Chapter 174 Mausoleum of the Immortal Emperor
Lyu Liang and Liu Jiawen were stunned, and then they were wild with joy. Except for Zhu Yan, no one would speak so calmly and playfully in such a situation. Anyway, it was so fortunate to have such a smart, powerful friend here.
Then, a red light flashed and turned into the figure of Zhu Yan, who seemed to be very joyful.
Most surprisingly, Zhu Yan had sustained his cultivation at the Peak of Almighty Immortal. Seeing that, the two, who had been trapped here, went up to him at once.
Seemingly knowing the intention of the two of them, Zhu Yan pulled from his chest two golden fruits, which exuded unique smells, and handed them to Lyu Liang and Liu Jiawen. He said, “Don’t ask anything. I also recovered my cultivation after eating this, or I wouldn’t have been able to break the s.p.a.ce to find you here.”
For a second, Lyu Liang just stared at Zhu Yan. Then, he took the fruit and swallowed it directly. Seeing that no adverse reactions occurred, Liu Jiawen also ate it at once.
Then, Lyu Liang felt as if his heart was burning. Several currents of Devil Immortal Qi became restless inside his body, which forced him to close his eyes to settle them down.
As crackles sounded from time to time, Lyu Liang felt fresh and cool inside, as if his collateral channels had been dredged!
One and a half hours later, Lyu Liang and Liu Jiawen recovered their cultivation almost at the same time. Having three people united made it much more possible for them to fight their way out.
As for where the fruits came from, Zhu Yan also gave an explanation. When the explosion occurred, he was. .h.i.t by the aftermath and sucked into a s.p.a.ce crack in no time. At that time, Lu Tianwu took that opportunity and escaped.
Then, Zhu Yan appeared in a weird s.p.a.ce, where there was nothing except for a tree with four fruits on it. At that time, Zhu Yan had lost his cultivation and had no other choice but to try one of them, which instead, brought him such a big surprise.
Then, he found them slowly with Rosefinch’s talent—the ability to break through s.p.a.ce.
During this period, he found nothing in the first three s.p.a.ces. Finally, he discovered a cave with a different structure and decided to explore it, when he happened to sense the auras of Lyu Liang and Liu Jiawen.
After a discussion, the three decided to explore the eastern cave first.
After Lyu Liang swallowed the fruit, aside from the flying prohibition, all the restrictions had been removed. And he could even use his Divine Sense, which made him feel quite overjoyed.
When they entered the cave, two paper men appeared, and they destroyed them in no time. After that, the number of paper men kept doubling, four, eight, 16…
After they had killed three batches of paper men, they concluded that as long as one paper man was kept alive, they could have a break for several breaths of time.
For example, when they fought with 16 paper men, they would only kill 15 of them and trap the last one. Then, they would seize the opportunity to rush forward, without any hindrance for three breaths of time. After that, the trapped paper man would turn into ashes, and another 32 would appear in front of them. Then, they would repeat the same strategy and spare only two or three paper men. Those paper men seemed to have very high spiritual intelligence—as long as they judged that it was impossible for themselves to rival the three, they would disappear automatically, and a larger batch would turn up.
After half an hour, there were already 128 paper men in a batch, and the three were somewhat exhausted. Fortunately, a light appeared not far away, which meant that they would reach a new area.
Therefore, the three pressed on without letting up and finally broke through this troublesome pa.s.sage before more paper men showed up.
However, before Lyu Liang could breathe a sigh of relief, Liu Jiawen screamed suddenly, “Ah! There are so many people! They are… How, how could that be…”
Lyu Liang probed with his Divine Sense hastily, but he was stunned by what he saw—there were nearly a thousand people in front of him, one per every seven meters, with eyes closed and legs crossed.
What startled Lyu Liang was their cultivation, all of which were above the Tao Master level!
“Don’t panic! They seem to have no signs of life!” Being the calmest among the three, Zhu Yan observed very carefully.
Lyu Liang settled down and began probing more carefully. Just as Zhu Yan had said, although they maintained their cultivation and auras, they had died and had gray faces.
“Ah! I was scared to death! I thought they were all enemies. If so, I would go back to the pa.s.sage of paper men!” Liu Jiawen clapped her chest and sighed with relief.
Then, they had no other choice but to keep moving forward through the dead.
When they pressed forward, Lyu Liang ventured to probe the surroundings with his Divine Sense, and found that this place was just like an enormous mausoleum with a thousand corpses! Besides, they were from different clans, including the Human Clan, the Demon Clan, the Devil Clan, and some of them were probably from the Spirit Clan and the Ghost Clan.
As for their cultivation, the lowest one was at the Middle-stage of Tao Master. And, according to Liu Jiawen’s estimation, the highest one was at the Late-stage of Supreme Master! She also had a bold guess that all of them were buried alive for someone with a significant status!
Seeing that Lyu Liang and Zhu Yan were stunned by her words, she laughed proudly and said, “You don’t know about it? I read from some records of our family that in ancient times when a top-ranking powerful figure died, some lower-level cultivators would be buried alive with him in a mausoleum. Generally, their cultivation was at least two levels below the one who had died.”
But then, Liu Jiawen covered her mouth with her hands, and said surprisingly, “Here, there is even a Supreme Master! Then even a Divine Ancestor is not qualified to die here! Is there really someone more powerful than a Divine Ancestor? How could that be!”
