Chapter 609: Chapter 189: [Accomplice to My Deeds]
Chapter 189 [The Accomplice I Made] (6000)
Chen Yan took out his phone to illuminate the area and stared at the corpse for a moment.
It’s obviously a male corpse. Judging from the decay and desiccation of the body, it must have been here for some years, though not too long.
The clothes on the corpse are still modern attire, likely from a style a decade or so ago.
The guy fell to the ground, with a small shovel beside him, and an oilcloth bag tied around the back of his pants.
After taking another look, Chen Yan determined that this person was a tomb robber. It seems after entering, he couldn’t withstand the strong death energy here, which eroded his consciousness. After passing out in this place, he was left without help and died here.
As for this person’s identity...
With a bit of thought, Chen Yan roughly guessed that this was Lu Xiuting’s cousin, who had been imprisoned for tomb robbing and selling artifacts.
This scene was deduced by Chen Yan following the death energy on that package of Nether Artifacts he dug up from under the bluestone near the Lu Family’s old house by the river.
Recalling what the boss lady at the village’s small shop said, Chen Yan pieced together a hypothesis.
Lu Xiuting’s whole family was in the earth-moving business: her father and her cousin.
This ancient tomb was evidently robbed by Lu Xiuting’s family members.
And it’s very likely not fully robbed; there’re still things inside.
Her cousin, after getting out of jail, had no livelihood. He stayed in the village for two to three days, probably preparing for the tomb robbing, and after he was ready, he came here again, dug out the tunnel, and prepped to work.
In the end, he died here.
·
This burial chamber appears to be an adjoining room, with a door on the north side—that has evidently been destroyed.
There are signs of it being pried open. Inside, the latch has been jammed and fastened tight.
Chen Yan looked over the mechanism and figured the trick behind it. A copper rod was wedged to jam the latch. If it weren’t for the rod jamming the latch, the door’s latch would fall and drop the trapdoor inside.
But now, after being destroyed, the trapdoor hangs above, leaving a gap below just big enough for a person to crawl through while bending down.
Chen Yan contemplated and then tossed in two [Six Yang Righteous Qi Talismans] through the door gap. After seeing a flash of fire inside, he waited a moment then slowly crouched down and snuck in.
The inner chamber is much larger!
Height, width, and length are nearly multiple times that of the outer room!
The surroundings of the burial chamber are surprisingly thick, neatly cut granite! Seeing these walls, Chen Yan concluded instantly—this is absolutely not some "ancient tomb"!
Ancient tombs shouldn’t have this neatly cut granite that’s a product of modern craft.
This place probably dates back no more than a few decades.
Then, Chen Yan raised his phone and shone the flashlight around; his face’s expression suddenly changed!
"Qi Gathering Gate... Dragon Lock Pillar... Suppression Nails... Damn!"
Chen Yan swayed with amazement, his face filled with an elaborate expression!
This place...
"This damn thing isn’t a cemetery!!" Chen Yan involuntarily blurted out.
This place! It’s no burial ground for the dead!
Instead, it’s an array room built to suppress something!!
Around the room, the vessels, Qi Gathering Gate, Dragon Lock Pillar, Suppression Nails...
These things, Chen Yan had only seen in the Array Chapter of the Secret Manual but never the real thing!
Especially the copper pillar on the wall, so thick two people couldn’t wrap around it, running through the stone chamber!
Deeply driven into the ground below, who knows how deep!! The top pokes through the stone chamber, piercing the mountain’s interior, who knows how high!!
It’s channeling the full might of the entire mountain, converging everything here to suppress something!!
Although Chen Yan couldn’t immediately understand this array, having studied for some time, relying on the principles of arrays he learned, he could quickly locate the convergent pressuring point!
But when he arrived there, he saw on the granite walls around him, twinkling—there were thirty-six heavenly "Suppression Nails," the nail heads pointing towards... a pile of debris!
Whatever it was suppressing... in any case, that thing has already been dug away by someone!!
·
In the evening, by the car in the wild.
Using willow branches freshly picked off a tree and dabbed with some water, Chen Yan patted and brushed them all over himself, then casually tossed the branches into the wild field.
He pulled out a tin canister from a Storage Jade Pendant and set the clothes he wore earlier on fire, changing into a new set of clothes.
Sticking a [Avoid Misfortune Talisman] on himself, Chen Yan carefully checked, making sure all traces of death energy had dissipated.
Death Qi is not something he wanted to take home with him.
This thing, if just a smidge, might be fine, but if it’s on you long-term, it can cause some health issues.
After verifying nothing was missed, Chen Yan turned around, got in the car, and headed towards Jinling Prefecture downtown.
On the way home, driving, Chen Yan’s mind mulled over today’s series of discoveries.
Chen Yan had unearthed quite a few secrets about Lu Xiuting.
The Death Qi on her must be from that tomb-robbing family. Spending her youth around Nether Artifacts over the years, undoubtedly accumulating some of it, over time, this Death Qi entwined with her Life Chart, and couldn’t be entirely purged afterward.
Though whether Lu Xiuting herself ever entered a tomb is unknown, her family’s business, which looted Nether Artifacts and sold them for money to support her, has left its mark. By spending the money exchanged from Nether Artifacts, the Death Qi links up with her Life Chart!