Chapter 226: Where
“Haha, good timing! Let this poor Daoist see if you’ve made any progress in these ten years!” Sun Yuanlang laughed heartily, flicked his whisk, and met Xiahou Bubai head-on!
“You two, hold it!” A feather fan suddenly appeared before the two Grandmasters. Cui Dingzhi, looking like a scholarly young master, smiled and played the peacemaker: “There are priorities. This isn’t the time for sparring, is it?”
Xie Ding also walked to Xiahou Bubai’s side and whispered to him: “Watch out for the fisherman reaping the benefits.”
Only then did Xiahou Bubai snort coldly and halt his offensive with a flick of his hand.
Although Sun Yuanlang had reached a tacit understanding with the various clans over the matter of the Imperial Seal, which allowed him to show himself openly, he was still an outsider with old grudges against the crowd. Naturally, he preferred not to fight if possible.
Zuo Yanqing watched coldly from the sidelines. Seeing that the two sides hadn’t broken into a fight as he wished, and that apart from Xiahou Bubai, everyone else was quite restrained toward Sun Yuanlang—as if they had forgotten that this man was Great Xuan’s number one wanted criminal—he couldn’t help but feel disgusted inwardly. It was clear that these noble clansmen harbored not a shred of loyalty to Great Xuan or to the emperor.
At this time, Lu Xian arrived with Lu Yun.
Seeing Lu Xian appear, the group of Grandmasters couldn’t help but be startled. Although they were all in the capital city, they hadn’t seen this man for many years.
“Brother Lu, you’ve finally emerged from seclusion. Congratulations.” Cui Dingzhi smiled and cupped his hands toward Lu Xian. The Grandmasters from the Xiahou Clan and Pei Clan also greeted Lu Xian. The Lu Clan upheld neutrality and wasn’t close to any family, so naturally it wasn’t particularly distant either.
Of course, the Mei Clan was an exception. Mei Yu coldly glanced at Lu Xian before shifting her gaze away. But when her eyes passed over Lu Yun’s face, they clearly paused, her fine brows furrowing slightly as she sized up Lu Yun before looking elsewhere.
Seeing that Mei Yu didn’t go over, Wei Yang didn’t dare approach Lu Xian either, but he secretly smiled at him, that anxious and lovesick look truly embarrassing for a Grandmaster.
Lu Xian patiently exchanged greetings with the group of Grandmasters, while Sun Yuanlang standing in the distance looked at Lu Yun behind Lu Xian with a half-smile.
Who knew his action immediately drew Lu Xian’s sharp gaze, and the two locked eyes in a tit-for-tat stare-down.
Seeing these two about to clash again, Cui Dingzhi quickly muddied the waters: “Everyone, how long are we going to dawdle? Let’s quickly figure out where the Treasure Vault is.”
“Indeed,” Xie Ding nodded: “Let’s quickly find the mechanism and open those stone doors.”
Seeing the situation, Lu Xian could only suppress the anger in his heart for now and deal with Sun Yuanlang’s trouble later.
“Du Gonggong, what does the grave robber in your hands say?” Xiahou Bubai nodded and looked toward Du Hui beside Zuo Yanqing. In front of Du Hui was a pale-faced middle-aged man—the very grave robber who had produced the Taiping Token.
Du Hui glanced at Zuo Yanqing. Seeing him nod, Du Hui then waved his hand to release the grave robber’s mute acupoint.
While the crowd questioned the grave robber, Cui Dingzhi briefly explained the situation to Lu Xian. It turned out that those who arrived first had already explored nearly the entire tomb. They had opened all the mechanisms they could, discovered quite a few grave goods, but still hadn’t found the legendary Gaozu’s Treasure Vault. Only a few massive stone doors remained, with no mechanism to open them found. Even combining the power of several Heavenly Rank Grandmasters couldn’t budge them, so the group had temporarily given up and retreated to search for the door-opening mechanism.
.
“Among my accomplices was one skilled in mechanisms. He said that in a tomb full of mechanisms like this, there must be a hub controlling the entire tomb’s mechanisms via slide shafts, ropes, and gears,” the grave robber finally recalled something under Xiahou Bubai’s interrogation: “He said we must first find that hub central control, investigate it clearly, and then we could control the entire tomb’s mechanisms at will.”
