Shang Zhongtian kept his voice low. "Tiptoeing through that cold, dry underground passage, I saw fist-sized night-luminescent pearls lining both walls—who knows how many centuries they had been glowing. Their faint, eerie blue light was barely enough to outline a figure, not even bright enough to make out facial features. I had this persistent feeling that someone was watching me, raising the hair on the back of my neck. But whenever I looked back, there was nothing. At the time, I assumed it was just my imagination.
"Following the light through the rugged passage, I reached the innermost main burial chamber.
"The sheer scale and grandeur of the main chamber left me utterly dumbfounded. For a moment, I completely forgot I was standing in a dark, ominous crypt."
Shang Zhongtian paused and closed his eyes, seemingly reliving every minute detail of the scene. Only after finishing his recollection did he slowly speak again: "I had never seen a tomb chamber of such magnitude. The vaulted ceiling arched so high it resembled the celestial vault itself. Beneath that sky, terra-cotta warriors gripping sharp bronze spears stood as loyal guardians over their master, surrounded by a dazzling array of burial goods arranged according to the Eight Trigrams formation, perfectly aligned with the natural laws and order of the Heavenly Dao.
"The ancient corpse had been dead for centuries, yet the terrifying aura pulsing through the coffin still set my heart racing. It felt as if that old Nascent Soul monster hadn't truly died at all, but merely fallen asleep, liable to wake at any second.
"Hesitation has never been in my nature. I made a swift decision, swept half the burial goods into my bags, and was just about to leave when footsteps sounded not far away. Those footsteps echoed through the empty chamber, sending chills down my spine.
"What followed was a horrific situation unlike anything I'd ever encountered in all my years in the trade."
At this point, Lu Yang and Tao Yaoye couldn't help leaning forward, eager to hear what happened next.
Shang Zhongtian took on an expression of utter agony, his voice trembling: "I ran into that Nascent Soul expert's descendants coming to pay respects to their ancestor!"
"What?" Lu Yang and Tao Yaoye heard him clearly, but their minds took a moment to process it.
"They had brought offerings and dharma treasures to worship their ancestor, praying for their clan's longevity, for a succession of geniuses, and for academic success in the imperial exams! On their way to the altar, they noticed me robbing the tomb. So they swarmed me, pinned me down, and captured me! It was terrifying! Even now, thinking back to it brings cold sweat to my forehead."
"...I'd say their reaction was pretty normal," Lu Yang said candidly. The fact that the family hadn't hacked him to death on the spot showed remarkable restraint.
"This is the 'great terror' you were talking about?" Tao Yaoye asked.
Shang Zhongtian scratched his head, perplexed by their reactions. "Of course! When you're robbing a grave and run straight into the owner's descendants, could there be anything more terrifying than that?"
"And then?"
"Then they beat me within an inch of my life, thrashing me so badly my cultivation fell from the peak of Qi Refinement to the middle stage. Then they tossed me into prison. The authorities made me pay back everything I'd ever stolen and locked me up for ten years. Once I got out, I decided to wash my hands of the trade, turn over a new leaf, and steer clear of all that trouble."
"Be honest."
"I couldn't face my peers in the trade anymore."
"..."
Shang Zhongtian was so utterly earnest that neither of them knew what to say.
After personally burying Steward Zhang's skinless corpse, Shang Zhongtian invited Lu Yang and Tao Yaoye to stay for another night before leaving, but Tao Yaoye declined.
Had it not been to draw out the painted-skin ghost, Tao Yaoye wouldn't have agreed to stay overnight in the first place; traveling by night posed no difficulty for two Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Before departing, Lu Yang sought out Shang Yuan again and patted the parrot's head.
If Taiping Township hadn't mistaken the parrot for a monster beast, they wouldn't have had the opportunity to come to the Shang residence and eliminate the painted-skin ghost.
"This is a good parrot. Perhaps it really is a monster beast. Take good care of it."
Shang Yuan was startled and quickly asked why.
