Chapter 1069: The Precious Treasure’s In There
After looking through the stone door at the immortal’s corpse, the empress sighed and retracted hēr vision. Next, shē sent hēr vision to the other seven doors. One by one shē examined them. Upon reaching the third door, hēr eyes narrowed before closing. Then shē sat down cross-legged to wait quietly.
Standing in front of that third door was the very same figure who had been furtively making his way through the secluded meditation facilities. He was the black-robed man wrapped in chains.... He stood in front of the stone door, his vision piercing through it to examine the crypt beyond, and specifically, the black crystal in the hands of the immortal’s corpse. He didn’t do anything rash. Expression turning grim, he chose to sit cross-legged and wait.
***
In the world of rain, other people were using their own special knowledge and abilities to close in on the crypt. All of them were looking for stone doors. Different people had different advantages. Some had intelligence reports that gave them a deeper understanding of Grand Emperor Netherflame’s secluded meditation facilities. Some had more acute senses thanks to their cultivation base.
Other than Xu Qing and Erniu, everyone who came to the secluded meditation facilities were powerful experts who were pursuing their own hidden agendas. In contrast, Xu Qing and Erniu were like headless flies buzzing around in the rain, with absolutely no idea that there were stone doors somewhere leading into a crypt.
Fate was a fickle thing. After driving away the Imperial Sovereign, the two of them summoned corpses from a few dozen graveyards. Only then did the family of heads finally get full.
Xu Qing and Erniu had been kept so busy that they had no time to look through the bag of holding. Both of them were exhausted to the bone. However, there were some upsides. In the beginning, they had been unfamiliar with the gray mist and how to use it. But now that they had so much practice, they were nothing short of skilled. That was especially true of Erniu. Given that he had taken the lead, his level of skill had reached the point of perfection.
As for earning their freedom... that hadn’t happened yet. After eating to their fill, the family of heads took the two of them back to their lair.
The lair was actually a massive necropolis! In fact, the necropolis was so big it was basically a mountain.
During their entire journey so far, Xu Qing and Erniu had not seen any mountains as majestic as this. It was so big it seemed to touch the sky, and covered such a large area it seemed like it was the biggest thing in this world. The necropolis was filled with all sorts of catacombs, as well as a host of warding spells. That said, when the family returned, the warding spells seemed little more than facades.Once inside, the family scattered. The two main heads went to the main palace, where they immediately went to sleep. The smaller heads went to their own subsidiary palaces, where they also went to sleep. The truth was that they really had eaten to their fill, and now they needed time to digest. Before long, thunderous snoring had filled the necropolis.
Xu Qing and Erniu finally had their freedom back.
“Only a necropolis this big could fit a family like this,” Erniu said. “Looks to me like each member of this family used to be a corpse in the past. For whatever reason, they became intelligent and somehow woke up.”
The two of them exchanged a glance, waited for a bit to make sure the family was really asleep, and then started looking for a way out. Before long, they sighed in disappointment. Their freedom was obviously very limited. There wasn’t much special about the necropolis, but sadly, it wasn’t possible to leave it.
It wasn’t that they couldn’t get past the warding spell. Rather, after they got a certain distance from the mountain, a feeling of fear began to build up within them. The thunderous snoring would stop, making it seem like the huge heads were about to wake up.
“Dammit!” Erniu snapped angrily. “They’re not going to let us go! They’ve probably never eaten this well before, and now they’re addicted!”
Finally, Erniu decided to look through the loot from the Imperial Sovereign in the hopes that it would help him calm down.
Xu Qing, on the other hand, looked thoughtful. He wasn’t interested in checking the loot. Instead, he looked around at the various catacombs. Finally, he said, “Eldest Brother, remember your idea back on that barren planet? You theorized that Netherflame must have had some destined opportunity. And thus, the worse things got for you there, the more likely it was that you would get some good fortune. So... what about this place?”
Xu Qing’s eyes shone. “I just counted the catacombs here, and they match up perfectly to the number of family members. And though the warding spells were all intact, they did nothing to prevent the family from entering.
“In that case, it seems very likely to me that this necropolis was made for this family. And if that’s the case, then why did they wake up? Could it be because of whatever destined opportunity or good fortune is here? Maybe that’s what provoked the transformation to their corpses!”
Xu Qing looked at Erniu.
Erniu thought about it for a bit, whereupon his eyes lit up. “Good thinking, little Ah Qing! Your analysis conforms exactly to what I was thinking! In fact, I was just going to say that we should search this whole place thoroughly.”
