Ringing the Bell for a Hundred Years, I Became the Sect’s Ancestor – Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Riddle

Li Qian, accompanied by Song Yingying, completed the registration procedures at the Odd-Job Hall.

“Cousin, I have been assigned to the Hundred Herbs Garden,”

Song Yingying said as she emerged.

“The Hundred Herbs Garden is quite good,”

Li Qian remarked.

Evidently, Song Yingying had made arrangements.

Among the various odd jobs, the Hundred Herbs Garden ranked highly within Divine Sword Sect.

“Cousin, if you need anything in the future, you can come find me at the Bell Tower,”

Li Qian said.

Song Yingying nodded gently.

After the Odd-Job Hall personnel escorted Song Yingying away, Li Qian also took the opportunity to collect his monthly stipend, supplies, and contribution points from the previous month.

Upon returning to the Bell Tower, Li Qian began to ponder the sentence left by Old Song in the letter.

“When the hourglass on the Bell Tower runs out, two rings at the Chen hour are worth a fortune.”

He ascended to the Bell Tower platform, gazed at the hourglasses, and contemplated for a long time, but he couldn’t grasp the meaning behind the words.

When the Shen hour arrived, Li Qian struck the Time Bell, a total of six rings.

Then he practiced the Sword-Piercing Fist.

Although he had stepped into the Internal Strength level, he could still continue to cultivate the Sword-Piercing Fist. Even though it was considered a basic martial arts technique, as long as he persisted in his practice, after opening up the Twelve Regular Meridians and then the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, he could further refine his Internal Strength and transform it into Internal Qi.

Once Internal Qi was cultivated, one would become a true Ranked Martial Artist.

Internal Strength could only injure someone with concussive force at close range, but Internal Qi could be released from the body and injure someone from a distance. The difference was immeasurable.

Internal Strength paled in comparison to Internal Qi.

It was like an ordinary person wielding firearms.

Cultivating the Eight Extraordinary Meridians was much more difficult than the Twelve Regular Meridians.

Many Odd-Job Disciples were stuck at the Eight Extraordinary Meridians and couldn’t become Ranked Martial Artists.

However, Li Qian had the Treasure Instrument Time Bell to aid his cultivation, so he was confident that he could open up the Eight Extraordinary Meridians within a year or two.

After finishing his practice, Li Qian felt refreshed. Cultivating under the stimulation of the bell sound yielded excellent results.

After the You hour passed, Li Qian had dinner and began to contemplate the meaning of those two sentences.

He paced around the Bell Tower platform for a long time but found nothing. He felt that he could only wait until the Chen hour tomorrow, perhaps then he might discover something.

The next morning.

It was an overcast day.

When the Chen hour arrived, Li Qian hurriedly struck the Time Bell.

Two rings in succession.

He ignored his Sword-Piercing Fist practice and instead began to carefully examine his surroundings.

But ultimately, he found nothing.

“Sigh, Old Song, why did you leave me such a riddle?”

Li Qian sighed inwardly.

Many days passed, and Li Qian still hadn’t made any discoveries. However, his cultivation progress was quite good. The first meridian of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, the Yang Linking Vessel, had already been partially opened by his Internal Strength.

He estimated that if he continued at his current cultivation speed, he should be able to open up the Eight Extraordinary Meridians within a year and a half at most.

“It’s a pity I don’t have an Internal Skill Manual,”

Li Qian felt a bit regretful.

According to Old Song, the Sword-Piercing Fist played a passive role in the process of opening up the meridians.

While an Internal Skill Manual played an active role, the efficiency of the two was incomparable, and it could save ten times the amount of time.

It was said that the most talented Formal Disciples would sense Qi from the first practice, open up the Twelve Regular Meridians within a few weeks, and cultivate Internal Qi within a few months.

It was another morning.

Today, the sun rose in the sky, promising a clear day.

Sweeping away the continuous overcast and rainy weather of the past few days.

Looking at the rising sun, Li Qian felt quite good.

As for solving the riddle, he treated it as mere amusement.

He would only study it when he had nothing better to do.

His true focus was on cultivation.

The opportunity left by Old Song might be useful to him, but with the System by his side, whether he had this opportunity or not didn’t make much of a difference.

Moreover, if the opportunity left by Old Song was truly that good, Old Song wouldn’t have remained an Odd-Job Disciple his entire life and even died mysteriously.

◈◈◈

He didn’t need to force himself to seek the so-called opportunity.

When the Chen hour arrived, Li Qian struck the Time Bell once again.

The two bell rings reverberated through the mountains and valleys.

As Li Qian steadily struck the bell, the sound of the bell echoed in his mind. Just as he was about to practice the Sword-Piercing Fist, his gaze swept across the hourglasses and landed on one in particular.

At this moment, all the sand in this hourglass had run out.

The reason Li Qian noticed this hourglass was that the sunlight was shining at an angle, partially blocked by the Time Bell, the shelves, and the striker. Almost all the hourglasses were either completely or mostly obscured.

Only this hourglass was fully illuminated by the sunlight.

Li Qian’s heart stirred. He walked over to the hourglass, squatted down, and carefully examined it.

“Eh, what’s this?”

Li Qian suddenly noticed something.

Under the sunlight, a faint mark appeared on the hourglass, looking like a drawing.

It would be difficult to see on an overcast day, or if the sunlight wasn’t directly shining on it.

Or perhaps, because the mark was too faint, it was easily overlooked.

He checked the other hourglasses, but none of them had such a mark.

He immediately scrutinized the drawing on the hourglass.

Finally, he copied the entire drawing onto a piece of paper.

“This seems to be a topographic map of the hill where the Bell Tower is located?”

Li Qian’s heart skipped a beat. He then stood on the Bell Tower platform and compared the drawing with his surroundings.

In the end, he confirmed that it was indeed a map of the Bell Tower’s location.

Because the location of the Bell Tower was also marked on it.

“Here?”

He moved his finger, finally landing on a specific spot.

This was the second marked location on the drawing, besides the Bell Tower.

Perhaps the opportunity mentioned by Old Song was hidden in this location.

With this thought in mind, Li Qian left the tower and went to the second marked location.

It was actually quite easy to find.

There was a large rock at the location, and a crooked tree grew out of a crack in the rock.

It was a very obvious landmark.

He walked to the base of the crooked tree and observed it. He found scars on the trunk from where it had been scraped, forming an arrow pointing towards the ground.

“Is this the mark left by Old Song?”

Li Qian was surprised.

Old Song was quite good at creating suspense.

He then looked around. Few people came to this side of the Bell Tower, and Chen Yong usually exercised in the afternoon.

But he still needed to be cautious.

Since the soil was compacted and covered with grass, Li Qian decided to return to the Bell Tower and retrieve a small hoe.

Soon, he dug a pit.

Clang!

Suddenly, the hoe seemed to hit something hard.

He quickly and carefully moved the surrounding soil.

After a while, he dug out a small box.

Was this the opportunity left by Old Song?

Li Qian’s heart stirred. Could it be a martial arts manual? Or pills?

But the box was too small, it probably couldn’t hold much.

He decided to open it on the spot.

As he opened the box, a folded piece of cowhide paper was revealed.

“Don’t tell me it’s a riddle within a riddle?”

Li Qian’s heart sank.