“Where is that hub central control?” Xiahou Bubai asked coldly.
“This lowly one doesn’t know,” the grave robber said weakly: “I was on lookout at the time and didn’t go down the cave…” Before Xiahou Bubai could explode, he hurriedly added: “But one companion escaped heavily injured to the cave entrance. He brought out the Taiping Token. Before dying, he said a few words: ‘self-destruction’…”
“Self-destruction…” Xie Ding mused: “Grave robbers have clear divisions of labor and must cooperate fully to find the treasure. Only after finding the treasure does greed arise, thinking no need for companions’ help—that’s when self-destruction becomes possible.”
“Looks like they found the Treasure Vault,” Xiahou Bubai nodded and snorted: “Could it be that we Grandmasters can’t match a few petty thieves?”
“Well said,” Cui Dingzhi lightly fanned himself and smiled: “Since the grave robbers could find the mechanism hub, there’s no reason we can’t.”
“But we haven’t found it.” Mei Yu snorted lightly.
“Since it’s the core controlling everything, like a person’s heart, how could it be exposed on the surface? It must be heavily concealed,” Mei Yu spoke, and Wei Yang immediately chimed in: “Perhaps it’s behind one of those stone doors.”
“After all this talk, we’re back to square one?” Xiahou Bumie said irritably: “Can’t those stone doors be opened?”
“The grave robbers could open them, so we certainly can too.” Xiahou Bubai rallied his spirits and looked at the crowd: “I propose we split up to search and see where the mechanisms for those stone doors are hidden!”
“Agreed!” Those from the Xiahou Clan side naturally nodded one after another, and the Grandmasters from the other three clans had no objections.
“I agree too.” Sun Yuanlang nodded with a smile: “This poor Daoist has no interest in any imperial family treasure. This poor Daoist came only to retrieve what belongs to Taiping Dao. As long as you all guarantee not to compete with me for my predecessor’s relics as Sect Leader, this seat guarantees to take nothing else.”
“Deal!” The Grandmasters all breathed a huge sigh of relief upon hearing this. Sun Yuanlang was a figure as renowned as Zhang Xuanyi, with unmatched schemes and strategies under heaven. For him to voluntarily withdraw from the competition was truly the best outcome.
Although Gaozu’s Treasure Vault was still nowhere in sight, Sun Yuanlang’s stance undoubtedly greatly reduced everyone’s wariness of him.
“Sect Leader Sun’s attitude is excellent. We should all unite sincerely first,” Cui Dingzhi nodded emphatically: “Everything can wait until we actually see the treasure!”
“Naturally.” The Grandmasters all nodded. At their level of martial arts, it was hard to determine victory or defeat between them. Even if one side ambushed, it would take hundreds of exchanges to see the outcome. No one wanted to act rashly and let others reap the benefits. “Let’s split up right now to find that mechanism!”
Zuo Yanqing, however, was uninterested: “Our house has already paved the way for you all for quite a while. It’s time to slack off and sit back here enjoying the success.”
“Then we’ll leave this place to the two old eunuchs to investigate.” Cui Dingzhi smiled and gave Xie Ding a look. Xie Ding nodded knowingly; he also felt the mechanism central control was most likely here.
“I’ll stay behind to accompany the two old eunuchs.” Xie Ding volunteered.
Who knew that upon hearing this, Xiahou Bubai frowned and said to Cui Dingzhi and Xie Ding: “Let the two from the Pei Clan guard here. You two come with me.”
“Heh, alright.” Although Cui Dingzhi and Xie Ding were lawless Grandmasters, their clans depended on the Xiahou Clan, so they wouldn’t easily defy Xiahou Bubai.
Pei Bang and Pei Yuqiu were secretly delighted to hear this, thinking that the Xiahou Clan was still closer to their Pei Clan after all…
“Let’s go.” After Xiahou Bubai spoke, he headed toward the passage they came from, with Xiahou Bumie and Cui Xie following behind. In a blink, they left the domed tomb chamber.
“Mei sister, what should we do?” Wei Yang looked at Mei Yu.
“Do whatever you want, just don’t follow me.” Mei Yu said coldly.
“No way, in such a dangerous place, I won’t leave your side for a moment.” Wei Yang said resolutely.
