Chapter 21: The Master's Finger Lock

  When Sima Wei gave such a compliment, Chen Yunfeng couldn't help but smile wryly in his heart. This was the first time he had clashed with a martial artist from Jianghu, and yet he was ambushed by a group of second- and third-rate warriors. He had cultivated the most advanced techniques after all, and after more than a year of hard work, he had become a top-notch master. It seemed that without frequent matches against others, his skills would still be unlucky due to lack of experience.

  As the Hunyuan Xiantian Yin Yang Jue continued to operate, the toxic liquid on his shoulders was quickly expelled. Only when the faint blackness around his shoulder had dissipated and fresh blood began to flow from the wound did Chen Yunfeng slowly withdraw his energy and stand up.

  Simawei said with a bow after Chen Yunfeng stood up:

  "Are you alright, young hero? I am Sima Zhuangzhu, the master of Sima Manor. Thank you for lending a hand, otherwise Sima Manor would have been destroyed."

  Chen Yunfeng glanced at his own wound, which had already started to scab over, and pulled down the towel on his face with a smile, shaking his head. It was only then that everyone got a clear look at Chen Yunfeng's appearance, and according to this world's standards, he was just a young man who had barely left his teenage years behind.

  At such a young age, he was so powerful. The three women before were extremely shocked, but they didn't know that Chen Yunfeng wasn't there to help, it's just that he happened to encounter this matter and had no choice but to take action.

  "Is Uncle the master of Sima Manor? I am Chen Yunfeng, and I have come to pay my respects to the master of Sima Manor." Chen Yunfeng said with a bow.

  "Is something wrong with Chen Xiaoxia? What's going on that needs our help?" Sima Wei asked after signaling everyone to gather around the mountain villa.

  Chen Yunfeng took out the mottled ring he got from the ancient tomb and handed it to Sima Wei, saying:

  "I came to fetch something and happened to lend a hand when I saw the Sima Manor being attacked. I don't know if the master of the manor is aware of this matter?"

  Seeing the ring, Sima Wei's face changed greatly. He adjusted the position of the ring against the sky and saw two words refracted inside. His face showed a mixture of sadness and joy. To confirm the authenticity of the ring, he placed it on the stone table in the courtyard and chopped it with a big knife.

  "When..."

  The big knife in Sima Wei's hand let out a crisp sound, and the pliers on the table were still there, but the blade of the big knife was directly bounced off by a piece. Sima Wei trembled as he picked up the pliers, walked respectfully to Chen Yunfeng, knelt down with a thud, held the pliers above his head, and said reverently:

  "Simaweibaijianzhongmen." translates to "Sima Wei pays his respects to the head of the household."

  "Kowtowing? Uncle Sima, what do you mean by this?" Chen Yunfeng had never seen a burly man kowtow to him before, and he hastily helped Sima Wei up, asking in confusion.

  He just came to retrieve his things, and as for being the leader of whatever sect, he didn't want that at all. One person muddling through life was far better than bringing a large group of people along for the ride. Besides, he had no desire to dominate the martial world or start some revolution to overthrow the imperial system and establish a republic. As long as he could live a carefree and easy-going life, his ideals weren't that grand.

  Simawei returned the flint to Chenyunfeng's hand and took a few deep breaths before saying in a low voice:

  "Follow me, Master, and you'll find out what's going on soon enough?"

  Chen Yun's mouth was pursed, he wouldn't have made this trip if he hadn't seen those two words inside the ring, anyway his family only had a few people, no money, they would just go rob some local tyrant or landlord to get by. Seeing Sima Wei's respectful appearance, he couldn't help but wonder what was going on.

  Following Sima Wei through the large courtyard into the back hall, they arrived at the back garden. Sima Wei twisted a stone on a fake mountain, and the fake mountain slowly opened up to reveal a secret tunnel. He led Chen Yunfeng in first, lit torches, closed the fake mountain, and then proceeded forward from the tunnel.

  The winding tunnel was hundreds of meters long, and along the way, Sima Wei constantly pointed out the hidden mechanisms around him. The defense was so tight that even if a top-notch expert came in, it would be a dead end.

  “Creak......” A stone gate opened, and a white misty light spilled out from inside. Chen Yunfeng narrowed his eyes and followed Sima Wei in, looking up to see that the ceiling of the small stone chamber, about five or six meters long and four or five meters high, was embedded with six night pearls the size of ping-pong balls;

  In the stone room there was a stone bed, a stone table and two stone chairs. A black metal box sat on the stone table, apart from that there was nothing else in the room.

  "Master, next use Master's fingerprint to open that box, everything you need to know is inside." Sima Wei said in a low voice, pointing at the metal box.

  Chen Yunfeng had already thought of countless results and processes in his heart, but he didn't think that to know the course of events, he still had to open the metal box. He didn't suspect that Sima Wei would have any other ideas, so he walked straight to the front of the box and examined it up and down. On the box, there was a small hole, just the right size for a thumb ring.

  He inserted his fingers into the hole, and a series of mechanical sounds came from inside the box, lasting for over ten seconds. Suddenly, there was a click, and the lid of the box popped open lightly.

  As he lifted the lid of the trunk, on top was a piece of something made from unknown animal skin, with dense and intricate writing. He looked at it carefully, his face changing color constantly, from shock to astonishment, from astonishment to delight, but then from delight to utter bewilderment.

  "It turns out to be like this...... Uncle Sima, I reckon I'll have to stay here for a few days, and I'm afraid I'll have to trouble you with daily life. I need to sort out the things in here." Chen Yunfeng said in a low voice after reading those words, looking at Sima Wei.

  "Yes, Master, I'll go and make arrangements right away." Sima Wei said with a bow.

  Watching Sima Wei leave the Guanshiguan Stone Gate, Chen Yunfeng took out the pendant again and put it back on his neck, re-examining the mysterious text on the leather. Only then did he take out a stack of books from the wooden box, one by one.

  The first book is called Xiao Wu Xiang Gong, the second is Ba Huang Liu He Wei Wo Du Zun Gong, the third is Bei Ming Shen Gong, the fourth is Tian Shang Zhe Mei Shou, the fifth is Tian Shan Liu Yang Zhang, the sixth is Ling Bo Wei Bu, the seventh is Jiang Long Shi Ba Zhang, the eighth is Liu Mai Shen Jian, and the last one is Bai Hong Zhang Li.

  Nine sets of books, every time Chen Yunfeng saw one, his face twitched slightly. Indeed, this wooden box had put together the entire Tianlong Xiaoyao's ultimate skill, along with the complete Dragon Subduing Palm technique and the Duan family's strongest swordsmanship. And on that piece of leather was recorded the reason why these martial arts were placed here.

  It turned out that the piece of skin was Xuzhu's chest skin. Years ago, Xiao Feng, Duan Yu and Xuzhu met at Youxian Peak. Two of them were destined to become the future Emperor of Dali and the Southern King of Liao respectively, and they could die in battle at any time.

  Two people, in order to avoid the loss of their skills, copied down each of their strongest martial arts and placed them in the hands of Zhuo (a fake monk with no desire for conflict but possessing the greatest strength) to keep safe.

  Xiao Feng later committed suicide, and Duan Yu took over the throne of Dali. However, he did not pass on the Northern Darkness Technique and the Lingbo Micro Steps as they were carefree martial arts. The Six Meridians Divine Sword required breaking through the Ren and Du meridians to barely cultivate one type, and to make the six meridians complement each other, one had to open up the Heavenly Bridge. He simply did not pass on this technique either.