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

After the blue flames dissipated, the cave was as cold as an ice cellar.

Ye Chen instructed Han Song to take two men to guard the entrance to the newly opened passageway at the back, telling them not to go in, but just to keep watch.

He, along with the ghost servant and Ayiguli, searched the cave hall carefully. Jiang Ruoxi folded the plum-patterned handkerchief, tucked it close to her heart, and followed behind him.

She squatted down and picked up the pieces of paper that were half-burnt, one by one, wrapping them in the silk she carried with her, her movements light and steady.

Ye Chen knew she was upset, so he didn't stop her. He just took out a small cloth bag from his pocket and handed it to her: "Keep this for now. When we get back, let Master Su take a look. Maybe he can find something out from these papers."

He walked to the spot where Wen Jiuhong had been standing and squatted down to examine the ground.

The dark blue stone slab was covered with a layer of frost-like white ash, traces of being burned by the cold, yin fire.

Although Wen Jiuhong only burned one wooden box, the fire was extremely yin, and the ground within a radius of two zhang under his feet was soothed and changed color.

Ye Chen rubbed the layer of white ash with his finger, put it under his nose and smelled it; it had a very faint almond scent.

He frowned, took two steps to the side, and sure enough, found a small piece of unburnt bluish wax in a very inconspicuous crevice.

The wax block had been flattened into a flat piece, with faint fingernail marks on it, as if someone had deliberately hidden them there.

"There's a note." Ye Chen used a silver needle to peel off the wax sheet, revealing a small piece of oil paper as thin as a cicada's wing. Unfolding it, he saw several lines and dots drawn on it with extremely fine ink.

Ye Chen looked at it for a few seconds and suddenly said, "It's a map of the underground water veins of Longyin Mountain. It's about 70% similar to the one in Jiang Yuanshan's notes, but there are three more dots. Wen Jiuhong isn't here to burn things; he's here to find someone. These three dots are very likely the three ventilation openings of the secret passage that Heishui dug back then. If they open it from the outside, the earth energy of Longxin Ancient Cave will leak out, and it might even collapse the entire Longyin Mountain."

Ghost Servant took the map and looked at it, his face darkening. "He left this map for us before he left. It's clear he wanted us to know that he dug a tunnel in the shadows. If you go to the main headquarters to chase him, he'll have the tunnel blown up, and Dragon Hidden Mountain will still be in danger. This is worse than kidnapping and murder."

Jiang Ruoxi stood up, her voice slightly strained: "Can those three ventilation openings be sealed off?"

Ye Chen said, "Yes, but we need to find people who understand earth veins, at least two. One should block it from the inside, and the other from the outside. Then we need to use a variation of the Life-Giving Array to return the leaked earth energy to its original position. Master Su understands this best."

Jiang Ruoxi nodded: "I'll contact her right away."

Ye Chen said, "I've already sent out the message. Master will arrive no later than tomorrow. We'll stay here tonight and not go anywhere."

The group then kept watch in the cave hall all night.

Han Song led his men to take turns at the entrance of the passageway, while Ye Chen sat cross-legged by the fire, closing his eyes to regulate his breathing.

The lingering warmth of the pile of cold, yin fire was still somewhat chilly, but Ye Chen sat there as if he were sitting in his own backyard, protecting Jiang Ruoxi by his side.

Jiang Ruoxi leaned on his shoulder, barely sleeping, clutching the handkerchief in her hand, and spoke intermittently to Ye Chen about her mother.

She talked about the magnolias in Meixi, the plum blossom cakes her mother made, and how the day before her mother passed away, she called her to her bedside, put a small string of copper coins in her palm, and said with a mix of tears and laughter, "Ruoxi, when you grow up, you must marry someone who can protect you."

Ye Chen listened very softly, only responding with a soft sound, and placed his hand on the back of her hand.

Su Qinghan went up the mountain as soon as it was light.

This time, she didn't go through the Qiao family's old residence, nor did she ask anyone to pick her up. She carried a small medicine box on her back and took a shortcut up the mountain from the south. Her shoes were covered with wet mud, and dew clung to the ends of her hair.

