They abandoned their horses and entered the mountain range. The first day was uneventful, and everyone came out unscathed. But on the second night, when everyone was meditating and resting, an incident occurred.

     One of the cultivators went into the forest in the middle of the night to relieve himself. After he was done, he felt an itch on his leg. He looked down and saw a huge poisonous mosquito on his leg, happily drinking his blood. In the end, the cultivator killed the mosquito with a slap and muttered out of habit, “Motherfucker, how dare you bite your grandfather?!”

     As soon as the words left his mouth, he heard a strange sound coming from the surrounding trees. This cultivator was shocked, and suddenly remembered Nangong Si’s warning. He was so scared that he didn’t even have time to pull up his pants. He ran wildly, shouting, “Help! Master, save me!”

     It turned out that this person was a disciple of Jiangdong Hall, one of Huang Xiaoyue’s attendants. His loud cry was like a huge rock falling into a deep pool, stirring up a thousand ripples. The other people, who were originally quietly meditating, all stood up one after another, seeing a Jiangdong Hall disciple running madly from the distance, scared out of his wits.

     The disciple was bare-chested, flinging his dick and crying as he ran. Behind him were at least a hundred small black snakes, several of which had already wrapped themselves around his legs.

     Huang Xiaoyue was alarmed, “Disciple?”

     Nangong Si shouted, “Don’t go over there!”

     The disciple ran over, wailing, but more and more snakes slithered onto him, until he staggered and fell on the ground. He kept wailing, “Master! Master, save me!”

     Huang Xiaoyue was about to help, but Nangong Si said, “These snakes are formed from the evil dragon’s whiskers. If you kill one, it will turn into two. The more you kill, the more there will be. They are also very vengeful; if Huang-daozhang isn’t afraid, then go ahead and accept the challenge.”

     When Huang Xiaoyue heard this, he immediately cowered and muttered, “The big picture is more important… The greater good…” He watched helplessly as his disciple was engulfed by the tide of black snakes, tossing and writhing in pain.

     The snakes had completely covered him, turning him into a black mass, which shrunk at a speed visible to the eye. When the tide disappeared, there was only a pool of blood on the ground, not even a single bone remained…

     After this incident, no one dared to utter a single word of nonsense. The more one spoke, the more mistakes they would make. This was a principle that everyone knew.

     Xue Zhengyong even cast a silencing spell on himself and Xue Meng, for no other reason than the fact that this father-son pair were too talkative. If they accidentally muttered the word “dog” in passing, they would become a meal for the snakes in the blink of an eye.

     Everyone was cautious with their words and actions. Finally, on the night of the third day, they passed through the mountain range of Mount Jiao and arrived at the tomb of Rufeng Sect—at the foot of Mount Jiao.

     Mount Jiao’s boundary was different from Mount Huang. The Jiao dragon hated deception, so the boundary was translucent and unobstructed, allowing a clear view of the mountain from the outside.

     Looking at the scene before him, Jiang Xi asked, “Is this the burial ground of Rufeng Sect’s heroes?”

     The moonlight shone on Nangong Si’s face. After a moment of silence, he said, “Yes.”

     Mount Jiao was formed by a demonic dragon. After the First Sect Leader of Rufeng Sect subdued this dragon, he established a blood pact with it to guard the souls and treasures of Rufeng Sect, as well as the ancestral temple and ancestral hall, for generations.

     Ever since Nangong Si could remember, he would follow his father to this mountain to sweep the tomb every winter solstice. In the past, he could see endless majestic white marble steps. The Dark City guards were already waiting for him, guarding the two sides of the mountain road as their robes fluttered in the wind.

     “Greetings to gongzi.”

     He could still vaguely hear the rumbling voices as everyone knelt down. As he walked up the mountain path, he would be able to see his father, already preparing for the rites of sacrifice at the top of the ancestral hall.

     “Nangong-gongzi, there’s no need to be sentimental. The battle cannot be delayed. You should open the boundary as soon as possible, so we can enter and slay the demons.”

     Nangong Si turned his head, seeing that the person who spoke was Huang Xiaoyue. During the golden age of Rufeng Sect, even if Nangong Si gave him ten slaps on a whim, this was the kind of person who wouldn’t dare to talk back.

     Today, he could brag and glare at him in front of his ancestral tombs, flaunting his might.

     Nangong Si endured silently. He had no choice but to endure. His teeth clenched painfully as he tried his best to hold back.

     “Everyone step back a bit.” As he spoke, he walked up to the mountain gate.

     On the left and right stood two tomb guardians made of evil-warding stones; their toes alone were the size of a five or six year old child. Each of the two deities held a magic weapon in their hands and had bracelets around their arms.

     But the strange thing was that these kinds of deities normally had their eyes wide open like leopards, but this pair had their eyes closed and their brows furrowed. They seemed to be somewhat strange.

     Without batting an eye, Nangong Si pierced his finger with an arrow and drew a spell on the evil-warding stones, saying, “The seventh generation disciple of Rufeng Sect, Nangong Si, pays his respects.”

     Rumble—

     The earth shook.

     Some of the less experienced people exclaimed, “They opened their eyes! That statue!”

     Standing in the crowd, Mo Ran also looked up. If the situation hadn’t been so tense, he would have told the man, It’s not that statue, it’s those two statues.

     The two tomb guardians on the left and right opened their eyes. Their eyes were amber, and their pupils were narrow, like the eyes of a snake. The statue on the left spoke, its voice like a loud bell, ringing loudly, “Nangong Si, do you remember the seven edicts of Rufeng Sect?”

     Nangong Si said, “Greed, hatred, deceit, murder, rape, robbery, and plunder are the seven edicts of Rufeng Sect.”

     Huang Xiaoyue sneered behind him, “What you say sounds better than what you sing.”

