109: Chapter 109

"Didn't you also play a trick on him?"

It was Ling Xiao who replied.

"He asked for it!"

Xu Rufeng snorted through his nose.

The previous bewitching hiss had disrupted Jin Hong's mind, nearly letting the Dragon Lice burrow into his body—this outcome was quite satisfying.

Xu Rufeng shook his head, his scales brushing against the stone wall with a faint rustling sound.

Remembering how those great Yao Race members outside the tomb gate had glared helplessly, a wave of pleasure surged up his spine.

Especially that face covered in fine scales, the rage almost tearing through his skin.

If they had been close enough, the other party probably would have pounced and bitten him by now.

Unfortunately, they had already stepped into this trap.

And because of that momentary distraction, the other party had added several more wounds to his body.

Splash. Splash. The sound of water suddenly became clear, seeping out from behind the stone walls on both sides.

Xu Rufeng stopped his movements: "Where is this water coming from?"

"Living water flows through the tomb; there may be tomb guardians hidden in the water."

Ling Yunzi slid six Medicinal Pills from his sleeve and distributed two to each of them.

"What are these?"

"Antidote pills."

Ling Yunzi's voice was calm, "The living things here, whether plants, insects, or beasts, are all poisonous. Do not touch them casually."

"Why give us two?" Xu Rufeng caught the Medicinal Pills with his Blood Qi.

"Swallow one to refine, and keep one under your tongue."

Ling Xiao took over, "In addition, keep your Divine Sense within three feet of your body to avoid falling into confusion."

"Confusion?" Xu Rufeng asked.

"When a True Dragon falls, its corpse accumulates the resentment of heaven and earth."

Ling Xiao crushed several Medicinal Pills between her fingers, the powder dispersing into her protective Yao cloud, "It is a hundred times more dangerous than the mirage Qi of the Imperial Mausoleum. Calm your heart and focus your mind, and the illusions will break on their own."

Ling Yunzi swept his whisk lightly, evenly distributing the medicinal power into the cloud Qi surrounding the three of them.

He took out three more blue-gray Medicinal Pills and gave one to each person. "Hold it in your palm; if you feel something is wrong, crush it immediately."

They had the fewest of this type of Medicinal Pill and could not afford to waste them, so they had to save them for critical moments.

Xu Rufeng only realized later that Spirit Pills involving the Divine Soul were the hardest to refine, and the required ingredients were even rarer.

If he had known, he should have raised the price when selling them to Hong Lie and the Black Jiao.

Thinking of it now, his heart still felt like it had been pricked by a fine needle—even though he had swallowed many of the other party's Spirit Fruit snacks, he still felt at a loss.

Suddenly, his heart tightened.

"We've only just stepped into the tomb gate, yet you are already this guarded." Xu Rufeng wrapped the Medicinal Pills tightly with his Blood Qi, "It seems every step inside this Dragon tomb is fraught with danger."

"Seek wealth amidst danger." Ling Xiao only replied with this.

Xu Rufeng stared at the dark corridor ahead and suddenly spoke: "Ling Xiao, Yunzi, you seem... very pressed for time?"

Ling Yunzi walked in the lead, Ling Xiao in the middle, and Xu Rufeng brought up the rear. This position allowed him to catch his breath slightly.

For the moment, there was only the echo of footsteps in the tomb passage.

Unable to hold back any longer, Xu Rufeng threw out the question he had been holding for a long time: "Why are you so eager to improve your Cultivation?"

"What do you mean by that?" Ling Yunzi's voice came from the front.

"With your Aptitude, even progressing step by step, your advancement wouldn't be slow."

"I cannot wait." Ling Xiao's light laughter rippled through the narrow passage, "In the mountains, there are no years for cultivation, but in the human world, seasons have long since changed. If we only linger here to practice hard, when will we ever be able to return to the Eastern Lands?"

Decades of time are but a snap of the fingers.

"Is it fear that old friends will wither away?" Xu Rufeng's tone was tinged with curiosity, "Or that beauties will easily grow old?"

"It is indeed fear of things changing and people being gone." Ling Xiao's voice sank, "But not for the sake of any romance."

She had to return as soon as possible. Although the old saying goes, a gentleman's revenge is never too late even after ten years.

"I can wait, but those old things might not live long enough for me to return."

By then, those old monsters would probably have already turned to dust under the heavenly thunder!

"They are all burdened with heavy sins. For them, Undergoing Tribulation is a dead end. If I am not quick enough, this grudge... will have nowhere to be settled."

"...What about Daoist Yunzi?"

