Chapter 225: Houtu Blood

Zhurige didn’t respond to me again, making me think for a moment that she hadn’t heard what I said. Later, when I was about to repeat myself, Qian Deli quietly tugged at my sleeve. Kuba was observant enough to invite us to rest in separate yurts, claiming that the charcoal in the large yurt was running low and he needed to fetch more.

Feeling a bit rebuffed, I tucked the Horse-Head Blade into my belt and stepped out. As soon as we left the yurt, Qian Deli pulled me aside and said, “Oh, my little master, we absolutely cannot go to that Crying Forest!”

I found his reaction strange. “Why have you suddenly turned into a coward again? Nineteen teams have already come through here asking questions, which means Fourth Brother must have come this way too. The Gune Royal City is right below us, proving our destination is the same as his. Besides, weren’t you the one who insisted on coming to Inner Mongolia? We don’t have the Burial Bone Testament. If we don’t check out that Crying Forest from back then, how are we supposed to confirm the location of the Royal City?”

“No, no,” Qian Deli waved his hands frantically. He explained, “My grandfather saw the Burial Bone Testament too. According to Manager Gan, the records regarding Gune Royal City in that testament weren’t very detailed. After the Chief Chief ran into trouble and they barely escaped with their lives, the only thing they could be certain of was that the Royal City is surrounded by decoy tombs. The Crying Forest the Chief Chief entered back then was one of them!”

I frowned. “What did you say? Decoy tombs?”

Qian Deli clapped his hands together. “Exactly! Decoy tombs, also known as trap tombs. It was a little trick played by that old man Gune. The King of Gune was naturally tyrannical and owned countless serfs. Legend has it that he selected forty-eight prime feng shui locations for his final resting place, building Forty-Eight False Tombs around his actual mausoleum to lure in tomb raiders. Every single trap tomb is filled with mechanisms, making it nearly impossible to escape once you enter. The Crying Forest is one of those places, which is why they suffered such a defeat back then.”

Qian Deli sighed. “In feng shui terms, this is called a ‘Dragon-Trapping Marsh.’ Have you forgotten the divination Manager Gan performed earlier? One cannot enter unless the earth shakes and the mountains sway. It seems that divination corresponds directly to this Dragon-Trapping Marsh, because as of yet, I’ve never heard of a way to break such a feng shui formation.”

I lowered my head and thought for a while, unable to help but doubt Qian Deli’s motives. This man had followed us all this way, and after all the twists and turns, his goal was still Inner Mongolia. He claimed he wanted to see the world and dig up treasures, yet he constantly tried to stop me from taking risks. It was suspicious, but since he hadn’t actually done anything wrong, I had no real reason to call him out.

Then there was this Dragon-Trapping Marsh. I had heard my grandfather mention it occasionally. Back then, Ye Yuzhu and Gan Zhao had indeed returned empty-handed. Every team that lost people there suffered a massive blow to their strength. The exact death toll was impossible to estimate, but they had to spend a long time recovering afterward. Later, no one ever mentioned that tragic and heroic past again.

My great-grandfather was a master of Yin-Yang and feng shui, yet even with the Burial Bone Testament in hand, he couldn’t calculate the true location of the Tomb of King Gune. Someone like me, who only had a superficial understanding of the craft, stood even less of a chance. I wondered what Fourth Brother’s plan was.

In this vast grassland valley, ruling out those Forty-Eight False Tombs one by one would be no simple task. It seemed this matter couldn’t be rushed; we needed a long-term plan.

Just as I made up my mind, I saw He Yu lift a tent flap and run toward me.

“What’s wrong?” I went to meet him.

He Yu was only wearing a thin shirt. He rubbed his arms and gestured with his chin toward a nearby tent. I remembered Kuba had led Lu Ayao and Lu Qianshan into that tent to rest earlier. It seemed they wanted to discuss something with me.

