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

Aygul returned to Longyin Mountain before dawn.

Her lightness skill was even stronger than Ye Chen had expected. From Jiangcheng to Longyin Mountain's Dragon Head Peak, most of which consisted of mountain paths and cliffs, she only took less than two hours.

When she appeared in front of the Zhenlong Pagoda, the moon had not yet completely set, hanging obliquely on the mountain ridge, and it was still dark everywhere.

Ye Chen was sitting cross-legged on the Dragon Head Raising Boulder with his eyes closed, regulating his breathing.

Hearing footsteps, he opened his eyes and saw Ayiguli running towards him from the direction of Longjingpo. Her black night clothes were covered with dew and grass clippings, her hair was messed up by the mountain wind, and her face was covered with a veil, but her breathing was still steady, with only a little sweat on her temples.

"Ye Chen, I got it." She stopped in front of Ye Chen, took out the jade pendant from her bosom, and handed it over.

Ye Chen accepted the jade pendant.

Her body was warm to the touch, and still carried the scent of Jiang Ruoxi.

Ye Chen held the jade pendant, feeling as if he were holding the hand of someone far away.

After a moment of silence, Ye Chen asked softly, "How is she? Did everything go smoothly?"

"Your wife is much stronger than I imagined." Aygul took off her veil, sat down on the stone steps in front of the tower, and tidied her disheveled hair.

"She believed me as soon as she saw the jade pendant. Without asking any questions, she handed the pendant to me and said that if I didn't return safely, she would deduct three years' salary from my salary and never eat my braised pork ribs again."

Ye Chen paused for a moment, then burst out laughing. His laughter echoed through the valley in the early morning, startling the copper bells on the eaves of the tower into a tinkling sound.

Ye Chen looked down at the jade pendant in his palm, his gaze as gentle as a pool of spring water under the moonlight.

Then he carefully put the jade pendant away from his body, stood up, stretched his shoulders and neck, and straightened his expression.

"It's almost dawn. We only have less than half an hour of light left. Your adoptive father said that the Dragon Heart is in the middle of the cliff below Dragon Neck Slope. You and I have passed by there twice and found nothing unusual."

Ye Chen pondered for a long time and concluded that the entrance was in a place where the moonlight could not reach, and it would only appear at a specific time and angle.

The moon hasn't set yet, and the angle is different from last night, so we might be able to see it.

Aygul nodded, stood up from the stone steps, and the short knife at her waist made a soft sound as it struck the stone surface.

The two walked back along the way they came and returned to the narrow ridge on both sides of Longjingpo.

The night wind was much calmer than the night before, and the mist in the valley began to rise, a vast expanse of white, slowly surging up from the abysses on both sides, like the earth breathing before dawn.

Ye Chen stood in the middle of the ridge, looking down. The cliff was sheer and bottomless, with only mist slowly swirling around it.

The moonlight was already slanting sharply, shining on the cliff face and casting a play of light and shadow on the uneven rocks.

"Dragon Heart... Dragon Heart..." Ye Chen moved slowly along the ridge, his gaze constantly scanning the cliffs on both sides.

Su Youdao left a message saying, "The heart of the dragon cannot be opened without jade."

My uncle's words indicate that there is a door here that can only be opened with a jade pendant.

But what about the entrance? If the entrance isn't on the ridge, is it halfway up the cliff?

When Ye Chen reached the middle of the ridge, he stopped.

There was an extremely thin crack on the bluestone ground beneath his feet, less than half an inch wide. It would be impossible to notice unless one deliberately bent down to look closely.

The crack was winding and twisting, as if it had been stretched open from below by something. It extended along the ridge for more than two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters) and was of uniform width, unlike a naturally formed fault.

What bothered him even more was that the crack was located at the highest point of the ridge. Standing in this position and looking to both sides, there was Dragon Head Peak on the left and the main peak on the right, with the provincial capital shrouded in a thick fog in the distance.

Looking from both sides, the terrain of Longyin Mountain converges and then disperses here, resembling the high-rising spine of a giant dragon.

"This is it." Ye Chen squatted down and felt along the crack with his fingers.

He channeled a wisp of internal energy into his fingertips and slowly traced it along the crack.

As he passed the midpoint, a very subtle warmth suddenly came from his palm.

He opened his palm, and the jade pendant emitted a faint light in his hand, as if it had been awakened by something.

"The jade pendant is getting hot." Ye Chen lifted the jade pendant and removed it from his palm.

In the dim light of the moon and mist, the patterns engraved on the jade pendant glowed with a faint golden light, spreading outwards from the center of the pendant as if mercury were flowing within the jade.

The light grew brighter and brighter, shining through the surface of the jade pendant and onto the crack beneath their feet.

The moment the light spot fell on the crack, a dull, resonant sound of machinery turning came from within, deep and lingering, as if something that had been dormant for hundreds of years had awakened at that moment.

The bluestone ground beneath my feet began to tremble slightly, and the cracks expanded to both sides at a visible speed. Gravel and soil fell into the cracks and were blown away by the cold wind surging up from below.

The bluestone slab with its finely engraved patterns slowly sank down, then slid to one side, revealing a square passage that extended downwards.

The entrance to the passage was about three feet square, allowing only one person to pass at a time.

Looking down, there was a row of neat stone steps, each one polished smooth as a mirror, and glistening with a faint bluish-gray light after being dampened by the mist.

Deep within the passage, a faint, pale blue light flickered, like eyes quietly opening in the darkness.

Aygul murmured softly, her voice filled with amazement, shock, and a sense of relief that she had finally waited for this day: "The Heart of the Dragon Gate, you have finally found it."

"I didn't find it; the jade pendant did." Ye Chen put the peace jade pendant into his pocket, looked at the dark entrance of the passage, and took a deep breath.

An extremely strong medicinal fragrance permeated the air, slowly emanating from the depths of the passage. The aroma was refreshing, and even the lingering stagnation in the meridians of my right arm seemed to dissipate somewhat: "This is the Nourishing Fragrance from the Medicine King Valley's medicinal fields. It has been sealed for at least three hundred years and is very well preserved inside. The mechanisms may still be functioning. Once we're down there, stick close to me and don't touch anything. Although I've never been inside an ancient tomb like this before, I know the Medicine King Valley's manual on mechanisms by heart."

"Have you been to similar ancient tombs?" Aygul walked behind him, her hand on the hilt of her sword, her breathing as steady as a veteran about to go into battle.

Ye Chen turned around and gave her his signature bright smile, revealing a set of white teeth: "No, but studying well is better than studying nothing. Come on, niece, let's see what our ancestors from Medicine King Valley have left for future generations."

Aygul simply nodded slightly and followed behind him, the two of them stepping onto the stone steps leading underground.

Shortly after they entered the passage, the bluestone slabs overhead silently closed, shutting out the moonlight and morning mist.

Calmness returned to Longjing Slope, as if nothing had happened.

Only the wind in the valley was still blowing, dispersing the lingering medicinal fragrance at the entrance of the passage into the pre-dawn mist.

The eastern horizon grew brighter and brighter; the morning sun rose, and a new day began.

Jiang Ruoxi was still waiting in the villa when her phone screen on the table suddenly lit up with a message that contained only one sentence:

"My dear wife, don't worry, I'll be back soon."