Chapter 144 Ning Yuke's Choice
"Princess, after entering the cave, you will encounter five forks in the road. The leftmost one leads to life, and the rest lead to death."
"If you walk straight along the path of life, you will enter an ancient cave. Don't worry about anything else. There is an eight-diagram formation at the innermost part. There are eight gates: Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen, and Dui. There is a long sword inserted above each gate."
"Eight swords, four for life and four for death. Pulling out the right sword will bring you treasure, but pulling out the wrong one will trigger a mechanism that will cause thousands of arrows to pierce your heart."
"Among them, Qian, Li, and Xun are the dead gates, and there is one more dead gate left. The young master didn't say it."
The night was as dark as ink, and the forest was completely silent except for the rustling sound of trembling leaves and Zhang San's calm statement.
Ning Yuke glanced at the dark hole that seemed to swallow everything, and confirmed softly:
"That is to say, among the five hexagrams of Kun, Zhen, Kan, Gen, and Dui, four are life and one is death. I just need to not choose the only death gate, and it will be fine?"
"yes."
Zhang San nodded: "If the princess chooses the right one, she should be able to see the object that the young master wants appear in the world, and then she can just take it out."
"Okay, I understand."
Ning Yuke smiled, took the night pearl handed to her by Zhang San, tied a long rope around her waist, and walked to the entrance of the cave.
The night pearl was of course used for illumination, but the rope was not used to save her, but to pull her body out in case she died in the cave.
The pale moonlight shone through the gaps between the leaves and fell on everyone. Compared to the Freemasons who were all somewhat nervous, there was no sign of retreat on Ning Yuke's face.
Before she came, she had prepared herself mentally for the possibility of never returning, so she was not afraid at the moment. She just felt a little regretful about one thing -
Master Wei really didn’t come.
He shook his head gently and slowly walked into the cave.
The light of the night pearl became dimmer and dimmer, and soon disappeared from everyone's sight.
Not long after she entered, Wei Changtian slowly emerged from the darkness of the woods with a calm expression.
"Sir."
Zhang San came over and reported in a low voice: "The people in the palace haven't noticed it yet. Our people have been very careful along the way, so there shouldn't be any problems."
"Um."
Wei Changtian calmly ordered: "Send a few more fast-footed people to keep an eye on the movements in the palace. Once they find out that Ning Yuke is missing, they will definitely take action. Then notify me immediately."
"Understood."
Zhang San nodded and went to arrange this matter, while Wei Changtian looked at the rope extending from the cave entrance and swaying slightly, and sighed softly in his heart.
If possible, he didn't want Ning Yuke to die in the cave.
But unfortunately, I really couldn't remember which hexagrams in the last Bagua formation were the life gates.
According to the description in the original novel, it was a mistake for Xiao Feng to draw four swords in the Bagua Formation, but he survived the numerous traps with his extraordinary "strength", and finally obtained the "Ten Thousand Blades" and the "Star Scabbard".
Ning Yuke undoubtedly does not have the ability to survive after triggering the mechanism, so she must choose the escape route.
But even though Wei Changtian had read the original work several times, it was still difficult for him to remember such details.
He racked his brains just to eliminate the three wrong answers of "Qian, Li, and Xun", but he could not remember which hexagram the remaining death door was.
Alas, it all depends on Ning Yuke's luck . In the cave.
This cave is much larger than Ning Yuke had imagined.
Although the entrance to the cave is only half a person's height, it becomes much more spacious once you enter it, and the ground under your feet is not gravel or dirt, but tightly fitted stone steps.
However, the steps were covered with bones of various dead animals, which looked quite scary.
Is this the ancient cave? Why did so many animals die here? What exactly does Young Master Wei want? It would be a lie to say that she was not afraid. Ning Yuke could only distract herself by thinking about random things, while speeding up her pace and continuing to walk deeper along the stone steps.
The road became wider and wider, and there were fewer and fewer bones around.
She didn't know how long she had been walking before she finally stopped for the first time. The night pearl illuminated the five forks in the road ahead.
The five roads are almost identical except that they lead to different directions. Ning Yuke remembered what Zhang San had said, and took a step forward to take the only "way out" on the far left.
But at this moment, she suddenly discovered that there seemed to be a line of small words engraved on the stone slab under her feet.
"When heaven and earth come together, all things come into being; when yin and yang meet, changes begin."
Ning Yuke was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously began to think about the meaning of this.
She seemed to understand, not quite, and felt that what was said made sense, but also didn't make sense.
After a while, Ning Yuke hesitated for a moment and walked to the second road.
Sure enough, there was also a sentence engraved on the ground -
"When times change, things change. When things change, be prepared for change."
The third way also has -
“All things are one with me.”
Article 4
"When the eyes are open, the flowers are bright; when the eyes are closed, the flowers are silent."
The last one——
"Life and death are determined by fate, wealth and honor are determined by heaven."
There are five roads in total, and five sentences with different meanings.
If Ning Yuke were to choose, she would probably choose the last option, which is from the Analects of Confucius and represents the objective idealist viewpoint of "Life and death are determined by fate, wealth and honor are determined by heaven."
But if it were Wei Changtian, even if he didn't know the answer in advance, he would probably take the "life path" on the far left without hesitation.
The reason is simple, because this sentence is closest to the values of "objective materialism" that he has established through modern education.
"Da, da, da"
The sound of light footsteps was heard again. Ning Yuke did not act on her own, but went back to the leftmost fork in the road and walked up.
There was nothing unusual, indicating that this path was indeed the only way to survive.
There was silence all around, and the stone walls were as smooth as a mirror.
Holding the night-shining pearl, Ning Yuke continued walking along the path for about an incense stick of time. When he stopped for the second time, a huge stone cave several dozen feet long and wide suddenly appeared before his eyes.
The stone cave is shaped like an inverted bowl. The stone walls and floors are all blue-gray, smooth and lustrous, without a trace of spot or dust, and it actually looks a bit like it is made of jade.
And in the center of the stone cave is the Bagua Formation that Zhang San mentioned.
Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen and Dui.
There is a wooden sword inserted in each of the eight hexagrams, and their appearance and shape are exactly the same. It can be said that there is no difference except for their locations.
There were five sentences as a reminder at the fork in the road just now, but now... Ning Yuke took a deep breath and placed the night pearl on the ground. He walked around the Bagua formation and remembered what Zhang San said in his heart.
Qian, Li and Xun are the gates of death, and the remaining five gates are four of life and one of death.
Kun, Zhen, Kan, Gen, and Dui represent earth, thunder, water, mountain, and marsh in the Eight Diagrams. Four are life and one is death. That is to say, even if you choose randomly, there is only a 20% probability of choosing the death gate . Ning Yuke did not think for too long, or it seemed that he did not think at all.
She just walked around once, and then stopped at the Gen position representing "mountain", then reached out to grasp the hilt of the sword and pulled it out with force.
"Crack. Wow!!!"
The sound of the mechanism operating suddenly became louder, echoing throughout the stone cave in an instant.
(End of this chapter)
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