Chapter 414 (1/2)

You Can Try

This regular cliff face was a stone door!

How could there be a stone door here?

There was only one answer. They were here.

Gongjia Heng’s hands were shaking as he pushed the door open. He was so emotional he barely could push it so he had to calm himself down first.

Shao Xuan did not help him. If it was a regular door, he would but this was most likely the stone door leading to Gongjia Mountain. This should be a task left for a true Xia person, it was their pride and honour too.

So Gongjia Mountain wasn’t beyond the valley, it was in the valley1

When the stone door was opened, a gust of cool breeze blew from inside.

As they peered inside, it was pitch black.

Gongjia Heng did not care, hurrying inside. Shao Xuan followed him.

When they entered, Heng closed the door once again.

With the glowing crystal, there was no need to light a fire. There was no firewood anyway.

After they entered, Gongjia HEng did not speak. He just walked ahead quickly down a tunnel. He had been looking for this place for twenty years, it was understandable that he was overwhelmed with emotion.

Shao Xuan walked with him for about thirty minutes. The breeze in the tunnel smelled like flowers.

There was light ahead. They were arriving at the end of the tunnel.

When they walked out, there was a place completely different from Xia valley. It looked like a regular valley, plus a stream flowed through it. On both sides of the stream were all kinds of plants, Shao Xuan saw many edible plants, and also fruit trees!

This was where the Xia people once stayed!

Not far away was a three-meter-tall bell. Not sure how long it had been there. There was a lot of dust and sand covering it so they could not see what it looked like.

Gongjia Heng walked over and picked up the bell hammer next to it. He hit the bell.

Clang!

A bright yet graceful sound echoed across the valley as if it had its own rhythm and melody. The notes rose and fall, announcing the arrival of yet another Xia person.

As the bell vibrated, all the dust and sand were shaken off. Its true form was revealed.

It was just a bronze bell, though it was almost a golden colour. It was bright and smooth with no traces of rust. There were words and images carved on it, the largest characters read-- ‘Gongjia Valley’.

There was still a ringing across the valley. At this moment, Gongjia Heng, standing next to the clock, let out a hearty laugh at the skies as if he had gone mad. When he was finally done laughing, he put down the clock’s hammer and looked around.

The mountains around were not as steep or bald as the ones at Xia valley. There were creepers and flowers blooming on cliff faces here.

These reflected rays made the valley more mysterious.

“Twenty years! Haha! It has been twenty years! I finally found it!”

Gongjia Heng followed the face of that cliff and found a bronze door. When he pushed it open, he first saw eighteen shiny bronze statues about five meters tall. Every bronze person’s posture, clothing and weapon in their hands were different. They held an axe, dagger, spear, sword, knife, bow, crossbow, arrow. The ones that held protective gear included armour, a shield etc. Anyone in this industry would know that many of these were ancient.

There were carvings on the walls around them too. They were words left by the Xia ancestors for their descendants.

“Talent. Attitude. Opportunity.” Gongjia Heng read one of the lines aloud, frowning. And then he grinned.

Most people only placed emphasis on the first two- or just talent. However, to Xia people, all three were important. At least to the ancestors. Xia people did not want to pass down their knowledge to people with talent but not the right attitude.

In terms of talent, Gongjia Heng admitted he was not as good as the ones who had arrived before him. These were elites of their people who came here all on their own. Their names would be recorded in history, even until now, many people would have heard of their names.

Compared to them, he did not have the talent, but he knew how to take an opportunity!

The key factor to his success was definitely Shao Xuan. Without Shao Xuan, Gongjia Heng knew he probably wouldn’t find this place in another twenty years. This probably counted as luck and opportunity. It wasn’t cheating. After letting go of the discomfort in him, he felt much better. His dad once said that a craftsman must have skin as thick as a cauldron. Gongjia Heng felt like he had to learn from his dad.

“Shao Xuan, I’ll be going in first. You wait outside, all the fruits here are edible,” said Gongjia Heng.

“Can I go in and check the place out?”

Heng smiled. “You’re not a Xia, you can’t come in.”