Chapter 69: The Great Qian May Be Destroyed by My Hand

Shhh-shhh-shhh~

Creak-creak~

The sound of branches and leaves rubbing and snapping arose from the dim forest!

Xie Jinhuan gripped Zhenglun Sword as if facing a great enemy, staring at a small mound thirty feet away.

The mound swayed and shook; when its figure rose up and its massive head turned, he saw it was a giant wild boar.

The boar was covered in bristles, sporting two-foot-long tusks, standing no less than one and a half meters at the shoulder, looking from afar like a small elephant, its eyes glowing red, its breath coarse and heavy; upon seeing this unexpected guest, it began pawing the ground.

Scrape, scrape…

Xie Jinhuan saw this and silently cursed his useless personal maid, a foreboding rising in his heart!

After all, "One boar, two bears, three tigers"—encountering this thing in the mountains was deadly; given his current state, defeating this boar was probably harder than killing Tai Shu Dan.

Am I, a Rank 3 martial cultivator, really going to be gored to death by a wild boar in these mountains…?

Wait, this seems like a mount…

Xie Jinhuan recalled the ghost bride's incident of driving the horse mad, and a thought struck him:

"Night Beauty, can you possess this boar?"

?

Ye Hongshang, sitting on a tree branch with her red umbrella on her shoulder, was about to watch the show; upon hearing this, she frowned:

"Do you want to ride the boar, or do you want to ride me?"

Xie Jinhuan wanted both, since the horse couldn't move at all in this remote wilderness; he whispered:

"Hurry up, hurry up, don't scare it off."

Ye Hongshang's gaze was weary; she raised her long, slender right hand and curled her finger.

Immediately, the wild boar king thirty feet away softened its gaze, stepped forward in tiny paces, knelt down, and wagged its little tail.

Thump~

Xie Jinhuan's eyes brightened slightly; he tied the small horse he bought in town to a tree trunk, then swung onto the boar's back, lightly squeezing its belly with his legs:

"Giddy-up… Holy shit—!"

Boom-boom-boom…

The thousand-pound giant boar immediately went berserk, leaping forward violently, smashing through every sapling and vine along the way, carving a trail of dust through the forest, roaring with thunderous noise!

Xie Jinhuan clung to the boar's bristles to avoid being thrown off, his cheeks stinging from branches whipping him, but thankfully the speed was indeed lightning-fast; in moments, he crested the ridge and plunged downward.

Ye Hongshang floated ahead, watching with amusement:

"You better not spread this story, or one day when you stand atop the peaks, this boar will go down in history alongside you."

Xie Jinhuan was always easygoing; seeing his destination rapidly approaching, he replied:

"As long as I survive this crisis, I'd gladly marry a ghost bride as the number one in the world—never mind riding a boar."

"Hmph~"

Seeing Xie Jinhuan enjoying himself, Ye Hongshang spun midair, transforming into a crimson phoenix, wings trailing golden flames as she flew beside his head, the scene resembling wings of death.

Xie Jinhuan chased below, initially feeling a touch of "Spring breeze delights, boar's hooves swift; when life is good, enjoy it to the fullest."

But soon, he couldn't enjoy it anymore…

…

The night of the sixteenth day of the eighth month.

Only seven days had passed since his awakening in the rain-soaked night.

The moon hung high; the old tent still stood in the deep, ancient forest, now covered in a layer of dry leaves.

The bedding and belongings inside the tent had not been disturbed; even the tomb-raiding notes tossed carelessly aside were still there.

But the vegetation near the collapsed tunnel had all turned yellow, darker in hue than the surrounding plants.

Xie Jinhuan stood in the abandoned campsite, Tian Gang Club in hand, staring at the anomaly at the tunnel mouth, his brow furrowed:

"What's going on?"

Ye Hongshang stood beside him, shrugging slightly:

"The purpose of the Spirit-Sealing Tomb is to sever the connection between heaven and earth, forcing demons and monsters to starve to death by draining their own primordial energy. Now that the Spirit-Sealing Tomb is damaged and gaps have formed, even if I'm not inside, my body naturally recovers, siphoning the essence from nearby vegetation."

Xie Jinhuan suddenly understood:

"Good thing it's autumn—hard to notice much. So next spring, no grass will grow here?"

"Grass will grow. But you probably won't live to see it."

"?"

Xie Jinhuan frowned, looking at his breathtakingly beautiful ghost bride:

"What do you mean?"