A calm response came from the front: "I have said it before. Until the great enemy is eliminated, my mind cannot be at peace."

Moreover, the contingencies he had laid out, the Immortal Caves, spiritual materials, and Magic Treasures he had hidden away. If he could not retrieve them early, as time flowed on, even if they hadn't fallen into others' hands, their spiritual essence would eventually be worn away by time.

Even the ghosts imprisoned in that Ten Thousand Soul Banner, if left without magical power to nourish them for a hundred years, would dissipate by seven or eight tenths.

"Tsk, why is your cultivation all about killing and scheming?" Xu Rufeng felt quite bored, "Aren't there any... more romantic, more entangled, more emotionally stirring reasons?"

"What is 'entangled'?" Ling Xiao asked.

"It means you are infatuated with him, he is devoted to her, she is longing for another him, and that person turns back to care for you... all sorts of love entanglements that make people drown in them, doing foolish things that border on madness."

"Is it because they were struck by evil magic and need dog's blood sprinkled to exorcise it?" Ling Xiao tried to understand.

"...Uh, sure, let's go with that."

"My cultivation protects my body, all evils retreat."

"..."

"I do have a Senior Brother."

"Does he have a story?"

"He also likes to read such... miscellaneous books that are not beneficial to one's Heart-Nature."

"..."

Xu Rufeng's silence was like an invisible layer of dust, covering this overly quiet tomb passage.

He even began to feel that this place was unnaturally quiet! Why hadn't any Yao Beasts pounced from the shadows yet?

Splash! The sound of water breaking suddenly rang out!

A turbid water arrow shot out from a dark puddle on the side, aiming straight for his throat.

"...Damn it!" Xu Rufeng cursed aloud.

This bad luck, it truly never comes when you don't wish for it, but arrives the moment you think of it!

He had even secretly hoped that this trip would go smoothly as wished, why had it never come true?

Only a short time passed. A writhing long shadow appeared on the ground.

Its whole body was covered in ringed hard shells, with no eyes or nostrils, only a deep mouth filled with sharp teeth splitting open at one end of its body.

The thing shimmered with a murky dark color in the dim light, really hard to call it beautiful.

Ling Xiao did not want to admit that this could be considered a type of snake. She gave it a new name: "A long worm from the dark earth."

Xu Rufeng stared at that body segment, the more he looked, the more it felt like an earthworm magnified countless times.

"Swallow it." Ling Xiao turned her gaze away.

"Never mind." Xu Rufeng rarely expressed a refusal.

Thinking about swallowing this thing down his throat made his stomach feel uncomfortable. Seeking power didn't necessarily require going to such lengths. There must be other ways.

Moreover, this creature had neither an Inner Core nor Cultivation, it was pitifully weak. Even if refined, the gains would be minimal.

"Keep it, it can be used as medicine." Ling Yunzi reminded him.

Since he said so, Ling Xiao still put the ugly long worm into a storage container.

On the way forward, they encountered several similar earthworms. These creatures were weak in strength; the only thing they were good at was spraying water columns mixed with poisonous mist from their mouths.

Fortunately, the Medicinal Pills Ling Yunzi had prepared in advance could suppress such poisonous mist. Therefore, although there were twists and turns along the way, they did not encounter any real danger.

In less than half an incense stick of time, the three of them had stepped into the first tomb chamber. They began searching for the teleportation Talisman leading to the Secret Realm.

"What does that Talisman look like?" Xu Rufeng only thought to ask at this moment. If it were the size of a token, and without the aid of Divine Sense, searching for it would likely not be easy.

"It's very easy to identify." Ling Xiao replied, "When you see a dragon egg half a person high and sense life, take it."

"A dragon egg half a person high?" What kind of creature's egg could be this big?

"Left behind by the Dragon Clan."

"What?"

"Don't miss any other valuable items either."

"Got it."

The first tomb chamber was empty. In the second and third tomb chambers, they only found a few Spiritual Plants that were considered precious.

Moreover, these tomb chambers all showed signs of having been rummaged through. Some positions seemed to have once held a dragon egg, but now only empty spaces remained.

Ling Xiao frowned: "It seems we can only look for the entrance to the main tomb chamber."

"I have a question," Xu Rufeng suddenly spoke, "The Imperial Mausoleum opens every ten years? Then how many dragon eggs must be here?"

"Also, since the name is recruiting talent, but the reality is recruiting a son-in-law, just how many daughters does the Jiao King have? To have one ready for marriage exactly every ten years?"

"Who told you that a daughter must be married off every ten years?"

