108 Maidens of Destiny

Chapter 16 – Solving The Riddle

- TL: AmeryEdge

- ED: LtBeefy

—

These four cultivators are really quite stingy, there wasn’t even a single Astral Bag on their bodies! This disappointed Shu Jing greatly.

Shu Jing did not have any interest in their various offensive weapons, nor did he care about the decorative jewellery on their bodies. At last, it seems like only Xun Tian Daoist possessed any wealth.

A Nebula stage Artifact “Dragon Binding Whisk”, some valuable Blood Stones, a bottle of “Qi Restoration Liquid”, a bottle of “All Grains Pills” and two pieces of “Clear Wind Talismans”, of which he had no idea how to make use of. Aside from that, there was also a compass, an introductory book on Legacies and an ancient map.

Opening up the ancient map, they found out a little information on Legacies.

There were several places circled on the map, as if to indicate they have already been explored. It seems like they were relying on this map to hunt for treasures.

“Even though Young Master failed to solve the Mountain Lake riddle, this wasn’t a wasted trip. This daoist priest is really quite considerate!” Lin Yingmei looked at the daoist who had died without closing his eyes and smiled chillingly. In her hand, the Arctic Star Serpent Spear that had its energy absorbed by the Thousand Threads Myriad Silk Binding Technique was glowing dim and pale.

Perhaps this was the reason behind the Majestic Star’s simmering anger.

“This Mountain Lake riddle isn’t actually that complicated.” Shu Jing smiled mysteriously.

The two girls seemed dumbfounded.

“Could it be that Young Master had successfully understood the meaning behind the riddle?” Lin Yingmei asked skeptically.

Song Lu also asked in alarm: “Young Master, are you joking around? You yourself said that you won’t be able to solve the problem that have taken others hundreds of years in the span of a few cups of tea.”

“It’s only a guess.” Shu Jing said while immediately heading out of the Legacy, “I don’t dare to claim to be sure yet. It’s so stuffy in here, let’s go outside for a bit.”

…

The Mountain Lake Valley was refreshing and relaxing, in contrast to the heavy ominous pressure inside the Legacy.

Shu Jing casually strolled through the quiet scenery, his expression serene.

The two girls followed behind him, confused. If Shu Jing really did figure out the riddle, he should be rushing off to grab the legendary top-tiered Soul Technique instead of nonchalantly walking like this.

After circling the valley several times, Shu Jing finally went towards a waterfall. He drank a mouthful of clear water and sat down on a nearby rock and began to quietly enjoy the relaxing sound of falling water.

“Young Master, in the end, what are you trying to do?” Song Lu stared at him incredulously.

Looking at the surrounding scenery, Shu Jing avoided her question. “Song Lu, let me ask you something.”

“Young Master, go ahead.” Song Lu’s seductive eyes were breathtaking as they focused towards Shu Jing.

Shu Jing however remained calm as he asked: “You said that this Mountain Lake Valley was named after the Legacy, so I just want to ask, was the Legacy named by that great monk himself?”

“I’m not too sure myself, but I did hear that after the Legacy was completely constructed, Song Clan Village suddenly heard the ringing of bells and drums that resonated a message in all of their minds, claiming that from then on the name of this place shall be Mountain Lake, and that’s where it got its name from.” Song Lu thought for a little while, then suddenly asked curiously: “Young Master, how did you know?”

“If that’s so, it seems like we have some hope.” Shu Jing laughed out loud and took off his outer coat, leaving only the undergarment on.

“Young Master, be careful of your injuries!” Even though Lin Yingmei seemed uncaring on the outside, her eyes couldn’t help but peek at the nearly naked Shu Jing.

On the contrary, Song Lu revealed a sensual smile: “Young Master, you want us to join you in a mixed bathing session?”

“You guys wait here.” Shu Jing spoke, then turned around and jumped into the lake.

In but a moment, Song Lu immediately saw his body appearing behind the waterfall. Before she could figure out what to think, Shu Jing suddenly flew high up onto the side of the waterfall cave walls, then using the surrounding, he made his way towards a tree branch.

Lin Yingmei couldn’t help but glance at him questioningly.

“What is Young Master up to?” Song Lu was still confused.

“The Young Master must have his own plans.” Lin Yingmei replied reservedly.

“Ah, could it be that he really did solve the riddle?” Song Lu’s voice was still laced in doubt.

Lin Yingmei’s expression shifted slightly, her eyes looking towards Shu Jing full of hope.

Song Lu however remained skeptical.

After some time, Shu Jing jumped down from atop the tree and began inspecting the ground underneath the water surface. Ten minutes later, there was suddenly an excited cheer coming from Shu Jing’s location.

“Found it!”

Shu Jing made his way back to the lakeshore and put his clothes back on. After spending so much time, he finally managed to find what he wanted inside the water: A strange-shaped rock.

“What does that have to do with the riddle?” Song Lu stared, her eyes questioning.

“Follow me.”

Shu Jing followed the shore towards the waterfall, this time with Lin Yingmei and Song Lu behind him.

Behind the waterfall, there were only the cave walls and nothing else.

“This is…” Lin Yingmei called out in a startled tone.

The Majestic Star really did have exceptional eyesight. With a glance, she was able to detect that there was a strange indent on the wall of the cave. If this was a normal situation, it wouldn’t really be anything special since strange shaped dents form in nature all the time. However, the peculiar thing was the dent had the same shape as the rock Shu Jing had retrieved from inside the river.

Shu Jing held the rock and jumped towards the indent and connected the two together. At that moment, there was a loud rumbling that echoed across the cave, and a huge hole suddenly opened up from the mountain side, shocking everyone standing there.

