Chapter 72: On How Much Iq One Can Gain To Avoid Awkwardness
But the development of the situation was beyond Jiang Ce’s expectations.
His own consolation seemed not very effective. Lu Xing was still okay, just with a somewhat distorted expression, but Gongyang Dan seemed to have fainted from not catching his breath.
“What’s going on?” Liang Zhi Che panicked.
Jiang Ce squinted: “Uncertain, let’s watch a bit more.”
Jiang Ce had the composure to watch more, but Xuan Qing couldn’t stand still.
He floated in the air, his feet lightly tapping in mid-air, flying over dozens of meters with a principle Newton couldn’t understand, and steadily landed beside Gongyang Dan.
“Let me handle it.”
Xuan Qing supported Gongyang Dan with one hand and pressed the other on his chest, chanting incantations from his mouth.
Lu Xing staggered back two steps, anxiously looking at the unconscious Gongyang Dan.
Strands of pure energy rose from Xuan Qing’s body, flowing along his left hand into Gongyang Dan’s body.
Although far away, Jiang Ce could clearly notice Gongyang Dan’s breathing gradually becoming steady, and his pained expression gradually turning serene.
Shortly after, Xuan Qing carefully set Gongyang Dan down, nodded to everyone, indicating that Gongyang Dan was no longer in serious condition.
“The injuries are temporarily stabilized, but he has indeed damaged his foundation. He’ll probably need some time to recuperate after returning.”
Everyone’s expressions eased slightly, but having a severely injured person before even reaching the core area of the Great Tomb still cast a shadow over everyone’s hearts. Even Xuan Qing felt a bit embarrassed; no matter what, he couldn’t escape blame.
“How could he be injured so badly?” Qin Shen Bo sighed.
Speaking of this, Lu Xing was also quite depressed: “After passing the chains, we saw a pile of stone statues. At first, neither of us took it seriously and planned to rest a moment before continuing, but as we passed through those stone statues, the problem arose.
Those stone statues seemed able to perceive our presence and suddenly came alive. At first, only some Ninth Rank strength ones ambushed us, and Gongyang Dan and I could handle them easily.
But the remaining stone statues successively experienced resurgence, including Eighth Rank and even two Seventh Rank ones. One-on-one, Gongyang Dan and I still had confidence to cope, but we couldn’t withstand the sheer numbers—altogether at least a dozen or twenty stone statues. We really were no match for them with just two fists.
Luckily, Gongyang Dan had exchanged a life-saving forbidden technique from the scripture pavilion, which temporarily restrained them at the cost of burning his essence blood, allowing us to escape. Otherwise…”
The more Jiang Ce listened, the more familiar this scenario felt.
Wasn’t this exactly the situation he encountered at Red Terrace Manor back then?
And not just that—it was also similar to the nest of water ghosts at the construction site, something all too familiar to Jiang Ce.
But back then, with the Soul Soothing Technique, those ghosts and monsters acted like they were infected with the Ruan virus, madly attacking their own kind, so Jiang Ce didn’t think it was anything special.
But now it seemed that for a normal Seventh Rank cultivator, without some life-saving ultimate move, one slip could mean death.
Thinking of this, Jiang Ce rubbed his chin and fell into contemplation.
I didn’t even know I was this awesome.
After hearing this, Xuan Qing’s face was serious: “In my judgment, we haven’t even reached the core area yet, and we’ve already encountered so many ghosts and monsters. The core area’s ghosts and monsters will probably be even more numerous and stronger, not weaker. So when the time comes, focus on protecting yourselves; leave everything to me.”
Liang Zhi Zhou felt quite a headache about the currently unoptimistic situation and couldn’t help saying: “Damn, where did all these ghosts and monsters come from?”
“Born by Mom.” Jiang Ce answered immediately.
Facing the crowd’s puzzled and baffled gazes, feeling the oncoming awkwardness, Jiang Ce unflinchingly changed the topic:
“Speaking of which, Liang Zhi Che and I saw quite a few corpses on the way here.”
