“Princess, after entering the cave, you’ll encounter five forks in the road. The leftmost path is the path of life, and the rest are paths of death.”
“Following the path of life, you’ll reach an ancient cave, where you’ll find an eight trigram array. There are eight gates, each with a long sword planted on top…”
“The eight long swords represent four life gates and four death gates. If you pull out the correct sword, you’ll obtain a treasure, but if you make a mistake, you’ll trigger a mechanism that will pierce your heart with countless arrows.”
“Among them, Qian, Li, and Xun are death gates, leaving one more death gate… the young master didn’t say…”
The night was as dark as ink, and the forest was silent, with only the rustling sound of leaves and Zhang San’s calm voice.
Ning Yu Ke gazed at the dark cave entrance, which seemed to devour everything, and softly confirmed:
“So, among the five trigrams of Kun, Zhen, Kan, Gen, and Dui, if I don’t choose the only death gate, I’ll be fine?”
“That’s right.”
Zhang San nodded: “If the princess chooses correctly, she should be able to see the treasure the young master wants, and can bring it out directly.”
“Okay, I understand…”
Ning Yu Ke smiled, took the night pearl from Zhang San, and tied a long rope around her waist. She stepped up to the cave entrance.
The night pearl was for lighting, but the rope wasn’t for rescuing her; it was for pulling out her corpse if she died inside the cave.
The pale moonlight filtered through the tree leaves, casting a faint glow on everyone. Compared to the somewhat tense members of the sect, Ning Yu Ke’s face showed no signs of retreat.
She had already mentally prepared herself for a one-way journey, so she wasn’t afraid, just slightly regretful about one thing—
Wei Gongzi really didn’t come.
She shook her head lightly and slowly stepped into the cave.
The light from the night pearl grew weaker and eventually disappeared from everyone’s sight.
Just as she entered, Wei Chang Tian emerged from the darkness of the forest, his expression calm.
“Young Master.”
Zhang San approached him, lowering his voice to report: “The people from the Wang Fu haven’t noticed yet, and our people are being very cautious, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”
“Okay.”
Wei Chang Tian gave a calm command: “Send a few more people to keep an eye on the Wang Fu’s movements. If they discover Ning Yu Ke is missing, they’ll definitely take action. Inform me immediately when that happens.”
“Understood.”
Zhang San nodded and went to arrange this, while Wei Chang Tian gazed at the rope extending from the cave entrance, which kept swaying slightly, and let out a soft sigh in his heart.
If possible, he didn’t want Ning Yu Ke to die in the cave.
But unfortunately, he really couldn’t remember which trigrams were the life gates in the eight trigram array.
According to the original story, Xiao Feng had pulled out four swords incorrectly in the eight trigram array, but he had managed to survive the numerous mechanisms and obtained the “Wan Jian Ying” and “Xing Chen Dao Jia”.
Ning Yu Ke certainly didn’t have the ability to trigger the mechanisms and still come out alive, so she had to choose the life gate.
However, although Wei Chang Tian had read the original story multiple times, this detail was really hard to remember.
From noble mtl dot come
Just excluding the three incorrect answers “Qian, Li, and Xun” had already exhausted his brain, and he couldn’t remember which trigram was the remaining death gate.
Alas, it was up to Ning Yu Ke’s luck now……
Inside the cave.
This mountain cave was much larger than Ning Yu Ke had imagined.
Although the entrance was only half a person’s height, it suddenly became very spacious after entering, and the floor was not made of crushed stones and mud, but rather tightly fitted stone slabs.
However, the stone slabs were covered with the white bones of various animals that had died, which was quite frightening.
Was this the ancient cave dwelling? Why were there so many animal carcasses here?
What exactly did Wei Gongzi want?
It was natural to be afraid, but Ning Yu Ke could only distract herself by thinking wildly and quickening her pace as she continued to walk deeper into the cave.
The path grew wider, and the white bones became fewer.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, she finally stopped for the first time, and the night pearl illuminated the five forks in the road ahead.
The five paths, except for leading to different directions, were almost identical. Ning Yu Ke remembered what Zhang San had said and prepared to take the leftmost path, the only “living path”.
But just then, she discovered a line of small characters engraved on the stone slab under her feet.
“Heaven and earth unite to give birth to all things, yin and yang intersect to initiate change.”
This phrase…
Ning Yu Ke was taken aback and began to subconsciously ponder its meaning.
She was somewhat unclear, feeling that the phrase was reasonable yet unreasonable.
After a while, Ning Yu Ke hesitated slightly and stepped forward to the second path.
Indeed, the ground had another phrase engraved on it—
“When the world changes, things change; when things change, preparations must be made.”
The third path also had—
“All things are one with me.”
The fourth—
“When the eyes are open, the flowers bloom; when the eyes are closed, the flowers wither.”
The last one—
“Life and death are predetermined, wealth and honor are in heaven.”
There were five paths, each with a phrase that conveyed different meanings.
If Ning Yu Ke were to choose, she would probably take the last path, which was from the Analects and represented the objective idealism of “life and death are predetermined, wealth and honor are in heaven”.
But if it were Wei Chang Tian, even without knowing the answer in advance, he would likely choose the leftmost “living path” without hesitation.
The reason was simple, because this phrase was closest to the “objective materialism” values he had established through modern education.
“Tap, tap, tap…”
The soft sound of footsteps echoed again, and Ning Yu Ke returned to the leftmost fork without making her own decision, taking a step forward.
There was no anomaly, indicating that this path was indeed the only “living path”.
The surroundings were silent, and the stone walls were as smooth as a mirror.
Holding the night pearl, Ning Yu Ke continued forward along the narrow path for about the time it took to burn an incense stick. When she stopped for the second time, a massive stone cave with a length and width of several dozen meters suddenly appeared before her eyes.
The stone cave was shaped like an over-turned bowl, with the entire stone wall and floor being a grayish-blue color, smooth and glossy, without a single speck of dust or stain, giving off a sense of being made of jade.
And in the center of the stone cave was the Eight Trigrams Array that Zhang San had mentioned.
Qian, Kan, Gen, Xun, Li, Zhen, Kan, and Dui.
Each of the eight trigrams had a wooden sword inserted, with identical shapes and designs, differing only in their positions.
The previous fork had five phrases as warnings, but now…
Ning Yu Ke took a deep breath, placed the night pearl on the ground, and walked around the Eight Trigrams Array, recalling Zhang San’s words.
Qian, Li, and Xun were the doors of death, while the remaining five doors were four life and one death.
Qian, Zhen, Kan, Gen, Dui, in the Eight Trigrams, represent earth, thunder, water, mountain, and lake……
Four lives, one death……
In other words, even if you randomly choose, there’s only a 20% chance of choosing the death door……
Ning Yukuo didn’t think for too long, or rather, it seemed like she didn’t think at all.
She simply scanned the array, then stopped at the Gen position representing “mountain”, and immediately grasped the sword hilt, exerting force to pull it out.
“Ka-ching…… Whoa!!”
The sound of the mechanism operating suddenly grew loud, instantly resonating throughout the stone cave.