Chapter Eighty-Eight: The Tomb of the King of Xian [Subscription Request]

In the depths of the mountains and forests, a party struggled onward over steep ridges and through treacherous ravines. In this age, the peaks were high and the woods dense, and travel was painfully difficult.

The mountain laborers under Chen Yulou were one matter; every one of them was a seasoned and capable man, adept at cutting paths through the hills and building bridges over rivers. Their physical strength was beyond the reach of ordinary people. If placed in modern times and given a little training, they would in no way be inferior to the tightly drilled special forces of today.

The soldiers under Luo Laowai were, without doubt, much less impressive. After a morning on the road, each of them was panting and half-dead, seriously slowing the whole group.

In deep mountain wilderness, venomous insects and fierce beasts could lurk anywhere. Thus, all along the way, Li Yang walked at the very front, clearing the path.

Thanks to the aura of the ancient strange beast within him, the Six-Winged Golden Centipede, the presence of a supreme predator, venomous insects drew back and wild beasts kept their distance. No serious trouble arose.

"Damn it all, this wretched place is enough to wear me out!"

At noon, standing upon a broken cliff face, Luo Laowai was covered in sweat. Bent over and glaring up at the sun, he spat hard.

"Senior Brother! There seems to be a sheer drop ahead; there is no road. If we want to get through, we must go down the cliff."

At that moment, Old Foreign, who had been scouting ahead, leaped up onto the cliff and spoke.

"You all wait here. I'll go ahead and scout the way. If it truly won't do, then we'll have to ask our brothers to descend the cliff!"

Meeting the look from Black-Crested Eagle, Li Yang greeted the others, then sprang into the air and soon appeared high above the ground.

From that vantage, with his exceptional eyesight, he quickly found a steep little path in a distant cliff face, barely wide enough for a single person to pass.

"Brother Li, have you found the way forward?"

Seeing Li Yang descend from the sky, Chen Yulou came over and asked eagerly.

"There is a path over there, though it is very steep. When you all advance, be sure to be careful."

Li Yang smiled and pointed toward the little path as he addressed the group.

"Brother Li truly is capable. If not for you on this journey, we would not know how much suffering we would have endured!" As he spoke, Luo Laowai turned and glared at the soldiers sprawled on the ground, then roared, "Damn it all, a pack of cowards and weaklings! Just look at you. We've barely covered any distance and you've all turned into this pitiful state, embarrassing me no end. Let me say this now: if any one of you dares to slack at a critical moment on this journey, the bullets in my hand will not spare you."

"Enough, Lao Luo, let's move!"

Seeing Luo Laowai suddenly lecturing his men, Chen Yulou could only shake his head, thinking how little he had done to deserve such a show now.

Still, he understood Luo Laowai's nature well enough. He was only good at praying to the Buddha when the temple was already on fire. If you wanted him to drill troops every day, that would happen only when the sun rose in the west.

"Brothers, move out!"

At Chen Yulou's call, Luo Laowai waved a large hand and followed behind him, heading after Li Yang and the others.

The path was far too narrow, and on the sheer cliff face there was nowhere to brace oneself. Chen Yulou's mountain laborers were fine; they spent their days climbing peaks and crossing ridges, and their balance was excellent.

The soldiers under Luo Laowai were different. Their overall quality was uneven, and before long, several of them lost their footing and tumbled off the cliff, smashed into bloody pulp.

Even with his quick eyes and hands, Li Yang managed to save only the one closest to him.

"Damn it all, what rotten luck!"

Seeing this, Luo Laowai's face darkened, and the anger in his eyes toward the soldiers behind him grew ever fiercer.

It was not that he cared about their lives, but that he felt utterly humiliated. One would not know the difference without comparing them, but with comparison came injury. Against Chen Yulou's mountain laborers, his own soldiers had performed like rubbish all along this journey, and how could a man so vain bear that?

After passing through the mountain path, the view suddenly opened wide.

Not far ahead, in a mountain hollow, mist lingered in swirling veils. Several wooden pavilions stood on the mountainside; green trees shaded the place on every side, and a small river looped around the hollow. A few young girls in traditional dress were laughing and playing in the water, and it all looked like a pure land untouched by the world.

"Old sir, may I ask whether you know where Floating Void Mountain is?"

Li Yang stepped forward in a few quick bounds and stopped an emaciated old man with dark skin and rolled-up trouser legs, a Hui herdsman who was returning from the fields, and asked him.

The old man, seeing a stranger block his way, instinctively flashed a wary look from the corners of his wrinkled eyes. He opened his mouth wide, revealing a mouthful of rotten teeth, and rattled off a long stream of words.

Li Yang understood none of it, and looked blankly back at Chen Yulou and Black-Crested Eagle, who had followed him.

Chen Yulou spread his hands, indicating that he could not understand this Hui dialect either.

Black-Crested Eagle, however, stepped forward and chattered with the old man for a while.

Before long, no one knew what Black-Crested Eagle had said, but the old man broke into a broad smile and led the way ahead, turning back from time to time to beckon Li Yang and the others along.

