Chapter 55: The Stone Cave

"...Feng Qingyang, you are no man!
We have broken our backs propping up Mount Hua for the better part of our lives,
while you hid on the sidelines watching the show!
You have failed our founding masters,
you have utterly failed our founding masters!"

Wang Jingyuan shouted at the top of his lungs all the way. Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan followed closely behind him, their ears ringing with numbness. They were well aware of the Sword Sect, but this Feng Qingyang... judging by Junior Brother Wang's shouting, he seemed to be a senior figure from the Sword Sect.

However, hadn't all the members of the Sword Sect perished? Was Junior Brother Wang... trying to summon the dead?

After calling out for a long time without seeing Feng Qingyang jump out to slash him, Wang Jingyuan grew a bit tired. He fished out a waterskin from somewhere, took several deep gulps, and moistened his throat.

He decided to rest his voice for a moment before continuing his verbal assault. Yet resting did not mean he had nothing to do. Even without the grand prize, he could still scrape together some consolation prizes.

Wang Jingyuan had consulted the local expert of Mount Pensive, a.k.a. Linghu Chong, regarding the cave intelligence on the cliff. After a process of elimination, he selected the most likely cave, hoisted a hammer, and walked inside.

First, he used a small hammer to clear the path, tapping all the way until he reached the dead end and finally detected a hollow echo. With a flick of his hand, he swapped the small hammer for a sledgehammer and began to strike fiercely.

The rock wall separating the outside from the hollow was already very thin. After just a few heavy blows, Wang Jingyuan shattered the stone. Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan, who had followed behind simply to see what kind of madness Wang Jingyuan was up to, were utterly shocked. Was there actually something hidden in here?

Linghu Chong pulled out a fire starter, preparing to rush in and take a look first. But Wang Jingyuan stopped him: "What's the rush? This place has been sealed for decades. Let it air out a bit first."

With that, he led the two out of the cave and lit a bonfire outside. Having set out early, they hadn't eaten anything all day, so Wang Jingyuan simply took out Linghu Chong's dry rations and began to toast them over the fire.

He distributed the warmed rations to the others, but Linghu Chong still seemed somewhat dissatisfied: "Sigh, if only we had a flask of wine to go with this."

Yue Lingshan rolled her eyes: "Senior Brother, you never learn. Have you already forgotten why my father punished you to climb this mountain?"

Linghu Chong could only offer an awkward, self-deprecating smile and shake his head. Wang Jingyuan chimed in from the side: "You love drinking so much. If you get married in the future and someone visits you and your wife bearing high-proof liquor, what are you going to do?"

Linghu Chong didn't understand: "Someone visiting me with wine? Isn't that a good thing? What's difficult about that?"

Wang Jingyuan shook his head. It seemed NPCs truly didn't understand memes like sleeping beauty tea or NTR. Remembering that he still had a jar of wine tucked away in his inventory from goodness knows when, he simply pulled it out and tossed it to Linghu Chong.

Linghu Chong caught the clay wine jar and laughed heartily: "Junior Brother Wang, no matter how many times I see this magic trick of yours, it always feels utterly miraculous."

With that, he cracked open the clay seal of the jar and took a hearty swig. Then he offered the jar to Wang Jingyuan, but Wang Jingyuan politely declined.

Linghu Chong swayed slightly as he said: "Junior Brother Wang, you simply drink too little, which is why you don't appreciate the true wonders of wine."

Wang Jingyuan shot him a contemptuous glance: "I entered the marketing department right after graduation. I've drunk more alcohol than you've ever heard of. Precisely because I drank too much, unless absolutely necessary, I don't want to touch a single drop."

Hearing this, Linghu Chong's interest was instantly piqued: "What university, what marketing... never mind! Junior Brother Wang, what kinds of wine have you tasted?"

With time to spare, Wang Jingyuan began introducing the various types of alcohol he had consumed to this country bumpkin, leaving Linghu Chong listening with his mouth watering profusely. Chatting away, the group hastily finished their meal.

After eating, Wang Jingyuan let out a few more booming shouts before beckoning Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan into the cave with him. The moment they stepped inside, Yue Lingshan let out a sharp shriek, for the cave floor was littered with skeletal remains.

