Female Novel
Chapter 869
He was so wrapped up in trying to decipher the painting that he’d only just realized he was indeed
hungry.
Before he could stand and get a bowl for himself, Maxine hurriedly took it away from him. “Your injuries
are still healing. Just let me feed you.”
“It’s fine. Give it to me. I’ll eat with my own hands.” James tried to refuse her offer.
He felt uncomfortable being fed by a woman whom he had only met a few times.
Maxine did not insist and handed the bowl over to James.
Albeit his severe injuries, James was still able to perform simple hand movements.
As James dug into his meal, Maxine turned to look at the Moonlit Flowers by Cliffside’s Edge.
She was raised as a Caden for as long as she remembered and received Tobias’ personal instruction
in martial arts. Even so, despite cultivating True Energy and becoming a grandmaster of the second
rank, she had never seen the household’s treasure scroll.
After staring at the painting for quite a while, she too could not find anything peculiar about it.
Turning back to James, she asked, “James, have you found anything weird about the painting?”
James shook his head dejectedly.
Looking at the ancient scroll that James had taken out, Maxine told him, “Grandpa said that I’m allowed
to have a look at the items inside the box and at the Moonlit Flowers by Cliffside’s Edge.”
“Mhm.”
James handed the ancient scroll over to Maxine.
Since she was also a martial artist, she knew this was a meridian diagram the moment she laid her
eyes on it.
She tried shifting her True Energy as instructed by the diagram.
“Huurk!”
The moment she summoned her True Energy, she immediately vomited a mouthful of blood. Her body
was drenched in her own sweat, her face lost its color and she collapsed on the floor. Almost
immediately, she righted herself and sat in a lotus position. She directed all her True Energy into
suppressing the Blood Energy which had gone rampant in her body.
James looked at her and asked in a concerned voice, “What’s wrong?”
Maxine took a deep breath before she spoke shakily, “I tried moving my True Energy in the direction
instructed by the diagram. However, the retrograde motion of True Energy shocked the meridians,
which caused my Blood Energy to go berserk. I almost lost control over it.”
As James had no True Energy at the moment, he had yet to try it out. However, he knew that
something was wrong with the diagram.
After resting for a while, Maxine stood up and scanned the ancient scroll meticulously.
She furrowed her brow and said, “All eighteen diagrams make no sense. Each of them starts with a
retrograde motion of True Energy. This is taboo in martial arts. You’d be considered lucky if you merely
ended up gravely injured. Worse comes to worst, you may even be crippled or lose your life attempting
this."
Hearing this, a thought flashed through James’ mind.
“Makes… no sense?”
He peered at the Moonlit Flowers on Cliffside’s Edge on the wall.
Getting Maxine's attention, he said, “Look, the painting makes no sense either. Why would there be a
full moon in the middle of the day? Based on the setting of the painting, there should be a sun instead.”
Maxine glanced at the painting and nodded pensively. “You’re right. Both the meridian diagram and the
painting make no sense. A moon in the middle of the day… This is an inversion of Yin and Yang. Well,
it’s not exactly an inversion either. How do I put it…? In the Art of Ying-Yang, this would be called the
Yin in Yang.”
“You know the Art of Yin-Yang?” James looked at Maxine in astonishment.
Maxine smiled sheepishly, “I like to read when I’m bored.”
As James was almost done eating, Maxine took the bowl in his hand and put it on the floor.
Then, she looked over at James and asked, “You’ve been looking at it for quite a while. Did you
manage to find anything peculiar with the Moonlit Flowers by Cliffside’s Edge? What connection do you
think it has with the meridian diagram?”
James shook his head gloomily.
He could not find anything that would connect the two aside from the fact that they were both odd.
Meanwhile, Maxine opened the ancient scroll and lay it on the ground. She stared at the eighteen
human figures carved on the scroll and looked closely at the flow of movement in the meridian diagram.
Once again, her eyes rested on the Moonlit Flowers on Cliffside’s Edge.novelbin
Deep creases formed on her face as she let her thoughts play out.
James had etched the 18-meridian diagram into his mind. Sitting in his wheelchair, he continued to
scrutinize every minute detail of the painting. However, no matter how hard he looked, nothing came to
mind.
Apart from realizing that it did not make any sense, he learned nothing else.
Maxine found nothing else too.
She sat on the straw mat with her eyes cast down and muttered, “There’s no connection between the
two. Who said that the item unearthed from the ancient tomb of the Prince of Orchid would unravel the
secret of the painting? I feel lied to.”
James stopped dwelling on it after a while. Frustration would get him nowhere. As he glanced at
Maxine who sat quietly on the floor, an idea popped into his head.