"Brother Black-Crested Eagle is indeed learned. I never expected him to be so fluent even in the language of a minority people."

Following behind the old man, Chen Yulou gave a thumbs-up in praise.

"Of course. Over all these years, where have our three siblings not been? My senior brother is famously quick at learning anything. As for the languages of some minority groups, he can basically communicate after learning them just once."

Before Black-Crested Eagle could reply, Old Foreign eagerly stepped forward with pride all over his face.

"I wonder what Brother Black-Crested Eagle said to the old man to make him so cooperative."

Li Yang was not surprised that Black-Crested Eagle knew such a language. What puzzled him was how quickly the Hui elder's attitude had changed.

After all, this was not a peaceful era. In times of war and turmoil, minority peoples were famously hard to deal with, though fiercely united. To make them trust you was no easy matter.

"It was nothing, really. I only said that I was a priest from another tribe, here to pay a visit to the great priest of their clan."

Seeing Li Yang's curious expression, Black-Crested Eagle explained in a low voice.

In truth, it was not entirely a lie. Black-Crested Eagle himself was both the great priest and acting chieftain of the Zagala tribe. There was no help for it; their people were too few in number, and he could only shoulder more duties, serving in two roles at once.

"Honored guests from afar, please sit!"

Soon, led by the Hui old man, Li Yang and the others met a Hui great priest wearing a peculiar cap.

The great priest looked very old. His skin was all wrinkles, his body thin and bony, and his face painted with strange pigments. His fingers, thin as chicken claws, gripped a bone staff. The only thing worth noting was that his eyes still held a certain clarity.

"Greetings."

Black-Crested Eagle returned the special ritual salute and sat with the others.

When Li Yang and the rest asked about Floating Void Mountain, the great priest's expression changed completely. He hesitated for a long while before saying:

"That Floating Void Mountain has an extremely unusual location. Our ancestors passed down the belief that it is the dwelling place of the mountain god. There are countless venomous insects and strange beasts there. All these years, anyone who has dared to invade the mountain god's sleeping palace has, without exception, never returned alive!"

"It is the forbidden ground of our tribe from generation to generation. I advise you all to go back from where you came. We are all mere mortals; how could we possibly contend with gods?"

Despite Black-Crested Eagle's plea, the great priest's gaze remained firm, and he showed no sign of relenting.

"Damn it all, this old man won't take a toast and now wants the punishment!"

Seeing that the Hui great priest was being unreasonable, Luo Laowai immediately flew into a rage. He was never one to be kindhearted, and cursing under his breath, he reached for the pistol at his waist.

"Old Luo, stop. They have kindly received us. How can we force the matter upon them?"

Chen Yulou seized Luo Laowai's hand and shook his head at him, looking at the wary villagers around them.

Then he turned to Li Yang beside him and asked, "Brother Li, what do you think we should do about this?"

"Since we have already confirmed that the King of Sacrifice's tomb is here, then as long as the direction is right, there should be no major problem. In that case, Headman Chen, take the brothers and set up camp here. Wait for my news. I will go ahead to determine the situation, then return and explain everything in detail."

After leaving the Hui great priest, Li Yang smiled, took a porcelain bottle from his chest, and handed it to Chen Yulou.

"Given the high mountains and dense woods here, with so few people around and the forest damp with moisture, when you have the brothers pitch camp, sprinkle the powder from this bottle around the camp to guard against any mishap."

In truth, once it was confirmed that the King of Sacrifice's tomb lay nearby, Li Yang's divine powers made finding its location no great difficulty. But Chen Yulou and the others were not Li Yang. They did not possess the means to ascend heaven, enter the earth, or traverse space. To reach the tomb, they would naturally need to find a suitable route.

After greeting the others, Li Yang's form flickered, and his whole body vanished into space. In the blink of an eye, he appeared tens of thousands of feet above the ground.

Since cultivating magical power, Li Yang had discovered that not only had his strength greatly increased, but even his use of divine arts had become far more formidable than before. Especially with the guidance of the old Daoist from Purple Heaven, all manner of combat skills had improved by leaps and bounds. In the past, a single space traversal could cover at most a few hundred or a thousand meters; now, he could casually vanish tens of thousands of feet away.

Beyond this power of appearing elsewhere in an instant, his technique of standing upright without casting a shadow had become utterly uncanny in Li Yang's hands. His figure could at any time conceal itself within space, and could even temporarily fade into a half-illusory state to evade all harm. That was rather absurd.

Standing high above the clouds, Li Yang spread the six wings behind him and, facing the screaming gale, became a streak of golden light moving through the sea of clouds.

"Hm..."

Soon, Li Yang felt a strange magnetic force tugging at him among the mountains, and his body rapidly descended under that pull.

Within a valley, he saw before him a floating island. Flowers bloomed in profusion upon it, birds sang, and every branch and petal seemed alive with fragrance. The whole island lay amid the clouds and mist, half-hidden and half-revealed.

"Even the beauty of the heavenly palaces is no more than this!"

Such a wonder of natural splendor utterly overturned Li Yang's understanding of the world. With his meager vocabulary, any word he might use to describe this scene would seem desperately inadequate.