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^[1] 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 pushing past the flap and walking out.

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 take a leak?”

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, picking up a teacup from the table to pour myself some brick tea. “Did you need me for something?”

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

His state seemed a bit off. I checked my phone; it was already past midnight. 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 really late. How about we talk tomorrow?”

Before the words had even left my mouth, Lu Ayao suddenly grabbed my wrist. Such a sudden, drastic move startled me. Come on, man, is that really necessary? I thought.

His gaze suggested that if I tried to leave, he might just strangle me with a whip the next second. I had no choice but to nod and pretend I was all ears. I wanted to see what kind of important deductions this guy had come up with.

Lu Ayao set down his tea, his tone as flat as ever. “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 exact same thing.”

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

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^[2] and could neutralize toxins, right? What about it? Are you saying Fourth Brother and the others were after that thing from the very beginning?”

Lu Ayao nodded slightly.

“But that doesn’t seem right either. According to what you guys said, Wu Taisui is just a medicinal herb. Is there really any need for such a massive undertaking?” 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, where I found a different record of Wu Taisui in a scripture inside an unmarked cave tomb. It was vastly different from what He Yu described. I suspect 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 speak of a tribe that once lived in the Xiangxi region called the Shi. The Shi clan flourished and rapidly expanded in Xiangxi, and their leader declared himself king deep in the mountains. It was said the Shi people possessed arts that could reach the heavens, and even immortals had learned their secret technique for resurrection from them. The clan often hid underground, refining elixirs with the blood of slaves, leaving behind mountains of corpses and seas of blood. In the end, an outbreak of corpse poison wiped them out within three generations.”

“However, legends claim the last leader of the clan actually succeeded in refining a medicine for resurrection known as Houtu Blood, also called Wu Taisui. Because she was ruthless and violent, and because the word ‘Shi’ shared its sound with 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 is said that Qin Shi Huang^[3] 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 once we reached 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.”