With a loud bang, the tombstone turned into a door, leaving them with a long, dark passage.
Neither the master nor the apprentice rushed to check the situation; instead, they each stuffed things into each other's arms.
Hua Xiangyun essentially cleared out all the talismans she had drawn during this period, splitting them in half with her master.
Wu Chenxi didn't want his only disciple to get hurt, so he armed Hua Xiangyun from head to toe and gave her detailed instructions before going to check. Only after confirming that there was no poison gas inside did he pick up a flashlight and begin to step into the ancient tomb.
The narrow passageway was built of stone, and it smelled of decay, along with a touch of coolness.
They walked with extreme caution, and after about twenty meters, Wu Chenxi stopped.
Press down on a protrusion in the corner of the wall, and you'll see a light turn on every ten meters along the narrow passage.
Neither Hua Xiangyun nor Wu Chenxi were too surprised. They used the wisdom of the ancients to cleverly design the lighting using mechanisms.
With these lights on, Wu Chenxi didn't put away her flashlight, but instead observed the road ahead even more carefully.
Following the direction of the ever-burning lamp, the two arrived at a corner, which was clearly the entrance to an inner tomb, where a stone door blocked their way.
“If you come across this kind of tomb, and it hasn’t been disturbed, you can usually find the mechanism,” Wu Chenxi told Hua Xiangyun to look for it herself. “They have no pattern to them and often appear in unexpected places.”
Hua Xiangyun had never been to a tomb, but she had heard Master Jiang talk about it a lot. Many people in the Xuanmen sect went to these ancient tombs to seek opportunities.
It is important to know that in ancient times, people of some status and position would seek out Taoist masters to design and arrange their tombs, which would leave behind many traces.
Some lucky ones even find the tombs of Xuanmen masters, and even the smallest gains are enough to make others envious.
Hua Xiangyun was quite lucky. Just as she was about to start her search from the stone gate, she stepped on a protrusion. "Master, I think I stepped on something by accident."
Wu Chenxi, “…” This is really unbelievable, she wasn’t even ready yet.
The stone gate opened with a loud bang, followed by a pungent musty smell. The master and apprentice quickly retreated from the tomb entrance.
After waiting for another half hour, the two finally re-entered the tomb.
Upon entering the second stone gate, they were greeted not by a narrow passage, but by a hall with a side chamber on each side. Since no one had entered before, the burial goods in the two side chambers were still neatly arranged.
The left ear chamber contained grains, but they had all decomposed. It's possible that the chamber was well-sealed, and there were also rice husks scattered on the ground.
The right ear chamber contains a number of vessels, mostly ceramic.
The two side chambers ahead were empty, with only a layer of ash on the floor, which must have been the traces left by something decaying.
The stone wall blocking their way was not a mechanical gate this time, but a barrier made of real bricks and stones.
Hua Xiangyun picked out an explosive talisman from all the talismans. "Master, shall we use this one?"
Wu Chenxi took it and confiscated it immediately, saying, "We should be careful with this, after all, we still have two lives to live here."
Although they may not be as potent as some other drugs, don't forget that they are now in a tomb, and if things go wrong, they could end up as funerary offerings.
He pulled out a shovel and pointed to a loose corner of bricks nearby, saying, "Let's clear out one corner first."
Hua Xiangyun took the shovel and started working, while Wu Chenxi was not idle either, using an iron rod to pry the stones.
The sounds of the master and apprentice prying and hammering echoed in the tomb, making it even more eerie.
But the two seemed unaffected, their movements were perfectly coordinated, and they quickly cleared a passage for Rong Yi to pass through.
Both of them knew that things would not be as smooth as they were now, and they were both on high alert.
As soon as Hua Xiangyun entered through the passage, her vision blurred, and she was back in her own era.
She will never forget seeing these classmates surrounding her.
"Hua Xiangyun, I heard you were raised by a Taoist priest in a Taoist temple?" Several classmates were surrounding her in the classroom, and Wang Yajuan, who was leading the group, asked the question with malice.
"So, are you going to become a Taoist nun in the future?" Du Yuehe covered her mouth and laughed. "Then what should we call you?"
"After this, are we supposed to introduce her to other people? This is my classmate Hua Xiangyun; she's currently a Taoist priest at a temple."
"Then let's just start calling you Master Hua now, so we don't have to get used to it later."
A barrage of mocking laughter descended, and Hua Xiangyun was surrounded, her brows furrowed.
"I heard that your master took you back from the orphanage. Is it because no one liked you that he adopted you?"
My grandma told me that Taoist priests don't have very good lives. Did your master ever tell your fortune?
"I heard your master is also a lonely man. Will you be like that in the future?"
Hua Xiangyun felt a surge of anger rising within her. She thought it was one thing to say that she was doing it herself, but why did she have to bring her master along?
Besides, it's true that she's an orphan and a young Taoist priest, but what does that have to do with them?
"Look at her eyes staring at us. Is she angry because we hit the nail on the head?" Du Yuehe pretended to be scared and quietly backed away. "We have to stay away from her. If we get beaten up, we won't even have anyone to ask for compensation."
Her master, that poor Taoist priest, I heard he only came to pay his tuition days after the semester started.
Wang Yajuan said, "We should stay away. My mother told me that these Taoist priests can draw talismans. If they perform rituals on us and bring us bad luck, it would be a loss for them."
He then laughed, "But if it were really that powerful, they wouldn't be so poor; someone would have already spent money to buy it."
“My dad said it’s all a lie.” The boys who had gathered around joined in, “My grandma was scammed before, it can’t be such a coincidence, could it be her mentor?”
Hua Xiangyun: "That's enough, you're all like gossipy old women, talking about other people's shortcomings here."
I am an orphan, that's true, but have we ever eaten a single grain of rice or drunk a drop of water from your family?
Why are these unrelated people pointing fingers at others?
Although I am an orphan, I have a master to teach me.
He told me that speaking ill of others is an act of extreme arrogance and haughtiness.
"What do you mean by that?" Wang Yajuan and the others understood, but instead of feeling ashamed, they felt insulted.
Hua Xiangyun was just an orphan, and they were giving her a lot of face when they spoke to her, but they didn't expect her to have the guts to refute them.
"The literal meaning is: 'Reflect on your own faults in quiet contemplation, and refrain from gossiping about others in idle conversation,' understand?"
Hua Xiangyun's attitude completely angered them, and Du Yuehe pushed her directly, saying, "Just because your grades are a little better than ours, you act like you're so capable here."
What? Don't think that just because you have a teacher protecting you, we won't dare to do anything to you.
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