Chapter 735: with translation of chapter title

"Why did that just happen?" Xiao Yin ultimately could not suppress the doubt in his heart.

Gu Jiu Ling's brows furrowed slightly, her steps paused a little, and she said in a low voice: "I saw characters on the stone wall; the torches illuminated the wall, and some golden characters appeared, bearing my mother's maiden name."

Xiao Yin froze there, staring at Gu Jiu Ling, could it be that Mang Shan really has some inevitable connection with Gu Jiu Ling?

Gu Jiu Ling smiled: "Back then I also guessed; places like this usually have several cleverly hidden mechanisms and secret passages, plus my mother's name appears here, and besides her name the light and shadow show some marks resembling palm prints, so I thought of this method."

"In any case, let's treat a dead horse as if it were alive!"

Xiao Yin moved his lips; he clearly had many questions he wanted to ask, but with a thousand thoughts tangled, he didn't know where to begin.

But for some reason, a strong sense of unease welled up in his heart.

"First let's see what this place is, we'll decide later!" Xiao Yin took Gu Jiu Ling's hand and walked forward.

After walking a few steps, he steadied himself, smiled and asked: "Is that thing still there?"

Gu Jiu Ling stared for a moment, then turned and produced two glow sticks, twisted them open, and shoved them into Xiao Yin's hands.

Xiao Yin raised his brows slightly, glanced at his empress's slender waist, and wondered how she had hidden these things.

"Come with me!" Xiao Yin put his arm around Gu Jiu Ling's waist, deliberately feeling up and down; Gu Jiu Ling's cheeks flushed and she shifted slightly away.

These intimate little gestures fell into the eyes of Ling Feng and the other guards behind them; everyone averted their gaze in unison.

What time is it now, and you're still being so lovey-dovey?

Xiao Yin's eyes deepened a bit; the strangeness about his empress kept increasing, and he lowered his voice: "My love, were you once a conjurer?"

"How do you feel like you know some illusion arts?"

Gu Jiu Ling did not want him to ask about this, not knowing how to answer; she stepped on something unknown underfoot, and only heard a crack.

"Huh? What is this?" Gu Jiu Ling hurriedly avoided the previous topic, took the glow stick and squatted down; looking at it was fine, but she was startled and almost fell to the ground.

Xiao Yin grabbed her to steady her, also leaned in, and his gaze instantly sank.

All that could be seen was that Gu Jiu Ling had accidentally stepped on and broken a piece of skeleton, which still had weathered cloth wrapped around it, leaning against the stone wall of the cave mouth.

Such a skeleton stuck to the stone wall would have gone unnoticed if Gu Jiu Ling had not accidentally stepped on it.

"Your Majesty, look! There's more over there!" Ling Feng exclaimed, pointing the illuminating glow stick in his hand toward the cave mouth where the skeleton leaned.

It turned out that this skeleton was leaning against another branch of the cave mouth; using the glow stick in Ling Feng's hand to look that way, they saw that the passage was packed with countless skeletons.

Even though Xiao Yin and his companions had witnessed too many terrifying things, they were still stunned into silence by the sight before them.

Merely looking at this scene makes it easy to imagine how many horrifying tragedies had occurred here back then.

Xiao Yin instinctively brought Gu Jiu Ling behind him, then gripped his Dragon Spring Sword tightly, held the glow stick in his other hand, and walked straight into that hellish cave.

Gu Jiu Ling also had no time to be afraid; she hurriedly followed.

With each step Xiao Yin took, he could hear the sound of breaking bones; the corpses were piled so densely that just looking made one's scalp tingle.

"Wait a moment!" Gu Jiu Ling cried out urgently.

Xiao Yin hurriedly turned and walked to Gu Jiu Ling's side, but she bent down, approached a skeleton, raised her hand, and took off the bronze plaque hanging from its neck.

"Murong?" Gu Jiu Ling stared at the characters on the bronze plaque, her brows knitting tightly, and looked over at Xiao Yin.

Xiao Yin stepped forward, took the bronze plaque in his hand, his expression turned solemn, and he said in a low voice: "How could the royal family of the former Li Dynasty be here?"

Upon Xiao Yin's remark, Gu Jiu Ling also recalled: this is that short-lived Li Dynasty?

The then Murong clan chief, Murong Gu, established the Li Dynasty, then suddenly fell ill and died, not even having time to raise his children to adulthood.

At the time of the Murong clan chief's death, only an infant still in swaddling clothes was left behind.

Together with Murong Gu, they had conquered the realm; the sworn brother who had shared life and death, Xiao Jingyun, served as Regent King and assisted the young lord in ascending the throne.

Unexpectedly, Xiao Jingyun directly usurped the throne and founded the Southern Qi dynasty.

Gu Jiu Ling also heard that the former dynasty's little emperor later contracted smallpox, his whole body rotting away.

Afterwards, the Murong clan was slaughtered to the last, not even a chicken or dog left.

The legendary figure Murong Gu, who quelled various rebellions and unified the Central Plains, ended up with such a fate.

The Li Dynasty had barely been established before it collapsed.

Gu Jiu Ling also knew this piece of history.

However, the current imperial clan is the Xiao family, so everyone keeps this matter sealed tight, nobody daring to speak of it recklessly.

Precisely for this reason, Gu Jiu Ling feels a greater aversion toward the head of the Xiao family, namely Xiao Yin's grandfather.

In this world everyone loves power; once they have tasted its flavor, they all become mad, no longer like normal people.

Xiao Yin clenched the bronze plaque tightly, his eyes flickered, and he bent down to pull a waist tablet from the body of that very skeleton.

This tablet is carved of wood, and having endured wind and sun in this mountain cave, it is now completely unrecognizable.

Yet on it a character remains faintly undecayed; Xiao Yin vaguely made it out as a red‑lined Du character.

Compared with the plaque that had been hidden in his bosom and hung from his neck earlier, this one casually hung at the waist looks rather perfunctory.

But that is not the point; Gu Jiu Ling took the waist tablet from Xiao Yin's hand, the Du character drawn in red pigment, though no longer vivid, is still clearly visible.

The instant Gu Jiu Ling saw that tablet, her expression froze and she felt her scalp go numb.

Something flashed through her mind; Gu Jiu Ling instinctively lifted her gaze to the Xiao Yin standing before her, and Xiao Yin himself had actually thought of many things.

This skeleton leaning against the stone wall clearly possesses a double identity.

Judging by this waist tablet, the dead in this underground cavern are almost certainly the Du family members who went missing twenty years ago.

The bronze plaques hanging from these people's necks are the insignia of the Murong royal family.

Could it be that the Du family are actually descendants of the Murong clan? That would make them remnants of the former dynasty.

If these people are remnants of the former dynasty, then what does that make her status and position?

Some threads of thought finally connected in her mind.

If her maternal grandfather is of the Murong royal bloodline, then isn't she also a descendant of the Murong family?

The Murong and Xiao families share an irreconcilable, sworn enmity.

Gu Jiu Ling had imagined countless possibilities with Xiao Yin, but never imagined that between her ancestors and Xiao Yin's ancestors there actually lay a deep blood feud.