125 Chapter 124: A year later (2/2)

I rolled my eyes at the answer. ”That's pretty vague. Which ancient period? The Shang Dynasty? The Shi Dynasty?”

”About four thousand years ago, so before even the Shi Dynasty.” Elder Tie held up a finger. ”But that's not important here.”

Like hell it wasn't! As a historian (at least during my previous timeline), I wasn't going to let that slide!

But before I could teach Elder Tie the importance of history, he continued.

”The person who the tomb belonged to…is a practitioner who had reached the Nascent Soul Stage.”

Elder Tie's wrinkled eyes swept around the room dramatically as he spoke softly. Dude, it's a little too late to be worrying about eavesdroppers now, don't you think?

Unfortunately, Elder Tie was right about one thing. If the owner of the tomb was indeed a Nascent Soul Stage practitioner, then it didn't matter which time period he came from. For it meant that his tomb was definitely stocked full of highly valuable treasures, advanced artifacts and extremely powerful weapons.

Without a doubt, everyone would want to go there and raid the tomb for those things.

”No wonder so many people have been showing up in Tushan City recently,” I muttered as I recalled the increasing presence of outsiders.

”That's right. As you observed, almost every young practitioner from all over the Middle Continent have come here because of the tomb. Not to mention the disciples of the other seven major sects.” Elder Tie nodded gravely.

”The other seven major sects, huh?” I muttered. Well, that made sense. Of course the strongest sects would be first to all dibs on the tomb and pillage all the precious artifiacts, weapons and treasures housed within its vaults. But even they wouldn't be able to prevent practitioners from all the other sects from flooding its interiors.

”You should check it out too, as a disciple of the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. naturally Sect Leader has already assigned the inner sect disciples to take part in the expedition. The Blood Blades are of course more than welcome to join, given the danger present.”

Tombs were always full of traps, with the dead wanting to protect all his treasures and hoard them for himself even after his death. Consequently, exploring a tomb was a risky venture, and one could lose his life if he was not careful.

”Disciple Fei Wu…who knows, if you're lucky, you might find the Nascent Soul Stage practitioner's martial arts and inherit his legacy. If you do, you'll definitely find yourself promoted into the Blood Blades' inner circle, second only to Elder Zhao and Sect Lady Da Ji.”

”Um, as much as I would love to, it sounds too competitive for me. A Nascent Soul Stage practitioner's tomb? Yeah…that's gong to be very difficult.”

While I probably could hold my own in a fight, tomb exploration was a different beast altogether. Without a good sense of direction like Ciaphas Cain's hiver instincts, I would only get lost in the endless maze and labyrinthine corridors that made up its interior, and if I wasn't careful, I might spend an eternity trapped within, never to escape. Even if I do, all the elite practitioners across the Great Zhou Empire and even the Middle Continent would have snatched the treasures before I could reach them, rendering the trip a complete waste of time.

”Are you sure you don't want to participate? You do want that yin-based ice artifact, don't you? There's definitely one in the tomb.”

Elder Tie was grinning now, as if he had hooked me by the nose or something.

”Please don't tell me it's Extreme Yin Dragon Saliva or I'm going to kick you out of my room,” I muttered. Elder Tie blinked, baffled.

”Extreme Yin Dragon…what?”

”Never mind,” I quickly said. If he didn't know what that meant, he definitely wouldn't pull a Wu Dong Qian Kun on me.

”Then what are you referring to?”

”How would I know? Do I look like I've been to the tomb? Isn't it the job of you younglings to explore the tomb and report its contents back to us? I'm only mentioning the possibility. Hell, since it's a tomb from before the Shi Dynasty, there definitely is an item…no, several items of such nature. You can have your pick…”

”…if the other elite practitioners haven't taken them away by then…”

Elder Tie chuckled. ”What? You have no confidence? You're one of the fearsome Blood Blades. There aren't many people in your generation who can beat you in a fight.”

”It's not combat I'm worried about,” I told him. ”I can probably defeat them in a fight if everything goes south, but my combat capability isn't going to help me if I get lost in the tomb and become unable to find whatever I want. Given my terrible luck, I can see that just happening.”

”You won't know if you don't try. If you don't go, nothing is going to change, and you'll have to fork out a fortune to buy the artifact you need. If you go, even if the possibility is low, it's not going to be zero like now.”

”You're right,” I conceded. Bowing, I sent the laughing Elder Tie off. ”Thank you very much, Elder Tie.”

”No, no. I'm only too happy that another rone of our disciples will be participating in the mission.” Elder Tie clenched his fists. ”We can't let the other seven major sects hog the glory! We need to beat them as well!”

”I'll remember to do that while looking for treasures,” I replied dryly. Of course, I had no intention of getting into a fight if I could help it. My objective was finding the treasure I needed and then beating the hell out of there. There was no point getting into meaningless conflicts with prodigies and geniuses from the other sects.

After that exchange, I headed toward the courtyard where I expected to train under Elder Zhao. As usual, he was waiting for me, but there was something different about his posture today.

”Elder Zhao?”

I approached him uncertainly. He caught sight of me and waved me over.

”Oh, Fei Wu. Training is canceled today.”

I did a double take. Elder Zhao rarely cancelled training, unless he had an urgent mission, or it was the holidays like the New Year holidays. This time, Tang Qi Hong hadn't joined me to visit my relatives because her adopted parents were back, and she could spend time with them and her adopted sister, Zi Xiao Ji.

”Eh? What? Huh?”

”Don't 'huh' me. Cancelled means cancelled.” Elder Zhao smiled cynically. ”I didn't know you were looking forward to my training, though. Seems like I wasn't tough enough.”

”No, it's tough enough! I'm happy that you cancelled it! Thank you!”

