Chapter 328: Other Chosen Ones Wouldn’t Dare, But That Doesn’t Mean Zhang Yangqing Wouldn’t!
“I’ve found the memorial tablet. Now I just need the sedan chair and a living person. Where am I supposed to find them?”
After walking down from the suspended staircase, Rahman kept thinking about this question.
At this stage, whenever the chosen ones went out, they all coincidentally turned the mechanism to restore the hidden passage to its original state.
When leaving, they checked that no one was around before quietly slipping away. They were afraid that news of the treasure being taken would leak out, making it hard for them to leave.
At first, Rahman spent some money asking about the bride, wanting to know if the bride had come by sedan chair.
Unfortunately, the bride did not come by sedan chair.
After wasting that money, he suddenly realized—wasn’t he doing the equivalent of riding a donkey while looking for a donkey?
Young Master Kongxu was the one who used a sedan chair. Why was he asking other people?
Maybe at the end of this stage, finding Young Master Kongxu was the key.
Otherwise, why would he disappear right after the wedding ended?
But after Rahman spent even more wasted money looking for Young Master Kongxu, he began to realize something was wrong with his approach.
Since he couldn’t find Young Master Kongxu himself, then finding Young Master Kongxu’s underlings would work too.
So Rahman went around in circles, returned to the first floor, and headed to Young Master Kongxu’s tomb chamber.
The clearest-headed person at this stage was none other than Zhang Yangqing.
Other chosen ones needed to come into contact with these clues before they knew how to get through this stage.
Zhang Yangqing figured out through pure deduction what the sedan chair and the living person were for.
Yesterday, everyone had seen Young Master Kongxu come to the general store to buy things.
From this detail, Zhang Yangqing could judge that Young Master Kongxu could freely enter and exit the tomb.
You had to understand, with so many eerie beings here, not just anyone could come and go as they pleased.
A place like a tomb—getting in is easy, getting out is hard.
So as long as he found his sedan chair, the sedan chair would definitely have the key to opening the exit.
At this stage, the chosen ones could all judge that they didn’t count as living people, so they needed to find a living person.
As long as they found this living person, he could lead them to the exit.
That would solve the final puzzle.
Zhang Yangqing actually didn’t need to find this living person. He knew where the exit of this feng shui layout was.
But he still went through the motions first. If he didn’t find that so-called living person, what if he missed the score for this stage?
And since it was a living person, he could enter the city. It was all connected anyway.
Back before twelve o’clock, Zhang Yangqing had already completed the decryption of the tomb owner and the memorial tablet.
So during this time period, he sat cross-legged inside the tomb chamber, began absorbing the corpse qi here, and started cultivating according to his own method.
The rules did mention that the air here was very beneficial to the chosen ones.
It was now three in the morning, and the chosen ones were still tirelessly exploring this tomb.
What they didn’t realize was that as they kept breathing here, their bodies seemed to start changing.
First of all, by this stage, the chosen ones had gradually stopped feeling cold.
That was because their bodies were starting to turn icy, and their body temperature was continuously dropping.
Then their skin began turning purple, but the chosen ones all wrapped their skin in cloth, so it was basically impossible to tell.
Even if they noticed, they wouldn’t know what to do, and many doubts would arise in their hearts.
So they only needed to find that old blind fisherman.
Many chosen ones, without realizing it, were constantly strengthening their physical qualities.
And they were cultivating passively. The method of cultivation was simply through natural breathing, taking in corpse qi breath by breath.
Zhang Yangqing was different. At this moment, he sat cross-legged in the tomb owner’s secret chamber, absorbing the tomb’s corpse qi like a whale swallowing water.
It could be said that the amount of corpse qi he absorbed alone was far more than all the other chosen ones combined.
Because the other chosen ones could only begin converting the corpse qi absorbed in their bodies after meeting the old blind man—that is, begin cultivating.
Why would Zhang Yangqing need to meet some old blind man? He had nothing to do at night anyway. Idle was idle, so he just sat in meditation and cultivated.
In the scene, a terrifying sight could be seen.
All the black qi nearby was continuously being absorbed into Zhang Yangqing’s body.
And the most terrifying part was that Zhang Yangqing didn’t even need to chant any incantations. The black qi seemed to come running to him on its own.
As if being absorbed and refined by Zhang Yangqing was their honor.
Outsiders watching this only felt that Celestial Master Zhang was awesome.