Lyu Liang frowned and thought, “Being buried alive with the dead? Isn’t it an immoral thing that only those emperors from the Mortal World would do? These cultivators, who could have enjoyed their lives, had to accompany the dead into the tomb, just because they were lower in status! How brutal and inhuman it was! I never expected that this also happened among cultivators!”
Zhu Yan interrupted, “I heard about it. But it is said that the rite was so inhumane that those powerful figures had abolished it when the Heavenly Alliance was founded. Since then, it never happened again. As such, this mausoleum is very ancient and mysterious!”
After sighing for a moment, they continued to move through those powerful figures, who all had their eyes closed peacefully. It seemed that their only difference was in their orientation—most of them faced the pa.s.sage of the paper men, and only a few stared in other directions.
They didn’t move very fast, because they couldn’t fly, and they had to beware of potential accidents. About half an hour later, they finally went through the mausoleum. At the end of it was an enormous light barrier, which was glistening brightly. Six words flashed out on it from time to time: BLOCK IF INCONSISTENT, OPEN IF SAME.
All three of them were smart enough to turn toward those who faced in different directions. They counted the number and found that there were about 30 among the thousand corpses.
For the sake of safety, they decided to follow the instruction. After all, in such a situation, being slower was always better than being in danger.
However, they got into trouble when they tried to move the first one, an elder at the Middle-stage of Heavenly Master. As Lyu Liang touched the elder’s body, a tingle swept over him suddenly, deep in his Divine Soul. Without being prepared, he staggered backward and pulled back his hand subconsciously.
Lyu Liang’s Divine Soul was the most powerful among the three, but even he couldn’t move the elder a bit, let alone the other two, who fell on their bottoms directly.
When Lyu Liang touched the elder, he had put on the Spirit Armor, so now he stimulated the Ghost Devil Head. Taking a deep breath and gritting his teeth, he grabbed the elder’s shoulders suddenly and twisted them with all his strength. The elder’s body rubbed against the ground and changed its orientation gradually. The entire process lasted for three breaths of time, during which, Lyu Liang had been holding the elder out of fear that he would turn back at once.
Finally, with a click, the elder was turned to the correct orientation. Only then did Lyu Liang put down his hands, with sweat pouring off him.
This time, not only did Zhu Yan give him a thumbs-up, but also Liu Jiawen didn’t ridicule him but praised him sincerely. Then, Lyu Liang headed to another corpse at once. His plan was simple—move those lower-level cultivators first, and then the higher-level ones!
That’s because he found that the stimulus intensity was proportional to the corpse’s cultivation. The higher the corpse’s cultivation was, the more pain Lyu Liang would feel when he put on his hands on it. Therefore, he decided to deal with the simpler ones before he moved those more dangerous ones. Even if he couldn’t move after that, he would be able to finish his task.
He needed to move 32 corpses altogether, and the first one he turned ranked third in cultivation. Above him, there was a Supreme Master at the Early-stage, and a Heavenly Master at the Late-stage. These two were the most troublesome for Lyu Liang!
One and a half hours had pa.s.sed before Lyu Liang dealt with all the corpses below the Heavenly Master level. Then, he headed for the Heavenly Master directly.
This time, he sweated profusely as soon as he touched the corpse. Still, it took him three breaths of time, but when he loosened his hand, he fell onto the ground directly, panting heavily.
Seeing that, Liu Jiawen handed a gray pill to Lyu Liang hastily, and said with concern, “Swallow it before moving that Supreme Master!”
Lyu Liang settled down his aura and swallowed the pill immediately. Then, he felt that his collateral channels were dredged, with surges of Divine Soul power bursting out. It seemed that his Divine Soul had been improved significantly by at least one level!
Liu Jiawen stuck her tongue out and said, “This is a valuable medicinal pill, and I have only three. I don’t know what it is called, but sister Xuan told that it could improve one’s Divine Soul power greatly. I may merely reach your level after taking it, so I’m counting on you!”
Lyu Liang smiled gratefully because he used to refine medicinal pills, and knew that such a pill was rather precious. And this one was undoubtedly above the immortal standard!
Lyu Liang refreshed himself and flew at the trickiest corpse directly. With a roar, he placed his hands on the corpse’s shoulders and twisted them with all his strength!
It took him 30 minutes this time, but Lyu Liang looked more relaxed than he did with the Heavenly Master. It seemed that Liu Jiawen’s medicinal pill was indeed extraordinary!
After Lyu Liang had dealt with all these 32 corpses, the light barrier vanished in an instant.
In front of them was a high platform, on which there were quite a few artifacts, or more precisely, magic treasures. But judging from their weak auras, they had lost their spirits and basically became useless.
A skinny elder was sitting peacefully in the middle of the platform with a book in his hands.
Behind the platform was a boundless, dark s.p.a.ce, and they couldn’t even see where it led with their Divine Senses.
When the three of them walked onto the platform and reached the elder, they were enveloped by an aura, which was powerful enough to make their Divine Souls quiver. And the aura didn’t come from the elder, who had died long ago. Instead, it was from the book, which exuded a white glow and a remarkable philosophical saying on the ground:
I was an immortal emperor, who was trapped resignedly here. Mastering Five Acts of Heaven Soul, I competed with the sun, moon, and sky. —Immortal Emperor Xiaoyao