Chapter 10: The Mysterious Scripture

Ye Xiaochuan stared in disbelief at Yun Qiyou, who had vanished into the sky, then slowly turned his head to look at the deep gash in the rock that Yun Qiyou had created with a single sword strike, his mouth agape.

Suddenly, a rock the size of a head rolled down to his feet from near the sword mark.

He came to his senses, jumped up, and began to curse, "Yun Qiyou! You dare to threaten me? Fortunately, you ran fast, and fortunately, I, Ye Xiaochuan, don't hit women, and fortunately, your cultivation is higher than mine, or I would have given you a good lesson to show you my skills!"

Unexpectedly, at that moment, a figure flew back from the direction where Yun Qiyou had disappeared earlier. Ye Xiaochuan was startled, thinking that Yun Qiyou had heard his curses and returned, and his legs trembled with fear.

Just as he was about to kneel and beg for mercy, he took a closer look and realized that the figure was not Yun Qiyou but the gurgling bird sent by the Discipline Hall to deliver his food.

"Stinking bird! You almost scared me to death!"

Once he recognized the gurgling bird, Ye Xiaochuan picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at the flying bird.

The gurgling bird nimbly avoided the flying rock, making gurgling sounds as if mocking Ye Xiaochuan.

The food today was not bad, although it was still steamed buns and pickled vegetables, it seemed that Sun Yao had opened his eyes, and the buns were no longer cold but still warm.

After finishing breakfast, the gurgling bird grabbed the food tray and flew back.

Ye Xiaochuan once again fell into a state of boredom and loneliness.

These past two days, although Yun Qiyou was unconscious, she was still a beautiful woman. He had squatted by her side, admiring her beauty and talking to himself, which was quite enjoyable.

Unexpectedly, Yun Qiyou recovered so quickly and woke up after just two days, leaving him alone again, feeling a deep sense of loneliness.

Then, his hoarse voice began to sing again.

"I am a tiny, tiny bird, flying, but unable to fly high. Searching, searching, I found a great treasure, which I will keep for myself and not share with anyone... Bang!"

Perhaps because Ye Xiaochuan's singing was too terrible, even the heavens couldn't bear it. As he sang, a small stone fell from the crack in the rock where Yun Qiyou had struck, landing right on the head of Ye Xiaochuan, who was showing off his voice.

Ye Xiaochuan, dazed and angry, jumped up and shouted, "Damn it, can't I even sing? I'll smash you all!"

He picked up a stone and fiercely threw it at the area near the sword mark.

Unexpectedly, with this throw, large chunks of rock began to fall.

Ye Xiaochuan was startled and quickly stepped back, exclaiming, "When did I become so strong? Could it be that I have unknowingly become a great master?"

The fallen rock wall was about a foot thick and five feet square, like a large stone slab that had fallen off.

A moment later, Ye Xiaochuan noticed something strange. On the inner layer of the fallen rock wall, there seemed to be writing!

Ye Xiaochuan's heart raced as he approached and examined the rock wall closely. He saw that it was densely inscribed with many ancient and weathered characters. These characters seemed to be cultivation techniques, all hidden inside the rock wall, with an outer layer of rock about a foot thick covering them.

If it weren't for Yun Qiyou's sword strike that scared Ye Xiaochuan, it might have taken thousands of years for anyone to discover the secret behind the rock wall on Siguai Cliff.

Ye Xiaochuan didn't know what the characters meant, but after a few glances at the exposed text, his heart began to race.

The text on the rock wall was indeed a cultivation scripture, and it was extremely profound, seemingly originating from the same source as the Yin-Yang Qiankun Dao he had been practicing, and it appeared to be even more profound and mysterious than the Yin-Yang Qiankun Dao.

Overjoyed, he reached out and smashed the already loose outer layer of the rock wall.

About an hour later, a new rock wall, seven feet high and over ten feet wide, appeared before Ye Xiaochuan.

The rock wall was densely inscribed with thousands of characters, with no preface. The first few larger characters read: "The way of heaven is to diminish what is excessive and to make up for what is insufficient. The way of man is to diminish what is insufficient and to serve what is excessive. This is called: man follows the earth, the earth follows heaven, heaven follows the Dao, and the Dao follows nature."

Ye Xiaochuan slowly raised his head, and his face became excited as he read the opening. He then looked at the subsequent text.

"Heaven and earth, all things, arise from existence, and existence arises from non-existence. Acting without effort, one can attain the way of heaven. The cultivation of the Dao depends on insight, and the foundation of life must be cultivated."

"Deeply immersed in one practice, until the six senses are used interchangeably, then the five aggregates will be exhausted, and the body of enlightenment will be restored, and the six will be dissolved, and the one will also be lost."

"The mind has no form, but it arises due to circumstances. If the six senses are not controlled, how can the mind be at peace..."

"A cultivator, moves like the wind, stands like a pine, sits like a bell, and lies like a bow..."

"All guidance is based on holding one's breath. All cultivation is based on cutting off desire. If one does not hold one's breath, the qi will not gather, and if one does not cut off desire, the essence will not remain..."

The entire text, consisting of thousands of characters, was almost entirely composed of profound and obscure language, difficult to understand. If a highly skilled cultivator like Yun Qiyou were to see this text, they might immediately understand some of it.

However, Ye Xiaochuan's cultivation was too low, and upon seeing these obscure characters, he felt dizzy and his ears rang.

But he was not stupid. With just one glance at the text inscribed on the rock wall, he realized that it was from the same source as the Yin-Yang Qiankun Dao he had been practicing day and night for over a decade.

It seemed that the true method of the Yin-Yang Qiankun Dao, which the Cangyun Sect had never revealed to outsiders for four thousand years, had evolved from the text before him, but the text was several times more profound than the Yin-Yang Qiankun Dao!

Ye Xiaochuan recalled a story from the Cangyun Sect. According to a legend passed down by the sect's ancestors, the first patriarch of the Cangyun Sect, Cangyunzi, was originally a poor scholar who had not passed the imperial exams even at the age of forty, feeling frustrated and unfulfilled. While traveling the world, he came to Cangyun Mountain and, by chance, obtained an ancient cultivation scripture on the back of Lunhui Peak.

Cangyunzi secluded himself for several decades and, from that cultivation scripture, comprehended the famous Yin-Yang Qiankun Dao, as well as several powerful sword techniques and other skills.

"Could it be that the first patriarch, Cangyunzi, comprehended the Yin-Yang Qiankun Dao from these words?"

The more Ye Xiaochuan thought about it, the more he felt that this possibility was very likely, and he couldn't help but become excited!

"I'm going to make it big! I'm going to make it big! I'm going to become a cool figure like the patriarch! Sun Yao! You're dead! I will definitely take revenge!"

Thinking of the achievements of the patriarch Cangyunzi, his pupils contracted, and then he began to dance and jump on the stone platform, looking extremely vulgar.

After celebrating for a while, he shifted his gaze back to the text on the rock wall and carefully read it again. He discovered that this cultivation scripture almost encompassed all the true methods of the Cangyun Sect, including many that had long been lost.

In addition, Ye Xiaochuan noticed something else.

At the end of the text, there was a small indentation in the rock wall, about the size of an adult's hand.

Inside the indentation, a sword hilt was quietly placed.

Yes, just a sword hilt, without a blade, a simple and ancient-looking sword hilt.