Chapter 89 The Mystery of Identity

At the Maoshan Sect, Ye Shouzhen was playing chess and drinking tea with an elderly man in a Taoist robe when he caught sight of a figure walking toward them out of the corner of his eye.

"Old Ye, your granddaughter is here to see you again," the old man said with a chuckle.

Ye Shouzhen's eyelids drooped, and he continued with his chess game.

"She's probably back because she needs something again. Otherwise, when has she ever taken the initiative to come to Mount Maoshan to see this old fossil?"

His voice was sarcastic and not particularly loud, yet it reached Ye Qingmei's ears perfectly clearly.

Ye Qingmei walked over somewhat helplessly and bowed respectfully to the other elderly man.

"Hello, Grandpa Wu."

"Good, good, good."

Only then did Ye Qingmei look toward Ye Shouzhen.

"Grandpa, I really do have urgent business!"

"You see? You see? What did I tell you? She doesn't even bother to pretend anymore."

"Hahaha, Old Ye, I think you're just being difficult despite having it good."

Seeing that the two old men had quieted down, Ye Qingmei finally spoke. "Grandpa, I came back this time mainly because I want to check our Maoshan Sect's Disciple registry again. I keep feeling like that Jiang Chen is very strange."

"Jiang Chen? The one you told me about last time, the person impersonating a Disciple of my Maoshan Sect?"

"Jiang Chen?" The elderly man surnamed Wu frowned as soon as he heard the name.

His unusual reaction immediately drew the attention of Ye Shouzhen and Ye Qingmei.

"Old Wu, what's wrong? Could this Jiang Chen be a Disciple of yours? You should have said so earlier to avoid all this misunderstanding!"

"No, it's just that I have a vague feeling that this name sounds very familiar. It's like I've heard it somewhere before?"

Elder Wu's brow furrowed tightly as his mind raced, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember where exactly he had heard the name.

Moreover, he had a faint feeling that this name was a very important one.

However, after thinking for a long time, he still had no clue at all.

Seeing Wu Guangrong in this state, Ye Shouzhen stopped paying attention to him and turned back to ask:

"What's the matter? Girl, you said there's something strange about that Jiang Chen. What exactly is strange about him?"

Ye Qingmei did not answer directly, but first asked a seemingly unrelated question.

"Grandpa, do you know if our Maoshan Sect has a Formation called the Zanlong Array?"

"The Zanlong Array!"

Ye Shouzhen and Wu Guangrong blurted out simultaneously.

"Girl, where did you learn about the Zanlong Array?" Ye Shouzhen asked.

Wu Guangrong explained, "The Zanlong Array is one of the Maoshan Formations. It uses the principles of the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams to channel the power of heaven and earth for sealing. However, due to historical reasons, many important Maoshan Sect books were burned, including the detailed records regarding the Zanlong Array."

Speaking to this point, Wu Guangrong's tone was filled with regret.

"It's actually real... what he said was actually true..."

Ye Qingmei murmured, her expression showing a strange sense of chagrin.

"What's real? Girl, did you find an ancient text regarding the Zanlong Array somewhere?"

"No, Grandpa. It's more like... an Ancient Tomb from the Tang Dynasty sealed by a Zanlong Array has been discovered!"

"What!" the two said in unison.

The two elders were momentarily speechless.

"Are you talking about that large tomb in Binhai City that was recently broadcasted by the media?"

"Yes, exactly. It's that large tomb."

The expressions of both Ye Shouzhen and Wu Guangrong became serious.

Because they both knew what it would mean if this large tomb was real.

"Girl, how did you know there was a Zanlong Array beneath that tomb?" Ye Shouzhen asked again. Suddenly, he made the connection to what his granddaughter had said earlier. "Could it be... that Jiang Chen told you?"

"Yes. Furthermore, the archaeologists did indeed find a Magical Artifact in the tomb, which matches perfectly with what Jiang Chen said."

"Then whether it's true or false, they absolutely cannot be allowed to touch that Ancient Tomb again. We cannot gamble on that probability!"

Ye Qingmei gave a bitter smile. "It's already too late. A group of tomb raiders also targeted the Ancient Tomb and even stole a Magical Artifact from it. It seems they've awakened something inside, causing the entire Mount Bulao to shake incessantly."

"It came out?!"

"No. After Mount Bulao shook for a while, there was no more movement. We've publicly claimed it was a tremor caused by tectonic plate shifts."

"Have those tomb raiders been found?"

"Not yet, but there are leads. They're likely from the South Tomb Sect of the Lower Nine Streams, and I'm afraid they have connections to the Island Nation. We've already dispatched people to investigate."

Bang!

Wu Guangrong slammed his palm heavily onto the table. The table, along with the chessboard, shattered into several pieces, and the chess pieces clattered as they fell to the ground.

"Hmph! Those Island Nation devils again! We should have wiped them all out back then!"

Although Wu Guangrong addressed Ye Shouzhen as a peer, he was actually more than ten years older. He was born in that era of oppression by foreign powers and had personally witnessed many familiar faces die tragically before his eyes.

"Old Ye, we absolutely cannot let those devils take away our China's Magical Artifacts. And those bastards from the South Tomb Sect—usually we just turn a blind eye, but now they actually dare to betray the country!"

"Grandpa Wu, please don't be anxious. We've already locked down the border crossings; I guarantee they won't be able to escape!"

"The current priority is to find out the origins of this Ancient Tomb, what Jiang Chen's identity really is, and also to recover the Magical Artifact!" Wu Guangrong listed the urgent matters with clear logic.

Ye Shouzhen said, "I can say with certainty that there is no such person as Jiang Chen among the current Maoshan Disciples. As for why he knows about the Zanlong Array, we'll have to ask him."

"But Jiang Chen has received the Dharma Seal, and his status and rank seem to be quite high. Even Minghua Daoist of Mount Longhu was no match for him and had his cultivation destroyed by him."

"He has also received the Scripture Registry, and even Minghua Daoist was no match for him?!"

Ye Shouzhen gritted his teeth slightly. Minghua Daoist's cultivation was not weak; he was a second-generation Disciple of Mount Longhu. Although he wasn't from the Zhang family's direct line, he had an uncle surnamed Zhang.

If Jiang Chen could defeat Minghua Daoist, his cultivation should be at the Dao Entry Realm.

With such talent, even the current Junior Celestial Master of Mount Longhu would probably only be at this level, right?

However, a Taoist who has already received the Registry would never lie about their lineage and Foundation. Otherwise, the Ancestral Master would sense it, and at best, their lifespan would be shortened; at worst, their Foundation might be severed.

But if Jiang Chen wasn't lying, could he really be a Disciple of the Maoshan Sect?

How strange. Ye Shouzhen felt that since the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi began to recover, all sorts of bizarre events had started emerging one after another.

First, there was the awakening of the Mountain Lord, then the emergence of the Tang Dynasty tomb, and now there was a Maoshan Sect Taoist of unknown origin and Karma.

"How about this, Old Ye. You go down the mountain with Qingmei first to the 749 Bureau and find Jiang Chen to learn the details. Since this matter involves my Maoshan Sect, we absolutely cannot stand by and do nothing."

"I'll look through the records in the Library Pavilion to see if I can find more information regarding this Tang Dynasty tomb."