Chapter 148

Words fall silent.

Like a stone smashing into the lake surface, a “bang” sound, then quickly sinks to the bottom.

Ripples sway, then return to calm.

But in an instant, the wind rises again.

The wind that blew over hundreds of years ago once again ignites the fire that has never extinguished for hundreds of years.

The lake bottom that was without waves sees magma surge, light flames flow, causing the entire lake to boil up.

In the palace, everyone faces Li Zhuiyuan and the statue behind him, bowing collectively in salute.

The old Tianmen four families, each family has its own ritual, but at this moment, they are extraordinarily consistent and neat.

The Liu family old lady once said to Li Zhuiyuan: The era is different now, we don’t promote that old ritual anymore.

But the ritual is still that ritual, it’s just in this era, how many people still truly recognize it.

In the palace, the old Tianmen four families’ ancestors almost simultaneously finish returning the salute, then collectively bow in worship again.

Li Zhuiyuan subconsciously turns back to look at the statue behind him, the statue belonging to Qin Kan.

They are still worshipping you.

“Crack……”

The statue cracks, from the forehead, from the arms, from the chest, like a spider web densely covering it.

It cracks so suddenly, without any sign.

In just a few blinks, the statue, which was originally dilapidated yet also possessed a graceful and majestic quality, just shatters to the ground like this.

Li Zhuiyuan stares blankly at the ground. This statue seems to be telling him in this way:

No, they are actually worshipping you.

At the same time, as if to respond to this non-existent sentence.

In the palace, everyone continues to maintain the worship posture and shouts in unison:

“We obey the Dragon King’s order!”

Subsequently, in the palace, everyone lightly shakes their sleeve cuffs, a short section of bamboo pole slides down to their hand, then they smoothly lift it, and the bamboo pole extends out.

They are corpse drivers, the bamboo pole is both their identity certification and their lifelong accompanying close friend.

Many people’s bamboo poles have dense, crisscrossing cracks from repair traces.

Each person clamps the bamboo pole under their armpit.

They are very heavy, the vast curse force on their bodies compresses and binds their range of movement.

So, they begin to march with the method they are most skilled in, corpse driving, only this time they are driving themselves.

The front and back ends are clearly not being lifted by anyone, but the bamboo pole stands very stably. They just walk out one by one like this.

The four people walking in front are each wearing a different set of clothes, representing the old Tianmen four families.

They stand side by side, and the four people each pat their hands forward. The four pairs of bamboo poles stab into each other, forming a thick pair.

Although Li Zhuiyuan is not yet blind now, his line of sight is already a deep red. However, his ears can clearly hear their actions.

Four people, two in front and two in back, they are in front of him,

Squatting down,

Putting the poles on their shoulders.

“Please, Qin family Dragon King, ascend the sedan!”

Hundreds of years ago, they also treated Qin Kan in this manner.

They do not feel that lifting a sedan for someone is a kind of superior-subordinate inequality. They just clearly know that as a Dragon King who has successfully walked the river, there was originally no need to forcibly get involved in this matter.

But the Dragon King came, and is willing to lead them to fight to protect their hometown and be exempt from evil spirits’ torment.

People come with righteousness, I naturally treat them with ritual.

Li Zhuiyuan reaches out his hand, gropes, grabs the bamboo pole, and then sits up.

The four people rise, and the young man’s figure is lifted up.

The team begins to march.

Outside, everyone closes their eyes and lowers their heads.

Such a huge curse force team setting out, the pressure it brings is also extremely terrifying.

There is one exception, and that is Xie Shunan.

Those who cannot be directly looked at have all been invited out by Li Zhuiyuan.

He knows his plan has completely gone bankrupt.

But at this moment, he is unexpectedly contrary to the previous anger and hysteria, instead only continuously astonishingly murmuring:

“Why is the Qin family Dragon King’s contemporary only successor surnamed Li?”

Actually, earlier at the edge of the giant pit, when Li Zhuiyuan swore a warning to the white crane child, he just shouted out his own name.

Lihua heard it, and it is impossible for Xie Shunan, with his extremely good hearing, not to have heard it.

He also wondered why the young man called himself the two families’ Dragon King successor, but his main attention was still on the Qin family.

However, “Qin family contemporary successor” and “Qin family contemporary only successor” are completely different concepts.

It is not strange for a Dragon King family to have successors with outer surnames.

For example, Xiong Shan and Lihua, a couple, both dream of sending their son to the Dragon King family for fostering. This is following the fate relationship route and does not require changing the surname.

Or, there are outstanding talents who come to join or are taken in and nurtured. In this situation, they also do not need to change their surname.