Erniu rubbed his hands together and looked around.
Xu Qing didn’t feel the need to bicker with Erniu. Since his Eldest Brother agreed with him, he didn’t hesitate to get to work. And thus, they split up and started searching. In that matter, time slipped by slowly but surely.
Soon, seven days passed. The family slept the whole time. Clearly they weren’t planning to wake up of their own accord. During that time, Xu Qing and Erniu performed a thorough search of the place. They even managed to study the smaller palaces of the small heads. Unfortunately, they did not find any sort of destined opportunity. The necropolis seemed completely devoid of anything useful. Whatever things they did find were decaying and unusable.
Finally, the two of them appeared outside of the main palace where the two big heads were sleeping. This was the last place they could think of that might have some destined opportunity inside.
“Don’t tell me it’s in there,” Erniu said, struggling to control his breathing.
Xu Qing’s eyes sparkled.
Going into the sleeping chambers of the two main heads was going to be dangerous. But given that they had reached this point, it seemed likely that they would face danger no matter what they did.
After exchanging a glance, they gritted their teeth and went inside. They were met with thunderous snoring sounds. The two heads were leaning up against each other, asleep.
This area was much like every other place they had searched. It was empty. However... there was a stone door on the far end of the room. It seemed very ancient, and was carved with complex symbols that were reminiscent of antiquity. Clearly, the door had been there for a very long time.
Upon seeing that door, both Xu Qing and Erniu felt their heart rate increasing. They had searched this entire place, and this door was the only thing that seemed unusual. They exchanged another glance, then looked at the two heads to make sure they were really asleep. Then they carefully proceeded toward the door.
Upon reaching it, their pupils constricted. Being up close caused the sensation of ancientness to increase. There was also a strong aura of death coming from the other side of the door.
“The precious treasure is in there!!” Erniu murmured. His nose twitched, and his eyes shone with a very crazy look. “Based on my extensive experience hunting for treasure, little Ah Qing, I have a premonition that we’ve found the treasure we’re looking for!!”
Gnawing his lip in excitement, Erniu hurried forward and put his hand on the surface of the door. Heart racing, he pushed. The door didn’t move at all.
Xu Qing reached out, and the two of them pushed together. The door shifted slightly but didn’t open.
Erniu was starting to get anxious. Eyes shining with blue light, he shot a look to Xu Qing, who turned to the two sleeping heads.
Focusing on the one who had captured them, he clasped hands and bowed. “Senior, thank you for taking care of us on our journey. Considering that you brought the two of us here, I find it hard to believe that you don’t want us to open this door. Therefore, I hope you can help us out.”
During their time together, the huge head had never spoken to them. It seemed to act based on instinct. However, Xu Qing had never forgotten the enigmatic smile it gave. And it seemed to tacitly approve of how they had extorted that Imperial Sovereign....
As a result, Xu Qing refused to believe that it wasn’t intelligent. In fact, he was convinced that it had brought them here for the express purpose... of having them open this door. Erniu was clearly thinking the same thing, because as Xu Qing turned and bowed, so did he.
The snoring stopped. The two heads opened their eyes and looked at Xu Qing and Erniu. Then their gazes shifted to the stone door, and their expressions became various serious. They even looked a little bit fearful.
However, in the end... either Xu Qing and Erniu were right, or there was some other explanation that wasn’t forthcoming. Either way, the two heads exchanged a glance, then exhaled sharply.
Their two exhalations hit the stone door. The stone door rumbled, and Xu Qing and Erniu took advantage of the moment to shove it. A rumbling boom echoed out as the door opened by a crack. Instantly, an aura of death poured out, and they sensed dao lineament fluctuations.
Both were shaken. Through the small crack that had opened, both of them had seen... a mind-blowing scene. It was a majestic crypt. There were countless bones piled around an altar. An immortal corpse was seated cross-legged on the altar, surrounded by legacy seals and dao lineaments of authority. And floating everywhere... were Grand Emperor treasures!
Both Xu Qing and Erniu were now thinking exactly the same thing. This is Grand Emperor Netherflame’s secluded meditation chamber!
At the same time, they noticed that there were other stone doors leading into the chamber. Some were sealed shut. Others... had been opened. The opened doors all had figures seated cross-legged on the other side. There were a total of three. All of them... were western Devilbird cultivators who had been with them on the dao altar!
The moment that Xu Qing and Erniu saw them, the three figures looked up. All of them saw Xu Qing and Erniu through the opening in their door. Their gazes met.