She went into the cave and first walked to the area where the ground had been burned white. She reached out and touched it, and then looked at the oil paper map that Ye Chen had found.

After reading it, she gave a rare cold laugh: "Wen Jiuhong's move wasn't aimed at you, but at breaking the earth veins of Medicine King Valley. The Cold Yin Fire is something that is only used in some old tombs in the south, a fire burned for show. He deliberately lit a pile here to create a false death effect on the life-giving array in the ancient cave, forcing the earth veins to move into those secret passages. Once you all rush into the cave hall, the people outside can take advantage of the chaos to crawl under the three ventilation shafts. He's not aiming to fight, but to escape. He calculated that you won't be able to care about the outside world."

Ye Chen and Jiang Ruoxi both understood.

Su Qinghan took out three tiny silver bells from the medicine box and handed them to Ye Chen: "Tie these three bells to the earth vein node closest to the ventilation opening. When the wind comes in from outside, the bells will ring. I'll go outside and check the terrain. If Wen Jiuhong's people still dare to dig tunnels in the mountains, I'll make sure they never come out."

Ye Chen took the bell and, along with the ghost servant and Han Song, went to find the three locations.

The cave was extremely dark and had many forks in the road, but Ye Chen was now very familiar with the terrain of the Dragon Heart Cave. Following the oil paper map, he found two places in no time.

The third location was deeper in the passageway. Just as Ye Chen tied the silver bell, he suddenly heard a muffled sound coming from a very far place overhead, like someone had set off a cannon in the mountains.

Then, a thin gust of cold wind leaked in from the crack in the stone, making the silver bell ring.

The three of them looked up at the same time, and the ghost servant said in a deep voice, "They are still outside the mountain. I will go after them."

Ye Chen grabbed him and said, "No need to chase after him. If the sound of that bell gets out, Master will take care of it."

He looked at the silver bell, which was still swaying gently, its sound extremely crisp, as if it were raging on behalf of the mountain.

When the group returned to the cave hall, Su Qinghan had already returned.

She placed the medicine box on the stone platform and was taking Jiang Ruoxi's pulse. Seeing Ye Chen enter, she didn't even look up: "I sealed the two gun holes outside the cave with poisonous vines, and the other one is at the bottom of the cliff and can't come up. This time, it wasn't Wen Jiuhong's men who came, but the Mountain-Piercing Ghosts from the main headquarters who are in charge of digging. Those people dig tunnels extremely fast, but they are most afraid of poisonous smoke. I lit three piles of bewitching smoke, and those people should be running down the mountain with their heads in their hands right now."

After listening, Ye Chen smiled and said, "Master is still the best. I still have a lot to learn from you."

Su Qinghan glanced at him: "You're not bad either. You're not like your father back then, rushing into fire at the first sign of trouble."

Ye Chen touched his nose and remained silent.

As Jiang Ruoxi watched the master and apprentice bickering, the chill that had been pressing down on her since last night was somewhat dispelled.

She handed the scraps of paper she had picked up to Su Qinghan.

Su Qinghan took the paper and examined it carefully under the lamp for a long time before slowly saying, "These papers are account pages left by Jiang Yuanshan back then. They are not ordinary accounts, but feng shui charts he consulted for others. They contain the location of the old Meixi residence and a topographical map of Jiangxin Island. The half that Wen Jiuhong burned is probably the key. However, this handkerchief was not completely burned, which means that Han Yin Huo did not really intend to burn anything, but only to destroy the writing on the paper. The writing is gone, but the map is still there. Ruoxi, your father may have marked some road signs on this plum blossom patterned handkerchief back then."

Jiang Ruoxi was taken aback and took the handkerchief out again.

Upon closer inspection, the plum blossom pattern on the handkerchief did indeed appear somewhat unusual.

Hidden among the flower branches are extremely faint lines with different stitches, some of which have been covered by blood and ash. But when illuminated by the phosphorescent light in the cave, they look like a densely woven star map.

Jiang Ruoxi raised her head and looked at Ye Chen.

Ye Chen was also looking at her, and the two of them said at the same time, "Let's go to Meixi."

Su Qinghan nodded: "Go to Meixi, find what you need to find, and then it won't be too late to go to the main headquarters."