108 Maidens of Destiny

Su Xing had been at the Four Styles School for not more than ten days. He did not understand much about the Qiankun Tomb, but he nevertheless knew the sole restricted area of the Four Styles School was this place. Buried here were the successive generations of the Four Styles School's headmasters and elders. Again, owing to the fact that the Four Styles School was a tool refinement Great School, the mausoleum was bound to have refined many mechanisms. Reportedly, only the headmaster could know the maze while the average person would enter inevitable death.

To Wu Xinjie, however, this tomb could only count as something to prove herself. In addition, there was another very important reason why the Knowledge Star chose the Qiankun Tomb, and that concerned a legend of the Four Styles School's founding master, the Daoist Master Qiankun – this Qiankun Tomb reportedly was established in the old days when the Daoist Master Qiankun used his power and died sitting up. Afterwards, the later generations of headmasters and elders would enter this tomb at the time of their death. Every cultivator that entered this tomb would use their powers inside to lay down a mechanism. Therefore, this tomb snowballed into something increasingly large, increasingly complex.

But what was slightly strange was that, from the very beginning, the tomb of the Daoist Master Qiankun could not be found in the Qiankun Tomb; the legends about him were many. With abilities as powerful as his, the mausoleum mechanisms would be countless, that other people simply could not find it. Furthermore, before the Daoist Master Qiankun died sitting, he suddenly obtained the Immortal Fruit and ascended to Immortal Status. Or perhaps he went free and unfettered. In a word, there were all kinds of fantastic theories.

"You want to find the Daoist Master Qiankun's grave?" Su Xing asked, surprised.

"This way can let Young Lord be at ease, right?" Wu Xinjie was fully self-confident.

An Suwen, on the contrary, was somewhat anxious: "But is it not unfindable? Maybe there really isn’t one?"

"No. There definitely is one. He merely used some kind of ingenious mechanism to hide it." Wu Xinjie giggled. The reason why she was this certain was because the Four Styles School's sect protecting treasure Four Styles Qiankun Sword. Originally, the Daoist Master Qiankun exactly used this Divine Sword that made him famous to cut out his own grave, so there was no way it was not here.

"Let's go in and take a look." Su Xing knew he was unable to persuade Wu Xinjie.

"Young Lord, just for this time, please do not act." Wu Xinjie smiled.

Su Xing nodded.

Standing before the tomb and gazing past the plaza, they saw the towering door was simple and unadorned, a long and expansive Divine Path trailing from the south to the north in a straight direction. The stone persons and beasts on each end were formidable and solemn.

Shi Yuan loathed tombs and such because the Yin Qi inside was too heavy, nourishing too many ghosts and Yin Beasts. And something like the Four Styles Great School's Qiankun Tomb perhaps was even more complex. However, she and Wu Xinjie thought the same, and they also wanted to help Su Xing settle a burden. Despite the worry on their faces, they were still determined. When Su Xing saw this, he could not help but smile.

Entering the Qiankun Tomb's interior, the inside was continuously alight with Longevity Lanterns. It seemed that not only was the inside not black, it was contrarily relatively brightly lit; these Longevity Palace Lanterns were without odor or flicker. Reportedly, if a particular type of Demon Beast's oil was taken from the ten thousand li of seabed, it could burn for a thousand years without going out. For this reason, it was called the "Thousand Year Lamp,"¹ and it could be seen how imposing the Four Styles School previously was.

The interior's first and foremost was a wide main hall. The main hall's floor had an Bagua² drawing, with eight channels each with eight sliding doors. The doors' structures had nothing in common with each other. Some had engraved railings and painted ridgepoles with golden jade embellishments; some had vermilion vermilion red Liang Wood, which emitted a delicate fragrance. Some had penetrating white jade and some even were ordinary. It was unknown whether the successive generations of cultivators that entered this tomb all were fond of high-ranking decorations or something.

The tomb's walled-in path was extremely deep. How many ancestors are buried here, Su Xing thought of this offense. He watched for how Wu Xinjie would go seek out the Daoist Master Qiankun's grave. If she searched alone, perhaps she would not even find daybreak.

The Knowledge Star's brow wrinkled. She took out an ancient book, flipped through some pages and then spun several circles in the hall.