     It wasn’t just Huang Xiaoyue, but many people were thinking the same thing. These seven edicts were truly the greatest irony of Rufeng Sect.

     The statue on the right opened its mouth as well. Its voice was distant, as if it came from ancient times, “Nangong Si, there is a mirror hanging above, and the boundless yellow springs below. Do you walk the world with a clear conscience?”

     “I have a clear conscience.”

     These two questions and answers were the same ones Nangong Si had memorized since he was young. No matter who it was from the Nangong family, as long as they stepped into the Hero’s Tomb, they would first have to answer these two questions.

     The founder of Rufeng Sect set up these two questions in the hopes that the later generations of the family would remember the teachings of their ancestors and reflect on themselves when they went up the mountain to pay their respects.

     At this moment, Nangong Si couldn’t help but wonder if his father had ever felt the slightest trace of guilt when he answered these two questions every winter solstice when he came to pay his respects.

     Or did he really just answer these questions one after another, treating them like a key, a talisman to open the boundary of Mount Jiao and nothing more?

     The boundary opened.

     The two stone statues that were originally standing suddenly shook, changing their posture. They moved until they each knelt on one knee, one on the left and one on the right.

     “Master, please enter the mountain.”

     Nangong Si stood with his back to the crowd for a while. No one could see the expression on his face, not even Ye Wangxi. Only Naobaijin whimpered in his quiver, its white claws reaching out and clinging to the edge of the quiver, “Auuu, auu.”

     “Come in.”

     Nangong Si finally said these simple words, then took the lead in stepping onto Mount Jiao.

     Xue Zhengyong removed the silencing spell and asked, “Do we still need to pay attention to our words here?”

     “No,” Nangong Si said. “You only need to have caution in the mountain range. It’s like this to prevent people with malicious intentions towards Rufeng Sect from entering the mountain. Now that the dragon has determined that the visitor isn’t an enemy, it won’t care about your words.”

     But even though he said as much, many people were still worried, and didn’t want to say anything. They could only silently follow Nangong Si up the mountain. Every three hundred li, there would be two totem stones of the twelve zodiac signs. First it was the male and female mice, then the ox, tiger, rabbit…

     Halfway up the mountain, was the Hero’s Tomb.

     These heroes were buried on Mount Jiao according to the contributions they had made throughout their lives, from low to high. The first place they came to was the burial ground at the lowest level.

     There was a white piece of jade about eight feet tall. It shone brightly, engraved with the names of the ones buried here. At the very top, there were two words—“Loyal Soul.”

     “I heard that the loyal servants of the Nangong family are buried here,” Xue Meng whispered to Mo Ran. “There should be at least a thousand.”

     He was right. This area was densely packed with graves, and there was no end in sight.

     Shi Mei said worriedly, “What if these thousands of servants all rise up? What should we do? The Nangong family servants were not bad, I’m afraid they’ll be able to stall us for a while.”

     Xue Meng hurriedly covered his mouth, “Shh, are you crazy? Pah, pah, pah, don’t jinx it!”

     Mo Ran said gloomily, “I’m afraid it’s not really a jinx.”

     “Hey, dog, where are you going?”

     Mo Ran didn’t bother with Xue Meng. He walked away from the group and walked to the front of the Loyal Soul Tomb. He knelt on one knee and looked at it carefully.

     Rufeng Sect’s Hero’s Tomb was different from an ordinary burial ground. It didn’t have normal graves sealed under the earth. Instead, it used a kind of translucent jade coffin, similar to a thick layer of ice.

     Half of the coffin was buried underground, while the other half was exposed outside. Therefore, the burial ground looked like a continuous stretch of white jade that emitted a sparkling brilliance under the moonlight.

     This kind of cold jade was similar to the coffins at Sisheng Peak’s Frost Sky Hall. They could preserve the corpse and prevent it from rotting away, allowing one to maintain their appearance from when they were alive.

     Mo Ran lowered his head to look at the coffin in front of him. However, the mass gravesite wasn’t well tended to, so the surface of the jade coffin was covered with a thick layer of dust. Mo Ran could only see the vague outline of the deceased person below. He couldn’t see their features, but it seemed to be a woman.

     He stared at the woman for a while, then his gaze moved along the coffin. He felt that something was wrong with this coffin.

     But he couldn’t tell what was wrong.

     He looked around. Seeing that no one was paying attention, he placed his hand on the coffin’s surface and closed his eyes to carefully probe around…

     Suddenly, his palm trembled.

     Mo Ran opened his eyes, his face extremely gloomy.

     There was indeed an evil energy inside the coffin, but it was no longer strong. There was no Zhenlong chess piece here… Could it be that he was wrong?

     “Mo Ran!” Xue Meng and the others were already far away. They shouted at him from afar.

     Mo Ran muttered to himself, “Quick.”

     His slender hand brushed the surface of the coffin inch by inch, wiping off the thick layer of dust. He tried to see the woman’s appearance more clearly without opening the coffin.

     As he wiped, he caught a glimpse of a detail out of the corner of his eye and stopped abruptly.

     He knew what was wrong.

     Dust.

     The dust on the coffin wasn’t right.

     Besides the area he had just wiped, Mo Ran suddenly found that there was another spot free of dust—on the side of the coffin. There were four marks of varying lengths.

     He hesitated for a moment, then extended his hand to compare them. This was the exact place where someone would rest their four fingers, except for their thumb, in order to climb out!

     Mo Ran paled in horror.

     Just as he was about to tell everyone to stop going up the mountain, he suddenly felt a cold air in front of him. He jerked his head up abruptly and was met with a deathly pale face.

     A woman in a shroud was crouched behind the grave, staring directly at him.

 

     —Volume 2 End—