Chapter 459: Lord Ye's Professed Love For Dragons [1]
Chapter 459: Lord Ye's Professed Love For Dragons [1]
Translator: AstralGhost Editor: Kurisu
From this point alone, Bei Feng was undoubtedly much luckier than the other cultivators on Earth in that he had an alternate path to choose.
But if he went to another world through the Myriad Heavens portal, he could only stay in that world for a year. That was not what he wanted.
As of now, he no longer had any attachments on Earth, and could leave at any time. As for the Heavenly Demonic Corpse, there was still a long time until it would be born. If he had a path out to another world, he could always use it to come back in the future to collect the corpse.
A thousand years was simply too long. There was no way he could stay here, waiting for it to come out.
As for the other Demonic Corpse in the underground crypt under Mt Qing Ling, the government had sent many people in to explore the crypt. However, the casualty rate was still somewhat high.
After all, the Demonic Beasts inside had not been cleared out completely. But after so many years, the area had been developed into a research center for studying Demonic Beasts.
Much deeper in, in a huge cavern under the incomparably dark underground river, an extremely horrifying scene was taking place. Countless purple golden mosquitoes and bats flew out from the cave and dropped into the blood lake under a coffin!
These mutated mosquitoes and bats seemed to have been possessed by demons, completely unafraid of death. The blood lake bubbled intensely; at this point, it was only less than three meters deep. It was already possible to see numerous intersecting patterns under the dried lake, and every certain fixed distance along the patterns, there was a dark red stone embedded within, emanating an eerie red light.
The heaven-encompassing blanket of bats and mosquitoes continuously plunged into the blood lake, turning into a nearly endless wave of pure blood Qi. Numerous loud bell-like sounds rang out, completely drowning out the noise caused by the bats and mosquitoes!
"Badump! Badump!"
Powerful heartbeat rang out from within the coffin, causing the chains in the cavern to rattle unceasingly.
At the entrance of the dark underground river, three rubber assault boats were advancing in the direction of the coffin at high speed.
The boat in front and behind were filled with armed soldiers, while in the middle boat sat two old men and five assistants.
A middle-aged man stood at the front of the boat, adjusting his spectacles nervously. The huge lamps on the front of the boat shone powerfully, illuminating a large distance in front of them. The entire area was deathly silent save for the sound of the motor. After some time, the-middle aged man could not help but ask, "Professor, what are we looking for?"
"Little Liu, this is obviously the tomb of a major character in the ancient times. But have you seen any coffins yet?"
The old professor's hair was already turning white, but his spirit was even more alive than before. This underground world was extremely huge beyond compare, and the thing that pained his old heart the most was that large amounts of the structures and artifacts in here had all been destroyed.
The other old man was an advanced researcher on plant life. The sheer amount of new and wondrous species that'd been uncovered in this space was so many that the old man very nearly suffered a stroke from excitement!
"Professor, what if this place was just a half-finished mausoleum like Cao Cao's? Wasn't his actual tomb never uncovered even until now?"
The middle-aged man was very respectful and did not refute directly. It was obvious that the middle-aged man was speaking from the position of a junior.
The two old professors were actually the top researchers in the entire country. Throughout their lives, all their efforts had gone into their research.
"That's impossible. This place is the real tomb. The location where its kept is definitely within this dark river!" someone from another group of three said. A savage aura lingered around the three, and it was obvious with a single glance that they were not kind people.
"Shut up. If said nicely, the few of you are tomb specialists. But aren't you just grave robbers? I'm ashamed to be acquainted with you all!"
While the middle-aged man was very respectful to the two old men, he was not polite to the three people at all.
"Alright, quiet down. I've researched ancient architecture my entire life, and can be considered to have some understanding on the subject. The geographic structure of this place is very unique, and according to Fengshui studies, the place we've just entered can be said to be the mouth of a dragon! This water is also naturally dragon saliva!
"The area in front that has a huge area broken apart is because it'd been affected by the dragon's saliva. That's why it's so dangerous. And the moment those ancient characters found such a formidable natural formation, there's no way they'd let it go to waste. The structures ahead are complete as well, so there's no way the main tomb is not here!"
One of the professors waved his hand and indicated for everyone to be silent.
"Professor, Fengshui is just a superstition, how come even you believe it?" another middle-aged man asked doubtfully.
"The things of the ancient people are not all nonsense. Even thousands of years ago, the old ancestors have already figured out ways to calculate the time and dates, not to mention all kinds of grand inventions," the old professor said with a sigh. From the reaction of the middle-aged man just now, he could see that the theories and things from the ancestors' era were becoming more and more obsolete in the present world.
"If the place that we've entered is considered the mouth of the dragon, the real tomb should be at the dragon's reserve scale area, which is the part under its neck. If my guess is correct, the real tomb should be there."
The old professor sat up excitedly. Normally, he seemed like a half dead person, but when his interest was roused, his spirit even radiated light!
"Badump!"
"Badump!"
