NOVEL NEXT Chapter 178: The Big One
Chapter 178: The Big One
Xu Lian brought Qin Liu into the living room. “What’s going on?”
As expected, Qin Liu excitedly said, “After our last experience of discovering a cultivator’s tomb, Brother Liao and I have been specifically looking for cultivator’s graves. And we actually found one!”
Xu Lian’s expression remained calm, his heart unmoved.
At his current rank of Grandmaster 9th Stage, with four progression points lying unused in his “account”, if he were to allocate all of them to advance, he would reach Great Grandmaster 4th Stage. At this level, he had little interest in ordinary cultivators’ tombs.
As for skills and artifacts:
Skills: He possessed the Sacred Spirit Record, so ordinary cultivation manuals were useless to him.
Artifacts: He possessed the Sword of Destruction, a famous sword, and had also brought back many rare treasures from the imperial capital. Ordinary weapons and treasures were of no value to him.
Even if they dug something up from the tomb and sold it for spirit stones, it wouldn’t amount to much. It was far less profitable than the continuous income from buying, selling, and renting spirit residences on First Street.
Therefore, it would be a waste of time to go digging graves with Qin Liu. He would rather spend that time cultivating goodwill.
“I am no longer interested in cultivators’ graves,” Xu Lian said. He knew that if he didn’t go, Qin Liu and Chen Lu would be in great danger if they tried to dig up the tomb on their own. A single misstep could cost them their lives. “How about this? I’ll send a cultivator to go with you. Whatever you find, just share a portion with the person I send.”
Qin Liu frowned. “We don’t want anyone else to come with us. We only trust you. After working with you once, we found you to be fair and not greedy in sharing the treasures.”
Xu Lian smiled. “Don’t worry. The person I send will be as loyal to me as if I were going myself.”
Qin Liu hesitated for a moment before saying, “It’s better if you come with us personally. This grave is very different from the last one. The last one was just a rogue cultivator from a mountain village, but this one is definitely a big one.”
“A big one?” Xu Lian couldn’t quite picture it. “How big?”
Qin Liu exaggeratedly spread his arms. “It’s really, really big.”
Xu Lian’s eyes narrowed. “Are you sure? Do you have any details?”
Qin Liu grinned mysteriously and deliberately held back. “Do you know who founded Pingyang County? Do you know what Pingyang County was originally called?”
Xu Lian hadn’t looked into this before, but he was certain that it wasn’t founded by the Yi Sect.
The Yi Sect’s territories spanned the entire world, and their policy was always to seize rather than create.
It was easier to conquer a county than to found one… That was the Yi Sect’s way.
Seeing that Xu Lian couldn’t answer, Qin Liu proudly continued, “After digging up that cultivator’s tomb last time, Brother Liao and I got a taste for it. We searched all the feng shui treasure sites in Pingyang County and even visited various villages to see if we could find anything.
Once when Brother Liao and I were passing through a mountain village, we heard an old man telling a story to a group of children. He said that Pingyang County wasn’t originally called Pingyang County. It was called the City of Humans and Demons…”
At this point, Xu Lian nearly spat out the tea he had just sipped.
Qin Liu, unaware of why Xu Lian had such a strong reaction, was slightly annoyed at being interrupted but continued, “Why was it called the City of Humans and Demons?
Because in a very ancient time, humans and demons were sworn enemies who were constantly at odds with each other. But a human and a demon fell in love, which was unacceptable to both races.
This human and demon had no choice but to flee to a remote area that is now Pingyang County. At the time, it was a desolate place. They lived in seclusion and led a peaceful life away from the world.
Because this man and this demon were kind and charitable, they often took in refugees who passed by. Gradually, this remote place grew into a city known as the City of Humans and Demons, symbolizing the harmony between humans and demons.
Later, for some unknown reason, the couple had a falling out and engaged in a fierce battle that resulted in their deaths.
The refugees they took in were heartbroken and felt that humans and demons really couldn’t coexist. So they renamed the city of humans and demons Pingyang City.
Later on, when the Yin Dynasty expanded into this area, they made Pingyang City a county, which is now Pingyang County.
You could say that the people in Pingyang County today are all descendants of those refugees, and the towns and villages are the result of those refugees spreading their roots”.
Xu Lian found this story fascinating. “Such an ancient story… Why has it been passed down in a village?”
Qin Liu replied, “I asked the old man who told the story the same question. He wouldn’t say anything at first, so I gave him a meat pie, and then he was willing to talk.”
“…”Xu Lian was speechless. How very pragmatic.
Qin Liu took out a tattered, yellowed animal skin scroll from his pocket and handed it to Xu Lian. “This old man is also a descendant of the refugees. Perhaps out of gratitude for the human-demon couple, his ancestor recorded the story on this scroll.”
Xu Lian took the scroll and examined it carefully. The scroll was so fragile that it nearly crumbled at his touch.
The contents were fragmented, with many parts missing, but the overall story was the same as what Qin Liu had told him.
After reading it, Xu Lian slowly rolled up the scroll. “So this story is related to the tomb you discovered?”
Qin Liu nodded. “After the couple died in battle, the refugees, grateful for the couple’s kindness, collected their remains and buried them together. Brother Liao and I speculated that the couple’s tomb must be somewhere near Pingyang County.
So we checked all the Feng Shui treasure sites around Pingyang County, and indeed, we found an ancient, unusually large tomb.”
Xu Lian fell into thought. While ordinary cultivators’ tombs were of little interest to him, an ancient tomb with such a history might yield something valuable.
“So, are you interested now?” Qin Liu nudged him with his elbow, grinning.
Xu Lian asked, “If we dig it up, will we split the findings like last time?”
Qin Liu nodded. “Sure.”
Xu Lian thought of Chen Lu, the middle-aged man, and casually asked, “How is your partner these days?”
Qin Liu sighed. “He took back the woman who ran off with his apprentice, along with the child she had with him. The older child now calls him ‘Dad’, and the younger one was just born. He’s over the moon, telling everyone he has sons now.”
Xu Lian didn’t know what to say. That was the way of the world. Some people didn’t care about the past and just wanted to live well in the present. This made him think about Lin Ying. Should he accept her and see if there was any favorability to be gained?
He was really good at finding excuses for himself. If he hadn’t been considering it, why would he suddenly think of Lin Ying?
Lin Ying and Chen Lu’s wife were definitely different types.
Chen Lu’s wife had thought that she couldn’t bear children and urged Chen Lu to remarry. When Chen Lu refused, she left him, fearing that she would deprive him of descendants. She deliberately got together with his apprentice to make Chen Lu give up on her, hoping that he would marry someone else. But after being with the apprentice she had several children, only to realize that it was Chen Lu who was infertile. Such was the irony of fate.
Lin Ying would never do such a stupid thing. She was far too cunning. Her current target was Xu Lian, but if she encountered a higher target in the future, would she change her mind?
“To avoid being cuckolded, it’s better to forget about it,” Xu Lian suppressed the slight stirring in his heart.
The next day, Xu Lian, Qin Liu, and Chen Lu left the city and arrived at a Feng Shui treasure site.
Qin Liu and Chen Lu had already dug out the entrance to the tomb, which was hidden under dry grass.
Now, they pulled back the grass to reveal it.
Xu Lian stared at the ancient, intricately patterned tomb door, sensing that it was anything but ordinary.