“Hum!”
The jade seal quivered slightly. Lu Zheng probed it with his mind and found that four people had contributed a total of five strands of luck light.
Not bad!
Additionally…
“Good grief, this corpse-dissolving powder is quite potent. Truly a perfect tool for erasing traces. Which genius invented this?”
Lu Zheng used the powder to dissolve the three bodies completely. Under its potent corrosion, their bones, organs, muscles, and flesh turned into a pool of sewage, seeping into the ground and vanishing.
He dug a deep pit, buried their remaining clothes and weapons, leaving the only proof of their existence as the two large bundles before him.
Opening the bundles, he found them stuffed with coarse hemp cloth. By the moonlight filtering through the tree canopy, Lu Zheng saw various items separated by the fabric: gold artifacts, agate, white jade, pearls…
Each item carried a trace of yin qi.
Grave goods!
As expected, they were tomb robbers, though whose tomb they had raided was unclear.
“An eye for an eye, a debt for a debtor. I’ve avenged you, so shouldn’t you thank me?” Lu Zheng muttered to himself. “There’s no claimant for this, and these items can’t see the light of day. If I turn them over to the authorities, who knows who’d get them or how much would be embezzled? More importantly, it’d expose me, possibly inviting retaliation from that Jinjue Hall.
Since that’s the case, I’ll reluctantly accept your tokens of gratitude. Look, I’ve got a big house here, but back in my hometown, I’m still renting. Pretty pitiful, right?”
Lu Zheng took out an exorcism talisman, performed the ritual, and tossed it into the bundles. The yin qi lingering on the items was gradually purged, dissipating silently.
Grave goods, long buried in tombs, absorbed yin and cold qi. Wearing them immediately after excavation would let the yin qi invade the body, causing illness. They needed to be sun-dried for dozens of days before being safe to wear. While an exorcism talisman wasn’t as radiant as the sun, it was just as effective at dispelling evil qi. One talisman cleansed the faint yin qi from these ordinary items.
Transferring everything to the modern world and erasing all traces in the grove, Lu Zheng replaced his nearly depleted aura-concealing talisman with a new one. Ever since hearing that Jinjue Hall had cultivators, he had been extra cautious.
…
Having handled everything, Lu Zheng slipped back to Tongyi Lane unnoticed.
But as he turned the corner, he saw a graceful figure standing at his neighbor’s door, holding a lantern, looking toward the lane’s entrance.
Their eyes met. Liu Qingyan smiled with relief, then blushed and hurriedly retreated inside.
…
The next day, sunlight filtered through the window paper, softly illuminating the bedroom.
Looking at the quilt covering him, Lu Zheng sighed helplessly. “Such vigorous energy, blood like a furnace. What can I do?”
“Big Brother Lu! Big Brother Lu!” Liu Qingquan’s voice rang out from the front courtyard. “Father asked me to invite you for breakfast!”
“Coming, coming!”
Hastily dressing, Lu Zheng was dragged off by Liu Qingquan before he could wash up.
Aunt Liu grinned widely, though she sighed, “Well, no need to prepare breakfast for the young master then.”
At the Liu household, Lu Zheng, still bleary-eyed, clearly just woken up.
Liu Qingyan shot her sister a glare, fetched water, and brought soap and a towel to help Lu Zheng wash up.
“I can do it myself! I can do it!” Lu Zheng protested.
Old Man Liu and Madam Liu watched with amusement. “It’s only right. You saved our family of four. Isn’t it fitting for Qingyan to help you wash up?”
Once he was cleaned up, Lu Zheng was ushered to the front hall. Madam Liu had prepared a lavish breakfast: porridge, pickles, steamed buns, vegetable pancakes, and a bowl of tangy noodle soup.
Great kindness needs no words of thanks, and everyone tacitly avoided mentioning last night’s events. The Liu family urged Lu Zheng to eat heartily, truly treating him as one of their own.
“Burp… No need for lunch today, that’s for sure.”
…
After breakfast, Lu Zheng greeted Uncle Li and the others at home, then returned to the modern world.
First, he sorted the spoils.
He categorized the items, wrapping each in cloth and packing them into a large suitcase for later handling. “Gold items together, jade items together. These are agate, these are rubies, these are pearls, all quite large. Oh, is this jadeite? What grade?”
As he sorted, Lu Zheng muttered, “Looks like my dream of upgrading to a bigger house will come true soon.”
“Hm?” His gaze sharpened.
He held a piece of gold foil, densely inscribed with tiny characters that, at a glance, might be mistaken for mere patterns.
“What’s this?”
Reading closely, Lu Zheng realized the text recorded a spell: the Cold Condensation Curse!
Using special runes and true qi, it could absorb and store cold qi, then release it on a target. It could be cast directly, drawn as a talisman, or engraved on an object, activated with true qi to absorb and release cold qi.
Lu Zheng recalled the four men who had visited Renxin Hall during the day, their bodies filled with cold qi mixed with deathly and yin qi. The tomb’s owner likely had a talisman or artifact with this curse, triggered when the tomb was raided. Though the robbers were gravely injured, they didn’t die immediately, managing to escape with the loot and reach Renxin Hall.
The gold foil noted that this curse was ideal for cultivators practicing cold-attribute techniques, or in winter, or in the snowy northern borders, where its power was formidable, overwhelming both humans and ghosts.
“Good stuff!” Though Lu Zheng didn’t practice cold-attribute techniques, and it was summer, he had a refrigerator in the modern world. “How much cold qi do you need? Name a number, I won’t haggle!”
Without hesitation, he set the gold foil aside and worked with renewed vigor. After sorting everything, he found no other cultivation-related items. From the foil’s description, the tomb’s owner was likely a wealthy mortal who stumbled upon the curse but lacked cultivation knowledge. The object capable of casting the curse was likely a crude imitation, mutated over years to injure the four robbers.
“Figures. If it was a cultivator’s tomb, four non-martial artists wouldn’t have managed to rob it.”
“And so, it’s all mine!” Lu Zheng gleefully opened his computer, transcribing the gold foil’s text, then tucked the foil into a book.
By nearly ten o’clock, he had finished sorting everything.