"In the early stages, a monster beast's strength is quite vague and difficult to distinguish from an ordinary wild beast. I can't tell for certain either.
"However, when Xiao Lu left your home, it didn't fly far away. Instead, it kept circling Taiping Township, knowing your residence was dangerous and staying clear of it. Perhaps it was a coincidence, or perhaps a sign of developing spiritual sapience. It's hard to say."
Lu Yang smiled and said no more.
Shang Zhongtian felt he had been an inadequate host; after all, these two had saved the lives of twelve people in his household, yet the only thing he had managed to offer was the tale of his retirement.
"These are the tomb-raiding insights I've written down. If you don't mind, please take it—who knows when it might come in handy." Shang Zhongtian pulled a blue, thread-bound booklet from his robes and offered it to them.
Lu Yang accepted it politely, and the two waved their goodbyes.
On their way back, Lu Yang asked, "Do you want this tomb-raiding booklet?"
Tao Yaoye shook her head. She wasn't a tomb raider; what would she need it for?
Lu Yang also found it useless, but he tucked it away nonetheless.
"Why didn't you tell me beforehand when you scattered poison in my room?" Tao Yaoye was still brooding over it.
Fortunately, as the possessor of the Feathering Immortal Physique, she had immense resistance to all poisons. Otherwise, wouldn't she have caught athlete's foot just like Steward Zhang?
Would it be acceptable for a pretty young woman to get athlete's foot?
Lu Yang shrugged. He had only released the poison because he knew it wouldn't harm Tao Yaoye. "I did tell you."
"When?"
"During dinner, with my eyes."
"So you weren't unable to reach the dishes and asking me to pass the plates?"
"I'm not that shallow."
The two successfully returned to the Dao Seeking Sect. As luck would have it, Meng Jingzhou had also just completed his mission and was currently venting his grievances to the senior brother who managed the mission board.
"Junior Brother Meng Jingzhou, your mission was quite simple. Why did the fox spirit file a complaint against you, saying you had an attitude problem and refused to cooperate with her?" The senior brother found it rather strange. It was merely supplying a dual cultivation technique—what kind of attitude issue could there be?
"Senior Brother, you people need to look into that fox spirit! There's definitely something wrong with her! I went there just to provide the dual cultivation technique, and she actually demanded to inspect the goods! She insisted on practicing the technique with me to see whether it was genuine!"
Meng Jingzhou fumed, "If I weren't forbidden from breaking my pure yang body, I would've practiced it right then and there with her!"
It was hard to tell whether he was furious that having a pure yang body had cost him a romantic encounter, or furious that the fox spirit had doubted his dedication to seeking the Dao.
Seeing the senior brother looking utterly helpless, Lu Yang stepped forward to relieve the awkwardness. "Senior Brother, the two of us have completed our monster beast mission."
Lu Yang gave a detailed account of how the people of Taiping Township had mistaken a parrot for a talking monster beast, and how he and Tao Yaoye had feigned vulnerability to lure out the painted-skin ghost before finishing it off.
At the end of his report, Lu Yang handed over the jar containing the painted-skin ghost's ashes.
"To handle your very first mission so brilliantly—well done." The senior brother viewed Lu Yang in a whole new light. When he had posted the mission, he had assumed it was trivial, never imagining there was such an underlying plot.
Hearing how Lu Yang had applied the targeted poison to wrap up the battle swiftly made him even more impressed. Without the poison, subduing the painted-skin ghost would have taken serious effort, and it might even have escaped.
Most importantly, this junior brother actually carried around poison that inflicted athlete's foot. At the thought of this, the senior brother quietly scooted his seat a little farther away.
"Since you two went above and beyond the mission requirements, your original contribution points are quadrupled to one hundred and twenty points. Junior Sister Tao Yaoye, you played a supporting role in this mission, so you receive ninety contribution points."
Tao Yaoye had no objections. Lu Yang had played the crucial role in this mission, while she had essentially served as bait.
Chapter 24