In every big family, the existence of people with outer surnames will not be few.

But if the contemporary Qin family’s only successor is not surnamed Qin, then there is only one possibility.

That is, the Qin family’s population has already thinned to a very terrible level.

But the Qin family is a big clan, so… did the Qin family really almost all die out?

The fact is indeed so. Before Li Zhuiyuan entered the door, the proper Qin family people in red splendid clothes for sacrifices were only Qin Shu and A Li.

Qin Shu is a house-born child, which in old times referred to servants born in the main family. Although granted the surname Qin, he is not of Qin family bloodline.

However, the old lady personally raised and cultivated Qin Shu, which was a treatment even the previous direct lineage children could not enjoy. So the relationship between the two people seems master-servant, but is actually mother-son.

Furthermore, Qin Shu walked the river and failed, he is a person of the previous generation.

As for A Li, although she is of Qin family bloodline, due to illness, she has not entered the door. The filthy things were already harassing her before entering the door, and after truly entering the door, those things will only become more crazy.

Therefore, after Li Zhuiyuan entered the door, he is the contemporary only successor of the Qin family, and it is the same in the Liu family.

When Li Zhuiyuan is carried past Xie Shunan, Xie Shunan breathes rapidly and softly shouts:

“Qin family people… Qin family people… did the Qin family really… really die… really all gone?”

Li Zhuiyuan still does not respond to him.

But at this time, no response is also a kind of default.

Xie Shunan’s face shows joy, and he unexpectedly laughs out loud.

“Hehe… hahaha.”

Only, this time’s laughter is without the previous ferocity.

In his mind, various past events emerge:

He at his grandma’s knee, listening to grandma tell the story of the initial ancestors and the Qin family Dragon King suppressing the general together, telling about what kind of family the Qin family is, how many generations of Dragon Kings have fought to defend the righteous path in the world.

Those nights one by one, he hugged the Qin family Dragon King’s memorial tablet, crying and begging, offering sacrifices.

Originally, it wasn’t that the Qin family deliberately didn’t come, but that the Qin family people have already all died out… ha, that’s good.

The majestic image he admired and looked up to from a young age has not collapsed, which makes Xie Shunan feel joyful.

At the same time, it also makes him feel puzzled.

“Qin family people… Qin family people… exactly why… why did they die?”

Li Zhuiyuan has already gone far, and the team of those who cannot be directly looked at has also already left here.

“Tell me… tell me… why did the Qin family people die… why did they die?”

Tan Wenbin reaches out, grabs Xie Shunan’s hair and pulls him back, then lowers his head, facing Xie Shunan’s face and retorts:

“Why do you think they died?”

Xie Shunan’s body begins to tremble. When the Qin family’s image in his heart is restored, the reason is actually already very easy to guess.

Such a deeply rooted big family, if they wanted to avoid disaster and calamity, they really have too many methods. Even if they simply avoid the world for a hundred years, they would still not be underestimated after a hundred years.

Therefore, the cause that can lead to this phenomenon can only be the Qin family people’s initiative.

The too obvious similar contrast suddenly falls on the Qin family and the Xie family.

The Qin family successors are still protecting the common people and defending the righteous path, while he himself yet…

“How could it be like this, why is it like this?”

Xie Shunan begins to keep murmuring to himself.

Tan Wenbin sighs. If it were other people, he would think this guy is performing out of fear of failure and death, but this guy himself is an extreme madman, perhaps at this moment he is truly expressing genuine emotions.

“You all go follow Xiao Yuan bro, remember not to follow too closely, be careful of your own line of sight. I’ll go handle some matters first, afraid I won’t have time later.

Right, take this guy along and let him keep watching.”

After simply instructing his teammates, Tan Wenbin runs towards another direction.

After running out of the palace, he comes to the northwest corner of a concave ground. Although this area is not small, it is very difficult to discover.

At this time, the great eunuch is standing there.

“Xiao Binnzi, it’s hard for you. Things have come to this, and you still remember us.”

“Dad, what words are you saying?”

“We have some things we haven’t figured out, and some things we don’t understand clearly, but we can see clearly that your matter has succeeded.

After success, you still didn’t treat us like a used rag and casually throw us away, you still remembered the promise and ran here.

Your ‘dad’, we now only truly dare to accept.

Didn’t expect, ah, in our lives we had a group of godchildren, but the truly nostalgic godchild is one we received after so many years of death.”

“Is that direction, Dad?”

“Yes, just dig down.”

“Okay, you watch carefully.”

