Chapter 127: The Magical Artifact Acquired

Inside the Tomb!

As time passed, the evil ghosts grew fewer and fewer. The martial artists and demons also suffered casualties, some collapsing lifelessly to the ground.

The strongest of these evil ghosts were no more than Fifth Rank. With two Fourth-Rank wild demons and the magistrate of Tiger Prison County present, they could not stir up much trouble.

On the panel, the number following “soul fragments” had risen to six.

Every one of the evil ghosts had a hideous appearance. Their hair was disheveled, and their features were twisted beyond recognition. Some had already grown horns and tentacles, from which transparent slime dripped onto the ground, utterly revolting.

Once the evil ghosts ahead had been cleared away, the tiger demon, snake demon, and Qiu Tieying continued deeper into the tomb. The remaining demons and martial artists hurried after them, though a few unfortunate souls were still entangled with the ghosts. After swiftly dispatching the Sixth-Rank evil ghost before him, Su Yang followed as well.

The air gradually grew damp.

Beneath their feet lay countless withered bones and corpses. They were presumably the bodies these evil ghosts had possessed in life. A foul stench permeated the air.

After roughly the time it takes an incense stick to burn, a white jade coffin appeared before them. A circle of candle stands surrounded it, but the candles had long since burned away, leaving the stands covered in rust.

On either side of the white jade coffin stood rows of jade boxes, each roughly forty centimeters in size. There were about a hundred of them, arranged in two lines. No one knew what they contained.

The tomb chamber was enormous. The white jade coffin stood more than twenty meters from the boxes on either side, while the distance from the entrance of the main chamber to the coffin was nearly a hundred meters. Strangely, the air here was completely dry.

“This must be the tomb of Senior Shen, mustn’t it?” one of the Fifth-Rank wild demons said, gazing at the white jade coffin ahead.

“Senior Shen, forgive me!”

As soon as Qiu Tieying finished speaking, he appeared before the jade coffin. He seized the lid and hurled it away with sheer force. It struck the ground heavily, shattering one corner, and a rich medicinal fragrance instantly filled the chamber.

“Whoosh!”

The tiger demon and snake demon were overjoyed upon catching the fragrance. Their bodies left afterimages where they stood as they shot toward the white jade coffin.

When Qiu Tieying saw the Three-Colored Snow Lotus inside, delight surged through him. He hurriedly reached out to take it.

“Roar!”

How could the tiger demon stand by and watch Qiu Tieying claim the treasure? With an enraged roar, it spat two ghost servants from its mouth. They flew like arrows, reaching Qiu Tieying in an instant. Their fangs and claws bared, their faces twisted into hideous masks, they raked viciously toward him.

Both ghost servants possessed the strength of Fifth-Rank wild ghosts. Qiu Tieying did not regard them as a serious threat; given a few exchanges, he would certainly beat them into dead ghosts.

However, the tiger demon and the grass python demon were closing in from behind. Qiu Tieying had no choice but to turn and withstand their attack head-on.

“You dare keep the treasure all to yourself? You’re courting death!”

The tiger demon was furious and struck at Qiu Tieying with brutal force. Qiu Tieying hurriedly dodged, causing the tiger’s claw to slam into the jade coffin instead.

A cracking sound rang out. Shattered jade flew in every direction, and the entire coffin broke apart.

“Crash, crash, crash!”

The fragments struck the surrounding walls with a series of sharp impacts. Several pieces smashed into the jade boxes, knocking them to the ground. An ancient medicinal herb rolled out from one of them.

A Fifth-Rank ancient herb—the Green-Fleshed Tai Sui.

A Fifth-Rank ancient herb—the White Star Lingzhi.

A Sixth-Rank ancient herb—the Black-Core Blood Buddha Hand.

And many more.

The martial artists who came rushing in stared at the herbs spilling from the jade boxes. Their mouths fell open, their faces filled with astonishment and disbelief.

“Th-there are so many ancient herbs? Could every one of these boxes be filled with them?”