Ye Hongshang spun her shoulder red umbrella, explaining seriously:

"The vegetation was merely collateral damage—I'm truly drawing in the omnipresent heavenly and earthly spiritual energy.

"If you don't quickly find a way to repair the Spirit-Sealing Tomb, once I recover just half my strength, this broken tomb will no longer be able to contain me.

"Then boundless spiritual energy will converge from all four seas; my soul will return to its place, reclaiming my peak. And you can fulfill your promise—make me cry."

Xie Jinhuan couldn't believe it: "I didn't dig, but you can get out yourself?"

Ye Hongshang nodded: "The Spirit-Sealing Tomb already has an opening—I have countless ways to escape. Never mind hiring someone else; even just possessing Lin Wanyi, I could dig my own grave open."

"I just didn't know what to do upon emerging, and didn't want to harm you, so I waited for you to decide. If you seal me, I'll help you. If you dig me out, I'll be your backing."

Xie Jinhuan thought his ghost bride was truly kind—but the Great Qian probably wasn't doing well.

He still hadn't figured out his ghost bride's background, but a spirit that had been buried for over a hundred years and still hopped around? Her cultivation was certainly more than just Super Rank.

If his ghost bride were a righteous sect ancestor, fully lucid, then all would be well.

As long as he comes out, he'll have a beautiful wife with heavenly cultivation by his side; at worst, he'd just become a male consort to the female Ancestor, with no need to worry about being beaten to death.

But which decent Miss would be buried inside the Demon-Suppressing Tomb?

If she were a demonic path monster or had not yet eradicated her demonic nature, the ghost wife's tomb explosion would surely cause a huge commotion; Dan Yang would detect it first, followed by the entire Great Qian joining forces to exterminate her, only to be blown away by the ghost wife herself!

As the Chosen of the Charm Demon, for self-preservation he could only cling to the ghost wife's thigh and rise with the tide, first annihilating both the Righteous and Demonic paths, then 'replacing Zhao with Xie' to ascend the throne, filling his harem with fairies and heroines, and founding a great enterprise to last a thousand autumns...

Wouldn't this make him 'Poisonous Scholar Xie Wenhe'...

Let me betray all under heaven, rather than let all under heaven betray me...

Could this be the purpose of my grave-digging...

Xie Jinhuan felt that with his personality, if pushed to the brink, he might truly do this terrible thing.

But currently, there is a chance to walk the Righteous Path, and walking the Righteous Path is safer; for this reason, he asked:

"Can you try to control it? Don't restore your strength; give me some time to increase my strength and investigate your background?"

Ye Hongshang could do nothing to help: "This isn't me practicing; it's my body naturally restoring its primal energy. Can you hold back your injuries from healing?"

Xie Jinhuan obviously couldn't, so he asked again:

"So, by next spring, your body will be able to restore half your strength, causing the tomb explosion to trigger heavenly and earthly anomalies?"

"It won't take that long."

"Ah?!"

Xie Jinhuan's heart went half cold: "Then how long will it take?"

Ye Hongshang shrugged slightly: "Since we met for the first time, I've already reminded you; I'm giving you one month to consider.

"Normally, in ten days I could restore enough strength to overturn the Demon-Suppressing Tomb; however, this place already has sparse spiritual energy, and the gap is too small, so it will take nearly a month.

"You've already used seven days; currently, twenty-two days and four double-hours remain."

Plop~

The Tiangang Jian fell to the ground!

Xie Jinhuan had thought that the ghost wife giving him one month to consider meant that if he didn't make a decision by the deadline, she would seek another worthy master.

He never expected that if he didn't consider it well within a month, the ghost wife would emerge from the coffin herself, leaving him no need to consider!

He had barely crossed the Rank 3 threshold by relying on the Cultivation-Surge Pill, but currently, his body was severely overdrawn; by the time he finished the Dragon Blood Pill, it would already be a month later, and by then, at best, he would be mid-stage Rank 3.

With just this little time, for him to enter Rank 2 would require a once-in-a-century great opportunity to support him, let alone jumping to Rank 1.

If he doesn't step into Rank 1, he can't seal the Demon-Suppressing Tomb; if the ghost wife is truly a heavenly monster, or if her demonic nature hasn't been eradicated...

Xie Jinhuan took a deep breath, feeling that the Zhao clan of Great Qian was likely truly about to perish by his hands...

