609: Chapter 609 Xu Fu's Remains!

Ye Chen replied irritably, "Nonsense. Contracting with a Youkai requires overdrawing one's life force. Didn't you see that I haven't formed a contract with Daji or Shuten-doji?"

Yan Qingwu took a moment to recall.

It was true.

Ye Chen really didn't seem to have any contracts.

Yet Daji and Shuten-doji were both perfectly willing to call Ye Chen their master.

She suddenly understood.

In a contract, the Youkai was the dominant party while the human was the subordinate.

The Youkai would parasitize the human body, and once they were needed, the human would have to overdraw their life force!

As expected...

There was no such thing as a free lunch in this world!

Yan Qingwu then asked, "By the way, are there Youkai in our Dragon Country?"

Ye Chen nodded.

Yan Qingwu's beautiful eyes widened.

"Huh? Dragon Country really has Youkai too?"

In her understanding...

Although Dragon Country had the 'Classic of Mountains and Seas', 'Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio', and various records of ghosts and monsters, those were all legends, stories, and things made up by the ancients.

She had never thought that Dragon Country actually had real Youkai.

Ye Chen explained as he walked.

"In Dragon Country, they aren't called Youkai; they are called Spirits."

"Heaven and Earth have spirit, and all things have spirit. Mountains, rivers, plants, trees, the sun, moon, and stars—all possess spirituality."

"When certain spiritualities gather and do not disperse, over time, they become Jing, monsters, or even Immortals."

"It's just that ordinary people can't see those things."

He paused and glanced at Yan Qingwu. "Just like dragons; if they don't want you to see them, you won't find a single trace of them."

Yan Qingwu blinked, only half-understanding.

"Then why can Youkai be seen in Wa Country?"

Ye Chen smiled, his grin carrying a hint of mockery.

"When too many bad things are done, they become substantial."

"Slaughter, resentment, hatred, greed..."

"These negative emotions are the best nourishment for Youkai."

"This place, Wa Country, has seen constant warfare and endless slaughter for thousands of years; the resentment reaches the heavens."

"Those Spirits in this environment absorb resentment and transform into physical entities, becoming Youkai."

"Ultimately, it's a sin they brought upon themselves."

Yan Qingwu nodded in realization.

So that was it.

No wonder there were so many Youkai in Wa Country, while the Spirits of Dragon Country were almost extinct.

It wasn't that Dragon Country didn't have Spirits, but that the Spirits of Dragon Country didn't need to rely on resentment to live, nor did they deign to let mortals see them.

As they spoke, the group had already reached the deepest part of the passage.

At the end of the passage was a massive stone gate.

The stone gate was about three zhang high and two zhang wide, pitch-black all over, and covered in dense runes.

Those runes were more complex than any seal they had encountered before, layered upon each other like a giant net woven from Power of Dao, sealing the entire stone gate tightly.

Clearly.

This was the isolated area Ye Chen had found using Earth Vein Tracking.

But now, those runes were dim and dull, having lost all their power.

In all likelihood, when Ye Chen broke the outer seals earlier, the seal on this door had been shattered along with them.

Seimei Kangan stood before the stone gate, took a deep breath, pressed both hands against the door, and pushed hard.

"Rumble—"

The stone gate slowly opened.

An aura that had been sealed for a thousand years surged out from behind the door.

Behind the door was a massive underground cave.

The cave was dome-shaped, and in the center, there was a stone platform.

The stone platform was circular, about three zhang in diameter and three feet above the ground, built entirely of white marble, emitting a faint white glow in the cave.

Eerily...

Two sets of skeletal remains lay upon the stone platform.

Everyone's footsteps halted simultaneously as they looked over.

They saw...

The first set of remains was human.

That person sat cross-legged in the center of the stone platform, hands folded on their knees, maintaining a meditative posture.

But the second set of remains was shocking...

It wasn't human.

It was a massive creature!

It was coiled on the other side of the stone platform, its body curled into a ball like a small hill.

Its skeleton was serpentine, as thick as a water bucket, and at least ten zhang long.

Most shocking of all was that its neck split into eight branches.

Eight heads.

Each head was the size of a water vat, with jaws wide open, revealing dense rows of fangs.

An eight-headed serpent!

"My god..."

Yan Qingwu stood behind Ye Chen, taking a sharp breath as she looked at the massive skeleton.

"Could this... could this be Yamata no Orochi?"

Ye Chen didn't speak, his gaze falling between the two sets of remains.

All eight heads of Yamata no Orochi were oriented toward the human remains.

The foremost head had its mouth wide open, its fangs less than three feet away from the human skeleton.

It was as if, right before death, it had still been desperately lunging at the other party.

Meanwhile, the human skeleton had its right hand raised, fingers spread, and within its palm, it held something.

It was a stone casket.

The stone casket was pitch-black and palm-sized; it hadn't decayed in a thousand years and wouldn't break in ten thousand.

Seimei Kangan stood before the stone platform, his voice trembling as he looked at the stone casket.

"That corpse must be him!"

"And the thing in his hand must be the key!"

Ye Chen stepped onto the stone platform.

Yan Qingwu instinctively followed, but Ye Chen raised a hand to stop her.

