Unparalleled medical and martial arts skills, saving the CEO's fiancée at the start.

Dragon Head Peak was much more precipitous than Ye Chen had imagined.

As you walk to the end of the ridge at Longjingpo, the terrain rises sharply, and the originally relatively gentle ridge turns into an almost vertical cliff in the last few dozen meters.

A row of shallow stone steps was carved into the cliff, only wide enough for half a foot. Over the years, they have fallen into disrepair, and the edges of many of the steps have weathered and cracked, making it impossible for them to support a person's weight.

Aygul walked ahead, her figure as light as a black lynx, each step precisely landing on the most solid part of the stone steps, making almost no sound.

Her skill in light-footed movement was indeed extremely high; even with an injury to her left shoulder, she climbed this level of cliff effortlessly.

Ye Chen followed behind, climbing while secretly comparing in his mind that her movements were agile enough, but not as unpredictable and unpredictable as the Ghost Shadow Step.

Her lightness skill is extremely fast, but for long-distance running, it may not be as fast as the Lingyun Step.

If they were to actually fight, he might not lose to her in open terrain, but on this woman's home turf, on the narrow ridges and steep cliffs, her advantages would be magnified infinitely.

Once you reach the top of the cliff, a breathtaking view suddenly opens up before you.

The summit of Longtou Peak is a platform about the size of a basketball court. The ground was carved out by the ancients and is paved with large blocks of bluestone bricks, which remain perfectly sealed after hundreds of years of wind and rain.

In the very center of the platform stands the Zhenlong Pagoda, a three-story structure built entirely of bluish-gray granite, with a simple and dignified appearance and no excessive or complicated decorations.

The giant rock in front of the tower, resembling a dragon raising its head, sits at the very south end of the platform, facing the direction of the provincial capital.

The stone surface was as smooth as a mirror. When the moonlight shone on it, it reflected a hazy white light, truly resembling a huge jade disc lying flat on a dragon's head.

Ye Chen walked to the front of the boulder and found that the surface of the stone was not naturally smooth, but had been polished with extremely fine techniques. There were also some fine and intricate patterns carved on it, but unfortunately most of them had been eroded by wind and rain and were not very clear.

"Dragon Suppressing Pagoda... Dragon Raises Its Head..." Ye Chen circled the boulder twice, looked up at the moon in the night sky, and then looked down at the moonlight reflection on the boulder, his mind racing.

Ye Chen pondered, could it be that the moonlight, through some structure of the Zhenlong Pagoda, projected light spots onto this stone, thus marking the location where the rubbing was hidden?

Aygul stood in front of the tower, looking up at its structure. Upon hearing this, she gently shook her head: "No, it doesn't seem like it. The riddles left by my adoptive father were never so deliberately mysterious. He once said that the true answer is often hidden in the most obvious place, but people always like to complicate it."

Ye Chen frowned, then suddenly remembered something and looked up sharply at the top of the tower.

Under the eaves of the third floor of Zhenlong Pagoda hangs a plaque with three characters written on it, but the moonlight is too dim to see them clearly.

Ye Chen took a few steps back, adjusted his angle, and carefully examined the inscription on the plaque.

"Lingxu Pavilion".

"That's right." Aygul's voice remained cool, but the last syllable rose slightly, clearly carrying a hint of excitement.

"Dragon hidden in the city" refers to this mountain, and "Jade appearing in the sky" refers to the Lingxu Pavilion on the mountain.

But if it were that simple, the rubbing would have been found long ago.

My adoptive father once said that the jade pendant was the key; without it, we wouldn't even be able to find the door, let alone the treasure's location.

Upon hearing this, Ye Chen's heart stirred. He reached out and touched the things he kept close to his body. Before coming to the provincial capital this time, he had brought the jade token and the sect leader's token with him, but he had not brought Jiang Ruoxi's peace jade pendant.

The jade pendant was currently hanging around Jiang Ruoxi's neck.

Uncle Su Youdao's letter clearly stated that the key to the rubbing from Longyin Mountain was the Peace Jade Pendant.

