Chapter 15: Four-sided Stone Gate, Vote and Collect!

  Yang Feng followed the old man into his bedroom, and then saw the old man stop in front of a wall. He pressed his hands against the wall repeatedly until finally, after a soft click, a round opening slowly appeared on the wall. Inside the hole was a long stone staircase, with bright oil lamps on both sides above the stairs, illuminating the passageway exceptionally clearly.

  The old man nodded to Yang Feng and signaled him to follow, then walked inside. Yang Feng knew this must be related to the secrets of the Xijiang Miao people, so he followed too. The passage was very long and extended downward, and it wasn't until they reached a depth of who-knows-how-many meters that they finally arrived at a huge cave.

  As soon as Yang Feng entered the cave, he felt a scorching air current rushing towards him, making him feel like he was in a steamer. His whole body was instantly drenched in sweat, and then the sweat was evaporated by the rolling heat flow. Looking into the cave, Yang Feng saw that there was a huge pool at the very center of the cave, with red waves churning and bubbles constantly rising to the surface, and the hot air was coming from that pool.

  The cave is very spacious, estimated to be about the size of two football fields. On the stone walls around the cave are four stone gates, each with a large Miao ethnic character written on it. The translations of the four characters on the stone gates that Yang Feng saw one by one are "蛊，武，器，巫" (Gu, Wu, Qi, Wu).

  To the left of the cave entrance is a huge shelf, divided into several layers, each layer has many plaques, on which are written the names of the ancestors of the Xijiang Miao ethnic group, and on the topmost layer there is only one plaque, with the name Chi You.

  The old man brought Yang Feng in front of the tablets and then knelt down, Yang Feng saw the old man kneel down and also followed suit.

  "Our ancestors are above, the 365th generation of Jiuli tribe, Chi Zheng pays respects to our ancestors and wishes for their eternal protection of our Jiuli tribe!" The old man said to the ancestral tablet, and it was only then that Yang Feng finally knew the old man's name was Chi Zheng.

  Chī Zhèng finished speaking and then knocked his head nine times against the plaque above, Yáng Fēng saw the old man knocking his head, he also hurriedly knocked his head. After finishing knocking their heads, when he saw Chī Zhèng stood up, he followed suit and stood up as well. Then Chī Zhèng led Yáng Fēng towards the pool in the center that was emitting endless heat waves, it was only then that Yáng Fēng discovered a strange phenomenon - although it was very hot inside the cave, Chī Zhèng didn't have any sweat at all, whereas he himself had already circulated his inner energy using the Nine Yin Manual, yet he was still drenched in sweat. Could it be that his maternal grandfather was also a high-ranking martial artist?!

  Yang Feng suddenly thought of the first time he saw the old man, and the boundless aura he felt from the old man's body. He immediately felt that this possibility was very high, but why couldn't he feel the internal force circulating in his grandfather's body? This made Yang Feng extremely puzzled, but seeing that his grandfather had almost reached the side of the pool, Yang Feng didn't dare to delay, and quickly circulated the Nine Yin True Classics' internal force to its extreme, following closely behind.

  When Yang Feng arrived at the side of the pool, he saw that the water in the pool was emitting a rolling heat wave and was actually the same color as fresh blood. No wonder what he saw from afar was a red wave surging. And the pool water, like fresh blood, kept bubbling up, just like boiling hot water.

  Chī zhèng came to the edge of the pool and knelt down again, knocking his head nine times against the pool. Yang Feng saw his grandfather's appearance and also quickly knelt down to knock his head. After Chī zhèng finished knocking his head, he stood beside the pool, and only after Yang Feng finished knocking his head did he tell Yang Feng about the origin of this pool.

  "This is the blood pool transformed from the corpse of our ancestor Chi You, containing the sacred blood of our ancestor Chi You. Ordinary people who obtain a single drop will be invulnerable to swords and guns, and immune to all poisons!" Chi Zheng said to Yang Feng.

  Yang Feng secretly cursed to himself after hearing Chi Zheng's words, never expecting that the pool of blood would actually be real! And it was even Chi You's essence blood! This was a great thing, getting just one drop could make him invulnerable to swords and guns, and immune to all poisons. If he could get several drops, that would be even better! Thinking of this, Yang Feng's eyes suddenly shone brightly, wondering if he should try to get a few more drops to increase his own strength. However, Chi You's ancestor was really too powerful, having so much essence blood that the blood pool was as big as a basketball court. Even though the pool wasn't very deep, filling such a large pool would still require a lot of blood, and it didn't look like the pool was shallow either.