“It must be so. Each box contains an ancient herb. Who could have imagined there would be so many?”

“My heavens! If that’s true, there must be more than a hundred ancient herbs here!”

“Hahaha! This demon lord is about to strike it rich!”

The eyes of the martial artists and demons shone with greed as they surged toward the jade boxes, preparing to strip them bare. Once they escaped, these ancient herbs would surely allow their strength to rise another level.

Meanwhile, the Fourth-Rank snake demon, the tiger demon, and Qiu Tieying had already begun fighting. Their peripheral gazes remained fixed on the Three-Colored Snow Lotus inside the jade coffin, and boundless madness filled their eyes.

A Third-Rank ancient herb!

It was utterly incomparable to a Fourth-Rank herb. Just as with human martial artists and demons, the First through Third Ranks were considered superior grade, while the Fourth through Sixth Ranks were middle grade.

The tiger demon released more than a dozen ghost servants, whose strengths varied greatly. Their roars shook the heavens, their vital energy and blood churned violently, and their tiger claws were ferocious beyond measure. Neither the snake demon nor Qiu Tieying dared receive a single blow directly.

The grass python demon had a maw bristling with fangs. Its body was thick and powerful, while its scales gleamed like metal, making its defenses exceedingly difficult to penetrate.

Qiu Tieying was more agile. Rather than fight the two demons directly, he kept his distance and waited for an opportunity to strike.

“Fifth Rank! It’s a Fifth-Rank ancient herb—a Fifth-Rank ancient herb!”

A Sixth-Rank martial artist opened one of the jade boxes. Strange brilliance flashed from his eyes, and with trembling hands, he stuffed the herb into his robes.

“Bang!”

But in the next instant, tremendous force suddenly struck from behind. A palm sent him flying. The bones in his back shattered, and his internal organs were pulverized. When he crashed heavily onto the ground, his flesh hung limp over his broken frame.

Dead!

“A mere Sixth Rank dares covet a Fifth-Rank ancient herb? You’re truly asking for death.”

The Fifth-Rank martial artist who had launched the sneak attack was filled with delight. It was none other than the head of the Chen family.

“A Fifth-Rank ancient herb belongs to everyone who sees it!”

“Whoosh!”

A sound split the air beside him. The Chen family head’s expression changed drastically, and he hurriedly dodged. The two of them immediately began another round of combat.

The entire tomb descended into chaos. Everyone fought desperately to seize the resources, as though possessed. Even Su Yang had quietly hidden himself to one side, waiting for the chance to claim the Three-Colored Snow Lotus.

The moment had come!

“Hum, hum, hum!”

Just as Su Yang was preparing to act, he felt something vibrating continuously inside his body. He hurriedly reached in and pulled it out.

It was the life-saving sword talisman given to him by the fairy of Cloud Sky Mountain.

In the next instant, light enveloped Su Yang’s entire body. The scene before his eyes changed completely.

There was no coffin, no jade boxes, and no ancient herbs. There were only stone boxes, and the things spilling from them were nothing but human bones—skulls, leg bones, hand bones, and more.

After so many years, only the bones could have survived.

As for the so-called Three-Colored Snow Lotus, it was no Three-Colored Snow Lotus at all. It was clearly the skull of the tomb’s master, lying inside the coffin.

Only one evil ghost remained in the chamber. It sat cross-legged on the ground, its body wreathed in dense ghostly energy that affected everyone within the tomb.

Its body was hunched and withered, no larger than that of a child four or five years old. Yet its ancient face resembled that of a man in his seventies or eighties.

A Fourth-Rank evil ghost!

And not an ordinary one—it was only a single step away from entering the Third Rank.

Su Yang was startled. Everyone who had entered the tomb seemed to have fallen under its spell. Perhaps the tomb still contained an evil, sinister aura. Though that aura was weak, combined with the ghostly energy spreading from this evil ghost—or perhaps some unknown ghost technique—it had managed to influence everyone.

