My wife has a secret

Chapter 175 Waiting for the rabbit
"Yes, my lord."

Heizhong whispered softly, "On the night when we reached an agreement with the three tribes, they cleared out the mausoleum of the late Emperor Qi Huan and sent people to transport a large number of furnaces and spiritual treasures into it."

"Moving so fast?"

The fact that it could be transported in that evening after the agreement was reached clearly showed that the Lotus Sect had already prepared the goods at the entrance of the valley and was determined to obtain them.

But what Xu Qing couldn't understand was that the White Lotus Sect had gone to so much pains and laid so much groundwork, how could they just use the tomb of the late emperor to make some "immortal pills".

Could it be that the elixirs refined in dragon veins and imperial tombs really have the potential to allow people to ascend to immortality?
"Sir, when I saw them refining the elixir before, Hei Zhong secretly took out some of it, hoping to figure out its effect... but to no avail."

Upon seeing this, Heizhong took out the magical treasure that he had previously hidden.

Although it was a rare spiritual treasure, the White Lotus Sect had hoarded a large amount of it, so she was able to secretly take some with her and hide it on her body.

Xu Qing was slightly stunned when he saw Heizhong stretch out his jade-white palm, on which there were white-gray shiny crystals.

"Hey, the White Lotus Sect is really crazy. I have been to many tombs of high-ranking officials and emperors, but I have never seen the formula of this kind of elixir."

Shui Haozi stared at the thing and sneered, "Don't the legendary elixirs rely on rare things like Tai Sui, thousand-year-old ginseng, and blood essence grass to make them? What are they going to do with a pile of broken stones?"

"This is not a broken stone..."

Xu Qing gently picked up a piece and saw the origin of this thing. He could no longer hide the horror in his eyes.

"This thing is called saltpeter, and it is one of the important raw materials for making black powder."

When seeing the saltpeter, Xu Qing was suddenly reminded of the terrain of the Qinling Imperial Tombs.

The imperial city is bordered by a long river to the north, and plain suburbs to the southeast. Only the west side is full of mountains, and there is a peak slanting into it. Standing on the top, one can overlook the entire capital city.

The location of the Dragon Vein Valley is actually at the bottom of the back of this mountain. If the White Lotus Sect uses this thing to blow up the mountain, it will definitely cause the mountain to collapse and rubble to fall...

He finally understood why the White Lotus Sect acted in such a remote place like the Imperial Mausoleum.

It turns out that all actions in the capital are to cover up actions outside the city.

"Has the alchemy ceremony begun?"

Hearing Xu Qing's slightly anxious tone, Hei Zhong also realized that something serious had happened, and nodded in response: "It's less than three quarters of an hour, it should still be in time to go down now."

"We'll go down with you."

Logically speaking, the White Lotus Sect has now established a firm foothold under the imperial mausoleum, and has the help of the Qiong and Bie tribes. Going into the mausoleum is like a sheep walking into a tiger's mouth, and playing with one's own life.

But he had no other choice at the moment. If he allowed the black gunpowder prepared by the White Lotus Sect to blow up the mountain, even if he could escape with his life, the mountain would fall into the capital, and there would be countless casualties... Not to mention that it was midnight and Lu Wanhe was still in the city.

Kurozuka responded immediately, "Okay, the adults go to the house next door and change into the coarse linen clothes that my Japanese people wear when they work. This is the common clothing in the valley and will not arouse suspicion from others... Kurozuka will be outside to keep watch for the three of you."

……

In the long life of the Japanese, except for their names and the wooden clogs and kimono worn by Kurozuka, everything else has obviously been assimilated into the Central Plains culture.

The coarse linen clothes that Xu Qing changed into were the kind commonly woven by farmers in the suburbs of Beijing.

After changing clothes and walking out of the wooden house, Heizuka and the female warrior had been standing at the door waiting for a long time.

When the two women stood together, Hei Zhong was immediately overshadowed by Yang Xianning, who was not wearing any makeup but had an outstanding appearance. However, the latter obviously understood that a face that was too beautiful and unfamiliar could be a hidden danger, so she deliberately smeared some yellow mud mixed with clean water on her face to cover up that beautiful color.

"Let's go."

Seeing this, Heizhong nodded with satisfaction and led the three of them to the tomb of the late emperor.

Shui Haozi wanted to continue joking, but when he saw Xu Qing's extremely serious expression, he realized that what he had just seen might be more exaggerated than he had imagined, so he quietly asked, "Sir, what is that black gunpowder made of saltpeter?"

“Do you know fireworks?”

Without even turning his head, Xu Qing asked back, "If there is a thing in this world that can be made hundreds or thousands of times more powerful than fireworks, where do you think it can be used?"

Although Shui Haozi had a deep knowledge of Feng Shui and tomb mechanisms and was not stupid, he was really stunned by this question.