Ye Hongshang sensed the confusion in Xie Jinhuan's eyes, raised her arm, and draped it over his shoulder:

"When the cart reaches the mountain, there will always be a path. If you truly worry about the tomb explosion and want to first obtain the strength to seal the Demon-Suppressing Tomb, there is actually a way."

Xie Jinhuan sensed the heavy, fragrant softness leaning against him; he thought the ghost wife had truly emerged, quickly reached out to touch, discovered she had clipped through the model again, and then reluctantly withdrew his hand:

"What way? Don't say walking the Demonic Path to slaughter cities and exterminate camps. The Demonic Path increases strength quickly, but the premise is killing a lot; to jump two ranks in twenty days, you'd need to refine at least ten thousand people. Even if I were that ruthless, I wouldn't have the space to deploy it."

Ye Hongshang helped analyze: "Zisu's 'Vitality Pill' was described so fiercely; if it truly has an effect, it should allow a jump of one Rank.

"In twenty-plus days, you can finish the Dragon Blood Pill; by then, your strength should be at mid-stage Rank 3. Adding the 'Vitality Pill', crossing into Rank 2 shouldn't be a problem.

"For the remaining portion, at worst, you can pay the price of damaging your foundation and take another Cultivation-Surge Pill.

"There are no thresholds in the mid-to-late Divine Spirit Realm; as long as you can temporarily touch Rank 1's backside and maintain it for half a double-hour, you'll have a chance to seal the Demon-Suppressing Tomb."

Xie Jinhuan felt this method had some feasibility, but...

"With such a huge dosage of medicine, are you sure nothing bad will happen?"

Ye Hongshang raised an eyebrow:

"Taking medicine until you feel fullness; how is it possible for nothing bad to happen?"

"Ah?"

"But you probably won't die; later, you can find heavenly treasures and spiritual herbs to make up for it. And you don't necessarily have to take it; you can prepare the pills first, then try to find clues about Sister. What if Sister is a good person?"

Xie Jinhuan deliberated for a long time, then nodded:

"I'll try. If, after a month, I haven't produced the pills, and I've also discovered you're not a good Miss, then let's part on good terms; after you come out, pretend you don't know me."

"Oh my~"

Ye Hongshang's eyes were full of reluctance:

"Sister isn't a heartless woman; if I truly come out, I'll definitely find you immediately. By then, I'll be the boss, Wan Yi will be the concubine, and Seeing Mo Mo will be the youngest."

"..."

Xie Jinhuan actually longed for such a life, but now was not the time for such daydreams; he turned, fetched the grave robber's shovel from the tent, found a hidden spot, and started digging a hole.

Chak, chak—

The Wild Boar King, which had ridden over and been squatting at the camp's edge wagging its tail, upon Ye Hongshang's beckoning, ran over 'snorting and grunting' to dig the earth; it was much more useful than Meiqiu flying in the sky as a supervisor.

After digging a large pit, Xie Jinhuan threw the grave robber's corpse, the tent, the baggage, and everything else into it to bury them, and also dealt with the withered plants.

After cleaning up all traces and confirming that it would be very difficult to spot anything abnormal even if one walked nearby, Xie Jinhuan finally felt slightly relieved.

As long as the Demon-Suppressing Tomb isn't found, there definitely won't be any more mishaps within twenty days.

The Cultivation-Surge Pill is in stock, the Dragon Blood Pill is currently being consumed, and a powerful Alchemist is right in front of him; currently, the only thing missing is the 'Sixty-Year Lotus Root' needed to refine the 'Vitality Pill'.

Twenty-two days isn't long, but it isn't short either; as long as he figures out how to search, finding one plant shouldn't be difficult.

Moreover, even if he doesn't find it, what if he discovers the ghost wife is a good wife?

In a little over half a month, he could be sleeping with a Female Immortal Emperor; a sixteen-foot super-luxury car...

Thinking of this, Xie Jinhuan's fighting spirit flared up again; he flipped over and leaped onto the Wild Boar King's back, glanced back at the place where the nightmare began, then lightly squeezed the pig's belly with his legs:

"Giddyup... Holy crap—!"

Boom-boom-boom...

Dust flew through the mountain wilds, racing outward like an arrow loosed from a bowstring.

Meiqiu accompanied them from high above; in a brief moment, one man, one bird, and one ghost vanished into the mountain ranges, leaving only the silver moon and the starry river to shine upon the ancient, sealed Shenshan tombs of countless years...

(End of this volume)

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Begging for continued reads, begging for monthly tickets or 2

(End of this chapter)