Experts watching this knew that Celestial Master Zhang was insanely awesome!
This was what was called elemental affinity, an ability many cultivators could never reach in their entire lives.
For example, if Xiao Xuan had an innate thunder body, then he could effortlessly control thunder-element elements between heaven and earth, and would be much stronger than other cultivators.
Even when cultivating the same thunder-type abilities, he would be several times, even dozens of times faster than others.
This was the terror of elemental affinity, and also why some sects needed to select cultivators with better “constitutions.”
An innate fire constitution naturally cultivated fire-type abilities faster.
According to Dragon Nation’s traditional saying, cultivators with an innate yin body had a huge advantage in cultivating these sinister techniques.
So many older seniors of Dragon Nation were puzzled—could Zhang Yangqing possess an innate yin body? Only then could these corpse qi be so close to him.
Normally, if a cultivator with an innate yin body was discovered, those so-called “righteous sects” would put these people under control and not let them cultivate.
Because cultivating these sinister techniques meant constantly absorbing negative emotions.
By the time these people with innate yin bodies cultivated to great success, they would easily be disturbed by these negative emotions, showing signs of mania, bloodthirst, and so on.
Once they came out of seclusion, they would definitely bring disaster to all living beings.
The major associations would also regularly patrol certain areas. If they encountered those cultivating, they would lock them up and cripple their cultivation.
If they encountered someone with an innate yin body who wasn’t cultivating, they would put them under surveillance to prevent them from cultivating.
It was the same abroad. The daily work of the Church was to suppress these so-called heretics.
The transcendent forces of many countries would also regularly check whether there were these evil cultivators in the areas around them.
Of course, there were exceptions. Eagle Sauce Nation was a mix of all sorts. Basically, all kinds of cultivators existed there, and it was hard to effectively control. What stood out was freedom.
When many older seniors of Dragon Nation saw that Zhang Yangqing was actually so close to corpse qi, they wondered if he also possessed those evil constitutions.
They even wanted to report to their own associations and see if the presidents had any ideas.
If the presidents of the major associations knew they were reporting this, they would answer very seriously: Do you think we can beat him, or that he’ll listen to reason? Isn’t this just delivering ourselves to get slapped?
But after thinking for a while, these old men rejected their own ideas.
After all, they still had some experience. They felt that since Celestial Master Zhang had already cultivated Daoist arts to the extreme, how could he be solely attracted to corpse qi? Celestial Master Zhang was simply a peerless cultivation genius. No matter what he cultivated, he was stronger than other cultivators.
With this thought, they let it go.
After all, if they couldn’t figure it out themselves, would they dare go question Zhang Yangqing face to face?
Never mind them—even the presidents of the seven major associations had to line up to see Zhang Yangqing now.
Ever since the great battle at Kunlun Mountain, Zhang Yangqing’s position in Dragon Nation’s cultivation world had been established.
Actually, their guess wasn’t wrong either. No matter what technique it was, Zhang Yangqing could cultivate it.
The great Dao has three thousand paths, and various cultivation methods differ, but in essence they are all the same.
That is, through various energies, continuously strengthening one’s body, forging the body into a bucket that holds water.
The sturdier and larger the bucket, the more water it can hold.
This was the key to storing energy within the body.
Finally, releasing the energy to defeat the opponent.
As long as one understood this point, cultivating anything was a piece of cake.
Zhang Yangqing had nothing to do and cultivated for a few hours, already becoming stronger than many cultivators who had cultivated for years.
His skin also went from purple to white, then green, grew fur, and finally transformed and was reborn,差不多 like a normal person.
“It seems the constitution this strange tale gave me is a uniquely gifted cultivation constitution.”
After standing up, Zhang Yangqing had a new understanding of his body.
In just a few short hours, the strength of this body alone had already reached the level of a red-clothed fierce ghost.
It was also a realm that other chosen ones needed several days to cultivate to, and they even needed the pearl bestowed by the tomb owner to cultivate. These were all items that accelerated cultivation.
But he was just cultivating for fun and didn’t continue.
Because this dimensional world had an upper limit—the level was locked.
No matter how high the talent, no matter how much effort, one could not surpass the upper limit.
So Zhang Yangqing just experienced a zombie’s cultivation method and that was enough. There was no need to take it too seriously.
Besides, he was originally a Daoist Celestial Master and wasn’t interested in these unorthodox paths at all.
It wasn’t that he considered himself orthodox—it was because Daoist arts were inherently strong.
