53: Chapter 53 Shocking Change

On Black Wind Ridge, Evil Qi filled the sky.

Seven figures—some sinister, some treacherous, some violent—gathered in the Justice Hall.

Three days passed in a flash.

These were the seven Evil Path experts Zhao Tianba had summoned with promises of profit and blood feuds.

Vulture Old Monster was hunched like a vulture, his ten fingers wearing gleaming black steel claws.

Poison Mistress was a middle-aged woman, her eyes flashing with hints of poison moths; One-Eyed Biao had a single eye radiating fierce light, with a ring of poisoned flying shuttles around his waist...

These seven were all figures in the Qingzhou Evil Path who could make the ground tremble with a stomp, and had long been firmly ranked in the top three hundred of the Evil Path expert list.

Zhao Tianba had emptied his nest this time, and by inviting such strong reinforcements, his resolve to destroy the Li family and execute Ding Qing was as unshakeable as Panshi!

Amidst the clinking of glasses, the blood-red wine seemed like an omen.

They swore a blood oath, clearly dividing the Li family's wealth, the territory of Panshi City, and even the "Qiu mother and daughter".

Zhao Tianba's kasaya fluttered, the dark gold patterns on his chest pulsating like a living thing under the firelight. He smashed his wine bowl.

"Assemble the men immediately and trample Panshi City! Use the blood of the entire Li family to sacrifice to my third brother, and use Ding Qing's head to spread the prestige of our Black Wind Stockade!"

"Kill! Kill! Kill!!!"

Hundreds of fierce bandits roared in unison, their weapons forming a tide of death.

Zhao Tianba led the charge, Rage of Liu followed closely, and the seven Evil Path experts darted forward like ghosts.

The black mass of bandits behind them, like an ant colony waiting to devour, stirred up a foul wind and lunged straight at Panshi City!

Panshi City, deep within the Li family's inner residence.

"Hahaha... found it! You fat pig, you hid it really deep!"

Qiu Zhiruo was disheveled, her face twisted in a near-maniacal ecstasy.

From the most secret crease of Steward Li's fat, she dug out a strange key that was neither gold nor jade and felt cold to the touch.

The tail of the key was carved with a ferocious coiled Dragon—it was the key to opening the dragon severing stone!

Looking at Steward Li, who had been drugged and tortured into a deep coma on the bed, with several big turtles drawn on his face.

Qiu Zhiruo spat fiercely and kicked his fat buttocks twice to vent her anger.

"Bah! Serves you right for tormenting me!"

A look of satisfaction flashed in her eyes. Ignoring the lump of rotting meat, she gripped the key tightly and swept toward the western courtyard like the wind.

"Zhen'er! The key! I got it!"

Qiu Zhiruo rushed into the dilapidated hut, her voice trembling with excitement.

"Mother!" Qiu Shuzhen stood up abruptly, a scorching light bursting from her watery eyes: "Where is it?!"

"I guessed right, that idiot was keeping it on his person!"

Qiu Zhiruo shook the key, speaking rapidly.

"No time to lose, proceed according to the original plan! You go to the Eastern Warm Pavilions Separate Courtyard, entangle that star of calamity, and drag him out no matter what. I'm going down to the tomb now, I'll come out as soon as I get the item!"

"Mother, be careful!"

Qiu Shuzhen clenched her fists, though a trace of unease flickered in her heart for no reason.

"Don't worry! Mountains of gold and silver are waiting for us!"

Qiu Zhiruo's eyes were filled only with greed as she turned and disappeared into the night, heading straight for the rockery in the back garden.

Qiu Shuzhen took a deep breath, suppressing her chaotic emotions.

She changed into simple clothes, went barefoot, and walked again toward that silent courtyard.

The night breeze was cool, and her toes stepped on the bluestone, but she couldn't feel the chill, only the damp sweat in her palms and the heavy weight in her heart.

Eastern Warm Pavilions Separate Courtyard.

Ding Qing sat cross-legged on the stone steps, like an ancient Panshi.

Under the shadow of his long hair, his eyes were slightly closed, his mind immersed in the deduction of the new fundamental law, his aura condensed like an abyss.