Without the jade pendant, even if the location is found, it cannot be opened.

"The clues match up, but I didn't bring the key." Ye Chen smiled wryly, clenched his fist, and patted the edge of the Dragon Head Rock with some annoyance.

"What do we do now? Come back another day?" Aygul looked at Ye Chen.

"I can't possibly go back now to get the jade pendant and then come back. Not to mention how much time that would take, tonight's trip has already been exhausting enough. Ruoxi can't contact me, I wonder how worried she is."

Ye Chen took out his phone and found it was out of battery. He guessed that Jiang Ruoxi was already anxiously looking for him.

Aygul glanced at him, but didn't reply. Instead, she slowly walked towards Taji.

She crouched down and used her fingers to push aside the dead branches and fallen leaves piled up beside the base of the tower, revealing a stone tablet covered by vines.

The stone tablet is about two feet high and is covered with inscriptions, the characters of which are so faded that they are difficult to read.

She examined the text line by line by the moonlight, and stopped abruptly when she reached the bottom few lines.

"There are words here, but they are not ancient inscriptions. They were carved on later, and they are my adoptive father's handwriting."

Ye Chen rushed over in three steps and crouched down to get close to the stone tablet.

Sure enough, beneath those mottled and ancient inscriptions, someone had carved out a line of small characters with a sharp tool. The characters were slender and powerful, deeply embedded in the stone, and although covered with a layer of moss, they were still clearly legible.

"My brother Yuanshan and I have climbed the tower three times, but there is another world inside the pavilion, and it is not to be entered lightly. If any descendant of the Jiang family brings jade here, burn three sticks of incense and kowtow nine times, and the skylight will open by itself. If you do not know the proper way, do not force it. Remember this."

Ye Chen read the passage three times, then looked up at Ayiguli.

Under the moonlight, their shadows were stretched long and slanted, overlapping on the bluestone ground, like two old friends who had been separated by twenty years, finally reuniting in front of the same text.

"The heart of the dragon is not its head," Ye Chen said slowly as he stood up.

"The dragon raising its head is only the first step. What your adoptive father is talking about is the dragon's heart, the heart of this mountain's dragon vein. Going up from the Dragon Neck Slope is the Dragon Head Peak, and going down is the Main Peak. The dragon's heart is between the two peaks, which is below the Dragon Neck Slope we just passed, in the middle of the cliff."

Aygul's face showed the first noticeable change in expression that evening—not fear, nor excitement, but a sense of realization and relief as if her innermost thoughts had been touched.

She looked at Ye Chen and whispered, "My adoptive father said to find the new successor of Medicine King Valley and bring this message to him. Now that you're here, the jade pendant is still on Jiang Ruoxi."

"We'll talk about the jade pendant later. I'll go down the mountain first, call home, and then come back with the jade pendant."

Ye Chen suddenly remembered his promise to Jiang Ruoxi; he mustn't let her get away with it when he returned this time...

Aygul nodded, then, as if remembering something, called out to him, "Ye Chen."

"Um?"

"If you trust me, I'll go back to Jiangcheng now to retrieve the jade pendant." Her gaze was earnest, bright, and clear, like snowmelt from the Tianshan Mountains.

"Is the shoulder injury serious?" Ye Chen asked tentatively.

"It's nothing. I know where Jiang Ruoxi lives. With my lightness skill, I can bring the jade pendant back before dawn. You can stay here and continue to study the route to climb the tower and enter the pavilion. I will be back before dawn. However, Jiang Ruoxi may not believe me. You'd better give me a token."

Ye Chen thought for a moment, then took out Su Youdao's personal jade token from his pocket and handed it over: "This is my martial uncle's jade token. Ruoxi has seen it before. Take this and briefly explain what happened tonight to her. Although she is suspicious, she will believe you when she sees this jade token."

Aygul took the jade pendant, carefully put it close to her body, nodded to him, and turned to walk back the way she came.

Her figure grew smaller and smaller in the moonlight, like a night bird skimming over Longjing Slope and disappearing into the night.

The heart of the dragon cannot be opened without jade.