CHAPTER 38: CHAPTER 38: WORDS ON THE WALL

Ji Nanhong coughed for quite a while before she calmed down. As she looked around, she tried to stand up.

But as soon as she moved, she gasped sharply, her face turning deathly pale.

"My leg!" Ji Nanhong gritted her teeth against the searing pain, reaching out to check her leg, only to see her ankle swollen massively, her face turning even more grim.

Unable to move her legs, she endured the pain and sat on a rock, bending over to remove her shoes. Her face twisted harshly in the process, suggesting she was enduring intense pain.

Once she had taken off both shoes, Chen Guan noticed that both her feet were severely swollen, most likely with fractures or breaks in her foot bones.

"Thank you for saving me, what’s your name?" Ji Nanhong knew her condition better than Chen Guan. Her assessment was similar to his; her foot bones were definitely cracked, and the situation wasn’t great. Even though she had some medicine, recovery and regaining mobility wouldn’t be quick.

In a place like this, losing mobility and encountering a Secret Spirit was almost a death sentence.

"Chen Guan," Chen Guan answered.

"We are in a dangerous situation now, so I won’t waste words. My foot seems to be fractured, and my ankle bone is dislocated. I need to realign the bone before applying medicine. Do you know how to set bones?" Ji Nanhong asked directly.

Nowadays, bone setting is a part of the curriculum in the academy, and most students are expected to learn it. However, how well one learns depends on personal talent and ability.

"Yes, I can set your bones." Chen Guan crouched down, slowly extending his hand to hold Ji Nanhong’s left foot, swollen like a pig’s trotter.

As soon as he touched it, Ji Nanhong’s face paled several degrees, and her brows knitted together.

Chen Guan noticed she was bravely enduring the pain, but said nothing more. He carefully assessed the bone condition, asking her a few questions to confirm the dislocation.

"What’s your name?" Chen Guan asked while examining the bones.

"Ji... Ah..." Ji Nanhong barely uttered a syllable before crying out in pain. Chen Guan, moving swiftly, had already realigned the bone in her left foot. The pain was over in a moment.

Using the same technique, Chen Guan then realigned the bone in her other foot as well.

"You learned bone-setting well." Ji Nanhong praised as Chen Guan’s technique was methodical and precise, reducing the pain in her feet considerably. Such a smooth bone-setting technique clearly took significant effort to master.

"It’s alright," said Chen Guan. "Do you have medicine for bone injuries? If not, I have some here, though it’s not the best quality."

"I have some, could you help me apply it?" Ji Nanhong handed the medicine to Chen Guan.

Seeing it was a very reputable brand, with each bottle being quite valuable, Chen Guan realized Ji Nanhong likely came from a distinguished family.

After applying the medicine, Chen Guan bandaged her foot, and neither of them felt like chatting much. Instead, they observed their surroundings carefully, fearing a Secret Spirit might suddenly appear.

There were definitely Secret Spirits here, at least the Corpse King would be present.

Even after Ji Nanhong’s foot was treated, no Secret Spirits appeared, allowing both of them to breathe a sigh of relief.

"What level are you at now?" Ji Nanhong asked Chen Guan.

"Level six," Chen Guan replied honestly.

Ji Nanhong sighed inwardly; level six was indeed too low. If the Corpse King launched an attack, Chen Guan wouldn’t be much help; she’d have to bear the brunt herself.

But her foot couldn’t move right now, and confronting the Corpse King directly seemed a dangerous prospect.

Ji Nanhong was contemplating her last resort when she suddenly noticed the light around them growing stronger, soon becoming as bright as if an electric light had been turned on. She quickly raised her head to look at the source.

Seeing what it was, Ji Nanhong’s eyes widened in disbelief, with a look of delight surpassing fear.

Chen Guan also looked at the source of the light, discovering it emanated from a stone wall, where lines of ancient script gleamed.

The light illuminated the surrounding underground chasm, clear seawater and the rocky ceiling could be seen, while further beyond remained pitch black. He couldn’t tell how large the place was, but the seam above appeared like a fine line from their perspective.

Chen Guan guessed that the distance from this place to the surface was likely over a thousand meters.

"Is this the ’Secret Technique’?" Chen Guan muttered, looking at the ancient script on the wall, attempting to memorize it.

He had studied calligraphy, and ancient script was one of the primary forms he’d learned, so he recognized the characters, memorizing them quickly, word by word.

Glancing at Ji Nanhong from the corner of his eye, he saw her intently focusing on the script, clearly memorizing it as well. He thought, "Ji Nanhong isn’t surprised to see these characters here. Does she know about the ’Secret Technique’? Did she know before coming here, or did she discover something on the island? Wang Lian said his elders destroyed the inscribed monument, later generations shouldn’t know about this. Unless apart from that stele, there are other places on the island recording the ’Secret Technique’?"

The script on the stone wall consisted of four or five thousand characters, and they hadn’t fully memorized it before the light dimmed and eventually extinguished entirely, returning everything to darkness.

After a while, their eyes adjusted, allowing them to see some faint glowing corals underwater.

"Did you remember those characters?" Ji Nanhong asked Chen Guan nonchalantly.

There were too many characters; she hadn’t managed to remember them all, probably just over a thousand. Though she had glimpsed some of the rest, they weren’t deeply memorized.

She doubted Chen Guan remembered more than her, but there was still a chance.

Ji Nanhong knew that the "Secret Technique" offered more benefits the more one remembered.

"I only remembered part of it. Those characters seem to be a cultivation technique. Why would a cultivation technique be inscribed here? It must have been done by someone. So, someone must have been here long before us, and we might have a chance of surviving." Chen Guan said deliberately.

Ji Nanhong could only smile wryly and shake her head: "The person who inscribed those characters probably wouldn’t leave a way out for others, unless we can find our own way out."

"Do you know who left those inscriptions?" Chen Guan asked Ji Nanhong, looking surprised.

Ji Nanhong didn’t answer, instead focusing on recalling what she remembered, reinforcing her memory, in case she forgot later.

Seeing no response from her, Chen Guan focused on recalling his own memorized portion.

The part of the ’Secret Technique’ from the Seven Treasure Glaze Tree was an incomplete and fragmentary cultivation method, essentially useless.

The part on this stone wall, however, was not a continuation but an independent section of the cultivation method, usable for training on its own. This completeness made Chen Guan question if the glowing characters were indeed the ’Secret Technique’.