Yang Xianning stood alone not far behind the two of them, taking in all the words that had just been spoken.

The first thing she thought of was the battlefield. If the power of fireworks could be amplified and ignited on the battlefield... the power would be unimaginable.

But does such a magical thing really exist in this world?

Compared with the newly filled mausoleum of Emperor Xuan of Qi, the mausoleum of Emperor Huan of Qi is more than twice as large just in terms of the stele pavilion and the sacred road in the tomb chamber.

Moreover, near the cemetery area, there are already many stone animal statues placed around the empty stone square.

All these statues bowed their heads and knelt devoutly at the door of the mausoleum.

Standing on both sides of the palace gate were gravekeepers holding long swords and sharp blades. They obviously belonged to the Qiongbie and Qiongbie tribes, and they looked at the four people with some unfriendly and cold eyes.

Perhaps due to their identities as the head of the Kurozuka Japanese clan, the two of them half-closed their eyes and allowed them to enter the tomb corridor.

There are torch stands built around the corridor, filled with burning torches, which illuminate the passage brightly and transparently.

The tomb passage continued downwards, and Hei Zhong, who had remained silent before, took the initiative to introduce: "According to the rules, every emperor will dig his own mausoleum at the same time when he ascends the throne...but these two emperors are a little different."

Xu Qing also noticed the difference between Emperor Xuan of Qi's mausoleum and here, and asked, "What's the difference?"

"Emperor Xuan died young, and only one-third of the pit dug in advance was completed. Although it was barely buried according to the emperor's specifications and backfilled, it will definitely be eroded by rainwater over time."

Kurozuka often inspected the progress of the project and knew these things best.

"When Emperor Qi Heng was in power, he was obsessed with alchemy and the art of longevity, and he highly respected it, so he built the mausoleum with the most workers and the largest area. The tire-removing road on this main road alone stretches down for several miles, straight into the belly of the mountain."

"I see."

After listening to Heizhong's story, Xu Qing knew that it was no accident that the White Lotus Sect chose this place.

If his guess was correct, when the "immortal master" of the White Lotus Sect was refining medicine in the palace and bewitching Emperor Qi Heng about the method of immortality, he might have mixed in the suggestion of building a mausoleum.

The most terrifying thing is that the idea of ​​hollowing out the belly of the mountain was actually in preparation for today's mountain blasting. It was truly foolproof and a long-term plan that spanned decades.

At the end of the tire road described by Heizhong is a huge tomb door that is more than ten meters long and wide, and opens slightly tilted inward.

Xu Qing stood in front of the door frame, like an ant looking up at a giant, and was stunned. It was the first time he saw someone build such a large door frame. "At the beginning, an immortal master taught Emperor Qi Heng the method of immortality in the palace. He told him to hollow out the belly of the mountain, and then he could build an immortal palace in the entire mountain mausoleum, so that he could absorb the essence of the sun and the moon and condense the immortal core godhood. Emperor Heng was worried that his body would be as wide as the sky and the earth and as long as the rivers after he became an immortal, so he ordered people to build a door according to the length of the four kings of heaven in the legend."

As if to show off his knowledge, Shui Haozi shook his head and told the origin of the tomb door.

The tomb raiders dug the tomb of Emperor Heng of Qi, so they knew the layout and origin of the place in great detail.

"Look at the angle and direction of the tomb door. They are all the work of my master and his team when they opened the door."

Heizhong looked up at Shui Haozi, feeling mixed emotions.

Who would have thought that the tomb robbers and grave keepers, who were once irreconcilable, would now stand together?
But she also felt strange about the situation here. Logically, the Qiong tribe was responsible for guarding the mausoleum. Why didn't they send someone to guard the tomb door, which was the only important entrance and exit leading to the ground?
But now it was almost time for the White Lotus Ceremony and he could no longer waste his efforts.

Thinking of this, Heizhong explained the situation to Xu Qing behind him and led them through the tomb door.

Behind the tomb gate is a suspension bridge hanging on a black cliff.

Across the suspension bridge, you can see Baocheng Xiangdian on the opposite bank from afar, which is connected to a small town the size of a village.

Now there were torches lit inside and some human voices could be heard.

At the bridge head stood a grave keeper of the Qiong tribe wearing leather armor and with a stern look on his face, dressed exactly like the two men at the entrance of the mausoleum.

After they saw Kurozuka's face clearly, they no longer paid attention to who the two Japanese servants behind them were and made way for them.

"Three of you, please abide by the rules of the White Lotus Holy Envoy after you enter, otherwise you will bear the consequences at your own risk."

The warning left by the gravekeeper made Xu Qing raise his eyebrows and nodded calmly.