Everyone idly sat to the side with nothing to do. Su Xing was surreptitiously paying close attention, feeling the Bagua diagram below their feet should have some sort of hint. However, searching for this after a long while made him somewhat dizzy. He really was not good at this type of classical riddle situation.

"Sister Xinjie, why are we staying here. Aren't we going in to look? From what I see, this pathway lined with jade is pretty good." Shi Yuan looked left and right. Her attention had been attracted by a tunnel completely lined with jade.

"That over there is useless. It does not have the Daoist Master Qiankun's grave, for his tomb's concealment should be even more clever." Wu Xinjie said.

"But staying here is also useless." Shi Yuan said.

The Knowledge Star smiled but did not speak.

Approximately an oil lamp later, after the Knowledge Star inspected the eight tunnels, she finally nodded. Honestly speaking, Su Xing also could not make out what the trick was. The only thing he could discern was that the hall's Bagua diagram and the eight tunnels were somewhat related. It was just that he was not too clear on what the significance was of this type of concealed relationship.

Just as he thought this, Wu Xinjie said: "This tomb concealment is indeed ingenious."

"Young Lord, I have inspected it." Wu Xinjie turned her head and winked.

Su Xing smiled, actually quite looking forward to what discoveries she made.

He saw Wu Xinjie stand on the Bagua drawing. She meditated briefly, then twirled her hands in the orchid seals. The relief sculpture on the Bagua drawing immediately came alive with changes. Some level and even places gave rise to recesses while some recesses were then filled in. Su Xing vaguely saw a bit of a clue but was still somewhat unclear. After all, this thing that was the Bagua was not something he had a deep understanding of.

An Suwen, on the other hand, cried out in surprise: "So it turned out to be this. Elder Sister Knowledge Star truly has discerning eyes."

Everyone asked her what had happened?

Just as An Suwen was about to respond, Wu Xinjie said: "Young Lord, Little Sisters, come enter quickly."

The group then walked onto the Yin-Yang diagram. After Wu Xinjie changed the final trigram, an inconceivable thing happened. When the Yin-Yang symbol in the center of the Bagua changed, it moved left and right, and the entire Yin-Yang symbol immediately caved inward.

"How did you figure this mechanism out?" Su Xing asked in admiration. "What profound theory does that Bagua have?"

"En. That Bagua seems ordinary at first glance, but its positions are actually incorrectly arranged." Wu Xinjie explained.

As it turned out, when they first entered the main hall, Wu Xinjie saw the profound theory of the Bagua picture. As a result, in order to solve the concealed contents did they stop over at the hall. Brute force did not trump those that used their heads, and this actually let her discover a place that stood out from the rest.

"Stood out from the rest?"

Everyone was startled because they completely were unable to make out anything that stood out.

"The eight doors used different materials in their construction, but each type of material actually represents one type of the Eight Trigrams' properties. For example, the splendid Gold Jade's representative "Gold" wood category is for Qian and Dui.³ Liang Wood naturally represents wood (Zhen and Xun).⁴ What lacked any decorations was Earth (Kun and Gen).⁵ As far as water and fire, that was harder to guess. Water's aspect was a white jade carving of a type of water flower, and the fire door had an extra Longevity Lamp…" These seemingly were insignificant, but in the Knowledge Star's eyes, they immediately turned into a complete Bagua Diagram.

But this still did not count as anything. Even more awesome was that Wu Xinjie noticed the main arrangement of the Bagua on the main hall's floor. If the the Bagua Doors were looked at from the arrangement of the Bagua, that main hall clearly did not adhere to the rules; this was the abnormality.

As far as Wu Xinjie was concerned, this was the mechanism.

What came after was very simple. She only needed to change the hall's Bagua to that arrangement of the Bagua Doors, but she did not expect this mechanism would actually open.

After hearing Wu Xinjie's explanation, everyone truly prostrated themselves in admiration.

Without first mentioning the level of genius in the arrangement of this Bagua mechanism, the Bagua diagram on the hall's floor were very familiar. Without outstanding insight, how could anyone spot whatever was incorrect.

Only Wu Xinjie could achieve this without difficulty.

"No wonder those cultivators couldn't find it. If anyone arranged for their tomb to be beneath the mausoleum, who could think of that." Su Xing sighed.

