Su Yan's eyes blazed. If he could trace the energy to its source, he would have an endless supply of this mysterious power.
Even if he couldn't open the Mud Pill Secret, he could continuously absorb its vitality, cultivate hidden scenes, and become a nuo master.
He immediately entered meditation again, turning his awareness inward, entering his realm of subtle perception.
This time, instead of following the mysterious energy, he traced it backward. His spiritual awareness moved outside his body.
His consciousness flowed upstream into the water.
Currents of mysterious energy formed treacherous rapids. One wrong move, and his awareness would be swept away and lost.
Then the bell's voice rang out. "Young man, I'll use my chime to stabilize your awareness!"
A deep bell tone sounded, clear and resonant, making Su Yan's spiritual awareness perfectly calm and steady, immune to external interference.
Su Yan seized the opportunity, threading between rapids, following the strand of mysterious energy deeper into the cave.
He seemed to pass through ancient spaces, entering unknowable realms. The bell's tones grew distant, as if separated by infinite space.
Su Yan feared: if his awareness couldn't return, wouldn't he become an idiot?
"My awareness followed the mysterious energy through space and time, traveling immeasurable distances, yet still hasn't found the source. This really must be a grotto heaven. The bell was wrong!"
Su Yan prepared to turn back. Then the bell tones grew clearer.
He froze.
Clearer bell tones meant he was getting closer to his physical body.
But how was that possible? His awareness had clearly traveled through countless spaces and dimensions, as if crossing millions of li. How could he be getting closer?
Su Yan's awareness followed the mysterious energy into the Mud Pill Palace, arriving at a stone wall behind the palace. The energy's source lay within this wall.
Su Yan withdrew his awareness, leaped from the water, and quickly dressed in his tattered clothes.
He checked on Yuan Qi. The snake was still transforming. Su Yan went alone to the stone wall behind the palace.
The wall was covered in moss, indistinguishable from any other. Su Yan examined it. The mysterious energy seeped into this wall and vanished.
He tapped the wall. It was incredibly solid.
"Bell, come out."
The bell flew from his mind. "What is it?"
Su Yan grabbed the bell's handle, swung it in a wide arc, and smashed it against the wall.
The bell shrieked. "What are you doing? Put me down! Clang! You brat! Clang! I'll fight you! Clang! A bell can be destroyed but not humiliated! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!"
The bell vibrated. The wall didn't budge.
Su Yan set down the bell and stroked the wall. "There's definitely something wrong here. The bell can shatter a city god's golden body. Ordinary stone can't be harder than a god."
The bell quickly moved away from Su Yan, traumatized. "This kid has violent tendencies!"
Then Su Yan noticed a faint impression on the wall. It looked like a left handprint, barely visible.
He pressed his left hand against it.
The wall trembled. Cracking sounds echoed. The wall split open, revealing a narrow passage. Su Yan stepped through, and stone blocks retreated into the mountain. After several dozen zhang, he reached a stone chamber inside the mountain.
The chamber was small, about four zhang square, very simple. Only a meditation cushion and a jade bed. On the cushion sat a skeleton wearing thin green clothes, so transparent the bones showed through. The skeletal hands seemed to be holding something, but nothing was there.
Around the skeleton stood rows of bookshelves, but empty. In the corner lay a pile of ashes.
"The mysterious energy in Qinyan Cave comes from this skeleton's skull!"
Su Yan's heart pounded. He was about to approach when he saw silk gloves and a snake startling stick beside the skeleton. He froze.
"These look like a snake catcher's tools!"
Snake catchers used silk gloves to grab snakes at their seven-inch weak point, and startling sticks to drive snakes from grass. Su Yan was a snake catcher himself. He knew these tools well, though he rarely used them since beginning cultivation.
"This is Yuan Qi's family's home. They've lived here for over three hundred years. How did a snake catcher enter Qinyan Cave and find this place?"
Su Yan remembered a book he had read last night, Yuan Qi's grandfather's travel journal. It was so boring he had fallen asleep.
"The book said Yuan Qi's grandfather was chased by a snake catcher into Qinyan Cave, where he discovered caves within caves and found this Mud Pill Palace Grotto Heaven."
Su Yan pondered. "Could it be that he never shook off that snake catcher? The catcher followed him and found the Mud Pill Palace too. He must have been extremely clever, even sensing Qinyan Cave's mysterious energy and finding his way here. Then the books on these shelves must have been taken by him."
He looked at the pile of ashes. The snake catcher couldn't carry many books. What he couldn't take, he burned.
"What a shame." Su Yan guessed, "The chamber's owner was probably the one the coffin girl was looking for. He died here, leaving his inheritance. That snake catcher accidentally found this place, obtained the senior's legacy, and burned everything to prevent others from finding it."
The bell circled the skeleton, sensing carefully. "The mysterious energy does come from this skull. Before death, he used his remaining energy to help others locate the Mud Pill Secret through dragon-seeking."
Su Yan came to the ashes and sifted through them. His eyes lit up. He pulled out a mostly burned book from the bottom.
The snake catcher had burned too many books. This one had been pressed at the bottom where flames couldn't reach, leaving a few pages with barely legible text.
Su Yan studied the pages carefully, heart pounding. "This describes the method to open the Mud Pill Secret!"
The bell flew over. "Method to open the Mud Pill Secret? That can't be right. The woman I suppressed was a qi refiner. She knew the cave's owner. So the owner was also a qi refiner. In their era, nuo techniques didn't exist. How could there be a method to open body secrets?"
