Chapter 123: Owner of the Tomb

Seeing that the screen of light was about to display "Life Imprisonment," Lu Yang closed the Graverobbing Insights with a sharp snap, and the light screen flashing with the prison term finally vanished.

This time, Lu Yang could no longer use "it's a characteristic of the era" as an excuse to explain it away; the function of this book was truly a bit absurd, and what's more, it carried a sliver of rationality within its absurdity, making it seem even more preposterous.

Fortunately, the Immortal Fairy's interest came and went just as quickly, and she was soon drawn to the burial goods; the ancient era was far too distant from the present, so the specifications and styles of burial items had undergone changes.

For instance, in the ancient era, people believed that after death they would go to the Nine Serenities, and to maintain the same prestige in the Nine Serenities as they had during life, they needed to use living people as sacrificial burial goods, so when later generations opened the tombs of ancient mighty experts, they could often see burial pits piled high with skeletal remains; nowadays, people had become civilized, changing human sacrifices into terracotta warriors.

This reminded the Immortal Fairy of a few things: "I remember that back in the beginning, Immortal Ying Tian was actually the burial sacrifice for some old geezer, but fortunately, Immortal Ying Tian had good luck, using a technique of feigned death to bluff his way through and get carried into the tomb alive."

"After entering the tomb, he canceled the feigned death technique and harvested to his heart's content inside, obtaining a massive amount of herbs and magical treasures; that old geezer firmly believed he would reincarnate, so he had stored several kinds of heavenly materials and earthly treasures meant to alter physical constitution inside the burial chamber, all of which ended up benefiting Immortal Ying Tian."

"Taking advantage of the opportunity to cleanse his marrow, shed his mortal body, and improve his constitution, he later escaped from the tomb, after which he encountered continuous fortuitous strokes, his latent reserves grew, his fame gradually rose, and he stood out among the younger generation, becoming one of the protagonists of that great era, barely qualified to be my opponent."

Originally, Lu Yang felt that Immortal Ying Tian must be an incredibly powerful existence, but hearing that he was barely qualified to be the Immortal Fairy's opponent, he decisively dragged him down to the exact same level as the Immortal Fairy.

"Are there ranks among immortals too? Like Immortals, Celestial Immortals, and such?" Lu Yang asked.

Knowing that Lu Yang had misunderstood, the Immortal Fairy explained, "Immortal Ying Tian's title is Ying Tian, and his status is an immortal, so people call him Immortal Ying Tian."

"Immortal Ying Tian believed he was born in response to heaven, conforming to the mandate of heaven, and that he was the protagonist of heaven and earth with the grand trend on his side, so he styled himself Ying Tian."

"There are no distinctions of rank among immortals; everyone's Dao Fruit is different, making it hard to distinguish high from low, so how could ranks be assigned?"

The Immortal Fairy's words made Lu Yang realize one thing—as it turned out, the Immortal Fairy was still of some use after all.

It was a pity that the Central Continent didn't have history examinations; otherwise, Lu Yang would surely be able to score a perfect mark.

Or perhaps Lu Yang's grades wouldn't be ideal, and the test-maker would say everything Lu Yang answered was wrong, claiming that after hundreds of years of research, the ancient era was supposed to be such-and-such, while everyone around mocked Lu Yang's ignorance, marveling at how he dared to question the test-maker's answers, truly not knowing the height of the sky or the depth of the earth.

At that moment, Lu Yang would reveal his identity as the host of the Immortal Fairy, slapping their faces in public, bringing dead silence to the whole venue, so that no one would ever dare question Lu Yang's views on the ancient era again.

That felt pretty satisfying.

Lu Yang had even thought out the entire scene for showing off, yet there was simply no place to apply it.

The Immortal Fairy didn't talk about ancient matters anymore, observing the various burial goods with keen interest.

Lu Yang did not lower his guard, continuing to learn graverobbing knowledge: "As a graverobber, one must remain vigilant at all times; even if you find the main chamber and locate the burial goods within it, you cannot let your guard down, as some tomb owners utterly detest being disturbed and will set vicious traps in the main chamber, so be absolutely careful..."