Behind the Fourth-Rank evil ghost stood a small door carved with intricate patterns.

The evil ghost seemed to realize that Su Yang was no longer affected by it. It let out a soft cry of surprise, a flicker of confusion in its eyes as it wondered why Su Yang had resisted its influence and broken through its illusion.

To ensnare everyone in the illusion, the evil ghost had committed all its strength to the task and was now barely able to move.

Luckily, the life-saving sword talisman had played such a vital role today. Otherwise, Su Yang would have been in serious trouble. He had nearly made a move to seize the Three-Colored Snow Lotus.

Had he succeeded, his strength would have been exposed. The tiger demon, snake demon, and Qiu Tieying would never have let him go. Moreover, he would have remained trapped within the illusion, unable even to flee. The only alternative would have been to kill all three Fourth-Rank experts, which was practically impossible. Su Yang still possessed enough self-awareness to understand that.

He walked toward the evil ghost sitting cross-legged on the ground. Under the ghost’s wary, murderous sidelong gaze, he pushed open the carved stone door behind it.

As for the evil ghost, it was better left alive to restrain the other martial artists and demons. He could not afford to disturb it.

At that moment, Su Yang felt that he had truly reached the main burial chamber.

It was even more spacious than the tomb outside. The air was dry, free of the foul stench and moldy rot that filled the outer chamber.

There was another white jade coffin.

In front of it lay a letter and two boxes. They appeared utterly ordinary and were thickly coated in dust. Su Yang cautiously approached, brushed the dust from the top of the jade boxes, and then opened them with equal care, wary of hidden mechanisms.

One box contained a black brocade pouch embroidered with the image of a bronze cauldron.

The other held a sword approximately three inches long—small enough to be held between one’s teeth. Its entire body was pitch-black, its radiance completely restrained.

Su Yang had never seen materials like those used to make either object. They were clearly extraordinary.

With that thought, he quickly opened the letter. It had been written two hundred years ago.

The letter had been penned by Senior Shen Zhenxing. It stated that, before his death, he had given all the ancient medicinal herbs to his old friends and had taken only two magical artifacts as burial objects: a Treasure-Filled Brocade Pouch and a Light-Concealing Flying Sword.

Both objects were magical artifacts.

Su Yang’s heart leaped with joy, and his excitement was nearly impossible to conceal. He had gained them without the slightest effort. He had never expected to find magical artifacts here.

Thinking of the demons and martial artists still fighting within the illusion outside, Su Yang felt that he truly was the fortunate one.

If not for Xue Yuan, he would never have met the fairy of Cloud Sky Mountain, and he would never have received the life-saving sword talisman that had protected him today.

The talisman’s power had not vanished, which meant he could continue using it. This put Su Yang in an excellent mood.

The life-saving sword talisman was made from a piece of white jade the size of an egg, with intricate inscriptions carved into its surface.

Su Yang then examined the two magical artifacts he had just obtained.

Treasure-Filled Brocade Pouch: Contains a space of ten cubic meters. It can store dead objects but not living beings. If a living creature enters, it may damage the pouch’s internal structure and cause it to rupture.

Light-Concealing Flying Sword: A flying sword of tremendous power.

The Treasure-Filled Brocade Pouch was essentially a storage space. He could place anything important yet inconvenient to carry inside it. Ten cubic meters was by no means small, and it could hold a great many things. Even several drunken young women could fit inside.

As for the Light-Concealing Flying Sword, Su Yang had no idea how powerful it truly was. The only description stated that it was a flying sword of tremendous power.

He then glanced beneath the letter. The writing explained how to nurture the magical artifacts. Martial artists, for example, had to nourish them with their own vital energy and blood. As for how long the process would take, that remained unknown.

The more abundant one’s vital energy and blood, the faster the nurturing process would be.

Some artifacts could be successfully nurtured in a few months, while others required several years.

However, when Su Yang opened his panel, delight immediately filled his heart. It seemed he would not need to go through the troublesome process of nourishing them with his vital energy and blood after all.