The Imperial Tomb Forest was located in the western outskirts of Sacred Brightness City, a vast mountain range that looked dark and gloomy from afar.
In the sky above the Tomb Forest, there were layers of dark clouds that completely obscured the stars.
Before the destruction of the Shengming Central Empire, the royal family’s tomb forest had always been a forbidden area, heavily guarded by soldiers, and no cultivator would ever want to get close to it.
Eight hundred years had already passed, and outside the Tomb Forest, it was full of snow and fallen leaves, overgrown with weeds, giving people a feeling of dilapidation and depression.
In fact, the Imperial City Tomb Forest wasn’t just a forbidden area, it was also a murderous forbidden place in itself.
The ancestor of the Imperial Zhang Clan had used means at the level of a great emperor to set up more than one emperor-level formation in the Tomb Forest to guard the tombs of successive emperors.
When Sacred Bright City was captured, there had been Saint realm beings that tried to break into into the Imperial Clan’s tomb forest and steal the treasures in the tombs.
However, without exception, none of them were able to walk out alive after breaking in.
As the Crown Prince of the Sacred Brightness Central Empire, Zhang Ruochen naturally knew the way to enter the Imperial Tomb Forest, and by following some special routes, he would be able to avoid the attacks of the formations.
“You guys must follow closely behind me and don’t make any mistakes, otherwise, you will be in big trouble.”Zhang Ruochen reminded.
Walking into the mountain range where the Imperial Tomb Forest was located, the air became even more chilly, and in some of these areas, ghost flames flew out from the ground, taking the form of skeletons, dragons and snakes, and soldiers and generals.
“That’s no ordinary ghost fire, it’s a flame condensed from a great emperor level formation, even if a Saint realm being gets a little bit of it, it will immediately burn into flying ash.”
Hearing this, the Swallowing Elephant Rabbit’s four feet trembled, feeling weak in the legs, so frightened that he followed the rules, not daring to take a wrong step.
The area occupied by the Imperial Tomb Forest was quite vast and boundless, and Zhang Ruochen and the others had traveled dozens of miles in a row, yet they had still only traveled a small corner of the area.
The surrounding mountains, gullies, and jungles were all silent, in stark contrast to the bustling scene of Shengming City.
Suddenly, the Elephant Swallowing Rabbit let out a strange cry, startling everyone to immediately stop in their tracks.
“What’s going on?”
The Saint Qi in Zhang Ruochen’s body surged rapidly, and his hands pinched out palm seals, assuming a defensive posture.
The Elephant Swallowing Rabbit pointed not far away and said, “There are footprints on the ground.”
Qing Mo exhaled a breath, just now, she was also very nervous, thinking that she had encountered some sort of menace.
“Pots and pans, it’s just a few footprints, no fussing, almost scared to death by you.”
Qing Mo spat out her tongue and pinched the top of the Swallowing Elephant Rabbit’s ear so hard that she almost lifted it up.
Zhang Ruochen, however, didn’t let his guard down and walked over to the side of the footprints and carefully observed.
All around were trees with dense branches and leaves, thus, the footprints were not covered in snow.
“The footprints are still fresh, someone should have come in within the last two days. Who the hell is it and how was it able to enter the Imperial Tomb Forest?”
The footprints were large and small, with varying depths, and did not come from the same person, obviously not Kong Lanyou.
“Everyone be careful, it’s estimated that there are some other people that broke into into the Imperial Tomb Forest.”Zhang Ruochen’s face was quite serious.
One must know that the Imperial Tomb Forest was definitely considered a murderous forbidden land, and the characters who were able to avoid Great Emperor level formations and break into this place were definitely not generalized.
A group of people, continued to move forward.
It wasn’t long before they found bloodstains on the ground, not long ago, there had been a battle here.
The Tunneling Rabbit’s nose sniffed vigorously, rushed to an open area, threw away the thick snow, and dug out a large pile of dirt.
Underneath the dirt, six corpses were actually dug out.