”Heh…” Elder Zhao's expression darkened. ”As punishment for revealing your honest feelings, I'm going to double the intensity.”

”WHAT!?”

Which is it, you fucking bastard?!

”For now, though…” Elder Zhao. I grew pale when I realized that he wasn't joking. ”A tomb has just been discovered in the Heavenly Fire Mountain Range. I am assigning you to an exploration mission within that tomb.”

”…”

Just after Elder Tie told me about this, Elder Zhao now directly ordered me to explore the tomb. If this wasn't fate fucking around with me, I didn't know what was.

”You don't seem surprised?” Elder Zhao looked at me suspiciously. I was too tired to respond to all these nonsense.

”Elder Tie already told me about it,” I explained wearily. ”And he also suggested that I go.”

”I'm making it an official mission. Anything you find there, you get to keep. So off you go!”

I sighed and scratched my head. Despite Elder Tie's encouragement and Elder Zhao's order, I still didn't feel comfortable with this. It was my first time exploring a tomb and I wasn't prepared. It would be a whole different experience from surviving Sen Lin Forest and an abyss, where my only goal was to stay alive and not to look for treasures.

Especially given the countless practitioners who were sure to be flocking to the tomb and emptying its vaults of treasures, weapons and artifacts before I could even reach it…the possibility of me getting anything of value seemed bleak indeed.

”Why are you looking so down for?” Elder Zhao smacked me across the head. Fortunately, I read the spike in his qi and pulled my head back before he could hit me, and his fingers only grazed several strands of my hair. ”This is a once in a lifetime opportunity! Don't give up so easily!”

”I don't intend to give up,” I assured him. Imagining myself inside a Space Construction Vehicle and being given an order to move, I began walking briskly as if Elder Zhao had just run out of Marines. ”I'm going!”

”Wait, wait!”

I stopped and glanced back at Elder Zhao quizzically. He looked at me seriously.

”Look here, Fei Wu. Even Tong Xue had more enthusiasm than you, and you're supposed to be the hardworking one.”

”Oh, I work hard, but I know when something's going to be a waste of time.”

Elder Zhao sighed and shook his head. He gestured for me to approach.

”When a Nascent Soul Stage practitioner dies, all the spiritual qi inside his body will not dissipate that easily. Instead, as time goes on, it will gradually coalesce once again and condense into a dense cloud of qi. This will result in the formation of the essence of the Nascent Soul Stage practitioner's lifetime of cultivation, and is known as the Nascent Heart.”

”The what heart now?” I repeated, stupefied.

”If an ordinary person can get hold of a Nascent Heart, as long as he's somewhat capable, he will have the potential to reach the Pure Spirit Stage. However, for a talented person, as long as he can withstand that fiery essence, he will have a chance to jump all the way to the Nascent Soul Stage.”

I just nodded, while thinking to myself, whatever. All these bullshit stages and realms were meaningless to me. Furthermore, with the advent of artificial qi, the realms and stages had all become obsolete. How did you gauge someone's realm? By the amount of qi they had? If that was the case, then all those students at Wu Ling Academy with several sexagenaries of qi were easily at the Qi Fusion or Pure Spirit Stage, were they not?

So what was the whole point of having all these stages? How were the Wu Ling Academy students different from traditional Pure Spirit Stage practitioners? Their years of cultivation? Experience? Age? Some obscure determinant we weren't aware of?

Elder Zhao wasn't paying any attention to my rambling thoughts. He was nodding with what he hoped was a persuasive smile.

”If you're able to obtain such a treasure, you'll definitely encounter a miracle!”

”Hah!” I snorted. ”As if such things would conveniently happen! I'm not some protagonist from a cliché wuxia/xianxia novel. It's not as if I'll just happen to run into the place where the Nascent Heart is stored!”

”Well…it's true that I can't guarantee that there will definitely be a Nascent Heart inside the old tomb, it is still worth a try. You might find other valuable treasures in there. Aren't you learning Spirit Engraving and smithing too?” Elder Zhao coughed, as if to say ”unlike that lazy Tong Xue.” He turned to look at me seriously. ”You'll find great materials for your smithing and Spirit Engraving. As you already know, tombs are full of amazing wonders.”

Well, the rewards commensurated with the risks. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Of course, with such great danger and extreme competition from all the elite practitioners, there had to be treasure and artifacts worth all that trouble.

”Yeah, I'll definitely give it a shot.”

I took a deep breath. Even though I didn't feel very confident, I had nothing to lose (other than my time). If anything, I could take this as a learning experience, and improve my skills while contesting other elite practitioners. Even if I came out of it empty-handed, I was confident that I would be inevitably drawn into a conflict sooner or later.

Might as well challenge several of these so-called elite practitioners from the major sects and see how I measured up to them. I might be second-placed in Wu Ling Academy, but I could just be a frog in the well or a big fish in a small pond. If I wanted to improve myself, I had to take risks and look for other big fishes to challenge.

And perhaps, just like a poor carp, I might eventually evolve into a dragon like everyone else. Yeah, apparently there were legends about carps evolving into dragons. Where did you think they got the idea for Magikarp and Gyarados, Feebas and Milotic from? Chinese and Japanese mythologies, of course.

”First, I'll have to look for Tong Xue and the rest…”

Obviously, there were safety in numbers, and if I could join a group, I would be safer. We could work together and watch each other's backs. I would also feel a lot more comfortable with Tong Xue around. Knowing the sneaky scoundrel, he most likely had already gathered at least some form of intelligence regarding the tomb.

”Ah, don't bother.” Elder Zhao waved his hand dismissively. ”You're too late for that. Qi Hong, Lian Rou and Tong Xue have already departed long ago, as did Liang Shao Yang and Hu Mei Er.”