"Kid, walk forward and take a closer look; is this something from your era? It looks quite fun," the Immortal Fairy urged Lu Yang, though he didn't know what she had spotted.

Just as Lu Yang took a step forward, he felt himself step on something, seemingly a stone brick that could sink down.

Lu Yang's forehead was instantly covered in cold sweat, realizing he had stepped on a trap; what would it be—poison darts shooting up from the floor, or arrows firing from the walls?

Leaving no time for Lu Yang to think too much, he leaped backward purely by instinct, attempting to dodge the mechanical hidden weapons.

The mechanism was triggered, and the night-luminescent pearl above his head suddenly erupted with a brightness akin to a miniature sun, illuminating the entire main chamber thoroughly, completely erasing the gloomy and terrifying atmosphere from just a moment ago.

Lu Yang waited for a long time without any new changes, and the corner of his eye twitched wildly: "So that was just turning on a light?"

"What is turning on a light?" The Immortal Fairy had never heard this phrase before.

"Nothing."

Lu Yang increasingly felt that this tomb exuded an aura of absurdity; being built on a cliffside could still be explained as a way to prevent theft, but you wrote "Main Chamber" at the entrance, and yet you could even turn on a light inside the main chamber—isn't that a bit too much?

Was this a setting a normal tomb ought to have?

At the very least, no such thing was mentioned in the Graverobbing Insights.

However, the Graverobbing Insights did contain a line of warning: The more something defies common sense, the more dangerous it is.

"No need to worry, with this fairy here, no accidents will happen!" After the light was turned on, the Immortal Fairy's courage clearly grew much larger, and she spoke with plenty of confidence.

The night-luminescent pearl lit the tomb just like daytime; even if a ghost popped out, the Immortal Fairy would dare to walk over and slap it twice across the face, letting it know who the real ghost was!

Could I, a dignified immortal, be afraid of ghosts?

"That book by your left hand is a bit interesting, take a look at it."

"Move your thumb away, there's another word above it," the Immortal Fairy said.

Lu Yang moved his thumb away, revealing the full name of the book: Notes on Anti-Graverobbing

Lu Yang: "..."

He carefully put away the Graverobbing Insights, deeply afraid that some kind of strange reaction would occur if the two books were kept together.

Lu Yang flipped through the book, and just as the words literally suggested, the contents were entirely about how to rationally arrange a tomb that would never be visited by graverobbers, even making targeted responses to common graverobbing methods, which was remarkably professional.

As the saying goes, while the demon rises one foot, the Dao rises ten feet; it was a law of nature.

Lu Yang felt that if he mastered both the Graverobbing Insights and the Notes on Anti-Graverobbing, then out of all the vast tombs in the world, where couldn't he rob?

He retracted his gaze from the book, and the tombstone on his right side caught his interest; through the tombstone, the identity of the tomb owner should be clearly written.

It was just the right chance to see who exactly had constructed such a bizarre tomb.

Lu Yang tilted his head to look at the content of the stone tablet, and his blood ran cold, his hairs stood on end, and he was so terrified that he took a large leap backward.

Written upon the stone tablet was: Here lies Qin Jiunian in eternal sleep.

"Who is Qin Jiunian, and why do you have such a big reaction?" The Immortal Fairy was puzzled.

Lu Yang's voice was trembling: "Qin Jiunian... is the contemporary Great Elder of our Dao Inquiry Sect!"

What was going on—was it just someone with the same first and last name, or had the Great Elder fallen? If the Great Elder had fallen, then who was the one currently moving about within the Dao Inquiry Sect? An impostor? What was the purpose?

"The Great Elder is elusive all year round, leaving Senior Brother Dai Bufan to sit in the Mission Hall on his behalf; could it be that he's worried someone will see through his identity, so he deliberately reduces communication with others?"

A series of questions flooded his mind, and the answers were temporarily unknowable.

Right at that moment, the coffin vibrated, as if some kind of thing was breaking free from its restraints, coming out from within the coffin!

(End of Chapter)