Chapter 00178: Secret
# Secret
Chapter 178
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 178: Secret
For now, let's not discuss whether the founding ancestor of the Green Robe Sect was a peeping tom, but whenever one heard of a secret sect cave, it always felt like some divine technique, secret art, or heavenly material and earthly treasure was hidden inside.
The wall with the meridian chart was actually divided into three parts.
One part had the meridian chart, with the mind-art incantation below it, which should be the internal skill.
The middle part featured twelve diagrams breaking down the moves of a sword technique, engraved with the sword style's incantation.
The innermost part was a footwork diagram composed of a set of footprints, paired with its own incantation.
Li Chengxi controlled the jade tablet to hover around this wall for a bit.
Just as he was about to zoom in on the picture to get a clearer look at what was written on the wall, he saw the teaching box light up with a glowing ‘+’, indicating that new martial techniques had been added to its library.
He clicked on it to see, and there was a set of internal skill mind-art, a set of sword techniques, and a set of footwork.
Suddenly obtaining three new learnable martial techniques should have been a good thing, but Li Chengxi noticed that the names of these three techniques were strikingly similar.
Green Mountain Internal Art, Green Mountain Sword Technique, Green Mountain Footwork…
No matter how you looked at it, these didn't sound like any kind of divine technique.
They were probably on par with the entry-level stuff for disciples of a major sect.
And for this, they specifically made a secret cave to store it?
Thinking about it, it made sense.
After all, if a minor sect like the Green Robe Sect possessed a divine technique, why hadn't Tian Jing used it before?
"Have you guys heard of a sect called Green Mountain? Green Mountain, not Green Robe. It sounds like it might be a major sect."
Li Yingluo and Zheng Yinping had also been looking at the stone carvings, but after noticing they were secret manuals, they consciously averted their eyes and turned away.
"No, never heard of it."
"If there really was such a sect, Elder Sister Yang's Green Robe Sect would have changed its name long ago. Otherwise, it would be a taboo."
That seemed right, too.
In this era, everyone from the emperor down to the commoners was quite mindful of taboos.
It was unlikely that two sects would have names so similar.
"It's not my Green Robe Sect! I haven't decided to become the sect master yet!"
"Have you ever heard about your sect's history or anything?"
Yang Yiyi scratched her head in embarrassment.
"I've always been the one starting fires and cooking. No one ever told me about these things."
Li Chengxi felt that it was probably a case where a sect called Green Mountain was destroyed, and a disciple who escaped founded the Green Robe Sect.
This trope wasn't exactly new.
It wasn't that important; Li Chengxi was just asking out of simple curiosity.
After glancing at the stone carvings with Li Chengxi, Yang Yiyi turned back to the stone table.
There were two small wooden boxes on the table.
She opened one of them and found it full of neatly arranged letters.
Seeing that Yang Yiyi didn't seem very interested, Li Yingluo quickly said:
"Hurry and open them to see. Maybe there's evidence of correspondence with the Liu family."
There were over a dozen letters.
The three of them divided them up and opened them for inspection.
As it turned out, there were no letters to or from the Liu family at all; they were all things like invitation cards.
This Liu family was indeed cautious, leaving behind no physical evidence whatsoever.
"I think this must be the 'written proof' your master mentioned before. It doesn't seem like there's anything useful."
When Tian Jing had confronted Yang Yiyi, she had mentioned that disciples who had left the mountain over the years had sent letters back and so on.
These must be them.
Li Yingluo frowned and said:
"I'm not very good at identifying handwriting, but I can only tell that the handwriting in three of the letters is somewhat similar."
"Let's show them to your senior martial sister tomorrow. What's in the other box?"
Yang Yiyi opened the other box.
On top, she could see stacked land deeds and other such items, which were the Green Robe Sect's source of funds.
After all, poverty hinders literature while wealth fosters martial arts.
If you couldn't even afford to eat, what martial arts could you practice?
