Chapter 95: The Sword Cultivator’s Tomb

The ferocious streak of blood light crashed into the shimmering barrier in the blink of an eye, only to vanish into it as though a stone had been cast into the sea. Ripples spread across the surface and slowly faded.

Jiang Yuanyi looked at the barrier before him. As it dissolved, relief surged through him, the kind that follows narrowly escaping death. His back was already slick with cold sweat from that dreadful blood glow rushing at him.

Someone had saved him.

Who?

Before he could think further, the wooden door of the house ahead creaked open. A tall, gaunt man in gray stepped out with his hands clasped behind his back. He looked middle-aged, his gray-white hair tied into a Daoist topknot, his eyes an eerie dark red.

Seeing that Jiang Yuanyi showed no panic and sensing no other presence nearby, the tall man assumed the barrier had been Jiang Yuanyi’s own defense. He sneered coldly. “Some skill. But that is all.”

“You brought so much fresh blood food to me, brat. I’ll gladly accept it.”

As he spoke, he drew a black round bowl from his sleeve. A flash of blood light flared at the rim, and from within surged a monstrous blood-red toad as tall as a man.

“Croak!”

The blood toad cried out excitedly, opening its mouth to lash out a long, supple tongue. A nauseating stench of blood and decay spread through the air as the tongue shot toward Jiang Yuanyi, the nearest target, like a bolt of lightning.

At once, Jiang Yuanyi understood. The massacre in Dragon Gate Stockade had been for the sake of nourishing this vile cultivator.

“Fall back!”

He had only enough time to roar the words with his spiritual power into all the soldiers’ ears before raising his saber and trying to cleave the toad’s tongue.

But the toad’s hunting speed was terrifyingly fast.

Though Jiang Yuanyi was a cultivator, his cultivation was shallow; he could barely make out the tongue at all, only a blur of afterimage.

Whoosh!

In that instant, as if a streak of white light had flashed by, the tongue was severed at once. At the break, fierce flames erupted, burning it to ash in a breath.

At the same time, both the giant toad and the evil cultivator stiffened. Then two torrents of fire rose violently and engulfed them both.

It all happened in the time it took a spark to fly from flint.

Jiang Yuanyi immediately understood that someone was aiding him from the shadows.

His brows pressed downward as he searched with grave suspicion, but he could not guess who it was. In the end, he could only clasp his hands toward the empty air in thanks. “Many thanks, Pre—”

Before he could finish, a gray shadow suddenly burst from the flames devouring the evil cultivator and fled into the distance.

Yet before it had gone even three meters, it let out a shriek of tearing agony and was slowly swallowed by a dark, swirling vortex.

Jiang Yuanyi was stunned by the cultivation of the one who had saved him and was just about to express his gratitude again when a strand of spiritual transmission entered his ears.

“Big Brother, I am your second sister, the one who left home ten years ago. There are too many eyes here, so I cannot show myself. After you clear away the aftermath here, I have my own way of coming to find you.”

…

After transmitting her message to Jiang Yuanyi, Jiang Min immediately turned and sped toward a place not far from Dragon Gate Stockade known as Tiger-Slaying Ridge.

The moment she arrived at Dragon Gate Stockade, she saw the scene of an evil cultivator trying to kill her elder brother. She had acted at once, blocking the fatal strike for Jiang Yuanyi, then killing the cultivator and the giant toad, and helping him resolve this disaster.

She had thought the matter finished, never expecting the evil cultivator’s soul to still remain, trying to escape. So she simply devoured that soul whole, leaving it utterly scattered, with both spirit and essence extinguished.

It had been only a casual act.

Yet from the evil cultivator’s memories, Jiang Min learned why he had appeared here in the first place: some days ago, at Tiger-Slaying Ridge near Dragon Gate Stockade, an ancient tomb had emerged into the world.

And the owner of that tomb was not only a cultivator at the perfected Foundation Establishment stage, but also a sword cultivator.