The six corpses were all blackened by the flames and turned into charred corpses, as if they were six humanoid charcoals.
Zhang Ruochen walked to the side of one of the corpses and used the Sinking Abyss Ancient Sword to scrape away the outer layer of the charred corpse, revealing the bones inside.
The bones actually had a metallic luster that was extremely hard, and there was also a wisp of pure holy qi gushing out. From this, it could be seen that when they were alive, they must have possessed a rather powerful cultivation.
“Huh!”
Zhang Ruochen made a new discovery.
Above the bones of the corpse, there were some strange patterns that emitted a faint golden light.
Huang Yichen said, “Those are Corpse Patterns, and only the cultivators of the Corpse Catching Ancient Race and the Deadly Zen Sect know how to inscribe them. Carving corpse patterns into the bones, skin, and meridians of a corpse can refine a powerful battle corpse.”
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes were a bit gloomy as he scraped apart the charred flesh of the other five charred corpses and also found corpse patterns on top of the bones.
“They should be battle corpses refined by the Corpse Catching Ancient Clan.”
Zhang Ruochen had once seen the Deadly Zen Buddhist Dharma of the Deadly Zen Sect, and the corpse patterns recorded on it carried a kind of Buddhist rhythm that was completely different from the corpse patterns on the bodies of the six charred corpses on the ground.
The Corpse Catching Ancient Clan was quite deep, proficient in many ancient secret arts, able to enter and exit all kinds of dangerous ruins, stealing the corpses of the ancestors of all the major lineages.
Only by using the more powerful corpses could they refine the more powerful battle corpses.
Not only had the Corpse Catching Ancient Clan stolen the tombs of great saints, it was rumored that at their peak, they had even broken into the tomb of an Ancient God and taken half of the God’s corpse.
“The Corpse Catching Ancient Clan broke into into the imperial tomb forest, could it be that they wanted to steal the corpses of the successive Ming Emperors of the Sacred Brightness Central Empire?”
Aside from the emperor’s corpse, there was nothing else that was worth the risk of the Corpse Catching Ancient Race to break into the Imperial Tomb Forest.
Zhang Ruochen clenched his fists tightly as two balls of anger surged in his eyes.
The Yin Spirit of an ancestor should not be disturbed. The corpses of the ancestors, even more so, should not become someone else’s fighting puppets.
What the Corpse Catching Ancient Race had done was clearly even more hateful than the Ling Xiao Heavenly King’s Mansion.
Huang Yichen said, ”The six battle corpses on the ground should have been refined from the corpses of Sacred Realm beings, yet they were burned to waste by a kind of flame. From this, it can be seen that there should be an extremely powerful tomb guardian in the Imperial Tomb Forest.”
“Tomb Guardian?”
In the first moment, Zhang Ruochen thought of Kong Lanyou.
Of course, yet it was possible that it wasn’t Kong Lanyou.
With Kong Lan You’s cultivation, if he really made a move, I’m afraid that the six war corpses would have already turned into flying ash, so how could they be preserved so intact?
Moreover, on the bodies of the six war corpses, there was no aura left behind by Kong Lan You.
Zhang Ruochen let the Elephant Swallowing Rabbit and the Devil Ape bury the six charred corpses, back again, and said, “Only six damaged war corpses have been found, but no cultivators of the Corpse Catching Ancient Race have been found, where did they go?”?”It’s not certain …… that they have escaped the Imperial Tomb Forest.”Qing Mo spoke cautiously.
“If that’s really the case, it’s naturally the best.”Zhang Ruochen said.
Zhang Ruochen had already, in his heart, secretly made a mental note of this debt of the Corpse Catching Ancient Clan. To the extent that they dared to hit the ancestors of the Zhang Family, they would have to pay some price no matter what.
Continuing to travel forward, the crowd’s vision, finally became a bit wider.
Only to see that between the lofty mountains, there stood a huge stone monument, as well as densely packed mausoleums.
Some of these tombs were even taller than the mountains, emitting an intimidating might. In the mausoleums, the Yin Qi that was released condensed into clouds, forming purple, silver, and golden light.
