Chapter 584: The Excavation

Whether it will be exposed is unknown; Bai Lang's appearance wasn't revealed in that illusion, the only things people could discern were his dragon‑like whiskers and faintly visible hanging eyebrows. Since Bai Lang trimmed his beard and eyebrows, he looks nothing like the repeatedly shown image. In places like Anchorage, in places like Alaska, the most common "monsters" are just Wendigos and snow phantoms......

Snow phantoms cause people to lose their way and freeze to death, while Wendigos instantly vaporize people in the woods—whether a materialized Wendigo has spread to Alaska is unknown, but the forest contains far more than just those monsters. At present, the qi is not strong enough to cause animal mutations, yet in both North America and Asia there exist legendary spirits that can attach to animals. A possessed creature becomes extremely terrifying, and this is also a way for Qu Xian to obtain a body.

And now it seems Alaska may indeed have such monsters—unfortunately, wherever they are, this type of vicious spirit is extremely rare. Not long after, Bai Lang left Anchorage, driving his car into the wilderness. No one would care; if he sought death, no one would intervene. Alaska was once a hunting sanctuary, just like Africa, but now who would go into the wild to hunt and seek death?

These days, only a few wander the wild trying to satisfy their hunting urges, and they have vanished into the wilderness, never to return. Africa is the same; the oddities of Black Africa are little known, yet the casualties they cause may be the greatest in the world...... no one pays special attention to Africa. North Africa, being close to Europe, draws a bit more concern—such as mummies walking at night, snatching people's lives.

The green territories are the same; just as temples of the Middle East Tianfang Sect failed to protect their believers, the Tianfang Sect in Dong Nan Ya still cannot protect its followers—Vatican shares this difficulty. Yet they still attract some attention; Black Africa truly has no one else in the world watching them besides themselves. Poor education and rampant superstition let sorcerers thrive; to avoid being slain by vicious spirits, they preemptively slaughter innocent neighbors...... sacrifice is the most common term for this atrocity.

Vicious spirits lack this efficiency; humans have it. How many innocent people have died in Black Africa during this period? There is no exact figure. Yet all this has truly amplified the power of Black Africa's strange lands. Like other nations, they are pleading with the only country that acknowledges the ability to eliminate strange lands—China—asking China to send that magical weapon abroad to save them.

Some unscrupulous small‑nation leaders simply stayed in China with their families, confidants, and state treasury funds under the pretense of seeking rescue, refusing to leave...... Meanwhile, consulates abroad have received numerous visa applications; of course immigration is impossible, the mainland has never opened immigration. Visa issuance is now even tighter, because evidence shows certain strange lands can attach to specific people and move.

At this moment the national border is effectively closed; only a few can enter.

Now the mainland is the safest place on Earth, perhaps unrivaled, the sole location of the Long Spear. Of course, those consistently anti‑China U. S. senators have vanished, and now is not their time to act; both sides have already decoupled, so the current president must work to restore relations. Otherwise, he cannot address the public's outcry to resolve these strange lands.

But the United States still puts on its stinky façade, arrogantly demanding that China send the Long Spear to America to "save the American people." Of course, all they get back is a barrage of diplomatic rhetoric and a "pah!" from Chinese netizens; the intelligentsia at home hardly speak, fearing for their own safety, while abroad the loud‑mouthed types shout "human destiny community" at the top of their lungs.

Of course they won't send it out to pacify them; the mainland's own strange lands keep emerging, still needing the Long Spear to patrol the four directions and eradicate those things. At this time, Bai Lang has been continuously granted new titles in both Buddhism and Daoism—he was already considered the incarnation of the White Tiger Star Lord in folk legend, and Daoist worship and successive imperial bestowals have essentially aligned him with the path of the White Tiger Star Lord.

Because of this, the White Tiger Star Lord's rank among the Four Deities has risen considerably, and Bai Lang has become the worldly incarnation of the White Tiger Star Lord; his titles now even include the status of Imperial Lord—likely also the Demon‑Subduing Imperial Lord, the Demon‑Subduing Patriarch, and the like will be added.

In the Buddhist Sect it's straightforward; originally Bai Lang had no Buddhist rank, but now he's been assigned one: first an Arhat—the Tiger‑Subduing Arhat—then a Bodhisattva. After all, Buddhism has plenty of Bodhisattvas and Buddhas; adding a Bai Lang Bodhisattva is no big deal. Even if Bai Lang learned of it, he probably wouldn't mind, because his thieving chief strategist is already a Gatling Bodhisattva, not to mention the rogue bald one who has attained the body of a heavenly demon.

The state has not yet given Bai Lang any "rank," because the national sacrificial system has no slots for deities or Buddhas; currently it seems deities may not exist, but those historically called "refined‑Qi masters" mostly have foundations. Sacrificial rites are likely ineffective. The state has, of course, intensified archaeological excavations, hoping to uncover artifacts with miraculous powers near those ancient capitals—while internationally, smuggling of mainland artifacts has also intensified, driving prices to an astronomically high level.

The crackdown on artifact smuggling has become extremely severe, elevated to the death‑penalty level. Existing relics currently lack this ability, but undiscovered ones might have it, so tomb‑raiding punishments have also been raised to death. Looking back from the end of the Han period onward, the older the artifact, the more likely it is to be such a national treasure—unfortunately, the Han, Qin, and Shang‑Zhou relics uncovered so far have not revealed any.

Even in the tomb of the Shang female general Wu Hao, nothing capable of dispelling vicious spirits was found.

That's troublesome; what criteria must be met for such a national treasure to be discovered in relic sites? Or is Bai Lang the sole exception? The tombs of the Three Kingdoms heroes are now heavily protected, and proposals to excavate parts of them have already been tabled—specifically the mausoleums of Emperor Zhao Lie and Kong Ming, as well as other unverified late‑Han warlord tombs—historical records mention them, but after a millennium they can no longer be confirmed.

There are also the tombs of Wei's famed generals and ministers; aside from the earlier Cao Xiu, we don't know where the others lie or whether they've been looted, and the existing Lu Bu tomb is definitely a fake......