Tan Wenbin draws out the Yellow River shovel from his bag, unfolds it, and begins to dig. Not long after, he digs out a coffin.

“Dad, I’ll just violently open the coffin, okay?”

“My people are standing in front of you, are you still afraid of disturbing me?”

“Hehe.”

Tan Wenbin pries open the coffin, and inside lies a skeleton.

They were all required to be buried with the dead, so it was naturally impossible to specially preserve them. To have a coffin here is already a super standard treatment.

Underground nearby, there are also who knows how many servant girls and eunuchs buried. Many white bones of hands and feet still protrude from the ground. Earlier when walking over, he had to be careful not to step on them.

“Pah, cannibalistic old society!”

“I don’t understand this word, but it sounds quite refreshing.”

Tan Wenbin takes out a bag from his bag and begins to collect the remains. Some bones are a bit big, so for convenient placement, he still takes the shovel and knocks a few times.

After packing up, Tan Wenbin doubtfully continues to rummage in the coffin.

“Eh?”

The great eunuch reminds: “I already told you, the gold and silver jewelry is in the coffin interlayer, you smash it.”

“No, Dad, isn’t your treasure here?”

“Are you looking for my treasure?”

“Yes, ah, I heard that when you were buried, you would be buried with your treasure, or it would be sewn back on, isn’t that right?”

“This is indeed the case. My treasure was originally deposited with the master who bathed me, in his family’s place. Every year I had to send people to give him a portion of ritual money, letting him carefully preserve it for me, and wait until I was old and left the mansion before going back to retrieve it.

Pity, I was buried with the dead too hastily. My treasure was deposited at the master’s home in Luoyang. The General’s mansion is far from Luoyang, simply not enough time to wait for the treasure to come back.”

“Oh, so that’s it. Then okay, after I go out, I’ll use gold to make a treasure for you and put it into the remains, buried together.”

“Well, gold seems a bit soft.”

“It’s my negligence, Dad, you rest assured. I’ll find a good steel material, then find a mold factory and ask the most experienced master inside to help me make one using the machine tool.”

“I don’t understand these words, but it seems very capable?”

“Guaranteed to be hard and strong for the next few hundred years!”

“Good!”

Tan Wenbin begins to smash the coffin, and the gold and silver jewelry rolls out. The quantity is not too exaggerated, but combined with the current purchasing power, it is already very good, enough to repair several roads in the countryside.

After collecting these, Tan Wenbin picks up the shovel again, somewhat awkwardly looking at the great eunuch.

The great eunuch smilingly asks: “What’s wrong, do you still have matters?”

“Well, Dad, I still need to dig up Xiao Wanggonggong’s as well.” Without Xiao Wanggonggong’s leading introduction, let alone knowing this great eunuch, I’m afraid I wouldn’t even be able to get around the palace’s prohibitions and mechanisms.

Only, letting the great eunuch know that I actually have the same treatment as that Xiao Wanggonggong, his heart is probably not happy.

But now, it actually doesn on’t matter.

Wait until Xiao Yuan bro solves that curse force, the general dies, and everything here will also turn to dust and earth.

“He’s over there,” the great eunuch points.

“Ai, I know, he told me.”

Tan Wenbin picks up the shovel and digs. Although Xiao Wanggonggong has no coffin, he is buried quite deep. This can also be considered the top standard treatment besides having a coffin.

When digging, I also found the identity jade pendant that Xiao Wanggonggong told me about. Tan Wenbin begins to collect his remains.

The great eunuch is not only not angry, instead, he lets out a sigh: “Pity, Xiao Binnzi, we are already dead. If we could have met you in life, we would have been willing to pave the way for you even if we risked everything, ah.”

“Hehe.”

No one wrong one first one issue one content one in one look!

“You boy, you were born to be a great eunuch!”

Tan Wenbin: “……”

“You also feel it’s a pity, right? In our great Han, being a eunuch was still very imposing.”

……

The long team continuously marches forward.

The illusory world sand has no influence on them or on Li Zhuiyuan.

The team just comes to the stone gate exit like this.

Next, they can only go in one by one.

Li Zhuiyuan is still being carried. He clearly knows that he is actually not worthy of sitting in this position.

This group of people, like a too clean mirror, reflects his own gray background.

Before he opens his mouth to speak to them, his heart actually already predicted the result. They will definitely agree, absolutely no accident.

And this is also the reason the young man felt pain earlier.

Here, there are no precise calculations, no control, no interest exchanges… only the purest chivalry.

Having just barely learned to conduct basic emotional communication with the small group around him, suddenly facing such a scene is no less than suffering torture.

Fortunately, he persevered.