  "Are you thinking of using the ancestral blood, I think it's better to cancel this idea as soon as possible. Although it has been passed down through generations that just one drop of this ancestral blood can make a person invulnerable to swords and guns, and immune to all poisons, but there has never been a success story. Every generation of ancestors has tried to obtain the ancestral blood for the elites in the family to consume, but it has always ended up with these elites exploding and dying. The energy inside the ancestral blood is just too enormous, not something that ordinary people can handle!" Chi Zheng said, looking at Yang Feng's eyes shining brightly.

  Yang Feng was secretly shocked by Chi Zheng's words, and it turned out that the blood of Chi You was so formidable. It seemed that he should not have any ideas about it after all. Now that he had learned the Nine Yin Scripture and the Nine Yang Divine Skill, as long as he was willing to work hard, he would one day gain great power. Why bother with such trickery? Thinking this way, Yang Feng withdrew his gaze and stopped paying attention to the blood pool.

  He nodded in satisfaction after seeing Yang Feng's appearance, then brought Yang Feng to the stone gate with the word "蛊" on it among the four stone gates on the cave wall. After pressing for a long time, he finally opened the stone gate and entered. Inside, Yang Feng saw rows of bookshelves, each filled with various ancient books, all in traditional thread-bound editions, including even the oldest bamboo slips.

  "This four-sided stone gate contains the ultimate knowledge passed down from our ancestors, Chi You. The side with the '蛊' character is where our Jiuli tribe's Gu technique is recorded. The side with the '武' character records our Jiuli tribe's martial skills. The side with the '器' character contains the various divine weapons and insights forged by our ancestor Chi You. And the side with the '巫' character, it's said to contain something passed down from the first 12 ancestors of our Jiuli tribe, but I don't know what exactly, because even Chi You never opened that gate. Since Chi You's death, we Jiuli people can only open this Gu gate; the methods for opening the other gates have been lost." Chi Zheng was explaining to Yang Feng about the contents within the stone gate and the other three gates.

  Yang Feng looked at the books about Miao people's witchcraft inside the stone gate while listening to Chi Zheng's words, especially when he heard that the stone gate with the word "Wu" written on it was actually the battle skills of the Jiuli tribe, his eyes lit up again. The battle skills of the Jiuli tribe were absolutely good stuff, and the battle skills accumulated by Chi You leading the Jiuli tribe in the southern and northern wars must be extraordinary. However, when he heard that he couldn't open the stone gate, Yang Feng felt extremely disappointed. Looking at such a good thing but not being able to get it was truly a painful feeling.

  "We, the Xijiang Miao people, are all descendants of our ancestor Chi You, but only our family line is the direct lineage of Chi You's ancestors, and our bloodline is also the purest. Therefore, every generation's clan leader has been succeeded by the eldest son of our line. However, when it came to my generation, there was only your mother, a single daughter, and she had only one son, you. Originally, I intended to pass on the position of clan leader to your mother, so I began teaching her Gu techniques from a young age. Your mother is indeed a prodigy in Gu techniques, mastering all of them within less than a year! Your mother was my pride, but unexpectedly, she fell for that despicable scoundrel... Ah, my poor Ling'er!" Chi Zheng's face was filled with pride when talking about Yang Feng's mother, and Yang Feng could sense the love he had for his own mother.

  "Although your mother fell in love with that damned bastard, I didn't stop her either. Ling'er has always been a stubborn child since she was young, and once she makes up her mind, she never changes it. So I went along with Ling'er's wishes and let her be with that bastard. Who would have thought that the bastard would abandon your mother! Hmph, Yang family, you will definitely pay the price for this!"

  "Grandfather, rest assured, I will naturally take revenge for my mother's grievances. And as for how the Yang family treated me, I will make them pay the price for all of this!" Yang Feng clenched his fists and said to Chi Zheng.

  "It's no wonder you're Ling'er's good child, I believe you can definitely do it. However, for now, you need to master these Gu techniques first. Ling'er learned all the Gu techniques here in less than a year, and as her son, you must also achieve this!" Chi Zheng said to Yang Feng.

  Yang Feng nodded heavily after listening to Chi Zheng's words, then began to pick up a book that recorded the most basic Gu techniques and started reading. Chi Zheng saw Yang Feng start learning Gu techniques, a faint smile appeared on his face, and his wrinkled face seemed to relax, his somewhat hunched body also straightened slightly, then he walked outwards.

  It seemed like there was a mess yesterday, so I'm sending it again today.