Subtle footsteps with an imperceptible hesitation approached from afar.

Qiu Shuzhen stepped into the courtyard, the moonlight outlining her slender yet tense figure.

She looked at the silent figure, cleared her throat, and tried to make her voice sound calm and natural.

"Ding... Brother Ding, the night is long, I... I have some confusion regarding my Moves and would like to ask for your advice..."

Ding Qing slowly opened his eyes.

His gaze, like a lava abyss, pierced through the shadows and landed on her face, as if he could see through the deliberate and flustered state beneath her feigned composure.

He didn't expose her.

He just gave a low "Hmm" in response.

Qiu Shuzhen felt her heart tighten, but she bit the bullet and approached, asking questions about some fist and kick Moves.

Ding Qing's answers were extremely brief, often only one or two words.

His gaze, however, swept over her tightly clenched cuffs from time to time, where the key to the dragon severing stone was hidden.

In the courtyard, only Qiu Shuzhen's deliberate questions and Ding Qing's few words, which felt like cold iron falling to the ground, remained.

Time passed minute by minute in the strange atmosphere.

Back garden, under the rockery, deep tomb passage.

Qiu Zhiruo used the key to easily open the coiled Dragon dragon severing stone door that had once made her despair.

The heavy refined steel gate slid open silently, revealing a deeper, more ancient, and decaying passage behind it.

She lit a fire starter and flashed inside without hesitation.

The passage was long and winding, full of traps.

Qiu Zhiruo relied on her years of experience wandering the Jianghu and the mechanism techniques her daughter had taught her, carefully avoiding pits, poison arrows, and flip boards, finally arriving at the main tomb chamber.

The ceiling of the tomb was inlaid with fragmented night-luminescent stones, emitting a cold, dim light.

In the center, a crystal coffin, crystal clear throughout, rested quietly on a white jade stone platform.

Qiu Zhiruo held her breath, her heart beating like a drum.

She approached step by step, and under the light of the fire starter, everything in the crystal coffin was clearly visible.

Inside the coffin lay a young girl in the prime of her youth!

The girl was dressed in magnificent ancient palace attire, her face beautiful and peerless, as if she were merely sleeping, her skin glowing white and nearly transparent.

Even more shocking was that embedded quietly in her heart was a strange stone the size of an infant's fist, emitting a faint blue-white icy Qi.

The icy Qi condensed but did not disperse, forming a thin layer of frost mist inside the crystal coffin.

"Ice... ice soul stone?!" Qiu Zhiruo gasped, her eyes instantly drowned by incomparable greed and ecstasy.

A heavenly treasure rumored to be able to keep a corpse from rotting for a thousand years.

Worth a fortune!

No, it was priceless! With it, she could have more than just wealth that rivaled a nation.

Overcome by greed, all caution was thrown to the winds.

What Treasure Trove of the Prince of Jing'an; at this moment, it paled in comparison to this ice soul stone.

Her eyes were left with only this blue-white strange stone that emitted a fatal temptation.

"Mine! It's mine!"

Qiu Zhiruo muttered.

She pulled out a refined steel dagger she carried with her, and with trembling hands, inserted it into the gap of the crystal coffin lid.

Crack... screech...

The harsh scraping sound echoed in the dead silent tomb chamber.

She pried at the coffin lid regardless of anything else.

Just as the coffin lid was pried open a crack.

"ROAR—!!!"

A terrifying roar, neither human nor beast, full of bloodthirsty desire, burst out violently from beneath the coffin, from the depths of the white jade stone platform.

The entire tomb chamber trembled because of it!

Qiu Zhiruo looked terrified, retreating to the entrance of the main tomb chamber as if electrocuted.

She saw the stone platform crack open into a black hole, and a black shadow emitting a thick, bloody, and rotten stench lunged out with a foul wind.

The monster looked like a dried corpse, but its muscles were knotted and covered with dark red scales.

Its ten fingers were like pitch-black steel hooks.

Fangs were exposed!

Its eyes were left with only two points of crazily jumping blood-red!