“Hmm…… Hmm……”
Outside the mountain cave.
The waiting crowd heard the rumbling sound coming from the cave and their expressions all changed.
Although they didn’t know the specific situation inside, since such a commotion had appeared, it was likely not a good omen.
Moreover, since the sound appeared, the long rope on the ground had stopped moving.
“Master……”
Zhang San approached Wei Changtian, about to speak, but was directly cut off by the latter’s waving hand.
“Wait a bit longer.”
“Yes……”
Looking at Wei Changtian’s somewhat gloomy face, Zhang San didn’t say anything else and immediately retreated to the side, remaining silent.
The others were also exchanging glances, equally afraid to speak a word.
The bright moon rose above the mountain forest, casting a silver-white glow around, making the entire forest quiet and still, as if in a deep sleep.
Failed?
Did Ning Yukuo really choose the wrong door among the four lives and one death?
Wei Changtian furrowed his brows, gazing at the cave entrance, unsure of what to think.
He was indeed in a bad mood, but it wasn’t because he didn’t get the Wan Blade and Star Sword Sheath, but rather……
It was strange; why did he feel guilty?
This was just a transaction, and he hadn’t deceived Ning Yukuo.
Moreover, even if she didn’t die today, she would eventually be killed by Ning Yongnian……
Wei Changtian kept finding excuses to dispel the guilt in his heart.
But no matter how he consoled himself, he couldn’t really make himself feel like nothing had happened.
After all, no matter what, Ning Yukuo had entered the mountain cave for him……
Unknowingly, they had stood there for a long time, and the rumbling sound from the cave had long stopped.
“Zhang San……”
Wei Changtian shook his head, about to let someone pull out Ning Yukuo’s possibly incomplete corpse, but his gaze suddenly froze.
He suddenly turned to look at the ground, only to see that the long rope that had been still for a long time had slowly retracted a few inches into the cave.
……
……
In reality, it proved that Ning Yukuo wasn’t that unlucky after all.
The Gen position was a life door, and she had chosen correctly.
“Master!”
As soon as she emerged from the cave, Ning Yukuo’s first glance fell upon Wei Changtian.
She didn’t even bother to untie the hemp rope around her waist, immediately rushing towards him as if she had a thousand words to tell him.
However, when she finally stood before Wei Changtian, she suddenly didn’t know where to begin, hesitating for half a day before simply holding out the items in her hand and speaking softly:
“Master, these are the things I obtained inside…”
A ancient jade block the size of a palm, a black-colored scabbard with several silver-white bright spots embedded in it.
No mistake, it was indeed the Wan Blade Token and the Starry Night Scabbard.
She had earned 2,000 system points and even snatched away a major opportunity from Xiao Feng.
Wei Changtian took the two items, but his heart didn’t feel the expected joy.
He looked up at Ning Yukuo, whose hair was a bit disheveled, and asked lightly:
“Were you injured?”
“No, I wasn’t.”
“Then what’s going on?” Wei Changtian pointed to Ning Yukuo’s disheveled hair and the several tears on her clothes.
“Th-this…”
Ning Yukuo lowered her head, looking embarrassed: “I was in a hurry to get out and accidentally fell…”
At this moment, she looked a bit like a misbehaving child, while Wei Changtian’s expression remained serious as he thanked her.
“Thank you.”
“Master…”
A soft whisper echoed in his ear.
Ning Yukuo looked up at Wei Changtian, her smile very happy, as if she was delighted to have been able to help the man in front of her.
“Master, would you like to… listen to what I encountered in the cave?”
“……”
Rationally speaking, since they had already obtained the items, the correct course of action would be to send Ning Yukuo back to the palace immediately. However…
Wei Changtian remained silent for a moment before smiling and nodding.
“Okay, I’d like to hear it too.”
……
An hour later.
“……Master, that’s about it.”
Sitting shoulder to shoulder on a bluestone nearby, Wei Changtian and Ning Yukuo were alone, with the others keeping a considerable distance away.
Ning Yukuo had already recounted her entire experience in the cave, which was basically the same as the original story.
“Princess…”
Wei Changtian looked up at the dark cloud covering half of the moon in the night sky and asked with a smile: “Can I ask why you went to pull out the sword at the Gen position?”
“Th-this…”
Ning Yukuo’s face turned slightly red: “I told you not to laugh at me, Master.”
“I won’t laugh, go ahead.”
“Umm… it’s because of my name.”
Ning Yukuo explained softly: “My name contains the character ‘yu’, which comes from the mountain…”
“So you chose the Gen position, which represents the mountain?” Wei Changtian couldn’t help but laugh.
“M-master, you said you wouldn’t laugh at me…”
Ning Yukuo grew even more embarrassed, muttering to herself: “Life and death are predetermined, wealth and honor are in heaven’s hands; perhaps this is fate?”
“It’s indeed.”
Wei Changtian’s non-committal nod was met with Ning Yuqiao’s next sentence, which was a casual, unintentional sigh that left him stunned, as if electrocuted.
From noble mtl dot come
“I don’t know who said this…”
I don’t know… who said this…
It was as if a cold case had been cracked open by a tiny, insignificant clue, and Wei Changtian suddenly realized something due to this sentence.
Something he had never paid attention to, never considered important, but now greatly influenced his understanding of this world.
“Life and death are predetermined, wealth and honor are in Heaven’s hands.”
This phrase was extremely familiar to Wei Changtian, and he even knew it came from the Analects.
But why was it engraved in the ancient sword cultivator’s cave in this world?
……
Where was the problem?
This was the first time Wei Changtian seriously thought about the relationship between the novel “Wu Dao Peak” and this world.
The original novel did describe the five paths in the cave, but the author didn’t explain why these words from ancient sages appeared in a cultivation world.
From the author’s perspective, this wasn’t a problem, as it was a fictional world, and the setting could be adjusted as needed, without worrying about logical coherence.
From the reader’s perspective, this wasn’t a problem either, as it was just a novel, and as long as it was exciting, that was enough.
But from Wei Changtian’s perspective, as a transmigrator, this was a huge problem!
If this world’s setting was highly consistent with the novel’s, then all the irrational parts in the book must have a reasonable explanation.
“Princess… have you heard of Xunzi?”
“Xunzi? No.”
“Confucius?”
“No…”
“Wang Yangming?”
“No…”
“Princess, you’ve never heard of the five phrases in the cave?”
“……”
Ning Yuqiao shook her head for the fourth time, and Wei Changtian took a deep breath, finally confirming something.
Since these phrases weren’t said by the natives of this world, the only reasonable explanation was that—
he wasn’t the only transmigrator.
At the very least, the owner of this cave was the same as him, also from Earth, with its five-thousand-year-old glorious civilization of the Chinese mainland!
“Prince…”
Ning Yuqiao, who was beside him, tugged at Wei Changtian’s sleeve with some concern: “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing…”
Wei Changtian shook his head, about to find an excuse to brush it off, when Zhang San rushed over with an urgent expression.
He was very serious, only nodding at Ning Yuqiao before leaning in to whisper in Wei Changtian’s ear:
“Prince, something’s happened at the Wang Fu.”