Otherwise, why would so many of the heavenly Dao’s immortals be Daoist?
After standing up, Zhang Yangqing began completing the next task.
The most outrageous part of this stage arrived. The chosen ones had basically all learned about the hidden task.
That was the note given by the tomb owner, with some so-called birth dates written on it.
The chosen ones needed to kill someone matching the conditions, then help the tomb owner revive.
The rules hinted that as long as they found the old blind fisherman, he would help the chosen ones with the answer. And what was this so-called answer, if not fortune-telling?
What was Zhang Yangqing’s profession? He was a Daoist Celestial Master.
Calculating birth dates—did he need someone else’s help for something like that?
In this world, never mind someone catching up to Zhang Yangqing—even someone with a bit of his skill would be considered a master.
While other chosen ones were still completely confused, Zhang Yangqing already knew where the pit of the hidden task was.
No matter what hidden task it was, according to the strange tale world’s nature, it would never let the chosen ones complete it so easily.
This hidden task was to revive the “Ghost King.”
The Ghost King was two tiers above even red-clothed fierce ghosts. It was a true BOSS, and also the highest-level eerie creature Zhang Yangqing predicted could appear in this world.
The Ghost King’s revival didn’t just require a corpse. After reviving, he would also need to devour a large amount of energy to recover his power.
In other words, all the eerie beings in the tomb were his prey. Even the chosen one who summoned him would be in danger of being devoured.
In the follow-up process, the chosen ones needed to find some information about the tomb owner, or learn what consequences the Ghost King’s revival would bring.
Only then could they effectively predict the danger and find a way to resolve it.
Surely no chosen one would honestly go revive the Ghost King without making preparations, right?
Then many chosen ones would wonder—this hidden task looked like a pit. So where was the benefit?
What was the benefit? Zhang Yangqing could also deduce it.
Since it was an eerie creature at the Ghost King level, it naturally had things like inner cores on its body.
As long as they killed him before he recovered to his full strength, the chosen ones would obtain benefits.
If an accident happened and he recovered to his full strength, then they only needed to find a stronger NPC to help, just like last time.
In other strange tale worlds, when Zhang Yangqing had no information or rules, he could only guess a rough idea and really couldn’t guess this specifically.
This stage had practically walked right into Zhang Yangqing’s line of fire.
There was simply no chosen one with more advantage than him.
Zhang Yangqing wasn’t in a hurry about outside matters. For now, he just needed to find the sedan chair and the living person first.
After all, Zhang Yangqing hadn’t attended the wedding, so he didn’t know where Young Master Kongxu was. So he planned to first go to Young Master Kongxu’s tomb chamber to investigate.
But after walking some distance from the tomb owner’s chamber, a purple-clothed eerie being appeared before him.
When other chosen ones saw this one appear, they were scared out of their wits.
As the purple-clothed eerie being walked, the scenery in the corridor kept changing.
It was as if some invisible eerie creatures were constantly crawling on the surrounding walls, making frightening sounds.
You had to understand, this thing was no longer afraid of peach wood swords. If you offended a purple-clothed eerie being, the outcome was death.
A purple-clothed eerie being was at the ghost general level, one level below the Ghost King, but one level above red-clothed fierce ghosts.
The smarter chosen ones forced themselves to stay calm and then walked away via a side path.
They tried to maintain a steady pace so the purple-clothed eerie being wouldn’t suspect them.
And they knew there was no turning back here. Absolutely do not turn around and go back.
Rahman saw there was no side path nearby, so he could only stand to the side with his head lowered.
He showed his humble side and treated the purple-clothed eerie being respectfully, so as not to offend it.
But the idea was good; danger still arrived as expected.
When the purple-clothed eerie being walked up to him, it suddenly stopped.
Rahman, wearing a bamboo hat, swallowed. He knew this matter couldn’t be avoided.
Just as he was about to make an excuse to leave, the purple-clothed eerie being suddenly spoke: “Do you know if there’s anything special on this floor?”
With this one sentence, Rahman instantly understood.
This purple-clothed eerie being in front of him was an outsider. He also wanted to find the tomb owner’s secret chamber.
And he seemed to treat Rahman as someone from here, which was why he asked this way. He wasn’t trying to harm him.
Thinking of this, Rahman relaxed a bit.
As an old hand, he naturally handled it with ease.
He just said a few misleading things—strange places he had discovered while exploring the fourth floor.