Deep inside the pitch-black underground lake, a heart thumping suddenly rang out with incredible clarity!
Everyone immediately stood up with shock, and the atmosphere became incredibly tense. The military escorts around the group also hurriedly raised their guard and readied their rifles.
Of the three 'tomb specialists', a middle-aged man with huge arms and hands full of callouses said, "I have a bad feeling about this. Jun Zi, light a candle immediately!"
"Understood."
The young man called Jun Zi nodded solemnly. The three of them were actually all the elite of elites among grave robbers. But their luck was bad, and they were trapped in a tomb during one of their robberies. Without any ways out, they were almost certain to die in the tomb. In the end, they were found and apprehended.
That was the reason they were accompanying the few professors in this mission. There was no way the three could feel happy at all. Since they were caught, it was naturally a great humiliation.
But if they could assist the professors and help them locate the tomb's position this time and bring everybody back out safely, they would be absolved of all their crimes and could work for the government in the future.
A black candle not even 10 cm long was quickly taken out. If one looked at the candle for long enough, they could even see some blurry human faces!
This candle looked extremely old, and more than half of it had already burned away. Jun Zi held it up carefully and made a small slit on his palm, allowing his blood to drip onto a talisman. Then, the talisman was burnt and the fire from it was used to light the candle.
"Hong!"
The moment the talisman came into contact with the candle, a black flame instantly flickered into life, and a black light burst out!
"Ga... ga!"
A series of strange laughter sounded out, causing the already tense crowd to jump with fright.
The black flame suddenly jumped three meters high, burning fiercely. Strangely, the black light emanating from it actually lit up the entire cavern!
The middle-aged man whom one of the old professors called Little Liu turned around and scolded angrily, "What the hell are you guys doing?!"
But as everyone looked at the three 'tomb specialists', they instantly realized that something was wrong. Huge droplets of sweat poured down the brows of the three, and terror was written all over their faces!
The black candle was burned away in a short moment, leaving nothing behind. Only the smell of the wax in the air remained.
Mo Dao forcefully calmed himself and said, "We cannot continue forward! There's great danger in front—everyone is going to die!"
Although he'd already restrained his tone greatly, it was still filled with terror!
The old professor did not directly deny and asked, "Hm? What danger is ahead of us? And how did you know?"
"The candle told me so!"
Mo Dao's body was completely drenched in cold sweat by now, and his expression was anxious beyond belief. It was hard to believe that a top-tier grave robber would actually be scared to this extent!
"What a joke, we've come all the way here and you want us to give up and return because your candle told you to?"
Liu Zijie scowled darkly as he looked at the dubious "Daoist Master". In that moment, he highly suspected that that title was just something the crafty thief hung on himself.
"That candle was passed down through my family, and from what I know, it'd already existed for at least 400 years! For the past 400 years, my family relied on this candle to guide us!
"It's impossible to find out how this candle was created, but for the past 400 years until today, not 5 cm had ever been burnt in total! This candle was used to detect danger for all the grave robbing missions; the greater the danger, the faster it would burn! 150 years ago, the candle had only burned down by 1 cm after detecting a flying zombie. And that time, less than five people returned out of the 1,000 that went! But this time, the entire candle actually burned out in an instant!"
Mo Dao was becoming increasingly scared. As he looked at the disbelieving faces around him, he could only lament how blissful it was to be ignorant.
Jun Zi and the other grave robber were also extremely nervous. Their ancestors had also been on close terms with Mo Dao's family, so they naturally understood the significance of this candle's strange phenomenon.
The old professor hesitated for a moment, but such a ridiculous explanation was still truly too hard for him to accept. Earlier, he'd chided the young people for disregarding the methods of the ancestors, but when his turn came, it turned out that he also could not believe in what he felt to be mere superstitions.
Lord Ye's professed love for dragons was merely thus!
"Let's retreat. Even if we really want to find the tomb, it won't be enough with just the few of us!" Mo Dao added seriously. He would rather be locked in jail for the rest of his life than dragged to a horrible death due to the stupidity of these people.
"There's no place for you to speak here! Professor, what should we do now? The way I see it, even if it's dangerous, it shouldn't be to a point where we don't even have the courage to go to the outer perimeters and take a look."
Liu Zijie completely brushed Mo Dao aside.
"Fine, we'll go to the outer perimeter and take a look. If we really can't enter, we'll go back immediately. Also, I'm not sure what the three of you are up to, but if there's any tricks, none of you will be able to escape."
Liu Zijie's words to the already extremely tense professor was akin to the straw that broke the camel's back. In that instant, he steeled his heart and made his decision. The last sentence was said for everyone to hear.
"Dead, we're all dead! I want to leave! If you people want to die so badly, just go and die yourself!"
The man beside Jun Zi screamed hysterically and jumped into the water directly.
"Peng! Peng!"
Gunshots rang out and several bullets drilled into the person's body. Without even sparing him a glance, the soldiers left him to sink into the river.
These grave robbers' hands were not clean in the first place, and it was definitely not unjust to kill them!