Li Chang’an summoned everyone important to him to the Champion Scholar’s Mansion for a banquet.
During the banquet, Li Chang’an took the opportunity to arrange some matters.
The Greed Wolf Organization’s sphere of activity couldn’t be limited to the vicinity of Chun’an County forever.
After building a solid foundation, they had to spread across all of Li Yang.
...
The day after the feast, Li Chang’an didn’t linger. Early in the morning, he left the Champion Scholar’s Mansion with Ran Qingqiu and Leng Yanran, heading for the desolate mountains in the northwest of Li Yang.
All three were Martial Artists with considerable cultivation, so they traveled quickly. In less than a week, a desolate Gobi Desert filled with yellow sand appeared before them.
Ran Qingqiu briefly got her bearings, then chose a direction and led the way.
They walked for the better part of a day. The Gobi, once just yellow sand, gradually grew more rugged. Li Chang’an looked up and was startled to see a continuous mountain range that had appeared on the horizon at some point.
The range was formed by a series of steep, towering peaks. From a distance, they looked like blades stabbing into the sky, carrying the solitary grandeur of a thousand mountains and ten thousand ravines.
As he drew closer, Li Chang’an discovered that the soil around the peaks was a strange, crimson red. Aside from some thorny bushes and blood-red cacti clinging tenaciously to the ground, almost no other plants or animals could survive on the surface.
No one needed to tell him.
Li Chang’an could feel the desolation and chilling cold of this mountain range himself.
Turning to Ran Qingqiu, Li Chang’an asked, "Is this the place you were talking about?"
Ran Qingqiu nodded. "You told me that Cultivators might have appeared in this area over three thousand years ago. I asked the local camel-herding nomads, and I did indeed hear some legends of Immortals from them that don’t exist in other regions..."
"I searched and verified information from multiple sources, and finally found this place!"
Li Chang’an said nothing.
According to the information Ran Qingqiu had provided earlier, the land for thousands of miles around this mountain range was all desolate desert.
Normally, the dry, yellow sand, combined with the sweeping north winds and the passage of a long time, would have been enough to erode any building exposed on the surface.
And yet, under these very conditions, the mountain range before them still stood, not having collapsed.
This was enough to prove that this place definitely held a mystery that couldn’t be explained by common sense.
None of the three spoke again.
The Greed Wolf Organization had sent people to investigate here several times, leaving behind many markings along the way that only members of the organization could understand.
Following these markings, the three walked for about another two hours through the steep mountain range.
Finally, they actually found an abandoned village within the mountains.
The village was small, with probably no more than a dozen households scattered throughout the canyon.
This village wasn’t just isolated from the outside world; the surrounding mountain range also blocked the yellow sand that filled the Gobi Desert. Looking down from the cliff face, they could even see a few acres of farmland around the village that had been abandoned for many years.
The three descended from the mountain path and explored the pitifully small village. Aside from a few traces of buildings and a pile of crumbling ruins, they found almost nothing.
Ran Qingqiu said, "I’ve had people search this place before. It was probably just people who fled to the Gobi Desert to escape the chaos of war. There’s nothing special here. Let’s just go. The tomb is at the base of a cliff a few miles from the village!"
Li Chang’an and Leng Yanran didn’t think so.
The place was simply too remote and difficult to access. Even for experts with their level of cultivation, it was an arduous journey. How could ordinary refugees possibly have hidden in a place like this?
The two of them didn’t leave. Instead, they split up and began searching the deserted village.
Because so much time had passed, many traces in the deserted village were buried under dust. Only about two-thirds of the ruins remained on the surface.
Finding no useful information on the surface, the two began to dig three feet deep.
This so-called "digging three feet deep" was meant in a literal, physical sense.
After digging for about an hour, Li Chang’an unearthed a massive stone tablet. He couldn’t understand the characters engraved on it.
They didn’t seem to be characters from the Liyang Dynasty.
But rather from a previous dynasty, or perhaps one even more ancient.
Li Chang’an showed it to Leng Yanran. Her knowledge was clearly greater than his. She frowned and said, "When it comes to information about scripts, the Taoist Sect’s records are the most complete. We can make a rubbing of these characters. When we get back, we can go ask those mystifying, quack Taoists!"
Li Chang’an naturally had no objection.
The three of them immediately made a rubbing of the inscription, planning to study it later. Having found something by digging, all three were clearly much more motivated.
After about another hour of digging, Leng Yanran unearthed a small Jade Pendant.
The pendant’s surface had several cracks, but it felt warm and pure to the touch, which was quite extraordinary.
The three spent the entire day digging in the village. Once they were sure there were no other treasures to be found, they set off again.
After walking for another hour, the three finally saw their destination.
The tomb was located next to the tallest peak in the mountain range, flanked by many smaller earthen mounds.
According to Ran Qingqiu’s prior investigation, the small earthen mounds were likely buried later. Only the huge mound at the base of the peak was very likely the true burial place of a Cultivator.
Li Chang’an glanced at the earthen mounds beside them, then back at the village in the distance. He suddenly spoke, "It seems this place truly has a remarkable history. These must have been the Tomb Guardians, right?"