These places weren’t the tomb chamber mentioned in the information, so he hadn’t studied them.
He definitely couldn’t let the purple-clothed eerie being find the tomb chamber. Otherwise, if he discovered Rahman had already gotten the benefits, that would be dangerous.
After hearing Rahman’s words, the purple-clothed eerie being left and didn’t make things difficult for him.
After he left, Rahman left the fourth floor without looking back.
The strange tale world would encounter many sudden troubles. How to deal with them depended on the chosen one’s ability.
Other chosen ones also muddled through with a few words. Whether they said they didn’t know or just talked nonsense, the purple-clothed eerie being wouldn’t harm them unless they deliberately courted trouble.
Seeing this, the audience began to get excited. As the saying goes, when brave men meet on a narrow road, the brave win.
In this corridor, the purple-clothed eerie being would definitely encounter the Dragon Nation’s Celestial Master.
They really wanted to see how the Dragon Nation’s Celestial Master would deal with the purple-clothed eerie being this time.
After all, that scene last time of using a wine jar to absorb the purple-clothed eerie being was truly magical and made people want to watch it a few more times.
Seeing that feeling of no matter how the eerie being struggled, it was useless, really made people feel Dragon Nation’s items were powerful and marvel at the Celestial Master’s awesomeness.
When the audience opened Dragon Nation’s big screen, they just happened to see the purple-clothed eerie being and Celestial Master Zhang face to face.
Celestial Master Zhang wasn’t scared at all, which surprised the audience not in the least.
Some audience members had even already started screen recording, waiting for this great battle.
They saw the purple-clothed eerie being and Zhang Yangqing face to face.
Zhang Yangqing naturally couldn’t possibly make way for a mere ghost general.
But the purple-clothed eerie being didn’t seem to have any intention of making trouble either. Seeing that the corpse qi on this person wasn’t weak, he asked Zhang Yangqing: “Do you know if there’s anything special on this floor?”
What Zhang Yangqing did next made people’s scalps tingle.
Zhang Yangqing extended a hand. Before the audience understood, the purple-clothed eerie being understood.
While the audience watched with mouths agape, the purple-clothed eerie being took out some money and stuffed it into Zhang Yangqing’s hand.
This made the audience feel absolutely stunned. In this stage, they had only seen chosen ones giving money everywhere. This was the first time they saw a chosen one actually pulling money back in!
But it was only this little bit. Zhang Yangqing frowned, seemingly dissatisfied.
Seeing Zhang Yangqing push his luck like this, the audience thought the purple-clothed eerie being was about to explode.
Who knew the purple-clothed eerie being took out some more and handed it to Zhang Yangqing.
Only then did Zhang Yangqing put the money into his pocket and give him some information.
Anyway, when he came, Zhang Yangqing had, like the other chosen ones, already closed the mechanism. Even if the purple-clothed eerie being found the hidden passage and entered the mechanism area, it would be hard for him to get in.
To put it another way, even if he got in and found the thing had already been taken, even if he guessed I took it, so what?
Anyway, you only asked me what strange places there were. I answered as usual.
If you want to solve the mechanism or get the treasure, that’s a different price.
Zhang Yangqing didn’t think there was anything strange about doing this. When I ask for information here, don’t I also pay? So if you ask me, can’t I charge?
His outrageous way of thinking made the audience outside the big screen feel it was outrageous.
But if you wanted to say it was unreasonable, that wasn’t right either.
After all, he didn’t rob anyone. He just went through a normal process.
It gave people the idea: “Could this stage actually be profitable?”
Other chosen ones wouldn’t dare ask for money, but that didn’t mean Zhang Yangqing wouldn’t.
Even Cardinal Gregori, who was watching Dragon Nation’s big screen, couldn’t help twitching slightly.
Honestly, he felt that if he were here, he might not have thought of this point.
“In other words, the Dragon Nation’s Celestial Master not only fully understood his own rules, but also understood the rules of other places thoroughly.”
According to Gregori’s understanding, at this stage, when facing the purple-clothed eerie being, all the chosen ones treated themselves as outsiders.
Only Zhang Yangqing heard from the purple-clothed eerie being’s words that this guy had also just arrived here, was unfamiliar with the place, and wanted to ask for information.
Wasn’t that just fat meat delivered to his door? Of course he had to ruthlessly extort it.
In Gregori’s view, this person was a true genius at clearing the game!
