Chapter 173 Mural "Then let's take Senior Brother with us."

Her pale face was streaked with tears. Facing the gazes of Jiang Yuhuo and Wen Yizhan, Xiaoyun reached out and touched her face, finding her hand wet.

She shook her head blankly, "I don't know."

She didn't know why she was crying, but her eyes were like leaky holes, with tears streaming down her face.

Why is this happening?

Jiang Yuhuo couldn't help but ask her if she knew these two people, but Xiaoyun just shook her head.

Seeing that she didn't seem to be lying, Jiang Yuhuo didn't ask any more questions. After all, Xiaoyun was a ghost in the Li family's ancestral tomb, and had at least a blood relationship with the Li family. Even if she couldn't remember anything, it was normal for her to feel sad for them.

Wen Yizhan injured both shoulders, and Jiang Yuhuo used a mermaid pearl to help him heal quickly. However, since his shoulders were pierced, it would probably take some time for the flesh inside to fully grow back and recover.

This was even with the Dingchun Sword drawing away most of its power. If those two bolts of purple lightning had struck Wen Yizhan, Jiang Yuhuo couldn't imagine what would have become of her senior brother. To be so ruthless even to her own son, coupled with the affair between Li Shichuan and Li Yanluo, made Jiang Yuhuo truly understand for the first time what Ji Qiuan had told her.

These people in the Li family are truly insane.

But why did Li Shichuan insist on capturing her?

"Senior brother?" Jiang Yuhu asked, but then saw Wen Yizhan supporting himself as he stood up.

Li Shichuan's body on the tomb wall had completely vanished. Wen Yizhan walked over, grasped the spirit sword stuck in the tomb wall, and pulled the sword out with force.

"Why didn't you let me come? The wound has reopened."

Jiang Yuhuo held his arm and helped him heal again, with a hint of reproach.

Wen Yizhan stood frozen in place, unresponsive. Realizing she might have spoken too harshly, Jiang Yuhuo explained, "I'm not blaming you. What I meant was, I can help you." Then, realizing her mistake, she added, "It's not that I think you can't pull it out, it's just that if I do it, your wound will..."

Before Jiang Yuhuo could finish explaining, she felt a weight on her shoulder as Wen Yizhan leaned half his body against her. "Junior Sister..."

This cry was like a heavy sigh...

Hearing her familiar reproach, Wen Yizhan almost felt a lump in her throat. How long had it been since she'd heard her speak to her like that? Their relationship was always like this, where they could scold each other without reservation, because they knew that no amount of scolding could drive this person away; they had such a long-standing friendship…

But on the night of the banquet, Li Mengbai said to him, "You are her senior brother, and you've known each other for seven years. But so what? I've known her for less than six months, and she's already willing to get engaged to me. She'll only spend the rest of her life with me. Brother, you don't know, falling in love doesn't take that long... She said she's only with me because of the arranged marriage? No, there are so many people she could marry, why did she choose me? She likes me. She didn't tell you, did she? In the cave beneath the Tianque Mountains, she carried me for seven days and seven nights. Seven days and seven nights, her spiritual power was completely depleted, but she never abandoned me for a moment..."

Wen Yizhan rested his head on her neck, just like that day in Luoyue City when Jiang Yuhuo chased him down from the mountain and asked, "Does your promise to protect your senior brother still stand?"

"Of course."

The answer was as expected, but it still comforted him.

He also wanted to ask, if one day he and Li Mengbai were to die at the same time, and she could only save one of them, who would she save?

In the end, Wen Yizhan just smiled and said, "Then take my senior brother with you."

There was only one path to the main tomb. The burial chamber they entered resembled a front hall, with many stone statues of Li ancestors carved on the walls. It was where the ancestors received offerings. Continuing forward, the path branched into two. Xiaoyun had been here before. She told them that the left passage led to a very grand burial chamber containing a coffin and many murals she couldn't understand, while the right passage led to a door that couldn't be opened.

Without much thought, the two knew they should first explore the tomb chamber. But there, they encountered an unexpected person.

The tomb was pitch black. Someone was holding an oil lamp, carefully examining the paintings on the walls. Hearing the noise, they turned around. The exquisite features inherited from the Li family were even more beautiful in the candlelight. Upon seeing them, they smiled warmly and politely. It was indeed Li Ziying.

Jiang Yuhuo hadn't seen Li Shichuan since Li Ziying called her away. She thought she had left, but she never expected that she had entered the main tomb with Li Shichuan.

If that's the case, then she must also know about what happened in the front hall.

But Li Ziying seemed neither surprised by their arrival nor curious about how they got in. Instead, she seemed to have made some incredible new discovery and warmly invited them to come and see for themselves.

“Look at the murals on the wall…”

Jiang Yuhuo looked at the first picture, which told the story of the severing of the connection between heaven and earth. It said that there were originally four pillars connecting heaven and earth, each guarded by one of the four gods: Yu, Jiao, Qilin, and Taotie. But one day, the four gods suddenly destroyed the pillars together. From then on, humans could no longer set foot in the divine realm of heaven and were forever confined to the earth with a limited lifespan.

This legend is not new; even now, with the worship of the Four Gods waning, it remains widely circulated. But she soon saw the second image, depicting a group of winged people. In a dense forest, beneath a collapsed pillar, now only half intact, lay the winged people's settlement. A man arrived there, and a sign beside him specifically noted his name—Li Yi. He brought the Cursed Seal Technique to the winged people. When he left, Li Yi took one winged person with him; the sign bore only one character—妧 (Yuan).

Because it was painted, although simple, you could still make out the appearance of the winged person, which looked very similar to the one Jiang Yuhuo saw in that hall.

