Mountains and rivers are waiting for you to return

Chapter 76 The Third Person

"Which wall grid does the Xiaoxu hexagram correspond to?" Pei Nai asked.

Gu Jinheng pointed to her and patiently explained, "Horizontally from right to left they are: Qian, Dui, Li, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Gen, Kun. Vertically from top to bottom they are the same."

"The Xiaoxu hexagram has Xun on top and Qian on the bottom, so it is the first row and fourth column?" Pei Nai suddenly realized.

"Ah."

There are sixteen lines of small characters on the back of the edict, which also represents sixteen wall grids and sixteen secret rooms.

Perhaps the exit of the underground palace is one of these sixteen dark rooms?
It does provide a direction and narrow the scope to a certain extent.

Pei Nai was not familiar with the hexagrams, so she asked Gu Jinheng to show her which sixteen wall grids they were.

Gu Jinheng did not hesitate to point them out to her one by one.

But when they reached the fifth grid, Pei Nai was stunned for a moment and said quickly, "No, we have just passed the dark room corresponding to this wall grid, which is the one with the monster under the water."

Do I have to go through this again?
The thought made her feel a little scared.

Gu Jinheng knew what she was thinking and said, "The late emperor would not have written such a dangerous secret room on it and left it to Xiao Mingyi. If he could escape by luck alone, there would be no point in building this underground palace."

Pei Nai thought about it for a moment and then realized, "You mean, not one wall grid corresponds to one dark room?"

"Ah."

"Based on the distance we walked in the corridor earlier, the number of secret rooms must be far more than sixty-four?" Pei Nai wondered, "How should we go? Should we follow the order of the sixteen wall grids listed on the back of the edict?"

Gu Jinheng nodded.

Pei Nai suddenly realized that it was no wonder that the assassin had been in the underground palace for such a long time but had not been able to find the exit.

"So they broke into the palace and took away the imperial edict just for this? Then why did they accidentally break into dangerous dark rooms multiple times?" Pei Nai frowned, becoming more and more confused.

Gu Jinheng used his hand to smooth out her frown. "They should know that what they want is on the imperial edict, but they don't know that these words can only be revealed when exposed to water."

"Have you rested well? Shall we give it a try?" Pei Nai asked.

Gu Jinheng nodded, and according to the small characters on the back of the edict, he pressed the wall grid corresponding to the Xiaoxu hexagram.

The familiar corridor was still opening slowly, and the moving walls were still chasing them forward, but fortunately, the dark room leading to this wall grid was still empty.

There is no need to rest any longer. The second line of the edict is "seven eight seven nine six six", with Xun on top and Li on the bottom, which is the Family hexagram.

Gu Jinheng then pressed the wall grid in the third row and fourth column.

Walking in again, there was a second dark room connected by wall grids, and there was nothing inside either.

The next six grids are:

[Qian on top and Zhen on bottom, Wuwang hexagram] empty.

[Kun on top and Li on bottom, Ming Yi hexagram] empty.

[Zhen on top and Dui on bottom, Guimei hexagram] empty.

[Qian on top and Kun on bottom, Fu Gua] empty.

[Xun on top and Dui on bottom, Zhongfu hexagram] empty.

[Kan on top and Gen on bottom, Jian hexagram] empty.

They walked past one by one, and everything was normal. The walls indicated in the edict were indeed safe.

Until the dark room represented by the ninth hexagram is opened
This is a huge darkroom, about six times the size of the ordinary darkroom just now.

What they saw was no longer the monotonous gray of the stone walls. Instead, colorful colors spread across their vision, and the entire walls were covered with murals.

The colors are extremely gorgeous, showing the painter's superb skills. The painting was completed in a single stroke, yet it is spectacular.

In the very center of the entire dark room, there stood a stone pillar, about three feet wide, with something placed on it.

It was too far away and they couldn't see clearly.

Completely different from all the styles of the underground palace, this should be the secret hidden behind the entire underground palace.

Pei Nai thought so.

In the first picture, the land is barren, the trees are dead, and the people are displaced in the desolate scene, suffering from hunger and living in misery.

