behind the table, Jinshui even managed to catch one of the secret weapons.
"This is not Baiyu Shan's or Yumen Jiao's secret weapon," He did not recognize the secret weapon. "This room, could have existed since before the current master came here."
The rain of secret weapons didn't last long. They returned around the round table once they felt it was safe. Xu Qiao tried to check into the room where the secret weapons came out just now. Only an empty room was found, she also didn't find any secret tools inside, and the exit didn't seem to be this room. The puzzle wasn't finished yet.
"Look, only one row of numbers indicates the number sixty-nine," Li Qian pointed at the round table. It was true that there was only one arrangement of four numbers indicating the proper amount, the rest did not match, so not all of the eight doors of the octagonal room opened either. This puzzle seemed to still have another secret. They also needed to be more careful.
"It means we have to solve everything before we can find a way out," Lin Jixuan replied. "If we get something like just now, who knows what else will appear."
"We have no other option but to try it," said Jinshui. "Whichever door opens, we must avoid it first."
He continued twirling the circle of numbers on the table. His attention was especially focused on the largest number, thirty-three. When it joined the numbers fifteen, twenty-three, and seven, it makes seventy-eight, the nearly opposite numbers seem to form sixty-nine. Jinshui still had time to move the smallest number pad once before the secret weapon door just now closed and the door of another room opened.