Su Yan was equally puzzled. "Could this skeleton not be the person the coffin girl sought? Wait, who was that snake catcher?"
He stared into space, then said suddenly, "The Lingling Zhou family rose to power three hundred years ago, then moved to the capital. Their secret legacy is the Mud Pill Secret. Could that snake catcher who followed Yuan Qi's grandfather into Qinyan Cave be the Zhou family's ancestor?"
The bell was startled. "Three hundred years ago, one man and one snake entered Qinyan Cave. Three hundred years later, one man and one snake enter Qinyan Cave again. The two snakes only discovered the outer palace, not the hidden chamber. Both snake catchers found the chamber. What a coincidence."
Su Yan looked around. When the Zhou family ancestor entered, the chamber must have held countless books, a vast library of nuo techniques.
The ancestor memorized the most crucial techniques, burned what he couldn't carry, and used these stolen arts to build the Zhou family from a small snake catching family into a massive power.
"The Titan-Ox Demon Fist that Yuan Qi's grandfather obtained was probably a low-level yao technique the Zhou ancestor pitied him with," Su Yan thought.
He carefully unfolded the burned pages and read. The text was incomplete. He had to fill in the gaps himself.
The text said the Six Secrets of the human body were led by the Mud Pill. The chaos egg was the Mud Pill Secret, but its power was so immense that one must first carve into the chaos.
Carve a grotto heaven within the chaos. Fish out the Mud Pill's vitality. When cultivation reached a certain level, one could open another grotto heaven, going deeper to extract more vitality.
Repeat until opening nine layers of grotto heavens, and one could extract all the Mud Pill Secret's power.
And the method to carve open the Mud Pill Secret was simple: strike the chaos egg with maximum force.
"This really does require a great nuo master's help," Su Yan thought.
The Mud Pill Secret was in the brain. One mistake meant opening a hole in the skull, brain matter splattering everywhere. Even with a great nuo master's help, it would be dangerous.
"I can help you."
The bell spoke suddenly. "I'm extremely powerful. Even after suffering the demon girl's wounds, a short burst of power surpasses any great nuo master. But I'm not doing this for free. Help me open the Mud Pill Secret, and you must provide more qi and blood to heal me."
Su Yan hesitated.
The bell was indeed powerful. Even severely wounded, it had fought Zhou Yihang and City God Xue. While dormant, Su Yan had nearly killed both with it.
But Su Yan feared the bell was too powerful. A full-force strike inside his head wouldn't open a hole. His head would explode.
"Probably nothing would remain above the neck," Su Yan thought.
The bell saw his hesitation and grew suspicious. "You don't trust me? Su Yan, I've fought countless battles. Who doesn't know that Bell of Little Stone Mountain is steady and reliable?"
Su Yan mumbled, "Yes, yes. But how did the coffin girl escape?"
The bell exploded with rage. "Someone ambushed me! They planned my downfall for ages, even causing the Naihe to change course and attack Little Stone Mountain! Otherwise, how could that demon girl have escaped?"
Su Yan remained uncertain. The bell urged, "Let's go outside. I'll show you my accuracy!"
Su Yan left the chamber and entered the palace. Yuan Qi was still unconscious.
He went outside to Wuwang Mountain. Cool breeze blew. The bell floated up. "See that towering tree on the cliff top?"
Su Yan looked. A giant tree stood on Wuwang Mountain's cliff, about thirty zhang high, magnificently tall.
"I'll demonstrate, using my chime to destroy it. Watch!"
Su Yan waited eagerly. The bell rang out.
Clang!
Space rippled layer by layer. In the next instant, more than a dozen men and women were blasted from the forest, tumbling through the air.
Su Yan's heart jumped. "Lingling officials! They actually found this place!"
After a moment, the officials crashed down, scattering birds and beasts.
The bell paused. "I sensed people hiding in the forest spying on us, so I changed direction and blasted them out. A-Yan, I've exhausted the power I accumulated over two days. The rest is up to you!"
The bell shot into Su Yan's head and vanished.
Footsteps approached from the forest. The bruised officials emerged.
Su Yan stood unmoving. "My cultivation has advanced greatly. I've become a yao king. You are no match for me."
The officials hesitated, eager to attack. Then a voice laughed. "King Su Yan is a human anomaly. After becoming a yao king, ordinary official nuo masters naturally cannot match him. So this time, they need not act. I will personally subdue you."
Su Yan looked toward the voice. Magistrate Zhou Yang strode from the forest in a black silk robe, magnificent and imposing.
"Deploy swords!" Zhou Yang said softly.
Su Yan noticed the officials each carried a sword basket on their backs, holding more than a dozen precious swords. They stopped about thirty paces away, drew the swords, planted them in the ground, and retreated.
Zhou Yang stepped forward and took a seed from his sleeve, planting it in the sword formation's center.
The seed sprouted instantly, growing into a towering tree whose canopy covered several acres. Its branches were long and thin, flexible and tough.
The tree moved like a demon. Its branches reached down, drew the swords from the ground with metallic clangs, and brandished them.
"This tree is called Fenghua. Legend says it absorbed phoenix blood. Under my control, it will wield a hundred swords and execute my Zhou family's ultimate technique: the Zhou Heaven Demon-Slaying Sword."
Zhou Yang smiled. "Su Yan, as Lingling's magistrate, I love my people as my children. I offer you a path to life. Submit, and I will clear your crimes and even make you an official."
"What kind? A corrupt official like you?" Su Yan walked to a willow tree, broke off a finger-thick branch, and smiled. "Corrupt dog, let me see whether your ancestor's stolen arts compare to what I comprehended myself!"