Chapter 1047

Zhuge Shenhou had truly never been here before, and was also worried there might be some kind of mechanism or trap ahead.

Since Cheng Shi Fei took the initiative to go ahead now, naturally he wouldn't say much more about it.

But Cheng Shi Fei suddenly saying this at this moment did make Zhuge Shenhou and the others quite curious.

The few of them immediately fell silent, deployed their movement arts, and rushed downward.

Before long, they reached the end of the cave passage and arrived inside a broad stone hall.

Right in the center of the stone hall sat a strange person with disheveled hair, a faint smile on his face, sitting cross-legged.

This person had his eyes tightly shut, both hands resting on his knees.

On the surface, a head of black hair, yet around his neck hung a string of Fomen prayer beads.

This getup was neither one thing nor the other.

Cheng Shi Fei at this moment was hopping and skipping about, searching ceaselessly beside this strange person.

Seeing that string of prayer beads, and sensing that Zhuge Shenhou and the others had arrived, he could not help exclaiming,

"How is there a string of prayer beads here? Could it be that this Tianchi Strange Hero is actually a Monk?"

Shangguan Haitang merely glanced once and already noticed the oddity about this person; after a moment's thought, she replied uncertainly,

"It really is strange. This person's attire looks just like a monk from several hundred years ago — truly bizarre!"

This Shangguan Haitang truly had broad knowledge; with just one glance she could tell that this person's clothing was from several hundred years ago.

833 Is he dead or alive?

Zhuge Shenhou had never expected that the cave the old monks of the Chan Hall spoke of — the one hiding the Tian Xiang Cardamom — would truly contain a living dead man.

Looking at the person before him, he seemed just like someone asleep.

Thinking of the place where he had learned his arts, beneath the Fire Lake, within the thousand-year profound ice, wasn't the Tianchi Strange Hero in exactly the same state?

Only this person who looked like a monk was absolutely not the Tianchi Strange Hero!

After all, what the Tianchi Strange Hero looked like — Zhuge Shenhou knew only too well!

"Correct! This is indeed the Strange Hero senior.

Shi Fei, you must not be too rude to the Strange Hero senior.

Although he never took me as a disciple, I ultimately learned his peerless arts, which let me stand my ground in the court and the jianghu.

A person must not forget his roots — come here at once!"

In any case, with this person conveniently present, and no one saying who he actually was.

Dead for several hundred years, those who knew him had either shattered the void and gone to other worlds.

Or had mostly turned to white bone, or even to ash with nothing left.

It was just right that Shangguan Haitang and the others were pressing the question, so Zhuge Shenhou simply took this person and mistakenly identified him as the Tianchi Strange Hero, and put on a performance.

"So it really is the Strange Hero senior. Cheng Shi Fei, come down at once, don't make things difficult for Shenhou."

Once Shangguan Haitang had Zhuge Shenhou's confirmation, she immediately called out to Cheng Shi Fei.

As for Shangguan Haitang, Cheng Shi Fei had a very good impression of her.

Added to that, toward Zhuge Shenhou, Cheng Shi Fei truly held great reverence.

So at once he heeded Shangguan Haitang's call, leapt down from the strange person's sitting platform, and came to Zhuge Shenhou and the others' side.

Then Zhuge Shenhou put on an act, bowed and paid respects to this strange person, and said,

"Strange Hero senior, it is only thanks to your divine art that I have been able to find a foothold in this chaotic age.

Although you never took me as a disciple, I have always regarded you as a second father.

Today I have brought four adopted sons and daughters to pay homage to you, elder.

If we have disturbed you, please be magnanimous."

As he spoke, to make the act complete, Zhuge Shenhou went so far as to drop straight to the ground and kowtowed heavily.

With him setting such an example, Shangguan Haitang, Cheng Shi Fei, and the other two naturally could not remain standing.

They too knelt down, silently prayed in their hearts, and began kowtowing to this strange person as well.

Once the performance was done, Zhuge Shenhou stood up and dusted himself off.

With a smile on his face, he was just preparing to have the four go search for the Tian Xiang Cardamom.

Unexpectedly, Cheng Shi Fei's face changed drastically; pointing behind Zhuge Shenhou — toward the strange person's sitting platform — he said in terror,

"Ahhh! Why does the Strange Hero senior look like he isn't dead? He's actually smiling at us…"

Hearing this, Zhuge Shenhou was startled.

In an instant he swept his gaze over the faces of Shangguan Haitang, Duan Tianya, and Benefactor Guihai Yidao, and found the three wore the same expression.

He knew at once that Cheng Shi Fei had not been lying.

He hurriedly turned around, and sure enough saw the strange person who had originally had his eyes shut and a face without joy or sorrow.

Though his eyes were still tightly closed, the corners of his mouth had turned up, sketching out an extremely eerie smile.

"This…"

Zhuge Shenhou was utterly shocked.

When he had first entered this stone hall, he had immediately sent out his martial intent to probe whether this person was alive or dead.

But the feedback he received was that this person's vitality was severed — not the slightest sign of life.

His meridians throughout the body had long since fused with flesh and bone — how could he possibly be alive?

Yet now this situation looked utterly hair-raising!

After all, a mere corpse — why would it suddenly make such an eerie smile?

"Shenhou, didn't you say the Strange Hero senior was dead? Is he dead or alive?"

Although Cheng Shi Fei carried top-grade Wu Gong, his cultivation was still above Benefactor Guihai Yidao and Duan Tianya.

But he had been force-fed his cultivation by the Invincible Brat and only took up martial arts halfway through life.

So his courage was, in truth, extremely small.

He did not possess a true martial artist's heart.

Seeing such a bizarre scene at this moment, his true nature was exposed, and he panicked, hiding behind Shangguan Haitang, trembling nonstop.

"Enough! Senior Strange Knight has been dead for many years — how could he still be alive?"

Although Zhuge Shenhou was also creeped out in his heart, on the surface he remained calm and composed, saying,

"This smile of his may be because Senior, in the netherworld, knows we have come to see him, and so he borrows his corpse to offer us a smile!"

This explanation dragged in talk of ghosts and gods.

But Cheng Feifei, having been born and raised in the marketplace, actually did believe in ghosts and gods.

Though still afraid in his heart, he still asked uncertainly,

"Really? Shenhou, you mustn't lie to me."

"All right, all right! How could a godfather lie to people?"

Shangguan Haitang also could not think of a better explanation, and could only comfort Cheng Feifei.

After this interruption, Zhuge Shenhou's heart was also filled with suspicion.

Those old monks of the Heart Chan Hall, though clearly of higher cultivation, had deliberately sent him to fetch the all-important third Sky Fragrant Cardamom.

Clearly they were plotting something significant.

And this strange man's corpse had suddenly let out a bizarre laugh.

Clearly this mountain-belly cave was not as simple as it appeared on the surface.

Staying any longer would be unwise.

So Zhuge Shenhou directly ordered,

"Enough! Now is not the time to be spooked by ghosts — we must find the Sky Fragrant Cardamom as quickly as possible.

You all search around this stone hall.

The intelligence I received says that on a certain dim-blue flower grows the third Sky Fragrant Cardamom.

Move quickly — find that dim-blue flower."

"Yes!"

Only now did the crowd realize that the Sky Fragrant Cardamom actually grew upon a strange dim-blue flower.

But Shenhou had only mentioned the flower's color, not its size, nor its preferences, nor where it might grow.

Fortunately, although this stone hall was immensely spacious, its area was ultimately finite.

And they themselves were, after all, the strong ones of the jianghu.