"Don't come over; there are still restrictions on this stone platform."

As his foot stepped onto the white marble platform, the stone slabs beneath him lit up with faint glimmers of light.

Those lights were golden, spreading from the edge of the platform toward the center like a sleeper being awakened, slowly opening their eyes.

Ye Chen glanced down at the runes beneath his feet, the corners of his mouth curling upward slightly.

"Setting up such a large formation before death... he was careful enough."

He lifted his foot and continued forward.

The golden runes lit up and extinguished beneath his feet as if making way for him.

He walked up to the remains, reached out his right hand, and took the stone casket from the skeleton's palm.

The stone casket felt bone-chillingly cold in his hand.

He turned it over and looked at the bottom.

He saw four characters carved in Qin Dynasty Small Seal Script—[To be obtained by the destined]!

Ye Chen couldn't help but laugh as he looked at those four characters.

"To be obtained by the destined?"

"I flipped the chessboard and fought my way here; does that count as destiny?"

He shook his head, wasting no more words as he hooked his finger on the lid of the stone casket and flipped it open gently.

"Click!"

The stone casket opened at his touch.

Inside the casket lay a key.

A bronze key.

But Ye Chen's pupils contracted slightly.

He reached out and took the key from the casket.

Because...

This key was actually a key to the bronze gate of Kunlun Ruins!

Ye Chen raised an eyebrow and couldn't help but smile.

"Good grief."

"This trip to Wa Country wasn't in vain; it's another bronze key!"

Counting this one, he now had seven!

If he could win the prize at the Martial Arts Tournament in a dozen days and get the bronze key inside, it would mean the whereabouts of eight keys were known.

Which meant...

He was only missing the location of the last one!

If he could get it and gather all nine, the mysteries behind the bronze gate would likely be revealed to the world...

Ye Chen happily tucked the key into his robe.

Then.

He turned around and was about to step off the platform.

But just then.

His footsteps came to a sudden halt.

His gaze fell beneath the skeletal remains.

Beneath the cross-legged posture of the skeleton, a bamboo scroll was being pressed down.

The bamboo scroll was yellowed and brittle, looking as if it would crumble into powder at a touch, yet despite the erosion of a thousand years, it remained perfectly preserved there.

Ye Chen crouched down and reached out to pull the bamboo scroll from beneath the skeleton.

The bamboo scroll was very thin; he gently unfurled it and glanced at it.

It was densely covered in writing.

Small Seal Script.

Ye Chen looked at it for a few seconds, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

"What the hell is written here?"

It was hard enough for him to recognize even a few characters.

Looking at the whole thing, he was completely in the dark, having no idea what it was saying.

He walked off the stone platform with the bamboo scroll and came before Yan Qingwu.

"Take a look. Can you understand this?"

Yan Qingwu took the bamboo scroll and glanced down at it.

Then.

Her brow furrowed slightly, and a flash of surprise crossed her eyes.

"Small Seal Script?"

Ye Chen nodded. "Right, it should have been left behind by Xu Fu."

Yan Qingwu took a deep breath, her eyes moving quickly across the bamboo scroll, identifying it character by character.

As the eldest miss of the Yan Family, she had received a top-tier education since childhood and was proficient in the four arts, ancient texts, and classics.

Although Small Seal Script was ancient, she had studied it.

After watching for a while, she looked up at Ye Chen.

"I can understand it."

Ye Chen put his hands in his pockets and said indifferently, "Read it out and let's hear."

Yan Qingwu's gaze returned to the material, and she read it out word by word.

"I, Xu Fu, am a man of Langya."

"In my youth, I studied Confucianism and Daoism, visiting famous mountains in search of the art of longevity."

"Later, I entered the Qin Palace as an alchemist and met the First Emperor."

"The First Emperor was a man of great vision and strategy who swept across the six realms and unified the world, yet in his later years, he became obsessed with longevity."

Ye Chen leaned against the edge of the stone platform, arms crossed, listening quietly.

Yan Qingwu continued reading.

"In the thirty-seventh year of the First Emperor, I submitted several petitions stating that eunuchs were disrupting the government and that Zhao Gao was a curse to the nation, advising the First Emperor to make an early decision."

"However, the First Emperor was already controlled by Zhao Gao. Knowing that disaster was not far off, I developed the intent to leave."

"Thus, under the guise of seeking the elixir of immortality, I requested to sail east to seek the immortal medicine in Penglai."

"The First Emperor granted it."

"I then led three thousand young boys and girls, carrying the five grains, a hundred craftsmen, classics, and artifacts, and sailed east on a multi-decked ship."

"This journey was not to seek immortals, but in truth to avoid disaster."

"I knew that the Qin Dynasty's mandate would last no more than two generations."

Later.

He expanded his territory within the land of Wa, civilized the savages, and finally established a nation.

In his later years, the great Youkai Yamata no Orochi emerged, causing the people to suffer.

To protect his descendants, he lured Yamata no Orochi here alone and used his lifelong cultivation to slay it.

But he was also heavily injured as a result and remained here.

However, he also left behind a very important item, which was the bronze key given to him by the First Emperor.

According to legend...

The key could guide one to find the secret of eternal life.