When the three of them walked onto the suspension bridge, Xu Qing looked back and found that the female hero had fallen behind at some point.

Is the other party afraid of the White Lotus Sect and dare not come in?
But at this moment, the three of them were already on the verge of death. If they returned via the suspension bridge, they would surely be met with suspicion and questioning from the tomb keepers of the Qiong tribe, and there was a high probability that something bad would happen.

So for now we can only move forward.

……

Yang Xianning stayed in the open space in front of the tomb gate.

Although her beautiful face was smeared with some yellow soil, it looked resolute and profound. Her pair of black eyes were calm and radiated an aura of fearlessness and determination.

The reason why they stayed here without saying hello was because Yang Xianning noticed when she stepped into this open space that besides the three of them, there was another person lurking in the dark.

Because she used her keen hearing to hear the slight sound of blood dripping.

The sounds of blood drops and water drops falling are completely different. Yang Xianning, who has experienced many battles on the battlefield, can already distinguish the subtle differences between the two.

So when Xu Qing and the other two continued to go deeper into the tomb, she did not stop them. Instead, she stared calmly into the darkness, waiting for the other party to appear.

"As expected of a famous general who fought on the battlefield, people always say that the Yang family's tiger daughters are not rats... Now it seems that this saying has its meaning."

The person who slowly emerged from the darkness revealed a face that was extremely familiar to Yang Xianning. The other person's facial features were exactly the same as the person who appeared in Xiangshan Falun Temple.

As one of the star gods of the White Lotus Sect, Kaiyang did not wear the iconic strange mask, but showed his real face directly.

As he spoke, two corpses rolled down from the shadows behind him. One of the bodies, which had been tortured beyond recognition, tilted to one side, bleeding, and hung behind Kaiyang Star Lord.

But based on the patterns on their clothes, they could barely be identified as grave keepers of the Qiong tribe.

"I got bored waiting for you, so I played some games with them. I didn't expect their bodies to be so fragile that they couldn't even bear the pain of broken arms and legs... By the way, the general doesn't seem surprised by my appearance?"

Yang Xianning had witnessed herself being burned in flames and turned into a puddle of mud, but the other party was not even curious about why she was able to come back to life.

Just as Kaiyang Xingjun saw, there was not much fluctuation in Yang Xianning's heart from beginning to end.

Because in her opinion, since the other person's broken arm was regenerated and granulation tissue grew out of thin air to heal himself, he can no longer be considered a human being.

It would not be surprising if the White Lotus Sect took any extraordinary or exaggerated actions.

"No matter whether you are a human or a ghost, I will just kill you once more."

"Ha ha ha ha……"

After hearing what Yang Xianning said, Kaiyang Xingjun held his stomach and laughed dryly twice, as if he had heard a huge joke.

"No matter how high a person's martial arts skills are, they are still just people at best... Do you really think that if you follow the man of destiny, you can become like him and make way for him in everything?"

Yang Xianning sensed something strange in Kaiyang Xingjun's words, frowned slightly and asked, "What do you mean?"

"As the name suggests, destiny, destiny... Ziwei Star falls, the stars are in the Big Dipper, and the way of heaven governs all life. You and I meet here, fighting with all our might, it's all destined by fate."

Unlike before, Yang Xianning did not interrupt him this time. Instead, she looked at the Kaiyang Star Lord calmly and asked, "Why did you stay here? Did you know we were coming?"

"if not?"

Kaiyang Xingjun grinned and said, "Could it be that our Holy Church would be so careless as to reveal our whereabouts and intentions to others?"

When Yang Xianning heard this, she felt panic for the first time.

But she was not panicked because the other party had made preparations in advance and had the advantage of time and place, but she was worried about the Da Qi official who followed Heizhong in advance.

Although this man's official position is not high, he is not a scum who is bad to the core because he is willing to take risks and go deep into the tomb to resolve the danger for the people of the capital of Da Qi.

Can the other party realize that the imperial mausoleum is also a trap deliberately set by the White Lotus Sect?
"General, don't lose your focus."

Kaiyang Star Lord looked at Yang Xianning, and the human eyes in his eyes blinked, and suddenly turned into beast-like apricot-yellow pupils.

He stared at the other person with his cold and terrifying vertical pupils and made a shrill and strange sound.

"If you don't handle it carefully, you could die at any time... This is a rare last fight, please let me live a little longer before I use my full strength."

As soon as he finished speaking, blood light flashed around Kaiyang Star Lord, and a terrifying and overwhelming pressure spread out from his body, directly blowing away the rubble on the open space.

Yang Xianning also felt the uniqueness of Kaiyang Star Lord and showed a solemn expression.

She didn't know what method Kaiyang Star Lord used, but she could vaguely feel that the true energy and power in his body were overflowing, and were completely different from before.

(End of this chapter)