In contrast, the imperial palace in the upper right corner of the mural depicts a scene of extravagance and luxury.

The next picture continues the content of the first picture.

Rebels gradually emerged in various places, flames of war raged, smoke rose, and multiple resistance forces formed into one force.

There were three people in the lead. The one in the middle held a sword, one held a spear and pointed it at the enemy general's neck, and the other held a Panlong halberd and swung it sideways, hitting countless soldiers and sending them flying backwards.

The screen changes again.

They led their troops into the capital, and the leader in the middle beheaded the tyrant emperor on the city wall.

Under the city walls, countless people cheered.

They took over the country, the man in the middle sat on the throne, and the other two assisted him.

The emperor’s plan is a prosperous and peaceful era.

"Swords and spears, could this be a depiction of the founding of Tianyao?" Pei Nai stared at the weapons of the three leading figures in the battle.

Gu Jinheng responded, "Yes, you and Xiao Mingyi's ancestors."

Pei Nai looked at the third person wielding the halberd, "Who is the other person? How come I have never heard of him?"

If he could be on par with Emperor Taizu and Zhubei Qiang, there should be records of him in later generations.

Moreover, judging from the murals, this man's contribution to the founding of the country was no less than that of her ancestor Pei Hong. Why did his name seem to have been erased from history, leaving no trace of his existence?

"Qingyun Tianji." Gu Jinheng said suddenly.

Pei Nai was almost speechless, ".Yue Cang?"

Seeing Gu Jinheng nodded, Pei Nai suddenly remembered the legend hidden deep in the secret history of martial arts.

As the world's number one master at the time of the fall of the previous dynasty, he retired from the world at the beginning of Tianyao's establishment and has never been seen since.

Many, many years ago, there was even a saying circulating among the people: If Yue Cang had not left, perhaps another place would have been listed above the three mountains.

They circled the dark room, continuing to watch as the situation developed.

The style of the next picture suddenly changes.

A huge rock from outer space split into three parts and fell to the ground. The main part fell on the western border of the Upper North Continent, and the other two were located on the north and south sides of the continent respectively.

"Is it the territory of Lu Kingdom and Valley Kingdom?" Pei Nai carefully examined the map.

"Yes, most of the secret realms of Lu Country and the mechanical materials of Valley Country are related to this."

After Gu Jinheng's reminder, Pei Nai connected these things together.

Suddenly, she felt that many things were connected and related to each other.

In the next picture, troops were stationed next to the main body of the meteorite. They were mining stones and loading a lot of materials onto carriages.

The carriage traveled thousands of miles to transport these things to Chaoyang, the capital of Tianyao.

The soldiers unloaded the goods and presented them as tribute to Emperor Taizu.

Emperor Taizu, Pei Hong and Yue Cang stood together, looking down at the person kneeling on the ground to present the gift.

Pei Nai clearly recognized that the small pile of dark brown things placed on the red cloth held by the man was the one she was most familiar with -

Whole tree pieces!
Gu Jinheng also subconsciously looked at her at this time.

Pei Nai could no longer care about these things. She looked eagerly to the other side of the mural, but...
"It's broken." Pei Nai murmured.

"Ah."

The murals at the back were destroyed by humans, leaving only some traces of their existence.

Maybe someone doesn't want to know what happened next.

Therefore, everything that is happening now seems to be revolving around this piece of tree.

But they still don't know what secrets are hidden behind the Hunshu piece.

Gu Jinheng turned around and looked at the stone pillar in the center of the dark room.

"Nell, we haven't looked there yet," he said.

Yes, Pei Nai reacted and turned to walk over there.

The stone pier is concave and filled with water.

The light from the plants penetrated the mirror-like still water, allowing them to see a piece of muddy tree at the bottom of the water, dark and turbid, lying there alone.

Pei Nai carefully tried it and made sure it was clear water. Then he reached in and took out the piece of muddy tree.

The moment the tree leaf emerged from the water, she heard the sound of a sharp arrow shooting across the sky.

(End of this chapter)