Chapter 1236: Destruction and Rebirth
This discovery surprised Ye Qing greatly because it was only after Southern Fist King Shen Tianjun came here that Ye Qing realized the buried person inside was Northern Fist King Li Changqing, and this fact just started spreading among people. In other words, before this, no one knew who was buried inside this tomb.
Since no one knew before who was buried inside this tomb, who could have come to steal Third Master Li's remains? And most crucially, this person not only stole Third Master Li's remains but also buried Ye Qing's grandfather's remains in Third Master Li's tomb. It should be noted that the location of Third Master Li's tomb has great Feng Shui. Who was so kind to relocate Ye Qing's ancestral grave here, allowing him to bear this Crouching Tiger Feng Shui?
After carefully searching for a while, Ye Qing suddenly found a hairpin in a pile of soil. Removing the soil covering it, the true appearance of the hairpin was revealed—it turned out to be a gold hairpin. The design was ancient, seemingly quite dated, even the surface of this gold was a bit dull.
Seeing this hairpin, Ye Qing's complexion changed again. He had seen this hairpin before; it was often taken out for viewing by Third Master Li when he lived in their village. It was said that this hairpin was left to him by his late wife. Many villagers coveted this golden hairpin, and after Third Master Li passed away, the hairpin disappeared, allegedly stolen by someone in the village, but who exactly stole it, was unknown. In any case, it was not among Third Master Li's burial items.
In fact, Third Master Li lived in poverty here, passing away without any burial items. Yet now, the appearance of this hairpin here forces Ye Qing to consider what might have happened. Could it be that someone stole Third Master Li's hairpin and then came to rob his tomb? But there was nothing in Third Master Li's tomb, what exactly was this person trying to do? Could it be they were searching for something?
The more he thought, the more he felt something was amiss. After being silent for a moment, Ye Qing suddenly stood up and walked down the mountain along another path. Going forward less than ten miles from this path would lead to the village where Ye Qing and others used to live. It was quite remote, and not many people lived in the mountains anymore.
Returning to the old village, Ye Qing immediately felt a sense of nostalgia. Although the outside world is ever-changing, this small mountain village hadn't changed much, everything was just like before.
There weren't many villagers left, after all, those with some capability had moved out, leaving mostly the elderly, reluctant to leave the place where they were born and raised. Ye Qing descended from the forest, so no one saw him.
He detoured to the end of the village, where there was a mud house, half collapsed, which was the small house where Third Master Li lived back then. After Third Master Li was gone, this house was basically abandoned, half collapsed after several storms. Given its remote location, even villagers rarely came here, with the yard overgrown with weeds.
Seeing this old house, Ye Qing couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion. He used to train Bajiquan with Third Master Li here, never imagining that one day this Bajiquan would bring such significant changes to his life. All his achievements today were thanks to Third Master Li.
The reason Ye Qing rushed back here was to try to find more clues. The person who robbed Third Master Li's tomb was probably looking for something. Since they even took this hairpin, they would surely come to Third Master Li's house to search. Ye Qing wanted to see if any clues were left here.
He walked around the old house, carefully observing the situation here. It was evident that this old house hadn't had visitors in a long time, and anything useful was taken by the villagers after Third Master Li passed away, leaving only useless items scattered on the ground.
Ye Qing walked outside, but could detect no abnormalities. However, he did not give up and went straight inside to start searching for anything special.
With half of the old house collapsed, it was filled with dirt. After searching carefully for a while and finding no special spots, Ye Qing slowly moved the soil outside to clean up the old house, hoping to find something else. If there was still nothing to be found in this manner, there would really be no clues here.
There were quite a few soil fragments inside, and it took Ye Qing over an hour to clean everything up, revealing the original look of the house inside.
When Ye Qing was little, he often played around here, so he remembered clearly the layout of the house. After walking around inside, he still found nothing, seemingly making it difficult to find any clues from this house.
After searching around and finding nothing, Ye Qing turned and left the house. He had barely taken a few steps outside when he suddenly noticed that in the pile of soil he moved out, there was a piece of an ancient scroll buried.