“Ah, there was such a contraption behind the waterfall!” Song Lu covered her mouth and looked at Shu Jing with reverence.

But that wasn’t all that was shocking about this situation. Stepping inside, they discovered a complex network of secret halls along with a massive sentence carved into the walls.

It was clearly the same familiar Mountain and Lake saying, but this time underneath it laid a small new sentence, “Congratulation on solving the riddle — Ming Jing!”

Right beneath the sentence there was a chest.

“Could it be!!!”

Lin Yingmei’s body shivered in excitement.

“Un, this is definitely the Technique left behind the great monk.” Shu Jing breathed out softly.

“Impossible, shouldn’t it be inside the Legacy?” Song Lu said in panic, “Why is it here?”

“Misdirection.” Shu Jing smiled.

“What?”

Song Lu could not decipher what he meant.

“What was your initial solution when you first heard the riddle?” Shu Jing asked her.

“Of course it meant that it was connected to the Mountain Lake Legacy.” Song Lu replied. In reality, all those who wish to solve the Mountain Lake riddle would have thought about the exact same place to begin.

“This was a deliberate misdirection.” Shu Jing explained: “Everybody was misled into thinking that the Mountain Lake Legacy was where the treasure resided, when in reality it was hidden right here!”

“But how did Young Master figure this out?” Song Lu frowned. Liangshan Continent’s Star Cultivators have had hundreds of years to figure this out, yet Shu Jing only required the time it took to make a few cups of tea.

This was almost too exaggerated.

“Based on the hidden intent.” Shu Jing smiled and replied. The Mountain Lake Legacy, its painting, carvings and writings are about mountains and lakes, even artificial mountains and lakes were built here, combining with everything else, Song Lu estimates that there was nearly twenty possible things that was connected to the riddle.

While other cultivators were wasting thinking about the connections between all of these things, Shu Jing immediately thought about how suspicious it was that all the Mountain Lakes imageries were so overtly obvious, as if they were designed to attract all the attention to themselves.

If he intentionally wanted to attract the attention of people towards a particular place, there could only be one reason: he wanted to hide the real location.

Shu Jing was not unfamiliar with this concept. The arts of war famously had Feint from the East and Attack from the West, even modern Air Force military use the concept of bait in warfare. Seeing the ruins inside the legacy and hearing about the countless people that have turned the place upside down searching it reinforced to him that the Legacy itself was simply a distraction. That’s why he had quickly lost interest after briefly looking through the Legacy.

“Young Master, how did you find out about the actual location?” Lin Yingmei did her best to reign in her turbulent emotions and asked. They were currently inside a waterfall hidden extremely well, there was also an invisible force hiding it from Divine Soul searches. People from the outside would definitely not be able to find this place.

“Of course thanks to the riddle.” Shu Jing answered: “See mountains as mountains, lakes as lakes, meaning not the Mountain Lake Legacy but the actual surrounding mountains and lakes. Hence, mountains truly as mountains, lakes truly as lakes.”

“Then what does the line “look at mountains not as mountains, lakes not as lakes” means?”

“Reflections!”

Shu Jing smiled.

Both Lin Yingmei and Song Lu widened their eyes.

“The Legacy will be nearby a waterfall, and based on the reflection of the lake, the answer will lie under water. The key itself will clearly still be difficult to find.”

Shu Jing gently explained it like it was an extremely simple matter. When they finished listening, Lin Yingmei who was always aloof and proud could maintain her composure, but Song Lu couldn’t help but shout excitedly.

“Young Master, you are too awesome, for the past hundreds of years no one in Liangshan Continent has managed to solve this riddle, but you already figured it out in a few hours. Isn’t that right, Yingmei?” Song Lu exclaims.

Lin Yingmei nodded.

“The architect of this entire riddle is the real formidable one here.” Shu Jing grinned, in contrast from the Relic Blade puzzle, this Mountain Lake Legacy contained no overwhelming ambush nor scary traps. Instead it was from beginning to end a psychological trick that played around with countless cultivator’s mind.

Indeed worthy of the title of Great Monk!

“Young Master, you are making this maiden dying to gift you her body in admiration.” Song Lu said shyly.

Shu Jing rolled his eye: “Let us see what the Great Monk had actually left behind for us first, and why it was hidden so carefully that it had made fools of all the cultivators for so long.”

“Good idea.” Even Lin Yingmei seemed to be anxious.

They looked at the surrounding, but aside from the chest there were no other items.

Shu Jing breathed in deeply, and observed the chest.

There was no locks nor secret mechanism on the chest, and one could simply push it opened easily.

Looking inside, both Lin Yingmei and Song Lu both stared at the chest in stunned silence.

Shu Jing spat out a curse toward the lying deceitful old man who was behind this.

Inside, there was nothing!

“But how could this be?” Lin Yingmei suspiciously held up the lid and quickly used her Divine Soul to search the chest.

There was nothing that seemed out of the ordinary.

“I never would have thought that the riddle was a sham in the end.” The Majestic Star spoke out angrily, frauds have always been the kind of people she hated the most.

Shu Jing carefully inspected the inside, but alas there was nothing he could collect. He could only shake his head in vain.

“Either somebody had already made it here before us, or we are simply the latest people to be fooled by this.”

“Could it be that aside from Young Master, somebody else also figured out the riddle?” Lin Yingmei asked coldly.

“It can’t be, if it was really solved, the key wouldn’t have remained inside the lake.” Song Lu hesitated.

“Forget it, if it’s simply not part our fate, then there’s nothing we can do even if we want to. Let us go.” Shu Jing calmly recollect himself from the mental blow, then turned around and walked away.

No anger nor regret, as if none of it happened.

His indifference caused both Lin Yingmei and Song Lu to feel moved.