Beneath the land deeds was a very old thread-bound book with 'Chronicles of the Green Robe Sect' written on the cover.
She roughly flipped through a few pages.
It was all records left by successive sect masters, such as taking in a disciple of extraordinary aptitude, participating in some major event to bring fame to the sect, and things of that nature.
It was basically like a sect master's journal, only recording major events within the sect.
Continuing to flip through, she saw that the handwriting on one page was much newer than the page next to it.
It must have been left by Tian Jing.
Initially, it was similar to the records of other sect masters, things like the number of sect members and disciples.
But when she turned another page, this time she saw a drawing of a diamond-shaped object, its surface painted with divine patterns in vermilion ink.
"Brother Li, this…"
"I also think it looks like a Sky-Upholding Stone."
Li Yingluo and Zheng Yinping also knew that Li Chengxi was looking for the Sky-Upholding Stone, but this was the first time they had seen what it looked like.
Below this simple diagram, there was also a note left by Tian Jing.
"This object is called the Sky-Upholding Stone. It is impervious to blades and spears, unharmed by water and fire, the hardest and most unyielding object in the world, indestructible by mortal force. I have chanced upon a rumor that this object can perform marrow cleansing and change the world. Obtaining even one would bring great glory to our Green Robe Sect. However, future sect masters should remember that this object is closely related to the greatest masters in the world. Should word of it leak, it could bring a disaster that costs one's life."
After Yang Yiyi finished reading this passage, the three of them all looked toward Li Chengxi, or rather, toward the jade tablet floating in mid-air.
"Don't look at me, I don't know either."
The Sky-Upholding Stone could indeed perform marrow cleansing.
To put it bluntly, it added points to a person's stats.
But besides the 'Sky-Upholding Book' that Li Chengxi controlled, could anyone else make use of it?
Tian Jing's notes clearly stated, 'this object is closely related to the greatest masters in the world'.
Was it possible that the reason these great masters became masters was because of the help of the Sky-Upholding Stone?
If so, the existence of the Sky-Upholding Stone was likely a little-known secret in the martial world, with the information being suppressed by the top-tier masters.
After all, if it were a martial world supreme treasure like the Sky-Upholding Sword or the Dragon-Slaying Saber, it would have caused a huge uproar long ago.
Everyone, whether they were a jianghu person or not, would surely have heard of it.
But neither Li Yingluo nor Zheng Yinping had ever heard of something called the Sky-Upholding Stone.
Considering the recent discovery of a hidden Sky-Upholding Stone inside the statue of the Three Pure Ones at the ruined Daoist temple, if no one knew what this thing was used for, there would naturally be no need to hide it so carefully.
Could it be that someone in the Daoist temple, like Tian Jing, had also accidentally learned the secret of the Sky-Upholding Stone and was lucky enough to find one, but he just didn't know how to use it and could only store it away carefully for the time being?
The area around this Green Cloud Mountain was said to be on the fringe of jianghu activity.
Besides the small Green Robe Sect, there were no other sects around.
To be so cautious in such a remote place further suggested that the appearance of this object would inevitably attract great trouble.
The existence of the Sky-Upholding Stone was likely a secret passed only among the major sects or top masters, and from Tian Jing's wording, it seemed they had no intention of sharing this secret.
Setting aside how they utilized the Sky-Upholding Stone, Li Chengxi had originally planned to ask around about the Sky-Upholding Stone once he reached a large city.
It was a good thing he discovered this early.
If he had rashly sent Yang Yiyi to inquire, it might very well have led to a fatal disaster.
Seeing Li Chengxi remain silent, Yang Yiyi asked with concern:
"Brother Li? What's wrong?"
"No, it's nothing."
The three saw the jade tablet do a little spin, as if Li Chengxi had turned to face them.
"Tian Jing may not have been a great person, but what she recorded is probably accurate. You must all remember that anything concerning the Sky-Upholding Stone must absolutely not be spread to outsiders, or it will bring great disaster."
(End of this chapter)