Ye Qing hurried over to pull out the scroll, which turned out to be only a corner of the ancient scroll, less than a tenth of a full page. On the scroll were four powerful words—"Break and Then Establish!"
"Break and Then Establish?" Ye Qing scratched his head, making him even more curious. What does "Break and Then Establish" mean? Furthermore, this scroll looked quite old, perhaps over a century old. Typically, such paper material would be hard to preserve for so long. The fact that it's been preserved for so long suggests that people have intentionally preserved it, even leaving it untouched for a while, thus keeping it intact.
But what was recorded in this scroll that warranted preservation for such a long time? Also, why did this piece of scroll appear at the old site of Third Master Li's house? Is there some connection between this scroll and the theft of Third Master Li's remains?
Filled with questions without answers, Ye Qing came here hoping to find more clues but ended up with more mysteries. He couldn't fathom how so much could have happened after Third Master Li had passed away. First and foremost, the key is to retrieve Third Master Li's remains and let him rest in peace, which is Ye Qing's greatest wish. As for the other matters, he was not concerned much.
However, finding no clues makes retrieving Third Master Li's remains not an easy task. This matter shouldn't be rushed; it must be considered carefully and pursued slowly. Currently, the most pressing issue for Ye Qing is to take a trip to Northern Desert and see if Huangfu Ziyu's information is true.
Holding the piece of scroll, Ye Qing returned home, and it was already evening. Many of Ye Qing's friends knew he was back, so they came over to greet him, including Ye Qing's teacher Gu Xianping.
Last time Ye Qing came back, he coincidentally saved Gu Xianping from being pressured to the brink of death. Ye Qing not only helped Gu Xianping get back his job but also arranged a place for him to stay, and now he's living well, hence he is very grateful to Ye Qing.
There were also other people, like Qin Jing's family and Hou San's brother and other brothers Ye Qing brought to Shenchuan City. Their families are living well now, too. Learning Ye Qing returned, they specially came to visit. It's noteworthy that Qin Jing, Hou San, and others went with Ye Qing to Shenchuan City and made quite a bit of money, completely changing their family environment. All this was thanks to Ye Qing, and they obviously felt grateful to him.
Ye Qing had planned just to pass through this time, not intending to stay long, so he hadn't notified everyone. But now that they all came, Ye Qing couldn't avoid seeing them. As so many people came, Ye Qing took everyone to a hotel and treated them to a meal.
Going to the restaurant filled five tables, showing how many people came. And most importantly, several county leaders arrived before dinner ended. They knew Ye Qing had substantial influence in the province, so they rushed in hoping to establish some connections. This meal lasted three to four hours. It was late at night before things finally settled.
Handling this much was indeed beyond Ye Qing's expectations. However, the people who came were all familiar faces from home, and seeing them warmed Ye Qing's heart.
After resting, the next morning, Ye Qing got up early to say goodbye to his father and family, preparing to ride to the city to catch a flight. Just as he stepped out of the villa neighborhood, he saw Old Fifth Yang's car parked at the entrance from afar.
"Ye Zi, leaving now?" Old Fifth Yang approached with a smile and said, "I can't drive you there myself; let my driver take you."
Seeing Old Fifth Yang like this, Ye Qing felt a pang of sadness. This once formidable figure in Jiuchuan County had become frail under the pressure of cancer.
Ye Qing nodded, patted Old Fifth Yang's shoulder, and forced a smile, saying, "It's fine. I know a friend in Shenchuan City who's a renowned Divine Doctor. Why don't you go for a visit sometime, and let him take a look at your condition?"
"You mean Divine Doctor Lin, right?" Old Fifth Yang smiled and said, "He's a brain specialist, and my issue is with my lungs, not the same thing. Besides, cancer is incurable; it's better not to put myself through it. I'm afraid my old bones can't withstand the ordeal."
Ye Qing said, "Don't be so disheartened; although he specializes in brain issues, he knows many other doctors. Perhaps there'll be a way."
"Heh…" Old Fifth Yang gave a bitter smile, shaking his head, holding Ye Qing's arm, and said, "Ye Zi, I don't worry about many things now. Not to mention anything else, please take care of Mengjie, that's my only request!"