Chapter 246: Passage
Flipping to the back of that yellow silk, there were some fragmented phrases, such as ‘One close one open, one come one go, proceeding through one seven, two seven, naturally the fire of the two kidneys gradually steams, the dantian qi warms. Breath need not be adjusted but adjusts itself, qi need not be refined but refines itself.’, ‘Mysterious pass fire ignites, the obscure and dark rushes awake, one spirit alone aware; one spirit arises from the rules; wisdom born in stillness, one intent rotates; in the faint, heart light appears. Cultivating the heart is preserving the heart.’ and the like.
Ordinary people would naturally be baffled upon seeing it, but for Lu Yun and Su Yingxiu, it was like acquiring a treasure!
These were cultivation insights and martial arts path realizations that Kou Xianzhi jotted down casually in his final years, every sentence the lifelong essence of this grandmaster who was renowned alongside Zhang Xuanyi!
If this piece of yellow silk were to spread out, it would surely stir up a storm of blood and gore under heaven, even transcendent grandmasters would rack their brains to seize it!
But at this moment, Lu Yun and Su Yingxiu only felt ‘Hearing the Dao in the morning, one could die content in the evening’, without any desire to seize and monopolize it.
Lu Yun had thought Su Yingxiu would strike at him, but she just stared fixedly at that yellow silk, looking dazed and lost, probably killing her right now would be as easy as pie.
But since Su Yingxiu did not make a move, Lu Yun would not strike first. It was not that he was bewitched by her beauty; in fact, for someone like him with prosopagnosia, whether the other was beautiful or ugly made no difference, at least in his eyes.
The reason he felt no killing intent toward Su Yingxiu was first, the two had shared hardships these past few days and built some rapport. Second, Kou Xianzhi’s desperate letter had greatly touched him: the majestic Taiping Dao sect leader, who dared to vie with the heavens, was trapped in the belly of Mount Mang and died in despair—what hope did a young whippersnapper like himself have of seeing the light of day again.
Since they could not get out anyway, what was there left to fight over?
The cave was pitch black without daylight, only the sound of flowing water crashing against the rock walls, the rumbling echoing endlessly in their ears.
Silent for a long while, Su Yingxiu finally composed her emotions and gave Lu Yun a miserable smile. “If we can get out, I must kill you.”
Lu Yun looked at this unpredictable girl and vaguely felt that this was her true emotions showing. He too rarely smiled faintly: “If we can get out, I will also kill you.”
“Right, such a huge secret must be enjoyed alone.” Su Yingxiu nodded deeply in agreement, then rallied her spirits and smiled radiantly at Lu Yun: “But the premise is, we have to get out first.”
“Right,” Lu Yun nodded, looking at Su Yingxiu: “At least before we can get out, we should maintain peace.”
“Do we still have hope of getting out?” Su Yingxiu lowered her head dejectedly and actually sobbed helplessly. At this moment, Lu Yun seemed to understand her feelings: Su Yingxiu was not crying because there was no way to escape, but collapsing because the idol in her heart had toppled…
“There will be, there definitely will be.” Lu Yun had been full of despair, but seeing Su Yingxiu like this, he instead rallied again, looking determined as he encouraged her: “How could Heaven create disasters like us and let us die here quietly without accomplishing anything?!”
“Pfft…” Su Yingxiu was amused by Lu Yun into breaking into laughter through her tears. “Who talks about themselves like that? I’m a Taiping Dao demoness, so calling me a disaster is fine, but you are a direct lineage disciple of the Lu Clan, a pillar of the state who will become general in the field and prime minister in court in the future—how can you call yourself a disaster?”
“Heh heh…” Lu Yun subconsciously felt a secret warning, having been a bit too careless, but in this situation, he did not care about those precepts at all and just wanted to speak his true feelings frankly. “Pillar of the state? More like a scourge of the state!”
“True enough, the greatest scourge of the Great Xuan Dynasty nowadays is you noble clans and powerful families.” Su Yingxiu misunderstood and laughed: “Calling you state scourges is not overstatement at all.”
“Enough, no more of that.” Seeing her misunderstand, Lu Yun did not want to explain further and looked at that yellow silk: “Kou Xianzhi said he dug a tunnel from the Founding Emperor’s imperial tomb to escape here. We might as well look for that cave entrance.”
“Don’t be rude to my ancestor master.” Su Yingxiu gave him a glare and said: “Husband won’t call him ancestor master with me, at least address him respectfully as Kou True Person!”
“Here we go again…” Lu Yun rolled his eyes and sneered with a hint of mischief: “According to Kou True Person’s suicide note, your master betrayed him—which side are you going to take?”
“…” Su Yingxiu’s expression indeed darkened, and she said quietly: “What’s the point of talking about that now? Let’s look for the cave entrance!”
Lu Yun regretted his words immediately after saying them—purely his mouth running away—but facing the sharp-tongued Su Yingxiu, he could not help wanting to take her down a peg. Seeing her dejected, Lu Yun felt a twinge of guilt, said no more, and searched with her for the cave entrance Kou Xianzhi had mentioned.
The two searched for a moment and found nothing, so they both turned their gazes to the water. “Is it underwater?” Lu Yun asked, making conversation.
“Hmph.” Su Yingxiu gave him a glare but magnanimously smiled in the end. “Possible that ancestor master came here along the underground water like us, so that tributary must merge into this main stream.”
“I’ll go check.” After saying so, Lu Yun volunteered and jumped into the water pool. Soon, his head reemerged, and he said to Su Yingxiu: “There really is a cave! And not just one.”
“…” Su Yingxiu was clearly distracted. After a while, she nodded: “Probably one going down, one going up. The downward one is the escape route ancestor master dug, and the upward cave entrance leads to the imperial tomb.”
“Well said.” Lu Yun wiped the water droplets from his face and smiled at Su Yingxiu: “Shall we explore together?”
“Of course!” Su Yingxiu noticed the subtle change in Lu Yun’s attitude and smiled sweetly: “Your wife will follow her husband!” With that, she leaped gracefully and landed beside Lu Yun: “Husband, let’s set off!”
Lu Yun rolled his eyes but did not scold Su Yingxiu. He had grown accustomed to this demoness’s shamelessness, and deep down, Lu Yun actually preferred seeing her like this rather than her earlier dazed and lost state.
.
The two dove underwater and, following Lu Yun’s indication, Su Yingxiu saw that upward cave entrance. No longer waiting for him to lead, she swam in like a mermaid, entering first.
Lu Yun followed closely. Just as he was about to accelerate, Su Yingxiu suddenly stopped ahead, and Lu Yun nearly crashed into her, feeling annoyed and wondering what she was up to this time. But in the next instant, he understood, because he had already surfaced…
This passage opened by Kou Xianzhi was about a foot square, but only a trickling stream ran through the bottom, merging into the main stream; the rest of the space was empty, enough for him and Su Yingxiu to pass freely.
The two crawled upward quickly along the passage hand over hand, and after time for a meal, they saw the light at the end.
While climbing, Lu Yun secretly marveled: Kou Xianzhi was indeed the legendarily closest to the Heavenly Dao, able to go without food or drink and single-handedly dig such a long passage!
If Heavenly Rank Grandmasters were monsters, then people like Kou Xianzhi and Zhang Xuanyi were monsters among monsters—unclear if Sun Yuanlang had reached that level.
Amid his random thoughts, the two successively leaped out of the passage and were immediately stunned by the scene before them.