The girls deeply believed this was so.

If it was not for the Knowledge Star's exceeding insight and scholarship, the Four Styles School would have difficulty thinking of this even if given a thousand years.

"Is there really another tomb down below?" Shi Yuan was anxious.

"Be careful." Su Xing said, holding her hand to comfort the Thief Star.

Very quickly, they fell to the bottom, and sure enough, there was a completely different world below. When Su Xing and the rest stepped off the Yin Yang picture, it slowly rose and sealed the exit.

The underground cavern was dim beyond compare.

Su Xing lit a Daoist Light Talisman.

The Light Talisman shone.

Dengdengdeng.⁶

They saw a more than hundred square meter hall. The Longevity Lanterns long ago had went out, but the surrounding walls' brilliance clearly were meticulously filled in by people. There was a large door, "This Young Lady will go see if there are any mechanisms." Shi Yuan jumped down. Having received Su Xing's encouragement, she had a lot of courage. The Thief Star's body techniques hid, and she secretly entered the air.

"Ah!!!"

In an instant, they head Shi Yuan shriek.

Su Xing's heart tightened, and he immediately rushed over. How could he expect Shi Yuan would right away run out from that door, all of a sudden throwing herself into Su Xing's chest.

"Yuan'er, what is the matter?" Wu Xinjie said.

Rustling.

They saw a dark red centipede ten times the normal size climb out. With sharp sawteeth, a meter in length, that hundred feet of pitch-black and complete red was exceedingly terrifying.

"Ah, it's a Hundred Corpse Centipede!!"⁷

Wu Xinjie shouted.

Su Xing had not yet figured out what the Hundred Corpse Centipede was that it deserved Wu Xinjie's fear when in the next second, that Hundred Corpse Centipede promptly displayed its terrifying side.

The Hundred Corpse Centipede's hundred feet trembled, and thousands upon hundreds of small centipedes the length of fingers shot out like rain.

The Hundred Corpse Centipede was categorized as a type of Ancient Demon Insect. It lived beneath the ground, feeding on rocks and earth, using Yin Qi as nutrition. It could easily breach any cave, and its body reportedly had millions of larvae. With a tremble of its hundred feet, it got its name from the seeming torrential downpour. In the event these centipedes made contact, they would immediately drill into a person's skin and eat them clean. In addition, this Hundred Corpse Centipede had been nourished by Yin Qi. Its attacks were specialized nasty artifacts and cultivation methods; usual methods would have difficulty protecting against these.

Also, owing to the fact they were underground, their attacks would be even more frightening.

However, with regards to Su Xing, these were not things to be scared of at all. His hand shook, about to use the Blooming Water Divine Thunder to cleanly smite them.

"Big Brother, allow Little Sister." An Suwen abruptly said.

Lin Yingmei, Yan Yizhen and the rest halted their attacks.

They saw An Suwen beckon with her finger, and more than sixty jade lights flashed. They rolled in their surroundings, forming an Essence Qi defense. Those small centipedes of the Hundred Corpse Centipede were incapable of penetrating it, blocking them with a pitter-patter.

What formed the defensive barrier was not just anything, it was precisely the Ancient Monsters, Essence Swallowing Dragons.

Compared to the Essence Swallowing Dragons, the Hundred Corpse Centipede simple was not on the same level.

"Devour!"

An Suwen angrily said.

The Essence Swallowing Dragons suddenly parted. Just like crashing storm winds, they engulfed their way over. The spawn of the Hundred Corpse Centipede that covered filled the overhead were instantly eaten clean. Once they were eaten, several Essence Swallowing Dragons unexpectedly divided and propagated.

The Ancient Yin Qi the Hundred Corpse Centipede stored underground actually was a top-notch delicious snack for the Essence Swallowing Dragons. Compared to using every kind of Suppressing Evil Gem Bamboo ranked Spirit Qi from before to cultivate them, this speed was far faster. It was like discovering a treasure, so the Essence Swallowing Dragons ate even more cheerfully.

1. 千年燈 ↩
2. 八卦, aka Eight Trigrams ↩
3. 乾、兌 ↩
4. 震、巽 ↩
5. 坤、艮 ↩
6. Banging sounds ↩
7. 百屍蜈蚣 ↩