Linghu Chong was also secretly alarmed. Raising his torch, he saw a dozen long swords scattered on the ground not far away. He walked over, knelt down, and picked one up, noticing that it was shorter than a standard sword, yet twice as wide in the blade, and heavy in the hand—unmistakably a weapon used by the Mount Tai Sect.

The remaining swords varied: some were light and pliable, weapons of the Mount Heng Sect; some had curved blades, one of the three types favored by the Mount Heng Sect; others had unsharpened edges with extremely sharp tips, the weapon of choice for the Mount Song Sect. There were also three swords whose length and weight matched the standard weapons of Mount Hua.

This place was practically a mass grave for the Five Sacred Sword Sects. No, wait—there were also various other exotic weapons on the ground, left behind by the predecessors of the Five Sacred Sword Sects as they fought enemies here.

Wang Jingyuan, however, paid little heed to the skeletons. The moment he entered the cave, he went straight to his old trade: looting corpses.

The standard weapons of the Five Sacred Sword Sects were mediocre at best, so Wang Jingyuan only casually picked a few fine ones for his inventory. But the weapons of the Sun Moon Demon Cult were a different story entirely; they were vastly superior to those of the Five Sacred Sword Sects.

Take, for instance, the two massive axes belonging to the Great Hercules Demon, Fan Song. Even after lying in the cave for decades, they still gleamed brightly in the torchlight. Each axe weighed around forty catties, and though Fan Song had used them to clear a path until his dying breath, the edges remained as sharp as new, a testament to exceptional craftsmanship.

This was actually quite easy to understand. After all, the Five Sacred Sword Sects proclaimed themselves to be upright sects and needed to amass wealth through relatively legitimate means. The Sun Moon Demon Cult, however, had no such concerns; waylaying travelers and plundering villages was far too simple for them. With plenty of wealth at hand, crafting a couple of handy, high-quality weapons was only natural.

After looting the corpses, Wang Jingyuan moved on to the main course. Raising his torch to examine the cave walls, he saw a large boulder protruding several yards above the ground on the right-hand wall, resembling a platform. Carved into the rock wall beneath the boulder were sixteen large characters: "Five Sacred Sword Sects, shameless and despicable, losing in duels, resorting to underhanded plots."

Seeing these insults, Wang Jingyuan smiled with satisfaction. Hearing his laughter, Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan hurried over, raising their eyes to behold the offensive words, followed by the methods used by the Ten Elders of the Demon Cult to shatter the sword techniques of the Five Sacred Sword Sects.

At first, both of them burned with righteous indignation, scoffing at these arrogant remarks. That was because they were unfamiliar with the sword techniques of other sects. But when they laid eyes on the illustrations showing "Zhang Chengyun and Zhang Chengfeng completely breaking the Mount Hua sword techniques," the smiles vanished from their faces.

They mentally deduced the moves and discovered that the破解 methods recorded in the illustrations were indeed capable of neutralizing the various sword techniques of the Mount Hua Sect with terrifying efficiency.

Instantly, fear gripped their hearts, and for a moment, their only impulse was to destroy the rock wall. But Wang Jingyuan stopped them in their tracks.

"What the hell! This is the precious asset of my Mount Hua Sect! What do you two little bastards think you're doing?!"

Linghu Chong stared blankly at the rock wall and said, "Junior Brother Wang, step aside. The things recorded here cannot be allowed to leak out. If word gets out..."

"So what if it does?"

Linghu Chong said incredulously, "If this leaks out, our Mount Hua Sect... no! The Five Sacred Sword Sects will be in mortal danger!"

Wang Jingyuan curled his lip in disdain, casually pointing at the illustration detailing the counter to "A Phoenix Flocks to the Courtyard," and said, "Look, this counter-technique is very simple. You can learn it just by glancing at it. Now, I'll use 'A Phoenix Flocks to the Courtyard,' and you try using the counter-technique against it."

Linghu Chong didn't know what Wang Jingyuan was getting at, but in order to make him realize the gravity of the situation, he drew his long sword and prepared to execute the counter-measure.

Seeing that Linghu Chong was ready, Wang Jingyuan delivered a seemingly mundane "A Phoenix Flocks to the Courtyard." Just as Linghu Chong moved to parse the attack using the recorded counter-method, his eyes suddenly widened, and he abruptly retracted his sword, lunging to the side to dodge...