Lin Chaoying tested the middle and the first coffin on the left, finding "hu hu" sounds as well, but not as strong. She leaped into the second coffin on the left again. After a careful examination, she chuckled, "Trivial tricks, you think you can fool Lin Xingsheng's daughter?"
Lin Chaoying retrieved a chisel and re-entered this chamber. Kneeling on the bottom board of the second coffin on the left, she tapped, scraped, dug, and pried along the edges. Finally, she dislodged a patch of mud, revealing a recess large enough for a hand. It wouldn't budge when pushed or pulled. Lin Chaoying turned it to the left, then lifted it upwards. With a *crack*, the stone slab at the bottom of the coffin rose, and Lin Chaoying leaped out. Peering down, she saw a flight of stone steps. A strong gust of wind erupted like a fountain. Lin Chaoying concluded, "The 'hu hu' sound was indeed caused by the bottom board being moved by the wind."
Lin Chaoying descended the stone steps from the bottom of the stone coffin, and immediately put the bottom slab back in place. At the end of the steps was a short passageway. After another turn, she saw a stone chamber. She looked around the empty space. Looking up, she saw a map drawn in the southwest corner of the ceiling. Focusing her gaze, she realized it was indeed a map. Lin Chaoying immediately understood. Wang Chongyang had staged a desperate battle scenario, but in reality, he used this secret passage for soldiers to escape or launch surprise attacks, and also to relieve the pressure of long-term encirclement by Jin soldiers. She fully understood and agreed with this, but a silent chuckle escaped her: If he knew I had seen through this "heroic" setup, he would surely be mortified. Heh, I must "praise" him properly when we meet again... Alas, will there be a next time...
Lin Chaoying presumed this stone chamber was used as a command center, but felt it unnecessary to engrave routes and structures on the ceiling. Stepping out of this chamber, she followed the map's directions, turning east and west, going lower and lower. The passageway underfoot gradually became damp. Peering ahead, she saw岔道 everywhere. After walking for a while longer, the path became incredibly steep, a straight descent. Lin Chaoying employed the "Four Steps of Following the Bend" to glide down with the wind. After about half an hour, the path gradually leveled, and the humidity increased. Soon, she heard the gurgling sound of water. The water on the path reached her ankles. Lin Chaoying focused on the faint schools of fish ahead. The water rose, from her legs to her abdomen. She observed the direction of the fish's movement and felt the water flow for over an hour. She murmured, "Heh, let's see what water ghost will contend with you?"
With that, she leaped up and kicked off the rock wall above, plunging into the water. Using the momentum and her internal energy to descend, she dived more than ten feet to the bottom. Guided by the startled fish, she noticed a light source in front of her to the right. Swimming closer, she saw a cave entrance. She lowered her head, passed through, and paddled to the surface.
From the horizontal and vertical movement of the fish and the presence of an undercurrent, Lin Chaoying inferred that the waterway must "hold other secrets." The map on the ceiling of the stone chamber was Wang Chongyang's second decoy, designed to mislead enemies into believing the secret passage had only one entry and exit.
Lin Chaoying emerged from the water to find a vast cave – was this the "Qinling Deep Cavern" that Guan Zumei had mentioned? Reaching a shallow beach, she looked around. Her first impression was that it bore a strong resemblance to the underground water cave at the Duke of Founding's mansion, just with a horizontal instead of vertical orientation. Then, her attention was drawn to a small wooden hut built on the left. Lin Chaoying started a fire to warm herself and dry her clothes. In the flickering firelight, she surveyed the long beach and the rock face to the right, where the excavated caves, completed or half-finished, were located. How much time and effort had he and his fellow righteous men invested in their construction? How many exciting, arduous, and sorrowful unforgettable years had they spent there? Now, witnessing it, I still feel regret and melancholy.
Looking back at the solitary, simple hut behind her, it was clearly built when he retreated in anger after his setback in Chuzhou. Standing on the steps of the hut, facing the scenery on the rock face, what pain, hatred, and loneliness must he have felt? It must have been the same solemn, lonely expression I saw at the shallow beach of the Duke of Founding's mansion. After tidying her attire, Lin Chaoying slowly approached the front of the house, slowly ascended the three steps made of stacked stones, and quietly padded across the platform to the door, as if afraid of startling anything inside. Pushing the door open, she entered. On the north side was a rock wall. She looked around and confirmed that the house was expanded from the wall. She surmised that upon his return here, he would have slept on the floor beneath the wall, wasting himself away. There was a bed beneath the wall, a wooden chest on the west end, and a table in the southeast. The situation was similar to his bedroom when she first entered the tomb, only here, there were more cobwebs and thicker dust. Judging by the state of the house, it seemed everything had stopped abruptly. Could it be because she first sought him out five years ago? Did he ever complain that his life was repeatedly disrupted by her?
Lin Chaoying took out her chisel and rolled away the cobwebs from the table. She sat down and picked up the piled-up scrolls on the table, reading them. They were all poems of venting anger or plans for reorganizing the army. Looking further down, she pulled out a thicker, more yellowed bundle on the left and began to read. A slight twitch crossed Lin Chaoying's lips. It indeed recorded the movements of the "Golden Child Swordplay." In addition to the sword techniques, there were also guidance for internal energy cultivation, accompanying pugilistic notes, and even instructions for throwing hidden weapons – a complete martial arts journal. Not yet satisfied, she continued searching. In the gap between the table and the wall, she found a narrower bundle. Pulling it out and reading it, she realized it was true!
Lin Chaoying's heart stirred. She suddenly realized that when she had provoked him to leave the tomb that day, the "things" he was rushing back to get were in this scroll, and she had mistakenly thought he didn't want her to go with him.
As she read the techniques on the scroll, her relief grew stronger. During the years she had searched for him, he had conceived methods for them to join forces here. This proved that the "Magic Peaks and Swords" was not just "random improvisation" as he claimed, nor was it her wishful thinking. Reading to the end, she saw his words, "One day, we shall walk the jianghu with our swords united." She couldn't help but cover the scroll and press it to her chest, her hands trembling, making it difficult to breathe. She tried her best to regulate her breathing, feeling the deep affection and shallow fate of their two lives.
The techniques on the scroll had no names. She gave each move a name. The ones on the thicker scroll were mostly inspired by patriotic sentiments against the enemy, while those on the narrower scroll originated from their past experiences with the Magic Peaks and Swords. She also inscribed "Golden Child Precious Scroll" at the beginning of the thicker scroll and "Golden Child Elixir Records Sword" at the beginning of the narrower scroll.