He thought clearly about one thing, and that is that they actually do not care whether his heart has benevolence, care, or sympathy.

They don’t even mind his real purpose.

They only care whether his behavior is protecting the common people and defending the righteous path.

His illness is impossible to recover in one go, but his thoughts and direction can be adjusted.

The two families’ Dragon King inheritance is an honor that can give him identity and status, but at the same time, it is also an inescapable responsibility.

And while he was indulging in the battle of wits with the river water, it seems he can also spare a little bit of his mind to look more at the scenery in this river.

He once complained that Wei Zhengdao did not leave any medical records or prescriptions.

But now, Li Zhuiyuan vaguely has a feeling that Wei Zhengdao seems to have left something.

In his book, the phrase “destroyed by the righteous path” might not be merely to hide his own private matters and cover it with political correctness, nor simply ridicule and sarcasm.

As his fellow patient, Wei Zhengdao possibly also experienced similar things.

People like them need a self-logic that is self-consistent. Once a conflict occurs, they will feel pain.

Even if the heart does not have enough emotions, as long as your behavior conforms to the logic of the righteous path, then there is no need to torment yourself.

Li Zhuiyuan lifts his right hand and places it in front of him. He can only see a blurred shadow now:

“Wei Zhengdao……”

The next moment, Li Zhuiyuan slides down from the bamboo pole. He walks to the stone gate, stands at the edge facing the crowd in front, opens his mouth and says:

“For the righteous path, for the common people, please everyone… walk slowly.”

The first person steps forward. When passing in front of Li Zhuiyuan, he pauses slightly and shouts: “Thank you, Dragon King, for seeing us off!”

Subsequently, he steps into the stone gate. The Dragon Eye lock gate array has already been opened by Li Zhuiyuan.

After he goes in, outside the stone gate, the sky is immediately filled with firelight, and black fog spreads, but it is quickly burned by the fierce flames. Inside, there seems to be a dragon’s roar.

After the flames outside the stone gate extinguish, the second person steps forward: “Thank you, Dragon King, for seeing us off!”

He goes in, and the flames rise again.

Under a pair of majestic dragon eyes, this surge of curse force is directly refined.

The third, fourth, fifth…

Each time the big fire outside the stone gate extinguishes, it heralds the next person entering.

In response to one voice after another saying “Thank you, Dragon King, for seeing us off,” they step into it one by one.

Hundreds of years ago, a Qin family Dragon King arrived and helped them suppress the evil spirits. Hundreds of years later, another Qin family successor appears and leads them to eliminate the heavenly disaster.

That one brought them in, this one brings them out.

Not far away, Runsheng, Xiong Shan, and others stand there, along with the specially brought Xie Shunan.

At this time, Xie Shunan presses his forehead to the ground, silent.

The number of people on the stone gate side becomes fewer and fewer.

The momentum of the flames over there also shows an increasingly weak trend.

But fortunately, when the last person goes in, the flames still burn it and the curse force it carries to ashes.

After stopping for a while, a burst of collapse and falling sounds comes from outside the stone gate.

The array is sometimes like a machine. When continuously turning, it can barely maintain itself by inertia, but once it truly stops, then there are problems everywhere.

This array, personally arranged by Qin Kan and then repaired by Li Zhuiyuan, finally completes its mission.

Li Zhuiyuan turns around, faces outside the stone gate, bows once, and softly says:

“Thank you all.”

After rising, his body sways, almost unable to stand steady.

Without the ones that cannot be directly looked at, everyone can breathe a sigh of relief.

Runsheng runs forward, squats down, and reaches out in front of Xiao Yuan, waving.

“Runsheng bro, I’m not completely blind yet.”

“These eyes are all red.”

“It’s okay, it will be fine after a while of rest, no problem.”

Runsheng turns around, carries the young man on his back, letting him rest well.

Xiong Shan walks over at this time and says: “Dragon… Li……”

Li Zhuiyuan, lying on Runsheng’s back with his eyes closed, says directly: “Speak your matters.”

Xiong Shan: “It’s like this. Before I came down here, I left two straw men puppets at the lake edge. Now there’s a reaction. People, many people, people who can cause a spiritual awareness reaction, have come to the lake edge, just above us.”

Li Zhuiyuan: “The people of the three families have come.”

I rushed as fast as possible, strongly advancing the progress, also worried that the people of those three families would come and cause damage to the situation here.

But now, the matter is already resolved.

Xiong Shan opens his mouth: “I’m preparing to go up with my wife to find them for revenge for old second and old third. As for the child, first……”

Li Zhuiyuan clearly knows that since this couple learned of his identity, they have been thinking of going to seek death, so they want to entrust the child to him.