Li Ziying's lamp continued moving to another wall. In the third mural, Wan landed on a barren plain, where a great fire ignited, creating fertile land. Li Yi then built a city there, named Yanling. Wan and Li Yi, dressed in red, held their wedding. More and more people entered the city, and Wan and Li Yi taught them magic. In the mural, Li Yi gradually aged, while Wan remained unchanged.

Jiang Yuhu frowned slightly. So the Li family also had Feathered Human blood? Then why did they have to deal with her?

The last painting depicts only one scene: Li Yi kneels before a burial mound, inside which is painted the image of Yuan. Unlike the previous paintings, the Yuan in the burial mound is wrapped in many red threads, which radiate outwards from her. It doesn't look like she's dead and buried there; rather, it looks like she's hanging in the burial mound.

Jiang Yuhuo looked at the red lines on the last painting, recalling the main hall and the blood lines summoned by Li Shichuan, and felt increasingly uneasy as she looked at it.

Jiang Yuhuo's hand was suddenly grabbed, and she turned her attention to the person beside her.

Wen Yizhan said, "Her body isn't here. Let's go outside."

By the light of Li Ziying's lamp, Jiang Yuhuo saw the stone coffin in the tomb chamber. The coffin was open, and inside were only a few pieces of clothing, which were even men's style.

Li Ziying followed behind, "Where are you two going? You don't mind if I come along, do you? I was brought in by the patriarch. They have important matters to discuss, so I came here on my own first. As for what happened afterward... I couldn't get involved. Now, I have no choice but to come with you. Since you were able to get in, you must have a way to get out, right?"

Jiang Yuhuo was skeptical of her words. As an elder of the Li family, did she really need to rely on them to get out? To be honest, Li Ziying was one of the more friendly members of the Li family to her, but when she thought of the red thread on the winged man in the portrait, she was wary of the Li family and replied, "We still need to find another tomb chamber. Please make yourselves at home, senior."

The two people and the ghost arrived at the end of another passageway, where they found a closed stone door.

There was a diamond-shaped indentation in the center of the stone door. Jiang Yuhu tried to push it with his spiritual power, but the door did not budge.

Xiaoyun had been walking very slowly since entering the passageway. When she saw Jiang Yuhuo's actions, she retreated three feet away and asked timidly, "Are you really going in? But the ghost inside hates being disturbed. She's scary when she's angry."

"Her?" Jiang Yuhuo asked, "Have you seen her?"

Xiaoyun shook her head, bit her thumb, and frowned, saying, "She can't get out, but she can cause mountains to collapse and some tombs to crumble."

Wen Yizhan watched her movements, her eyes flickering slightly; the movement seemed somewhat familiar…

But listening to Xiaoyun's story, it seemed increasingly unlikely. His mother was just an ordinary person; she could never have such great abilities.

He turned to Jiang Yuhuo, "Junior sister, my mother isn't here, it couldn't be her inside. We'd better get out as soon as possible."

Jiang Yuhuo agreed, but then another voice interrupted, "Ah, so this is the tomb you want to enter. The person you're looking for isn't inside."

The two turned around and saw that it was indeed Li Ziying.

Jiang Yuhuo asked, "Who's in there?"

Li Ziying smiled, "Didn't I just show you? The winged person in the mural." She said to Jiang Yuhuo, "Don't you want to go in and see her?"

Jiang Yuhuo looked warily at the person who had followed them again. "Why should I believe you? How can you take a drawing as real?"

Li Ziying was not angered by her attitude and smiled indifferently, "Believe it or not, this is my first time here too, and no one has ever seen what's inside. However, the story of the marriage between Li's ancestor Yi and Yu Renyuan has been passed down from generation to generation. Except for the lack of record of her burial place, everything else is the same as described in the murals. The Li family knows all these things. If you don't believe me, you can ask Zhan'er."

Although Wen Yizhan felt that this place was not suitable for lingering, he did not want to deceive Jiang Yuhuo, so he nodded and said, "That is indeed the case."

Jiang Yuhuo turned to Li Ziying again, "So you mean, the burial mound in the last mural is this one?"

"To be precise, it's this mountain."

Jiang Yuhuo felt a chill run down her spine. An entire mountain—was it a burial or a prison?

Li Ziying seemed quite satisfied with her reaction. "What I can tell you is that the token that opened the door was the Li family's patriarch's token." She pointed to a diamond-shaped indentation on the door. "That's it."

"How about it, do you want to go in and take a look?"

Jiang Yuhuo still showed no intention of going in. She looked Li Ziying up and down and asked, "Senior, could you please tell me why you want to go in?"

Li Ziying smiled helplessly, "As a descendant, it's not hard to understand why you want to go in and pay your respects to your ancestor. You may not know that the lifespan of the Feathered People is over a thousand years. If our ancestor Yuan hadn't died, she might still be alive now." She glanced at Xiaoyun, "Judging from what this female ghost said, it seems that she often makes noises in the ancestral tomb."

Understood.

Jiang Yuhuo was certain that her purpose was not simply to pay her respects to the deceased; she knew far too much, it was as if she had come here specifically for this purpose.

“Li Shichuan is dead. If you wish to go in, why not retrieve the patriarch's token yourself? His belongings are in the front hall. If he has always carried the patriarch's token with him, you should be able to find it.”

Upon hearing this, Li Ziying burst into laughter, "If I could get it, I would have done so long ago."

She looked at Jiang Yuhuo, her eyes crinkling with a smile.

"You seem unaware that the patriarch has ordered that Shichuan has been handed over to Zhan'er."