He vividly remembered the chilling murderous aura that greeted him as he rushed out of Doctor Sun's room. Had he not been so anxious for Ban Lan, and hadn't been so exhausted and unable to see clearly, he wouldn't have been struck in the back of the neck and knocked unconscious.
“Ying Shu is the only person in Kongshan Ridge who obeys only Miss Wen. Even if it is Master Kongshan’s order, he will still have to consider Miss Wen’s opinion,” Rong Fu said.
"So, it was Moyin's instruction to send me here?" Cen Ji couldn't help but speculate.
Rong Fu nodded.
Cen Ji couldn't help but recall the time Wen Moyin had imprisoned him the other day. "Moyin... what is she planning to do now?"
Rong Fu said, "In my opinion, the young lady simply doesn't want anything to happen in the days leading up to the start of the Empty Mountain Festival."
Cen Ji became increasingly confused. "Isn't the Kongshan Festival the day when Kongshan Ridge worships the past Kongshan Lords?"
Rong Fu asked, "Anything else?"
"besides?"
"But you've forgotten the most important thing."
Cen Ji lowered his eyes and pondered, but Rong Fu yawned and said, "I'm sleepy, I'm going to sleep. Let's talk about it tomorrow."
After saying that, Rong Fu turned and walked towards the cave.
Cen Ji suddenly said, "I want to go out."
“No.” Rong Fu said as he walked away without turning around.
"Why?"
"Because you can't get out." The words still lingered when the person entered the stone chamber.
Cen Ji unconsciously clenched his fist. Ban Lan was still ill, and he had to leave this place no matter what.
He looked around, but it was pitch black. It was too late to see the terrain clearly, so he had no choice but to give up and think about finding a way out at dawn.
Cen Ji turned and went back to the stone chamber. Rong Fu had gone to sleep in one of the rooms, so he took an oil lamp and casually pushed open a bronze door.
Before even stepping inside, a pungent musty smell hits you.
Cen Ji frowned, thinking that even Rong Fu hadn't stepped into this house in a long time.
He stood at the door for a while before going inside.
This stone chamber is much larger than the one we just had. Inside, there are rows of wooden bookshelves, with countless books piled up haphazardly.
Cen Ji casually picked up a book and glanced at it—"The Heart Sutra of Clarity and Tranquility".
He put the books back somewhere in the distance and glanced at several of them; they were all about internal cultivation techniques. He figured this was where the secret manuals of various martial arts sects were stored. He wasn't particularly interested in them and was about to leave when he noticed several books spread out on a stone table in the corner.
He walked over, placed the oil lamp on the table, and casually flipped through one of the books by the dim light.
"In the seventh month of the Jia Chen year, Gu Shaoqing, the fourth secret guard, was skilled in light-footed kung fu and his methods were both righteous and evil."
The year Jia Chen? Cen Ji stretched out his fingers to calculate and found that it was more than fifty years ago.
He glanced down and saw that it contained detailed records about Gu Shaoqing, so he turned the page.
"In March of the following year, Xuan Ke, the fifth of the secret guards, was skilled in cultivating Luohua flowers and possessed many unique skills."
"Wasn't the Luo flower extinct long ago?" Cen Ji was startled. Legend has it that the Luo flower was the most poisonous flower in the world, with no antidote, but it was also extremely difficult to cultivate.
He flipped through a few more pages and saw that each page recorded the story of a secret guard from Kongshan Ridge. So he closed the book and looked at the cover, which only had the words "between Jia Chen and Ding Si" marked on it.
Cen Ji looked at the covers of several books and found one that only had the four characters "Xin Si Zhi Nian" (辛巳至至) on the cover. After the character "Zhi" (至), there was a blank space, presumably because it had not yet been filled in.
After a quick calculation, Cen Ji realized that the year Xin Si was less than twenty years ago, so he took the book and began to browse through it.
"At the beginning of the year of Xin Si, Rong Fu, the first secret guard, was the former leader of the Longmen Sect."
Cen Ji paused, turned the page, and saw that the top of the second page was marked: "March of the same year, Feng, Second Dark Guard, Lord of Phoenix City." Perhaps because this record had not been changed for many years, the change of the Second Dark Guard of Kongshan Ridge was not recorded in it.
He turned a few more pages, and there were the remaining nine secret guards of Kongshan Ridge, including himself.
It turns out that the secret guards of Kongshan Ridge over the years have all been recorded.
After a sigh, Cen Ji prepared to leave.
Suddenly, he stopped, moved the oil lamp closer, and looked at a line of words at the top of the page:
"In the tenth month of the Gengyin year, Ying Shu, the nine secret guards, was from no sect. He was exceptionally talented in martial arts and was particularly good at imitation."
secret
Author's note: Let me try posting with blank lines to see if the layout looks more comfortable.
Ahem~~~ Although this is a revelation, only two-thirds has been revealed, hehe~~~ Everyone, please wait patiently for the day of the Empty Mountain Festival~~~~~~ Hehehe
"It was him?"
Cen Ji felt a chill run down his spine. He continued reading, only to find that there were very few records about Ying Shu.
After pondering for a moment, Cen Ji picked up the oil lamp and went out of the house.
After closing the bronze door, he entered two or three more stone chambers, all of which were no different from the first one. Rows of bookshelves were piled high with various secret manuals and diagrams, exuding a musty smell of decay.
The lights were dim, seemingly more precarious than a candle flickering in the wind.
Cen Ji stood before the last bronze door.
He was somewhat puzzled, and at the same time, he was making guesses.
This was the last stone chamber, or rather, the last one he could find.
If it's the same as the previous rooms, just filled with books, then where is Rong Fu? He clearly saw Rong Fu walk into the cave, but he couldn't find him.
Cen Ji reached out his hand, but paused the instant his fingertips touched the bronze door.
The door was open, though not very obviously, but you could still see a crack about an inch wide.
Is Rong Fu inside?
In a flash of inspiration, Cen Ji pushed open the door.
The room was pitch black, yet there was no strange smell. Cen Ji quietly stepped in, raised the oil lamp high, and in the dim light, the neat furnishings inside emerged from the darkness.
This stone chamber is much smaller than the previous four, but it is clean and tidy, as if people often come here to stay.
Cen Ji couldn't help but guess that this house was Rong Fu's residence, but he did not find Rong Fu's figure.
He slowly walked a few steps into the house, then suddenly froze.
He looked up and saw a vast expanse of paintings, silently crowding his vision.
The idea of the sky being filled with paintings was merely a fleeting illusion, as countless paintings of all sizes were indeed pasted across an entire wall.
The person who pasted the pictures seemed to be extremely casual, arranging them haphazardly and without any sense of order.
The wall is covered with drawings that repeatedly depict the figure of one person.
It was a woman.
The woman's every move, every smile, appeared both near and far under the dim lights.
Cen Ji stepped forward and brought the oil lamp closer to the painting in front of him. The woman's face looked lifelike in the firelight, and Cen Ji was greatly surprised when he saw it.