Qin Shen Bo nodded: “I saw them too. They were people from different eras, perhaps grave robbers, perhaps those who wandered in by mistake, or perhaps for other reasons, but all died here.”
Liang Zhi Zhou shook his head: “We came via the dark river and didn’t see any corpses.”
“There actually were some,” Xuan Qing said. “I saw many rotting corpses and white bones at the bottom of the water.”
Lu Xing thought for a moment: “Come to think of it, I also saw some white bones among those stone statues.”
Liang Zhi Che seemed to associate something and suddenly said in surprise: “Could it be that the ones we encountered were only ghosts and monsters transformed from outsiders who died here?”
Jiang Ce shook his head: “Not necessarily. Didn’t we also see quite a few coffins placed as traps? There might be some, but not all.”
“So Big Brother, do you have any guesses?” Liang Zhi Che asked curiously.
“I’m wondering if it’s possible that this is also one of the original intentions in the design of this Great Tomb?”
Jiang Ce paused, seeing everyone’s puzzled faces, their attention completely diverted and led by him, then satisfiedly explained:
“Look, we all entered through the same secret door but were all separated. If it was really designed according to Qi Men Dun Jia, logically, besides the Life Gate leading here, the Death Gate shouldn’t have an exit.
But there are eight tunnels here, so I’m thinking, no matter which of the eight secret doors you enter, it doesn’t matter because they are all Death Gates, but at the same time all Life Gates. People entering will be randomly assigned to different places, then face mostly deadly perils—or for those below a certain strength, certain death—before possibly reaching here.”
“What’s the point of that?” Qin Shen Bo was drawn into Jiang Ce’s line of thinking and pondered too, but no matter how he thought, he couldn’t see the reason.
“Raising Gu.” Jiang Ce answered matter-of-factly, continuing his speculation: “It’s a simple reason. When thinking about problems, you definitely start from the root, find the biggest beneficiary, and then deduce further based on motives.
Isn’t this a corpse raising ground? The principle of a corpse raising ground is to gather all ghosts and monsters to nurture the Corpse King at the formation eye, so the more and stronger the ghosts and monsters, the more sufficient the Corpse King’s nourishment.
So I think this is a screening process. We’re all candidates for nourishment.
From the moment we entered the stone chamber, we became lab rats, thrown into different environments. If we die on the road, okay, in the corpse raising ground’s special environment, we turn into ghosts and add one to the Corpse King’s nourishment.
But if we pass smoothly, that means we become high-grade nourishment and can enter more core areas.
The concentration and intensity of resentment and malice in the core area definitely can’t compare to the outskirts. Powerful cultivators dying in the core area will inevitably turn into even more formidable ghosts and monsters, allowing the Corpse King to gain even more sufficient nutrients.
But no matter where they die, becoming nourishment also turns them into new power for the Great Tomb to deal with outsiders, so the more people who come, the stronger they are, the stronger the Great Tomb’s overall strength becomes, achieving a perfect closed loop.
For the builder, this maximizes benefits while best achieving the most fundamental purpose.
The builder… has the ambition to even calculate cultivators into it!”
After Jiang Ce finished, everyone’s faces turned extremely grim. They had never thought in this direction before, but undeniably, at least judging from logic and existing information, what Jiang Ce said really made sense.
But if that’s true, the situation is even more severe.
“Then all those corpses we saw on the road…” Lu Xing frowned tightly.
Jiang Ce had quickly thought up this reasonable analysis and said all this to alleviate the awkwardness from everyone not getting the Ding Zhen joke.
But while everyone’s attention was indeed diverted, the awkwardness turned into tension, making Jiang Ce feel even more apologetic.
So he hurriedly reassured everyone: “Hey, don’t take it too seriously. I was just kidding. What if following the chains down leads right to the subway back? That’s possible too, right?”
First chapter to avoid you saying I dropped it. Continuing the second chapter—won’t sleep until it’s done!