The appearance of a sword cultivator’s tomb naturally drew many nearby cultivators, including this Qi Refining cultivator at the tenth layer. He had followed the crowds of looters and stripped the tomb bare. Afterward, he had stayed temporarily in nearby Dragon Gate Stockade and offered the stockade chief some benefits, asking him to gather blood food for his blood toad. That was how the massacre in Dragon Gate Stockade came about.

The evil cultivator had originally planned to leave after a few days, but unexpectedly ran into the campaign to wipe out bandits. He was not afraid, intending only to let the blood toad eat its fill once more before departing quickly, so as not to be settled with by the Immortal Envoy Office. He never expected to run into Jiang Min, who had come searching for relatives…

“This sword cultivator’s tomb has certainly already been plundered clean, but what if something worthwhile is still left behind? I might as well take a look.”

Since it was nearby, she might as well go on the way.

In less than the time it takes to burn half a stick of incense, Jiang Min reached Tiger-Slaying Ridge from the evil cultivator’s memories and found the tomb.

Although the tomb had been exposed to the world for some time already, cultivators continued to arrive in waves, unwilling to give up the chance that some benefit might remain.

At the tomb entrance, the restriction had been broken. Cultivators came and went in a steady stream, almost all of them Qi Refining cultivators. After all, a tomb that had been searched several times already held little appeal for Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Jiang Min did not expect much either.

She only thought that since she was here, there was no harm in looking.

Still under concealment, she followed several Qi Refining cultivators into the underground tomb without anyone noticing.

The tomb’s style was archaic, with many furnishings and arrangements unlike those of the present era. Jiang Min looked around and thought, This tomb must be at least five thousand years old.

Then she heard several Qi Refining cultivators ahead speaking among themselves.

“I heard that yesterday someone found a secret chamber in the tomb. The stone walls inside were carved with all kinds of strange verses, but no one could make sense of them. I’ve come specifically to see what on earth was written there.”

Jiang Min’s interest was immediately piqued, and her brows lifted.

“Verses left by an ancient sword cultivator?”

She saw that many of the cultivators entering the tomb were heading in one direction, likely all drawn by those carved lines.

She followed them into a spacious stone chamber.

Sure enough, the stone wall was covered with dense rows of tiny characters. More than ten cultivators stood below, racking their brains in frustration without understanding a thing.

Hidden among the crowd, Jiang Min raised her eyes to the wall and prepared to read from the first line. Yet when she saw the first four ancient characters at the top, she actually froze.

“Seven Treasures of Immortal Cuisine?”

A faint expression of surprise appeared on her face.

Then she continued reading, a little incredulously.

“Have you not seen the jade nectar and mysterious essence brewed for ninety-nine days in a spirit spring, enough to make even gods and immortals drunk?
Have you not seen the divine mushrooms and celestial herbs spring forth with the season, their forms like azure dragons and their true flavor revealed?
Golden crows must be roasted with the fire of life; I would shoot down the sun and take a bite.
Steam the spirit grain until it turns golden, then mix in fragrant powder and soak it in meat juices…”

She was still reading the poem when a cultivator suddenly cursed aloud. “What is this supposed to be? I thought it was some kind of cultivation scripture, but it turns out to be nothing more than a recipe. Staying here is a total waste of time!”

The cultivator looked displeased, swept his sleeve, and left.

Others, after failing to comprehend it, could only sigh and depart as well.

The remaining cultivators continued their contemplation, still clinging to a thread of hope that some hidden meaning might yet be uncovered. After all, there had been many ancient texts layered with hidden language and riddles, requiring deep understanding and painstaking unraveling before their true intent could be grasped.

As Jiang Min read on, she gradually felt that this poem carried a strange sense of familiarity.

This poem seems to be secretly discussing the principles of the five elements and yin-yang.

If interpreted along those lines, the dao contained within it is a little like the one I obtained from Feng Qiuer… Seven Starlit Wonders.