Their parenting scripture, from beginning to end, maintains absolute extremity.

There are many people above, it should be all three families.

Many ants can also bite an elephant to death. Old second and old third were probably also surrounded and captured. Plus their current state is not good. Going up now, they can kill some people, but they themselves will definitely die.

Li Zhuiyuan: “I promised you all, if you all have any accident, I will send your son to a good condition orphanage and donate some money.”

Xiong Shan: “……”

Pear Flower, who was just preparing to cooperate with her husband to show being angered to lose reason, only feels her brain numb, and involuntarily says: “Great kindness and great virtue, next life… what?”

“A You.”

“Here!”

“Carry Xie Shunan,” Li Zhuiyuan changes his posture, clinging to Runsheng’s back, “Go to that giant pit.”

The crowd returns to the edge of the giant pit.

The coffin lid is still open, and the corpse driving Taoist is still maintaining a standing posture.

Tan Wenbin also runs back at this moment, carrying three bags in his hand, two large and one small.

Lin Shuyou throws Xie Shunan to the side, comes over and asks: “Bin bro, what are you carrying?”

Tan Wenbin: “Carrying relatives.”

Lin Shuyou: “Bin bro, your family is really powerful, you have relatives here too, direct line?”

Xie Shunan at this moment, as if drained of all vitality, just kneels there dully and woodenly.

Li Zhuiyuan: “Untie him.”

Lin Shuyou is just kicked back by Tan Wenbin.

After climbing up, he immediately goes to untie Xie Shunan.

At this time, a pair of bamboo poles is thrown in front of Xie Shunan.

Xie Shunan follows the sound, touches the pair of bamboo poles, and asks puzzledly: “What do you mean by this?”

“I promised the general, to let him be majestic one last time before dissipating.

I promised your ancestor, to let him personally teach you how to get revenge when bullied by other families.

They don’t have much strength left and will dissipate at any time, but it’s still more than enough to deal with the group above.”

After all, a family that has lost righteousness and responsibility, even if inherited to now, is already a group of rats.

Xie Shunan stands up, a pair of hands, the bamboo pole extends out, stretching downwards.

The corpse driving Taoist actively reaches out, takes the bamboo pole, and his figure comes to the edge of the pit in the air.

Runsheng and others see the situation and involuntarily retreat several steps, showing a solemn expression.

They have experienced how terrifying the corpse driving Taoist was before. Facing it, a slight carelessness will result in their body exploding.

What’s more, at this time, the Xie family ancestor who had originally imposed the seal also released the restriction on the general, allowing the general to regain control of this body.

But it’s only for the last bit of time, and the decay aura of its body is already very dense.

Actually, the general should have dissipated long ago. Before, the Xie family ancestor was holding on hard.

Li Zhuiyuan weakly opens his mouth:

“The three families above, Xie, Wang, and Bu, intend to harm me,妄想 destroying the situation and triggering a heavenly disaster.

To resolve this catastrophe, I have already overdrawn my strength.

Currently, I am already powerless to protect myself, and my subordinates are all fatigued, alas……”

As soon as these words came out, Tan Wenbin immediately began to cough violently, as if about to cough up blood.

Runsheng bends down, and Lin Shuyou covers his chest.

Yin Meng busily blames herself: “Alas, I’m just a waste who only eats the old capital of my ancestors.”

Xiong Shan and Pear Flower widen their eyes. Today, they have truly opened their eyes. It can still be played like this!

“Having no choice, in order to seek self-preservation and preserve a useful body to continue eliminating demons and guarding the path for the Jianghu.

Therefore, I will temporarily open the general’s seal and carry out a measure to drive wolves to swallow tigers, letting the evil ones kill each other and restore peace to the world.

In extraordinary times, do extraordinary things,

Still hope,

Heaven has eyes,

Heavenly way be witness.”

Xie Shunan and the corpse driving Taoist both quickly retract the bamboo pole, and the two stick together.

Only this time, Xie Shunan is in front, and the corpse driving Taoist is in back.

Xie Shunan turns his head, faces Li Zhuiyuan, and says: “Thank you.”

Li Zhuiyuan changes his posture again. He is preparing to sleep. Before sleeping, he says one last thing:

“No need to thank me. I promised them so much, and the two of them also promised me one thing.

Before they dissipate,

They will first twist off your neck.”

———

These days have been too tiring. I didn’t rest well last night either. Today, I’ve written this much. Please allow me to rest well. Sorry, hugs everyone tightly!

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