Zhang Ruochen crossed a green stone bridge and traveled towards a relatively short mausoleum.
Even though it was relatively short, it was still tens of feet tall and was built with huge stones.
In front of the mausoleum, there stood an ancient stone monument that was a hundred feet tall, and Zhang Ruochen stood underneath the monument, which was only as big as a speck of dust.
On the back of the monument, an inscription was carved.
On the front of the monument, however, there were only two strong and powerful words – Huling.
There was no exact name.
In front of the monument, it is an empty square, the ground has no fallen leaves, and the snowflakes that drifted down did not cover the lapis lazuli completely, apparently someone had just cleaned it.
“Mother, child is unfilial, it has been eight hundred years since I came to see you.”
Zhang Ruochen knelt on the ground and bowed to the mausoleum.
Huang Yichen walked to Zhang Ruochen’s right side and also knelt down, bowing together.
Behind them, Qing Mo, the Elephant Swallowing Rabbit, and the Devil Ape, also had solemn eyes as they knelt on the ground and greeted the direction of the mausoleum.
Not far away, at the edge of the plaza, under a sycamore tree with a diameter of two feet, a stunningly beautiful woman with a head full of white hair walked out from the hole in the tree.
It was none other than Kong Lan You.
Kong Lan You’s gaze was fixed on Zhang Ruochen, who was kneeling in the center of the square, and a pair of beautiful and touching eyes, which carried an extremely complex emotion, flowed out crystal tears.
Even though, she had long received the letter sent by Zhang Ruochen and knew that he was still alive, she still suffered from fear and was very afraid that the letter was forged by someone else.
Therefore, Kong Lan You had always waited in front of her aunt’s grave, never leaving by half a step.
Only after seeing Zhang Ruochen enter the royal tomb forest and kneel in front of his aunt’s grave with his own eyes did he dare to be sure that he was his cousin and that he was still alive.
It was only after Zhang Ruochen had finished paying homage to his mother that he stood up again and looked towards the edge of the plaza, staring at Kong Lanyou’s body.
The Swallowing Elephant Rabbit’s eyes widened, first trembling in fear for a moment, then, but then, forcing himself to be calm, he said, “There is actually someone who has intruded into the Imperial Clan’s Tomb Forest, Master Dust, you guys retreat first, let me meet her for a while.”?The Swallowing Rabbit didn’t dare to go against Kong Lan You alone, so it dragged on the Devil Ape.
Walking to the opposite side of Kong Lan You, the Swallowing Elephant Rabbit’s claws pinched his fists, exuding a devilish aura, and coldly shouted, “Are you a human being or not? Or a ghost?”
Kong Lan You didn’t say a word, a pair of mournful eyes staring towards Zhang Ruochen who kept walking towards her, tears dripping downwards as if they were beads.
“You think that if you don’t speak, this seat can’t do anything about you? You’re forcing this seat to make a move!”
The Devouring Rabbit didn’t dare to make a move himself, and pushed the Devil Ape to test Kong Lanyou’s cultivation.
The Devil Ape roared and rushed forward, stretching out a huge palm and slapping it at the top of Kong Lanyou’s head.
“Rumble.”
The Devil Ape was like a huge ball that crashed into a layer of invisible wall and flew directly backward, falling on top of the square with a bang.
Kong Lanyou, however, remained standing in the same place.
The Swallowing Elephant Rabbit sucked in a mouthful of cold air, his teeth chattering, realizing that he was dealing with a ruthless character, he immediately fell backward.
“Master Dust, that’s an expert, what should we do?”The Elephant Swallowing Rabbit was ready to run for its life immediately.
Zhang Ruochen ignored it and walked straight towards Kong Lanyou. The distance between the two, was getting closer and closer, ten steps, nine steps, eight steps ……?The Swallowing Elephant Rabbit’s heart was fearful as it cried out, “Master Dust …… be careful, the other party is really an expert …… don’t take the enemy lightly ……”