I slapped him on the shoulder, jogged a few steps, and pulled back the tent flap. I nearly collided head-on with Lu Qianshan as he was coming out. He gave me a look of utter disdain before brushing past the curtain and leaving.

I pointed at Lu Qianshan’s retreating back and looked at Lu Ayao, who was sitting there drinking brick tea. “What’s he going out for? Did he drink too much milk tea and need to drain the radiator?”

Lu Ayao didn’t answer. He clearly wasn’t in the mood for jokes. I wiped the smile off my face and sat down across from him, pouring myself a cup of brick tea from the pot on the table. “You needed me for something?”

Lu Ayao nodded. “Now that we’re here, and considering everything that’s happened, I have a few theories.”

His current state seemed a bit off. I checked my phone; it was already the early hours of the morning. According to Master Lu’s usual routine, he should have been tucked away in his sleeping bag long ago, not sitting here trying to engage me in a long discussion.

I let out a yawn. “It’s late. How about we talk tomorrow?”

Before I could finish, Lu Ayao suddenly grabbed my wrist. The sudden movement startled me. I thought, Take it easy, man.

His gaze suggested that if I tried to leave, he might just strangle me with a whip the next second. I could only nod and adopt an attentive posture. I wanted to see what kind of important deductions this guy had made.

Lu Ayao set down his tea, his voice remaining flat. “I’ve deduced that those foreigners, your Fourth Brother, and even the entire Five Masters have traveled across multiple regions and moved between various tombs because they are all likely searching for the same thing.”

My interest was instantly piqued. “Weren’t they following the guidance from the Nine-Ring Jade Casket?”

Lu Ayao shook his head. “As far as I know, no.”

“Do you remember me mentioning a medicinal herb called Wu Taisui?” he asked.

I strained to remember. “I think so. He Yu said back then that Wu Taisui was the heart of Houtu and could neutralize toxins, right? Why? Are you saying Fourth Brother and the others were after that thing from the start?”

Lu Ayao nodded slightly.

“But that doesn’t seem right. According to what you guys said, Wu Taisui is just a medicinal herb. There’s no need for such a massive undertaking, is there?” I asked.

Lu Ayao glanced at me. “It seems you truly know nothing about Wu Taisui.”

“Most people believe Wu Taisui is an ordinary herb, shaped like a Lingzhi mushroom and growing on snowy mountains. However, I once traveled to western Hunan. In a scripture found within an anonymous cave tomb, I discovered a different record regarding Wu Taisui. It is vastly different from what He Yu described. I suspect that this particular Taisui is the medicine for resurrection that Chen Si and the others are searching for.”

I remained silent, letting him continue.

“According to my research, legends say a tribe once appeared in the Xiangxi region known as the ‘Shi’. The clan thrived in that area, and the tribe grew rapidly. Their leader declared himself king deep within the mountains. It was said the Shi people possessed arts that could reach the heavens, and that immortals had even granted them a secret method for resurrection. Consequently, the clan often hid underground, refining elixirs using the blood of slaves. This led to mountains of corpses and seas of blood until a corpse poison outbreak finally wiped them out after three generations.”

“However, the legends claim the final leader of the clan actually succeeded in refining a medicine for resurrection called Houtu Blood, also known as the Wu Taisui. This female leader gained her reputation through this achievement. Because she was cruel and fierce, and because the word ‘Shi’ sounds like the word for ‘Corpse’, later generations called her the Corpse Country Queen.”

Lu Ayao paused for a moment before continuing. “Yet, after the Corpse Country Queen died, she was unable to use the Houtu Blood. From that point on, its whereabouts became a mystery. It’s said that Qin Shi Huang even sent people everywhere to search for it, but they still came up empty-handed.”

“It wasn’t until Chen Si mentioned the Gune Kingdom on the bus and told that strange story about the outsider that I was able to piece it together in Inner Mongolia. The legendary Houtu Blood most likely fell into the hands of the King of Gune, and your Fourth Brother is almost certainly here for that king’s Houtu Blood.”