"Huh?"

"Can't this daughter remarry after her husband dies?"

"What!"

"Whether the Jiao King has daughters of marriageable age is not for you to worry about."

Ling Xiao closed her eyes, silently calculating the layout of this mausoleum in her heart, searching for the possible location of the main tomb chamber.

Xu Rufeng's question was answered. "After that Jiao King practiced secret techniques, he experienced more than one awakening from deep within his Bloodline."

What awakened in his body was the Yao blood of the Sea-Walking Jiao that rampaged through the seas in ancient times. There is a rumor that this kind of ancient great Yao and the legendary ancestral Dragon share similar source blood.

"And the Dragon Clan's Bloodline can almost combine with thousands of living beings between heaven and earth to produce offspring."

That Jiao King was unrestrained in his youth, and to this day, he is still surrounded by many consorts. Many female Yao have borne him Jiao eggs carrying his Bloodline.

These eggs are now placed in the depths of his deep underground palace. The hatching of Jiao eggs requires experiencing an extremely long period of time within a massive spiritual formation before there is a chance to break the shell.

Therefore, it is said that even the offspring born a hundred years ago have mostly not yet been born.

"...So that's how it is." Xu Rufeng sighed in a low voice. "Then allow me to ask one more thing, how old is the Jiao King's eldest child now?"

"About three or four thousand years old." Ling Xiao replied, "However, they should no longer be in this realm."

The Jiao King's first offspring was a princess. "Princess Shuang Xuan is currently in the Heavenly Realm, serving by the side of the Yao Saint."

"The Yao Saint is not in the Yao Race territory?"

"The Yao Saint's residence is located in the Lianxiao Heaven, one of the Nine Heavens of the Heavenly Realm."

"In that case, the Jiao King doesn't need to worry about not having enough daughters to choose a son-in-law."

"He never needed to worry." Ling Xiao snorted lightly, "It's not like every time he recruits a son-in-law, he can actually recruit someone suitable."

The Imperial Mausoleum opens every ten years, and the marriage recruitment agreement is also once every ten years. But it is not every time that a Yao Race member can obtain what the Jiao King seeks and present it to him to exchange for the status of a son-in-law.

The Imperial Mausoleum is fraught with danger. The great Yao who enter inevitably suffer losses. Just like this time, before they had even truly stepped into the tomb gate, casualties had already appeared.

Then there are all kinds of fierce creatures in the mausoleum that feed on the flesh and blood of the Yao Race, such as Dragon Lice, earth dragons, and the like. There is also the ubiquitous and hard-to-guard-against poisonous miasma and illusion Qi. Plus, the fighting that may be triggered between great Yao for the sake of grabbing spiritual items...

Xu Rufeng knew clearly that the reason they could walk so smoothly on this journey was largely due to the arrangements made in advance by Ling Xiao and Ling Yunzi. The knowledge and experience of an Empress and a Dao Lord, combined with each other, allowed them to deal with things so calmly.

The other small part must be credited to Jin Hong and the other Yao who led away the Dragon Lice swarm outside. The Dragon Lice population is huge, and through hunting and reproduction, they seem to have occupied this space. Therefore, in this True Dragon tomb chamber, with their existence, other threats were actually much fewer.

No wonder the Black Jiao and Hong Lie were unwilling to come and compete. And the Secret Realm under the Imperial Mausoleum is said to be several times more dangerous. Every time great Yao enter, if more than half can leave alive, it is already not easy. Moreover, one still needs to find the token specified by the Jiao King.

However, there are always people willing to take risks to pull chestnuts from the fire. So, even if it is dangerous, every time the Imperial Mausoleum opens, there are still Yao Race members coming one after another, rushing towards the depths of the Secret Realm.

Xu Rufeng paced in the stone chamber, his fingertips unconsciously brushing over the dried moss marks on the wall. He stopped his steps, his gaze falling on the deeper darkness in the depths of the corridor. "In that case," his voice carried a bit of uncertainty, "that Jiao King's daughter, we might have to wait more than ten years?"

Ling Xiao was crouching on the ground, using the tip of a short blade to scrape some kind of dark red crystal in the stone crevice. She didn't even lift her head, a short snort of laughter escaping her nose. "Wait?"

She flicked her wrist, shaking the scraped crystal powder into a leather pouch, "In the rumors, it has always been to first select the son-in-law, and then let the chosen one wait for an egg that has not yet broken its shell."

The more powerful the Bloodline of the race, the later the moment of breaking the shell arrives, and the longer the scale of life is stretched.